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Ramakrishna never wrote a book. He was a temple priest at Dakshineswar, outside Calcutta, who spoke in rustic Bengali, told parables about salt dolls and fishermen, and fell into states of ecstasy in front of his visitors. What survives of his teaching was written down by them, above all by a schoolteacher called Mahendranath Gupta, who visited him between 1882 and 1886, recorded the conversations from memory each night, and published them under the pen name “M”. Through his chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda, those teachings reached Chicago in 1893 and much of the world after. This guide covers the key books in English — the record of his words, the lives written by disciples and admirers, and the scholarly argument that still surrounds him — in order, with where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 11 key books · 1898–2010 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Ramakrishna wrote nothing himself. This guide follows 11 key books in English by and about him, from Max Müller’s study (1898) to Interpreting Ramakrishna (2010). The essential one is The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), Swami Nikhilananda’s translation of M’s record of his conversations; Christopher Isherwood’s biography is the easiest way into his life.
Where to Start with Ramakrishna
If you want his own words
→ The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942) — read it in instalments.
If you want his life told as a story
→ Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965).
If you want the fullest traditional biography
→ Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master (1952).
If you want to hear from people who knew him
→ Ramakrishna As We Saw Him (1990).
If you want the scholarly argument
→ Kali’s Child (1995) — then its rebuttal.
11 Key Books on Ramakrishna, in Order
Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings
The first Western scholarly book about Ramakrishna, by the Oxford Sanskritist Friedrich Max Müller, published by Longmans, Green & Co. in London in 1898: a biographical essay followed by a collection of sayings. It appeared four years before the first volume of the Kathamrita, and drew on accounts sent to Müller by Ramakrishna’s followers.
Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita
The source of nearly everything we know about what Ramakrishna said: M’s record of conversations from February 1882 to April 1886, written down from memory after each visit. It was published in Bengali in five volumes between 1902 and 1932, and every English ‘Gospel’ is a translation of it.
The Gospel of Ramakrishna
An early, partial English translation of the Kathamrita by one of Ramakrishna’s monastic disciples, published by the Vedanta Society in New York in 1907, some thirty-five years before the full translation.
Life of Sri Ramakrishna
A biography compiled from what its title calls “various authentic sources”, published by Advaita Ashrama, the Ramakrishna Order’s publishing house, in Almora. The earliest catalogued edition is dated 1925; current editions carry a foreword by Mahatma Gandhi.
The Life of Ramakrishna
The Nobel Prize-winning French writer Romain Rolland wrote about Ramakrishna and Vivekananda in 1929; the English translation by E. F. Malcolm-Smith appeared in 1930 as part of Prophets of the New India, and the Ramakrishna half has since been published on its own. It is the book through which many European readers first heard of him.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
The standard English translation of the Kathamrita, published by the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York in 1942, more than a thousand pages long. Aldous Huxley wrote the foreword, calling it unique in the literature of hagiography, and Joseph Campbell helped with the editing. It records conversations, songs and parables almost day by day; read it in instalments rather than straight through.
Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master
The fullest traditional biography, written in Bengali between 1909 and 1919 by a direct monastic disciple as Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga, and translated by Swami Jagadananda for the English edition published in Madras in 1952. Long and detailed, it is the book to read after a shorter life.
Ramakrishna and His Disciples
A narrative life of Ramakrishna and the young men around him by the English novelist Christopher Isherwood, a long-time member of the Vedanta Society in California. Published by Simon and Schuster in 1965, it is the most readable account for someone starting from nothing.
Ramakrishna As We Saw Him
First-hand recollections of Ramakrishna by his disciples, family and contemporaries, collected and translated by Swami Chetanananda and published by the Vedanta Society of St. Louis in 1990. It shows him from many angles at once.
Kali’s Child
A psychoanalytic reading of the Kathamrita, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1995, which argues that Ramakrishna’s mystical experiences had homoerotic dimensions. It won the American Academy of Religion’s prize for the best first book in the history of religions, and was fiercely disputed; a second edition in 1998 corrected what Kripal called minor errors.
Interpreting Ramakrishna
A detailed rebuttal of Kali’s Child by a monk and a nun of the Ramakrishna Order, published by Motilal Banarsidass in Delhi in 2010 with a foreword by Huston Smith. It questions Kripal’s reading of the Bengali sources; read the two together.
In What Order to Read About Ramakrishna
Because he wrote nothing, every book here is someone else’s record or interpretation, and the order matters more than it does for most authors. Start with a life, so the people and places in the conversations make sense: Isherwood’s is the most readable. Then go to the Gospel itself, a chapter at a time.
Saradananda’s Great Master and Chetanananda’s reminiscences deepen the picture from inside the tradition. The scholarly debate — Kali’s Child and Interpreting Ramakrishna — makes most sense once you know the Gospel well, and the two books should be read side by side.
A reading path
1. Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965), his life
2. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), his words
3. Ramakrishna As We Saw Him (1990), those who knew him
4. Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master (1952), the full biography
5. Kali’s Child (1995) with Interpreting Ramakrishna (2010), the debate
More Books on Ramakrishna
Beyond the 11 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Sayings and abridgements
2
2 books
- —Sayings of Sri Ramakrishnahis sayings and parables arranged by subject, from Sri Ramakrishna Math; a good short first book
- —The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (abridged)Nikhilananda’s shorter edition of the full translation
The years · 1836–2010
Quick facts about Ramakrishna
- Known for
- Ramakrishna was known for his parables and states of ecstasy as a temple priest at Dakshineswar, and for teachings his visitors recorded, above all in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
- 1836
- Born in Kamarpukur, Bengal
- 1886
- Dies in Calcutta, aged 50
- Born
- Gadadhar Chattopadhyay, 18 February 1836, Kamarpukur, Bengal
- Died
- 16 August 1886, at the Cossipore garden house, Calcutta, aged 50
- Role
- Priest at the Kali temple at Dakshineswar, near Calcutta, from about the age of twenty
- Married
- Sarada Devi, in 1859, later revered as the Holy Mother
- Disciples
- Swami Vivekananda, Brahmananda, Saradananda, Abhedananda and others; householder disciples included M and Girish Chandra Ghosh
- Legacy
- The Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Vivekananda on 1 May 1897
- Books
- None written by himself; his teaching survives through M’s Kathamrita and his disciples’ accounts
The red mark is 1942: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Nikhilananda’s translation of M’s record and the essential book in this guide.
How Ramakrishna’s Teaching Was Recorded
Ramakrishna taught in conversation: with visitors at the temple garden in Dakshineswar, in songs and in parables drawn from village life. Mahendranath Gupta, a schoolteacher who first met him in 1882, kept a diary of those conversations, writing them up from memory after each visit, and decades later turned them into the five Bengali volumes of the Kathamrita. That is why the Gospel reads like a series of dated scenes, with the people in the room, what was sung, and when everyone laughed.
The English record has its own history. Swami Nikhilananda called his 1942 Gospel a literal translation, but Jeffrey Kripal and others have argued that it merged M’s parallel accounts into one narrative and left out passages; defenders, including a reviewer who called it accurate and reliable, argue the changes were adaptations a literal version would need. More recently Dharm Pal Gupta has published a word-for-word translation.
The sharpest argument is over Kali’s Child. Kripal’s reading of Ramakrishna’s experiences as homoerotic drew strong criticism from scholars and from the Ramakrishna Order, who questioned his Bengali and his use of sources, and there were attempts in India to have the book banned. Readers who want both sides can now read Kripal next to Interpreting Ramakrishna.
Frequently asked questions about books on Ramakrishna
Did Ramakrishna write any books?
No. His teachings come down through the people around him, mainly through Mahendranath Gupta’s Bengali Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, published in five volumes between 1902 and 1932.
What is The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna?
Swami Nikhilananda’s English translation of the Kathamrita, published in New York in 1942 with a foreword by Aldous Huxley. It records Ramakrishna’s conversations with visitors and disciples between 1882 and 1886.
Who was M?
Mahendranath Gupta, a schoolteacher and householder disciple of Ramakrishna. He wrote down the conversations from memory after each visit and published them under the pen name “M”.
Which book about Ramakrishna should I read first?
Christopher Isherwood’s Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965) for his life, then The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna for his words, a chapter at a time. A short collection such as Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna also works as a first taste.
How was Ramakrishna connected to Swami Vivekananda?
Vivekananda was his chief disciple. After Ramakrishna’s death in 1886 he led the young monastic disciples, spoke at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893, and founded the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897.
Why is Kali’s Child controversial?
Jeffrey Kripal’s 1995 book reads Ramakrishna’s mystical experiences psychoanalytically and argues they had homoerotic dimensions. Critics disputed his translations and use of Bengali sources, and the Ramakrishna Order’s reply, Interpreting Ramakrishna (2010), sets out the case against it in detail.
Footnotes
- Ramakrishna — Wikipedia
- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna — Wikipedia
- Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita — Wikipedia
- Max Müller, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (1898) — Sacred Texts
- Kali’s Child — University of Chicago Press
- Review of Interpreting Ramakrishna — American Vedantist
- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Visit to Vidyasagar — full text
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the words are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it melted.”
— Ramakrishna, in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikhilananda
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