{{Short description|Book by Mahendranath Gupta}} {{Use Indian English|date=March 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Infobox book | name = Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita | title_orig = {{noitalic|শ্রীশ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ-কথামৃত}} | orig_lang_code = bn | translator = | image = Kathamrita 5vols.jpg | caption = The 5 volumes of ''Kathamrita'' for display at Kathamrita Bhavan. | author = Mahendranath Gupta | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = India | language = Bengali | series = | subject = | genre = Spirituality | publisher = Kathamrita Bhavan | pub_date = 1902, 1904, 1908, 1910 and 1932 | english_pub_date = | media_type = | pages = | isbn = | oclc= | preceded_by = | followed_by = }}
thumb|Sri M Mahendranath Gupta '''''Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita''''' ({{langx|bn|শ্রীশ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ-কথামৃত}}, {{IAST|Śrī-Śrī-Rāmakṛṣṇa-Kathāmṛta}}, ''The Nectar of Sri Ramakrishna's Words'') is a five-volume Bengali work by Mahendranath Gupta (1854–1932), which recounts conversations and activities of the 19th century Indian mystic Ramakrishna. The volumes were published consecutively in the years 1902, 1904, 1908, 1910 and 1932. The ''Kathamrita'' is regarded as a Bengali classic<ref name="Sen 2001 32">{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=32}}</ref> and revered among the followers of Ramakrishna as a sacred scripture.<ref name="jack-16-17">{{Harvnb|Jackson|1994|pp=16–17}}</ref> Its translation into English is entitled ''The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'' (1942).
==Methodology and history== Mahendranath Gupta (famously known simply as "M.") was a professor at Ripon College and taught at a number of schools in Kolkata. He had an academic career at Hare School and Presidency College in Kolkata. M had the habit of maintaining a personal diary since the age of thirteen.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=42}}</ref> M met Ramakrishna in 1882. Attracted by Ramakrishna's teachings, M would maintain a stenographic record of Ramakrishna's conversations and actions in his diary, which finally took the form of a book ''Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita''.<ref name="jack-16-17"/><ref name="TV-7-8">{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|pp=7–8}}</ref> Initially, when M began writing the diaries, he had no plans of publication.<ref name="TV-7-8"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=28}}</ref> Regarding his methodology, M wrote, "I wrote everything from memory after I returned home. Sometimes I had to keep awake the whole night... Sometimes I would keep on writing the events of one sitting for seven days, recollect the songs that were sung, and the order in which they were sung, and the samadhi and so on."<ref name="TV-7-8"/> In each of his ''Kathamrita'' entries, M records the date, time and place of the conversation.<ref name="TV-12-14">{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|pp=12–14}}</ref> The title ''Kathamrita'', literally "nectar words" was inspired by verse 10.31.9 from the Vaishnava text, the ''Bhagavata Purana''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|pp=10}}</ref>
The pre-history of the ''Kathamrita'' has been discussed in R.K.Dasputa's essay {{Harv|Dasgupta|1986}}.<ref name="Sen-27" /> The first volume (1902) was preceded by a small booklet in English called ''A Leaf from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'' (1897).<ref name="Sen-27">{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=27}}</ref> After the death of Ramakrishna, the growing public recognition of him encouraged Gupta to make his diary public. M thought that his was an important medium for public dissemination of Ramakrishna's ideas. M also sought Sarada Devi's appraisal before the publication of the diary.<ref name="sen-29-31">{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|pp=29–31}}</ref> Between 1898 and 1902, transliterated excerpts from his diary were published in leading Bengali journals like ''Bangadarshan'', ''Udbodhan'', ''Hindu Patrika'', ''Shaitya Patrika'' and ''Janmabhumi''.<ref name="sen-29-31" /> The first four volumes were published in 1902, 1904, 1908 and 1910 respectively and the fifth volume in 1932; the final volume was delayed because of M's health problems.<ref name="sen-46-47"/> At the time of M's death in 1932, he was contemplating at least six to seven volumes, after which he hoped to rearrange the entire material chronologically.<ref name="TV-12-14"/><ref name="sen-46-47">{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|pp=46–47}}</ref>
According to Sumit Sarkar, "The ''Kathamrita'' was published 15-50 years after the sessions with Ramakrishna, and covers a total of only 186 days spread over the last four and a half years of the saint's life. The full text of the original diary has never been made publicly available. Considered as a constructed 'text' rather than simply as a more-or-less authentic 'source', the ''Kathamrita'' reveals the presence of certain fairly self-conscious authorial strategies... The high degree of 'truth effect' undeniably conveyed by the ''Kathamrita'' to 20th century readers is related to its display of testimonies to authenticity, careful listing of 'types of evidence', and meticulous references to exact dates and times."<ref>
{{Harvnb|Sarkar|1993|p=5}}</ref> Tyagananda and Vrajaprana write, "...at the time of M' death, he had enough diary material for another five or six volumes. Poignantly and frustratingly, M's diary notations were as sparse as they were cryptic. As a result, M's ''Kathamrita'' project ended with the fifth volume. And, lest there be any misunderstanding, it needs to be said that the sketchy notations which constitute the remainder of M's diary belong solely to M's descendants, not to the Ramakrishna Order. It also needs to be pointed out that, according to Dipak Gupta, M's great-grandson, scholars can, and have, seen these diaries."<ref name="TV-12-14"/>
==Contents== The ''Kathamrita'' contains the conversations of Ramakrishna from 19-26 February 1882 to 24 April 1886, during M's visits.<ref name="Sen 2001 32"/> M offers information about a great variety of people with very different interests converging at Dakshineswar Kali temple including, "... childless widows, young school-boys (K1: 240, 291; K2: 30, 331; K3: 180, 185, 256), aged pensioners (K5: 69-70), Hindu scholars or religious figures (K2: 144, 303; K3: 104, 108, 120; K4: 80, 108, 155, 352), men betrayed by lovers (K1: 319), people with suicidal tendencies (K4: 274-275), small-time businessmen (K4: 244), and, of course, adolescents dreading the grind of ''samsaric'' life (K3: 167)."<ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2006|pp=172–173}}</ref>
The ''Kathamrita'' also records the devotional songs that were sung by Ramakrishna, including compositions by Ramprasad, an 18th-century ''Shakta'' poet.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hixon|2002}}, pp. 16-17</ref><ref name="Harding_214">{{Harvnb|Harding|1998}}, p. 214</ref>
==Translations== Several English translations exist; the most well-known is ''The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'' (1942), by Swami Nikhilananda of the Ramakrishna Order.<ref name=gospelsrk>Swami Nikhilananda (1942). ''The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna''. New York, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center. {{OCLC|4577618}}</ref> This translation has been criticized as inaccurate by Jeffrey Kripal, while others such as Lex Hixon and Swami Tyagananda have regarded the translation as authentic and culturally sensitive.
A translation by Sachindra Kumar Majumdar, entitled ''Conversations with Sri Ramakrishna'', is published electronically by SRV Retreat Center, Greenville NY, following the original five-volume format of the Kathamrita.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.universaltemple.org/product_details.php?prod_id=6&parent_id=&cat_id=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312181921/http://universaltemple.org/product_details.php?prod_id=6&parent_id=&cat_id=1|archive-date=12 March 2017|title=Conversations with Sri Ramakrishna |website=SRV Retreat Center}}</ref>
The latest complete translation, by Dharm Pal Gupta, is intended to be as close to the Bengali original as possible, conveyed by the words "Word by word translation" on the cover. All 5 volumes have been published.<ref>''"Sri Dharm Pal Gupta started the task of translating them into English, maintaining the same spirit of faithful translation. And before he left this world in 1998, he had completed the colossal work of translating all the five parts of Kathamrita into English."'', Publisher’s Note, Monday, 1 January 2001, [http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita/k1publisher.htm http://www.kathamrita.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304005329/http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita/k1publisher.htm |date=4 March 2010}}</ref>
==References and notes== {{Reflist|2}}
==Bibliography== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book| last = Dasgupta | first=R. K | title=Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita as a religious classic | publisher=Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture |date=June 1986}} * {{Cite book| last=Harding | first=Elizabeth U. | year=1998 | title = Kali, the Dark Goddess of Dakshineswar | publisher = Motilal Banarsidass | isbn=81-208-1450-9}} * {{Cite book|last=Hixon | first=Lex |author-link=Lex Hixon |title=Great Swan: Meetings With Ramakrishna |publisher=Larson Publications |location=Burdett, N.Y. |year= 2002|isbn=0-943914-80-9}} *{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Carl T.|title=Vedanta for the West|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1994|isbn=0-253-33098-X}} *{{Cite book| last =Gupta | first =Mahendranath |author2=Dharm Pal Gupta | title =Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita | publisher =Sri Ma Trust| url=http://www.kathamrita.org/ | year =2001 | isbn =978-81-88343-00-3}} * {{Cite book | editor=D.P. Gupta | editor2=D.K. Sengupta | title=Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita Centenary Memorial | year=2004 | publisher=Sri Ma Trust | place=Kolkata | url=http://www.kathamrita.org/CM.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716110642/http://www.kathamrita.org/CM.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=2011-07-16}} * {{Cite book| last=Sarkar | first=Sumit | author-link=Sumit Sarkar | title=An exploration of the Ramakrishna Vivekananda tradition | publisher=Indian Institute of Advanced Study | year=1993}} *{{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amiya P. | author-link= Amiya Prosad Sen | title = Sri Ramakrishna, the ''Kathamrita'' and the Calcutta middle classes: an old problematic revisited | journal = Postcolonial Studies | volume = 9 | issue = 2 | pages = 165–177 |date=June 2006 | doi = 10.1080/13688790600657835 | s2cid = 144046925 }} *{{Cite journal | last = Sen | first = Amiya P. | title = Three essays on Sri Ramakrishna and his times | year = 2001 | publisher = Indian Institute of Advanced Study }} * {{Cite book|last1=Tyagananda|author-link1=Tyagananda|last2=Vrajaprana|title=Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali's Child Revisited|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3499-6|pages=410|url=http://www.interpretingramakrishna.com/| year=2010|place=Delhi}} {{Refend}}
==External links== * [http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita.htm ''Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita''. English translation by Dharm Pal Gupta] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312150520/http://www.kathamrita.org/ |date=12 March 2007 }} at [http://www.kathamrita.org Sri Ma Trust]
{{Ramakrishna}} {{Authority control}} Category:Ramakrishna Category:Bengali-language books Category:20th-century Indian books Category:Indian biographies