https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Mahendranath_GuptaMahendranath Gupta - Revision history2026-07-31T02:37:42ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Mahendranath_Gupta&diff=445731&oldid=prevStephania3380 at 05:38, 28 November 20252025-11-28T05:38:33Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian yogi (1854–1932)}}<br />
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Mahendranath Gupta<br />
| image = Mahendranath Gupta (Sri M).jpg<br />
| image_size = <br />
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1854|7|14}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[Company Raj]] (present-day [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]])<br />
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1932|6|4|1854|7|14}}<br />
| death_place = [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]])<br />
| known_for = Author of ''[[Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita]]'', teacher of [[Paramahansa Yogananda]]<br />
}}<br />
[[File:Vivekananda Baranagar 1887.jpg|thumb|250px|Group photo taken on 30 January 1887 In [[Baranagar Math]], Kolkata.<br/>'''Standing''': (l–r) ) [[Swami Shivananda]], [[Swami Ramakrishnananda]], [[Swami Vivekananda]], Randhuni, Debendranath Majumdar, Mahendranath Gupta (Shri M), [[Swami Trigunatitananda]], H.Mustafi<br/> '''Sitting''': (l–r) [[Swami Niranjanananda (Niranjan Maharaj)|Swami Niranjanananda]], [[Swami Saradananda]], Hutko Gopal, [[Swami Abhedananda]]]]<br />
'''Mahendranath Gupta''' ({{langx|bn|মহেন্দ্রনাথ গুপ্ত}}) (14 July 1854 – 4 June 1932), (also popularly known as '''Shri M''' and '''Master Mahashay'''), was a disciple of [[Ramakrishna]] and a mystic himself. He was the author of ''[[Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita]]'' (5 vols.), a [[Bengali language|Bengali]] classic; in English, it is known as ''[[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna]].'' He was also an early teacher to [[Paramahansa Yogananda]], a famous 20th-century [[yogi]], guru and philosopher. In his autobiography, Yogananda noted that Gupta ran a small boys' high school in [[Kolkata]], and he recounted their visits, as they often traveled to the [[Dakshineswar Kali Temple|Dakshineshwar Kali Temple]] together.<ref name=":0" /> Having a devotional nature, Gupta worshipped the Divine Mother in the form of [[Kali]], and often reflected the wisdom of his guru Ramakrishna in his daily life and mannerisms. Yogananda reverentially regarded Gupta's spirituality, calling him an "Incarnation of purity" and "the greatest man of humility I ever knew."<ref name=":0" /><br />
<br />
== Life ==<br />
<br />
=== Birth and education ===<br />
Mahendranath was born to Madhusudan Gupta and Swarnamayi Devi in a [[Bengali Hindus|Bengali Hindu]] family of [[Baidya]] sub-caste in the Shimuliya (Shimla) locality of [[Calcutta]] (now Kolkata) of [[Bengal presidency|Bengal Presidency]] . After elementary education at the [[Hare School]], he attended [[Presidency College, Kolkata|Presidency College]], receiving his B.A. in 1874. Gupta was a gifted student and performed consistently well until 1874 till he graduated from Presidency College.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=36}}</ref> In 1874 he was married to Nikunja Devi, daughter of Thakur Charan Sen and a relative of [[Keshub Chunder Sen|Keshub Chandra Sen]], a [[Brahmo Samaj]] leader. After some time working for the government and a merchant house, he began teaching English, Psychology, and Economics at various colleges. Eventually he became headmaster of [[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]]'s high school, where he was called "Master Mahashay"—just as he was often addressed in Ramakrishna's circle and later by Yogananda.<ref name="prakashan">{{cite web | title =M. (Mahendra Nath Gupta) | publisher =Sri Ramakrishna Sri Ma Prakashan Trust | url =http://www.kathamrita.org/mkbio.htm | access-date =17 March 2008 | archive-date =17 February 2008 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080217001153/http://www.kathamrita.org/mkbio.htm | url-status =dead }}</ref><ref name="Sen 2001 37">{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=37}}</ref><br />
<br />
===Meetings with Ramakrishna===<br />
[[File:GirishChandraGosh group photo.jpg|240px|thumb | right |[[Girish Chandra Ghosh]], [[Swami Adbhutananda]], Mahendranath Gupta and other disciples and devotees of [[Ramakrishna]]]]<br />
[[File:Statue of Mahendranath Gupta (Sri M).jpg|240px|thumb|Statue of Mahendranath Gupta (Sri M), Dakshineswar Kali Temple complex, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India]]<br />
<br />
As an adult, Mahendranath, like some of the other disciples of Ramakrishna, was connected with the [[Brahmo Samaj]] for several years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chetanananda|1990|p=293}}</ref> Mahendranath had lost his mother at a very early age and was experiencing domestic friction in the joint family. As the friction within the joint family increased, Mahendranath decided to commit suicide. At this critical juncture, Mahendranath's nephew took him to the temple garden of [[Dakshineswar Kali Temple]], where [[Ramakrishna]], a mystic and the chief priest of the [[Kali]] temple lived. It was here that Gupta met Ramakrishna for the first time and this meeting was a turning point in his life. Years later, when Mahendranath was asked about the greatest day in his life, he said, "the day I had my first [[Darśana|darshan]] of Thakur [Ramakrishna] in February 1882."<ref name="Sen 2001 37"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|p=7}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Chetanananda|1990|p=324}}</ref> According to other traditional accounts, Mahendranath related that he may have met Ramakrishna for the first time when he was four years old and became separated from his mother while visiting the [[Dakshineswar Kali Temple]]. He began crying, and a blissful and youthful man came up and consoled him. He believed it to be Ramakrishna, who was then a priest at the [[Kali]] temple.<br />
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=== ''Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita'' ===<br />
{{Main|Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita}}<br />
Shri M had the habit of maintaining a personal diary since the age of thirteen.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=42}}</ref> M met Sri Ramakrishna in 1882 and, attracted by the latter's teachings, started to maintain a [[stenographic]] record of Sri Ramakrishna's conversations and actions in his diary, which finally took the form of a book ''[[Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita]]''.<ref name="TV-7-8">{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|pp=7–8}}</ref><ref name="jack-16-17"/> 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,<br />
<br />
{{quote|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...Many a time I did not feel satisfied with my description of the events; I would then immediately plunge myself in deep meditation ...Then the correct image would arise...That is why in spite of the big gap in the physical sense, this story remains so fresh and lifelike in my mind as if it happened just now.<ref name="TV-7-8"/>}}<br />
<br />
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 "nectarine words" was inspired by verse 10.31.9 from the [[Vaishnava]] text, the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|pp=10}}</ref> Both Sri Ramakrishna's wife, Holy Mother [[Sarada Devi]], and [[Swami Vivekananda]] later testified to Mahendranath's faithfulness to Sri Ramakrishna's words.<ref>{{Harvnb|Smith|1982|p=58}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|pp=29–30}}</ref> The first four volumes were published in 1902, 1904, 1908 and 1910 respectively and the fifth volume in 1932, delayed because of M's health problems.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|pp=46–47}}</ref> The ''Kathamrita'' contains the conversations of Sri Ramakrishna from 19/26 February 1882 to 24 April 1886, during M's visits.<ref name="sen-32">{{Harvnb|Sen|2001|p=32}}</ref> The ''Kathamrita'' is regarded as a Bengali classic<ref name="sen-32"/> and revered among the followers as a sacred scripture.<ref name="jack-16-17">{{Harvnb|Jackson|1994|pp=16–17}}</ref> Its translations of ''Kathamrita'' include works by [[Swami Nikhilananda]] (1942),<ref>{{Harvnb|Hixon|2002|p=xiii}}</ref> Swami Abhedananda,<ref>The Gospel of Ramakrishna (New York: The Vedanta Society, 1907)</ref> and Dharma Pal Gupta.<ref>{{cite web|title=Publisher's note |url=http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita/k1publisher.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020226195918/http://www.kathamrita.org/kathamrita/k1publisher.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 February 2002 |publisher=Kathamrita Bhavan |access-date=21 August 2010}}</ref><br />
<br />
===Teacher to Paramahansa Yogananda===<br />
[[Paramahansa Yogananda]], a 20th-century philosopher and a [[yogi]], was a student of Mahendranath Gupta. Mahendranath moved to 50 Amherst Street in Calcutta, where he ran a small boys' high school. It was also formerly Paramahansa Yogananda's family home—a site especially poignant to Yogananda because it was the site of his mother's death. In his Autobiography of a Yogi, [[Paramahansa Yogananda|Yogananda]] dedicated an entire chapter to describing his friendship with Mahendranath, whom he referred to as "Master Mahasaya," which was along spiritual rather than academic lines. Yogananda described Mahendranath as having a "silky white beard and large lustrous eyes"<ref name=":0">{{Harvnb|Yogananda|2005|p=76}}</ref> and described his personality thus:<br />
<blockquote>"His role in the world was humble, as befitted the greatest man of humility I ever knew. In this Amherst Street house, Master Mahasaya conducted a small high school for boys. No words of chastisement passed his lips; no rule and ferule maintained his discipline. Higher mathematics indeed were taught in these modest classrooms, and a chemistry of love absent from the textbooks. He spread his wisdom by spiritual contagion rather than impermeable precept. Consumed by an unsophisticated passion for the Divine Mother, the saint no more demanded the outward forms of respect than a child."<ref>{{Harvnb|Yogananda|2005|p=77}}</ref></blockquote><br />
Yogananda went on to describe several seemingly miraculous experiences with Mahendranath. Later, Yogananda said about him that "I would roll on the ground where he'd walked, so great was my love for him. I felt that even that ground had been sanctified."<ref>{{Harvnb|Kriyananda|2004|p=449}}</ref><br />
<br />
=== Later life and death ===<br />
In 1922, M. lived in [[Mihijam]], a town 144 miles from Kolkata, for nine months.<ref name="shortlife">{{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Dharm Pal |title=A Short Life of M., The Writer of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna |date=1989 |publisher=Sri Ramakrishna Sri Ma Prakashan Trust |location=Chandigarh, India |edition=revised |oclc=33327769}} (original edition 1977)</ref>{{rp|64}}<br />
<br />
In 1932, when the fifth Volume of ''Kathamrita'' was at the printers<ref>{{Harvnb|Tyagananda|Vrajaprana|2010|p=12}}</ref> Mahendranath died at his home, now called ''Kathamrita Bhavan'', located near the [[Thanthania Kalibari|Thanthania Kali Temple]] in Calcutta. ''Kathamrita Bhavan'' is a pilgrimage place for followers of Ramakrishna due to numerous visits there by Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi, and several relics associated with their lives.<ref>{{cite web | title =Kathamrita Bhavan | work =M's Thakurbati | url =http://kathamritabhavan.org/ | access-date =18 March 2008}}</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist|40em}}<br />
<br />
==Bibliography==<br />
{{refbegin}}<br />
*{{cite book | last = Nityatmananda | first=Swami |author2=D P Gupta | title ="M"--the apostle and the evangelist : a continuation of M's Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna | publisher =Rohtak, Sri Ramakrishna—Sri Ma Prakashan | date =June 1967 | oclc=49257}} (full book is 16 volumes)<br />
*{{cite book | last =Chetanananda | first =Swami | title=Ramakrishna as We Saw Him | url =https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780916356651 | url-access =registration | publisher =Vedanta Society of St. Louis | year =1990 | isbn =0-916356-65-5}}<br />
*{{cite book | last = Nikhilananda | first=Swami | author-link = Swami Nikhilananda | title =The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna | publisher =Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center | date =June 1985 | isbn =978-0-911206-01-2}}<br />
*{{cite book | last =Kriyananda | first =Swami | author-link =Swami Kriyananda | title =Conversations with Yogananda | publisher=Crystal Clarity Publishers | year =2004 | isbn =1-56589-202-X}}<br />
*{{cite book | last =Smith | first =Bardwell Leith | title =Hinduism: New Essays in the History of Religions | publisher =Brill| isbn =90-04-06788-4 | year =1982}}<br />
*{{cite book |last=Yogananda |first=Paramhansa |author-link=Paramahansa Yogananda |title=Autobiography of a Yogi |year=2005 |publisher=Crystal Clarity Publishers |isbn=978-1-56589-212-5}}<br />
* {{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}}<br />
* {{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}}<br />
*{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Carl T.|title=Vedanta for the West|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1994|isbn=0-253-33098-X}}<br />
*{{Cite book | last =Gupta | first =Mahendranath ("M.") | author2 =Dharm Pal Gupta<br />
| title =Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita | publisher =Sri Ma Trust| url=http://www.kathamrita.org/ | year =2001 | isbn =978-81-88343-00-3}}<br />
* {{cite book |editor1=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 | access-date=21 August 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716110642/http://www.kathamrita.org/CM.pdf | archive-date=16 July 2011 | url-status=dead}}<br />
*{{Cite journal<br />
| last = Sen<br />
| first = Amiya P.<br />
| author-link= Amiya Prosad Sen<br />
| title = Sri Ramakrishna, the ''Kathamrita'' and the Calcutta middle classes: an old problematic revisited<br />
| journal = Postcolonial Studies<br />
| volume = 9<br />
| issue = 2<br />
| pages = 165–177<br />
|date=June 2006<br />
| doi = 10.1080/13688790600657835<br />
| s2cid = 144046925<br />
}}<br />
*{{Cite journal<br />
| last = Sen<br />
| first = Amiya P.<br />
| title = Three essays on Sri Ramakrishna and his times<br />
| year = 2001<br />
| publisher = Indian Institute of Advanced Study<br />
}}<br />
* {{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}}<br />
{{refend}}<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
{{Wikisource|Autobiography_of_a_Yogi/Chapter_9|Chapter from Autobiography of a Yogi about Mahendranath Gupta}}<br />
* {{Internet Archive author}} <br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110112203052/http://www.estudantedavedanta.net/M_Apostol%20and%20Evangelist.pdf Table of Contents for ''"M" – The Apostle and the Evangelist'' (16-volumes)]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051023204010/http://www.kathamrita.org/mbio.html Sources of Biographical Information about M.]<br />
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{{Ramakrishna}}<br />
{{Modern Hindu writers}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Mahendranath}}<br />
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]<br />
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]<br />
[[Category:Bengali people]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Kolkata]]<br />
[[Category:Ramakrishna Mission]]<br />
[[Category:Lay disciples of Ramakrishna]]<br />
[[Category:1854 births]]<br />
[[Category:1932 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]<br />
[[Category:Indian spiritual writers]]<br />
[[Category:Hare School alumni]]<br />
[[Category:People from Narail]]</div>Stephania3380