Ramakrishna Mission

During the late 19th century, another notable reform movement in Bengal, which soon spread to other parts of the country, was the Ramakrishna Mission. The movement began under an ascetic and priest Gadadhar Chatterjee or Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86) who achieved inner peace around 1871-2.

He preached universality of all religions and favoured preserving beliefs and rituals of Hinduism.

Among his important disciples was Narendra Nath or Swami Vivekananda who accepted Ramakrishna as his guru in 1885. He spread the message of spiritual Hinduism in America and Europe during his tour of 1893-97. He established Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 and set up a Math at Belur. He died at a young age of forty in 1902.

Vivekananda was opposed to degeneration in religion, manifold divisions, caste rigidities, practice of untouchability, superstitions, etc. He pointed out that the present condition of Hindus was due to their ignorance which was helped by their being a subject race.

He attempted to establish Hindu spiritual supremacy vis-à-vis the selfish civilization of the West. However, he believed that India had to learn work ethics, forms of organization and technological advances from the West.