It is God alone who acts through us. He is the Doer, undoubtedly, and man is His instrument’. This is the basic mantra of life, which Swami Vivekananda's guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa lived throughout his own life and guided others to follow. The words that this incarnation, born on the second day of the Shukla Paksha of the month of Phalgun (as per Lunar Calendar), said to his devotees; the conversations that this sage of Kamarpukur had with the intellectuals of Kolkata - all of them were written and published in Bangla under the name 'Ramakrishna Kathamrita' in five parts by Master Mahashay 'M'. Later, they were translated and published in many Indian and foreign languages of the world like Spanish, French, German and others; and millions of copies were sold.
How lively and effective the words of Ramakrishna Paramhansa were, can be gauged from the fact that the very popular magazine of that time 'The Week' wrote on its cover page 'Rama Krishna outsells Karl Marx'. Ramakrishna Kathamrit sold more than Karl Marx's collection. Swami Nikhileshwarananda, the head saint of Ramakrishna Mission Math Rajkot, tells that it was printed in the said magazine that 2000 sets of Karl Marx's Complete Works were sold in the whole of West Bengal in 3 years, but Ramakrishna Vachanamrit selling for Rs. 45 lakhs in 45 days in 1982 was a world record and that too in Bengal, a state known as a communist state.
Ramakrishna Vachanamrit, the Gospel of Ramakrishna as it is called in English, has saved lakhs of people from committing suicide. The writer of this volume is Master Mahashay himself, who was a teacher in Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's school and always wanted to keep himself anonymous, so he used to write only 'M' instead of using his original name. He himself was frustrated with the sorrows of life; troubled by the family feuds, had left home with the thought of committing suicide, when his life changed just by seeing Ramakrishna Dev. The gospel not only gave life to millions of people but also showed the way to live a peaceful life by giving the basic mantra of living that 'everything is being done by God, therefore whatever is happening is happening in our interest'.
Giving examples of the events of everyday life, he used to explain the deep secrets of Vedanta in simple words which even great scholars were not able to explain. Shankaracharya of Puri called this Vachanamrit, the best book of the century and said that it contains the essence of all the scriptures. By reading it all the scriptures can be easily understood. Great writer Christopher Isherwood, French philosopher of fame Romain Rolland said that this book has been written in such a lively picturesque manner as if Ramakrishna Paramhansa is sitting in front of us and talking to us. Keshav Chandra Sen was considered to be a very logical disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, often entering into arguments with the seer. As much as Ramakrishna was simple and easy, Keshav was as logical and complex. In most of his conversations, Keshav Chandra tried to prove that no one has seen God.
One day his argument grew so intense that a crowd of disciples gathered around them. Ramakrishna stood up and started dancing and went into a trance. The more Keshav Chandra Sen argued, the more Ramakrishna danced in devotion. Finally Keshav said that now you have also started believing that there is no God. But then Paramahamsa replied smilingly saying, “If I had not seen you, I would have accepted that there is no God, but where a genius like you is born, it cannot be without God.” Now he was sure that God definitely exists in a physical form too. Ramakrishna said, "God is formless, he can only be in the form of a genius." That day Keshav got up from the crowd and left, but when he returned, he became a staunch believer and then he remained with Ramakrishna Dev for the rest of his life. Ramakrishna used to say that just as water has no form, but when it is frozen it takes the shape of ice, similarly God is both formless and with form. He can appear in any form by his power.