Dear Child,

Whatever you had heard from him (Thakur) is nothing but the truth. You need not feel any diffidence about it. At one time it was he who had placed those words with you. And it is now he who is bringing them to the light of the day according to the needs of the time. Know it for certain that unless these words are published, man will not have his consciousness awakened. All the words of his that you have with you everyone of them is true. One day when you read them out to me I felt as if it was he who was speaking.

Jairambati,

21st Ashada, 1304,

(4th July, 1897)

Thanks! 100,000 Master! You have hit Ramakristo in the right point.

Few alas, few understand him!

My heart leaps in joy and it is a wonder that I do not go mad when I find anybody thoroughly launched into the midst of the doctrine which is to shower peace on earth hereafter.

Narendra Nath

Dear M.,

Cest bon mon ami - now you are doing just the thing. Come out man. No sleeping all life. Time is flying. Bravo! That is the way.

Many many thanks for your publication - only I am afraid it will not pay its way in pamphlet form… Never mind - pay or no pay. Let it see the blaze of daylight. You will have many blessings on you and many more curses. But that is always the way of the world, Sir. This is the time.

Yours in the Lord,

Vivekananda.

My dear M.,

Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original and never was the life of a great teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer’s mind as you are doing.

The language is also beyond all praise so fresh, so pointed and withal so plain and easy.

I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn’t it? Our teacher and Lord was so original and each one of us will have to be original or nothing. I now understand why none of us attempted his life before. It has been reserved for you, this great work. He is evidently with you.

With love and namaskara.

Yours in the Lord,

Vivekananda.

P.S. Socratic dialogues are Plato all over. You are entirely hidden. Morever, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it, here or in the West.

Letter, 22 March, 1905

If my humble opinion goes for anything, I not only endorse the opinion of the great Swami (Vivekananda) but add in a loud voice that Kathamrita has been my very existence during my protracted illness for the last three years… You deserve the gratitude of the whole human race to the end of the days.

then of the Madras Math

Letter 27 October, 1904

"… You have left whole humanity in debt by publishing these invaluable pages fraught with the best wisdom of the greatest avatara of God."

The Indian Nation, 19 May, 1902:

Ramakrishna Kathamrita by M., Part I is a work of singular value and interest. He has done a kind of work which no Bengali had ever done before, which, so far as we are aware, no native of India has ever done. It has been done only once in history, namely by Boswell. But then the immortal biography is only the life of a scholar and a kindhearted man. This Kathamrita, on the other hand, is the record of the sayings of a Saint. What is the wit or even the worldly wisdom of the great Doctor by the side of the Divine teachings of a genuine devotee. Its value is immense. We say nothing of the sayings themselves - for the character of the teacher and the teaching is well-known. They take us straight to the truth and not through any metaphysical maze. Their style is Biblical in simplicity. What a treasure would it have been to the world if all the sayings of Sri Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Nanak and Chaitanya could have been thus preserved.

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[1] Antepore is a village in Hooghly district, the birthplace of Swami Premananda. Swamiji and many of his brother disciples were at this time staying as guests at the house of Swami Premananda (Baburam).