This book examines a regional culture as it was subjected to acute interpretative stress for much of the nineteenth century. This is done through a study of three key facets to contemporary Hindu thought - a possible interplay between the divinely ordained and human history, innovative extensions in the meaning of older terms like 'Dharma', and new moral and cultural theories around select mythical figures and traditionally revered texts.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

This study seeks answers to several questions hitherto ignored by most biographers of Rāmakṛṣṇa: what really accounted for his relentless admonitions against sex life? What made him think that he was god or avatār, that is, a divine incarnation? And finally, why and how did he convince people that he was divine