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Biographical sources
Ramakrishna never wrote down the details of his own life. Some say that he was illiterate or semi-literate. Thus, everything that we know about Ramakrishna comes through the writings of his disciples. Additionally, only a few of the primary sources have been translated into English and scholars find those translations to be highly problematic.

There are four major sources of information for the life of Ramakrishna: There are also other sources, such as Vivekananda's 1896 biographical lecture "My Master", Mahendranath Dutta's Sri Ramakrishner Anudhyan, ("Sacred Memories of Sri Ramakrishna"), Satyacharan Mitra's 1897 Sri Sri Ramakrsna Paramahamsadeber Jiboni o Upadesh ("The Life and Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa") , and Sureshchandra Datta's 1886 Sriramakrsnadeber Upades ("Teachings of SriRamakrishna").
 * Ram Chandra Datta's 1885 Srisriramakrsna Paramahamsadever Jivanavrttanta ("The Life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa")
 * Akshay Kumar Sen's 1901 Śrīśrīrāmkṛṣṇa Punṭhi ("Scripture of Sri Ramakrishna")
 * Mahendranath Gupta's 1902-32  Śrī-Śrī-Rāmakṛiṣṇa-kathāmrta ("Words of Nectar of Sri Ramakrishna")
 * Swāmī Sāradanda's 1911 Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga ("Divine Play of Sri Ramakishna")

Datta's Jivanavrttānta
In November of 1894, Vivekananda wrote his disciple Alasingha Perumal a letter, calling Datta's Jivanavrttānta "nonsense", saying that he was "simply ashamed" of it, and giving specific instructions regarding how to write a biography of Ramakrishna (non-bracketed ellipses are in the translation):
 * Avoid all irregular indecent expressions about sex etc...because other nations think it the height of indecency to mention such things, and his life in English is going to be read by the whole world.[...]The writer perhaps thought he was a frank recorder of truth and keeping the very language of Paramahamsa. But he does not remember that Ramakrishna would never use that language before ladies. And this man expects his work to be read by men and women alike! Lord, save me from fools! They, again, have their own freaks; they all knew him! Bosh and rot....

On the same day, Vivekananda wrote Singaravelu Mudaliar ("Kidi"):
 * ...As to the wonderful stories published about Shri Ramakrishna, I advise you to keep clear of them and the fools who write them. They are true, but the fools will make a mess of the whole thing, I am sure. He had a whole world of knowledge to teach, why insist upon unnecessary things as miracles really are! They do not prove anything.

Religious scholar Jeffrey Kripal says that, although the Ramakrishna Order produced a Bengali version of the Jivanavrttānta in 1995, the Ramakrishna Mission has suppressed the book in the past, and that Datta was threatened with a lawsuit when the book was originally published. According to Narasingha Sil, Datta's Jivanvrttanta is the most scandalous biography of Ramakrishna, "containing the lurid details of his sadhana as well as his quite suggestive encounters with his patron Mathur." According to Somnath Bhattacharyya, Datta's Jivanavrittanta has not been translated into English.

Vivekananda's "My Master"
Vivekananda gave two lectures on Ramakrishna in 1896, one in England, and a second in New York. These were later combined and published as “My Master”. Marie Louise Burke calls the New York lecture “a clarion call to renunciation, combined with a scorching indictment of Western hedonism.” Narasingha Sil doubts its reliablility as a source for information about Ramakrishna's life, describing it as "shot through with the author's very personalized interpretation of Ramakrishna's preachings and teaching and his claims on behalf of the Ramakrishna phenomenon.”

1897 edition of The Gospel of Ramakrishna
There was an English translation of portions of Gupta's diary published in 1897 as The Gospel of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda registered his dislike of it in a letter to Swami Trigunatitananda and his subsequent exuberant praise of it in letters to Gupta.

Sen's Punthi
The 1901 edition of Sen's poetic biography of Ramakrishna incorporated all four parts of his Bhagaban Srisriramakrsna Paramahamsadeber Caritamrta, which were written from 1894-1901. Vivekananda loved the 1894 edition. "I cannot tell in words the joy I have experienced by reading the book," he wrote. However, he also offered editorial suggestions for future editions of Sen's poem.

It has been translated into English as A Portrait of Sri Ramakrishna.

Gupta's Kathamrta
By far the best known source is Gupta's Kathamrta, which consists of five volumes published in 1902, 1905, 1908, 1910 and 1932. It contains vivid descriptions of dialogue between Ramakrishna, his disciples, and visitors. These scenes were recalled or re-imagined by Gupta from notes in his personal diary. Each of the five volumes recapitulates the last six years of Ramakrishna's life. Naransingha Sil speculates that Gupta did not dare to publish the Kathamrta while Vivekananda was still alive.

It was translated into English in 1942 as The Gospel of Ramakrishna by Swami Nikhilananda of the Ramakrishna Mission. Although Nikhilananda calls The Gospel "a literal translation," he substantially altered Gupta's text, combining the five parallel narratives into a single volume (which is often sold as a two-volume set), as well as deleting some passages which he claimed were "of no particular interest to English-speaking readers." According to William Radice, this "standard translation of the Kathamrta by Swami Nikhilananda is bowdlerized, with the 'vulgar expressions' in Ramakrishna's earthy, rustic Bengali either removed or smoothed over: so that 'raman' (sexual intercourse) has become "communion" in the Gospel.'" In a review of Kali's Child, religious scholar Brian Hatcher noted that a passage in the Kathamrta in which Ramakrishna describes how he "...could not resist worshipping the penises of boys with flowers and sandalwood paste" was paraphrased by Nikhilananda as: "I practiced a number of mystic postures"

Malcolm McLean of Otago University translated the entire Kathamrta as his 1983 dissertation, entitled A Translation of Sri-Sri-Ramakrsna-Kathamrta with Explanatory Notes and Critical Introduction. Only a few copies of this work exist.

Saradananda's Lilaprasanga
Swami Saradananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, first wrote the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga in five volumes to correct what he felt were misconceptions about Ramakrishna as well as to pay off a financial debt he had incurred to build the Udbodhan office.

In 1952, the Lilaprasanga was translated into English as Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master by Swami Jagadananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. In 2003, the Lilaprasanga was re-translated by Swami Chetanananda, also of the Ramakrishna Order, as Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play.

It is considered the definitive biography of Ramakrishna by the Ramakrishna Mission. Sil says that "In spite of its stark hagiographical character, the Great Master contains a mine of information." Elsewhere, Sil speculates that "It is quite possible that Saradananda's Lilaprasanga was influenced by Vivekananda's ideas and suggestions."