‘If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.’ This quote by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa aptly describes his life as a whole. An astute believer in God, he was one of the immaculate figures of the 19th century who played a quintessential role in the Bengali Renaissance. A child prodigy, his parents experienced spiritual vision while he was in womb and as expected, he started experiencing mystical and paranormal forces while he was still an infant. All through his life, he was mentored by various gurus. While Bharavi Bhakti taught him the Tantra and Vaishnavi bhakti, Totapuri was influential in teaching him the principles behind Advaita Vedantin through which he attained the purest form of trance or nirvikalpa Samadhi. Interestingly, unlike other religious leaders of his time, Ramakrishna was not biased and acknowledged all forms of worship, form and formless and all types of religion. He was of the belief that all religions, whether Hinduism, Islam or Christianity professed and lead to one God. His legacy was taken forward by his most noted disciple, Swami Vivekananda who became his successor. Vivekananda immortalized the offerings and teachings of Ramakrishna by establishing the Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math.