Mahendranath Gupta—a gentle schoolmaster in late-19th-century Calcutta—penned every memorable teaching and everyday quip of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa under the humble signature “M.” Over roughly thirteen years (1882–1896), he sat faithfully at the Master’s feet, committing conversations to a small notebook that later became the five volumes of Sri Sri Rāmakṛṣṇa Kathāmṛta.

“M.” never fancied himself an author; rather, his love for those spontaneous outpourings of divine insight drove him to record them verbatim. Thanks to his painstaking shorthand and single-minded devotion, devotees today hold in their hands the very aroma of those Bengal gatherings—whether it was the Master’s laughter at a disciple’s question or the intensity of his mystical visions under the mango tree.

When Swami Nikhilananda translated these notes into English (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 1942), global readers discovered a treasury of spiritual directness and earthy humor. Recently, streamed study circles and podcasts continue to mine “M.”’s notebooks for timeless guidance, from navigating today’s pandemic-era anxieties to finding stillness in a TikTok world.

In a nutshell, every golden gem in The Gospel—wondrous parables, ecstatic chants, even off-the-cuff remarks—owes its survival to Mahendranath Gupta’s quiet perseverance, turning casual conversations into an immortal playbook of divine experience.