Ramakrishna’s samādhi and visionary experiences in the Kathāmṛta

Record summary

Mahendranath Gupta’s Kathāmṛta records teachings, devotional ecstasies, samādhi episodes, visions, and conversations attributed to Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. The work is important for comparing culturally shaped mystical phenomenology, absorption, religious interpretation, and possible trance or dissociative descriptions. It is not a contemporaneous physiological study: many entries were written retrospectively, translated across Bengali and English editions, and arranged by a devoted recorder. The historical Ramakrishna, the literary construction of the saint, and clinical interpretations remain distinct questions.