Girish Chandra Ghosh: A Bohemian Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna

Girish Ghosh was a person of great animal vitality and strength. A protean kind of talent, he was a poet, dramatist, an actor, and he threw himself into everything with the utmost passion. It was a function, an aspect, of this vitality that he was also exceedingly sensual: he had an active sex life which was much discussed by everybody around him, and he drank enormously, took opium, and so forth. A modern poet has said: "A saint is easy to recognize: his constitution is designed for vice."  -- Christopher Isherwood

Girish was a most interesting personality who became all the more unforgettable in his deep devotion to Sri Ramakrishna. Ghosh's fascinating life story enriches our understanding and appreciation of Sri Ramakrishna's world and the community that gathered around him and kept his memory alive. Swami Chetanananda's thorough study gives us a real feel for Calcutta society in the years before and after 1900, and the way in which Sri Ramakrishna's transformative influence was felt on all levels of society. -- Francis Clooney, Harvard Divinity School