Editing Shivananda (section)

==Early life==
Shivananda was born in the village of [[Barasat]] in [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]]. His father was Ramakanai Ghoshal, a pious [[Brahmin]] who had a substantial income as a lawyer. He was a follower of [[tantra]] in his personal life. He and his first wife Vamasundari Devi, the mother of Tarak, provided free board and lodging to twenty-five to thirty poor students.<ref name="The Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna1">{{cite book | title=The Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.20990 | publisher=Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati | year=1943 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.20990/page/n327 291]}}</ref>
Ramakanai also knew Ramakrishna personally, as he used to visit Dakshineswar on matters of business.

After completing his school studies, Tarak took up a job with Mackinnon Mackenzie in Calcutta to help his father.

===Ramakrishna's influence===
[[File:Vivekananda Baranagar 1887.jpg|thumb|250px|Group photo taken on 30 January 1887 In [[Baranagar Math]], Kolkata.<br/>'''Standing''': (l–r) Swami Shivananda, [[Swami Ramakrishnananda]], [[Swami Vivekananda]], Randhuni, Debendranath Majumdar, [[Mahendranath Gupta]] (Shri M), [[Swami Trigunatitananda]], H.Mustafi<br/> '''Sitting''': (l–r) [[Swami Niranjanananda (Niranjan Maharaj)|Swami Niranjanananda]], [[Swami Saradananda]], Hutko Gopal, [[Swami Abhedananda]]]]
Tarak saw Ramakrishna for the first time at the house of [[Ram Chandra Datta|Ramchandra Dutta]] in May 1880. A few days later he went to [[Dakshineswar]] to visit [[Kali]] Temple; from then he began to practise intense prayer and meditation under Ramakrishna's guidance. He later wrote "I have not yet come to a final understanding whether he [Ramakrishna] was a man or a superman, a god or the God Himself, but I have known him to be a man of complete self-effacement, master of the highest renunciation, possessed of supreme wisdom, and the supreme incarnation of love."<ref name="The Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna1" />

===Marriage===
Tarak married in 1881–82. His father could not afford a dowry for the marriage of his sister, as was usual; Tarak therefore agreed to marry a daughter of the prospective bridegroom's family. Three years later his wife died and Tarak started living sometimes in a devotee's house and sometimes in lonely places, till the Baranagar Math was started.<ref name="Belurmath"/>

===Renunciation===
Tarak continued to visit Dakshineswar till Ramakrishna fell ill and was brought, first to the Shyampukur house and then later to the Cossipore Garden House. In Cossipore, Tarak joined with others including [[Narendranath Dutta]], later known as [[Swami Vivekananda]], to serve Ramakrishna.

After the death of Ramakrishna in 1886, the small group of direct disciples who decided to embrace [[Sannyasa|monastic life]] gathered round in a dilapidated house in Baranagar; Tarak was one of the first to settle there. Thus began the Baranagar monastery of the [[Ramakrishna Math]].