Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa Dev born Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya, was an Indian Hindu mystic, saint, and religious leader in 19th century Bengal. Sri Ramakrishna experienced spiritual ecstasies from a young age, and was influenced by several religious traditions, including devotion toward the Goddess Kali, Tantra, Bhakti and Advaita Vedanta. As a priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple, his mystical temperament and ecstasies gradually gained him widespread acknowledgement, attracting to him various spiritual teachers, social leaders, and lay followers; he eventually taught disciples, who would later form the monastic Ramakrishna Order. He was generally revered by Bengali elites and within religious circles, which led to his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda founding the Ramakrishna Math, which provides spiritual training for monastics and householder devotees and the Ramakrishna Mission to provide charity, social work and education.
It is speculated Advaitavadi ascetic Totapuri who was one of Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual instructors who gave the name Ramakrishna and the title Paramhansa which means the “Divine Swan”, who could distinguish between water and milk and extract the milk from among the mixture of water and milk.
Also Paramhans saints are ones who accept Life in totality free from the dualities of life good-bad, right-wrong and such. (via Wikipedia)
Here are a few wise quotes by the great Hindu saint:
On God:
A man is truly free, even here in this embodied state, if he knows that God is the true agent and he by himself is powerless to do anything.
God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.
Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.
To work without attachment is to work without the expectation of reward or fear of any punishment in this world or the next. Work so done is a means to the end, and God is the end.
A poor devotee points to the sky and says, God is up there. An average devotee says, God dwells in the heart as the Inner Master. The best devotee says, God alone is and everything I perceive is a form of God.
God is our inner controller He will certainly listen to our prayer if it is sincere.
God is the master, the devotee is the servant. He is the beloved the devotee is the lover.
You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.
You speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realise God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power you can do good to others; otherwise not.
Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind. If you say ‘I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me’ free you shall be.”
On Life:
As long as I live, so long do I learn.
Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.
Other Quotes:
The Man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself.
Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace.
Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.
That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge.
When divine vision is attained, all appear equal; and there remains no distinction of good and bad, or of high and low.
Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.