Ramakrishna (pronounced: IPA: [Ramkṛiṣṇo Pôromôhongśo]  listen (help·info)) (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay (IPA: [Gôdadhor Chôṭṭopaddhae]), was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu renaissance during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of his disciples and devotees believe he was an Avatar or incarnation of God. He is also referred to as "Paramahamsa" by his devotees, as such he is popularly known as Ramkrishna Paramhamsa.

Ramakrishna was born in a poor Brahmin Vaishnava family in rural Bengal. He became a priest of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, dedicated to the goddess Kali, which had the influence of the main strands of Bengali bhakti tradition. The most widely known amongst his first spiritual teachers was an ascetic woman skilled in Tantra and Vaishnava bhakti. Later an Advaita Vedantin ascetic taught him non-dual meditation, and according to Ramakrishna, he experienced nirvikalpa samadhi under his guidance. Ramakrishna also experimented with other religions, notably Islam and Christianity, and said that they all lead to the same God. Though he quit conventional education, he attracted the attention of the middle class, upper middle class and numerous Bengali intellectuals.^{[citation needed]}

Swami Vivekananda (pronounced: IPA: [ʂāmiː biːbeːkānoːnɗoː]  listen (help·info)) (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendra Nath Datta (IPA: [nôreːnd̪roː naːt̪ʰ d̪ôttoː] was the chief disciple of the 19th century saint Ramakrishna and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world, mainly in America and Europe and is also credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the end of the 19th century CE. Vivekananda is considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. He is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began: "Sisters and Brothers of America," through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.

Swami Vivekananda was born in an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family of Calcutta on 12 January 1863. Vivekananda's parents influenced his thinking—his father by his rationality and his mother by her religious temperament. From his childhood, he showed an inclination towards spirituality and God realisation. His guru, Ramakrishna, taught him Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism); that all religions are true and that service to man was the most effective worship of God. After the Mahasamadhi of his guru, Vivekananda became a wandering monk, touring the Indian subcontinent and acquiring first-hand knowledge of conditions in India. He later travelled to Chicago and represented India as a delegate in the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. He conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes, disseminating Vedanta and Yoga in America, England and Europe. He also established the Vedanta societies in America and England.

Sarada Devi (Bengali: সারদা দেবী;  Sharodā Debi (help·info)) (22 December 1853 – 20 July 1920), born Saradamani Mukhopadhyaya (Bengali: সারদামণি মুখোপাধ্যায়), was the wife and spiritual counterpart of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth century mystic of Bengal. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother (Sri Maa or শ্রীমা) by the followers of the Ramakrishna monastic order. Sarada Devi played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.

Sarada Devi was born in Jayrambati. At the age of five she was betrothed to Ramakrishna, whom she joined at Dakshineswar when she was in her late teens. According to her traditional biographers, both lived lives of unbroken continence, showing the ideals of a householder and of the monastic ways of life. After Ramakrishna's death, Sarada Devi stayed most of the time either at Jayrambati or at the Udbodhan office, Calcutta. The disciples of Ramakrishna regarded her as their own mother, and after their guru's death looked to her for advice and encouragement. The followers of the Ramakrishna movement regard Sarada Devi as an incarnation of the Divine Mother.

Garlapati Tenali Ramakrishnacharyulu, popularly known as Tenali RamakrishnaTenali Raman' and Vikata Kavi, was a court-poet of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century. He was born into a Viswakarma Brahmin family. He was one of the Ashtadiggajas who belonged to the court of Krishnadevaraya in Vijayanagar. Tenali is the town from where he came and he was refereed to in the Hampi court as the man from Tenali and so the name Tenali Ramakrishna stuck subsequently. As the king Krishnadevaraya was a Vaishnavite, it is said that he would have changed his name to Ramakrsihna.

The temple he built for Shiva is still an important temple in Tenali, a very important town of the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. The area in Tenali is called Ramaligeswara Peta.

Ramalinga practised poetry and composition along with command on language and grammar. Mingling with a group of minstrels, he learnt the art of spontaneous poetry composing techniques at Tenali. He made himself a perfectionist in Sanskrit and Telugu languages. Gradually, in the natural process of growing up, he was married and was blessed with children. From then onwards, he was compelled to find ways to earn a living and feed his family.

Alice Coltrane, née McLeod (August 27, 1937 – January 12, 2007) was an American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, and composer.

Born in Detroit Michigan, Alice McLeod studied classical music, and also jazz with Bud Powell in Paris, France, where she worked as the intermission pianist at the Blue Note Club in 1960. It was there that she was broadcast on French television in a performance with Lucky Thompson, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke. She began playing jazz as a professional in Detroit, with her own trio and as a duo with vibist Terry Pollard. She married Kenny Hagood in 1960 and had a daughter by that union. From 1962-63 she played with Terry Gibbs's quartet, during which time she met John Coltrane. In 1965 they were married in Juárez, Mexico. In January 1966 she replaced McCoy Tyner as pianist with John Coltrane's group. She subsequently recorded with him and continued playing with the band until his death on July 17, 1967. Coltrane became stepfather to Alice's daughter Michele and the couple had three children: John Jr. (1964–1982), a drummer; Oranyan (b. 1967), a DJ; and Ravi (b. 1965), a saxophonist. After her husband's death she continued to play with her own groups, later including her children, moving into more and more meditative music. She was one of the few harpists in the history of jazz and recorded many albums as a bandleader. Her essential recordings were made in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse! Records.