[citation needed] Bose was born in a very prominent Vaishnavite family of North Calcutta whose ancestral seat was in Hooghly District.

[3] His residence in north Kolkata, where Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897, is presently known as the Balaram Mandir.

Fearing that he would become an ascetic, his cousins and father made him come back to Calcutta and put him up in a house in Baghbazar area.

[citation needed] Bose met Sri Ramakrishna for the first time in 1881 and apparently had asked him if God exists.

An account has been made of his stay in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna on the occasion of the rathayatra or the car festival of lord Jagannath.

Sri Ramakrishna also spent several days in Balaram's house during his illness, when his devotees shifted him to Calcutta for better treatment.

After the passing away of the Master, Balaram would provide a small amount for his monastic brother disciples in Baranagar Math.

Despite the fact that he was not well off and did not have any regular income of his own and that he depended on the sustenance provided by the family estate, he never shied away from serving Sri Ramakrishna and his devotees and followers.