His mother, Mahamaya Devi, struggled financially to provide for the family with the meagre income from the small amount of land left to them, but she managed to send Kamalakanta to higher education.

It is said that "his heart opened to the love of God" when he received the sacred thread and was initiated into spiritual practice by Chandra Shekhar Goswami.

In order to support his family, Kamalakanta started a small school in addition to his work as a Brahmin priest.

Because of his fame as a singer poet, the Maharaja of Bardhaman, Tej Chandra, asked Kamalakanta to be his Guru and appointed him as a court advisor.

Throughout his life Kamalakanta was a great devotee of Kali and composed many impassioned and devotional love poems to the Mother.

These devotional songs would often send Sri Ramakrishna into an ecstatic state as he became absorbed in contemplation of the Divine Mother.