Mirtola
Encyclopedia
Mirtola, also known as ‘Uttar Vrindavan’, is a village 10 km. away from Almora
, in Uttarakhand
state in India, most known for an Ashram
by the same name, set up by 'Sri Yashoda Ma' , a housewife turned ascetic in the 1930 , along with her disciple 'Sri Krishna Prem' (1898-1965), a mystic of the 20th Century. The ashram was later run by his disciple, 'Sri Madhav Ashish' (1920-1997) , another Englishman, who also later settled in India.
'Uttar Vrindavan' or Mirtola, is en route to Pithoragarh
from Almora, 3 km to the left of the main road after Panuanaula, 25 km. after Almora
. The place is also known for a Radha-Krishna temple built in 1931 by 'Sri Yashoda Ma', the founder and the spiritual head of the Ashram .
Meanwhile, Ronald Henry Nixon, a young English fighter pilot in the World War I, who later took a degree from Cambridge University, came to India in 1921, after he took up a job as a lecturer at the Department of English at the newly opened Lucknow University, it was here that became close to the Chakravartis . In 1927, when Manika Devi moved to the hills on doctors' advice, Ronald Nixon, followed his Guru, and together they stayed in Almora for a while.
Later, in 1928, Manika Devi took the vows of sannyasa
(renunciation), under the name 'Sri Yashoda Ma' , and a shortly afterwards, Ronald Nixon under the name, 'Sri Krishna Prem'; he was later known as Gopal Da, at the Ashram, which they together established in 1930. Amongst its early inhabitants were Moti Rani (Yashoda Ma's youngest daughter) and Major Robert Dudley Alexander, who retired from his post of Principal, Lucknow Medical College prematurely, to be with Shri Krishna Prem. In October 1943, noted Indian saint Sri Anandamayi Ma, visited the Mirtola Ashram .
Sri Krishna Prem went on to take over the running of the Ashram, after Yashoda Ma’s death in 1944, Gopal Da himself passed over on November 14, 1965; before that he wrote books like, 'The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita' and 'The Yoga of the Katho-panishad', amongst others and handed over the working of the Ashram to Sri Madhav Ashish in 1955 . He has the distinction of being the first westerner, to be included in the Vaishnav form of Hinduism
, he also was fluent in Hindi and Bengali .
Sri Krishna Prem (Gopal Da), was followed as a guru, by his disciple, 'Sri Madhav Ashish' (Ashish Da), previously 'Alexander Phipps', was an english aircraft engineer assembling Merlin engines , who came to India during the Second World War in 1942, and met Sri Krishna Prem at Mirtola in 1946, and soon became his disciple. In the following years, they together wrote many books including their two-part work on the Stanzas of Dzyan, contained in the Book of Dzyan
, 'Man, the measure of all things: In the stanzas of Dzyan', and 'Man, Son of Man'. Mirtola Ashram became a pilgrimage for Indian theosophists and started working extensively with the local communities pioneering hill farming techniques which he encouraged them to adopt, a work for which Sri Madhav Ashish was awarded the Padma Shri
in 1992 by the Indian government , he later died on April 13, 1997 .
Over the years, the Ashram evolved a unique philosophy based on Eastern mystical thought from the Bhakti
traditions, ideas of Shri Nisargadatta
and western philosophies like that of G. I. Gurdjieff
, Theosophy
of Madame Blavatsky
, and Jungian dream work, among others . Amongst the noted disciples of the 'Mirtola Ashram' are, Seymour B. Ginsburg, the co-founder of the Gurdjieff
Institute of Florida; Dr. Karan Singh
, former Indian Ambassador to the US and present Member of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, and travel-writer Bill Aitken . Besides that, many followers of Gurdjieff teachings continued to visit the Ashram for several decades
Almora
Almora is a municipal board, a cantonment town in the Almora district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Almora was founded in 1568.It is a town bustling with activity and a rich cultural heritage and history. It is considered the cultural heart of the Kumaon region of...
, in Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
state in India, most known for an Ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
by the same name, set up by 'Sri Yashoda Ma' , a housewife turned ascetic in the 1930 , along with her disciple 'Sri Krishna Prem' (1898-1965), a mystic of the 20th Century. The ashram was later run by his disciple, 'Sri Madhav Ashish' (1920-1997) , another Englishman, who also later settled in India.
'Uttar Vrindavan' or Mirtola, is en route to Pithoragarh
Pithoragarh
Pithoragarh, is a city with a Municipal Board in the Pithoragarh district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, was carved out of district of Almora in 1962.-Geography:...
from Almora, 3 km to the left of the main road after Panuanaula, 25 km. after Almora
Almora
Almora is a municipal board, a cantonment town in the Almora district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Almora was founded in 1568.It is a town bustling with activity and a rich cultural heritage and history. It is considered the cultural heart of the Kumaon region of...
. The place is also known for a Radha-Krishna temple built in 1931 by 'Sri Yashoda Ma', the founder and the spiritual head of the Ashram .
History
Yashoda Ma (née Manika Devi) was the wife of Dr. Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti, the first vice-chancellor of Lucknow University, who was a well-known theosophist .Meanwhile, Ronald Henry Nixon, a young English fighter pilot in the World War I, who later took a degree from Cambridge University, came to India in 1921, after he took up a job as a lecturer at the Department of English at the newly opened Lucknow University, it was here that became close to the Chakravartis . In 1927, when Manika Devi moved to the hills on doctors' advice, Ronald Nixon, followed his Guru, and together they stayed in Almora for a while.
Later, in 1928, Manika Devi took the vows of sannyasa
Sannyasa
Sannyasa is the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of āśramas, or life stages. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men or women at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly...
(renunciation), under the name 'Sri Yashoda Ma' , and a shortly afterwards, Ronald Nixon under the name, 'Sri Krishna Prem'; he was later known as Gopal Da, at the Ashram, which they together established in 1930. Amongst its early inhabitants were Moti Rani (Yashoda Ma's youngest daughter) and Major Robert Dudley Alexander, who retired from his post of Principal, Lucknow Medical College prematurely, to be with Shri Krishna Prem. In October 1943, noted Indian saint Sri Anandamayi Ma, visited the Mirtola Ashram .
Sri Krishna Prem went on to take over the running of the Ashram, after Yashoda Ma’s death in 1944, Gopal Da himself passed over on November 14, 1965; before that he wrote books like, 'The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita' and 'The Yoga of the Katho-panishad', amongst others and handed over the working of the Ashram to Sri Madhav Ashish in 1955 . He has the distinction of being the first westerner, to be included in the Vaishnav form of Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, he also was fluent in Hindi and Bengali .
Sri Krishna Prem (Gopal Da), was followed as a guru, by his disciple, 'Sri Madhav Ashish' (Ashish Da), previously 'Alexander Phipps', was an english aircraft engineer assembling Merlin engines , who came to India during the Second World War in 1942, and met Sri Krishna Prem at Mirtola in 1946, and soon became his disciple. In the following years, they together wrote many books including their two-part work on the Stanzas of Dzyan, contained in the Book of Dzyan
Book of Dzyan
The Book of Dzyan is a reputedly ancient text of Tibetan origin. The Stanzas formed the basis for The Secret Doctrine, one of the foundational works of the theosophical movement, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in 1875.-Madame Blavatsky's claims regarding the Book of Dzyan:Madame Blavatsky claimed...
, 'Man, the measure of all things: In the stanzas of Dzyan', and 'Man, Son of Man'. Mirtola Ashram became a pilgrimage for Indian theosophists and started working extensively with the local communities pioneering hill farming techniques which he encouraged them to adopt, a work for which Sri Madhav Ashish was awarded the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
in 1992 by the Indian government , he later died on April 13, 1997 .
Over the years, the Ashram evolved a unique philosophy based on Eastern mystical thought from the Bhakti
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
traditions, ideas of Shri Nisargadatta
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj , born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli, was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita , and a Guru, belonging to the Inchgiri branch of the Navnath Sampradaya....
and western philosophies like that of G. I. Gurdjieff
G. I. Gurdjieff
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff according to Gurdjieff's principles and instructions, or the "Fourth Way."At one point he described his teaching as "esoteric Christianity."...
, Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
of Madame Blavatsky
Madame Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky had gone around the world three times. In 1875, Blavatsky together with Colonel H. S. Olcott established the Theosophical Society...
, and Jungian dream work, among others . Amongst the noted disciples of the 'Mirtola Ashram' are, Seymour B. Ginsburg, the co-founder of the Gurdjieff
G. I. Gurdjieff
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff according to Gurdjieff's principles and instructions, or the "Fourth Way."At one point he described his teaching as "esoteric Christianity."...
Institute of Florida; Dr. Karan Singh
Karan Singh
Karan Singh is an MP in the Rajya Sabha, a senior member of the ruling Indian National Congress Party serving as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Department, President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations , India's Ambassador to UNESCO, Chairman of the Auroville Foundation and of the Temple...
, former Indian Ambassador to the US and present Member of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, and travel-writer Bill Aitken . Besides that, many followers of Gurdjieff teachings continued to visit the Ashram for several decades
Further reading
- The Yoga of the Katho-panishad, Sri Krishna Prem.1955 John M. Watkins.ISBN 0722400748.
- Yogi Sri Krishnaprem by Dilipkumar RoyDilipkumar RoyDilipkumar Roy was a Bengali Indian musician, musicologist, novelist, poet and essayist.In 1965, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, awarded him its highest honour for lifetime achievement, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship.-Background and...
. 1968 Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. - The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna Prem.1973 Penguin.ISBN 0140035729.
- Initiation into Yoga, Sri Krishna Prem, 1976, ISBN 0091256313.
- Yoga dalam tindak pemulaan, oleh Sri Krishna Prem, Tek Hoay Kwee, (Indonesian),1962 Swastika.
- Writings of Sri Krishna Prem : an introduction, Narendra Nātha Kaul. 1980 Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
- Man, the Measure of All Things: In the Stanzas of Dzyan by Sri Krishna Prem, Sri Madhava Ashish. 1969 Theosophical Publishing House. ISBN 9780835600064.
- Man, Son of Man by Sri Madhava Ashish. 1970 Theosophical Publishing House. ISBN 0835600114.
- In Search of the Unitive Vision: Letters of Sri Madhava Ashish to an American Businessman, 1978-1997. Seymour B. Ginsburg. 2001, New Paradigm Books, ISBN 1892138050.
- Guru by Your Bedside, S.D. Pandey. 2003, Penguin, ISBN 0143029541.
- Letters from Mirtola: Shri Krishna Prem and Shri Madhav Ashish. Ed. Jyotsna Singh, 2004, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. ISBN 8172763565.
- The Unknowable Gurdjieff, memoir, by Margaret Anderson, 1962, Arkana. ISBN 0140191399.
- The Secret Doctrine as a Contribution to World Thought:Sri Madhava Ashish H.P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine: Commentaries on Her Contributions to World Thought, by Virginia Hanson. Quest Books, 1988. ISBN 0835606309, 9780835606301.page 47-56.
- What Is Man? Selected Writings of Sri Madhava Ashish. Foreword by Karan SinghKaran SinghKaran Singh is an MP in the Rajya Sabha, a senior member of the ruling Indian National Congress Party serving as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Department, President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations , India's Ambassador to UNESCO, Chairman of the Auroville Foundation and of the Temple...
. Penguin Book, 2010. ISBN 9780143065746. - Chapter VII: In the Realm of Krishna Himalayan Memoirs, by Navnit Parekh. Published by Popular Prakashan, 1986. ISBN 086132126X.