Krishna Prem
Sri Krishna Prem | |
---|---|
Personal | |
Born | Ronald Henry Nixon 10 May 1898 Cheltenham, England |
Died | 14 November 1965 Mirtola, Almora district, India | (aged 67)
Resting place | Krishna Prem's samadhi mandir, Mirtola 29°38′33″N 79°49′39″E / 29.64237°N 79.82751°E |
Religion | Hinduism |
Nationality | British, Indian |
Denomination | Vaishnavism |
Sect | Gaudiya Vaishnavism |
Notable work(s) | The Search for Truth, Initiation into Yoga, The Yoga of the Bhagavat Gita, The Yoga of the Kathopanishad |
Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
Temple | Uttar Brindaban ashram, Mirtola |
Religious career | |
Guru | Sri Yashoda Mai, Sri Bal Krishna Goswami |
Website | www |
Ronald Henry Nixon (10 May 1898 – 14 November 1965), later known as Sri Krishna Prem, was a British spiritual aspirant who went to India in the early 20th century. Together with his spiritual teacher Sri Yashoda Mai (1882 – 1944), he founded an ashram at Mirtola, near Almora, India. He was one of the first Europeans to pursue Vaishnavite Hinduism, and was highly regarded, with many Indian disciples. Later, according to the account of his foremost disciple Sri Madhava Ashish, Krishna Prem transcended the dogmas and practices of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition into which he had been initiated and affirmed a universal spiritual path shorn of "orthodoxy" and blind traditionalism.
Early life
Ronald Henry Nixon[1]: 218 was born in Cheltenham, England, in 1898,[2] and educated in Taunton.[1] His mother was a Christian Scientist and his father was reportedly in the glass and china business.[1]: 218
At age 18, Nixon became a British fighter pilot in the First World War:[1][3] he was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant on probation on 10 May 1917,[4] was confirmed in his rank on 12 June,[5] and was appointed a flying officer in the Royal Flying Corps on 15 June.[6] On one occasion, he experienced an escape from death that he believed was miraculous, in which a "power beyond our ken" saved him from several enemy planes.[7] His experiences of death and destruction during the war filled him with a "sense of futility and meaninglessness".[1]: 218 He was transferred to the unemployed list of the Royal Air Force on 11 January 1919[8] and relinquished his temporary Army commission on 3 December that year.[9]
After the war, Nixon enrolled in
Life in India
In 1921, while still in England, Nixon accepted the offer of a teaching position at the
In 1930, Sri Yashoda Mai and Krishna Prem together founded an ashram at
Krishna Prem, despite his English origins, became widely accepted and admired in the Indian Hindu community. Brooks wrote that "Krishna Prem's evident intellectual and inspirational qualities gained him wide fame and many disciples in India, as reflected in numerous books on his life and teachings."[3]: 100 Gertrude Emerson Sen wrote that "I know of no other person like Krishnaprem, himself 'foreign' to begin with, who has drawn so many Indians to himself".[1]: 220 His biographer Dilip Kumar Roy wrote that Krishnaprem "had given a filip [stimulus] to my spiritual aspiration".[11]
Haberman wrote that Krishna Prem "was recognized as a Hindu saint by many Indians of his day."[1]: 217 When Nixon died in 1965, he was hailed by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, then president of India, as a "great soul".[1]: 221 Nixon's final words were "my ship is sailing".[1]: 221
Works
- Krishna Prem; Madhava Ashish; Karan Singh (2004). Letters from Mirtola. Mumbai, India: OCLC 223080940. (194 pages) (original edition 1938)
- Krishna Prem, Sri (1988). The yoga of the Bhagavat Gita. Shaftesbury, UK: Element. ISBN 185230023X(224 pages)
- Krishna Prem, Sri (1976). Initiation into yoga: An introduction to the spiritual life. London: Rider. ISBN 0091256313(128 pages)
- Krishna Prem, Sri; Ashish Madhava (1969). Man, the measure of all things, in the stanzas of Dzyan. London: Rider. ISBN 0090978706(360 pages)
- Krishna Prem, Sri (1955). The yoga of the Kathopanishad. London: John M. Watkins. OCLC 14413144. (264 pages)
- Krishna Prem, Swami (1938). The search for truth. Calcutta, India: Book Land. OCLC 35694199. (138 pages)
- Kaul, Narendra Nātha (1980). Writings of Sri Krishna Prem: an introduction. Bombay, India: OCLC 7730748. (111 pages)
Biographical sources
- OCLC 421016835. (312 pages) (original edition, 1968)
- "The Case of Sri Krishna Prem" in Brooks, Charles R. (1989). The Hare Krishnas in India. OCLC 28169795.
- Haberman, David L. (1 July 1993). "A cross‐cultural adventure: The transformation of Ronald Nixon". Religion. 23 (3). Routledge: 217–227. ISSN 0048-721X.
- Joneja, G. L. (June 1981). "Yogi Sri Krishnaprem". Yoga Magazine. Bihar School of Yoga. Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
- "Krishna Prem, Sri (1898–1965) Western-born Vaishnavite Guru" in Jones, Constance; James D. Ryan (2006). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Infobase Publishing. p. 246. OCLC 191044722.
- "Sri Krishna Prem (Ronald Nixon)" in OCLC 54843891.
- "Sri Krishna Prem / Ronald Nixon" in Rawlinson, Andrew (1997). The book of enlightened masters: Western teachers in eastern traditions. Chicago: Open Court. pp. 380–384. OCLC 36900790.
- "Sri Yashoda Ma 1882–1944" (chapter 20) in Chambers, John (2009). The Secret Life of Genius: How 24 Great Men and Women Were Touched by Spiritual Worlds. Inner Traditions / Bear & Co: Inner Traditions. pp. 226–239. ISBN 9781594779268.
References
- ^ ISSN 0048-721X.
- ^ ISBN 9780816075645.
- ^ ISBN 9788120809390.
- ^ "No. 30100". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 May 1917. p. 5309.
- ^ "No. 30181". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 July 1917. p. 7053.
- ^ "No. 30181". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 July 1917. p. 7050.
- ISBN 9780835608824. (on page 283, the quote from Nixon is cited to page 54 of Roy's biography, 1975 2nd edition)
- ^ "No. 31162". The London Gazette. 4 February 1919. p. 1801.
- ^ "No. 32399". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 July 1921. p. 5900.
- ISBN 9780199865901.
- ^ quoted in Haberman, p. 221.
External links
- Photograph of Krishna Prem (Ronald Nixon) Archived 31 January 2023 at the Wayback Machine