As the ranges and high peaks of the Himalayas, the father of mountains, started coming into my sight one after the other, my mind became stable in the same eternal truth, which the Himalayas have always been teaching us, which is resonating in every particle here - renunciation. This was the sentiment of Swami Vivekananda, a warrior saint and thinker of the 19th century, when he went to the Himalayas for meditation. He expressed his desire to establish such a meditation place in the foothills of the Himalayas to his disciple Swami Swaroopanand and the British couple Captain James Henry Sevier and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth Sevier.
Mayavati Advaita Ashram, built in 1899, is one such place in Champawat district of Uttarakhand, where a person forgets himself and starts recognizing his real conscious form. This is the best place for spiritual meditation, where there is no sound, only nature in its natural form helps in taking the mind to heights.
While travelling to the West, the Alps Mountains of the beautiful country of Switzerland used to remind Swami Vivekananda of the Himalayas. During his stay there, he had expressed his desire to build an ashram in such a beautiful place in the Himalayas in India where Vedanta could be discussed. Nanda Kot, Nanda Devi, Trishul, Nanda Ghanti, Kamat, Neelkanth, Badrinath and Kedarnath peaks of the Himalayas are visible from the Mayavati Ashram.
The idea behind
The seer had decided about this place where nothing but truth will resonate. People searching for the truth will understand the true essence of religion without superstition. There, one will be able to know the power of not Buddha, Jesus, Shiva and Vishnu, but that one conscious God, who is present in everything. Going there, man will learn to stand on his own feet because he will be able to recognize his real conscious form. Soul will be worshiped by soul, not any idol or idol. Everyone will be seen as a soul, not as a body. It will be the center of Advaita. There, a person will know this by walking on the path of sadhna from childhood and will worship God in the elemental form. He will feel the formless form of God everywhere.
How to reach
After a hill journey of about 3 hours from Tanakpur, I reached Champawat district and from there, about half an hour drive on a single road passing through the dense forest of deodar trees led me to Mayavati Ashram. This Mayavati Advaita Ashram is located 22 km from Champawat and 6 km from Lohaghat and is also present in the tourist circuit of Uttarakhand. Earlier it was the Mayavati tea garden with three houses in the vicinity and it was owned by General McGregor. The disciple Sevier couple of Swami VIvekanand bought it from them and turned it into an ashram.
Service to mankind is service to God
Driven by the spirit of ‘Nar seva is Narayan Seva’, a charitable mobile dispensary is run by the ashram. There is no hospital or doctor within a distance of 55 km. The mobile dispensary van from the Mayavati Ashram goes to different villages every day and sets up free medical camps and many times critical patients are brought from the village to the ashram hospital and provided medical treatment. The philosophy of service to living beings is the true service to God - is the principle of the saints and doctors here.
Vivekananda Museum
The printing press that the Sevier couple bought and installed in the ashram is still present in the museum of the Advaita Ashram. The press was brought to the ashram so that the monthly magazine Prabuddha Bharat started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896 could be published. The monthly magazine is published from Kolkata these days. As soon as one enters the museum, one can see the ‘Parichay Patrika’ written by Swami Vivekananda printed on a wooden plank mounted on the wall. It is written there- ‘The one in whom this universe is situated, who resides in this universe, who is a form of the universe, in whom the soul is situated, who resides in the soul, who is the soul of man, knowing him, that is, the universe, that is, one's own soul, destroys all fears, ends the worries and finally makes one attain salvation’. Advaita is the only philosophy that makes a man fully attain his power, and makes him his own master. It removes all slavery and superstitions related to it. Thus, it makes us brave in bearing pain and doing work and finally makes us attain complete salvation.