Who we are

Relationship between Towards Nirvana and the Nirvanavan Foundation

Towards Nirvana is the working name of Nirvanvan Foundation Trust, registered charity number 1124427. Established by Krishnadhyanam in the the UK in 2008, Nirvanavan Foundation Trust supports the Nirvanvan Foundation in India.

The Nirvanavan Foundation was established in 2001 by Nirvana Bodhisattva. It is based in the city of Alwar in Rajasthan and is a non-profit, non-denominational NGO registered in New Delhi, registration number S40561.

Trustees of Towards Nirvana

Towards Nirvana has a strong connection with the yoga community. All our trustees have associations with Satyananda Yoga (Bihar School of Yoga) and two are Satyananda Yoga initiated Swamis. Krishnadhyanam (Treasurer) Swami Pragyamurti Joanna MacDonald Swami Satvikananda (Chair)

Patrons of Towards Nirvana

Sunny Ormonde

Nina Wadia

Nirvanavan Foundation

Nirvana Bodhisattva (Founder)

For the Community

Combating prostitution

After a survey conducted in 2003 it was decided to base most of the charity's schools in the villages of the Nat and Kanjer communities near Alwar. These communities used to be respected court entertainers employed by the Maharajas and other royalty before the British Raj was established.

Now it is traditional for the young girls to be sent as prostitutes to the large cities of India and the Middle East; the boys become pimps. This may sound shocking but it is important not to make moral judgments about a community which has come to accept this as normal. The villagers are proud, hardworking and dignified people who are deserving of our respect and support.

Our purpose is to help break the pattern of exploitation by giving the children education so that the young women and men become aware of alternative choices in their lives. We also provide basic medical facilities, particularly to the women who run a high risk of becoming infected and spreading the AIDS virus.

These changes are a slow process; such long-established traditions do not change overnight. But much progress has been made already.

Press Reports

A press article about the Nirvanavan Foundation's work "A new hope for India’s girls born into prostitution" was published recently by Australian journalist Lauren Farrow. This article was also published by Deutsche Welle and Asia Calling.

A separate article by American journalist Angela Longerbeam was published in 2010. Both these articles provide further insight into the work that the charity is undertaking.

Helping the community

Local people with health problems are often unable to fund their own medical treatment and may need to seek assistance from the charity. Recently we gave financial support to a child with cancer whose parents could not afford the medical fees. In another case we helped to pay the hospital fees of a parent of one of the charity’s workers.

In other instances assistance is given to the local community in a diverse number of ways. This can range from helping with a daughter’s wedding expenses to holding an annual exhibition of drawings from the Art Mela for World Peace.

Schools  Programme "Bodhivriksha"

The charity’s education project is called Bodhivriksha meaning “Tree of Knowledge”; each school is a branch of the tree. The twelve branches provide education for over 500 children and are funded entirely by charitable donations.

Advaita Garden School

Situated at the base of the Aravali Mountains in Rajasthan is a plot of land known as Advaita Garden. This is the headquarters of the children’s education programme and home of the main school Bodhivriksha Pratam Shakar, “First branch of the Tree of Knowledge”.

The school is a fifteen minute journey into the countryside just outside the city of Alwar. Over 180 children are enrolled from the nearby villages of Hajipur, Dhani and Dadikar.

Advaita Gardens from 2001 to today

When the school was founded in 2001 it consisted of one room serving as a classroom, office and headquarters of the education project.

For three years classes sheltered in whatever shade was available under trees and makeshift canopies giving protection from the heat of the sun. During the past two years three new classrooms have been built plus another room which serves as an office, classroom and accommodation space; the original one classroom has also been expanded to provide space for two more classes. In addition to the new classrooms the school also has a cowshed (gaushala), which is home to more than twenty cows.  In the future their manure will provide gobar gas to be used for cooking.
These changes are reflected in the living conditions. Five years ago water was pumped up by hand from the well, food cooked over an open fire, sanitary conditions were basic to say the least – a hole in the ground – and there was no electricity. Now, water is still drawn from the well but it is pumped up by a generator powered by an electricity supply and piped to the new cowshed and the new school kitchen which boasts a gas ring powered by bottled gas. Two flush toilets (Western) and two Indian toilets have been built and – luxury of luxuries – there is also a shower.

The children look with awe at this luxury. In their villages water comes from a hole in the ground. They carry it to their homes. They wash themselves and their clothes and pots on the ground. Their cooking is done over an open fire as we did at the school previously.

The other schools

The charity runs a school in the slum area of Alwar city and ten other schools in Nat and Kanjer villages in a wide area of the surrounding countryside.

These smaller village schools are mainly single class schools catering for around thirty children with one teacher responsible for children of all ages, from four years to fourteen. Despite this no child is left out. No child remains unstretched and there is a great effort to meet every child’s needs.

The children are encouraged to help each other and take a great delight in doing so. They may not have much equipment but it is impressive and humbling to see how they use what they have got.

For Children

The education programme is central to the charity’s work with children. This is especially important in the poor rural areas where there are no government funded schools. We run twelve schools providing education to over 500 children in a catchment area covering thirteen villages. We employ twenty-one teachers, two coordinators and a handful of ancillary staff. We are passionate about improving children’s rights and welfare. We are involved in a social work programme for children, we operate the Childline telephone helpline in Alwar, and we are planning to establish a children's village.