Richard Roberts (Krishnadhyanam) first became aware of and visited the Nirvanavan Foundation in 2002 as part of his yoga teacher training course with Swami Pragyamurti who later became one of the first trustees of the charitable organisation. He was inspired to support the Foundation with donations gathered from fundraising over a number of years on returning from his initial visit. The supporting relationship was formalised in 2008 when Towards Nirvana UK charity was founded. The Charity has been collecting and sending regular donations from supporters ever since and this financial support has been important for the to continuation and development of the various projects of the Foundation.

Since 2008 up until the Covid 19 pandemic (2020-2023) the charity has been a solid source of financial support for the work of the Foundation. However, the pandemic saw a change in donations which dropped considerably over this period. The website for the charity became non-functional and fundraising activity became less. This has a big impact on the capacity of the Foundation to deliver some of its projects and many of the community schools were temporarily closed.

Here we are now in 2026 – new volunteers have joined the team and we are newly inspired, energised and more resourced to pick up and create new opportunities for participation, learning and cultural exchange together with increased accessibility, transparency and up to date information via the new working website. Recent visitors over the last year to the Foundation have returned with energy and a new wave of enthusiasm and to create opportunities for people to share and give what they can in a spirit of generosity, openness and trust. This could be financial support as well as skills, energy and expertise in a particular field, and especially in the area of art and culture. The website is now being developed in coordination with Nirvanavan Foundation website so that more people can see, if they want to, what is happening here and what the opportunities are for participation and engagement. The Volunteer Programme will be detailed here in due course.

Richard, the Director of Towards Nirvana, will be welcoming two new trustees to work alongside himself, Joanna and Ingrid. We are looking forward to working together and will update you shortly.