About

Nishad is a gifted writer of both fiction and non-fiction whose books have appeared on best-selling charts, and an engaging and deeply informed speaker and teacher of spiritual evolution and non-duality who has spoken on these subjects at major international conferences.

Nishad commenced serious spiritual practice in 1984 while still a student at the University of Warwick, and his rigorously followed daily practices include meditation, devotion, yoga, and the study of spiritual texts.

These practices culminated in a deep awakening experience in 2007, which he describes in his book “The Unity of Everything”:

“In 2007, this single-minded devotion to spiritual practice would begin to bear fruit, and I would spend almost six months in a state of extraordinary peace and equanimity. Thoughts would arise only a few times each day when needed for practical purposes or rare conversation. The sense of separate self would disappear and the absolute unity of all things would playfully arise in an unconditioned awareness which was seen to be the True Buddha-Nature of all sentient beings everywhere. And even though this realization would gradually reduce in intensity, I would remain eternally grateful for this glimpse of enlightenment that I had been given.”

Nishad talked more about this experience in his interview with Gavin Brown in April 2021, including its more bodily-felt aspects, and how the taste of that experience has never really left him, but continues to inform his daily life and work:

Born in London (England) in 1966 (13^th March @ 9:47 AM, so Taurus ascendant and Jyeshta Nakshatra), Nishad spent his childhood absorbed in Hindu and Buddhist mythology, and started receiving formal spiritual training from Theravadin Buddhist monks and a Chinese Taoist master in 1984. With the exception of a few days spent in hospital in 2008, Nishad has maintained some kind of spiritual practice based on those early foundations every day since then. The core of his practice at the current time is Buddhist meditation supplemented by deity and guru yoga.

Since he was a young child, Nishad’s entire life has been guided by a few key questions – questions that have changed their outer form, but never their inner essence:

What is the nature of reality?

Who am I?

What is the purpose and meaning of my life?

What happens to us when we die?

These questions have guided Nishad through an intense journey of self-discovery and often painful life experiences, always underpinned and supplemented by an ever-deepening study of spirituality, philosophy, psychology, evolution and more.

Along the way, the most important people, practices and paths that he has encountered and benefited from include the following:

Friends:

David King

Diena Haryana

Jayesh Mistry

Susan Hodges

Teachers:

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Ramana Maharshi

Adi Da Samraj (Da Free John)

Sri Aurobindo Ghose

Deities:

Shiva

Durga-Kali

Tara

Practices:

Meditation and Self-enquiry

Deity Yoga and Guru Devotion

Study and recitation of sacred texts

Hatha Yoga and Pranayama

Paths:

Buddhism

Daoism

Hindu – Advaita Vedanta, Tantra/Kundalini

Integral Philosophy (Ken Wilber)

Spiral Dynamics (Don Beck)

Evolutionary Enlightenment (Andrew Cohen)

Waking Down (Saniel Bonder)

Until 2000 Nishad had a career as a software developer, working in the financial sector, a role that built on his previous experience as an actuarial student in the insurance industry. A series of profoundly difficult health issues culminated that year in his inability to continue working in that role. Many years of physical and spiritual crises followed, eventually leading to his awakening experience in 2007, followed by years of further health challenges and long periods of time spent in various hospitals. It was during the last of these hospital stays in 2011 that he started to write Gifted, which would later be published in 2015 and herald the beginning of a new career in writing.