Ronald Henry Nixon (10 May 1898 – 14 November 1965), later known as Sri Krishna Prem or Sri Krishnaprem, 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 orthodox VaishnaviteHinduism. Remaining a strict Gaudiya Vaishnavite the rest of his life, he was highly regarded, and had many Indian disciples. (Correction: By all accounts, and especially by the account of his foremost disciple Sri Madhava Ashish, Krishna Prem transcended the dogmas and practices of his early Vaishnava sectarianism and affirmed a universal spiritual path shorn of "orthodoxy" and blind traditionalism.)^{[citation needed]}

In 1921, while still in England, Nixon accepted the offer of a teaching position at the University of Lucknow, in northern India.^[3] As it turned out, the university's vice-chancellor, Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti, was also spiritually inclined and interested in Theosophy, and offered Nixon assistance. Over time, Nixon came to regard Gyanendra's wife, Monica Devi Chakravarti, as his spiritual teacher. In 1928, Monika took vows of renunciation in the Gaudiya Vaishnavite tradition, where these vows are called vairagya.^[2] She adopted the monastic name of Sri Yashoda Mai. Soon thereafter, she initiated Nixon into vairagya, and he adopted Krishna Prem as his monastic name.^[2]

In 1930, Sri Yashoda Mai and Krishna Prem together founded an ashram at Mirtola, near Almora, in mountainous north-central India (state of Uttarakhand). The ashram "began and has continued to be"^[2] aligned with strict orthodox Vaishnavism. In 1944, Yashoda Ma died and Krishna Prem succeeded her as head of the ashram.^[2] He travelled little, but in 1948 he visited South India, meeting Sri Ramana Maharshi, as well as Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa ("The Mother").^[2] Sardella states that Nixon appears to have been "the first European to embrace Vaishnavism in India".^[5]:143 Haberman states that Nixon "was perhaps the first Westerner to tread the path of Krishna-bhakti, and was certainly the first to have any official affiliation with the Gaudiya Vaishnavism of Braj."^[1]:223

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]:100Gertrude 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 Roywrote that Krishnaprem "had given a filip [stimulus] to my spiritual aspiration".^[6]

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