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{{Short description|Australian-born Indian spiritual leader}}
{{EngvarAu|date=October 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| name = Dev Ashish
| honorific-prefix = Sri
| temple = [[Mirtola]]
| birth_name = David Beresford
| nationality = Australian, Indian
| birth_date = 1946
| birth_place = [[Sydney]], New South Wales, Australia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2017|07|27|1946}}
| death_place = Mirtola, [[Almora district]], India
| guru = Sri [[Madhava Ashish]]
| website =
| background = #ffca6e
}}
[[Shri|Sri]] '''Dev Ashish''' (1946–2017) was an Australian-born Indian spiritual leader who ran the [[Mirtola]] ashram in Uttarakhand from 1997 to 2017.

==Biography==
Sri Dev Ashish was born '''David Beresford''' in [[Sydney]] in 1946 to Nelson Venters Beresford, a [[Surrey]]-born farmer in [[Turramurra]],<ref>Ancestry.com. Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.</ref> and his artist<ref>{{cite web |title=East meets West: from the archive of Flora Beresford |url=https://archive.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/archived/2010/east_meets_west/index.html |website=Art Gallery NSW |publisher=Art Gallery of New South Wales}}</ref> wife Ethelene Flora (née Venables). The Beresfords were interested in Eastern spirituality and spent time in India, first as followers of [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]] and later at the [[Sri Aurobindo Ashram]] in Pondicherry, and David grew up in [[Kumaon division|Kumaon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aitken |first1=Bill |title=Footloose in the Himalaya |date=2003 |publisher=Permanent Black |location=Delhi |page=75 |isbn=9788178240527 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlxyJYAfz4gC}}</ref>

Though they had originally intended to place David in a [[Biodynamic agriculture|biodynamic farm]] in England, the Beresfords instead moved to [[Mirtola]], then managed by two British-born gurus, Sri [[Krishna Prem]] and his disciple Sri [[Madhava Ashish]]. "The moment Sri Madhava Ashish set eyes on David," writes Madhava Ashish's disciple [[Bill Aitken (writer)|Bill Aitken]], "he knew he had found his spiritual heir.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aitken |first1=Bill |title=Footloose in the Himalaya |date=2003 |publisher=Permanent Black |location=Delhi |page=86 |isbn=9788178240527 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlxyJYAfz4gC}}</ref>

After the death of his [[Guru–shishya tradition|''param''-guru]], Krishna Prem, in November 1965, Dev Ashish, along with Madhava Ashish, worked to transform the ashram farm and forest, making it a model for environmentally sound rural development.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashish |first1=Sri Madhava |title=An Open Window: Dream as Everyman's Guide to the Spirit |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin Books India |page=Back cover |isbn=9780143100232 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8cFjzAWW9UkC}}</ref> For his work on environmental education, the latter was awarded the [[Padma Shri]] in 1992.

In addition to his practical skills, Dev Ashish had a "deep intuitive side" with he would "batter people's personality traits in the mode of the [[George Gurdjieff|Gurdjieffian]] '[https://austingurdjieff.org/2019/09/12/of-self-love/ Madame Vanity and Mr Self-Love]'."<ref name="Mirtola">{{cite web |title=Sri Dev Ashish |url=https://www.mirtolareflections.com/pdf/devashish.pdf |website=Mirtola Reflections |access-date=11 October 2022}}</ref> He was also called 'Dev Da',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arora |first1=Payal |title=Dot Com Mantra: Social Computing in the Central Himalayas |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |page=41 |isbn=9781317148333 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9v4oDAAAQBAJ}}</ref> "Da" meaning elder brother, in the tradition established by his predecessors Krishna Prem ('Gopal Da') and Madhava Ashish ('Ashish Da').

He was deeply devoted to his guru and "attended to him with single-pointed selfnessness" in the last stages of his life.<ref name="Mirtola"></ref> Following Madhava Ashish's death in April 1997, Dev Ashish took over the running of the Mirtola ashram.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ginsburg |first1=Seymour B. |title=Mirtola: A Himalayan Ashram with Theosophical Roots |journal=Quest |date=2012 |volume=100 |issue=3 (Summer 2012) |pages=98–105 |url=https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/2754}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Jyotsna |title=Letters from Mirtola (Written by Sri Krishnaprem and Sri Madhava Ashish to Karan Singh) |date=2004 |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |location=Mumbai |url=https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/letters-from-mirtola-sri-krishnaprem-and-sri-madhava-ashish-to-karan-singh-ihl420/}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones and Ryan |first1=Constance A. and James D. |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |date=2007 |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York |page=49}}</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Sri Dev Ashish died by gunshot wound on 27 July 2017. Local authorities said the death of Dev Ashish, who "was deeply involved in social and religious work in the region", appeared to be suicide.<ref>{{cite news |title=Australian-born spiritualist shoots himself |url=https://www.india.com/news/agencies/australian-born-spiritualist-shoots-himself-2-2357044/ |work=India.com |agency=PTI |date=27 July 2017}}</ref>

According to the academic Andrew Rawlinson, by appointing "another Westerner, the Australian, David Beresford/Dev, as his successor", Madhava Ashish further cemented Mirtola as an ashram run by a succession of Western-origin teachers. "In other words, there is a branch of [[Gaudiya Vaishnavism]] in India that has an established lineage of Western gurus," he writes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rawlinson |first1=Andrew |title=The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions |date=1997 |publisher=Open Court |location=Chicago |page=381 |isbn=9780812693102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qWfXAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashish, Dev}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:2017 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian monks]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian monks]]
[[Category:Australian emigrants to India]]
[[Category:Australian religious leaders]]
[[Category:Indian people of Australian descent]]
[[Category:Indian religious leaders]]
[[Category:Indian spiritual teachers]]
[[Category:People from Almora district]]
[[Category:People from Sydney]]
[[Category:People from Uttarakhand]]
[[Category:Religious leaders in India]]

{{cat improve|date=October 2022}}

Dev Ashish - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article