Victoria Dmitrieva - translator, Indologist. She graduated from the English department of St. Petersburg State University Philology (St. Petersburg, Russia) and received a master's degree from McGill University majoring in Religious Studies (Montreal, Canada). Since 1996, she has primarily lived in India where she has studied Sanskrit, Indian philosophy, yoga, incorporating her studies with intensive travels as well as introducing people sincerely interested in India, with India. In doing so, for the past several years Victoria has mostly been in India engaged in scientific work and organizing non-tourist individual tours and group travel of India.
She is an author of articles on India, translates books on philosophy and yoga, participating in research projects and seminars in Russia and invites interesting people from India, including the masters of yoga and Ayurveda.
In 2000, in the northernmost state of India, Kashmir, Victoria met B.N. Pandit (1916 - 2007) an outstanding connoisseur of unique traditions and philosophy of yoga known as Paradvayta. Results of her lessons with Pandit she became the Russian translator of his book "Fundamentals of Kashmir Shaivism" (in 2010 there was a second revised edition of this book titled "Kashmir Shaivism. Enjoyment and Liberation"), and the text "Spanda-CARICOM", written in Sanskrit in the 8th century BC and dedicated to yoga practitioners of this school. In 2007 in St. Petersburg as a Russian translation of the book by David Kinsley "Images of the Divine Feminine in Tantra", a year later reissued under the title "Mahavidya in Indian Tantra."
Because of the recognition of her work as found in her master thesis on Shambhala, Victoria Dmitrieva is also considered one of the "go to" people on the internet regarding information for the mysterious spiritual hermitage high in the Himalayas also sometimes known as Shangri-La, and Gyanganj. A PDF version of her masters thesis, written as a partial fulfillment for her Masters Degree in Religious Studies from McGill University (1997), can be found by going to the following link:
THE LEGEND OF SHAMBHALA IN EASTERN AND WESTERN INTERPRETATIONS
Dmitrieva's thesis, of which a PDF version can also be found at the McGill University Library and Collections site, has as well, at the end, a rather extensive five page bibliography of over 70 Shambhala, Shangri-La, and Gyanganj sources she used in researching and writing her thesis.
Among the 70 or so books listed by Dmitrieva as references as found in her five page bibliography are the typical such as Lost Horizon and The Way To Shambhala as well as the book by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche titled SHAMBHALA: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, although very good, is not necessarily the strongest ever written on Shambhala. Notably missing among the 70 is a publication said over-and-over to be the MOST comprehensive account of Gyanganj ever written. That book was said to have been composed by a venerated Indian holy man by the name of Gopinath Kaviraj (d. 1976).
It just seems odd when it is all said and done someone who's work is as well received and respected as Dmitrieva's --- the translator that she is --- she didn't seem to use or doesn't cite Kaviraj's book (i.e., the original Bengali version) as one of her references. As with most works purporting to delve into the depths of Shamabhala, not a word on Kaviraj --- whose book is supposedly the most comprehensive account of Gyanganj ever written.
PART II
---------------PART IIISHANGRI-LA, SHAMBHALA, GYANGANJ, BUDDHISM AND ZEN
MISTAKEN FOREIGN MYTHS ABOUT SHAMBHALA
SHAMBHALA, TIME, AND THE LANGOLIERS
TIME TRAVEL: MEETING YOURSELF
MOLLIFYING THE NAYSAYERS
(please click image)
OM MANI PADME HUM
FOR MORE SEE:
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