About this stamp
Mahant Avaidyanath
India Post issued this ₹5 stamp on 1 October 2015 in memory of Mahant Avaidyanath (1919–2014) of the Gorakhnath temple, Gorakhpur. Born Kripal Singh on 18 May 1919 at Kandi in Garhwal, he lost his parents young and left home to live among the saints of Rishikesh and Haridwar, where he was drawn to the Nath sect by Yogi Nirvrittinath and Yogi Shantinath. He came to the Gorakhnath temple in 1940, and on 8 February 1942 Mahant Digvijaynath made him his disciple and successor, with the name Avaidyanath.
Temple, Public Life and Reform
A scholar of Vedanta, Yoga and the Bhagavad Gita, he was known for his work against untouchability and for social harmony, and under him the temple became a centre of education, health and social welfare. He was elected five times to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and four times to Parliament, was president of the Akhil Bharatvarshiya Avdhoot Bhesh Barah Panth Yogi Mahasabha from 1969 to 2014, and vice-president and general secretary of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha. He died on 12 September 2014.
The stamp was designed by Vinita Sinha; Security Printing Press, Hyderabad printed 0.52 million, 20,000 of them for the proponent.
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