About Master Sri Avinash
Master Sri Avinash is a spiritual teacher. His Mission is to raise the consciousness of our planet and awaken inner peace and love for every being.
About Master Sri Avinash
Master Sri Avinash is a spiritual teacher. His Mission is to raise the consciousness of our planet and awaken inner peace and love for every being.
From Birth
Master Sri Avinash was born in 1973, into a fisherman family in Nha Trang, Vietnam. His birth name is Thanh Ha Do, and in Vietnamese ‘Thanh Ha’ means ‘pure river’. He is the third youngest of nine children, with six sisters and two brothers.
When Master Sri Avinash was a child, his father would spend most of his time fishing at sea, only returning home for one week each month to sell his fish to support the large family. In order to supplement the family income during low fishing seasons, his mother travelled long distances to buy goods in large cities to trade in smaller towns.
When he was three years old, his mother passed away in a tragic car accident while travelling between cities for work. This caused a major emotional and financial shock for the whole family. Master Sri Avinash’s father had to work extra hard to make ends meet and the older siblings began taking care of the younger siblings.
“Thung”, the round boat like the one that Master Sri Avinash’s father used to get from the mainland to his fishing boat.
Early Childhood
When Master Sri Avinash was old enough to attend school, his sisters would walk him there. He did not enjoy school and often looked out of the window longing to be outside and to swim across the backwaters. On most mornings, Master Sri Avinash would wait behind the school gate watching his sister disappear out of sight, and then he’d excitedly go down to the backwaters to swim all day. He would dry his hair in the sun just before coming home, so that his sisters couldn’t see he’d skipped school.
Master Sri Avinash would often get in trouble, when his sisters would check by smelling his hair and ask him, “Did you swim in the backwater today?” But it did not stop him from skipping school and returning to the backwaters to swim again and again, because he had such a love and connection with nature. As early as the age of three he would swim across the backwaters almost every day. Master Sri Avinash shares that, “I definitely enjoyed the swimming, but it was more the love of freedom that deep down I was after, and swimming in the backwaters fulfilled that hunger for freedom in me.”
The backwaters that Master Sri Avinash used to swim across.
Leaving Vietnam
At the age of eight Master Sri Avinash’s family was separated when his father took him and his older brother to the West, with the intention to return on a second trip for his remaining children.
They left by boat in the hope of migrating to a safer and more prosperous country. Landing in Malaysia five days later, they were taken to a refugee camp. Then on 21 January 1983, after one year on the refugee camp, Master Sri Avinash arrived in Australia with his father and brother, after being granted permanent residency.
A boat like the one that Master Sri Avinash and his family were in when they left Vietnam. An estimated two million refugees left Vietnam for other countries.
The long jetty and entrance to Pulau Bidong, Malaysia, the Vietnamese refugee camp where Master Sri Avinash stayed. The photo shows the weekly food ration being distributed.
The visa photo for entry to Australia of nine year old Master Sri Avinash (right) and his older brother, Anh.
The Beginning of Life’s Struggles
Master Sri Avinash really enjoyed his primary school years where he made many friends from various ethnic backgrounds. He also loved playing sports such as cricket and football and playing Atari computer games at his friend’s house.
His family lived in shared houses in Sydney’s inner west with other Vietnamese families, which was the only way they could afford to pay the rent. In winter there was no heating in the houses and the skin on Master Sri Avinash’s knuckles and lips used to crack and bleed from the cold. Most of the clothes they wore were donated by charities.
In his first year of high school he asked his father if he could cook for the family, to relieve his father from the daily cooking duties. His father was surprised because Master Sri Avinash was so young and had little experience in cooking, but his father said, “Have a try and see how you go.”
His cooking was only basic, but it was good enough to score the fulltime job. With this development, his time playing with friends after school came to an end because he had to catch the bus home quickly each afternoon to start cooking.
After moving from shared house to shared house, Master Sri Avinash’s father was granted a government housing commission home in North Ryde in 1989. By this time two of his sisters had migrated to Australia from Vietnam to join the family. Master Sri Avinash and his family couldn’t believe how lucky they were to be able to live in a brand new town-house with four bedrooms, after so many years of living together in one bedroom in old and cold houses.
In North Ryde he struggled to meet new friends that he was close with like the friends from his previous school. Combined with the fact that he found high school much more serious than primary school, this marked the beginning of his life struggles and suffering.
His Heart Yearned
During his teenage years and early 20s, Master Sri Avinash felt a hollow sadness and purposelessness which he did not know how to get rid of. He endeavoured to get a good education and career as a solution to his problems, and this led him to enrol in a Bachelor degree at Macquarie University in 1995.
In his first year of university he did a personal training course and it was during this course that he experienced his first spontaneous satori, which lasted for many hours. He didn’t know how it had happened, but it was clear to him that his heart yearned for more of it. The thought came to him that, “There must be meditators who know about this type of thing, so I need to learn from them how to meditate.”
Master Sri Avinash in his mid 20s with his family.
Left to right: Master Sri Avinash’s younger sister, older sister, father, step-mother, Master Sri Avinash. Front row: younger brother.
Praying to God
Soon after, Master Sri Avinash joined the university meditation society and immediately fell in love with meditation when it brought such deep peace. He would meditate daily for many hours at home and in between classes at university.
On completion of his degree, he secured a job at a highly reputed firm. Although this was a secure and prosperous career, in his second year at the firm he realized that it was not fulfilling for him.
After realizing that the corporate life was not the answer, Master Sri Avinash worked for two years as a sales person in various Real Estate agencies. It was during these two years that Master Sri Avinash seriously contemplated how to live a purposeful life, and he would think of God often during this period.
When he was working, he enjoyed it when no buyers came to the open-house inspections because he would use this time to talk and pray to God for help and guidance. Whilst praying, his eyes would be full of tears and on occasions he had to quickly wipe the tears from his face when a buyer approached. He continued this practice of prayerful contemplation whenever he could over the next two years. He just wanted to surrender his life to serve God.
In the hope of finding a new career, Master Sri Avinash decided to go back to Macquarie University where he completed a Masters in a new field. However, after experiencing the new industry for a few weeks he felt a heavy sadness, knowing again that this was not for him, but still not knowing what to do with his life.
Master Sri Avinash with his family and friends at the graduation ceremony for his Bachelor degree, in 1998.
Left to right: Father, younger brother, Master Sri Avinash, Michael, Hamilton.
Master Sri Avinash and his family at his graduation ceremony, 1998.
Left to right: Step-mother, Master Sri Avinash, father. Front row: Younger sister, younger brother.
