• Table of Contents
  • Raising a Spiritual Child by Swami Veda Bharati
  • The Future Force Yoga Youth Conference 2013
  • In the Gurukulam by Maurizio Teodoro
  • Yoga for the Little Ones by Noida Sadhakas
  • Ferry Meditation by Sarah
  • Something Swamiji Said by Roxanne Currie
  • Spring 2012 Korean Tour by Stoma
  • Lithuania 2012 by Stoma
  • One Year Anniversary in Pune by Dr. Shirin Venkat
  • Silent Retreat on the Shore with Ma Radha by Lauren Forney
  • God Speaking, Humans Hearing, and a Nice Jewish Boy Meets Rabbi Jesus
  • Poem for Swamiji by Elizabeth Proctor
  • The Art of Joyful Living
  • Tattva Samasa by Swami Nityamuktananda
  • 2012 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Lithuania 2012

by Stoma

Soham Yoga Center in Vilnius, Lithuania, sponsored a ten day silent retreat under AHYMSIN leadership this year at Kernaves Bajoryne, a lakeside resort near the town of Kernave. Forty-five people attended the retreat, most for the full ten days and some for five days. Stephen Parker (Stoma) was there for the third consecutive year and was joined again this year by former Gurukulam student Jelle Grupstra, teaching hatha-yoga and leading contemplative walking, and Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati, who lectured during the last five days of the retreat. She had previously been in the U.K. with Swami Veda for the retreat in Ware.

The retreat began with a session in the sauna on a cold, rainy evening. Weather in the early days of the retreat was quite cold and rainy and so it wasn’t possible to swim in the lake for most of the first week.

The retreat began with an introduction to the Himalayan Tradition of Yoga and hatha-yoga. The retreat had an unusual schedule for Himalayan retreats with only two meals per day, lunch at 10 AM and supper at 6 PM. This leaves extra time for practice and helps to keep the stomach light. The food is some of the best in our retreats anywhere, light and fresh and free of dairy, cooked by a very talented woman from the Krishna Consciousness tradition.

On one (rare) sunny afternoon, we hiked to Neris Regional Park, a beautiful park in a valley where two major rivers make their confluence amidst ancient earthen fortifications. On a hilltop there we practiced contemplative walking in our bare feet on freshly mown grass.

On another afternoon we walked over 1 km to Kernave. Kernave is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with excavations of some of the oldest settlements in Europe dating back at least 12,000 years as well as the site of Lithuania’s conversion to Christianity in 1413. In Lithuania, the ancient shamanic religion, which is still alive and well, mingles relatively peacefully with Christianity in ways seldom seen anywhere. People still gather on midsummer’s eve at hilltop fire altars to offer fire sacrifices to the (Lithuanian) devas.

On the last Friday of the retreat, thirteen people received mantra initiation. Everyone, including the teachers, left the retreat with hearts full of gratitude for the sense of family in our times together these last three years. We look forward to another retreat next year. The dates have not been finally set yet, but it will certainly be in the month of June.

Many thanks to Vaidas Deksnys and Vilma Deknsniene (Devi, really!) and Darius Plykinas for all their loving work organizing and creating a beautiful place within which people could bloom.

Postscript: the day after we left the retreat resort, the hotel called Darius to say that all their employees had stopped watching TV and listening to the radio at work and went about their work without a lot of chatter and gossip. They asked to please return next year!

Shantih, Stoma

Editor’s Note:

For an account of the 2011 retreat:  http://www.ahymsin.org/docs2/News/1107Jul/07.html

For an account of the 2010 retreat:  http://www.ahymsin.org/docs2/News/10Oct/04.html