• Table of Contents
  • Sources of Energy by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Universal Brotherhood by Swami Rama
  • AHYMSIN Budapest by Frankó Csuba Dea
  • AHYMSIN Minneapolis by Daniel Hertz
  • Virtual Silence Retreat by Lori Beron
  • Appreciation for All Living Beings by Wolfgang Bischoff
  • Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is
  • 2020 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

AHYMSIN around the Globe

Budapest, Hungary

by Frankó Csuba Dea

Himalájai Jóga Tradíció

It happened about 20 years ago, that the Guru’s Grace started flowing to and through Hungary. It was the early time of the yoga revolution in Europe when only the most determined seekers abandoned the teachings of the few yoga books available in Hungarian and stepped out to the real world to explore mystical India, seeking for the living wisdom and the Guru. It’s hard to trace back the first steps of the journey, and the first sadhakas to meet Swami Veda, but as far as I could gather the details, people from Hungary started visiting the ashram from around 2002. Three young Hungarian ladies, Eniko Kosik, Krisztina Jakab, and Gabriella Nagy, spent 1.5 months in Sadhana Mandir with our beloved Swami Veda Ji in 2004 (this was back in the day when SRSG did not exist, yet). Swami Veda just called them “my three daughters”. Another Hungarian lady, Rozalia Hummel, who was living in India and was closely connected to Swami Ji invited him to teach in Hungary. The first visit could not be realized, as Swamiji was not allowed to cross the border from Austria to Hungary for some administrative reasons. As one of “his three daughters” recalls: “The situation was not ripe for us to welcome Him, yet”.

After this unfortunate event the early birds in the Tradition contacted Jozsef Papp, who was a long time yoga practitioner and genuine sadhaka. He stepped up to organize Swamiji's travel and teachings in Hungary. This time it went all right, forces gathered to support the mission and the incredible journey of the Hungarian Sangha begun.

Swami Ji’s first seminar was held in 2005 in the Hungarian countryside. Attendees were touched deeply by his loving wisdom and determined to continue their studies with him. During his visit he was accompanied by Margo (Maya) Balog and Pandit Ananta, whose presence also left a deep impression of unconditional love and spiritual experience in the minds and hearts of the small group. After this, Swami Veda blessed us with his visits until he took his final vow of silence, thus teaching Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Yoga Nidra and many other beautiful texts and practises between 2005 and 2012. Swami Ritavan, Stoma Parker and Ashutosh Sharma was also on his side during his visits to, partaking practices, inspiration and personal experiences so generously that words can hardly describe. They became family for many of us over the years, having many homes in our beautiful country waiting for them to return.

Swami Ji left attendees of his first seminar with a mission:

1. Establish a meditation group to sit together once a week, at the same time, no matter where they are in the world.

The group selected Sunday night, 9 p.m. for the community practice and today hundreds of meditators follow this tradition.

2. Establish an organization, an umbrella under which the rich heritage of the Guru lineage can be partaken.

The the Association of Himalayan Yoga and Meditation was established in the same year by some of the most respected members of our community, József Papp, Anna Mezősi (current leader of the association), Tamas Margittay and many more. Today it counts 87 full time members and over 700 initiates. Meanwhile the preparation to establish a physical center started too and our first yoga center was opened in 2007. We had to move premises twice since then; today we have a cosy home of subtle energies in the center of Budapest.

3. Start a teacher training program in Hungary in order to prepare sadhakas for the practices of the tradition and the skillful sharing of the Hiamalyan wisdom in Hungary.

We have just concluded the 5th round of our three year long teacher training program, with this having 85 certified Himalayan yoga teachers in Hungary.

The organizer team and the Himalayan community instantly started growing in a breathtaking, exponential pace and their efforts bore beautiful fruits:

4. Since 2005, 28 books of the Tradition were translated and published in Hungarian.
5. In 2006 the first group of Hungarian sadhakas visited the Ashram and got initiated into the tradition. Since then, every year at least one, but sometimes more groups travel from Hungary to Rishikesh. According to Swami Ritavan, last year there was not even 1 week without a Hungarian sadhaka in the ashram.
6. We started organizing silence retreats in 2007 conducted by Swami Ritavan, Stoma and Ashu and had these retreats ever since. 2020 is the first year we had to pause for a while, due to the COVID outbreak.
7. Our facebook page nurtured by Kata Puskás counts 19,000 (!) followers.
8. Numerous teachings and programs are hosted in our center and retreats are held regularly by our teachers, who teach all over the country now.

The group of volunteers counts so many that we cannot list all the names of the beautiful helpers here, but allow us to name a few people, who contribute tremendous amount of time and effort to nurture the heritage of our beloved Masters:

• Ilona Diószegi and Andrea Zsolnai in managing the association with Anna,
• Kata Puskás and Dorina Lepsényi in managing the communication channels of the tradition,
• János Kelemen, Tamas Borkovics, Imola Holló, Panni Bajnok, Kata Csuba, Dea Frankó Csuba in translating books, interpreting lectures, organizing community events,
• Béla Daubner, Katalin Szabó, Katalin Rácz, Melinda and Zoltan Nagy, Tünde Kornhoffer, Tamas Mark in organizing trips to India,
• Magdi Dalnoki and Kata Szabó in finding, designing, renovating our current center
• Barbara Lázár and Szilvia Somrai Szabó Szilvi working in the leadership team for many years,
• Gabriella Budinszky, Agnes and Laszlo Meszaros hosting our beloved teachers many times during the years.

In the fall of 2019 three sadhakas from Hungary started the journey to become initiator teachers: Béla Daubner, Attila Kondor, Anna Mezősi.

Swamiji created a true spiritual family for us, where we all feel being gently pulled towards the silent chambers of our Tradition, towards the mysterious figure of Swami Rama, loving mind of Swami Veda, the gentle and generous caring of Swami Ritavan and the peaceful, homely feeling of SRSG. The presence of our Masters is tangible in every moment in our lives, even when the path was getting bumpy, when tensions came up, when our personal developments phases stirred the surface of the common mindfield. The deep sense of belonging to the Himalayan mindfield, a deep love we all share for our beloved Guru and Masters gently guided us along these years.

Children Initiations

TTP Class

Budapest Center

Yoga Nidra Conference

Photos by Tamas Mark.

Editor's Noten

We asked for updates from our centers around the world. This is one reply.

The Himalájai Jóga Tradíció has a website and a Facebook page.