From the 23-25th of April, the first Spanish AYUDH Retreat was held: a complete weekend dedicated to Amma’s youth. The retreat was organised with activities and workshops specially designed for young people.
We all gathered on Friday afternoon, took some time to become familiar with the place, sign in and go to the afternoon bhajans.
Young people from different parts of Spain (Andalucia, Madrid, País Vasco, Catalunya) and also from the south of France slowly kept arriving. The retreat started officially on Friday after dinner, with the official presentation by Anand, the person in charge of Centro Amma-Piera. Afterwards all the activities and schedules of the weekend were presented, followed by some introductory ice-breaker games.

The next day we started with the chanting of the 108 names of Amma and with a yoga session. Before breakfast we also went to the Tulasi garden and offered our prayers to the Tulasi plants, that had been planted a week before at the ashram. With our chants we prayed for the Tulasis to grow strong and happy. We honoured the plants and trees and Mother Nature, thanking Her for all what she gives us.
After breakfast it was seva time. Half the group did veggie chopping and the other half recycling.

After the seva, we had a walk for peace through the olive trees and the ashram’s beehive chanting “Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu”. This really helped us to contact with Nature.
In a circle, we talked about our worries for the environment and ecology. The discussion centred on the importance of RE-USING and not only recycling, its advantages and disadvantages…From this everyone reflected on how important taking care of the environment is, and summarised their feelings in just 3 words. Each one of these words where put inside a box and mixed all together. Afterwards, each one of us picked three words from the box. With these words we each composed either a sentence, poem, song about nature and the environment. We shared all our pieces on the last day of the retreat.

In the evening, we continued with a Dance and Movement workshop, also with an ecological theme. We became seeds, being born, growing, dancing with the wind, moving, interacting… what a delightful workshop and so much fun! Very enriching!
During the weekend we also did the seva of serving the food and washing the ashram lunch and dinner dishes in our turn.
On Saturday afternoon, we participated in a theatre workshop entitled “The River of Life”. We played nature interaction games.. The group felt a real sense of opening, as young people connected freely… game after game, activity after activity. The theatre workshop was light-hearted yet deep, as we shared our experiences in a creative way. It was very interesting and fun, everyone liked it a lot!
In the evening, we joined the ashram’s Saturday satsang. That day the subject was also ecology, and Amma’s words related to that subject. The youth also participated in the bhajans and the arati.
After dinner, we watched a documentary related to ecology and taking care of Mother Earth. The documentary HOME was striking, clear and direct. It showed how human beings are treating Mother Earth… very interesting and highly recommended for everyone!
Sunday arrived and we started our day with morning yoga session, followed by mantra recitation at the tulasi garden.

After breakfast and recycling or veggie chopping seva, we planted an apple tree. We all planted while chanting lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu. It was very nice to plant with everyone. Each one of us contributed a bit, and focussed on creating a caring environment for the tree to grow healthy and strong!
After planting the tree we practiced in preparation for the final performance. It was a great show, including our compositions from the day before, our theatre piece (with music!) We ended with a new song for Mother, written specially for this event and for the youth.
We ended this great weekend, full of energy, happiness and vitality and a little heartache over our departure… but we look forward with great excitement to seeing each other again during the next retreat in France this July.
Thank you everyone for coming, providing, sharing and enjoying!
Thank you Amma!
Om Namah Shivaya　

AYUDH Co-ordination Spain