This page is about Vydunas (1868 - 1953) - Mahatma Gandhi of Lithuania
Vydunas
[vee'doonas] (the real name Vilhelmas Storosta) was born on March 22, 1868 in
Southwest Lithuania (which is also called Lithuania Minor). This part of
Lithuania has its specifics, since for hundreds of years it was a part of
Prussia, while the rest of Lithuania
belonged to Russian Empire.
Despite
all the attempts of Prussian authorities to germanize the region, most of its
population still spoke Lithuanian, although German was slowly, but steadily
ousting the Lithuanian language and culture.
Vydunas
grew up in the atmosphere of national oppression and constant undermining of the
Lithuanian language. The Germans were looking down on Lithuanians as the
uneducated peasants. According to their understanding, Lithuanians had to be
germanized if they wanted to accept Western culture and values.
That’s
why the very first incentive to Vydunas’s philosophy was resistance to this
collonial oppression. But it would be wrong if we regard Vydunas just as the
nationalist writer.The idea of national resistance, being the very important
part of Vydunas’s philosophy, was by no means the core of it.
From
the early age Vydunas had very poor health. He suffered from the severe form of
consumption and the doctors didn’t see much hope for him to survive. They gave
him a few weeks, well a few months at the very best. Vydunas decided to give it
a try. He had nothing to lose. And he survived not only for a few weeks or a few
months, but for eighty-five years.
The
way of living that Vydunas started to practice being on the verge of death and
that actually saved his life, formed the basis of the philosophical teachings
that he later developed.
This
is the way Vydunas himself puts it in his autobiography:
“At
about the age of seventeen the boy’s lungs started to bleed. The illness was
so serious, that the doctors said he would have to die soon. That lasted for
about five years. Then Vydunas decided to give it a try. He started practicing
deep but careful breathing in the fresh air. He started to improve his health in
all possible ways and pursue humanistic and spiritual values in his life.
Besides, he often sang spiritual songs.”
Vydunas’s
life was largely a tragic one (somewhat similar to that of Mahatma Gandhi). His
teachings were not accepted and appreciated by most of his contemporaries. That
is no wonder, however, since his teachings were one of the first of such kind in
Lithuania and therefore not everyone could realize their real depth and value.
Their essence was that one’s physical health is absolutely inseparable from
one’s spirituality and moral purity. Physical health can only be achieved
and maintained if one’s soul is pure, spirit is healthy, if one is spiritually
conscious. Otherwise the diseases are inevitable, since physical corruption
always begins from the spiritual degradation.
Such
kind of ideas, of course, could not thrive in materialistic and consumerist nazi
German society. But what is the most sad that he was not understood and accepted
even in Lihuania, just across the Nemunas river.
That,
of cource, doesn’t mean that Vydunas was rejected by everyone, or that his
works were banned. At one time or another he had quite a number of supportes
both in Lithuania Minor and in the mainland Lithuania.but he was mostly regarded
as the fighter for Lithuanians’ rights and the rights of the Lithuanian
language in the German-held parts of the country. Few understood the real
essence of his teachings. Few realized what treasure we had.
Moreover,
many openly derided Vydunas, both materialists and religious fundamentalists.
There were many acts of physical and moral violence against Vydunas, especially
when the nazis came to power in Germany. At one time he was even put in jail,
but later freed following protests of the international community.
Doring
the World War Two Vydunas had to leave Tilze fleeing from encroaching Red Army
which upon capturing first German settlements left not a single person alive.
After terrible months at the refugee camps (he was then almost 80 years old), Vydunas finally settled in the West German town of Detmold, where he spent the remaining seven years of his life, desolate and forgotten. However, even during these years Vydunas still wrote quite a number of works in both German and Lithuanian. Some of them were published thanks to the care of local Lithuanian diaspora. Among these works was Vydunas's translation of Bhagavadgita (the first translation of this magnifiscent poem into Lithuanian).
Vydunas died in Detmold in 1953, just before his eighty fifth birthday. He was burried in Detmold, but recently his remains were reburried in his native village in Lithuania.
Although quite famous during his lifetime, Vydunas was almost completely forgotten in Soviet Lithuania, in spite of some of his literary works being published. No wonder: nothing could be further from each other than Vydunas's teachings and Communist ideology, which plagued Lithuania all these years.
Vydunas was rediscovered only in the late eighties - early nineties, when Lithuania finally got rid of Soviet ideology and many of Vydunas's philosophical works were published. it was the period when public awareness of Vydunas and his ideas grew, the societies of Vydunas's followers sprang up. Many spiritual organizations in Lithuania now look for support of their ideas in Vydunas's teachings. Many scholars and others interested in Oriental thought, study Vydunas's ideas and try to find their similarities with those of the great Hindu reformists: Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and other representatives of the Hindu Renaissance.
However, many intellectuals and the society at large are still largely ignorant about Vydunas. There still are many skeptics who look down on his ideas and teachings, forgetting that they form the very basis of all humanistic values. If the morality and spiritual consciousness of the Lithuanian society is so corrupt today, so this is largely because it ignores the ideals that Vydunas considered paramount and inseparable from any truly human existence. I hope this page will help to increase the public awareness about Vydunas and his ideas, which are so relevant in today's turbulent world.
Recently the Lithuanian Government decided to honor Vydunas in a special way: he was depicted on the largest denomination of Lithuanian currency - 200 Litas note.
We are sorry, the rest of information about Vydunas and his philosophical works are in Lithuanian. But if you are REALLY interested and eager to find more about this great Lithuanian man, please visit this site again. We will keep updating and expanding the English section in the nearest future.
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