About Us

Dada Shamitananda

Dada Shamitananda is originally from West Bengal, India, and became a yogic monk at the tender age of 17.

 

After working in India, Dada was next posted in Mexico before entering the United States in the early 1980s. Since that time, Dada has worked in Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil, Taiwan and China, where he delivers workshops, classes and individual sessions with people interested in meditation and yoga.

 

Dada speaks a number of languages, including Bengali, Hindi, English and some Spanish. He currently is posted in St. Louis, Missouri, where he manages operations for a yoga centre as well as ongoing online workshops and collective meditation sessions.

 

Dada is known throughout the globe for his friendly personality, his deep spiritual wisdom and ability to help others. Dada has published two popular books about his experiences on the spiritual path and has a third book due out during 2026. Dada will be sharing some of these stories over the special upcoming weekend in April at Stillpoint on Martha’s Vineyard.

Liila (Lee) Hass

Lee first came to Martha's Vineyard as a two-year old and returns whenever she can. She currently resides in Hobart, Tasmania (Australia).

 

Lee began practicing yoga as a teenager, learned meditation shortly thereafter and has been teaching ever since. Trained in India and the Americas, she has delivered classes and workshops in schools, universities, prisons, adult education settings, hospitals, and online. She runs classes for those with addiction, post-partum recovery and other specialist areas. She holds a Master's degree in Counseling, for which she wrote a thesis on the efficacy of yoga therapy for anxiety. Her research findings were featured on Southern Cross Television in Australia.

 

Lee runs yoga and meditation retreats in Australia and the USA. She is a registered Yoga Teacher Trainer ERYT 1500 – Senior Level 6 (highest possible category) with Yoga Alliance International and is currently setting up Yoga Teacher Training in Bali. She also leads tours to India that include visits to some of the planet's most inspiring spiritual hotspots (see onenessworldtravel.com for more information).

Charles Silberstein

For 25 years Charles Silberstein was the only psychiatrist at Martha's Vineyard Hospital.   He is currently the medical director at Island Counseling Center at Martha's Vineyard Community Services.  Starting in his teen years, he studied and practiced yoga, visited ashrams and at 18 traveled to India where he spent several months. 

 

Distracted by medical studies and training, he lost his focus on spirituality until 2008 when he experienced transcendence through holotropic breathing.  He subsequently wrote an academic chapter and an article for the Martha's Vineyard Times on Psychiatry and Spirituality. Since 2012 he has been training in Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS). 

Arthur Pacheco (Aloka Deva)

Arthur Pacheco (Aloka Deva) is a recent immigrant to the US from Brazil, and has been teaching yoga, and specifically Ananda Marga style, for over 15 years. He has organized many retreats and trainings in meditation, dance, spiritual philosophy, and a social change theory called PROUT. He has also helped lead several community sustainability projects in and around São Paulo. Arthur’s favorite way to practice his English is to watch Big Bang Theory.

Anna Gibson (Anandii)

Anna Gibson (Anandii) has been practicing yoga and dance for the past five years. She lived in Brazil and taught yoga online during the pandemic, and is now back in her hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, getting her Masters in Social Work. Anna is also a poet and musician, and loves to take long walks in the woods.