Arise! Awake! Learn!

By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell, President
SVA Board of Directors

Arise! Awake! Learn! is the theme for our spring fundraiser. The fundraiser runs April 25th to June 6th. Please join me in supporting SVA and Gurudevi Nirmalananda by donating. Give to the organization that gives back to you.

Our theme reminds me of my story and how I met Gurudevi. I had some protruding discs in my lower back. My doctor suggested yoga and/or acupuncture, so I decided to try both. The company I worked for offered a yoga class at lunch time. I heard that there were blankets used in the class, and it intrigued me.

I went to my first class. I felt taller and something else. I felt deeper inside like I had more space around me. I continued attending the class when I could. Gurudevi says, “With a regular process, your sense-of-self is found in a deeper inner dimension of reality and is less a function of the circumstances around you.” Yes, that is what I received in my very first class, a sourcing from my inner depths. A place I was not used to being. I feel this was my awakening.

I stopped going to classes when my job was transferred to another town. I tweaked my back. I Googled the teacher’s name and found out she also taught in the town I was transferred to! I started attending classes. Eventually, I signed up for a Shaktipat Retreat.

Gurudevi says, “Peace and joy arise from within when your mind stops blocking them.” Yes, that was my experience of that Shaktipat. Such peace and joy. Joy and peace. I wanted more. Kundalini arose and gave me a peek into what could be.

The poses, teachings and meditation have given me more. This is why I continue to financially support Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram. I want Gurudevi to continue to bring these teachings into the world. To quote Gurudevi, “You already know that giving makes you happy. Create a happy life. Live with a generous spirit!” Please join me in giving to Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram.

Click on the button below to donate online through our website. Thank you.

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Finding Your Peace

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

When I moved into my first home, I wanted to make it a haven from the world. I decorated my small apartment with beautiful budget items and hand-me-downs, and I kept fresh flowers in vases as often as I could. I carefully selected background music that created a soothing and peaceful effect. 

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. I found that I was completely capable of being so overwrought that I didn’t notice any of it. Jon Kabat-Zinn named the phenomenon in a book title, Wherever You Go, There You Are. You take yourself with you no matter where you are. 

There is an important problem hidden in my story. If you want your home to be a haven, you actually see the world as being a hostile place. It may be an unrecognized attitude, but it is there. As you become able to recognize this in yourself, you also see how your attitude creates the problems that you encounter as you go through your life. 

I would love to be able to point my finger and blame the rude sales clerk or the belligerent driver. Yet, I know that I have created it, countless times, by my own actions and attitude. The world is a mirror. It reflects you back to yourself. What you put out comes back to you, the way you put it out and the “why” you put it out. 

As a yogi, however, you must look at even a deeper level, called dependency. You depend on the externals to be just right before you can feel peace. What happens to you if your neighbors have a noisy party? With all your doors and windows closed, you can still hear their happy sound. Are you happy that they are happy, or do you…

  — Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, pages 1‒2

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You Are Made of Light

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

The physicists and yogis agree that it all began with the Big Bang. That bang emanated energy which became light; the light coalesced into matter. This is a vastly simplified explanation, but it is true — everything is made of solidified light. Even your body is made of light. Even the chair that you are sitting on is made of light. 

You probably think that the Bang was an explosion emanating energy and light into the darkness. If so, you’re assuming that darkness is the basis of existence, with light being added to it. The physicists do not describe it this way, but most non-physicists picture it so, without even recognizing that they do. 

The yogic sages make it clear that something existed before the Big Bang. There was something there, a something that banged. That something was not, and is not, darkness. That “something” is the Ever-Existent Reality. It was and is Self-Knowing Beingness, also called Consciousness-Itself. Named by the ancients in their language (Sanskrit), that something is called Shiva. 

Shiva is light, but the word “light” has multiple meanings. Normally it means (1) the opposite of dark, or (2) the opposite of heavy. Both are true of Shiva but, in yoga, “light” means something else: scintillating Presence, radiant Beingness-Itself, Consciousness-Itself, That which Banged. The most important thing to know is — You are That. You are that light, that Presence, that Beingness and Consciousness. You are that which the ancient yogis called “That.” 

The Big Bang was an implosion within Shiva’s own being, which is why energy contracts to become matter. The Big Bang was not an explosion, with light expanding into a field of darkness. It was an implosion, with Shiva contracting within Shiva’s own being, to contract light into matter and bring the universe into existence. Light — not darkness — is the basis of existence. 

Light is important to you because you are made of light. You already know this, not because of a scientific theory or an ancient teaching, as inspiring as they can be. You know this because of your own experience. You feel most like yourself when you are shining with light. When your eyes twinkle, when your heart overflows, when your words have a melody hidden in them, and when your actions show your generous and loving nature — you feel so natural. You feel like yourself. You are radiant with light in those moments. You are your own Self. 

Yoga offers a tried-and-true methodology by which you stop blocking the light of your own being from shining through. When you begin with the physical practices, you are removing the blocks to your body’s natural state of openness. Your body is naturally soft, supple, strong, healthy and resilient, like that of a two-year-old child. The tensions you’ve accumulated since you were two years old are blockages to be removed. When you do some slow breathing and poses to open your spine, you glow afterward. Because the things you do daily are the most powerful, you need to do your yoga breathing and poses daily. If you aren’t removing the blocks, then you are probably installing more of them. 

Yet you do not have to perfect your body in order to have your inner light shine. Even if your body is imperfect, your eyes can shine and your heart can overflow. Yoga’s most powerful effects are the clearing of the blockages from more important levels — your mind and emotions. Clearing these blocks is the primary purpose of yoga’s practices, so your inner light can shine through your mind. 

When you begin aligning your life with the principles of light by following yoga’s precepts for living, that glow shines more brightly and more consistently. When you deepen your inner experience through meditation and chanting, as well as by studying the teachings, you plumb the depths of your own inner essence to discover the source of light within, the light of which you are made.

— Excerpt from A Yogic Lifestyle, pages 25‒25

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A Divine Work in Progress

By Darren Taylor

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

I used to drive by Downingtown Yoga and Meditation center weekly. I’d see the prayer flags and wonder what it was all about. 

Then one day I took a yoga class with Swami Satrupananda. Afterwards she asked me what I wanted from yoga. I said, “Enlightenment, of course.”

“Well,” she replied, “You’ve come to the right place.”

I’ve been on a spiritual search for years. Mindfulness, Christian prayer, power yoga, and spiritual readings have been a part of the journey. But I’d never done mantra meditation before. I had lots of questions, and Satrupananda counseled me on the next steps. This led to my first Shaktipat in May of 2022.

I began to prepare myself for this profound spiritual experience about to happen. It felt akin to a baptism: a transformative spiritual marker on my path. I wanted to do service to it, with respect. I ate a simple and pure diet that week and read Muktananda’s Play of Consciousness.  In a dream, I also experienced Gurudevi giving me a shoulder slip!  I wondered if this was part of the transmission of energy to come. 

At the beginning of the Shaktipat retreat, my mind and body had a little resistance. “Oh,” I thought, “we’re chanting again??!” But I went with it. After Gurudevi’s first touch, I felt pulled up from my base and realigned. I could see a roadmap that Kundalini had implanted inside me. During my meditations, the physical openings were much stronger. I experienced a cleansing, a burning off. 

After I got home, I couldn’t do anything but sit in meditation. I was so blissful.  I didn’t want to “land the plane.”  I wanted to keep flying in Consciousness. Now I’m enrolled in the “Deepen Your Meditation” class and meditating daily.  I’m a divine work in progress. 

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Shavasana: Letting Go to Go Forward

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

When life gets hectic, and it’s time to go-go-go, Shavasana is my go-to pose.  

I take the time to set up my blanket stack with a carefully rolled blanket on top.  With my knees supported thus, I feel my lower back lengthen, spread, and settle into the floor.  The effect on my mind is so sweet.   

Worry melts into random thoughts.  They soon dissolve into simple clarity and gratitude for rest.  I feel my upper back receive the support of the floor.  With the back of my hands resting into the floor, my fingers soften.  They release the urge to hold on to anything.

Sometimes I silently repeat our Guided Awareness, which I know by heart.  In sequence, I find every part of my body, from my toes through my head, front and back.  This deepens my access to inner peace.

In my current process of relocating, I’m finding Gurudevi’s “Experience Shavasana” recording to be essential.  While uprooting myself, what I hear in her voice and words is transporting in a different way.  This takes me inward to the discovery of new dimensions within myself.  

Being in Shavasana, I am thoroughly grounded in the expanding awareness of Ultimate Reality and Eternality.  Bit-by-bit, my body rests ever more deeply into my blankets and the floor.  Guided in being aware of my body, I feel each area in turn filling with aliveness.

Afterwards, I rest in silence and stillness, my back evenly spread, securely supported by the floor.  The Shavasana blanket stack and roll cradle my knees.  Any previous pressure in my low back is gone.  With calm and energy at the same time, I feel whole — ready to effectively address whatever arises.

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Find New Depths Within

By Amanda (Purna) Schmidt

Do you have a meditation practice? If you need a boost inward, try our new Rudraksha head garland.

Designed by Gurudevi, it was handcrafted in Ganeshpuri. The garland features semiprecious stones with the colors of the chakras. A silver OM adornment completes the garland.

Wear it on your head, enhancing your meditation. You will find new depths inside, while feeling uplifted. Ease deeper into meditation, encircled by Grace.

Measuring beads are sent by request at Amaya@svaroopavidya.org.

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Three Ways to Get Enlightened

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

You may have heard that enlightenment is easy — “You don’t need any practices, just know who you are. Just know.” Personally, I needed help with that. I needed lots of help! I got the help so I know how it works. After enough preparation, this is what happens: you just know. 

The Shiva Sutras describes this path to enlightenment, called Shambhavopaya. The word names the process: the upaya (path) of cultivating the knowing-feeling (bhava) of being Shiva (Shambho). It is a feeling of downshifting, like leaning back into your multidimensionality, the ease of settling into your own Beingness.

I teach this process in every satsang and course. I lead you past the fragmentation of your mind to a deeper inner dimension. You feel whole. You shine with light. The trick is this: when the program ends, simply continue to experience your own Shivaness. Instead, you might go back to your mind, with its many concurrent agendas.

For those who get ensnared by their mind, another upaya is best – applying your mind to Consciousness. Since it is your mind that blocks your easing into Shiva-Self, you must work with your mind. This is Shaktopaya, the upaya (path) of working with Shakti (the energy of Consciousness-Itself). 

How do you do this? You fill your mind with the energy of Consciousness by repeating the mantra. The mantra given by an authorized teacher emanates the power of Consciousness. Each time you repeat it, it uplifts your mind and mood. You can liken it to clearing the clouds out of your mind so the sunlight of your own Beingness can shine through.

This is a familiar process if you’ve attended one of my satsangs or programs. I formally give the mantra, and explain both its meaning and how to use it. When you take it with you, your progress toward enlightenment continues. But if you climb out of your… 

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Subtraction Yoga

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

You outgrow identities.  Some are already gone, things you used to do but you don’t do anymore.  That’s simply not who you are any longer.  

There probably are some things that mean everything to you now, yet you will outgrow them too.  Things come into your life; things leave.  Sometimes you’re the one who moves on.  

There is one constant reality amidst all that change.  That is an underlying inner essence, what yoga calls your own Self.  You find your own Self only when you practice subtraction instead of addition. 

Most people try to fill their life by adding things: doing this, getting that, going there and everywhere, getting to know new people and learning things.  Most people add and add and continue to add in more and more.  

But yoga fulfills your spiritual hunger in a completely different way.  It is subversive.  It is radical.  It is revolutionary.  Yoga says,

Yeah, you can have all that stuff, but you won’t find happiness in it.  You can’t find satisfaction in it.  You can’t find Self in all that stuff.  You must turn your attention inward.  You must look deeper. 

Some styles of yoga are “addition yoga.”  They add strength to your body.  They add flexibility.  Their system gives you something you don’t currently have. Svaroopa^® yoga is a “subtraction yoga.”  With the poses, we move you into angles that unravel deep layers of physical tension.

There are areas of your body that have been locked down for years, areas that are knotted up, stuff that is gnarly and dense.  We begin subtracting the density.  This changes your body, and your mind and feelings are lightened up as well.  

We unravel the tensions to reveal what is hidden underneath — the deep peace that is your nature.  While you begin with your body, you discover an inner happiness that is ever-arising within.  This is a true and profound satisfaction that depends on nothing outside of you.  It is your own deeper sense of Self. 

Yoga is a process of clearing away the stuff you think you are, but that you really are not, so you can find the deeper dimension inside.  This essence that yoga uncovers is called svaroopa, Sanskrit for “your inherent Is-ness.”  Sva- means Self.  

In yoga we distinguish between “small-s self” and “capital-S Self.”  The self with the small “s” is your superficial identity or, unfortunately, multiple identities, which are supported and sustained by your activities in life.  Your capital-S Self is your deeper essence of pure Beingness. 

A yogi shared about her college-age daughter who had finished her summer job and returned to school.  During her summer vacation, she had a real job and apartment and took care of herself.  She lived like an adult for three months but returned to a college dorm.  She was having trouble adjusting.  Her sense of self had been radically altered! 

This shows how your small-s self is based on where you are and what you do: holding down a job and paying rent compared to attending classes and living in a dorm.  Your small-s self will continue to change throughout the whole rest of your life, depending on where you are, who you know and what you do.

Your capital-S Self is the unchanging reality within.  Your svaroopa is the eternal dimension of your own being, your own Divine Essence.  To know and to experience Self is the purpose of all yoga’s practices.  Yoga quiets your mind so that your underlying essence is revealed.

— Excerpt from Yoga: Embodied Spirituality, pages 14‒16

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An Opportunity Not To Be Missed!

Enjoy Gurudevi’s new availability! She is more reachable than ever before.

NOW ONLINE

Wednesdays from 7:30-9 pm

FREE for Swami Sunday Subscribers

Wednesday evening satsangs are always free for in-person participants. For a limited time, current Swami Sunday subscribers may attend online for FREE. This is a time-limited offer, so give it a try right away.

These mid-week satsangs are more informal. Gurudevi speaks off-the-cuff, explaining the intricacies of yoga’s teachings in a very personal way.

Like a jazz musician, I love to riff on Consciousness. I pick a quote from my Baba, something relevant to the monthly theme in my Teachings Article. Then I explain the technical terminology as well as the practical application of his inspired and inspirational teachings. — Gurudevi

The clarity and brilliance of her spontaneous teachings inspires you! A longer chant leads up to meditation. Gurudevi always customizes the meditation instructions to synch up with the teachings she has given.

As a Swami Sunday subscriber, you automatically receive your connection code by email every week.

To attend a single satsang online, enroll by the night before. Registrations close on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm (Eastern Time).

For you who are near Downingtown, this program is always free. Open to the public, so come!

Wednesday 4/3

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Chanting Guru Mantras

Gurudevi’s Audio Recording

By Joan (Jayadevi) Bragar 

I want to chant along during the opening of Ashram offerings both online and in person.  

I feel more part of Ashram programs when I join in the chant of Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s “Guru Mantras.”  Consequently, more shakti moves through me.  

This month, I’ve been working on memorizing them on my morning walk. I discovered a great resource to learn both the melody and words of these “Guru Mantras.”

On Track 5 of Spiritual Hunger & Fulfillment, I get to hear Gurudevi’s beautiful voice repeating them for a full 25 minutes.  I love her chanting because it honors the source of our potential enlightenment — the lineage of Gurus.  It is they from whom we learn, and they continually shower us with Grace.

If you want to learn them, listen to Track 5 on Gurudevi’s Spiritual Hunger & Fulfillment album and chant along:

Gurubrahmaa guruvishnur  

gurudevo maheshwara

Gurusakshat parabrahma

tasmai shree gurave nama.h

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Here is the translation:

Guru is the creative force (Brahma) & the sustaining force (Vishnu)

Guru brings an end to all things (Shiva)

Guru is the Supreme Reality (Parabrahman)

I bow with heartfelt gratitude to my honored Guru.

Let this inspire you to join in!

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