Honoring Someone Who Made a Difference

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By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell

Ashram Board President

Our theme for our new fundraiser is “In Honor Of.”

Who has impacted your life or changed you? Who is it that you would like to honor? Please join me in donating in honor of someone who has made a difference in your life.

I think this theme makes sense because this year is Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s 50th year teaching and 80th birthday. Gurudevi is the one who created Svaroopa® Yoga. She is the one who gave me Shaktipat. She has taught me how to honor.

She renews the lesson every time she bows to her Baba Muktananda and to his Guru, Nityananda, as well as to us and to her own Self at the start of every program. I am so grateful to Gurudevi and the awareness she has helped me to cultivate. I honor Gurudevi. I bow to her, to our lineage and to my Self every day.

Gurudevi has said, “I tried to make it all about him. But the bottom line was that the difference in him made a difference in me. When I was with Baba, I was better able to be me, deep inside to really be me. I could rest in my own Self.”

Yes! Gurudevi has helped me to see my own Self. She has helped me to rest in my own Self. I remember taking her Year-Long Programme some years ago. At Lokananda during one of the weekend retreats, I felt so deeply centered — like a root from a tree that goes to the center of the earth. There was activity around me, and I participated in classes. Yet I was functioning from a centered place within.

Participating in our “In Honor Of” fundraiser is your chance to support your Ashram AND honor those who support you. Are there Svaroopa® Yoga Teachers or Yoga Therapists you want to honor? Do you have a yoga buddy who supports you that you would like to express gratitude for?

Send an email to donate@svaroopayoga.org. In it, give us the name of the person(s) you want to honor and one sentence saying why. Also tell us the amount you want to donate and how you will be paying for the donation. We will send a note to them, letting them know that a donation was given in their honor. The amount remains confidential.

Please join me in supporting the Ashram by donating in honor of someone who touches you. Give from your heart and feel the joy of giving selflessly.

Donate online or call us at (610) 644-7555. Or send your check to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, PO Box 143, Downingtown PA 19335. Thank you again and again!

Donate Today

November 15th Satsang

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Swami Sunday November 15th is the 80th anniversary of Gurudevi’s birth. She is also celebrating 50 years of teaching.  Join her in celebrating this momentous occasion, her Golden Jubilee.

Our satsang will feature video footage of the special events in India, where Gurudevi is celebrating with the group who came for this occasion. As India is 10.5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, the events will have already happened, but the story will be fresh and full of Grace!

Don’t miss this Swami Sunday! The effects of Gurudevi’s teachings and practices will be amplified on this most auspicious day.

Gurudevi’s Birthday 11/15

Shortcut to Self

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In opening your eyes at the end of your meditation period, if you feel an ease of being, expansiveness, peace and bliss, these are qualities you bring with you when your awareness extends outward again. Your peripheral vision expands. Your breath is more open. You took the shortcut to Self. It’s called Grace. Thank you, Baba.

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sleep & Meditation“

Watch Full Discourse Here

OM Guru, OM Gurudev

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By Barbara (Girijananda) Hess, Yogaratna

Chanting brings me to a blissful inner space, especially Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s kirtan – call and response chant – “OM Guru, OM Guru, OM Gurudev.”

This chant attunes you to the Divine Grace that flows through the one who serves as a spiritual teacher and leader – the Guru. Gurudevi and we members of the Vowed Order of Svaroopa Vidya Ashram recorded this chant during an annual retreat.

Daily, in the early morning hours before I join our Meditation Club, I play this chant. Chanting along, I am honoring Gurudevi, my beloved Guru. In this way, I arise from a night of slumber into such a sweet space. I am experiencing vyutthana — the “in between” space.

This prepares me to sit and meditate with Gurudevi and fellow yogis. Beginning with this chant, I am transported to the Ashram, sitting at Gurudevi’s feet. I linger in the sweet space of timelessness this brings. Chanting and thinking of our Master Teacher opens a doorway inside that is ever expanding.

I reflect upon our lineage of Masters who also sat at the feet of their Guru, marinating in the nectar of discipleship. Gurudevi sat at Muktananda’s feet, who sat at Nityananda’s feet.

The devotion, dedication, and deep gratitude that arises from discipleship is interwoven into the melodious, ecstatic repetition of simple words: OM Guru, OM Guru, OM Gurudev.

I often play this chant again in the evening. Beginning and ending my day with this chant to the Guru sandwiches the sweet nectar of Divine living in between.

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Shining with Bliss

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By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

You love to see a child’s face light up with joy.

It’s even better to see a child shining with bliss as they settle within. Due to our charitable project, the Ganeshpuri Yoga School, thousands of children are learning how.

Your donations help make this possible. The Ganeshpuri Yoga School makes a huge difference in the lives of these children. Please join me in donating to this highly beneficial charitable project.

Gurudevi created the Ganeshpuri Yoga School program. Our India teaching team, headed by Mohini Rao, serves over 2,500 underprivileged schoolchildren every week. We provide free yoga classes in the schools, right in the middle of the school day.

I have observed many of the classes during my trips to Ganeshpuri. Not all schools have the space to hold the yoga classes indoors. Often, classes are held outside. The teachers lay large tarps on the ground, and class begins.

Each class includes classical yoga poses and some chanting. Then students sit in stillness. You can see the bliss in their shining faces. They know they are getting this from their yoga classes.

Additionally, Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram has received letters of thanks from the headmasters of several schools. They report that the yoga classes are increasing the children’s focus and learning ability.

They even report that overall behavior throughout the school has improved significantly! They attribute this to the yoga classes.

What a gift you can give by supporting the Ganeshpuri Yoga School Project. Please give today.

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An Inner Process

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So, there is an inner process you go through. The process is that you’re flipping life on its head. Most people look for outer things to change the way they feel inside. A yogi finds the Self inside and then shares their Essence with others. Instead of waiting or wanting others to fill you, you come from fullness, your own inner Essence. Oh, Shiva.

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Death, God & Self“

Watch Full Discourse Here

The Wonders of Kundalini

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By Margie (Maitreyi) Wilsman

I have attended numerous Shaktipat Retreats offered by Gurudevi Nirmalananda, Online as well as On-Site.

Gurudevi is a Kundalini Master, a Shaktipat Guru. She has the mystical power to awaken the energy of Consciousness that is lying asleep within each of us.

Receiving Shaktipat from Gurudevi over more than a decade, I’ve experienced the wonders and importance of Kundalini. This cosmic power lies asleep coiled below my tailbone. When awakened, she uncoils and rises up the spine. Along the way, she clears your spine of karmic blockages stored there.

I first became aware of Kundalini when I experienced spontaneous Shaktipat during an Embodyment® Yoga Therapy session. Kundalini was opening through my left leg, ankle, foot and hip on the tightest side of my body.

Having already experienced Kundalini, why have I taken numerous Shaktipat Retreats? I did not understand what was happening at first. When immersed in Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreats, I’ve received revelations that are light years beyond my initial experiences in Embodyment® sessions.

Being in Gurudevi’s presence, meditating, listening to her talks, and chanting the Sanskrit verses of the Kundalini Stava.h were occasions for Kundalini to show up. They still are. Her arising sheds light on blockages that still need work. She continues to clear my karma on physical, emotional and mental levels.

In my first Embodyment® experience of Kundalini, I certainly did not recognize what was happening. I did not know the clearings on my left side were due to Kundalini. She was clearing karma seeds from areas of my spine associated with my left side. Plus, I did not know that was a sign of Gurudevi’s Grace flowing in me.

Over the years, I’ve learned more about Kundalini in various ways. While at Lokananda, I purchased a hand-carved wooden murti (statue) of Kundalini that now sits on my altar. I developed a practice of honoring her daily.

I learned that the dormant Kundalini is active at every level of my being: my eyes, ears, head/brain, heart, digestion, and more. She operates in the activities of my daily life. Once awakened, I can feel how she transforms mundane life activities into mystical ones.

Experiencing Kundalini’s inner movement requires strength and proper nourishment. When I enroll in Online Shaktipat retreats, I look forward to receiving handouts of recipes for delicious, nutritious vegetarian dishes. We get to eat the food that Gurudevi eats.

After a Shaktipat Retreat, I do the homework given to us. For two weeks, I chant the Kundalini Stava.h. And my daily meditation is for Kundalini to continue to do her work.

At first, I thought Shaktipat was only about Kundalini, Gurudevi as a Kundalini Master, and the burning away of karmic blockages stored in my spine. Next, I began to understand how these entities are intertwined.

Finally, I understand the part I play in being open to the most powerful, fullest movement of Kundalini burning karmic blockages. I am opened to the flow of Gurudevi’s Grace. Bring it on!

Shaktipat

14-Mile Bike Ride

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By Swami Samvidaananda

My client came in limping, actually limping.

She had come for an Embodyment® Yoga Therapy session. A friend, seeing her in pain, had recommended it to her. So she signed up for a series of sessions even though she had never done Svaroopa® yoga before. She was willing to try anything. She was normally a very physically active person. The pain was really limiting her.

At the end of the hour, her pain was gone. She felt great! She was not limping as she left. She practically skipped out. However, when she arrived for her Overlap Healing session the next day she was limping again.

What happened? She felt so good, she went for a 14-mile bike ride!

I get it. The pain she had been struggling with was gone. With the pain gone, she had the energy and ability to do something she has really missed being able to do. So she went for it. And it felt great. Until, those 14 miles on a bike re-installed all those muscular tensions we had released in the Embodyment® therapy session. Then, of course, the pain returned.

What she didn’t understand after her first session is that the deep muscular tensions creating her pain had been accumulating for a long time. She loved long bike rides as well as workouts and hikes. These had laid in patterns of muscular tension in the deep muscles connected to her spine.

Those tensions built and built, until one day there was a tipping point. Her tight spinal muscles compressed a disc in her spine enough to put pressure on her nerves. Then, unfortunately, “Hello, pain.”

The good news is that Svaroopa® yoga therapy releases the tensions in those deep spinal muscles. You are freed from your pain! We excel at releasing the tensions in order to decompress your spine. We call this core-opening.

But it is a gradual process. Tight muscles have a tendency to spring back into their pattern of tension. Thus, they need time to get used to a new pattern of a long, relaxed openness. A series of yoga therapy sessions is best, to get you going.

We also encourage you to do yoga poses and yogic breathing at home. That way, every day you reinforce the new patterns and speed your progress to a whole new you. Plus you save money by needing fewer sessions.

Not only will you have less pain, you will have greater flexibility. You will literally be standing taller. And you will feel renewed, relaxed and revived, from the inside out.

Yoga therapy clients and students feel lighter, calmer, more optimistic, more cheerful and energized. That’s because, as you release deep tensions at the core of your body, you deepen into the core of your Being, which Svaroopa® yoga calls your own Self.

And it all begins with a yoga therapy session. Are you ready to give it a try?

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Why a Guru?

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Why a Guru? To set you free. The Guru doesn’t make you Divine. The Guru shows you that you are already Divine. The Guru doesn’t make you great, but shows you that you are already blazing with Divine Light. Baba said it this way, “Just as the wind disperses the clouds, but does not create another blazing sun, so the Grace of a Siddha simply removes the veil of ignorance so that you realize you are already perfect.” If this is what you want, you need a Guru.

 — Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Guru? Ashram? What? Why?“

Watch Full Discourse Here