Growing & Blossoming

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By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

My redbud tree is a joyous mass of bright pink blossoms. Its spring blooms are so bright that they are visible at night, lighting up the dark.

In the same way, you bloom extravagantly, nurtured by your Svaroopa® yoga practices! Join me today in offering your financial support to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram’s “Unmilana — Blossoming Forth” fundraiser.

The Sanskrit word for blossoming forth, unmilana, signifies the act of opening, expanding or unfolding. In the Svaroopa® yoga tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism, unmilana is associated with spiritual transformation. Gurudevi describes unmilana this way:

Like a plant blossoms forth flowers, you are built to blossom forth a unique form of Consciousness into the world. The impulse to do this arises in you over and over again. It is the purpose of your life.

Feeling a deep renewal inside, my mind, body and heart are opening in new ways. I am blossoming forth joyously. It’s not the springtime here that is making me blossom forth. It’s my Svaroopa® yoga practices. Most importantly, my spiritual transformation is due to having a Master Teacher like Gurudevi.

Gurudevi is a master gardener, expertly tending to her garden of blossoming yogis, including you! Her teachings nourish your roots. Her programs are designed to cultivate your continued growth. She helps you deadhead the stuff that’s old and finished. She supports you in sweeping the debris from your path.

She showers all of us with Grace. By the inner arising light of Consciousness, we blossom forth, shining our light into the world.

Wherever you are in your own spiritual growth process, Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram has pathways to support you. Gurudevi and our swamis meet you exactly where you are. They show you how to bloom. How fortunate we are to have such a Guru as Gurudevi Nirmalananda guiding our spiritual growth.

She can’t do it without your financial support of our Ashram, through which her teachings flow. Please give generously. You are supporting your own growth as well as the worldwide garden of seekers.

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! 

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Open to Receiving

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I saw so many people transformed by their encounter with my Baba. And I saw so many people who got nothing at all. They left Baba’s Satsang saying, “That was nice. Shall we go to the movies tomorrow night?” They were looking for an evening out — something enjoyable, entertaining; not uplifting, not transformational, not life-changing, not…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Open to Grace“

Watch Full Discourse Here

My Yoga Miracle

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By Lori (Priya) Kenney

As a longtime Embodyment® Yoga Therapist, I took the Embodyment® PLUS course recently. 

During the course, I became acutely aware of what was happening in my body. I accepted the emotions. I let go of wanting a certain outcome and surrendered to the process. The results were magnificent, beyond my imaginings. This training gave me a yoga miracle!

I took the course for two reasons. First, I wanted more tools to help clients who are dealing with knotty issues. And I knew the training would bring me much-needed personal change.  

We learned powerful therapeutic Embodyment® techniques to use on clients while in poses. I was not disappointed by what I can now offer clients. 

I was also amazed by a training taking me so deep. My whole body and mind changed. I had no shortage of knots in both. 

Some of the unraveling was challenging and uncomfortable. On the third day, my whole body hurt to the bone. I felt weepy and overwhelmed. Knowing this was a good sign, I embraced it. The roto-rootering and openings took me beyond what I’ve ever known. 

Time got stretchy. It wasn’t even lunchtime, yet I felt like I’d experienced several days.  

Gurudevi giving us an experiential anatomy lesson was a highlight. She got down on the floor with us! She gave us the experience of knotting and un-knotting. 

Earlier, we had learned a brand-new pose. She created it to release a hard-to-reach knot, tight muscles at the top of your tailbone and the bottom of your sacrum. This pose works wonders!

Then my yoga miracle happened. In another awesome session, I felt my tailbone and sacrum flying free. It was more than release. It was liberation from bondage that I was only aware of after it was gone. 

I experienced total freedom, beyond bliss. The crazy thing was that it felt natural to be free. 

Crazier still is how “normal” the bondage had been. My clamped down sacrum and tailbone were so familiar, just part of me. Giving up that bondage gave me the experience of formlessness, while in my body.

At the same time, I felt more anchored within. What lies within me is so much greater than my physical form and identities. Svaroopa® Yoga is so effective at dissolving cramped, heavy places inside and outside. 

I’m so grateful to have new tools to share. I have increased confidence about helping others. I have the experiential knowing that gnarly knots can dissolve.

YogaBody Classroom Therapeutics
Therapeutic Yoga Training – A

The Self’s Unceasing Generosity

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By Beth (Bhanumati) Cunningham

Please join me in offering financial support to our Ashram during this season’s fundraiser, titled “Unmilana — Blossoming Forth.”

The Sanskrit word unmilana names the act of opening, expanding or unfolding. It’s commonly used to describe the blooming of a flower or the opening of eyes.

It reminds me of my aunt, who possesses a great generosity. I believe she gets it from her “blossoming sessions.” With cup a of tea, my aunt watches flowers bloom on her front deck.

Afterwards, her face is softer, her eyes wider and brighter, her voice rich and open. She blossoms forth with her flowers. Then she goes into the world and gives whatever she can, wherever she can. It is her joy.

This is unmilana — the blossoming forth. Consciousness blossoms forth with unceasing generosity in you, as you. Generosity is your very nature. The Self gives. It only gives. When you give, you are more you.

To give is your very nature. In giving to the Ashram this season, you are giving back to your own Self. You support the teachings and the Teacher who has given you your Self.

Gurudevi is the perfect model of unmilana and its generosity. As a Shaktipat Master, she pours herself tirelessly into supporting our progress toward enlightenment. She bathes us in the light of the Self, like the sun bathes the rose. She saturates us with Grace, like the rain soaks the garden. Her teachings nourish us like the rich earth.

Our blossoming sessions come in meditation, using the mantra she has given us. Instead of watching flowers, we watch our very own Self bloom inside. We blossom forth, inwardly to our Self and outwardly into the world. Our very nature comes to bloom, and we cannot help but give.

Supporting the Ashram financially is its own special kind of blossoming. It is incredibly powerful because it is so palpable. It supports the blossoming forth in others. So, I invite you to give to this season’s fundraiser and watch your gift bloom.

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!

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Metamorphosis

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Spirituality changes your body as well as your mind and heart. The changes blossom forth as your spiritual essence fills you from the inside.

The fast path to a mystical upgrade is Shaktipat initiation. What follows is, as I described last month, “…bliss, clarity, compassion and enthusiasm fill your mind and heart.” This is not merely a mood change. Your body changes.

A body that runs on anxiety is different than a body running on bliss. Your nervous system and hormones operate differently when you stand down from red alert. Your metabolism changes.

Research has proven that, when you are happy, your digestion and elimination work better. What do you suppose happens when you’re in bliss? Your lungs and heart, your immune system and even the composition of your blood are changed. Your biological age markers run in reverse.

My student Saul started yoga at age 80. He took Gentle Yoga twice weekly, our class level that is geared to elders and those recovering from illness or injury. While he enjoyed his classes, he did no yoga at home. After three months, he went in for a scheduled follow-up on his annual medical physical.

When he blew into the spirometer, they discovered that he had regained seven years of gradual loss of breathing capacity. Since he was a medical doctor, he would never have believed it possible. At his next yoga class, he told me, “I know it’s the yoga.”

Yet he did only five minutes of yogic breathing in each class. What if he had done the 20 minutes we recommend? More changes would ensue. Organically. What if he had gotten Shaktipat and started meditating? Wow, what possibilities!

Science has mapped your brain. You use certain parts of your brain more than the rest. For example, if you are in pain for some time, your brain grows more pain synapses. This means your brain specializes…

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Born on the Full Moon 

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

His birth was celebrated by his parents, but not for the reasons that we celebrate his birth today. 

Swami Muktananda was the treasured first child of his parents. He was welcomed with great joy, more so because they had been infertile for some time. They rejoiced at having a child, especially a male who could care for them in their elder years and inherit their land.  

By contrast, we celebrate what he did with his life — his spiritual fulfillment and his sharing it with thousands. I was one who received Shaktipat from him. He steered my life in the direction I wanted to go.  Now, decades later, I marvel at who he was and what he gave to us all.   

This is the lunar anniversary of his birth, born on the full moon. Yoga sees the moon as being like your mind. While both do shine with light, it is merely reflected light, not the source. The moon reflects the light of the sun; your mind reflects the light of your Divine Essence. 

My Baba did shine brightly! He shared the teachings of India’s ancient sages in a captivating way, with a twinkle in his eye. His laugh was a deep chuckle that tickled my mind and warmed my heart at the same time. And he would sing to us, sharing lines from his beloved poet saints. 

I loved to go for darshan, bowing at his feet. I would first look at him, the one to whom I was bowing. Then I put my head down, below my heart, getting drenched in the Divine Energy flowing from his feet. Lifting my head, I looked at him again. 

Sometimes he was looking directly at me. When he looked in my eyes, he saw all the way through, not just to my soul but beyond — to the infinity within. He opened the doorway for me to step inside and taught me how to live there. 

He must have been emotional, as astrology says about a full-moon baby. Stories of his childhood include him ditching school to climb the nearby hills. He complained that the teachers wanted to show pictures of the native plants, but he wanted to go see them live.  

The traditional stories of gods and saints captivated him so much that he would enact them with the help of his siblings and friends. He loved to meet the traveling sadhus (seekers) who walked the road near his home on their way to the sacred caves in the hills. One of those sadhus was Nityananda, whom Baba found again, but only years later. 

In the interim, Baba followed the traditional path of the renunciant. One night, he ran away from home to go to an Ashram and become a swami. 

For the rest of his life, he dedicated himself to deep yogic studies and practices.  

I wonder what the tipping point was for him. What happened during the day that led him to climb out the window that night?  He felt something strongly, that is clear.  

I tried to run away when I was 15. I hadn’t met sadhus or read stories of gods and sages, but I felt the angst deeply, painfully. There were no Ashrams for me to go to, so I was at loose ends. I was lovingly rescued by a friend, protecting me from my own worst impulses. But I still wanted more than home, family and society offered me. It was years before I found Baba. 

He had left home in search of God, following a calling to the highest that life offers. He was taken in by a great Siddha, a yoga master, who saw the light shining brightly in him. Siddharuddha Swami nurtured the young man, naming him Muktananda, the bliss of freedom.  

His name promised a great future. But that future did not blossom forth for another 25 years, not until Muktananda found Nityananda again. Then, on the day that India gained her independence from Britain, Nityananda set Muktananda free by giving him Shaktipat.  

He was born on an auspicious full moon day and initiated on an auspicious day. Then my Baba left his body on another auspicious full moon day. The light shone through him so brightly. And he shared it far and wide. I am forever grateful.  

Happy Birthday, Baba.

Mantra Takes You Home

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When you’re lost in your thoughts, or your reaction to them, you’re lost. So, it takes longer to find your own Self. Mantra takes you home. But if you don’t use mantra, where are you headed? So, you recognize where you’re at, and you meet yourself there by invoking…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Enlightenment Timeline“

Watch Full Discourse Here

Cultivating & Sharing Spiritual Growth

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By TC (Tattvananda) Richards

Please join me in donating to our Svaroopa Vidya Ashram during this season’s fundraiser, themed “Unmilana.”

Our theme is a Sanskrit word which means blossoming forth, expressing the yogic quality of spiritual transformation.

You may have experienced transformation in a yoga pose, even in your first Svaroopa® yoga class.  The more you do, the more you blossom forth.

Svaroopa® Yoga has shifted me in so many ways. Most importantly, this yoga has given me the experiential knowing of my own Divine Essence. Every practice offers me this knowing. My own Divine Essence continues to blossom forth more fully as I continue my classes and practices.

As I expand and unfold, I experience the bliss of Beingness. Being in this place of Knowingness and peace also affects others. I feel that I can offer light into the world.

Recently, another hair stylist joined my salon.  She is also a yogi, practicing another style of yoga. As I work with my clients and talk about my yoga experiences, she peeks around the corner from her station to listen. She calls my words “teachings.”

Yet I am merely describing what I have experienced. Or I may be repeating what I have heard from Gurudevi Nirmalananda, my Guru. I can see through my coworker’s eyes and ears how I have grown spiritually. I know that I continue to blossom forth. I see how I offer this out to the world.

This is not unique to me. Your practice of Svaroopa® Yoga makes you blossom forth as well. You shine your light more brightly. This spreads outward to those closest to you and then beyond.

When you share your light with others, you make a difference. And when you share your heart and wallet with the Ashram, your light makes a difference in the whole world, far and wide.  The choices you make today shift the world in quiet and powerful ways.

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!

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Outgrowing Your Past

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Your life lessons are presented over, and over, and over again until you get it. Once you learn the lesson you don’t need to repeat it. You can move on, which I call “Outgrowing Your Past.” Even if the same or similar events recur, you see them differently. Thus, you react differently. Your knee-jerk responses, your old ways of confronting or hiding…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Are You Ready?“

Watch Full Discourse Here

Welcome to Our Fundraiser!

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By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell

Ashram Board President

It is my pleasure to introduce our current 2026 fundraiser – “Unmilana” – blossoming forth.

Please join me in the yogic practice of dakshina, selfless financial giving. When you support our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, you give to the one that helps you to discover your own Self.

The Sanskrit word unmilana means blossoming forth, like a flower blooming or the opening of your eyes. The spiritual meaning is discovering your own light and bringing it forth into the world.

After meditation, Gurudevi tells us to “slowly open your eyes.” She says it is in the opening of our eyes that we can see our inner depth.

Sometimes my meditation is filled with what I call “mind stories” or my body is aching. My mind tells me that it was not a good meditation. Yet, when I open my eyes and check in, I feel peace and contentment within. Sometimes it’s pure joy or a feeling of being grounded.

My meditation has cleared something out of the way. I am now different. I am lighter. I am more me. When I get up from my meditation seat, I am taking the lighter and more peaceful me into the world.

Gurudevi tells us, “Your own blossoming forth is assured, just like daffodils that will bloom in the spring, but you don’t know when the spring will come. The teachings give you ways to push it along.”

She gives us the tools to help us bloom by making the teachings and practices easily available. A few examples are her books, monthly Teaching Articles, programs (including free meditation intros and Q&As), weekly satsangs and Shaktipat Retreats.

The world outside may be chaotic, but Gurudevi says, “Like a star at night, you can bring the light of your own being into the world, which makes a difference for everyone.”

If you have benefited from any of the tools or practices available to us through the Ashram, please join me in donating. Help SVA to continue helping you and others to blossom forth and shine in this world.

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