By Annette (Annapurna) Zucco

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

Even though I’m a trained nutritionist, I signed up for Gurudevi’s “Yogic Nutrition” course.

I was looking for a fresh and different perspective. I wanted to learn new ways to nourish and feed myself and my family. I expected this would also be a great way to come into vegetarianism.

Everyone in the class Zoomed in from their kitchens to the Ashram kitchen. Being in my own kitchen while learning from Gurudevi in the Ashram kitchen was great. We taste-tested new flavors and recipes. Everyone sharing their experiences created a joyful and relaxed atmosphere. It was really fun!

This course took away much of my food anxiety as I learned so much. Regular meal times improve my digestion and metabolism. My body has a chance to rest in between meals. I knew I would be eating at a certain time. I knew I would feel full after I’d eaten.

I was surprised to find how inadequate my protein intake had been. Now that I’m getting the right amount, I am less hungry. I discovered that the six Ayurvedic food tastes make my meals more satisfying. Plus, the herbs and spices are healing.

I feel more satiated and alive. This is the result of a primarily plant-based diet without the density of meat.

Now I understand the difference between a healthy diet and a healing diet. This course has supported my healing process. It was the missing piece.

I am continuing to enjoy flavorful and unusual meals. I am grateful for the gift of this new perspective and direction in my life.

My Baba emphasized the importance of the seated pose. He wrote, “For meditation the most important thing is asana, that your spine be kept straight, upright.” Sit up. Glide your neck and head back so they’re in line with your spine. At the crown of your head, the top of your head, is a thousand-petaled lotus…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sitting for Meditation“

By Swami Satrupananda

When you take a yoga class or get a yoga therapy session, you can’t not change.

This bold guarantee is possible because Svaroopa^® Yoga comes from a long lineage of yoga masters. It has passed the test of time. I see this in action in every yoga class and yoga therapy session.

I taught an introductory class a few weeks ago. The students who came were quite varied. An older Indian couple had been practicing yoga postures from videos online. A younger yoga teacher from a different style had a long litany of back issues. And a quiet, nervous woman, who had never done yoga before, came. They all felt better after their first Svaroopa^® yoga class. This yoga works for everyone.

Students with limited mobility do accessible angles and get changes. Even if a student doubts it will work, they get changes in spite of themselves. Stubborn students melt in the reliable results of the practices. It works every time!

No strain or struggle is needed. Simply soften into the pose and the results are immediate. Don’t know how to soften? No problem! Your teacher or therapist will guide you into effective easy angles. You’ll get props that meet your body where it is at. Then the pose will teach you how to soften.

Your teacher or therapist may even deepen that experience for you with a gentle adjustment. You’ll be delightfully surprised by how great you can feel.

Svaroopa^® Yoga is so reliable because it is based on svaroopa, your inherent Divine Essence. All of the practices are designed to open you up to the bliss of your svaroopa. The experience of your own Divine Essence is profoundly healing, transformative and uplifting. Experience it for yourself. Come to a class — Online or On-Site.

by Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I grew up with this song. I believed in it and did my best to make it happen.

I tried to look perfect and be perfect so I would be loveable. I failed at it again and again.

Then I found how to love. Instead of looking to receive love, I loved with all my love, hoping that all I needed was love. To love without motive, love without need, unconditional love — that’s the love I wanted to give. That’s what I thought Valentine’s Day was about. 

Despite St. Valentine’s life and legend, the day in his honor is actually not about love. It’s about romance. And romance is about desire, even infatuation, with a whole lot of idealism and lust thrown in.

The problem with this is that love makes you desireless. When you experience love, you are overflowing with incredible fullness and joy. There is no space for desire in there. You only experience desire when you feel empty and needy.

Unfortunately, this describes the human condition, anava mala in Sanskrit. When you look inward, you bump into an inner block that hides your own Divine Essence. “Anava” means full of emptiness. It used to wake me up in the middle of the night with an overwhelming loneliness and despair. I’d eat ice cream.

Yoga says there is a better way. Shaktipat gives you freedom from anava mala, so now you can see all the way inward. Finding your own Self, your own Divine Essence, you are filled from within. As you turn inward again and again, your filling gets fuller until it overflows as love.

Now my experience of love is completely different. I started with looking for love from others. I grew into giving love to others, wanting them to reciprocate. Then I found Baba Muktananda, who gave me my own Self.

Now I live in that fullness and revel in the overflowing. And I see the same fullness in you, even when you don’t see your own Self. Yet your Divine light shines through, making you loveable even when you’re not perfect. 

For this Valentine’s Day, give yourself an extra meditation. Dive inward and tap into the source of love. Now let it overflow through your heart, through your eyes, through your actions and words. Do it again the next day, and the next, and the next. It’s a glorious way to live!

Parinama is the gradual transformation. It comes from the inside out, and from the outside in.  When you experience the rising of Consciousness within, you’re being transformed from the inside out.  And when you study, when you’re learning – in these discourses, in my teachings, in books, in yoga texts – you’re being transformed from the outside in.  Your progress toward enlightenment is…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Close to God“

While the universe responds to what you do, what you put out — when you put out what you’ve always put out, you’ll get the response you’ve always gotten.  When you do something different, it might take a little while, but what happens is you get a different response.  This means you can actually change the world… 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Proactive“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Something wonderful happens when you simply sit. No phone, no music, nothing to read, to say or to do.

Whether you’re under a shady tree or in a quiet indoor spot, you gradually settle into an easy motionlessness — your body becomes still.

Then your mind becomes still, like when the ripples on a lake dissolve back into the lake.

This is why people have a chaise lounge in their back yard, to stretch out and gaze at the plants, to watch the birds and butterflies. After a few minutes, you’re not seeing anything anymore. You’re settling inside. Most people fall asleep or drift in a dreamy sleep-like state. You have done this so many times.

But on the way inward, you can take the other fork in the road. Instead of settling into unconsciousness, you can delve into the bliss of Consciousness within. This is yoga’s promise, that when your mind settles, you experience your Self — called svaroopa.

Tadaa dra.s.tu.h svaruupe ‘vasthaanam — Yoga Sutras 1.3

As your mind settles, you are established in your own Divine Essence (svaroopa).

How do you get your mind to settle?  One of the easiest ways is to use your body:

Sthira-sukham aasanam. — Yoga Sutras 2.46

Asana means to sit, in easy motionlessness.

In the beginning, you may need to scratch your nose, even cough and yawn. All that will soon settle down and you will be at ease. This is even a military command, “At ease, soldiers.” It’s useful for everyone.

Everyone practices it, even unconsciously, maybe lazing in bed during snooze-alarm minutes. Not sleeping, not really awake, coasting the inner edge, it’s quite blissful. It is even more bliss-filled when you take the road less traveled…