Lulled into Self

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By Barbara (Girijananda) Hess

Listening to Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s Spiritual Hunger & Fulfillment album always lulls me into my own Self.

Gurudevi chants the “Atma Shatakam” in Sanskrit, an ancient poem of six verses on liberation by Adi Shankaracharya. While the first five verses state what you are not, the sixth verse proclaims your true nature:

Chidananda rupa shivo’ham shivo’ham
My true form is the bliss of Consciousness. I am Shiva. I am Shiva.

This refrain is sung twice between each of the poem’s verses as well. This settles my mind into stillness.

“Atma Shatakam Translation,” Track 3, is Gurudevi’s spoken English translation. Her strong, compassionate voice captivates me, especially the refrain. The repeated “My true form is the bliss of Consciousness. I am Shiva. I am Shiva” draws me inside. 

Gurudevi allows a subtle pause between the two instances that come after each of five verses. I linger in these pauses, settling in deeper.

As she speaks the translation of the things Shankaracharya says you are not in each of the first five verses, my mind continues to resonate with “I am Shiva.” As this slows my thinking, it also gives me focus. This is a great support while I write talks based on sutras for the meditation classes I teach. I settle in and the sutras come to life.

In Verse 6, Gurudevi speaks Shankaracharya’s proclamation of this true nature:

I am free from thought, I am the formless in form, I am the sacred power of speech . . . 
My true form is the bliss of Consciousness. I am Shiva. I am Shiva.

This gives me the answer, which I’ve always longed for, to the question “Who am I?”.  My form is bliss! I am Shiva. I am Shiva.

Another track is “Bhagavan Namah,” meaning “I bow to the Divine.” As Gurudevi chants in Sanskrit, I listen with a deep reverence and gratitude. I mentally bow again and again.

When I listen to this CD in the evening before bedtime, I experience it as a sweet lullaby. I’m soothed into stillness and then sleep.

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You Are Not Your Body

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You are not your body. You have a body.  Your body is not who you are.  Everyone identifies with their body.  If they are coughing and sneezing, they say, “I have a cold,” or “I have allergies.”  If you change your words and say, “My body has a cold,” or “My body has allergies,” you might actually…. 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Your Physical Condition“

Watch Full Discourse Here

November in Ganeshpuri with Gurudevi

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Join Gurudevi as she honors her spiritual roots on her 80th birthday. Two special events are planned!

On the day before her birthday, Gurudevi will do a special fire ceremony, only for 80-year-olds.  Sahasrara Chandra Darshanam celebrates  that she has lived through 1,000 full moons. It conveys gratitude, longevity and spiritual maturity.

On her birth anniversary, Gurudevi will participate in the morning ceremonies for Nityananda in his temple. She has done this several times before, and says:

I am grateful to be able to honor Nityananda in such an intimate and personal way. This ceremony always gives me the feeling I had when sitting with my Baba. What a glorious way to honor my Baba — by honoring his Baba.

You are invited to join her. You will sit at her feet just as she sat at the feet of her Guru. The transformative effects of her teachings and practices will be amplified.

Golden Jubilee

Begins Monday November 9

You will dive deep into Consciousness with Gurudevi each day. Sutra discourses, chanting and meditation prepare you for profound transformation. Svaroopis who have travelled with her to Ganeshpuri attest to this:

Gurudevi already has us on the fast track to enlightenment. Being in Ganeshpuri with her adds a turbo boost. The power and Grace in every square inch of Ganeshpuri adds to what she already gives. — Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

Sitting with Gurudevi in my home over Zoom is awesome. Sitting at Gurudevi’s feet at Lokananda, I am enveloped in Grace. Sitting at Gurudevi’s feet in India is being transported to the land of Grace, to the Heart of Being. I’ve been to Ganeshpuri with Gurudevi twice. Nothing surpasses sitting with her in the powerful, mystical presence of her Guru and his Guru. This is truly a sacred journey of a lifetime.
 — Lori (Priya) Kenney

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Meditation Teacher Training

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Starting Soon!

Combining On-Site and Online training, our new MTT format is time efficient and powerfully deep.

You start your training on April 7 with a 6-day On-Site Training Retreat. Day by day, you lengthen and deepen your meditations. The Shaktipat Day opens you inward to the flow of profound meditative energy.

Experiencing your own Divine Essence is the key part of the process. Your own meditation experiences give you the foundation for your teaching. Then, by studying the sutras, you learn how to guide others in the same process.  

Returning home, you begin 7 months of online classes. Daily group meditations and weekly satsangs (meditation programs) with Gurudevi ensure that you continue to marinate in Consciousness.

Your live-streamed classes train you in increasingly powerful meditation tools. You hone your communication skills as you learn to teach about bliss and awareness. You are also trained to answer students’ questions and help them with practicalities.

Your training culminates with a two-day Online Retreat.

This new MTT format gives you everything you need to begin teaching. Plus, mentoring afterwards supports you as you teach your first “Intro to Meditation” series.

Don’t miss out on this golden opportunity. Enroll today.

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Why Go to Ganeshpuri?

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By Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain

Why travel to the other side of the world to sit with your Guru? After all, you can come to Downingtown, or you can watch her on Zoom — so why India? 

It’s Gurudevi’s Jubilee, the celebration of her 50 years of teaching.  Come to honor one who has taught thousands of yogis how to know their own Self and reside in bliss. Come to spend these exceptional days with her.

Gurudevi’s purpose has never wavered. This purpose was nourished in Ganeshpuri, her Guru’s hometown and Ashram. She lived in this little, remote rural village when she was in her late twenties! What courage that must have taken! What a visionary she was, even then.

There she sat, day after day, marinating in Swami Muktananda’s state. Today, we are the blessed beneficiaries of her endeavors. This is reason enough for me to fly to India in November: to celebrate my Guru’s life and her achievement. 

To honor her for all she has bestowed upon me, to be at her feet, in the very place she sat at her Baba’s feet — I consider this a most holy pilgrimage. And a celebration of my own Self.

Come to Ganeshpuri. You, too, will receive the spiritual nourishment of a lifetime: mystical and grounding, all at the same time!

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Your Existence

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Your existence is concentrated right now in this body, this life. But your existence is that which has always existed, even before this body existed. You existed before you were born. You will exist beyond this body’s ability to sustain your presence in this form. Your own existence is the one existence that has…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Tantric Systems“

Watch Full Discourse Here

Yoga Makes Your Meditation Easy

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By Swami Samvidaananda

Your yoga poses make it so easy to meditate. Peace, deep stillness, quietude, joy, expanding bliss — this is how students have described their meditation at the end of their Yoga + Meditation class. 

Again and again, they share how deep their meditation was, and how easy it was to meditate.  They share how comfortable they were in their seats. They say they felt like they could sit and meditate forever.

This is the purpose of all yoga poses: to make it easy for you to sit for meditation.  Gurudevi gives this teaching again and again.  It was one of the first lessons I received in my first yoga teacher training, 27 years ago.

We learned a seated pose, we did a sequence of Svaroopa® yoga’s signature core-opening poses, and then we sat in the same seated pose again.

What happened? To start, I was more comfortable.  Aches had melted away. I settled into an easy uprightness.  I was so surprised and delighted by how easy it was to sit that I ran up to Gurudevi after class to share: “You said let it be easy and it was!”

As your body settles and stills, your mind can settle and still as well. As you settle into your seat, you settle into your Self, your Divine Essence, your Beingness.

The easy stillness of your body is a doorway inside to your Self. Peace, stillness and joy — this is just the beginning of what you find as you delve into your divine, multidimensional depths.  

Your yoga poses make this so easy, so accessible. That’s why we offer several Yoga + Meditation classes a week. This is the reason that many Svaroopa® yoga teachers offer Yoga + Meditation series. They combine an hour of asana (poses) followed by seated meditation preparation and a nice long meditation.

You’ll discover right away how the purpose of the poses is to make you able to sit for meditation. You’ll dive effortlessly deeper.  Check out our Global Calendar to find a Yoga + Meditation class at a time that works for you.

Global Calendar

Feed Yourself Consciously

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Welcome to the Ashram kitchen for four Online cooking classes!

Streaming from your own kitchen to hers, you will discover how to prepare delicious, nutritious vegetarian food.

This course draws on yoga, Ayurveda and scientific nutritional guidelines.  You learn easy ways to improve your nutritional profile as well as the quality of your life.

Eating the yogic way improves your health. Your pleasure in food is enhanced.  And (most importantly) you support your spiritual development.

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. — Annette Z.

The course is both personal and practical. I’d been accustomed to stressing about what to cook for myself and my family.  The course inspired me to slow down and be more conscious of my eating.  I was thrilled to learn so much in a short period of time. — Sheralee H.

Yogic Nutrition