By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Your relationships are pivotal to your life. You may see them as the purpose of your life or you may have a more solitary lifestyle. The reality is that others have a powerful effect on you.

When I was seeking to escape that effect, I pursued solitude. I lived in a small place in several acres of woods, so I saw more deer than people. Yet relationships were still the crux of my life. My work revolved around other people. Even driving to the grocery store showed me there were people all around.

One day I realized I wouldn’t have food without other people. While I never actually meet the people who grow the food, pack it up and ship it to the market, I buy and eat it. I am in relationship with them. At the store, I smile and chat with the cashier, another relationship. I abandoned the idea I was a hermit.

It challenged my idealism. Yoga’s history highlights many sages doing intense practices in solitude. I had unknowingly picked that up as an ideal to live by. Now I see that the stories of such iconic yogis always included other people.

One modern-day story described a Himalayan yogi who was immersed in meditation all through the day. When he opened his eyes and stepped outside his cave, he found a plate of food waiting for him. The dal (bean soup) and rice were frozen, but they warmed up in his belly.

The food had been dropped off by a yogi from a nearby cave. He’d picked it up just down the hill, at the Ashram which served free meals every day. Similarly, last time I was in India, I was honored to serve food to over 100 yogis and pilgrims.

The yogi should practice hatha yoga in a small room, situated in a solitary place, being four cubits square and free from stones, fire, water, disturbances of all kinds, and in a country where justice is properly administered, where good people live and food can be obtained easily and plentifully. — Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.12

While this yogi lived alone, he relied on others to feed him. In this way, my Baba did 34 years of sadhana (spiritual practice), being housed and fed by others. He dedicated his spiritual autobiography to his “many mothers.”

You are always in relationship. Your body needs food and water. You bathe and need clothing. If you’re not growing the cotton, where would you get clothing without other people involved? For that matter, how would you have taken birth if others weren’t involved?

I have devoted myself to doing and sharing yoga practices for decades. Yet it is your interest in the teachings that makes me able to continue to offer them. It’s another reason that I…

Yet each time you experience samadhi, any level of samadhi, it leaves a Consciousness imprint in your mind. Gradually, your mind is able to expand into the inner dimensionality. Your mind is a contracted form of Consciousness. It becomes less and less contracted, expanding into the Consciousness of which everything is made.  So, your inner experience becomes progressively…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Deep Meditation — Samadhi“

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“

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“

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!