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My Yoga Experience – Gurupremananda
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To Get Enlightened
To get enlightened you have to cooperate with the process. So you may have to revamp your diet. And your mental diet. What thoughts do you feed yourself? And you may have to work on how you show up in relationships. Meditating in solitude won’t make you a master of relationships. A yoga master is a master of the world, as well as a master of…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Food Affects You“
Our “Unmilana” Fundraiser Is Closing
By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell
Ashram Board President
Reflecting on giving, I realize I usually give when I am in a place of fullness. My heart opens and I want to serve more, give more. My inner fulfillment spills into the world.
This is my experience of “unmilana,” blossoming forth or spiritual transformation. I recognize how this aligns with what Gurudevi says about the power of yoga:
Your yoga melts the tensions and dissolves the fears so that the inner Source can arise inside to fill you and to bloom into the world. Yoga doesn’t make you yogic, it makes you become more You.
I am grateful to you for having chosen to “do more yoga” by practicing dakshina, selfless financial giving. You have shared your heart and wallet in this way; you are making a difference in the world.
Your gift allows us to send more Grace and light into the world. Thank you for your selfless financial support of our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram.
I am grateful for your blossoming forth as well as for all that you enable SVA to give by your financial support. I bow to the light in you.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to participate, there’s still time. Donate online or call us at (610) 644-7555. Or send your check to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, PO Box 143, Downingtown PA 19335. You may also email us at donate@svaroopayoga.org.
Thank you again and again!
Do More Yoga — It Works!
By Maryanne (Murti) Leagans
My growing up years were filled with significant abuse and trauma. This set me up to lack conflict resolution skills. I completely mistrusted authority figures. Later, I struggled in relationships because I inherently found it difficult to trust anyone.
In my twenties, I began a decades-long process of working with various talk therapists. I was always seeking “the one” who could give me answers. I sought relief from the darkness that filled my mind and heart. Stronger and stronger doses of antidepressants became the crutch that kept me functional.
And I was highly functional. I held down jobs, excelling in performance, though I changed them frequently. Without conflict resolution skills and trust in authority, my employment in any organization was one to three years.
Fast forward to September 2025. Chelsea (Rajñi) King, who teaches Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation, posted an invitation on Facebook for her three-class introductory series. As soon as I read her post, I signed up. With Rajni’s gentle teaching style and encouragement, I began meditating for 20 minutes each morning.
Later in the course, she introduced us to the Ashram website. I thought I had struck gold! I took one of Gurudevi’s free online meditation classes.
Later I joined her daily online Meditation Club. By then, I was meditating an hour each morning as well as slowly increasing my at-home yoga.
It was clear to me that meditation was rewiring my brain. My emotions and reactions to things were changing.
I questioned whether I still needed antidepressants. Working with my doctor, I set up a plan to slowly decrease the amounts over a four-month period, beginning December 1, 2025. It took only three months! Simultaneously, I had already begun taking various Ashram offerings.
In mid-January, I attended Swami Sunday in person for the first time. By then, I was down to 50% of my dose without any negative side effects. At the end of January, Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreat powerfully boosted my engagement in our Ashram’s full-spectrum yogic practices.
Several Enlightenment Studies series, the Guided Meditation course, a weekly Svaroopa® yoga class and Embodyment® Yoga Therapy sessions produced significant changes. I also attended Gurudevi’s satsangs regularly and took advantage of the Shishya Vichara Club. My intention was to stack everything that I had control over — in my favor.
For more than fifty years, I had believed that antidepressants were keeping my brain in “safe” mode. Although seeing my dosage decrease was scary, I was supported in my process by Grace.
Flowing from Svaroopa® practices, Grace opened me to feeling joy, love and compassion when interacting with fellow yogis. This kept me steady in my resolution to end my drug dependency. By the end of February, I had accomplished that.
Gurudevi ceaselessly invites us to “Do more yoga.” I did it and it works!
Click here to find your Pot of Gold
The Sweetest Perfume
By Beth (Bhanumati) Cunningham
There is nothing sweeter than the blossoming forth of the Self.
There is nothing more exquisite than the bliss of the Self.
There is nothing more priceless than the experience of the knowing of the Self.
Grace allows this to happen. Gurudevi opens us to that Grace. That opening is the blossoming forth itself. What a gift we have received in our Gurudevi Nirmalananda.
Supporting that gift financially is essential to sustaining it. It is like providing water, sunshine and soil for a blossoming plant. This is a sacred practice called dakshina. Our seasonal fundraiser is the perfect opportunity to practice it.
I once had the opportunity to visit an exclusive perfumery. Every scent was hand-crafted in micro batches by leading masters from the perfume world. Prices were in the $600/oz range and up. The sensual experience of the perfumes was unlike anything I could describe. It was overwhelming yet grounding; heady and heart-opening; deeply inspiring and fulfilling, both at once.
Hmm… sounds like the experience of the Self. Yet the experience of the Self is worth far, far more than $600/oz. The experience of the Self is priceless. And it is given to us freely by our Guru.
When we receive Shaktipat, we begin to wear that experience like a perfume. It wafts into the world wherever we go. It spreads through our lives like an exquisite scent. When we support the Ashram financially, it spreads beyond our own lives and spheres. It blossoms forth into the greater world. It sweetens everyone and everything it touches.
Please help us spread this rare and exquisite gift. Please share in this sacred practice and give to our fundraiser this season.
Donate online or call us at (610) 644-7555. Or send your check to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, PO Box 143, Downingtown PA 19335. You may also email us at donate@svaroopayoga.org.
Thank you again and again!
Divine Happiness
In the Upanishads there is a question, “What do human beings want?” The answer is that we want happiness. Everything we do, we do for the sake of happiness. We seek that happiness through our work, through our friends and family, through art and science, through food, drink and entertainment. For happiness we perform all the…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “I Gave My Life to God“
Time & Timelessness
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Infinite Beingness is being finite by being you.
Like an iceberg in the ocean, you have a clear and distinct sense of individuality, yet you are made of the same substance you are melting into. Iceberg and sea are like time and timelessness interwoven together. This is our world.
I found timelessness by listening to the clocks ticking in my elementary classrooms. I stopped hearing the teacher as I listened to the silence between the ticks. Looking back, I think I was meditating. The teacher didn’t appreciate me tuning her out.
Right/wrong, good/bad, pleasure/pain — yoga calls these “the pairs of opposites.” We see the world this way, though it is much more complicated. The sages of India explained that the world is not merely black and white. Finite reality is manifesting in bold living color, yet it is all made of the infinite. It’s all Divine, even when you’re not getting your way.
You have probably invested time and energy in doing things right. The theory says if you do everything right, you will get what you want. It works most of the time. But some days give you different results. Also, it works differently for other people. Trying to calibrate all the differences can spin your mind out of control.
Yoga says you don’t have to track it all. You don’t have to map where all the individual icebergs are headed. Find the water in which they rest, that substance of which they are made. When you find your own essence, you find Essence-Itself, flowing in a Divine choreography. While each dancer hears a different song and creates their own moves, it all lives and breathes in timeless time.
Na shivam vidyate kvachit. — Svacchanda Tantra
There is nothing that is not-Shiva.
What exists that is made of something other than Shiva? There is nothing that is not-Shiva. This is true because “that which exists” is called Shiva. Thus, if something exists, it is made of Shiva. Even that which does not exist is made of Shiva! The texts explain that…
Planted at My Guru’s Feet
By Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver, Yogaratna
Our current fundraising is themed “Unmilana,” a Sanskrit word which means to blossom forth.
“Bloom where you are planted” is popular advice. You make the best of your circumstances, even thrive and find joy.
I am so grateful to be planted firmly at Gurudevi’s feet. For all that the Svaroopa® Sciences have given me, I am grateful. So as each biannual fundraiser rolls around, I donate from an open heart and wallet. Won’t you join me?
Through your practices, you discover your inner light and bring it forth into the world. Gurudevi says, “As you are emerging into the world, you have an opportunity to focus on what you can give.”
I am emerging back into the world after some serious injuries. They left me wondering if I would ever teach Svaroopa® yoga again. Gurudevi says yoga “melts the tensions and dissolves the fears so that the inner Source can arise inside to fill you and to bloom into the world.” This has been so true for me.
With dedication to the practices and Guru’s Grace, I am blooming where I am planted. My inner light is shining brightly once again. I am teaching and even giving yoga therapy sessions. I owe it all to Gurudevi and the fire she has lit within me.
Will your blossoming forth lead you to share with others, and with the Ashram? Please consider a generous donation to our spring fundraiser: “Unmilana — Blossoming Forth.” Let your bighearted inner light overflow. Share freely. It comes back to you, again and again.
Our fundraiser is ending soon. But the sun never sets on your opportunity to give. Please donate today! Thank you.
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!
50 Years
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
I never dreamed I would live this long, but here I am, still going strong. It’s from yoga, of course, especially from receiving Shaktipat 50 years ago.
Baba always said that the effects of Shaktipat are unerring. Keep doing your best in life while meditating every day and you will attain Self-Realization. The best part is that, in every meditation, every day, you get a taste of enlightenment. Baba’s mantra makes this happen. This is why I share it with you.
Each enlightenment-moment leaves an imprint in your mind and heart. They add up. Guaranteed. It’s Baba’s guarantee. And I have benefitted from it personally.
One of Baba’s swamis shared a conversation with a new meditator who wanted to know if he should change his lifestyle. The swami reassured him that all he had to do was meditate every day.
Getting more specific, the man asked, “I can eat meat? I can have my brandy snifter every evening? I don’t have to give up my girlfriend, that my wife doesn’t know about?” The swami gulped and said, “All you have to do is meditate every day.”
A year later, a woman came to say thank you to the same swami. She said, “My husband has been meditating every day. He has given up meat and his daily brandy. And he gave up the girlfriend he thought I didn’t know about. Thank you.”
Yes, you will change. I did. And I am so grateful. Because all those external pursuits had never made me happy, not even when I practiced them more intensely. Meditation filled me from the inside, freeing me from the desire for the things that had never actually worked.
Best of all, Kundalini dissolved all my gripes and complaints about life. Shaktipat awakens the energy of Consciousness to arise within, uplifting you in her pathway from tail-to-top. I rock-n-rolled through my meditations for years, with Kundalini moving me into classical yoga poses. I learned anatomy from the inside-out as deep tensions were melted away.
The transformation in my body was only part of it, for each tight area had its related mental-and-emotional tensions. As they dissolved, I outgrew my past. While I still loved the people who had raised and trained me, I was no longer limited to their ideas of who I was or what I could do.
Baba described it this way:
Once a disciple’s spiritual energy has been awakened by the Guru and he begins to meditate, the unresolved impressions of past actions, or spiritual debts, are reduced and the seeker’s future automatically brightens.
Two types of impressions dissolve, karmas and vasanas. Karmas are the yet-to-come consequences of your prior actions, which balance out your deeds from many lifetimes. Now you don’t have to live through events to complete your karmas. They resolve in your meditations.
Vasanas are the mental-and-emotional patterns you have so carefully installed through repetitive thoughts and the strategies you’ve been using to get through life. For example, if you always speed up when a traffic signal turns yellow, you’re going to end up in an accident. Or if you eat when you’re sad, you’re going to end up with some health problems. Worse, you’ll be sad a lot of the time.
When these patterns dissolve, you see life differently. It’s like your peripheral vision has expanded. More light is coming in through your eyes. Better yet, your inner light shines brighter, more of the time.
How do I know? I took my own advice. I have been doing more yoga for decades!
Yogic Bliss
There are two ways to be experiencing yogic bliss: from the outside — looking inward, or from the inside — looking outward. When you do some spinal release poses, or Ujjayi Pranayama, mantra, chanting, any of the practices we do, when you’ve gotten lost in the world again outside yourself, you do these practices and now, you’re looking inward. Any of these practices settle you inward. And the deeper you go, the more bliss you experience. And then deeper, beyond your senses, beyond your mind, beyond your idea of who you are. All the way in, to your own Self. Oh, Shiva.
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Inner Bliss“
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