Monthly Archives: April 2014

Yoga in the World by Amala (Lynn) Cattafi, President, Svaroopa Vidya Ashram Board of Directors

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Amala Lynn Cattafi

Amala (Lynn) Cattafi

I have a very dear friend, a yogi, who recently described me as a “human doing” rather than a human being. That would be hilarious if it were not such an accurate description. Maybe you can relate? She and I were having a short visit this week, and out of nowhere (hmmm, really?) I broke into a million pieces, a total meltdown. All of the shrama, the layers of exhaustion, just boiled over. It didn’t have to be this way. It was all my own doing, and doing, and doing.

Then I remembered, I have all of the tools I need at my fingertips, even closer than my breath. I put my Self first and sat to meditate — the elixir, the cure. I was seated in my Self again, blissfully. And all was well again. I was able to rejoin the world as a yogi living in the world, focused, able, without limitations and in awareness of what this amazing refuge of svaroopa gives me.

How silly can I be to think that I do it all when I put meditation as the last thing on my To Do List? Sometimes, integrating yoga into a busy, worldly life can be a challenge. It takes time, it takes commitment and focus. But I am worth it! You are worth it!

While yoga in the world is beautiful, I cannot imagine a world without Svaroopa® yoga. I see what it does in the world on both a small and a large scale — transformations as small as a blade of grass and as big as the sky.

This is why I offer my time in seva (service) to the Ashram. I offer my devotion to Swamiji and the community she has created. I offer my love and devotion always. But just as important, I offer my money for the betterment and support of this amazing organization and this amazing Teacher, so that she and those she has trained can continue their work.

Please join me in giving today, and give generously. I can speak from my position as President of the Ashram Board of Directors that your donations are very much needed, in any amount, deeply respected and always handled with loving care. It is our commitment to you and our service to you.

Thank you!

OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo namah

Bringing Your Best into the World by Saguna (Kelly) Goss

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Saguna Goss

Saguna Goss

My yoga path started with one class each week. After seven years of weekly classes, I had an “a-ha” moment and exclaimed with great excitement and amazement at my discovery, “There is something more to yoga than these poses!”  Now, after diving into the many offerings available for studying Svaroopa® yoga, I can’t help laughing when I share that story.  It seems so obvious. And while I laugh, I am also so amazed. What kept me coming back for seven years taking yoga classes if I thought it was simply rolling around on yoga blankets every week for an hour and a half?

I kept coming back because, even though I wasn’t aware of it, the yoga was changing who I was. Today I keep coming back because I know it is changing me.  The yoga is opening up who I truly am so that I can bring the best of myself into the world and, more importantly, bring my Self into the world.

Over the years there are so many stories of life-marker-poses, where I find myself in a familiar situation but having a completely different reaction: being friendlier to strangers, a nicer driver, less reactive to button-pushing-situations, making better food choices and so much more!  Yoga has changed me so much that it is hard to even remember what it used to be like before yoga. It’s hard to comprehend the amount of change.  And I know there is still so much more to come.

Yoga is changing me and therefore changing the world around me. I am so grateful!  This is why I offer dakshina — financial support for the organization that supports me, for my Teacher and the transformative Teachings that she brings us.  Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram exists solely for our transformation, and we must support the organization so it can support us.  Please join me in making a financial offering so that we can bring more yoga into the world, more yoga that changes me, changes you — and everyone we know and meet, whether they realize it or not!

Click here to support your Ashram and your practice.

Who Gives? Who Receives? by Kanchan Mohn

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Kanchan Mohn

Kanchan Mohn

As a member of the Svaroopa® community, as a practicing yogi, you are always connected to the Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram (SVA)…your ashram…the epicenter of the Svaroopa® community. And you are always held in a deep heartfelt embrace by your Master Teacher, our Beloved Guru, Swamiji, and her precious lineage.

You have all felt this embrace or you wouldn’t be reading this now. You repeatedly feel it in your body, in your mind, and, incredibly, you notice it weaving itself more and more into your daily life…both inside and out…the experience of your own Divine Essence (svaroopa), the experience of your Self, the gift of Grace.

What a gift our Guru gives to us by being so accessible, and by insisting that the teachings and the vehicles to Self are accessible at all times to the world.  SVA offers hundreds of free written and audio teachings via the website…your virtual Ashram.  SVA offers free phone courses, in-person satsangs, meditation programs, and yoga classes. Even the precious enlivened mantra is available for the asking.  And are you noticing that wherever you are in the world, your Self is available to you?

So how do we express our overwhelming gratitude for the gifts we have been given? How do we insure that our community, our organization and our Teacher continue to flourish and to serve Self? By giving back, of course.  And I ask you, by giving to Self, who receives?

For this reason, I support my Ashram, my Guru, and Self through service on the Ashram Board, through regular seva and donations, and through gratitude for the gift of Grace that I can never repay. I invite you to join me.  Support your community with whatever generous financial contribution fits your budget.  Relax into that profound embrace.

Om Namah Shivaaya!

Click here to support your Ashram and your practice today.

The Mystical Teachings Have Changed the Way I Live by Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

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Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

A yoga student gave me a greeting card a few years back. It said, “The way you live your life has changed how I live my life.” The way Swamiji gives so generously of the mystical teachings, which she learned at the feet of her Guru Muktananda, has changed how I live my life. And, the way I live my life keeps evolving, the more yoga practices I do and the more I avail myself of Swamiji’s Grace. I couldn’t go back to how I used to be even if I wanted to — which I don’t.

The more I dive into practices and programs, the more I get bite-sized pieces of understanding that guide or push me along to my inner Self. These include practicing and teaching asana and leading group meditations, my own meditation and japa, chanting the Guru Gita and listening to Swamiji’s talks online, the year long course “Guru & Self,” offering seva and taking more training (I recently retook Meditation Teacher Training). Everything I do is designed by Swami Nirmalananda who, along with my own efforts, is birthing me into who I really am.

Back in 1999, when I started training with Swamiji (then Rama), I came to learn yoga poses to teach. But this path I have been given is so much more than what I originally came for, more than I even knew was possible. I have been given mystical teachings that, for centuries, were secret teachings. Having Swamiji as my Guru has put me in the flow of this living lineage, through which the teachings have been passed from teacher to disciple for thousands of years. Swamiji has been charged with bringing the yogic mystical teachings into the world. Mystical teachings are not mainstream; they are not popular and they are not for everybody. But they are for me, and my guess is that they are for you, because you are reading this.

How do I live my life now? I am more ME. I am more present, more aware, more at ease, more kind and more clear. I am more able to be aware when I am not Self and I know how to get back. I am more willing to risk. Recently, after Swamiji’s Shaktipat weekend that I hosted in Calgary, I had my first clear experience of speaking up louder when I was inner connected and teaching a yoga class. Clearly, more of my Self had been uncovered through the mystical mystery of our Shaktipat weekend. This allowed me to be Self-connected and speak out at the same time. It was time to speak up and be heard, and something had been cleared that allowed me to do that.

So now it is time for me to use my stronger and clearer voice to ask you to donate during our April Fundraiser, “Yoga in the World,” to support the continuing flow of the mystical yogic teachings into the world. Please join me and my husband with your donation to support the rare gift of a living, accessible Guru who imparts mystical teachings in an understandable way.  Because this path isn’t mainstream, we depend on donations for one third of the income needed to run SVA. From your deep gratitude and your deeper Self, please make an offering so the Ashram can flourish and continue to offer the secrets of yoga to you and to our community. Click here and make as meaningful a contribution as you are able, to support the generous way that Swamiji imparts the mystical teachings to us.

Taglines (Installment #2)

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Svaroopa® Yoga: Deceptively Easy

flowerSvaroopa® yoga gives you more than a workout does, but with less work. This yoga is leveraged. You don’t think you did anything, yet you actually did more than ever before. You get huge results for a little bit of effort.

Svaroopa® Yoga: More than Exercise

flower4Svaroopa® yoga is not excerise. It’s a scientific maximization of your body’s capacity, dissolving the tensions that inhibit your body’s natural functioning and inherent healing capacity.” (from Yoga International)

Svaroopa® Yoga: Support and Release

flower3You don’t push to make the pose happen. In Svaroopa® yoga, you prop and align, then allow the changes to develop. Physical changes are the beginning of a profound deepening, which provides magical internal changes. All levels open up simultaneously: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

Svaroopa® Yoga: Living in Ease

flower2Even after a workout, massage or hot bath, your tensions return within hours or minutes. Svaroopa® yoga dissolves the deeper layers of your tensions, to allow you to live with ease all the time, not just when you are doing yoga. That ease is your birthright.

Svaroopa® Yoga: Full Spectrum Yoga

flower5Svaroopa® yoga opens up the full spectrum of your being. Spiritual insights and profound healings happen without any sweat. Slower yoga, consciously aligned and leveraged for multi-dimensional openings, means you get it all.

Svaroopa® Yoga: Mind-Body Yoga

flower6Use your body to work on your mind, clearing away the thoughts and emotions that cause your stress and tensions. Along with amazing physical improvements,  Svaroopa® yoga clears multiple levels simultaneously, to open up access to your own deeper essence, named “svaroopa”.

Svaroopa® Yoga: Beyond Your Limitations

flower7The quality of life is not based on how much you do but on how much you let go; not on how far you go, but on how open and easy you are. Svaroopa® yoga dissolves physical limitations as well as mental, emotional and spiritual blocks, to open up the way you live inside your own skin.