By Amanda Bailey

During Foundations, my favorite pose was Ujjayi Pranayama while lying in Shavasana.  The way it was taught completely changed my experience of Ujjayi.  It resonated deeper in my body and consciousness in a way I had never noticed before.

One evening, we paired up and listened to the sound of our partner practicing Ujjayi breathing WITHOUT JOINING THEM — a challenge for me!  As I listened to my partner breathing, I felt a unique connection to him.  It was a knowing without knowing.  I didn’t know anything about the details of his life.  Yet listening to his Ujjayi breath, I had an embodied awareness of him.  Sharing my own Ujjayi breath, I felt as if I was giving him a gift beyond anything material that I could ever give.

Just as my own experience was profound, so were others.  To share their experiences, fellow students used beautiful words: connection, love, peace, a sense of no longer being alone or having to be afraid.

I am so grateful for Foundations and how all of the Svaroopa^® yoga poses lead me deeper into myself.  They give me the awareness of the ever-present connection, love and peace.  Yet Ujjayi Pranayama has been the foundation of my practices since I learned it in my first Svaroopa^® yoga class.  On days when I don’t do a full yoga practice, I still do Ujjayi Pranayama, because I have an embodied knowledge of its effect.  It keeps my head above water in the whirl and swirl of life.  Deepest gratitude to Swamiji, my Foundations Trainers (Bhakta and Kamala), and to all of my fellow yogis in Foundations.

By Karuna Beaver, SVA Board Member

I am more than merely thankful for Svaroopa^® yoga and meditation.  I have become downright grateful for the practices and their originator, my teacher and Guru, Swami Nirmalananda.  Her years of deep study, devotion and hard work have helped her to help me as well as so many others.  All the practices come directly from Swami Nirmalananda.  Thank you Swamiji!  Yet she will tell you that everything comes straight from her own spiritual teacher and Guru, Swami Muktananda.  Again, and again she says, “I owe everything to my Baba.”

I began with being thankful to find practices that transformed my achy body and my crazy mind.  I was thankful enough to begin doing seva and making donations to the Ashram.  But it took me a while to figure out that mere thankfulness is not real gratitude.  Gratitude is more.  Gratitude is about feeling thankful down to your bones, down into your heart.  Gratitude is about getting out of your own way — your ego — and letting down your guard.  Gratitude is humbling and awe-inspiring.

At first, I didn’t understand the depth of my feeling.  I do not easily let down my guard.  But, gradually, the walls have been coming down.  Now I am able, more and more often, to feel into the depth of my devotion.  It’s because the power of my yogic practices is eroding years, maybe lifetimes, of “guck” around my heart.  And I owe it all to my Guru.

One of my favorite songs captures the way I feel.  It asks, “Have I told you lately that I love you, that there is no one else above you?”  It describes the effect of this love:  it can “fill my heart with gladness, take away my sadness, ease my troubles.”  The song goes on to say that this love is “less defined; it’s yours and it’s mine.”  And, at the end of the day, we “should give thanks to the One.”  Yes, this is how I feel.

Gratitude to the Master is an important part of yoga, and thus part of our svaroopavidya practices.  “This is how I feel about my Baba,” explained Swami in a satsang audio a few years ago.  “I had only seven years with him.  He stripped me down and left me bare, and I am so grateful to him.  I had the great fortune to bow in front of my Baba for those years.  I always felt ennobled, not humbled.  He always said, ‘You are Me — you are the One.’”

Baba gave Swami that One.  He gave her the experience of her own Self.  This is what she gives to us.  She says, “In the mystical merging of Self, there is only One.  When there’s only One, there is no gratitude.  But when I indulge myself in gratitude, it also recognizes that there are two.  It’s a magical, mystical play.”

I indulge in this gratitude and mystical play every day when I meditate.  Before I begin, I express my gratitude to the One who reminds me who I am.  In meditation, I feel the separation between my individuality and my Guru’s individuality begin to blur.  It truly does feel as if there is only One, even if I can’t always maintain that feeling throughout the day.

In this glorious season of thankfulness and giving, I encourage you to let down your guard.  Open up to the gifts your yogic practices give you.  Open your heart to the “more” that you are.  I hope you will also give thanks to the One.  And if this takes the form of a heartfelt donation to the yogic organization that makes this possible for you, I would be eternally grateful.

Please click here to donate, or call 610.644.7555.  Every gift, of any size and frequency, makes a difference.

By Aanandi Ross

“Time and Timeless” illustrates my experience of timelessness.  One sentence from our November teachings article says it all: “Though you can’t add more hours to the clock, yoga offers tools to free you from the tyranny of time.”  Doing only 20 minutes of Ujjayi Pranayama daily will help you make friends with time; that with this practice, things begin to dovetail and flow… time then is no longer your enemy.  Swami Nirmalananda and Vidyadevi promise that Ujjayi Pranayama makes you the master of time.  Wow!  How amazing and how transformative.

How ironic that “stopping” to practice Ujjayi Pranayama will give you more “time.”  You might think if you stop to breathe for 20 minutes that you’ll lose the time to get 4 or 5 things done on your list.  Or maybe you believe you’ll be in more of a frenzy to make up for lost time.  However, when spending time with timelessness, you feel a shift in perception.  You might even conclude that some of the things you thought were so important on your list are not.  Priorities change.  Life flows in surprising and delightful ways.

Have you had the experience of stopping, breathing and then feeling like a different person afterwards? If so, even more breathing (and especially meditation) will help you to remain in that state, more and more.

I took an “Introduction to Meditation” weekend with Vidyadevi.  When she asked about our meditation experiences, I shared that time had slowed way down.  I felt like I had all the time in the world.  She said, “Yes, there is timelessness in meditation.”  I had felt I was just being, in beingness; alive in beingness.  Experiencing this infinite reality within myself, I became conscious of the “more” within me.  Instead of feeling empty and lacking, I felt full and sufficient.  The timelessness in meditation feels like going to the cosmic time tank.

Over twenty years ago was the first time I heard that if you’re always thinking about the future, you’re not in the present moment.  Still, I often hear people say, “Wow, I can’t believe that September (or summer, or vacation or some other experience) is almost over!”  Yoga gives you a shift of perspective, “Wow, this season (of late summer) is so rich and full.  The breeze is warm (or cool); the colors of harvest are so magnificent (or transforming); this day is glorious, just as it is.”

Make friends with time.  Our Svaroopa^® yoga practices excel at giving you the experience of beingness.  This experience offers you so much.  It’s yours for the taking.  Do more Ujjayi Pranayama.

By Rama (Ruth) Brooke, SVA Board Member

The practice of true generosity is powerful in many ways.  Generosity creates abundance.  You might have thought that it was the other way around — that abundance creates generosity.  However…generous givers often have normal finances; they love to share and prioritize it in their life.  They give of their time and energy to others, as well as their financial contributions.…

Abundance is attracted to generosity.  “Abundance” is MahaLakshmi, the benevolent Goddess, the divine personification of the flow of material blessings.  She is attracted to those who will use Her gifts appropriately.” — Swami Nirmalananda, Generosity & Abundance

For me, the easiest way to gratitude, grace, generosity and abundance is through surrender, specifically surrender to the flow of Grace, which is also the Guru and the Self.  Grace is powerfully present within the Svaroopa^® Sciences.

As a Svaroopi, you are trained in the sweet art of surrender, specifically surrender to your own Divinity.  It works.  Swamiji describes gratitude as including a “pinch, not a quart” of humility, to free you from the bindings of your ego.  Our practices elicit just the right amount of humility.  You learn how to surrender, how to be humble without debasing ourselves and, most importantly, to live with your guard down.  This makes you able to function in the world in a grounded and powerful way.  To paraphrase Swamiji’s familiar question, “How do you want to live?”

Such a yogic surrender naturally leads to an immense, overflowing gratitude.  When you act on that gratitude, your action comes from authentic generosity, which leads to abundance.  The Goddess MahaLakshmi is the cosmic or celestial form of abundance.  She is the circular flow from gratitude through generosity to abundance, and around again.

Gratitude and Grace move you.  They overwhelm in a wonderful way.  They open your heart, not only to others, but to a deeper perspective.  They make you able to see what you have, truly an ever-expanding inner abundance.  And that creates generosity.

Please join me and others, and participate in our Gratitude & Grace fundraiser for our Ashram.  Let the spirit of gratitude move you to give generously.  When you give a gift to support the Guru’s work, great blessings flow to you, both outer and inner.  It’s part of the science of yoga.  It is also MahaLakshmi’s promise.  Click here to donate.

By Rajni (Chelsea) King

“My Guru’s words are like a boat taking me across the fathomless ocean of me doubting my essential nature.  I honor and enter into my Guru’s words.  They are profound, easy to understand, and make me able to rest in deepening inner stages of blissful Consciousness.” — Spanda Karikas.  4.1, rendered by Swami Nirmalananda

Swami Nirmalananda makes the profound, ancient teachings and practices of yoga so accessible and easy to understand.  The way she translates them to pertain to everyday life is such a gift! So today I celebrate the anniversary of her birth.

When I contemplate my journey on this path and my relationship to Swami Nirmalananda, “support” is the first word that comes up.  Being in relationship with Swamiji has brought Grace-filled, Grace-fueled support to my life, on the inside and the outside.  Svaroopa^® yoga asana practice first gave me tangible physical support.  Swamiji originated this yoga style from spontaneous Kundalini movements arising during her meditations.  Her Guru, Baba Muktananda, blessed her with these openings, borne of the inner power of revelation.

This Grace-filled asana practice drew me in and placed me on the path.  I first learned “support equals release.” This is true on all levels.  Guru’s Grace and support are built into every aspect of this yoga.  The poses open so much more than just the physical body!  Given that opening, I have experienced the ever-deepening support of Swamiji’s meditative teachings and devotional practices.  Every practice points me back to my Self.  And, of course, there’s the portable Guru, the mantra.  It is always there to remind me that the Guru, who is my own Self, is so close.

The greatest blessing of my Guru is the gift of Shaktipat, the awakening of the Kundalini energy.  It opens me to the tangible support of my inner Guru, my inner guide.  When I stepped onto this path, I was riddled with self-doubt.  I was convinced that “I wasn’t doing it right.” I felt that I didn’t really know how to meditate, that I wasn’t getting it! I felt numb mentally and physically.

Yet I knew I needed to be on this path.  It was a deeper knowing, a knowing beyond the negativity of my mind.  Something was propelling me forward, even though my mind couldn’t explain or comprehend what I was getting.  Things were changing at a deeper level than I could perceive at the time.  Clearly my negative and doubtful mind wasn’t on board.  What kept me going all those years?

Much later, I understood that I had received Guru initiation.  It was a spontaneous Shaktipat.  The Grace of the Gurus propelled me along the path and continues to propel me forward.  Swamiji’s Grace supports me on the inside and the outside.  Thus, I too can live in the ever-expanding pure joy and contentment of my own Self!

So on Swamiji’s birthday, I celebrate her.  I feel immensely blessed to be in relationship with a Great Being.  How could I be so fortunate to have found this path?  It truly is the greatest gift.  Happy Birthday, Swamiji!

By Vibhuti King

My box of chant CDs arrived in the mail!  Sent to us Svaroopa^® yoga teachers by our Ashram, they are part of the Mandali programs to expand our yoga community locally.  Teachers pass the CDs on to their own students as “thank you” gifts, just for them being our students.  Coming from our Guru, Swami Nirmalananda, these CDs carry an even greater gift: Her Grace.

At the end of class today, I invited each student to choose their CD.  I was delighted that many already had some of Nirmalananda’s CDs.  Some requested a duplicate of their “favorite.”  The CD was getting worn out!

Students chatted about which chants they liked to listen to depending on how they were feeling.  They described how a certain chant expressed their joy or yearning.  They discussed which chant was good to listen to before meditation or while driving.  And all agreed that chanting along with the CDs helped them to feel closer to the whole Svaroopa^® yoga and meditation community.  Until this gratitude gathering, I had no idea that these chants mean as much to them as they mean to me.

I am grateful for this time of sharing, of community, of coming together around the ancient practice of lifting our voices to that which uplifts us.  We all have so much to be grateful for.  Often it’s more than we know.  This sharing allowed me to see my students in a deeper way.  It showed me how they turn to their practice to express themselves and how personal these chants are to them.

One woman began to chant the words of “Asato,” and others joined in:

Asato ma sad gamayaa

Tamaso ma jyotir gamayaa

Mrtyor ma amtram gamayaa

OM

Lead me from untruth to truth

Lead me from darkness to light

Lead me from the fear of death to the nectar of immortality

OM

The woman who began this chant a cappella later shared how that chant saw her through a very dark time.  We have so much to be grateful for.  Thank you to my students and thank you to my teacher, my Guru, Swami Nirmalananda.