By Prakash Falbaum, SVA Board Member

Heart opening affects my day-to-day life.  It makes me look at everything and everyone in a whole new way.  I can find gratitude in anything.  I am even grateful for the drug addict who lives across the street.  I used to judge him.  But now I know, he is the same as me.  How can I be upset with him and not be upset with me? This even carries forward to how I feel about politics and about drivers who cut me off.

The Svaroopa^® yoga practices, given to us by Swami Nirmalananda, are the Grace-filled fuel powering this transformation.  As I continue my daily Ujjayi, meditation, asana and seva, my heart sheds layers of bindings.  As it continues to expand, I see all people differently.  I don’t have to like the way they act.  Yet I see that everyone at their core is Shiva — Pure Consciousness, Divine Essence.  It continues to amaze me.  It all interweaves.  Whenever I am immersed in a program with Swamiji and hear her teachings, something transformative happens within.  With this internal shift, I comprehend more and more that all external behavior as well as family, community and world events are just the play of Consciousness.

I know this is because Swami Nirmalananda has given me my Self.  She continues to teach me about my small-s self as well as my capital-S Self — the One Self Being Me.  As I do the Svaroopa^® Sciences practices, I find more and more of who I really am.  My heart opens.  Gratitude and generosity swell more and more and more.  The generosity that arises from gratitude compels me to give back to our Ashram through seva.

When I first stepped onto the Svaroopa^® Sciences path, I got big changes from doing very little Svaroopa^® yoga.  I was so grateful.  So even before taking Svaroopa^® Yoga Teacher Training, gratitude compelled me to offer my time in selfless service — seva.  My first seva was most mundane.  Now my seva responsibilities have grown.  I accept whatever Swami asks me to do.  She asks me to do things I’ve never done before.  This causes me to grow.  Then I see more of my Self.  As I am trying to help Swami, it’s taking away the bindings that have been closed around my heart and my mind for eons.  Seva opens my heart more and more.  The more I give, the more I get.  This is MahaLakshmi at work.

I also give financially.  What I give each month is less than what I used to spend on coffee at Starbucks.  A lot of the time I don’t think about it.  But, at the first of the month when it’s deducted from my account, I get an email.  I think, “There goes a donation to Swami!” It makes me smile.  I know I’ve done something worthwhile, and it is an expression of the gratitude and generosity I feel towards all things flowing from Swamiji and the Ashram.  Please join me in giving back to this Source.  Click here to donate on online, or call the Ashram at 610.644.7555.  Every gift, of any size and frequency, makes a difference.  Thank you.