Amala Lynn Cattafi

By Amala Lynn Cattafi, SVA Board President

“True generosity opens your heart and quiets your mind,” wrote Swamiji in our November 1998 contemplation.  Practicing generosity “invites yoga into your relationships with money, with time and with other people.”

Our many donors in our Fall Fundraiser prove this to be true.  You manifest this again and again, when you support our Svaroopa^® Sciences and Swamiji with such loving generosity.  I am filled with such gratitude for your gifts.

Today I saw an ad saying, “Reinvent Giving.” The ad’s intent is that you purchase an extravagant holiday gift.  It promoted a personal payoff, essentially “buying” the love and gratitude of others.  However, the ad moved me to contemplate how yoga is reinventing giving for us yogis.  Yoga purifies your generosity, making it a selfless offering, born of an open heart, needing nothing in return.  This is when giving or serving propels you into your Self.    Consider what happened for you when you made your donation — did you experience quiet mind, expansive heart, and perhaps deep joy? Did it propel you into your Self?  Then you’ve found the yoga in the giving.

Swamiji recently shared that She has lived a Grace-filled life.  This does not mean that life was always easy.  She has had, as we all have had, many trials, hardships and pain.  Yet even in the midst of the “worst” that life can offer, Grace is there.  You can see it when you look more closely.

There is so much to be grateful for, isn’t there? You can be grateful for your yoga, your teacher, the loving support of your fellow yogis, and for the amazing promise of yoga — that you will know your own Divinity.  Look, and you will see Grace in places you were not aware of before.

Thank you so very much for supporting the financial needs of the Ashram and Swamiji.  If you would like to add a last minute year-end donation to our campaign, please click here.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.  I wish you a Grace-filled New Year.

Om Svaroopa Svasvabhava Namo Namah