By Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain

In her February Teachings: Slow or Fast, Hard or Easy, Gurudevi Nirmalananda asks, “Since life is going to change you anyway (over the course of time), which path do you want to take?” I wouldn’t have been drawn to a teacher like Gurudevi were I not a little inclined to go “pedal to the medal.”  Yet I know how to apply the brakes as well. 

I am also learning to ease into an inner support that is vast and deep.  I feel more anchored in the midst of life.  Guru’s Grace bestows this gift.  The truth is, I was never satisfied to simply let life wear me down, repeating the same mistakes endlessly.  I guess that is what makes me a spiritual seeker.  I’ve never truly been satisfied with the “slow track.”  Gurudevi helps me see why:

The good news is that there’s a fast track.  Instead of the gradual wearing away of the rock-like density blocking access to your inner light, you can opt for the cosmic breakthrough of Shaktipat.

From my first class, I knew that Gurudevi’s teaching is profoundly different.  I was ready for a “cosmic breakthrough.”  Nothing I’d tried gave me lasting relief from my tight spine and crazy mind.  I knew how to keep doing and doing, but I wasn’t comfortable with being.  No one had ever directed me inside, to my own spine, and deeper — to my own Divine Essence.  Yet, hidden within the recesses of my heart, I knew I wanted more. When I met Gurudevi, that was it.  I wanted to know what she knew, experience what she was experiencing, and bring my authenticity into the world.  Though hadn’t found the words yet, I wanted to live in the Self.  And like so many Svaroopa^® yogis, I’ve never looked back.  As a way for us to identify our own progress, Gurudevi shares her own cosmic breakthrough:

Muktananda’s gift of Shaktipat changed everything for me. When Kundalini climbed my spine the first time, I had a powerful sense that this was what I had been looking for, even over lifetimes.

My own first kundalini experience happened while resting my legs up the wall in Viparita Karani.  Slowly a snake-like movement began to spontaneously undulate through my spine.  As I surrendered into Her flow, lifetimes of tension and fear  melted away.  Tears of joy and relief filled my eyes.  Instead of drips of water slowly wearing away my rock-like density, I was in the middle of a cascading waterfall!  I wanted to shout from the rooftops, free at last!  It wasn’t long before I realized this release was just the tip of the iceberg. 

My life’s improvements, of years ago, however blissful, weren’t enough.  This realization was a natural outgrowth of my continuing relationship with a Great Being. The Guru specializes in pointing out our blind spots.  Then she helps us get past them.  So as soon as Gurudevi was appointed a Shaktipat Guru, I chose an even faster track.  It was inevitable.  Maha Shaktipat Diksha is the initiation that awakens your Kundalini for the highest purpose of human life: the knowing of your own Self.  What used to be mundane “ah ha” moments are now infused with deeper, more profound perceptions.  Gurudevi calls this understanding “The mystical revelation of your inherent Divinity.”  Everything becomes an opportunity to move you toward enlightenment. Slow or fast, hard or easy?  It is a personal choice as to how fast or slow one wants to track spiritual progress.  We each have free will.  Maybe you’re ready to dive in, or need to sit back and rest a while on the riverbank of Grace.  It’s all good, because Grace never stops flowing.  Where is there to go that the Self is not?  Yet I know I must put forth effort.  So I continue the practices that attune me to Consciousness.  Meditation and mantra work with my mind.  Asana sustains my body, and seva opens my heart.  Always, Guru’s Grace lights the way.  It all begins with Shaktipat, and never, ever ends.

By Swami Prajñananda

It was the first Shivaratri, the Night of Shiva. All the asuras (demons) and devas (gods) stayed up with Shiva through the night. Only a few hours earlier, Shiva had consumed the deadly halaahala poison.  Had it had fallen on the earth, it would have destroyed the entire universe.  To save the world, Shiva drank it.  Although Shiva, who is being the universe and beyond the universe, could never die, the asuras and devas stayed up all night with him just to make sure.  

This year, February 21 marks the holy day of Shavaratri; technically, it is the night that is holy.  The sacredness of Shavaratri is not just due to the world being saved.  It is also a night dedicated to God.

In the ancient story, the Demons and Gods alike turned their minds and hearts to Shiva.  That they were enemies did not matter.  They came together, chanted and extolled the praises of the One Divine Reality, in the form of Shiva.  This story relates to us personally, as described in the Bhagavadgita: for every human being contains a unique combination of divine and demonic qualities.  Some of those qualities named by Krishna include:

• Divine Qualities: humble; forgiving; compassionate; focused; peaceful; free of need, greed & fear
• Demonic Qualities: prideful; full of anger; selfish; deluded; hateful; lost in need, greed & fear

You may recognize qualities from both lists in yourself.  Yet, as you continue with your yoga, you will notice that your Divine Qualities shine through more brightly, while your Demonic Qualities fall away. This is a day-to-day, yoga-class-by-yoga-class process.

A good Marker Pose is how you drive.  Perhaps, since you started yoga, you notice that you don’t speed as much.  Perhaps you are more patient and generous in letting people come into your lane.  Perhaps you see the difference at the grocery store or a family function.  Yoga is working on you from the inside out.  Every yoga class and every meditation smooths your edges.  You shine brighter and brighter.

In the ancient story of the first Shivaratri night, it did not matter whether an attending being was a Demon or a God.  All stayed up with Shiva.  In the same way, no matter your current combination of divine and demonic qualities, you too can turn your focus to Shiva.  Who is Shiva?  Shiva is your own Self.

Of course, your yoga practices transform you from the inside out.  Yet do not think the goal of yoga is merely about being a better person.  It isn’t about “making” yourself more Divine by cultivating Divine Qualities.  You already are Divine, even when your inner light isn’t shining through perfectly.  It’s already there — full, whole and complete within.  Nothing you do or don’t do can make you any less Shiva.

However, how do you know it?  That is what yoga is cultivating: your ability to know who you are.  On the holy night of Shivaratri, your ability to know Shiva is magnified.  Choose to ride the energy of this holy night!  Stay up doing practices.  Who knows?  You could even become enlightened.

Om svaroopa svasvabhavah namo nama.h

By Heather Wong Ken; Interviewed by Margie (Maitreyi) Wilsman

Having been a Svaroopa^® yoga student for more than a decade, Heather Wong Ken knew there’d be big changes from taking a Shaktipat Retreat with Gurudevi Nirmalananda.  She was a little bit afraid of it; yet when one was scheduled for Calgary, she signed up.  She says, “It was a no-brainer. It was where I live and the right time to take it.

“The whole weekend was a powerful experience.  Even though intense, it was also blissful and so deep.  I felt like I was on a vacation.”  Surprisingly, Heather’s sense of being on vacation happened in the meditation room with Gurudevi rather than on the recesses and meal breaks.  In the meditation room with Gurudevi, Heather powerfully felt she “wanted to be there.”

The Shaktipat Retreat deepened Heather’s yoga practice.  Now in everyday life, she feels a deeper sense of inner connection with Self, seeing Shiva in everybody and in everything.  She feels so much more grounded and more confident.

She describes, “This new feeling is deeper than when I feel grounded by practicing asana (poses).  I carry the feeling of Self-within even into the simple things of everyday life.  I feel that I have more time.  I have less need for distractions.  Now, rather than watch TV at night to unwind, I do yoga and meditate.”

Heather went to the Shaktipat Retreat sensing something big would happen.  Changes range wonderfully across an emotional spectrum.  She feels underlying happiness.  At times, arising anger and sadness surprise her.  In the past her habit was to keep such emotions hidden.  Now she is letting them be what they are, and they leave. Heather shares, “I was always a more serious person, even as a baby.  Now I smile and laugh more.  My interactions with other people feel more authentic.  And my yoga practices have continued to deepen.”

by Gurudevi Nirmalananda Saraswati

When you decide how much yoga you are going to do, you are deciding two things:  (1) what to do with some available time (a simple thing), and (2) what your goal in life is (a really big deal!).  You are really choosing —do you want to be happy or do you want to be bliss-full?  These are very different things.  Are you using yoga to help you pursue success, to improve yourself or to delve into consciousness?

In the name of success, you try to manage the people and things in your life, or you try to acquire more of both.  Whether you are handling a car repair or maneuvering to buy a new car, you are achieving a goal.  When you are handling the relationship with your spouse or child, or maybe trying to acquire one of each, your pursuit of success is through relationship.  Success happens when other people are doing what you want, and the things in your life match your current list of desires.  If you are able to manage everything, then you can finally be happy. 

You run into a few hurdles.  This is because other people have their own agendas.  Cars, children, gardens and other things all have their own process of growth or decay.  Happiness through attaining success is possible, but just barely.  Along the way, it is very stressful.  You can do yoga just to recover from the strain; it balances out the rest of your life.

Patanjali explains this:

mrdu-madhy-aadhimaatratvaat tato’pi visheshah. —Yoga Sutras 1.22

Your rate of progress is affected by the amount of practice you do:

mild, medium or intense. 

Mild practice is described above:  to balance out the stress that comes from your pursuit of the perfect life.  Your weekly yoga class clears tensions from your muscles and stress hormones from your blood, so you can go back to the endeavors that will create success in the more significant parts of your life.

To live in the inner peace that arises from doing yoga, you need to do more practice — a medium amount.  You also need to include meditation in your practice.  Your practices keep you progressing into more inner openness or you will find that you are backsliding into fixity.  Using yoga to create personal transformation is a beautiful and powerful practice. 

Yet yoga is for the purpose of transcending your idea of who you are, not merely transforming it.  You know this from the best Shavasana, from even a few moments of sitting perfectly still in a seated pose, or after a twist.  The vastness of your own inner essence becomes undeniable. 

If this is your goal, meditation is your most important practice.  If the inner experience is your priority, meditation becomes the cornerstone of your daily practice.  Each time your mind is imprinted by the Self, your mind becomes more and more clear — so you can see through it to the Self.  Your entire life becomes the conduit of consciousness.  For this goal, Patanjali recommends intense practice.  Your maximum is three hours per day — as long as you have your work and your relationships, this maximum will work well for you. At this point, you might be thinking that three hours of yoga and meditation a day is pure craziness, while others are thinking that anyone who tries to get by on once a week is crazy.  The important part is your goal.  If your priority is success, then you should not do three hours of yoga a day — you will be supported in achieving success by doing a weekly class.  If you want transformation or if you want to know consciousness, you have to make a different choice.  You do decide, every day, how much yoga you will do and what your goal is.  Even if you decide not to decide, you have made a choice.  For my choice – I always say, “Do more yoga!”

Originally published on myareayoga.com.

By Barbara (Girijananda) Hess

Both my husband and I are seekers, yearning for a deeper relationship with God.  Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s 2019 Year-Long Programme, “Leaps & Bounds,” lived up to its title.  I’ve taken every YLP since the beginning, and my husband as well enrolled this year.  He is also enrolled in a Christian Ministerial School, and we both consider Gurudevi to be our Guru.  Our yearning motivated us to immerse in our Guru’s year-long studies.  We participated in all four program options: articles, audios, discussion conference calls and the weekend retreat at Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram. 

Gurudevi’s monthly, in-depth articles expound on the yogic principles that underlie the Svaroopa^® Vidya path.  Her timing of articles let me fit the reading of them into my busy life.  I always find that re-reading deepens my experience even more.  Then what follows is I have great anticipation for the monthly discourse audio.  I go deeper as Gurudevi’s talk focuses and expands on selected points from the article.  The sound of her voice fills me with Grace.  This opens me to greater understanding of the teachings.  Then I re-read the articles.

Her articles and audios lead me on a journey inward.  I contemplate whatever stands out for me.  It’s as though Gurudevi has created a path along which I can walk, pausing to contemplate amazing inner vistas.  This lets me enjoy and absorb her information and spiritual guidance.

The monthly discussion calls help integrate spiritual principles into my life day by day. These conference calls create community.  When I hear another person share an experience that reflects my personal experience or understanding, I feel validated.  Yet when another yogi expresses a different perspective, my understanding expands.  In our final weekend retreat, attended by those who had enrolled for Option 4, we all dive even deeper together. 

This past year, discussion with my husband about what we were hearing, learning and experiencing was a delightful bonus.  Our home time is structured around the ancient Svaroopa^® Vidya principles and practices.  Gurudevi emphasizes that meditation and japa (out loud mantra repetition) are essential practices.  They open you to the knowing of your own Divine Essence — your own capital-S Self.  They attune you to the reality of Divine Essence within everyone and everything.  Thus, my husband and I meditate rather than fill evenings with TV.  Mantra plays throughout our house, even as we catch up on chores and other work.  Preparing to eat, I ask myself, “Would I put this food into God’s body?”  Is my house appropriately clean as the place of my sadhana (spiritual practice)?  Given Gurudevi’s 2019 YLP teachings, our home is unfolding as a sacred space.

Our final YLP discussion call anchored me into the practice of japa.  Gurudevi suggested doing japa for 20 minutes morning, noon and night.  I’m consistently doing japa and meditation at night and in the morning.  Noontime — at work — cannot be perfectly consistent.  Yet I repeat mantra whenever possible throughout the day.  Thus, I practice japa for more and more time.  I used to be mindful of time while doing japa.  Now I go into a timeless place and fall in love with myself.  I experience a deeper love for who I am as a person.  I sense that my capital-S Self is loving my small-s self.

Year after year, Gurudevi’s YLP teachings empower me to know that everyone is a form of the formless — Divine Essence.  My perceptions of the presence of God within me strengthen.  Direct access to my Divine Essence within deepens.  It extends into every area of my life.  Gurudevi’s delivery of ancient yogic teachings for modern seekers reliably propels my spiritual progress.  By the end of Gurudevi’s 2019 programme, my husband and I felt that we had truly moved forward on our spiritual paths with leaps and bounds!

By Sue (Shuchi) Cilley

Oh, Shivaratri!  The night Shiva’s veil of maayaa thins, when you can become enlightened in that one night.  The Ashram’s 2019 Shivaratri Retreat was the program I’d been waiting for — for years.  From the moment we walked in the door on Saturday evening, everything was preparation for Shivaratri night.  We were being prepared to dive deep inside on Shivaratri, that Monday night.

For five days we were immersed in an impeccably choreographed dance.  There was not one moment that was not aimed toward Self-Knowingness. Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s presence. Swami Shrutananda’s presence (then known as Vidyadevi).  Long, delicious, deep, layered asana classes.  Hours of chanting. Hours of meditation.  Hours of discourses.  Aratis, again and again.  Visits from Ashram residents.  An Ashram lunch.  At every turn we were propelled ever deeper and deeper.  So many subtleties, so many techniques. All the power of the Svaroopa^® sciences powered by Grace were on display.  All the murtis were alive.  The vibrations of Consciousness whispered and thundered, all at the same time.  And then, after the night of Shivaratri, we were prepared for returning home, bringing the depth of our experience with us.

I first heard of this night many years ago when I took Foundations.  That Foundations happened to be in February over Shivaratri.  Who knew?  I distinctly remember Gurudevi, then known as Rama Berch, coming in for the evening session.  She brought her harmonium, and we chanted Om Namah Shivaya.  I was enchanted by it all, including her description of holy activities in a far-away place.  They were just ending in India, in a village called Ganeshpuri.

Many years later, I was in Ganeshpuri for Shivaratri.  We pilgrims periodically joined the line dance that went on for days, in a room at the Nityananda Temple.  We chanted the names of Nityananda, circling his murti (enlivened statue). Sadly, Gurudevi banned those of us over “a certain age” from staying up all night.  Yet walking back to our room in the late evening, we were treated to a procession.  Nityananda’s murti was traveling in style, borne in a silver palanquin by two men.  He was out visiting the Ganeshpuri neighborhoods, offering darshan.  He had quite a parade with him.

One year, my husband and I stayed up all Shivaratri night at our home in Maine, along with a guest.  Three of us, chanting the names of Shiva, Om Namah Shivaya, and meditating all night.  We ended with a sublime Guru Gita chant at sunrise.

Oh Shivaratri!  Those previous experiences of Shivaratri, over many years, had primed my yearning for the Ashram’s Shivaratri last year.  The long night of sitting with Shiva, this time hearing the ancient stories of Shiva, Sati and Parvati from the ancient epics.  Ancient stories personalizing the cosmic forces at work in the universe and our lives.  For me it was a night that was beyond time, beyond place, beyond reason, where the dimensions stretched simultaneously from my feet on the floor to the vastness of my own Self.  

When I did arati in the morning, I was doing it in multiple locations.  I was in Ganeshpuri and in Downingtown all at the same time. It’s sublime even trying to write about it now.  I have been fortunate to have pilgrimaged several times to Ganeshpuri, to have sat at Nityananada’s feet and at Baba Muktananda’s feet.  My Shivaratri Retreat at the Ashram, sitting at Gurudevi’s feet, was the same experience.

And then, of course, we got to go home.  Did I get enlightened?  Probably not.  Am I different? Yes.

I feel as though I’ve walked out of a long tunnel into the sunshine.  It’s an inside job.  It’s so clear and steady.  All I need to do is to position myself again and again, so I can receive the Grace that flows so abundantly from our Guru.  All the practices thin the veil, but attending programs when the cosmic forces are similarly aligned is like rowing home on a rising tide.  Ecstatic and effortless.  See you at the Shivaratri Retreat next month!

By Evy (Kalyani) Zavolas, interviewed by Margie (Maitreyi) Wilsman

“Each Shaktipat Retreat with Gurudevi Swami Nirmalananda has taken me deeper,” says Kalyani Zavolas.  Years ago, the first time she put her thumb on my forehead I didn’t feel very much.  Over time, I’ve learned that what I feel depends on my receptivity.  Now, I’m so much more receptive.  I have attended at least 5 or 6.  Attending Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreats regularly has been beautifully effective!

“Despite my lack of feeling much the first time, I kept signing up for more.  Each time Gurudevi placed her thumb on my forehead to give me Shaktipat, I felt the openings deeper in my body — specifically in my heart.  I could not get this heart opening any other way.  Despite all my Svaroopa^® Vidya practices — chanting, meditation, japa, vichara, yoga therapy and asana — a stuckness around my heart persisted.  Attending Shaktipat Retreats, I got it unstuck.

The last two I attended were very close together.  Why not I decided?  In the midst of a major life change, I need extra help: openings, bliss and Guru’s Grace.  What better way to get more Grace? 

These last two retreats were deeply intense and so beautiful.  I received abundant, tangible openings.  The openings have become deeper and deeper.  I now realize that the openings I need are so deep that nothing else can get in there.  Shaktipat has not let me down.

I feel more supported each time I am in Gurudevi’s presence.  Just thinking about the upcoming Shaktipat Retreat in February brings tears to my eyes.  What an opportunity to attend again!  I feel honored, humbled and grateful to be attending.  At each of these retreats, I learn more about the openings that I am getting.  Swamiji always gives amazing talks with new and expanded explanations that give me deeper understandings of what I am experiencing.

For me, it is really important to attend.  Words don’t quite express what I am feeling as I prepare to attend again.  I think I got the last open spot in the upcoming February retreat, but I know there is another retreat in May.  I hope my sharing of these benefits will inspire others to attend.  Namaste.