By Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati

I went inside at Starbucks yesterday without a mask.  Yes, I’m fully vaccinated.  It was the 15^th day after my final shot.  I could smile at the barista who took my order.  It was lovely!   And it felt strange.  I’m used to hiding, hiding my face and even hiding in my home.  How long will it take before we really feel like we can come and go with ease?  I’m ready!

Last Sunday, I led a meditation program with 20 people onsite.  We did mask because at least one yogi said she hadn’t been vaccinated yet.  We masked to protect her.  Remember, my mask protects you.  Because being vaccinated doesn’t mean I don’t have the virus — it only means I won’t suffer from it.

And Patanjali teaches, in the Yoga Sutras, that the suffering yet to come can and should be avoided.  Of course, he wasn’t dealing with a pandemic.  And he wasn’t talking about improving the world.  He was talking about how you handle your mind.  But this is a time to handle your mind well.

You have choices you haven’t had in a year or more.  You have skills you didn’t have before.  Hopefully, you’ve been doing more yoga practice, so you feel different inside your own skin than a year ago.  What do you really want?  Where do you want to go?  What do you want to spend your time and money on?

These are big questions.  Your choices affect what you do today and how you feel while doing it.  More importantly, your choices affect your tomorrows.  As you set your feet on a pathway back into the world, what path are you choosing?  Where will this path take you?  What will you attain from your efforts?

For my part, I like to follow Patanjali’s recommendation, do more yoga.  [Yoga Sutras 1.22]

Finding yourself is a matter of finding your “capital-S Self,” your Divine Essence.  For that, you need to know two things:  where and how to look.  These three taglines point you in the right direction.  Let them inspire you to find your Self, in a simple and easy way that opens up profound levels of inner experience.  We can teach you how to bring the teachings of the ancients into your modern lifestyle.

Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation: Feeling Lost? Find Your Self in Svaroopa

Discover your innermost essence.  Outer answers are never completely fulfilling.  Only when you have experienced your own Self do you really know who you are.  Called svaroopa in the yogic texts, this is the foundation of your own beingness.  We will teach you how to meditate on your own Self.

Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation: Simple, Easy, Profound

Deep and profound meditation, opened up through a simple and easy process, this is our specialty.  You experience the difference in your first meditation.  It works because we use the same methodology as the tantric sages of our tradition.  Meditation doesn’t have to be complicated.

Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation: Ancient Wisdom for our Modern Times

In the midst of the ever-changing world, your essence remains the same.  Follow the breadcrumb trail laid out by the tantric sages.  These ancient teachings guide you inside to your own inherent Divinity while explaining the process and goal.  Discover who you are at the deepest level within through meditation on your own Self. 

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By Barbara (Girijananda) Hess, Board Member

As a Board member, I support GeoCenters, help plan and support Local Mandali activities and support both in-person and Zoomed Mandali Travel programs. Other sevites work with me in these amazing sevas.  I feel we are the extended hands of Gurudevi and the other swamis.  We reach out to our larger community.

We are also the hands and arms of Svaroopa^® yoga teachers reaching to the Ashram.  The reciprocal flow of shakti is palpable.  I have the good fortune to see the dedicated service that Gurudevi, the Swamis and the Ashram staff and sevites provide.  In turn I see the dedicated service each Svaroopa^® yoga teacher provides.  Each serves their students, community and the Ashram, powerfully modeling disciples’ grace in response to Guru’s Grace.

As the pandemic took hold, it seemed as if “What the world needs now is more yoga!”  Our Ashram answered the call.  The Ashram website has always provided extensive free teachings.  But last year, Gurudevi added twice daily mantra repetition in the free Japa Club.  Our social media presence expanded, with more content for new yogis on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.  This outreach is a greater presence in the world, which also supports the promotion of Svaroopa^® yoga in your community.  Our five swamis also offer free Zoom programs for local teachers to host for their community.  

This has been a year of challenges.  But your yoga and your Ashram have supported you through them. I can see clearly how this has supported me in these challenging times.  What I can do to make a difference is to support the yoga organization that supports me. I have offered dakshina (financial gifts) to the Ashram over the past years. I increased these gifts this past year.  I ask you to do the same.  Now is the time to gift the organization that gives so much to each of us and the world.  The Ashram is a nonprofit organization.  As such it cannot expand and grow without consistent financial support.

You play an important role.  Yoga opens a two-way door, the light shining in and the light emanating out.  You allow access inward, to the deeper dimensions of your being.   You allow access outward, shining the light of Consciousness out into the world. 

One way I truly see this two-way door is in the Teaching Online Therapeutics (TOT).  This  online teacher training is revolutionary.  Many teachers report wonderful personal benefits as well as healing benefits for their students.  I had a significant physical challenge the end of 2020.  Through the care of a Svaroopa^® yoga teacher and her offering me TOT poses, I was well supported in healing.  I gave and will continue to give extra financial support to the Ashram in her honor.  It is a way to celebrate her as well as to give to the organization that gives so much.

Gurudevi says, “In supporting any organization and serving others, you put your body, mind and heart all to work at the same time.  With these three capacities all focused in one direction, you can make a difference in the world.   And uplift yourself at the same time.”

I ask you too to reflect upon the gifts flowing your way through the Ashram.  Financially supporting the Ashram allows these gifts to continue flowing to you and the world. “What the world needs now is more yoga!”

Direct a gift to the Ashram through our website donation page:

Light the Way, supporting outreach and technology

Maintain the Miracle Factory, supporting Teacher Training

Give Blessings to the World, supporting our free programs

You can donate on Facebook.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank you.