By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

The profound inward path of Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation begins with Shaktipat.  This initiation awakens Kundalini, the spiritual power that is hidden within every human being.  She is the Divine energy of creation and revelation.  

Gurudevi Nirmalananda is a Kundalini Master, authorized to awaken your own Kundalini energy.  She says, “This is the most powerful way I can serve you, by awakening you to your own Divinity.”  This serves the highest purpose of human life — to revel in your own spiritual essence.  

Yogis who have attended Shaktipat Retreats describe their experience of this profound transformation:

During Shaktipat, I felt an energy go into me.  It was extraordinary.  It felt like a faucet had turned on at the base of my spine.  It brought me inside to my Self.  When I returned home, everything there was the same, but I had changed. — Robin B.

Receiving this spiritual initiation from Gurudevi, I find my mind drawn toward stillness.  My heart is entwined in love.  The sense of contentment and wonderment knows no bounds.  — Betsy A.

Be empowered by a spiritual master who opens your access to the powerful flow of meditative energy within. Gurudevi’s next Shaktipat Retreat begins May 13, available Online.

45-minutes ♥ $10 yoga class

How quickly can you feel better?

Join our user-friendly, deeply effective yoga classes that make a real difference in a short time.  Why?  Because that’s all you’ve got available! 

• Mondays from 10:30-11:15 am
• Tuesdays from 5:45-6:30 pm
• Thursdays from 10:30-11:15 am

This fits easily into your schedule while improving your life.  Body, mind, heart and more, just as yoga is so well known for.  Your first class will prove how quickly you can feel better.

Every week features a different teaching theme.  This gives you variety while you learn a lot of different poses.  Yet it is all laid on the base of profound openings and deep inner experiences.

Can you make real progress in a short time?  Yes, definitely!  We use customized teaching protocols that dissolve the deepest tensions in your body.  It happens in the first few poses and a short breathing practice.  Then you build strength and stamina.

You end up in a short meditation.  You float out of class, with an open spine, open breath and open heart.  Svaroopa^® Yoga makes this all easy. How do you find out? Come on in! Yoga Quickies start 4/11

Gurudevi has bestowed the title of Yogaratna on eight more Svaroopa^® yoga teachers.  They join Valerie (Atmananda) Trautlein, the first teacher honored in this way.  Please help us congratulate:

• Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver
• Cayla (Mangala) Allen
• Jules (Brahmini) Watson
• Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast
• Melissa (Yogyananda) Fountain
• Nirooshitha Sethuram
• Rosemary (Rudrani) Nogue
• Soraya Periera

“Just as in the ‘real world,’” explains Gurudevi, “the yoga world has ways of acknowledging the highest levels of leadership.  Meaning the “jewel of yoga” or a “yoga-gem,” this title honors one who has developed their inner depth in such a way that they can shine it into the world.  

Their mastery extends into the practicalities of life as well as the mystical dimensions within.  Like a diamond or ruby reflects the light, captivating all who see it, such a yogi shines Divine Light into the world in a way that heals, transforms and uplifts others.”

Gurudevi created this yogic title in early 2020.  It honors those who embody the qualities of yoga in three ways:  Commitment to teaching, quality of their teaching and their commitment and service to the Ashram.  To learn more, click here: Yogic Titles.  

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

What can fit into your busy life?  Short little yoga-bits.  What can intrude into all that stuff in your mind?  It needs to be only a few words, I know, yet it must contain the whole of Consciousness.  It’s a lot like sutras.  Our Communications Upgrade focuses on giving you key teachings in bite-size pieces. 

https://youtu.be/a_raQD3AzlA

I feel like I’m laying out a breadcrumb trail.  Each little nibble feeds you and hopefully makes you want more.  If I design it well, you’ll follow the trail far enough that it leads you the right direction — inward.  

There, what you find is greater than you could have ever imagined, for the whole of Consciousness is within you. That’s called “your own Self.”

I invite you to join me in this mystical journey, bringing the cosmic truths right into your life.  How?  Get our daily emails, with a teaching every day.  On four days of the week, you also get my short videos and yogi’s stories.  They all are lights to follow on this path, with their uplifting and inspiring experiences.  Allow them to touch your heart and open up new possibilities for you.

Whatever touches your heart, you make space for it in your life and in your mind.  When a teaching helps you see things in a new way, or it opens up a deeper experience within, your radar screen expands.  You can take in more.  You can handle more.  You can give more.  That’s what I call yoga.

Subscribe for our daily emails, or choose the frequency that works best for you:

• Daily: an uplifting teaching or video from Gurudevi, plus periodic excerpts from yogis’ stories.
• Tues-Thurs: yogis tell their stories on Tuesdays. Thursdays bring videos and audios from Gurudevi as well as stories about her.
• Weekly: you get the Thursday videos and audios from Gurudevi as well as stories about her. Learn about enlightenment from those who see it in action.
• Monthly: uplifting stories of real people doing more yoga, along with links to recent additions to our freebies and upcoming programs.  

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Everyone matters.  But no one person matters any more than any other person.  Each and every one matters fully.  This is the mystical perspective.  You have this perspective when you are experiencing your own Self.  The One Divine Essence shines through as every single being and every single thing.  They are all lovable.  They are all to be revered and respected.  They are all to be protected and cherished. 

I can say the same thing in another way, “How big is your heart?”  Yoga will make you used to living in a greater love and a greater inner spaciousness than you’ve known before.  You’ve probably had tastes of it, perhaps in meditation or somewhere on a mountain-top.  Yoga promises that you will live in this, the bliss of Consciousness, all the time.

This is radically different than the image of a yogi in a cave or the forest, withdrawn and alone, rejecting the world in order to find God.  God is in the world!  When you reject the world, you reject God.  In order to know God, in order to find your own Divine Essence, you must embrace it all.  But here’s the trick.  You embrace it all, but without preferences.

Why?  Because God is not merely in the world, God is being the world.  It’s impossible to prefer one form of God over another, for everyone is made of the same mystical substance.  Bottom line, we’re all made of the same thing.

Tan-naanaa anuruupa graahya graahaka bhedaat. — Pratyabhij~nah.rdayam 3

Shiva chooses to become the multiplicity of the universe.

This universe is made of energy, conscious energy, as the physicists have discovered.  Matter is made of energy, which is aware of itself.  It is aware of all the atoms and sub-atomic particles it is being.  Everything is made of this conscious energy, including your bones and body.  Even your mind and heart are made of this energy.  You are a…

Read the April Teachings Article

There are stages of enlightenment and steps you can take toward it.

1. Healing: Whether it’s your body, mind or heart that needs help, the first step is healing from the inside-outward. Just like with a cut, the healing power comes from inside. Svaroopa^® Yoga amps up your healing power.
2. Transformation: You see your life with new eyes. Better yet, you see you with new eyes, which changes everything, even while you’re in the middle of it. More caring and compassionate, more intelligent, more creative and with more clarity about what you came here to do – that’s transformation.
3. llumination: Flashes of insight happen from the beginning, that’s the power of revelation, the specialty of Svaroopa^® Yoga & Meditation. That’s what you really wanted anyway, to know your own Divine Essence and to live in the Bliss of Consciousness.

We are committed to supporting you through this process, wherever you find yourself in it. This is the purpose of our “Communications Upgrade” – the reason we now email bite-size pieces every day. Just 60-90 seconds, like the video with this blog.

Our purpose is upliftment — your upliftment. To make that easier, we have consolidated our information streams. Our emails, blogs and social media posts are different doorways into the teachings and personal stories we offer.

A new Daily Email is our primary communication channel. It now includes a short video or audio weekly, maybe even more often. Personal stories by yogis who have been doing more yoga will arrive on Tuesdays; stories about Gurudevi and teachings from her arrive on Thursdays.

More blogs! Our inspiring stories are now posted here, in our Ashram blog. It’s now easier than ever to follow, with the button right at the top of this page.

YogaMysticism.Today is our second blogsite, featuring stories by our swamis, so follow it too!

We hope you will enjoy having Gurudevi inspire you daily. Or choose weekly or monthly frequency when you subscribe or update your subscription.

Short info-bits, that’s all you have time for these days.  We are shortening and simplifying our emails to give you more, but taking less of your time.  Along with a pretty new look, the plan is to give you a moment of upliftment every day.

Videos are coming —  beginning soon.  Your email will include a 60-90 second video weekly or more often.  It gives you a bite-size piece to chew on or just to make you grin.  It will be something from Gurudevi or our other blog authors.

Good news:  no more long emails.  However we know that yogis’ stories are so heart-warming and inspiring that we don’t want to lose them.  So you’ll get a paragraph or two (another 60 second option) along with a link to the blog.

Our publications have been stellar for years, supported by an extensive team of sevites as well as several full-time staff members.  Our readership is well served and seems to know it, as our “open rates” for our emails are consistently high.  SVA was used as the example to learn from at a weekend seminar several years ago, to which we had sent several staff members.

The communications world has changed a lot, fueled by your changing activities and interests during the pandemic.  Now that you can get out, you have many things competing for your attention.  In addition, video is more important, plus it has become easy to imbed video and audio clips in emails.  We’re going to do it!

We hope you will enjoy having Gurudevi inspire you daily, or you can simply choose weekly or monthly frequency here.  Maybe you can just wait a few days and see what’s coming your way…