By Barbara (Girijananda) Hess

SVA Board Member

I love that Thanksgiving begins our holiday season with a reminder to give thanks.  Giving thanks shifts me inside.  I experience a timeless gratitude that melts my heart.  When I surrender into the moment, great gratitude bubbles up.  I am most grateful for Gurudevi.  She has given me my Self.  How can I give thanks for this eternal gift?

One way I give thanks is through dakshina — yoga’s ancient practice of selfless financial giving.  I am so grateful to give to our Ashram’s fall campaign in gratitude for Gurudevi.  And I’m grateful for the organization through which her Grace-full teachings flow.  Please join me during this Thanksgiving season in supporting her and the Ashram, who offer so much.  This path offers fulfillment of life’s full potential, Self-Realization. 

From my first Svaroopa^® yoga class, I knew I received more than just a “yoga class.”  Then in my first immersion, Kundalini rose quite boldly.  I sensed a recognition the instant I laid eyes on Gurudevi.  How could I not support one who instantly gave me so much?  I began monthly donations.  I continue monthly giving, increasing it over time.  I also put aside money for the annual spring and fall fundraisers. 

You may be like me, not really understanding the full gift of our Svaroopa^® Sciences initially.  No worries.  Gurudevi never tires of serving, offering programs, guiding and sometimes blasting us through our blind spots.  Gurudevi reveals an inspiring capacity for giving thanks and gratitude.  She serves her Baba 100% every day.  She knows the power of deeply offering.  During Thanksgiving season, she gives us this opportunity too. 

I never tire of giving her support.  It is an honor to offer dakshina to one who gives so much.  I also see it as a necessity.  I want others to receive what she gives so freely to us.  Our giving keeps these teachings accessible.  It keeps the doors of the Ashram open to everyone.  Every story of others’ upliftment makes me even more dedicated to dakshina and seva, selfless service.

I recently taught a meditation series.  A few weeks later, I saw one of the attendees.  She rushed up to me and pressed some money in my hand.  She said, “This meditation and the mantra saved my life.  Please take this gift for your teachings.”  I thanked her and told her I would gladly send it to the Ashram.  What she received opened her in such a way she could not resist giving back.  That is the flow of Grace running through this lineage.  Dakshina supports everything that Gurudevi does and offers. 

So many of us have received the gift of Guru’s Grace — even if we’ve never met Gurudevi in person.  The Grace of the Svaroopa^® lineage flows through the teachings, and all the teachers whom Gurudevi has trained.  It even flows online.

Gurudevi says, “My ability to serve is like a tributary of a great river.  I am the riverbed.  That flow of Grace comes from my Guru, and I am a wide-open channel for that flow.”

I am incredibly grateful for Shaktipat, the ultimate gift from my Guru, Swami Nirmalananda.  I am equally grateful to her Guru, Swami Muktananda, and to his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda as well as to all the great beings in this lineage.  It has carried this great gift and these sacred teachings forward.  Thus, over time, they have reached us. These Masters have dedicated their life to Self-Realization.

With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives.  It’s Grace that has led you to the Svaroopa^®practices.  The Guru’s teachings are designed just for you.  Take them to heart.  Express the gratitude in your heart.  How has our River of Grace supported you?  Join me in giving to allow many more to join us in the River of Grace.  We have so many opportunities for reflection and gratitude on this day when Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.  A wonderful day to offer your dakshina of gratitude to the Ashram!

Donate today on our website.  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!

Beth (Bhanumati) Cunningham 

I am not my mind.  I am not my body.  I get it.  I really do.  But wait!  If I’m not my mind or my body — who’s this person in the mirror?  With Grace, answers to such questions flow in, almost as soon as I ask.  I hear Gurudevi’s voice: “This person is an expression of the Self, like a ripple of water.  So what kind of expression is that going to be?  You get to choose.” 

I made a list.  One of the first things I wrote was “generous.”  I stopped.  I actually am generous, I realized.  Wow, I am generous!  That is not something I could have said before coming to Svaroopa^® yoga.  What was mine, was mine.  What was yours was mine too, if I could get it.  Dakshina changed that for me — and so much more.  This is why I invite you to join me in donating to the Ashram’s fall campaign.  Financial support of the teachings is transformative.   

When I first learned about dakshina, I had all sorts of resistance.  I told myself I didn’t have it to give, which was true.  I wasn’t exactly making ends meet at the time.  Still, yoga had proven me wrong before, so I got creative.  I started putting any change I found on the street on my puja.  When the next campaign came around, I took that change and multiplied it by ten.  Then I donated that amount, plus the found change, to Master Yoga.  I think my first donation was $32.32.  It was the bargain of a lifetime.  What I gained in return was truly priceless.  That small gesture opened a sluice of Guru’s Grace in me that has become a river.  Not just any river — a Divine River — deep and wide.  A River of Grace that flows through me from my Guru.   

Guru’s Grace is ever flowing — ever https://svaroopa.org/donategenerous.  I just need to be open to it.  Giving what I can to the Ashram keeps me open in a very tangible way.  I feel the Grace flowing, and I see the results in my life.  I can now be generous in ways I didn’t even know possible before.  Time, energy, space, attention, consideration, security — I seem to have an abundance of it all.  It’s all so easy because it comes from Guru’s Grace.  I just stay in the flow. 

Donate today on our website.  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! 

By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi 
SVA Board Member 

NEW! Video link added!

Today is a most auspicious day.  November 15^th is the day our dear Gurudevi Nirmalananda was born into this world.  What birthday gift can you possibly give her?  That’s easy.  Simply support her work in the world.  Our annual fall fundraiser is in full swing.  Happy birthday, Gurudevi!  I’m sending you birthday wishes by supporting your work, and the work of the Ashram.  Please join me in offering your financial support to Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram today. 

How will Gurudevi, a fully enlightened yoga master, celebrate her birthday?  By serving you, of course! Today, as every day, she will allow the full power of this ancient lineage to flow. Through her, it flows directly to you.  This is the river of Grace, Guru’s Grace. It’s the energy of your own enlightenment.  

She ignites this energy for you. Then she gives you the Svaroopa^® yoga tools and practices.  They allow your light to grow, and shine brighter and brighter. In other words, she gives you YOU, the most sacred gift!  

In 2017, Gurudevi gave me a new Sanskrit yoga name, Gurupremananda. It’s not a title. It describes the gift that Gurudevi gives.  Ananda means bliss.  Prema is divine love, unconditional and pure. Guru is the source of Grace, the energy of enlightenment.  So Gurupremananda means the bliss of the love of Guru. 

Guru’s Grace is the support of my life. I know and experience that Guru’s Grace manifests as pure and unconditional love. This Grace is the force of destruction and reconstruction, rebuilding me from the inside out. It’s like the remodeling work we do on our 150-year-old Ashram building known as Lokananda.

Guru’s Grace ushers in loving demolition of what is no longer working inside.  Guru’s Grace replaces it with shining new awareness and peace.  The process can sometimes be challenging, but it’s transformational.  This is Grace at work.  This is Guru. 

Devotion to Guru’s Grace means being devoted to your own spiritual path and your own Self-Realization.  Her Grace keeps me steadfast in yoga, meditation and life.  Gurudevi advises looking for the Guru in the depths of our own hearts.  Yes, Guru is there, ever supporting and working on me and on you.  But today we get to celebrate also having her loving presence here in a body.  We get to be in relationship with her, to name and honor her as Guru.  It is so priceless.  Please join me in celebrating her birthday. 

Donate today on our website.  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! 

By Rosemary (Rudrani) Nogue

I am grateful for Guru’s Grace.  This is why I give dakshina (financial support).  It is a powerful practice that increases my capacity to receive Guru’s Grace.  I always donate to our Ashram’s semiannual fundraisers.  They are opportunities to reciprocate and express devotion.  

Donating is a valuable, concrete way to express gratitude for all I receive.  My life would be so different without my Guru — Swami Nirmalananda — and the Grace that flows through her.

Years ago, I became aware of a tangible inner upliftment when teaching Svaroopa^® yoga.  I didn’t have a name for it then.  Before teaching, I would internally ask her, whom we lovingly call Gurudevi, for support.  What I now recognize as Grace arose inside and still does.  It allows me to teach from a place of deeper awareness.  At the beginning of group meditations, I offer arati and a chant to our lineage.  I settle deeper inside.  

Of course, Guru’s Grace is always available to me, not just when I’m teaching.  Grace supports me touching into Self in day-to-day life.  Yet I must do my part to be receptive to this Grace that is always flowing.  I choose to increase my capacity, so I have space to let Grace in.  

I offer devotional arati to Gurudevi and our lineage morning and evening.  I immerse myself in beautiful Ashram practices and programs.  Daily, I partake of mantra repetition, meditation, and chanting.  I zoom into Swami Sunday with Gurudevi and our swamis.  I regularly enroll in Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreats.  I use her many Freebies offered online.  The more I open to Grace in my life, the more I am empowered.  My capacity to receive more Grace expands.

When I am in the flow of Guru’s Grace, life is easier even when challenges occur.  I am clearer because my mind is quieter.  I am present.  When I am in the flow of Guru’s Grace, I am more my true Self.  Grace is an integral part of my life.  Gurudevi serves as a riverbed for Grace to flow through.  The flow finds me when I am receptive to letting it in.

Grace is always flowing.  When you are receptive, you let it in.  Offering a financial gift nourishes your capacity to receive Guru’s Grace.  Your donation also nourishes the Svaroopa^® organization, which provides Gurudevi’s teachings and free offerings to you.  Guru’s Grace opens your heart and mind so you can experience your Self.  

Please donate with an open heart and mind, so your heart and mind open even more.  The act of donating, in any amount, gives you an inner upliftment that builds on itself.  I offer my deep gratitude to you for considering this invitation!

Donate today on our website.  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!

By TC (Tattvananda) Richards

SVA Board Member

I invite you to join me in donating to our Ashram.  Together, we support the river of Grace flowing from the Ashram out into the world.  Grace is available everywhere.  Yet Guru’s Grace is unique.  Supercharged by the Masters of our lineage, Guru’s Grace bestows light, bliss and Self-Realization.  Guru’s Grace is a Divine Force.  A donation to our Ashram supports Guru’s Grace.

When my mind thinks I can’t do something, Guru’s Grace moves me through that resistance.  Guru’s Grace shows me I am more than my mind thinks I am.  When I practice disciple’s Grace, while fully open to Guru’s Grace, everything is so easy.  All things are possible.  No matter where I am or what state I am in, Guru’s Grace delivers more than I can imagine.  I am so grateful for the Grace of my beloved Satguru Swami Nirmalananda. 

Lovingly called Gurudevi, she is a Shaktipat Guru.  While she bestows her Grace upon us formally in Shaktipat, she oozes this Grace every second of the day.  Guru’s Grace flows from her like a powerful waterfall.  When I sit at her feet, I feel the power of Guru’s Grace.  Hearing her voice on the Meditation Club call or a Japa Club call, I am washed by her Grace.  The river of Grace that flows from this powerhouse of a source reaches far and wide.  There is no place it cannot reach.  All we need to do is be open to accept it.

Our Svaroopa^® lineage is filled with this Grace, which flows through the teachings and all the teachers whom Gurudevi has trained.  It even flows online.  While Grace flows through the Guru, it is even greater than the Guru.  It’s everywhere and it finds you when you need it.

Therefore, I invite you to join me in supporting these teachings by supporting the Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram.  It is an opportunity to feel that river of Grace more fully.  Feel the Grace!  Let it flow right through you.  Donate today.  Then, sit with Grace and feel it flow.

Donate today on our website.  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!