Monthly Archives: May 2023

Surgery at Birth

By Maria Sichel

With the Svaroopa® Sciences practices, miracles happen reliably.  Encouraged by his wife, my client Marc took an introductory class last September.  With two partial knee replacements, he described himself as “stiff” and said he had back and knee pain.  After this introduction, Marc felt so good he enrolled in weekly classes.

Marc’s Svaroopa® yoga class became a highlight of his week.  He often reported with wonder that he felt so much better at the end of class.  Early on, he remarked, “I wasn’t expecting the added benefit of mental relief!  I am astounded to be calmer with less pain, more mobility and an overall good feeling.  My body has opened in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”

In February, he decided to try yoga therapy.  He described, “I was born with a double hernia.  Correction at birth created scar tissue that affected my psoas muscles.  At 26, I developed a slight herniation on the right side of the L4–L5 vertebrae.  On-and-off debilitating pain resulted.”

Marc got some relief from massage therapy and chiropractic treatments.  However, the extreme tightness on his right side from his neck down to his hip continued.  Arriving for his first yoga therapy session, Marc reported pain spreading through his neck, entire right side, sacrum and both knees.  Afterward, he reported no pain!  Being persuaded by the miracle of 20 minutes of Ujjayi Pranayama, Marc became a daily “breather” at home.

At his fifth session, Marc reports enjoying his consistent daily Ujjayi breathing.  When he fills out the initial pain scale, he now targets only two small spots.  He leaves the session with zeros. 

Marc says, “I am amazed at the breathing practice.  I have been able to stop visiting the chiropractor every week.  This weekend I overdid it and was in quite a negative state.  I did my breathing, poses and some meditation, and I was transformed.”

I say that Marc is in the “midst of a miracle.”  I don’t know how “good” good can get for Marc.  And neither does he.  But he continues to be curious and run the experiment.

Radical Transformation

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Body, Mind, Heart and More — this phrase resonates with me on all levels.  It’s the title of our current Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram fundraising campaign.  It’s also where I’ve received profound, beneficial change all the way to the roots of my being.  And this deep shift orients me to what I always wanted.  That’s why I gratefully donate to our Ashram each month as well as in the twice-yearly campaigns.

I invite you to join me in this glorious yoga practice: dakshina.  Practicing dakshina, we give back in gratitude to the source of the transformative yogic teachings.

For two decades, the Svaroopa® Sciences have unraveled the roots of my mental and physical pain.  Already a yoga teacher in another style, I accidentally discovered Svaroopa® yoga and meditation.  My main reason for pivoting to the Svaroopa® practices was wanting to teach them.  They gave me the previously unknown experience of Consciousness arising from within — pure bliss.  The Svaroopa® poses and meditation reliably opened me inward to this experience.  

I wanted it!  I wanted teaching it to be my life’s work.  Unlike in previous styles, Svaroopa® yoga and meditation reliably, consistently opened me inward to bliss — even in home practice.  In teaching, I see my students experience the same.

My heart opens.  My relationships improve — with myself as well as others and the world!  The most radical shift has been in what I want.  While I did get teaching Svaroopa® yoga and meditation as my life’s work, I got more.  I got “ME.”  This is the experience of the One Self Being All.  In the beginning, I had a vague awareness that was what I longed for.  Now it’s clear.  What I’ve always wanted is to be rooted in Self.

What do you yearn for?  What do you receive from our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram?  I hope your answers guide you to join me in practicing dakshina.  Allow your beautiful generosity to unfold from gratitude.  Be ready to experience even more of the bliss of knowing yourself as the Ever-Existing Self.

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!