Monthly Archives: June 2023

One of My All-Time Favorite Poses

By Soraya (Sudevi) Pereira, Yogaratna

One of my all-time favorite poses is Prasarita Padottanasana (SloMo in the chair) with the variation: Push-Pull. I practice it after doing Ujjayi Pranayama in Shavasana with Legs on Chair. 

Sitting on the chair, I move into Prasarita Padottanasana to prepare for the variation’s specialized angles.  I feel the heads of both my thigh bones settle deeper inside my hip sockets.  

This starts a lovely chain of events, with my sitbones poking back more.  My tailbone releases and lengthens.  I always get these delicious changes. 

I also feel a wonderful release in the front of my sacrum.  This area of my low back sometimes gets achy.  All this lower spinal release makes me bend forward more deeply.  I feel more grounded on the chair.  I settle more deeply into all of those pose benefits.

With the help of my teacher Swami Shrutananda, I have learned to finesse the leg actions.  This allows my lower back to completely relax.  The pose then blossoms fully, reaching into my whole spine.  My body releases tension and my mind becomes fully present.  I love how powerful and reliable this pose is!

Telecourse: Leaps & Bounds

Make giant leaps into Consciousness in Gurudevi’s new Telecourse.  She has created a sweet, yet powerful inner process that opens you to your Self.

With substantive articles and teaching videos, you take this multimedia course at your own pace.  Your password is current for three months after you enroll.  Take any of the three modules or all of them:

Module 1:  Growth Spurts — Leaping forward, bounding into Consciousness, making fast progress easily 

Module 2:  Living Spirituality — Riding on the shoulders of spiritual giants, how do you incorporate their great gifts into your everyday life?

Module 3:  Ordinary Monks & Mystics — Outgrowing your past & shaping your future. The loom of tantra: interweaving spirituality through life.

Bonus Video:  Resting on Your Laurels (free when you enroll in all 3 modules).

As always, Gurudevi brings it all alive with her personal sharings, making the process so understandable and accessible.  With the meaningful material in this deep course, you will experience a difference in your spiritual progress.

Intrigued?

Leaps & Bounds

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

I remember getting leg pains in my adolescence.  I felt a deep inner ache that had a sharp edge to it.  The doctor called them growing pains.  

He offered no treatment, no help whatsoever, saying I’d outgrow the growing pains.  It’s true; I did.  You will, too.

Those growing pains are caused by muscular tension.  The bones are growing faster than the muscles.  The muscles are holding tight while the bones attached to them are growing longer, stretching the muscles and tendons to a new length.  

If my childhood doctor had simply recommended some gentle massage, or maybe some yoga, my growing pains would have disappeared.  Nowadays, maybe they even recommend yoga?  Looking back, I can see that it would have helped me grow into myself much more smoothly:  on all levels, body, mind, heart and spirit…

International Day of Yoga 2023

The World is Doing More Yoga

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Join us in celebrating this UN-proclaimed observance, created in 2014.  The summer solstice was chosen, honored in India for the most daylight (in the northern hemisphere).  The resolution received support from 177 nations, the highest number of co-sponsors for any UN resolution.

Fun Facts:

  • 300 million people worldwide regularly practice yoga
  • 36 million Americans practice yoga regularly
  • 1.7 million American children under 17 practice yoga
  • 1 in 3 Americans have at least tried yoga
  • 150% more men are practicing yoga from 2012-2016, from 4 million to 10 million
  • 86% report a reduction in stress
  • 69% report a positive increase in temperament and mood
  • 59% report an improvement in sleep quality and quantity
  • 86% report an overall improved sense of mental wellness and clarity
  • 79% report a feeling of closeness with their community and wanting to give back
  • 55% of regular yoga practitioners attend 2-3 classes per week
  • 50% increase in USA yoga practitioners since 2017
  • 50% of yoga practitioners focus on meditation
  • 50% of yoga practitioners are more likely to volunteer and have donated to charities in the last year
  • 41% of yogis are vegetarian
  • 5% have given Sanskrit names to either their children or their pets

For this special day, the Indian government has given us some online activities to do – click here for a yoga quiz, an online discussion forum, to share a video, design a mascot, create a poster or a poem, create a doodle, offer a jingle or an essay and more…

Please join us at one of our events:

Fun Facts:  https://yogaearth.com/yoga-research

The Amazing Gift of Shaktipat

By Alina (Avinashi) Uzhvieva

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

Nothing compares to being in the same room with an Enlightened Being.  In Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s presence, a vibration starts in my whole body.  It’s more than mere emotions; it’s coming from a place deeper inside.  

Attending Shaktipat at Lokananda also means being surrounded by beautiful smiles and serene faces of fellow yogis.  There is no judgement, only love and care.  Everyone there shares the same path to liberation.  

Before I received my first Shaktipat initiation I had so many expectations.  I wanted to get it all!  Receiving Gurudevi’s Shaktipat by touch was intense.  I experienced my greed and expectations turning into tears, anger, guilt and fear.  They were being cleared out.  

Then I realized that all my previous yogic practices had prepared me for this moment.  Suddenly the anguish stopped.  I felt completely still.  It was deeply calming and absolutely ecstatic.  

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Having learned my lesson, I was able to release all thoughts and feelings in Gurudevi’s second Shaktipat (by will).  Everything dissolved as I melted into the process.  I felt I was one with every yogi in the room.  It was a sweet state of Beingness.

When I returned to everyday life, I knew I wanted to integrate my experiences. Gurudevi provided us with many practical tools to support ourselves after Shaktipat.  At first, I did experience relapse, wanting to be back at Lokananda.  Yet I realized integrating even 1% of my expanded state of Beingness would improve my whole life. 

Now I have more clarity about being a mother and wife.  I want to keep my body and mind healthy to support my family.  This realization helped establish my daily practice.  I do yoga and meditate every day now.  

Less reactive and more responsive, I feel better and see everything in my life in a different light. Remembering my Shaktipat experience, I can be with whatever is happening.  I’m grateful for Guru’s Grace and to know where I am headed!

Changing the World with Yoga

By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

I recently completed a Teacher Training — Yoga Classroom Therapeutics 1 (YCT1).  I learned how to help students with their own healing.  I now can use more advanced propping and adjustments for many poses.  This helps me tailor the poses to really help people get the pain relief that Svaroopa® yoga provides.

I have experienced this in my own body. Even more amazing is what it’s doing for one of my students.  I am getting to see first-hand the profound improvements she is enjoying. 

Part of our YCT1 homework is to track a student with a diagnosed medical condition. Before each class they document their current pain level.  We use the traditional scale of 1–10, with 10 being equivalent to childbirth or a broken bone.  After class, they document their current pain level, which shows if they have any improvement. 

This student suffers from psoriatic arthritis.  It causes intense pain and sometimes immobility in her hands and her hips.  Before class recently, she reported her hands were at pain level 9 with her hips at level 6.  I led a 90-minute Svaroopa® yoga class.  During class, I included a couple of the therapeutic adjustments I knew would help her. 

At the end of class, she documented her results.  Her hands had gone from a 9 on the pain scale to a 1.  Her hips went from pain level 6 down to 3.  She was amazed!  So was I. 

Over the next few days, I followed up with her often.  I made sure she was continuing her yogic breathing practice as well as poses to keep her opening.  She was still feeling great. 

She knows it’s a process.  She recognizes that living without pain all the time will take consistent practice — but it’s worth it!  What a great blessing it is for me to have these tools to help people in pain.  Svaroopa® yoga teachers can change the world one ache and pain at a time.

Yoga Works on You in Spite of You

By Ellan (Shanti) Catacchio

Interviewed by Margie (Maitreyi) Wilsman

Gurudevi offered “Leaps & Bounds” as her 2019 Year-Long Programme (YLP).  I took it back then.  Now she is offering “Leaps & Bounds” as a Telecourse, with new teaching videos as well as substantive articles.

I looked through my 2019 YLP articles, and as I read, I kept saying yes and yes.  I saw how I experienced a powerful inner process.  What especially struck me is that I now hear so much of what Gurudevi says differently and deeper.

Looking through my 2019 meditation journal, I could not finish.  It was so intense.  I no longer feel that way now.  I am doing the things I said I should do in 2019.  Yet I am not frantic about it.  There is ease about my life that was not there in 2019.  

Yes, since 2019, I have had the huge growth spurt that Gurudevi describes in “Leaps & Bounds.”  I am doing it all with ease.  Not because I feel I should.  It is not a “should.”  It is just a natural thing to do.  I know that meditation is working.  It works, even when it is not what I want or expect it to be.  

With my calmer demeanor and approach, I may be plateauing.  In the 2019 YLP, Gurudevi described this plateau on the Self-Realization path.  I’m settling in, not backsliding nor relapsing.  Instead of coaching “just do it,” Gurudevi guides us into keeping meditating and a lot will fall into place.

Looking though her 2019 articles, I found many other gems of guidance. Don’t compare.  Just keep meditating. Yoga and Kundalini have my back, as does my Guru.  It all comes together.

Gurudevi’s new Telecourse videos will expand the power of her teachings.  We will be in her presence and see her, her facial expressions and surroundings.  Her teaching audios in the original “Leaps & Bounds” YLP were profound.  Now with her videos, the Leaps & Bounds teachings will have even more profound impact.

In taking the Telecourse, may you (like me) discover that yoga works on you in spite of you.

Giving and Receiving

By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell, President

Svaroopa® Yoga Ashram Board

It’s hard to believe that our “Body, Mind, Heart and More” fundraiser is wrapping up.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every donor for your support.  Your generosity touches my heart.  If you have not already given, there is still time.  

Your donations are the foundation that allows us to keep going.  Your donations build a stable platform for us to offer Freebies, programs, trainings and immersions.  Thus, our Ashram can offer the gems of Svaroopa® yoga: asana, Embodyment® yoga therapy, vichara, meditation, chanting and more.  I want to thank you for helping to support our Ashram in this way.  You help us to share the tools that you know work.

I find it easier to give than receive.  Even when I volunteer, I feel good and my heart is opened.  Then I find it easier to receive.  It’s a cycle of giving and receiving.  

This isn’t about how much you give.  It’s about the place inside from which you give.  We think of giving and receiving as two different things.  Or is it one?  Can you give without receiving?  

When you receive, you’re giving a gift to the one who is giving.  You’re allowing them to help.  So I don’t think giving and receiving are different.  They are intertwined.

When you do the Svaroopa® yoga practices, they uncover your indwelling light.  Then it shines through you.  You also allow the Ashram to serve you.  Your donation keeps the cycle of giving and receiving going.  By being in this community and by giving, you allow our Ashram to shine the Light of Consciousness in the world.

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!

Your Mind’s True Capacity

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Brilliance.  Creativity.  Insight and intelligence. Generosity and boundless love.  Compassion, strength, fortitude – these go together, for you cannot act on your compassion unless you also bring strength and fortitude with you.  Your mind is capable of all this and more.  

You currently use such a small portion of your true capacity that I call it “puny little mind.” This is a trap you can end up living in for lifetimes, as it is baited with sensory delights.

Every athlete knows to restrain their appetites before a competition.  They refrain from intoxicants and sexuality plus they carefully regulate their sleep and food.  This is true of chess players as well.  If you want to get optimum results from the use of your body and mind, you need to take care of them, like you would with any other type of equipment.

For those who wear eyeglasses, you have to clean them regularly.  If you wait too long, you don’t realize that you’re living in a grey and blurry world until you do clean them.  Then you put them back on and wow!  The world is so bright!  And so beautiful!

The yogic sages say that it is not merely your glasses that need cleaning…

Keep the Light Shining

By Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver, Yogaratna

Member, SVA Board of Directors

The Svaroopa® Sciences practices are like glittering gems.  On their own, they sparkle.  When you do more of them, YOU sparkle.  It’s because these gems are infused with the scintillating Grace of the Masters of our tradition.

Sparkling and shining with the Light of Consciousness, it’s easy to feel open-hearted and generous. Many of you have donated to our fundraiser, Body, Mind, Heart and More. And many of you have increased your monthly pledge.  And if you haven’t yet donated, there is still time!

We’re fortunate to have found a system of yoga and meditation that gives us so many doorways inside.  Our system of yoga and meditation is led by a living Meditation Master. She has the key to set us free . Ours is a mystical tradition. Gurudevi Nirmalananda unlocks access to your own Self.  Then she hands you the keys.  You can propel yourself all the way to enlightenment, if that is your goal.

Your goal could be continuing to feel better as well as to enjoy life more by taking yoga classes.  That’s terrific. Or you may want to shed the layers wrapping and warping your mind by using vichara (self-guided inquiry).  Awesome.  Maybe you want to delve deeper into your heart with chanting and meditation.  How wonderful.  All these radiant gems are there for you.

Still, there’s more.  These practices shine the light on all that you are.  Then Grace fuels your process and lifts you up, no matter what doorway you enter.  You shine brightly, like a diamond glittering in the sun.  You shine with the Light of Consciousness.

Keep the light shining for yourself and others with another one of yoga’s gems.  All your yoga practices open an inner flow that makes you want to share.  Dakshina, the yogic giving of financial resources, is an organic extension of this.  In our fundraiser, Body, Mind, Heart and More, contribute from all that you are.

When you give from the depths of your being, you feel generous, organically.  Open your body, mind, heart and more.  Give to the organization that gives you so much in return. Give to the organization that gives so much so freely to the world.

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!