By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Every time I do Downward Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana), I savor the experience.

To prepare, I lengthen my arms out on the floor, and feel a soft knot unravel between my shoulder blades. It’s like a looped scarf simply smoothing out. Nearly effortlessly, I back into the pose.

I feel supported and protected by my leg bones. Miraculously stable, they take my body’s weight. My torso feels fluid and light. I feel enlivened and timeless. A pure, blissful awareness of being expands from within and envelopes me.

In my 30’s, I found I could do yoga, though I’d nearly flunked high school physical education. Down Dog has been a loyal friend. In Down Dog, I proudly sunk my heels into the floor while others had to lift theirs. True, the teacher suggested I seek a chiropractor for my visibly tight upper spine. But my heels landed! I was good (or so I thought)! For decades, I continued with yoga classes in different styles. Down Dog was always my favorite pose. I stayed in delusion.

Finding Svaroopa^® yoga, I first felt the bliss of spinal opening and then learned the truth. Overstretched ligaments are a big problem. I could press my Down Dog feet into the floor and go into all kinds of pretzel poses. But this deceptive flexibility kept my spine tight.

Fortunately, I enrolled in Foundations. That “iceberg” hiding in the depths came to light. After YTT 1, I vowed to practice Svaroopa^® yoga poses exclusively. No more Down Dog — not until YTT 3 a few years later.

Being trained to teach Downward Facing Dog as a Svaroopa^® yoga pose was a breakthrough. I felt my spine and whole body come alive. It’s a lifetime Marker Pose for me. Down Dog shows me, in no uncertain terms, the miraculous power of Svaroopa^® yoga’s spinal decompression.

I now do Down Dog with reverence. It reveals the sanctity of my human body and sends me into bliss.

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Embodied spirituality is built into all our Svaroopa^® Sciences.  It’s there from the yoga poses, through your subtle internal processes and especially including your meditative practices.  Svaroopa^® yoga is a modern-day expression of the very ancient tradition of tantra. 

Tantra means loom, like a weaver’s loom that interweaves the warp and the woof threads.  It means that you find the infinite in this finite reality.  You discover the Divine which is already present within the mundane.  The tantric sages say that the One Reality, which has always existed, decided to manifest the entire world and everyone in it.  Everything is Shiva being the world as well as being beyond the world. 

The doorway into this tantric tradition is through initiation — Shaktipat.  It is a transmission of energy that awakens your own dormant energy, hidden within.  Your awakened energy then climbs your spine from the tip of your tailbone to the top of your head.  The purpose of all Svaroopa^® practices is to awaken and support the blossoming of this spiritual energy in you. 

During meditation, signs of this inner awakening include little swaying movements, even small little jerks that deepen your meditation.  You may feel an inner heat climbing up your spine and spreading through your body.  You can be drawn into a deep and profound meditative state, so deep that it feels like sleep.  It is a deep meditative immersion into Consciousness. 

In your inner explorations, you may see lights, colors and visions, or you may hear divine inner sounds.  Or sudden and profound insights may be revealed.  These are all the results of Shaktipat — the inner awakening.  This is the beginning of embodied spirituality. 

Once you have received Shaktipat, the end goal is guaranteed — enlightenment in this lifetime.  I describe it like this: Once a baby is born, puberty is guaranteed.  Once you receive Shaktipat, realization is guaranteed.  As cosmic energy moves through your spine, it vitalizes your body.  I can’t say revitalize because that would imply you were getting energy you’d previously had.  Rather, this is a vitality you never knew.  Your body undergoes energetic and cellular changes, profoundly beneficial. 

Yet the most important effect is that a profound inner state opens up for you.  Your new inner stability and depth provide additional physical benefits.  Your inner essence is expressed through your body and is experienced in your body, even while there is so much more. 

Svaroopa^® yoga poses create and support this process.  Our sequencing always starts at the tip of your tailbone, followed by poses that mirror the inner opening of Shaktipat.  These practices support your inner upliftment, helping to dissolve blockages along the way.  Yet, as powerful, beautiful, wonderful and blissful as the poses are, they are only the starting point. 

Ultimately, the real work is accomplished in meditation.  Meditation is where you let your Divine inner energy move through your spine.  This energy restructures your body and opens up your mind.  Your most powerful practices are mantra and meditation.  They will fulfill the promise of the sages, embodied spirituality:

to know without thought

to BE without effort

to experience without fear or desire

to abide in the Bliss of Consciousness

to live in the multidimensionality of your

own being

to know your own Self as the Divine

Incarnation that you already are.

— Excerpt from Embodied Spirituality, pages 7‒10

Take a peek inside. See how Gurudevi’s new Calendar Journal helps you with yogifying your day, every day.

January 18  

Svaroopa^® yoga specializes in core opening, the decompression of your spine, both physically and energetically.

January 19

Each time you lift and open your spine, you stay a little more open and become more able to live in that openness.

January 20  

Svaroopa^® Yoga’s practices turn life’s momentum from contraction to expansion.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

We all love the primal elements: earth, water, fire, air, and empty space.

Yoga names these mahabhutas as the building blocks of all that exists in this world. It is especially powerful where they meet — like the ocean washing against a sandy beach or crashing against the rocks.

Maybe for you it is sunrise or sunset over the sea; when there are a few wispy clouds, you can get all five elements at once:

The shoreline — earth

The ocean — water

The sun — fire

The clouds — air (when the air is holding water, you can see it, otherwise air is invisible)

The space between the clouds — empty space

So many beautiful photographs and paintings feature these primal elements, and they touch something deep inside you. Some of your favorite places probably have the combination of several mahabhutas, perhaps even your own garden.

Yoga explains that we love them because they are different expressions of the One, the primordial essence, which is the source of everything. You are made of this same substance, which is why you experience such a profound feeling in these environments. You enjoy a resonance or a recognition of the shared essence.

Since we are so often out of touch with our own essence, we need these external reminders. Many people even dream of retiring to the hinterlands and living in the midst of nature; they are seeking an environment that will give them constant peace and joy.

Recently I have realized that even before I loved the ocean, I loved fire. My first experience of making friends with fire was when I was about 12 years old. One by one, I lit all the matches in a book of matches and let each burn down to my fingertips. I was enchanted and have been ever since.

Ocean and fire are two very important images in yoga. Many texts speak eloquently of the ocean of consciousness, directing you to your own inner essence so you can discover the vastness and fullness that is even greater than the ocean. At my request, Master Yoga has featured photos of the ocean on our catalogue covers for several years. Of course, our locations on both the Atlantic and Pacific are no accident!

Our January 2006 catalogue has a roaring fire on the cover, to honor the fire of yoga. The power and beauty of fire is captivating. Fire is very important in many ways. The light and heat of the sun makes our planet hospitable to us. Civilization began when man tamed fire. Your own life depends on the cellular fire of digestion and metabolism. Most importantly, yoga specializes in the inner fire, which blazes forth in a radiant glow that transforms your experience of yourself, your life, and the world.

This transformation is needed because you live in amnesia, not knowing your true essence. You are Consciousness-Itself, an individualized form with a type of Divine Amnesia. This is both because you have forgotten your own Divine Nature, and also because the amnesia was placed in you as part of the Divine Play that brings this world into existence.

Your job is to recover from the amnesia and recognize your true being. Yoga is the amnesia-recovery system.

You already know that yoga helps you with your aches and pains, and can even cure many conditions that stymie medicine. I am delighted to hear of every “miracle cure” and receive several reports every week. This is the starting point for most yogis, the motivation to make some changes in your life.

Excerpt from Gurudevi’s book — “Yoga: Inside & Outside,” pages 145-146