You long to know your own Self as Consciousness, and to live in the bliss-filled beingness that is your Essence. Yet, you already know at a deep inner level. You already are free. You see, you won’t long for something unless…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Bondage & Freedom“
Even if you lived free — no prison bars, no ankle bracelet, you can be imprisoned by your mind. My Baba described it this way, “His own outlook is the thing that shrinks him day by day. As he meditates on and ponders his own limitations, he becomes completely bound.” You do meditate on your limitations. You obsess on…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Bliss of Freedom“
By Amanda (Purna) Schmidt
Guru’s Grace, infused into this beautiful pendant, is always with you. The Sanskrit syllables Guru OM are crafted in sterling silver, framed in a simple oval shape.
Simple and elegant, it is the result of months of collaboration. Gurudevi and Sunil, her Ganeshpuri jeweler, worked closely to bring this piece to you. Created with yogis in mind, this pendant is more than just beautiful jewelry.
Guru OM is a mantra, one that Muktananda freely gave. This pendant captures that shakti and keeps it close to your heart. Adorn yourself in the Grace of the lineage. Feel the sacred mystery.
Where are your complaints? They’re in your mind, usually in the forefront of your mind. Repeating over and over, your mind loops around on them. So you look in the space where your complaints usually are, right here, in the forefront of your mind…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Love“
Online Thursday July 24
Meditation is the most important of yoga’s practices. Sign up for this FREE online informational program to ask your questions.
In informal discussion with Gurudevi Nirmalananda and Swami Prajñananda, you’ll find out if joining our online Meditation Club will give you what you’re looking for. We want to help you find it.
Getting started is much easier when you meditate with others, especially when they are experienced meditators. Your meditations become easier, deeper and more fulfilling.
Meditation Club has made a big shift for me. Meditation had always been a struggle. Yet now I am regularly committed to my early morning wakeup call. I know I am making progress.
— Annette Z.
It is a commitment. While this introductory program is free, Meditation Club is by subscription, with a three-month minimum. That’s to get you over the hump. Life gets easier, deeper and more fulfilling as well.
Knowing about your own Self is not the same as experiencing your own Self. I can talk about your Divine Essence all day, and you may love the theory. But even a moment of experiential knowing stops you, settles you, fills you from the inside out.
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Unlearning“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Shining in the dark, the moon reflects the light of the sun. It is cooling, luminous light showing your way through the mounded shapes in the night.
Your mind shines with the reflected light of your own Self, your Divine Essence, found within. When your mind is clear, the light is cooling and luminous.
But the dark you are trying to find your way through is created by the mounds and masses in your mind. They block the very light that you need so greatly.
The Guru’s mind has been cleared, so their light shines through. Yet their purpose is not to merely shine light on your pathway, but to illumine you from the inside out. July’s full moon is dedicated to the Guru — Guru Purnima.
The ancient sages dedicated each purnima to a different purpose. Some of them are seasonal, like the fall moon dedicated to the Goddess Lakshmi. She is the giver of earthly blessings including an abundant harvest. Dattatreya and Hanuman have their full moons, along with other deities.
On Vata Purnima, falling in May-June, married women do practices to insure the health and longevity of their husbands. One is to tie a string around the trunk of a banyan tree, in honor of Savitri, the wife who saved her husband by confronting the Lord of Death. Personally, I have seen many banyan trees circled with hundreds of strings, as I have often traveled to India for the July Purnima.
In India, it is rare to see the moon on Guru Purnima because the sky is covered with monsoon clouds. Many times I have sat under a shelter, seeing the light behind the clouds and waiting for the moon to peek out.
Perhaps this is why the ancients dedicated the moon to the Guru, since a true Guru is hard to find and even harder to follow.
Yet dedication does pay off. Every time I waited for the clouds to clear on Guru Purnima, my heart’s wish was fulfilled.
My Guru explained there are many false Gurus. Some of them lead you into worldliness. This is clearly described in today’s terminology: investment guru, fashion guru, advertising Guru and there is even a basement guru in my local area.
Other types of false gurus give spiritual teachings but without the depth of tradition that supports them and you. Baba said that zircons only exist because there are diamonds. In your spiritual search, you must find a diamond.
How can you tell? You measure the value of a Guru by the change in you. Do what the Guru recommends for six months and see if you like the changes in yourself. If so, plan on another six months. I did this with my Guru for six years, reevaluating twice a year, until I realized I was in the right place.
On Guru Purnima, the disciple makes every effort to spend time with their Guru. Traditionally, this is the day they give gifts to support the Guru and their mission. For me, back in the day, having time with my Guru on this auspicious day involved a trip to India. It is easier these days with internet programs zooming through.
If you cannot be with your Guru and are not able to zoom in, then do some extra practices on this day. For those studying with me, you can watch a discourse video, read a book or blog, or one of my monthly Teachings Article.
Chant the mantra, using one of my recordings. Do arati, the candle flame ceremony, to honor the Guru, including my Guru and his Guru.
And get darshan of the full moon, even a glimpse. In 2025, it is on July 10, peaking at 4:37 pm EDT, while it appears to be full on the nights before and after.
What’s so special about the Guru that they get a full moon? The book J~nanasindhu describes the Goddess Parvati telling her son:
Kartikeya, the Guru is without beginning or end, even though you can see him in a physical form.
While we can get caught up in appreciating the Guru’s physical presence as well as their unique qualities, it is their deeper essence that matters. As I described above, Divine light shines through their mind without obstruction, giving them the radiance that is so captivating.
I was definitely captivated by my Baba. I loved to watch him. Even now I watch videos of his discourses online, many English translations. I love to watch his expressions, his hand gestures, his eyes and his smile.
You can liken it to sunlight shining through a window in your home. While the same light shines through every window, you may have a favorite. You and the cat love to bask in the sun in that special spot.
In this way, you get to appreciate the unique qualities of your own Guru, while recognizing that it’s the Divine light shining through that matters.
Yet this is true of you as well. The same Divine light is full and intact within you, shining from deeper within than where you usually look. Yet your ability to access these deeper dimensions is limited until the Guru unlocks the door. Jaya Gurudev! Hail to the Divine Guru.
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
When you have just finished a yoga class, you are a more caring and compassionate person. You have noticed this by now.
Compassion is a quality that arises when you have connected inside. It is part of living “inside out,” our contemplation theme from last month, which is the filling of yourself from the inner spaciousness and then living from this basis.
Yoga clears away the inner clutter and eases you into the vast fullness of your own beingness. From this, all the divine qualities emerge in you, including compassion.
When you are not feeling compassionate, it is because you are hungry. This hunger is more complex than a simple hunger for food, though eating a meal does help. You are more kind and caring after you have eaten compared to before. This is one of the great joys of Thanksgiving. The primary feature of the day is the Great Feast, shared with family and friends.
But food alone does not fill your deeper hunger, thus it gets projected outward into your life. It shows up in the push of your day — trying to get everything done. It shows up in your relationships — with you trying to make others in your life happy, or maybe you are trying to get them to make you happy (which is infinitely more complicated).
This hunger or need shows up in your work — as you strive to succeed or to get ahead, or maybe you are just trying to survive the day.
Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, page 29
By Kelly (Kushala) Sharp
A recent client has experienced a series of miracles. When they came to me, extreme sciatica pain was making it hard to walk. Plus, they were facing surgery because of a severe carpal tunnel flare-up. Their pain management required Advil three times daily, and they felt desperate.
In less than a month, they were scheduled for a three-week “trip of a lifetime.” So we created a custom Overlap Healing series and got busy. Overlap Healing is a sequence of daily Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy sessions, followed by sessions at wider intervals.
Within a three-week period, this client had 12 sessions. In their third — a mere two days after the first — they could walk without pain. They said it was a miracle. A week later, they reduced the amount of daily Advil. By the 12th session, they had stopped taking it.
And that carpal tunnel flare-up? By practicing Hastasana (Hand Thing) three times a day, my client recovered feeling in their hands. Taking only a minute, this pose offered immediate relief.
The client cancelled their upcoming surgery. They left on their trip armed with a Svaroopa® yoga practice to do every day (maybe twice a day). Yoga therapy supported change from the inside out.
To be honest, they exceeded my expectations. For their return, I had planned some Overlap Healing sessions to help them regain any lost ground. But much to my surprise they didn’t lose a lot of ground.
On their trip they had done their yoga and maintained the powerful openings received through yoga therapy. This worked even while doing lots of tourist activities that required exertion.
My client came home feeling great and returned to weekly yoga therapy sessions. When they noticed a little decline in how they were feeling, we scheduled a few sessions within one week.
My takeaway from this is that it doesn’t take a lot extra to make powerful and permanent changes. Sometimes a little extra is all you need!
Your attachments define you. They limit you. They take hold of you, defining who you are and what you can do. Thus, yoga’s goal is freedom. Freedom from limitation. Freedom from compulsion. Freedom from being driven. You gain yogic freedom by an internal redefinition of…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Clinging“
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
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