You have the power to realize that God lies hidden in your own heart. Too much of the time, when you come from your heart, you’re coming from your emotional residue, your unfinished business. Your heart carries the weight of lifetimes – resentments and fears, unhappy memories and…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Heaven?“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Your inner light shines, though sometimes dimly. You like yourself better when your light is shining steadily and brightly. So does everyone else. So, how do you get there?
You spend time with someone who already glows. My Guru said that you become a Siddha (enlightened being) by spending enough time with a Siddha. I took him at his word, which is why I lived with him for years.
Guru Purnima was the best! Every year, July’s full moon was when his light shone most fully. We were bathed in his bliss-filled love, shining from outside and arising within.
I remember going to darshan, to bow to him, on this auspicious day, year after year. So many times I had this precious opportunity, to melt at his feet.
The melting is important, yet it is merely the opening of your inner doorway. After the door is opened, now the inner arising occurs. This is what is truly important. The Guru is the one that triggers the inner arising. This is why I bow to my Baba. Again and again, I bow.
Your inner light is what matters most of all. This is why the Guru is so important, for he gives you access to your own inner light.
Without this inner access, you wait for serendipitous moments to occur in your life. You plan family gatherings, vacations, holidays and birthdays, hoping to have your light brightened. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it’s more work than it’s worth.
But the Guru always shines. And always makes you shine.
Gukaaras tvandha-kaara”s ca rukaaras teja ucyate,
aj~naana-graasaka.m brahma gurur-eva na sa.m”saya.h.
— Shree Guru Gita 23
Gu is darkness and density. Ru is light, which illumines dark.
The Guru is the Knowingness that swallows the not-knowingness
In Sanskrit, each sound has meaning. The first syllable of Guru is “gu” (goo), which means the stuff you get stuck in. It is the inner darkness that hides your own Self from you. The syllable “ru” denotes movement, like the sound a child makes when playing with a toy truck.
The word Guru combines these two sounds. The word itself names the movement from darkness to light. One who prompts this in you is honored by the title, Guru. They destroy the darkness of you not-knowing your own Self, by revealing the inner light of your own Beingness.
Now you shine. Technically, you did already shine, at least a little bit. Science has now developed instruments that can measure the light shining off your fingertips. And light shines through your eyes.
In your best moments, you are radiant. You can feel it. I would like for you to glow this way in every moment of your life. So would you.
By Joan (Jayadevi) Bragar
Listening to Gurudevi chanting “Om Namah Shivaya — Ganeshpuri Melody” deepens my inner experience of the Divine.
It gives me a new way to appreciate our lineage mantra. Chanting our mantra to the Ganeshpuri Melody before meditation, I am relaxed and focused.
The melody evokes the sacredness of Ganeshpuri, Gurudevi’s spiritual home, which is the site of Nityananda’s temple and Muktananda’s Ashram. I am carried inward to my own Self more deeply.
This chant is track 2 of Gurudevi’s album Namah: I Honor the Divine. Track 3, “Nirmalam,” honors the name Nirmala, which Gurudevi was given when she took sannyasa vows.
Nirmala means “without limitations.” This name celebrates the reality within Gurudevi, which is the reality within all. In her book, Yoga’s Sacred Songs, she writes, “This is my song, a song to my Self, which is Muktananda, which is Nityananda.”
“Nirmalam” begins with the chorus:
Shivo’ham svaroopo’ham
Shivo’ham svaroopo’ham
I am Shiva, I am my own Self.
I am Shiva, I am my own Self.
The concluding verse expresses deep devotion:
Nish-kalam nitya-yuktam
Chidanandam nama-myaham
Performing no actions, joined with the eternal,
to the One, who is the bliss of Consciousness, indeed I bow.
Gurudevi’s voice on this album uplifts my heart as I go about my daily chores. I experience tantra, perceiving the interweaving of the Divine in the mundane.
Yoga also describes how you usually use your mind, as well as a greater possibility. But yoga is the only one of all these traditions, that I have found, that says your Essence is Divine. How will you know if this is true? You will have to delve deeper within to see who you find in there, oh Shiva. You may go beyond who you think you are. This is why we meditate.
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Ideals to Live By“
By Elena (Lila) Perri
I felt a profound shift as the blockage to my sadhana melted into nothingness.
It happened in Gurudevi’s recent Shaktipat Retreat. I have been meditating every day since, more deeply and with ease and delight.
At the same time, my Ujjay breathing and pose practices have become far more regular as well. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve also taken many of the Ashram’s online studies, which have deepened my meditations even more.
This morning’s meditation delivered another breakthrough. Breathing with the mantra, I was propelled into a deeper state of blissful union. As I floated in this inner realm, I had the realization that I can enjoy this same blissful union while not meditating — as Gurudevi teaches us. As everything is Shiva, it follows that bliss is always there outside of meditation just as I was experiencing it in this meditation. Goodness!
To meditate — what a profound experience! I have experienced gradual progress since my first Shaktipat Retreat with Gurudevi four years ago. Now, staying in my meditative state longer and longer every day, I am calm and peaceful. More and more, I feel that I’m living a heart-centered life.
I’ve experientially learned the truth of the teaching that, as Kundalini climbs my spine, she burns up karmic seeds. She clears out blockages. Old attitudes and resentments melt away.
Since my meditation breakthrough, emotions and distractions don’t control me. I am more easily navigating life. I’m living in my own skin and making decisions from my center.
The practices that I’ve learned from Gurudevi are the best endeavor of my life. They guide you in what to do if you want liberation. Old behaviors simply fall away. My gratitude is boundless and endless.
By Swami Prajñananda
One therapy session is worth six yoga classes. Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy is that powerful! You get more healing in less time because each session is customized.
In a group class, your teacher creates a lesson plan that is meant for all students. It works and it is effective. But a private session is tailored just for you.
Your therapist checks in with you at the beginning of the session. Based on your current condition, she creates your plan. Even if she had an idea of what to do with you before you arrived, it all depends on how you are in the moment. This customized approach meets you exactly where you are at and helps move you to the next level in your healing.
In Svaroopa® Yoga we say, “Support equals release.” It’s so true. When your body is supported in the poses exactly as needed, your tensions melt away.
You settle and soften into the process when you feel supported, not only physically but mentally, emotionally and more. You allow yourself to accept the support. This is very powerful and moves you easily and deeply in your healing.
Along with this customized support, you have your therapist’s full attention. In a class situation, your teacher is taking care of the whole class. But in your yoga therapy session, you are the sole focus.
Having your therapist’s full attention is powerful. This works for both On-Site and Online sessions. Your therapist has years of training not only in what to do, but how to be present with you.
Ultimately, it is your own presence in your body that heals. When your attention is “out there” somewhere, focused on other people, things to do, worries and fears, your body suffers. Any tight or painful area of your body is an area that has been missing your presence. You need to get back into your body!
Your session helps to move your own awareness into those shutdown areas. You learn how to re-inhabit those places. Your therapist’s embodied presence helps you to get embodied. Then, your own awareness makes every pose deeper.
If you are able to come in person for a session, you get the benefit of Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy’s hands-on approach. The adjustments your therapist can give you are like magic! They are so delicious. And they amplify the benefits you get in each pose.
You get a taste of this in a group class. You’re lying in Half Frog, and your teacher comes over and does her magic. Your body opens up in a whole new way. You didn’t even realize it was possible. You feel the difference.
But you only get that adjustment on one side of the pose in a class. In a yoga therapy session, though, you get it in every pose and on both sides.
This hands-on approach accelerates your body’s healing in a way you couldn’t even have imagined. You have to experience it for yourself.
Each yoga therapy session is worth six classes. So if you are in need of healing, speed your process along and sign up for some yoga therapy.
The sage says:
Tadah drastuh svaroope vastanam — Yoga Sutras 1.3
In the moment your mind becomes still, you abide in svaroopa, your own Divine Essence.
Here you are, revealed in the space between your thoughts. This means your thoughts are usually hiding you from yourself. This is why all the yoga practices are for your mind, to quiet your mind, so you discover who you are. The you that is svaroopa, your own Divine Essence, aka Shiva. In the pause.
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Space Between“
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or call one of our Swamis at 484.678.2078
Getting enlightened is a little like watching the sunrise. It’s amazing how long it takes, from the time the sky starts getting lighter, until the sun is above the horizon line. It’s about forty minutes of gradual lightening, and then the sun comes up quick, in only two minutes. Getting enlightened works the same way. It takes longer to get ready than to actually light up.
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Getting Free“
Guru Purnima occurs on the biggest full moon of every year, Wednesday, July 29th this year.
Be assured of a rich spiritual experience when you attend Gurudevi’s meditation program on this holy day.
In India, people take off work to go visit their Guru, bearing gifts that will support him or her as well as the Ashram for the rest of the year. They bow at their Guru’s feet, as Gurudevi always did to Muktananda, to lower their head below their heart.
Thus they align themselves with the concentration of energy that flows out the Guru’s feet.
In honoring and celebrating her Guru on this day, Gurudevi gives us all a way to tap into our own inherent Divinity.
Her presence as well as her teachings reveal your own Self to you. Besides giving you this profound experience, Gurudevi also guides you in understanding it, especially on this beautiful night.
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
SVA Blog 