Who am I? Why was I born? Who created me? And what am I supposed to do here? Why am I here? Your mind cannot answer these questions. Your mind asks them, even mulls them over and repeats them again and again. This is called contemplation. Your mind may try on various answers, but your mind won’t rest until….
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Having Experiences“
Your Inner Essence is deep, timeless, expansive, unchanging — the inner infinity of your own Divinity. And everything else is also Divine. So, you care. You care and you act on that caring, but freely, without need, without greed and without…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Perception“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Every birth is a Divine embodiment, a manifestation of the One Source. Each and every one of us is made of the Divine energy that becomes all.
This means your birth was a Divine birth. It may be that your parents felt it. New babies are easy to adore. It is because they don’t yet know how to block their inner light from shining through.
Yet some babies grow up to share the Divine Light with others. The world celebrates the birth anniversary of a few: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed. But were they the only ones?
No. Many saints are honored in several traditions, with their life stories told and retold in order to inspire and to bless others.
India specializes in saints. Not only do they honor more of them, throughout a longer timeline, but they acknowledge that anyone can become a saint. Even you? Yes, even you. But you have to apply yourself, like with anything you want to accomplish. And you need training.
Gururupaaya.h. — Shiva Sutras 2.6
The Guru is the goal as well as the path.
The Guru both teaches you about your Divine Essence and gives you tools to experience it — both the goal and the pathway to it. Since the Sanskrit word “guru” means teacher, it applies to a teacher of any subject. Maybe you had a piano guru when you were growing up.
The West has adopted this term to refer to an expert in any field, like a stock market guru or a basement guru. Yet the term came from India, specifically naming the God-inspired yogis who began coming to America in the 1800s.
A Divine teacher teaches about God. This is true of any priest, minister or pastor. Yet yoga holds them to a higher standard in order to qualify for the title, Guru. They must have found God, not merely on the outside, but within their own being. Now they are a Divine teacher in two ways: being Divine and teaching about God.
You are also able to find God within, yet you might not have the dharma to teach. Being a saint without having a world mission means you…
Something keeps your breath moving and your heart beating, even when you’re asleep. Oh, Shiva. The whole point of yoga is to know who and what this is, that makes your body be a living body – that makes the screen of your mind be so…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Inner Self“
Your essence is Divine Consciousness concentrated in a unique and individualized form, but you compare your individuality to everyone else’s, and you can always find someone who…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Response Ability“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
There are so many different ways of working with your body. They are not all compatible.
The physical conditioning that produces an Olympic gymnast does not produce a good football player. The physical changes that you get when you begin snowboarding, perform as a dancer or do Pilates don’t help with sciatica or with childbirth. A furniture mover is not conditioned for playing tennis.
Similarly, different systems of hatha yoga (physical yoga practices) are not all compatible. One system emphasizes strength and stamina, another emphasizes constant movement, and yet another emphasizes attaining a photo-perfect pose.
All of these activities are based on contraction. You contract certain muscles to accomplish certain types of movements, and along the way (knowingly or unknowingly) you compress your spine. Svaroopa® yoga decompresses your spine. It is a completely different process, for a different purpose.
Process and purpose: exercise uses the process of contraction for the purpose of accomplishing a specific type of activity.
In Svaroopa® yoga, in contrast to exercise or other styles of yoga, we release contraction. Every class is carefully choreographed to release tensions in the muscles connected to your spine, from your tailbone progressively all the way to the top.
The reasons for this are multilayered and exquisitely complex, the most important of which is that your body is made of atoms…
Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, pages 35–36
I begin my 80th trip around the sun today, having completed 79 years. I know many yogis who are ahead of me and I celebrate their presence in this world.
As I thank so many of you for your birthday greetings and well-wishes, I know it’s not about my birth. When I was born, like all babies, no one knew what I might choose to do with my life or how it would affect others. It is my yogic dedication that makes my decades worth celebrating.
For this, I thank my Guru, Swami Muktananda Paramahansa. His gift of Shaktipat was like a second birth for me, giving me clarity and purpose — a direction for my life. The years before that great event were confusing, even frustrating in their purposelessness. Once he turned on the light inside me, I knew where to go.
One of my favorite verses of Shree Guru Gita explains it perfectly:
Guu.dha-vidyaa jagan-maayaa dehe caaj~naana-sambhavaa,
udayo yat-prakaa”sena guru”sabdena kathyate. — Guru Gita 10
Birth is into not-knowingness, spellbound by Maayaa’s worldly dance.
Giver of the upwelling light of your own Self is called Guru.
I did my best to max out on the not-knowingness, looking for a sense of self-worth in other people’s eyes. Baba gave me my own Self, freeing me from the neediness and fear that consumes most people’s lives.
Now it is my honor and privilege to share his great gift with you. I am deeply touched when you accept the gifts I offer, through our Ashram’s publications and programs. Thank you for letting me serve you.
When you are based in your own Self, you see all the different things, all the different people like different blossoms on the one shrub. For there is only One, being all. And when you don’t see the One hidden in Her divine disguise, as the person sitting next to you, as the driver of the car turning into your lane, as the neighbor walking their dog…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Beyond Measure“
If you know that doing some yoga or repeating mantra for five minutes will make you happy, and it will, sometimes you simply won’t do it. It’s like you prefer being unhappy to being happy. Well, maybe it’s familiar. And I’d like to rescue you…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Searching for Happiness“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Sometimes you just know. In the midst of a real life situation, perhaps unexpected, you simply know exactly what to do, or what it is that you can say that will make a difference. Illumined action — wouldn’t you like to live this way?
Yoga says you can. Tune in to your own inner light. Let your Divine Essence shine through your mind and heart. Your words will have the desired effect. Your actions will serve a greater purpose. To live this way, base yourself in your own Self, drawing from your inner depth and dimensionality in every moment. In every breath.
First, you delve inward to find your own Self. Then you rest in your Essence and Beingness, the source of bliss within. Free from need, greed and fear, your words and actions are divinely inspired.
You are not the only one who benefits from this. Your words and actions are motivated by clarity and compassion, seeing what will bring about the most beneficial results. In other words, you don’t leave the world.
Nartaka atma. — Shiva Sutras 3.9
One who knows their own Self is an actor on the stage of the world.
When you know your own Self, you won’t want to retire to a forest or a cave. You will accept your role in the cosmic drama and participate fully. You still have a body and must take care of it. You still have relationships. You still have things to do, places to go, ways to contribute to the welfare of the world. You still have karma. While it doesn’t define you, it does keep you engaged in life.
Those who want to hide away are wannabes, not yogis. Their inner state is so fragile that they can’t know about world events. They want everyone around them to be peaceful, to be nice, to be kind, to be pretty and to talk softly. They need the outside to help them with their innards. Yoga says you have to do your inner work. It’s an inside job.
Enlightened beings care about the world and the people in it. I have been fortunate to meet many Gurus who were acknowledged as having reached the summit of their tradition. They are the busiest and most effective people I’ve ever met. They care. Yet the events that transpire don’t affect their inner state. Based in Consciousness, they…
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
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