Turiya is the fourth state.  It is beyond your mind and senses, and free from the density and darkness you know from deep sleep. Turiya is vast, comforting… 

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

You can rely on Gurudevi’s satsangs — community gatherings — for timeless yogic teachings and wisdom applicable to modern circumstances. Your particular, “real-life” questions are the basis of her Q&A satsangs. 

Get online with Gurudevi Nirmalananda in this free call so you can ask your questions.  Gurudevi calls on yogis in the order in which they enrolled online to ask questions. Some questions are quicker and others are longer, so the amount of time devoted to each cannot be predicted. Thus, those who enroll earliest are assured of getting to ask their question.

Everyone benefits from hearing the discussion, which is exactly what it is like when you are able to attend a satsang with Gurudevi.

When you meditate, you have meditation experiences. They are different from your everyday experiences and your usual mental activity. 

As you develop your capacity, your meditation experiences change. Your capacity includes…    

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Grace is one of the primary principles of yoga.  Grace makes everything easy. It is always flowing. 

If life seems hard to you, you have unknowingly shut yourself off from the flow of grace.  Yoga opens you up to its support in many tangible ways.

The principle of support is a primary element of Svaroopa^® Yoga practice. Your teacher may slide a blanket underneath you in a seated position in order for you to get the most benefit. Halfway through the pose, she may remind you, “Lean your full weight into the support of that blanket.”  Most people do not really sit on the blanket or chair underneath them, but hold themselves up by tightening their spinal muscles.

Check in with yourself right now. Are you leaning your full weight into the support underneath you? As you lean more fully into your seat, you may find that you significantly relax and can breathe more easily. Learning to lean into the physical support is a way of practicing how to lean into the support of grace.

Let down your walls. They not only isolate you from others — they separate you from the flow of grace.  Learning how to relax in Shavasana is learning how to melt the walls. The progressive release of Shavasana becomes deeper and more reliable with repetition.

Excerpt from Yoga in Every Moment, page 111

I love to see you shining.   You love to glow.  Your eyes shine, the corners of your mouth turn up, your breath opens, your collarbones widen, and you get taller.  Best of all, your mind is clear.  You can understand the intricacies of the teachings I bring you. You understand your life and…  

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda  

When you incorporate tantric methodologies into your life, it begins to shine with the Light of Consciousness. It was always there, but you couldn’t see it. It’s not your life that needs to change.  It is….    

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Yoga gives you recipes.

 Just like scientists, for your inner experiment you do what has been proven to work by those who have preceded you.  When you apply proven methodology, you will get reliable, predictable and replicable results.  

What are those results?  A deeper dimension of your own being opens up for you to know and experience within.

It’s not that you sit on the surface level of your being with your mind peering deeper inside.  Instead, you settle inward to a deeper level.  It is like you are leaning into your Self, or opening into your Self, or even like you are backing into your Self.  As you apply your mind in this inward direction, the opening is very easy.  It proves the methodology works.  

As you deepen into Self, your sense of who you are is “Oh, I am me.”  It is not a sense of discovering something new, fantastic and different inside.  You become more yourself.  You experience an inner freedom from all the stuff that you are not.  

You get free from all the limitations and fears, negativities and resistances, all the paranoia, obsessions and compulsions.  You discover an inherent Beingness that yoga calls Shiva, your own Divine Essence.  This is your own capital-S Self.

Excerpt from Embodied Spirituality, pages 26‒27

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

 The universe exploded out from a Big Bang, they say. This scientific theory was proposed in 1927. Scientists studied it for decades with a critical piece of evidence provided in 1964. It was enough that a press conference was held. The next-day newspapers announced, in big headlines, “Big Bang Proved.”

Since then, the scientists continue to refine their theory and come up with new terminology. They now say there was something there before the bang. I call it the “something that banged.”

What was there? What banged? It was a single point, a dot. They call it a singularity. In Sanskrit it is “bindu.” It still exists. It was not destroyed in the bang. You find the bindu inside. It is blue.

My Baba called it the “Blue Pearl.” When you see it in meditation, you are assured of liberation in this lifetime. It is the mystical form of your own Self, which is the source of the universe yet containing the whole.

The sages drew this as the mystical syllable OM. A multilayered sound, you may hear it or see the character when in a deep meditative state. It shows what preceded the Big Bang.

The two stacked semi-circles (like a numeral 3) are the vibration of the One, echoing itself within itself. You can replicate this sound by…

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

The quality of your life is determined by how you use your mind, not by external events and situations.  

One person can feel crushed about losing her or his job, while another person feels grateful for the chance to reinvent herself or himself.  When you lose someone dear to you, a person or even a pet, you can focus on the loss or you can focus on your gratitude for the way they enriched your life for so long.

Because of the complexity of the mind, yoga offers many tools to help you with your mind.  Yoga has more tools for your mind than for your body.  

One of the most important yogic techniques for your mind is substitution.  Whenever you notice that you are caught up in thoughts that tighten your body or upset you, you can choose to substitute something better.  For example, you may be a worrier. Instead of worrying, you can say a little prayer or send a yogic blessing.

This is a very simple, yet sophisticated technique.  It is based on the understanding that you only worry about people or things that you care about.  The worrying is a way of reminding yourself that you love them.  Unfortunately, every worry makes your body live through the experience as though it is really happening, even though it probably never will…

Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, pages 166‒167