Author Archives: Swami Nirmalananda

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About Swami Nirmalananda

Swami Nirmalananda is a teacher of the highest integrity since 1976. In 2009 she was honored with initiation into the ancient order of Saraswati monks. Now wearing the traditional orange, she has openly dedicated her life to serving others. Usually called Gurudevi, she makes the highest teachings easily accessible, guiding seekers to the knowledge and experience of their own Divine Essence.

Why Do I Give Shaktipat?

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

I give this Divine Initiation out of love, pure love.  It is love for my Guru that makes it even possible.  It is love for you that makes me reach out to you.  When I see you, I see your Divine Essence, but I also see that you don’t see it.  So I offer you a new way of seeing, a new way of being, a new way of living.  Shaktipat gives you this in an instant, yet the spiritual boost keeps growing within you. 

I remember when I lived in need and fear.  I was miserable but I tried to hide it from myself.  I kept busy.  I had my favorite escape hatches though none of them were uplifting.  Only when I started doing yoga did I find something that improved my state of mind along with my body. 

Then I received Shaktipat.  It gave me a whole new dimension of myself.  Suddenly, I was alive in a new way.  And my mind couldn’t trap me as effectively as before.  I didn’t need to escape anymore because I was present, fully present, and suddenly I had the capacity to BE. 

I offer you a chance to find yourself in this whole new way.  If you want it, then I want it for you.  But I’m not going to push you into the bliss of pure Beingness.  If you don’t want it, you can say no.  You see, God always says yes.  It’s only human beings that say no. 

I had to begin giving Shaktipat because my students were getting it spontaneously.  I couldn’t explain it because I hadn’t been authorized yet, so they were confused.  They were profoundly changed but didn’t understand what was happening. 

Plus my energies were quite unbalanced.  I started blowing out watches and other battery powered devices.  I was radiating Divine Shakti, God’s energy, but hadn’t grown into it fully yet.  It’s like putting a ten-year-old behind the wheel of a truck.  They can steer as it rolls downhill, but can they reach the brake? 

I deepened my practices and went to others within my lineage and tradition.  With their support and blessing, I was authorized to give Shaktipat.  It’s like a channel opened up for the Shakti that was building in me.  It made me deeply humble, for I know that this energy is God’s power of awakening.  Do you want it? 

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New Year’s Shaktipat Retreat

Yoga Therapy

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By Swami Nirmalananda  

In my first yoga class, the teacher said, “Just do what you can.”  It was compassionate but not very helpful. I enjoyed the classes but made little progress.  When I tried another yoga style, the teacher often shouted encouragingly, “Reach for it!”  Not at all compassionate, but she was giving me a goal to aim for.  Unfortunately, I failed.  Repeatedly. 

Yoga therapy meets you where you are at, which means it is compassionate.  And it gives you a goal, which is so important.  Yet it does one thing more.  It gives you a way to reach that goal, a step-by-step process that is custom tailored to your needs.  You can see your own progress toward the new possibilities you’re expanding into. 

Your private yoga therapy session begins with an assessment, “How are you, really?  What do you need help with?”  Then your yoga therapist creates a personalized plan for you, a step-by-step process that moves you through your needed healing. 

If you have a medical diagnosis, yoga therapy is a powerful adjunct to your medical treatment.   

If you are coming for pain relief, stress relief or deeper levels of healing, yoga therapy makes powerful changes from the beginning.

Yoga therapy is so powerful because it works in a realm that medicine rarely addresses — the source from which your own healing comes.  This is your own beingness, “svaroopa” in Sanskrit.  This is where Svaroopa® yoga gets its name.  

We usually begin with coaching your breathing, pivotal to all levels of healing.  Yoga’s gentle, focused breathing process makes you feel better quickly.  You learn how to take the practice home with you, empowering you to contribute to your own improvement.  Your pain and stress levels drop, your circulatory and immune systems begin to recalibrate themselves. All your physiological systems are gradually revitalized. 

When we incorporate yoga poses into your private sessions, they target your spinal tensions and dissolve them.  This creates interior space in your body, good for all your organs as well as muscles and bones.  Even your brain loves it!  The most important part of each session is when you settle into a deep healing state, a yogic immersion that integrates mind-heart-body in a delicious and tangible way. 

You move through the phases of yoga therapy, traversing a well-mapped pathway to health and wholeness.  A gentle self-inquiry process helps you melt mental and emotional patterns that are linked in with your physical condition.  The result is a profound paradigm shift, one that helps you make sense out of your life experiences and the choices ahead.  All systems are go! 

Wednesdays with Gurudevi!

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Gurudevi especially designed Yoga Wednesday to support you in your yogic process.  Pivotally positioned in the middle of the week, Yoga Wednesday can get you over the hump.  The best part is the extra time with Gurudevi, who leads the morning meditation and evening program.

The evening satsang is free if you can join us live in Downingtown.  To join online, enroll in Yoga Wednesday.

I feel as though I’m sitting in Gurudevi’s living room.  A swami reads a teaching from Baba Muktananda.  Then Gurudevi’s teaching is based on this reading.  It is like the unfolding of a beautiful lotus flower.  

In her satsang talk, Gurudevi unfurls the lotus one petal at a time.  She reveals the deeper richness and understanding of Baba Muktananda’s words.  These talks are a Grace-filled gift from Gurudevi.  As they are not recorded, I know I will only hear these deep discourses this one time.  I am extremely grateful to be able to attend these rich Wednesday offerings. – Nancy W.

Yoga Wednesday

The Meaning of Karma

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Karma is a cosmic IOU.  You owe the universe something — or the universe owes you.  If you did things to benefit others in the past, motivated by altruism or compassion, the universe will reward you.  If you did things to harm others in the past, the universe will pay you back. 

Nobody ever asks about karma unless they’re going through a hard time.  Can I be frank?  Unfortunately, you earned it.  It’s easy to see when you cut somebody off in another lane while driving, and a few miles later the same thing happens to you.   

But when the events are separated in time, it’s harder to sort out.  Karma is cosmic justice, even though sometimes it takes a while to catch up with you, even lifetimes.  In meditation, I’ve had past life memories that explained why I’ve dealt with certain difficulties in my life.  Other such memories have explained many of the blessings in my life. 

In the Yoga Sutras, the sage Patanjali explains: 

Karma-a“sukla-ak.r.sna.m yoginis-trividham-itare.sam — sutra 4.7 

Karmas of yogis are neither white nor black, but are of three kinds in others. 

White means light, pure and pleasurable; black means heavy, dark and painful.  Yoga’s great masters experience neither as they live in an expansive inner state of pure beingness.  For such a being, events are like weather, which comes and goes.   

theyoufactor.com

For those who are not yet living in such a deep and easy constancy, karmas are of three types:  pleasurable, painful and mixed.  You are already familiar with each. 

No one ever asks about karma when they’re enjoying health, wealth and meaningful relationships.  However, they earned these fortunate life circumstances.  When life is not going so well, it’s good to understand two things: 

* You set yourself up

* It’s temporary. 

This too will pass.  The good news is that you have some say in when and how it will pass.  Do good unto others and your karma will improve.  It might be immediate, or it might take a month or more, but it always works. 

Except there’s a hitch.  If you’re doing good unto others so that you get some good in return, it won’t work.  What is required is altruism or compassion.  Or sheer generosity.  It’s a glorious way to live!

Wholeness

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

It is the inner fragmentation that is so painful.  Yoga calls this “the human condition,” and promises wholeness instead.  This is a profound state of deep peace, with inner dimensionality that extends to infinity.  You get there by doing yogic practices to invoke your inherent wholeness of being.  Like with anything you practice, you get good at it.  Thus you’re able to live in an easy inner constancy.  Yoga calls this “Self,” spelled with an upper-case “S.”

Fragmentation is also called “self,” but is spelled with a lower-case “s.”  It’s like a crystal hanging in a window, which fragments a beam of sunlight into many dots of dancing light, each one analogous to a small-s self.  Who you are as a daughter or son is different than who you are as a sibling or friend.  You have many small-s selves, some based on your occupation and your avocations, with others based on your geography.  Your many selves can make it hard for you to make choices or follow through on them.  Worse, the arguments you have with yourself can be demoralizing.

Every small-s self requires effort to sustain it.  If you are a skier, you have to buy and maintain equipment, plan winter trips and join ski groups.  If you skip a couple of seasons, or even discover that yoga makes you feel better than skiing, there’s a point where you…

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Free Meditation Class Online

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by Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati

You want to learn to meditate.  Congratulations!   

Perhaps you’ve already tried one or more approaches to meditation and are looking for other options.   

I’m delighted to share my own practice with you, one I’ve been deepening into for almost 50 years.   

As an authorized teacher within an ancient lineage, I’ve had the great fortune to teach thousands of people to meditate.  I can help you. 

Free Online Class 

Check our calendar for our twice-monthly introductory meditation programs.  Each one lasts 90 minutes, enough time for you to learn what to do, as well as to try it out in a group meditation.  Then there’s a discussion that helps you understand your experience as well as troubleshoot any problems you’re having. 

You may find one of our trained meditation teachers in your area – check our Teacher Directory.  Their offerings may be Online or On-Site. 

Free On-Site Meditations

I teach two free meditation programs weekly, Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings.  On-Site in Downingtown PA, these are free.  Online has an enrollment fee, due to our costs in providing the online services.   

Check our calendar for “Swami Sunday” and for “Yoga Wednesday”.  If you can come to Downingtown, I get to meet you personally!  I’d love that. 

Take a Meditation Course

For a deeper meditation, the word is to meditate longer.  “Longer” means that you meditate for a longer time period, like a full hour instead of only ten minutes.  It also means that your ability improves with practice.  Thus your meditation will be deeper after a year of consistent meditation and even deeper after ten years. 

For quicker inner progress, take a meditation course, like you would if you were learning a musical instrument or how to skydive.  We offer “Learn to Meditate” every month or two.  In our Teacher Directory, you’ll find authorized teachers near you who teach the same course. 

Breakthroughs & Profound Understandings

An Ashram specializes in the deeper teachings and practices, so you’ve got many more options. 

We have five swamis offering sutra courses, yoga & meditation classes and more.  Each program includes the ancient teachings, which create inner openings for your bliss-filled exploration.   

The most powerful of these is my Shaktipat Retreat.  Here, you receive the mystical initiation that awakens your meditative energy to arise within.  Life is truly changed in that moment, with a whole new trajectory opened up to you.  That’s what propelled me into the inner light.  I love to share. 

What Do You Want? 

You have lots of choices!  If you don’t know where to start, try a 1-minute video from a recent satsang on our YouTube channel or a recent podcast.   

Or just call us at 610.806.2119 or email programs@svaroopayoga.org – we’ll be happy to talk with you about your next step.

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Questions

Inspiring Meditation Quotes

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

One-liners, that’s what we need.  Something we can grab in an eye-blink, a sound bite…   

Meditation is for Self-discovery, revealing the deeper dimensions within. 

It’s not just our modern times that demand clear and concise info.  The ancient sages of India wrote sutras, short pithy sayings that were easy to remember.  But they’re tricky!  Easy to remember, but not easy to understand — they have layers to them. 

Chaitanyam atma. – Shiva Sutras 1.1 

Your own Self is Consciousness-Itself.  

Uplifting, inspiring, encouraging, reassuring, all at the same time.  And it goes way beyond what you understand in your first reading.  I’ve been studying and contemplating this sutra for over 40 years and I am still learning from it.  And it’s only two words long:  Chaitanyam – Consciousness; Atma – Self. 

Know your own Self, honor your own Self, meditate on your own Self. 

This was my Guru’s sutra for our modern world, a teaching he shared hundreds of times when he taught in America through the 1970s and into the 1980s.  As a hippie-turned-mom, I appreciated the focus on finding myself, this deeper dimension he called “own Self.”  But what was it, really?  He added a line: 

God dwells within you as you. 

I wanted God to dwell within me, so I was comforted by this teaching.  But what did he mean by, “as me”?  I didn’t understand.  I wondered and pondered for decades. 

All the while, my Baba was giving me the inner experience of my own Self being God’s own Self.  But my puny little mind didn’t get it.  So I say it this way, 

There’s only one of us here.  The One Divine Reality is being you, being me, and being all that is.  Meditation is finding that One — inside. 

I invite you to sign up for my daily E-Quotes.  Free emails with inspiring quotes that help you get to know yourself in a whole new way. 

Daily E-Quotes

Mantra Meditation

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By Satguru Swami Nirmalananda 

Meet your mind where it’s at.  Having a crazy-busy mind is normal these days, unfortunately.  You aspire to a better state, a deeper inner center, a quality of being that fills your life with light.  Mantra meditation lassoes your mind and brings it back home, to your core essence, called “your own Self.” 

You need the right mantra, of course.  And you need to get it from someone who knows it fully, inside and out.  An authorized teacher within an authentic tradition can open the inner doorway for you in amazing ways.  That’s what happened for me, an inner awakening that transformed my life from the inside-out.   

I got the mantra from a local meditation teacher.  She had been authorized by her teacher in India.  It gave me deep meditation immediately. 

It was only later that I understood the greatness of the gift I had been given – the enlivened mantra, full of blessings and grace. 

It infused me with a sense of wholeness and purpose that I had never known before.  And all I had to do was meditate daily, which renewed and deepened it. 

Now, almost 50 years later, I offer the same to those who aspire higher.  In free online programs as well as course and retreats, you can get this mantra and instruction in how to use it.  Let those who have done their spiritual work give you a head start on yours! 

Mantra Card

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About Swami Nirmalananda

Arise!

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By Satguru Swami Nirmalananda 

Life got smaller during the pandemic, starting out with months of lock-down.  It’s starting to edge back out again, but everyone has a different agenda and a different pace.  Yoga and meditation will help,  Our 2023 Calendar is based on a theme:

Arising

Healing leads to wholeness, empowering choices and deep-hearted living.

As you move into the world again, you have the chance to choose your trajectory in a whole new way.  I want to empower you to live your life in the ways that are most fulfilling to you.  Our retreats and trainings are designed to give you wholeness, choicefulness and deep-hearted living.

The first step is to arise, as the yogic texts exhort, “Arise! Awake! Oh my Dear One, you have been sleepwalking too long.”  It’s time to come alive again!  It’s time to share your light.  Choose who you want to be and what you want to give to the world.  

For 2023, our asana programs are focused on therapeutics.  It’s about healing as a pathway to wholeness.  Svaroopa® yoga has always excelled at therapeutics, which are especially needed now.  Healing Retreats are available both online as well as in-person.  And 2023 Teacher Trainings expand teachers’ therapeutic skills, both for private sessions as well as for teaching groups.

My twice weekly satsangs continue, featuring sutra discourses and group meditation.  In addition, I will work closely with a dedicated study group who do five weekend retreats with me in the year.  Three Shaktipat Retreats are scheduled, beginning with the 2022-23 New Year’s event.

In this important time of transition, you are invited to join me for our Free Japa Club.  Twice daily, zoom in for five minutes of group mantra repetition, plus an additional minute for giving blessings to the world.  E-Quotes continue with daily emails and lots of other Freebies including 1-minute videos and sound bites.  Arise!  Awake!  Choose what you want to do and make it happen!

2023 Calendar
Freebies

If Not Now, When?

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By Rosemary (Rudrani) Nogue, Yogaratna

Decades ago, my mind told me I wouldn’t be good enough to take Yoga Teacher Training.  The trainer looked me square in the eye and said, “If not now — when?”  The words had an effect.  I took that initial training in another style.  It was my steppingstone toward the fortunate discovery of Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher Training.  

After I became a Certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher, I realized I could serve students even more profoundly through Gurudevi’s Meditation Teacher Training (MTT).  I took MTT twice.  The first was the original survey syllabus course.  The training gave me the knowledge and experience to grow into a daily meditator and a meditation teacher.

The second, following Gurudevi’s sannyas initiation, was for certification as a Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation teacher.  I could have upgraded to it through a phone course plus an in-person program over a long weekend.  Yet I opted to take Gurudevi’s expanded 10-day MTT in-person course.  Why?  It was a huge opportunity to re-experience 10 days of being in the flow of Guru’s Grace.  I wanted to imbibe the teachings, practices and challenges again from the new place I was at. 

Both times, taking MTT was wonderfully overwhelming and hard.  I wasn’t a meditator for my first MTT.  Every day, we chanted and meditated, and Gurudevi taught new sutras related to meditation.  Then we were assigned daily homework to explain a sutra using our own words.

I often wrote talks late into the night.  I needed to sleep as well as to complete my talk.  This gave me an opportunity to learn to settle deeper within using mantra.  Then writing came more easily — and bed could follow.  I was in the flow of palpable Grace, although I didn’t know what to call it then. 

The next day, I would get clear, supportive feedback on my short talk.  I learned what I had done well and ways to improve.  This training gave me practice at putting words to “That” which is hard to express.

Both MTT courses gave me a three-class structure to build a “Learn to Meditate” course.  I could totally support my “soon to be” students with teachings and practicalities.  I was set up to give them everything they needed to become daily lifelong meditators.  I was prepared to teach them how to uncover their own Inherent Divinity.

In my second MTT, Gurudevi’s gift of the enlivened mantra gave me the understanding and experience of its power.  I was beautifully prepared to share the revelatory mantra of our lineage with students.

There is nothing I would rather teach than meditation.  What a privilege and honor to guide others to understand and experience the true goal and purpose of meditation.  There isn’t a greater life changing experience I could offer than teaching someone to meditate. 

Every time I teach my “Learn to Meditate” course, I am deepened.  How can I offer these profound teachings and not experience greater understanding, more Self-knowing and joy?  Grace supports me and my students.  I am more than grateful.

Don’t miss the upcoming MTT.  If not now — when?

MTT