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. 

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!

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

One of the first words you spoke was “no.”  You probably used it more often than your other first words, “Mama” and “Dada.”  That’s why this growth phase is called “The Terrible Twos.” You became able to resist as well as able to express what you wanted.  Unfortunately, you’ve continued to say “no” ever since.  What if you said “yes” more often?

My earliest teacher in this was my first dog.  When our front door was open and someone was coming down the sidewalk, my dog would run out as fast as her short little legs could go.  She was not barking.  She ran up to the passers-by, threw herself down on the ground and showed her belly, all four paws up in the air.  100% of the walkers stopped, said, “Ahhh,” then rubbed her belly.  Watching her made me reconsider how I’d been approaching life.  The protective mode I’d perfected had me saying no to life far too often.

Yoga agrees that you need to recalibrate.  All the yogic methodologies work on dissolving your resistances, melting your negativities and freeing you from your fears.  Then you are able to experience inner peace and a sense of balance that supports you.  

Yet this is merely the launching pad.  Beyond peace and balance, yoga promises more.  Once you get past the ways you negate yourself, you discover there is more inside than you ever imagined.  Exploring that expansive inner reality is yoga’s specialty…

I always loved the children’s song, written by Harry Dixon Loes in the early 1900s:

This little light of mine

I’m going to let it shine…

I wanted to shine!  Somehow I felt that I had an inner light that could shine.  I didn’t know how to access it but I wanted it.  My Guru opened up my access to the inner light that was already there.  That light shines from deep inside.

Your mind blocks your own inner light in the same way you can use your thumb to block the sun.  The human mind excels at negating things, thus the sages described how to negate the negation.  My own name does this, with Nirmala meaning “not limited.”  The 9^th century sage Shankaracharya wrote a poem describing your own essence.  He meticulously negates your limitations…

Join Gurudevi Nirmalananda for her FREE Wednesday evening chant and meditation program.  With live music and printed words, you easily join everyone else in traditional yoga chanting.  

After the chant, you’ll find meditating with a Master takes you deep effortlessly.  It’s the best way to explore the inner dimensions of your own being.  Whether you’re a newcomer or an experienced meditator, Gurudevi makes it easy as well as profound!

Gurudevi’s Wednesday satsangs are inspiring. My meditations are always deepened by her talk and her long chant. — Debbie M.

Online, this program is part of your Yoga Wednesday (bookends or full day).  Or simply join us in-person in Downingtown PA.

By Judy (Jagruti) Goodkin

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

Hearing Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s teachings on Swami Sundays is like getting a booster shot of the Self.  Recently, Gurudevi said she’d received Shaktipat from her Baba over 200 times.  And if he were still in his body, she’d still be getting Shaktipat from him.  Hearing this filled me with an ongoing inspiration.  If Gurudevi would still get Shaktipat, why wouldn’t I?

It had been a year since my last Shaktipat Retreat in 2021.  My sadhana (personal practice) was neither moving forward nor moving me deeper within.  Yet I knew Shaktipat could get me through whatever was keeping me blocked.  Also, I felt a strong need to be in Gurudevi’s presence.  So I signed up right away for the On-Site program last May. 

Being surrounded by many deep yogis and swamis was so supportive.  After I received Shaktipat, the swamis’ talks helped me understand the experiences I was having.  For instance, in meditation, my thoughts can feel heavy.  They are just words.  But when I attach a story to them, they get me in the mud!  But they are just words.

I also have a new appreciation for how Kundalini (meditative energy) works on my emotions.  While in meditation, if an emotion comes up, I can sit with it and feel it.  It has a purpose: Kundalini is burning through it.  Since Shaktipat, I don’t have to pursue my emotions or thoughts in meditation.  They no longer draw me out.  Now experiencing them can draw me in deeper.

Receiving Shaktipat has had a profound effect on my everyday life.  I used to think enlightenment happened with a  “boom” all at once!  Now I see it is a process.  I’m becoming more aware of a gradually deepening inner knowing.  Gurudevi explains:

After Shaktipat, even when your mind returns to its familiar pattern, the deeper knowing is awakened and is always there.

Recently, I attended a street fair with my family.  For some reason, I was getting more and more frustrated, annoyed and judgmental.  I sat down on the curb and acknowledged my feelings.  I began repeating mantra to myself.  I could see what was happening as separate from my usual kneejerk reactions.  I was able to stop my small-s self emotions.  They couldn’t pull me where I didn’t want to go.  Mantra shifted my state immediately.  When I’m in capital-S Self, I can soften.  I notice my relationships softening as well. 

At the end of my Shaktipat Retreat, our assignment was to increase our meditation time.  This felt challenging, as asana is always easier for me.  Yet I am gradually working up to an hour.  Now I really like meditation.  I look forward to it every day.  But it is my journaling that has changed the most.  After meditation, Gurudevi always says, “Now is a good time to journal.”  I used to stare at the blank page not knowing what to say after meditations.  Now, the words just flow out of me!  As Gurudevi promises, and through her Grace, I am still experiencing profound changes.  They are ongoing, getting deeper and deeper, and better and better!