Where are your complaints? They’re in your mind, usually in the forefront of your mind. Repeating over and over, your mind loops around on them. So you look in the space where your complaints usually are, right here, in the forefront of your mind…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Love“
Knowing about your own Self is not the same as experiencing your own Self. I can talk about your Divine Essence all day, and you may love the theory. But even a moment of experiential knowing stops you, settles you, fills you from the inside out.
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Unlearning“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
When you have just finished a yoga class, you are a more caring and compassionate person. You have noticed this by now.
Compassion is a quality that arises when you have connected inside. It is part of living “inside out,” our contemplation theme from last month, which is the filling of yourself from the inner spaciousness and then living from this basis.
Yoga clears away the inner clutter and eases you into the vast fullness of your own beingness. From this, all the divine qualities emerge in you, including compassion.
When you are not feeling compassionate, it is because you are hungry. This hunger is more complex than a simple hunger for food, though eating a meal does help. You are more kind and caring after you have eaten compared to before. This is one of the great joys of Thanksgiving. The primary feature of the day is the Great Feast, shared with family and friends.
But food alone does not fill your deeper hunger, thus it gets projected outward into your life. It shows up in the push of your day — trying to get everything done. It shows up in your relationships — with you trying to make others in your life happy, or maybe you are trying to get them to make you happy (which is infinitely more complicated).
This hunger or need shows up in your work — as you strive to succeed or to get ahead, or maybe you are just trying to survive the day.
Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, page 29
Your attachments define you. They limit you. They take hold of you, defining who you are and what you can do. Thus, yoga’s goal is freedom. Freedom from limitation. Freedom from compulsion. Freedom from being driven. You gain yogic freedom by an internal redefinition of…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Clinging“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
We love the moon’s silvery-white light, a cooling light. Its soft glow illumines the darkness, soothing and calming your mind.
Yet the moon is not the source of its light. It merely reflects the light of the sun.
Similarly, the light of Consciousness shines through your mind. The source is within, your own Divine Essence.
If your mind were clear and spacious, your mind’s light would be cool, soothing and comforting. This is why spending time with your Guru is so valuable — the Divine light shining through their mind cools, soothes and comforts you.
Lokanandah samadhi-sukham. — Shiva Sutras 1.16
Such a yogi experiences the bliss of Consciousness in every situation, and it is transmitted to those in contact with him.
The Guru’s influence is unerring. Like sitting under a shade tree, you cool down. As you cool down, you settle into yourself. By Grace, your settling inward goes deeper — into your own Self.
You blossom like night-blooming jasmine in moonlight. I use this metaphor because my Baba had a row of these shrubs in his India Ashram. I walked by them on my way to the hillside meditation hall every morning at 3 am. Their fragrance was intoxicating! Now I know that it was not only the shrubs that were blooming. It was me, too.
However, if your mind is full of limiting notions, Consciousness first has to burn them away. I know how it works because my Baba gave me this — the fire of yoga burning away everything that held me back. Shaktipat initiates this inner process which leads to moksha, liberation.
The process is called purification. You are burning away the inner impurities. It can get hot, especially if you try to keep yourself limited and small. The alternative is clinging to your feeling of being incomplete. You already know this is painful.
Your yogic future is described in the Shiva Sutras…
While the Guru is one who dispenses God’s Grace, don’t confuse the Guru with a particular personality or physical form. Yes, I loved spending time with my Guru. I love his photos, to see these images of his physical form. Yet, I know it’s the Divine Reality in him that made him lovable…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “You Need a Guru“
Of course, you can have a breakthrough on a vision quest in nature, or in a dream. Maybe not a piece of chocolate. But anything, potentially anything can stop your mind and let your inherent Divinity peek through. How great it is. Or rather, how great it was…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Guru’s Grace“
You know, in the beginning most people use mantra to calm themselves when they’re upset. How great that it works for you. You can calm yourself. You can get centered again when you’ve been thrown off center. Yes, use mantra for this. But consider, what if you did mantra when you didn’t “need” it? If it will give you your Self when…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “I Got It!“
When you look for others’ opinions to make you feel good about you, it’s called other-worth, not self-worth. It’s a deeper sense of self that you need. And when you uncover this deeper sense of self, you still…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Words of Power“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Growing up, I was confused. My schoolteachers said, “Do your best.” But when I finished the assignment in 10 minutes, they would tell me to go back to my seat and redo it. Confusing!
In church, they told me to have faith. I couldn’t figure out how to believe in something I couldn’t see and that had no scientific proof. At home, my family said, “We love you.” Then they followed up with, “Be good so we can love you.” But if I have to be good for you to love me, then you don’t love me when I’m bad. So, what is love?
It took me decades to figure out that the problem wasn’t me. What I needed was better teachers. Searching far and wide, I found that only yoga gave me teachings I could trust and a teacher I could rely on. Better yet, I was given genuine upliftment as well as practical ways to better myself.
Yoga’s teachings and practices come from the ancient sages of India. Their inward focus shows the way to your inherent wholeness and holiness. It is the only thing that ever fulfilled me.
J~nanam annam. – Shiva Sutra 2.9
Self-Knowing is the only real nourishment, that which gives satisfaction.
Your experiential knowing of your own Self is the only thing that truly feeds you. When you apply your mind to lesser truths, you are left feeling half-empty, still looking for something more. In the inner knowing of your own Beingness, all frustrations and disappointments fade away. The light of Consciousness fills you from the inside out.
Yoga’s profound teachings resonate with something deep inside. It’s like tuning forks — when one is struck, the other also rings. True teachings touch your soul and deeper, all the way to your own Self.
Once you have experienced your inner infinity, your old ideas of yourself cannot hold you. Thus this sutra also has a second meaning:
Limited knowledge is to be digested.
These differing translations arise from the ambiguity in the word j~nanam (nya-nam). While it means knowledge, it can refer to…
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
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