When you’re comparing what’s happening to what you think should be happening, you’ll be lost in your reactions.

What you need to do – let’s be very simplistic about this – if what’s happening doesn’t match your plan, then you need to…  

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Bondage & Freedom“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Born into bondage, your life’s task is to fly free. You begin the process like a caged bird who keeps flexing its wings, wanting to fly. Your cage door is opened by one who is already free.

This is the Shaktipat Guru’s task, to set you free by opening up the inner arising of Consciousness. Thus you discover the truth that has been hidden for so long, that your essence is Divine.

The not-knowing of your own Self is what causes all your pain. It is the result of Shiva’s decision to become individually and uniquely you. He does this by hiding himself in multiple levels of contraction.

It puts you on a merry-go-round, locked down by Shiva, going round in circles for lifetimes. What you have to do is grab the brass ring! Get Shaktipat, the inner awakening that sets you free.

The inner bolt of I-Consciousness bestowed by the Guru shatters the not-knowingness, setting you free.

Udyamo bhairavah. — Shiva Sutras 1.5

Prior to receiving Shaktipat, I had a few expansive experiences. Though they were rare and never lasted long. I wanted more. Some of my friends used substances to get there, but I preferred spending time in nature, as well as…

Atma, your own Self, is all pervading.  You probably think of your own Self as being inside your body, but it’s the other way around.   Your body is inside your own Self.  You may think of your own Self like your soul, that your soul is found…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Atma & Svaroopa“

You are so much more than you think you are.  It is all summarized in this one sutra:

Your own Self is Consciousness-Itself.

Chaitanyam atma. — Shiva Sutras 1.1

This is the first sutra, in the first chapter of the first text of Kashmiri Shaivism, our yogic tradition.  The first sutra is the most important one.

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Your Divine Essence“

It was Baba that gave me God.  That’s the Guru’s job – to give you access to what is already there inside. But you haven’t been able to find it.  It can be hard to understand God and Guru. They are One, while being different.  I’ll compare it to the front door of your house.  It’s part of your house.  You wouldn’t want that wall to be solid.  You wouldn’t want your house to be without an entry portal.  The Guru is the door by which you enter into…  

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “For the Love of God“

Your spiritual practices change you in such a way that you radiate Consciousness into the world. Especially your family is uplifted, even without them doing yoga.  How great!  And it means you’re doing yoga for two — yourself and your spouse or partner.  Or maybe you’re doing yoga for three… 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Unconditional Love“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Your own inner knowing is yoga’s goal. This is a knowing beyond thought, beyond logic, beyond explanation or causation. You just know.

Yoga’s inner knowing is different than the intuitive feeling that most people seek. Yoga’s knowing is not about externals, not about problems or other people. It is the Knower knowing the Knower. Your own Self knows your own Self.

The astonishing thing about this is that it is so easy. Even more amazing, you actually already know. It’s only your mind that tells you something different. Thus, all of yoga’s practices are for your mind.

But the practices are not so you can convince your mind of anything. Yoga’s practices pacify your mind, so it gets out of the way.  Your mind becomes peaceful and happy. It is like a dog laying down and rolling over for a belly rub. Your mind loves the experience of your own Self.

Since your mind doesn’t know how to get there on its own, it needs help. The mantra and other practices are not enough on their own. You need an intervention. One who knows can give you the knowing. This is Shaktipat.  It is the greatest gift of all.

I have just summarized the first few sutras of the Shiva Sutras. They assert you are Consciousness, the Self-Knowing Essence of Beingness that is being all while being you. But you don’t know.  And you want to know. So you look for someone who can awaken your own knowing of your own Self.  That’s why you’re here now.

I’ll go through these sutras in Sanskrit as well, thus beginning my theme for the year — Insight into Sutras. These ancient aphorisms explain how life works as well as how to make spiritual progress. Additionally I describe them more fully in my twice-weekly meditation programs. Here we begin with the first sutra…

When you experience love, you feel fulfilled. This is an important part of life, the experience of loving. Your loving of someone does touch the other person, yes.  But in yoga, the point is, that it affects you. So, yoga teaches the yogi to take responsibility for their own mood. To grow up, to get over your childish reactivity, or perhaps your.. 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Loving God“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Happy New Year! It’s a new start. It’s like the sunrise in the morning, radiant and glorious with colors of light blazing across the sky. May your new year bring you this light — inside.

Your own inner light is the light of Consciousness. I’ll compare you to a snowflake, different from all the other snowflakes, unique and individual. A mass of clouds are blown into place. The water forms into ice crystals and falls from the sky. From the one source and substance, you come into being as an individual.

Yet all the snowflakes ultimately melt back into water – merging into the whole again. In this way, you are a unique form of Consciousness, fascinating, intricate, beautiful, even mesmerizing. Yet your goal is to become water again, to live in the fluidity and flow that is inherent to your being.

For this, you look to your own essence – the essence of a snowflake is water, and the essence of a human being is Beingness. Why is this important?  

Because you’re not yet actualizing the Beingness that you are – you’re not living in the flow of Divine Consciousness and Bliss. You are made of Beingness, and when Beingness experiences Beingness, the experience is bliss – Divine unending constant inner bliss that feeds and nourishes you on all levels. Your goal is the bliss of Consciousness, oh Shiva. To find, to feel, to see and to know your own Self as the one Self being an individual while being the whole.

So here we are at the beginning of a new year, blossoming forth with all possibilities, all potentialities, arising from within, from the source of the universe – your own source, oh Shiva.

You get to choose. The creative power of Consciousness lies intact within you. You can sculpt time into whatever shape you’d like it to be. You can be up before the sunrise, doing yoga and meditation so the inner sun comes up with the outer sun.  

You can bring that light into every corner of your life, basing your decisions and actions in the inner illumination that flows forth as love and creativity. You will easily find compassionate and intelligent solutions, exciting and promising plans and ways to get more as well as ways to give more. 

And if you choose the same-old, same-old, you’ll get the same-old, same-old. Yes, I’m talking about New Year’s resolutions – again.  Some of you have heard…