Author Archives: Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

Meditation Breakthrough

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By Elena (Lila) Perri

I felt a profound shift as the blockage to my sadhana melted into nothingness.

It happened in Gurudevi’s recent Shaktipat Retreat. I have been meditating every day since, more deeply and with ease and delight.

At the same time, my Ujjay breathing and pose practices have become far more regular as well. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve also taken many of the Ashram’s online studies, which have deepened my meditations even more.

This morning’s meditation delivered another breakthrough. Breathing with the mantra, I was propelled into a deeper state of blissful union. As I floated in this inner realm, I had the realization that I can enjoy this same blissful union while not meditating — as Gurudevi teaches us. As everything is Shiva, it follows that bliss is always there outside of meditation just as I was experiencing it in this meditation. Goodness!

To meditate — what a profound experience! I have experienced gradual progress since my first Shaktipat Retreat with Gurudevi four years ago. Now, staying in my meditative state longer and longer every day, I am calm and peaceful. More and more, I feel that I’m living a heart-centered life.

I’ve experientially learned the truth of the teaching that, as Kundalini climbs my spine, she burns up karmic seeds. She clears out blockages. Old attitudes and resentments melt away.

Since my meditation breakthrough, emotions and distractions don’t control me. I am more easily navigating life. I’m living in my own skin and making decisions from my center.

The practices that I’ve learned from Gurudevi are the best endeavor of my life. They guide you in what to do if you want liberation. Old behaviors simply fall away. My gratitude is boundless and endless. 

Dec 11 Shaktipat Retreat

Worth Six Classes

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By Swami Prajñananda

One therapy session is worth six yoga classes. Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy is that powerful! You get more healing in less time because each session is customized. 

In a group class, your teacher creates a lesson plan that is meant for all students. It works and it is effective. But a private session is tailored just for you. 

Your therapist checks in with you at the beginning of the session. Based on your current condition, she creates your plan. Even if she had an idea of what to do with you before you arrived, it all depends on how you are in the moment. This customized approach meets you exactly where you are at and helps move you to the next level in your healing.

In Svaroopa® Yoga we say, “Support equals release.” It’s so true. When your body is supported in the poses exactly as needed, your tensions melt away. 

You settle and soften into the process when you feel supported, not only physically but mentally, emotionally and more. You allow yourself to accept the support. This is very powerful and moves you easily and deeply in your healing.

Along with this customized support, you have your therapist’s full attention. In a class situation, your teacher is taking care of the whole class. But in your yoga therapy session, you are the sole focus. 

Having your therapist’s full attention is powerful. This works for both On-Site and Online sessions. Your therapist has years of training not only in what to do, but how to be present with you.

Ultimately, it is your own presence in your body that heals. When your attention is “out there” somewhere, focused on other people, things to do, worries and fears, your body suffers. Any tight or painful area of your body is an area that has been missing your presence. You need to get back into your body! 

Your session helps to move your own awareness into those shutdown areas. You learn how to re-inhabit those places. Your therapist’s embodied presence helps you to get embodied. Then, your own awareness makes every pose deeper. 

If you are able to come in person for a session, you get the benefit of Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy’s hands-on approach. The adjustments your therapist can give you are like magic! They are so delicious. And they amplify the benefits you get in each pose.

You get a taste of this in a group class. You’re lying in Half Frog, and your teacher comes over and does her magic. Your body opens up in a whole new way. You didn’t even realize it was possible. You feel the difference.

But you only get that adjustment on one side of the pose in a class. In a yoga therapy session, though, you get it in every pose and on both sides. 

This hands-on approach accelerates your body’s healing in a way you couldn’t even have imagined. You have to experience it for yourself.

Each yoga therapy session is worth six classes. So if you are in need of healing, speed your process along and sign up for some yoga therapy. 

Yoga Therapy

Holy Day Celebration — Online & On-Site

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Guru Purnima occurs on the biggest full moon of every year, Wednesday, July 29th this year.

Be assured of a rich spiritual experience when you attend Gurudevi’s meditation program on this holy day.

In India, people take off work to go visit their Guru, bearing gifts that will support him or her as well as the Ashram for the rest of the year. They bow at their Guru’s feet, as Gurudevi always did to Muktananda, to lower their head below their heart.

Thus they align themselves with the concentration of energy that flows out the Guru’s feet.

In honoring and celebrating her Guru on this day, Gurudevi gives us all a way to tap into our own inherent Divinity. 

Her presence as well as her teachings reveal your own Self to you. Besides giving you this profound experience, Gurudevi also guides you in understanding it, especially on this beautiful night.

Guru Purnima

The Miracle of Unwinding

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By Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver

Vicky has been taking Svaroopa® yoga classes for nearly 20 years.

Even though she doesn’t teach, she has taken Foundations and Embodyment® Yoga Therapy training. This spring, she took a bigger leap. At Lokananda, she took Embodyment® Plus; she took the Magic of Ujjayi course online.

Preparation for Embodyment® Plus required her to give a large number of Embodyment® sessions. We happily embarked on an Overlap Healing Series with one another. I also gave Vicky some yoga therapy sessions, targeting specific physical issues.

She says, “I always stand up straighter, feel lighter, and more easily experience joy after a class or a session. This happens every time. That’s why Svaroopa® Yoga is so attractive to me.”

Now Vicky finds that this experience is ongoing, especially after Overlap Healing and yoga therapy as well as Embodyment® Plus training and the Magic of Ujjayi course. She says, “My experiences last longer and are more sustained. It’s pretty profound. Things are going deeper.”

She has noticed subtle, yet profound, changes in her body mechanics as well. In college, she sustained a bad ankle sprain. Although she had a cast, she had no therapy for her injury. That, in combination with some mild scoliosis, has caused 45 years of lower leg, ankle and foot pain. One leg is slightly misaligned and shorter than the other.

In her “do more yoga” mode this spring and summer, things changed. “As my sacrum would relax, my leg would literally unwind. It didn’t feel ‘screwed in’ any more. I felt muscles in my glutes, thigh, hip, calf and foot that wanted to unwind and be on point — just like a ballerina. That release in my spine was releasing the tension in my leg and unwinding all the way down to my foot.”

Because of travels, she has not been doing as much yoga practice or therapy recently. Yet she is still noticing the benefits. “I can tap into it more easily. It’s just waiting to be acknowledged again. I pick up more readily.”

“And, my feet are not hurting. At the end of the day, my feet would be yelling at me. Now they are not.”

Vicky also has a much better understanding of how all the practices work together. “I used to think that Embodyment® or asana or Ujjayi were just replacements for one another. But they’re not. You get so many more benefits when you work with all three together. They don’t merely complement one another. They build upon each other.”

As a student. Vicky has always asked lots of questions. She wants to know how to get precise alignments and how things work. “In the past, when the releases have happened,” she recalls, “I’ve felt the benefits, and I’ve wanted to know why. But now, I don’t have to. I know my body is doing what it needs to do. That’s the biggest take away for me.”

Therapeutic Yoga Series
Therapeutic Yoga Training – A

Framed Guru Mantra Wall Art

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By Joan (Jayadevi) Bragar

You are always invited to join in chanting the Guru Mantra. It is included in Gurudevi’s opening mantras, which begin her Ashram programs and classes.

The Guru Mantra honors Gurudevi’s Guru and all who have preceded him in our lineage. Through Guru’s Grace, with every discourse, mantra repetition and meditation, Gurudevi brings us closer to this realization within ourselves.

With this chant, we celebrate her. We revere the Guru as one who knows her own Self. Thus, she gives us the knowing of our own Self, the one Self being all. We express gratitude for being fortunate heirs of this Grace-full lineage.

This small, framed poster of the Guru Mantra presents the words in three ways: ancient Devanagari script, transliteration of the Sanskrit words into our modern-day Latin letters, and the English translation. It is adorned by a lotus graphic. A blooming lotus, rooted in mud, evokes the profound process of becoming enlightened.

This small poster comes in two sizes (8 ½ x 11 and 5 x 7) in a choice of frames. You can either hang your framed Guru Mantra on your wall or set it on a table, nicely preparing your space for July’s Guru Purnima celebration.

Guru Mantra

Gaining Resilience

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By Corie Roseman

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

I am at every online Swami Sunday and Wednesday satsang as well as the daily Meditation Club.

Gurudevi inspires me with her thoughtful and entertaining discourses and articles. She makes the process of enlightenment so accessible, if you just put in the effort.

I thank Gurudevi for her endless patience in guiding and encouraging me through this process. I appreciate that she sees the Divine light in me, even when I can’t.

My experience reminds me of Sally Fields 1985 Academy Awards acceptance speech: “You like me, you really, really like me!” Better yet, I like me. In fact, I am loving myself more.

Gurudevi helps me become more resilient as l age. I look for purpose and connections in my life.

I started Svaroopa® yoga classes 25 years ago. The poses release spinal tension and strengthen my bones, joints and muscles. A recent bone density exam confirmed I’m in better shape than the average seventy-year-old!

And there’s more! I’ve dedicated my time and resources towards online Ashram participation these past five years. The more yoga I do, the more benefits I reap. I now feel a whole new level of awareness and deepening. And by Guru’s Grace, knowing my capital “S” Self has become my life’s purpose.

My resilience from Gurudevi’s practices and programs takes many forms. I’m able to let go of things that challenge me more quickly. My self-talk is more positive. I am able to be more engaged in what’s happening in the present moment.

When issues with my family come up, I accept the reality, even if I can’t repair it. I allow them time to sort it out for themselves. Gurudevi has helped me shift from a state of fear and anxiety to clarity. My daily meditation calms my mind, and I feel more blissful and focused.

I wish I lived closer to the Ashram so I could attend the satsangs in person. I’d hang around to chat and eat goodies, and pitch in to help.

Instead, I arrive early at my local Monday morning yoga class. I set up the room for my teacher. This feels like an Ashram seva that I can do, and it’s meaningful to me. I’m looking forward to my first visit to the Ashram for a Shaktipat retreat in July!

Meditation Satsangs
Meditation Club

November in India

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Go with Gurudevi to Ganeshpuri for profound spiritual upliftment. 

Ganeshpuri is the home of Gurudevi’s Guru, Baba Muktananda, and his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda. This sacred place is Gurudevi’s spiritual hometown.  

Accept her invitation to join her there for her Golden Jubilee, the celebration of her 50 years of teaching and 80th birthday.

Our newly discounted rates come from an adjustment in the foreign exchange rate as well as the improved planning by our new Tour Manager. Click for more information. 

Golden Jubilee with Gurudevi

In Ganeshpuri India

Begins Monday November 9

At Fire Mountain Retreat Center, right across the river from Nityananda’s temple, you will join Gurudevi for meals, classes and satsangs. The traditional ceremonies of the Nityananda temple begin and end our days.

Two special events are happening. On the day before her birthday, Gurudevi will have a fire ceremony only for 80-year-olds. Sahasrara Chandra Darshanam honors that she has lived through 1,000 full moons. It expresses gratitude, longevity and spiritual maturity.

On her birth anniversary, Gurudevi will participate in the morning ceremonies for Nityananda in his temple. She has done this several times before, and says:

I am grateful to be able to honor Nityananda in such an intimate and personal way. This ceremony always gives me the feeling I had when sitting with my Baba. What a glorious way to honor my Baba — by honoring his Baba.

You are invited to join her for the transformative effects of immersion in this sacred place, where her teachings and practices will be generously amplified.

The travel information package is now available; email our Enrollment Advisor at programs@svaroopayoga.org or call 610.806.2119.

Previous travelers to Ganeshpuri with Gurudevi describe their transformative experiences:

After the early morning ceremony in the temple, I experienced a sweet bhav — a quiet bliss inside and outside. Even the dust along the road glimmered with shakti. I would meditate in Nityananda’s house or in his Mahasamadhi Shrine. I can still hear the village waking up, birds chirping and sacred-building caretakers going about their early morning chores. Now, eleven years later, remembering this experience of Ganeshpuri, I’m filled full, from the inside, with ecstatic bliss!

– Ruth (Rama) Brooke

Travel Information
Retreat Brochure

Our “Unmilana” Fundraiser Is Closing

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By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell

Ashram Board President

Reflecting on giving, I realize I usually give when I am in a place of fullness.  My heart opens and I want to serve more, give more.  My inner fulfillment spills into the world.

This is my experience of “unmilana,” blossoming forth or spiritual transformation. I recognize how this aligns with what Gurudevi says about the power of yoga:

 Your yoga melts the tensions and dissolves the fears so that the inner Source can arise inside to fill you and to bloom into the world. Yoga doesn’t make you yogic, it makes you become more You.

I am grateful to you for having chosen to “do more yoga” by practicing dakshina, selfless financial giving. You have shared your heart and wallet in this way; you are making a difference in the world. 

Your gift allows us to send more Grace and light into the world. Thank you for your selfless financial support of our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram.

I am grateful for your blossoming forth as well as for all that you enable SVA to give by your financial support. I bow to the light in you.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to participate, there’s still time. Donate online or call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or send your check to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, PO Box 143, Downingtown PA 19335. You may also email us at donate@svaroopayoga.org.

Thank you again and again! 

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