Author Archives: Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

Gurudevi’s CD: Honored Guru Gita

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By Joan Brager

I love the chant “Jaya Jaya Arati Nityananda,” track 7 on this CD. The first time I heard it at the Ashram, it sounded like a march for a noble cause.

I wanted to sing along. I found the refrain lively and simple enough for me to quickly catch on: “Jaya Jaya aaratee Nityananda.”

I knew we were singing about Nityananda. I had read and heard enough about him to know that he was a great spiritual being. I knew that “jaya jaya” meant “Hail hail.” But the sound of jaya jaya is better than that translation. You know you are heralding someone great when you sing it out.

So I boldly sang out the refrain.

I learned later, when I looked up the translation, that the refrain says ”Hail Hail, I offer lights to Nityananda.” That is a fitting tribute to someone who brought so much light to so many.

Hearing this chant in Gurudevi’s beautiful singing voice is a pleasure that I repeat often.

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My Favorite Marker Pose

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By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Every time I do Downward Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana), I savor the experience.

To prepare, I lengthen my arms out on the floor, and feel a soft knot unravel between my shoulder blades. It’s like a looped scarf simply smoothing out. Nearly effortlessly, I back into the pose.

I feel supported and protected by my leg bones. Miraculously stable, they take my body’s weight. My torso feels fluid and light. I feel enlivened and timeless. A pure, blissful awareness of being expands from within and envelopes me.

In my 30’s, I found I could do yoga, though I’d nearly flunked high school physical education. Down Dog has been a loyal friend. In Down Dog, I proudly sunk my heels into the floor while others had to lift theirs. True, the teacher suggested I seek a chiropractor for my visibly tight upper spine. But my heels landed! I was good (or so I thought)! For decades, I continued with yoga classes in different styles. Down Dog was always my favorite pose. I stayed in delusion.

Finding Svaroopa® yoga, I first felt the bliss of spinal opening and then learned the truth. Overstretched ligaments are a big problem. I could press my Down Dog feet into the floor and go into all kinds of pretzel poses. But this deceptive flexibility kept my spine tight.

Fortunately, I enrolled in Foundations. That “iceberg” hiding in the depths came to light. After YTT 1, I vowed to practice Svaroopa® yoga poses exclusively. No more Down Dog — not until YTT 3 a few years later.

Being trained to teach Downward Facing Dog as a Svaroopa® yoga pose was a breakthrough. I felt my spine and whole body come alive. It’s a lifetime Marker Pose for me. Down Dog shows me, in no uncertain terms, the miraculous power of Svaroopa® yoga’s spinal decompression.

I now do Down Dog with reverence. It reveals the sanctity of my human body and sends me into bliss.

Meditation Tips & Tricks

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Free Program with Gurudevi

A day without meditation would be like a day without eating — you can do it, but why?

Enjoy all the benefits you’ve heard about:  inner clarity, creativity, peace, healing and happiness. 

Learn directly from Gurudevi Nirmalananda in this FREE online program.

Wednesday February 7

1:30 – 3:00 pm (Eastern Time)

ONLINE

Your take-away is personal, empowering you to make a choice about when and how you meditate as well as why.  When all these factors line up, you wouldn’t want to miss a day! 

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Gurudevi’s Chanting & Meditation Weekend

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By Andrea (Arya) Perry

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney  

Feelings of uneasiness and self-consciousness arise when I sing.  I am hesitant and resistant to sing.  

Consequently, chanting is tapas (doing the hard stuff).  Cultivating the opposite and tapas helps me dissolve these self-limiting patterns and deepen into Self.  Also chanting is a good way to open your heart.  By opening your heart, you open and transform your mind.  For these reasons, I registered for Gurudevi’s online Chanting and Meditation Weekend two years ago.

It stems back to when I was a child.  I loved singing camp songs.  In sixth grade, I decided to try out for chorus.  The teacher’s “put-down” responses to my singing translated into feelings of rejection, inadequacies, unacceptance and isolation.  They squashed ME.

Being self-conscious of singing is an old pattern.  Because I now know I am Self, Consciousness-Itself, no matter what, this pattern no longer defines who I am.  It needs to be dissolved.  And it is progressively dissolving over time through Gurudevi’s yogic teachings, practices and Grace.

The theme of our Chanting and Meditation Weekend retreat was Durga.  I wasn’t familiar with her.  I learned that Durga embodies the strength and power that destroy obstacles and block knowingness.  She’s the protector of knowingness.  

We chanted “Kali Durge” over and over again.  We listened to stories about Durga, and we meditated.  The interweaving of chanting, storytelling and meditation gave rise to the qualities of Durga within me. 

By the end of the retreat, I was Durga.  I was the warrior Durga that overcomes and is victorious over all obstacles to unknowingness.

Chanting and Meditation Weekend

Living Mysticism Day-by-Day

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Take a peek inside. See how Gurudevi’s new Calendar Journal helps you with yogifying your day, every day.

January 18  

Svaroopa® yoga specializes in core opening, the decompression of your spine, both physically and energetically.

January 19

Each time you lift and open your spine, you stay a little more open and become more able to live in that openness.

January 20  

Svaroopa® Yoga’s practices turn life’s momentum from contraction to expansion.

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Miracles for My Dad

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By Evy (Kalyani) Zavolas

Interviewed by Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington

I began teaching Svaroopa® yoga in 2000 and begged my family to try my classes. For years their response was always,“No thanks.” 

Twelve years ago, my dad developed severe neck pain, probably from his work as a mechanic. It was so bad he had to close his business for a month. A doctor examined him and said, “Come back tomorrow for a shot of pain relief.”

I happened to drop by that evening and saw how much he was suffering. With no arguments, I put him into Slow Motion Dive, Stage 1. After a few minutes he came out saying, “Oh, the pain is gone, it must be a miracle!” An hour later he told my mom to “call the doctor and cancel that appointment!”

The neck pain never came back, but Dad continued to have lower grade pain. Three herniated discs left him unable to stand or walk for too long. He could “live with it” by sitting down every 10–15 minutes. A doctor told him he would eventually need surgery. 

A few months ago, it worsened after a long trip overseas. Again, I begged him to try yoga, but he had forgotten the miracle 12 years before. For 6 years, he had done physical therapy, had 15–20 epidurals, and ended up taking steroids. The side effects were terrible, especially the inability to sleep. He was waiting to see a surgeon with the results of an MRI.

Finally, in desperation he agreed to try a yoga class. He felt better immediately. The next day he told me “the pain is 90% gone,” and asked for another class. He still went to see the surgeon, who told Dad, “You don’t need surgery, just keep doing what you’re doing.” 

Now he comes to classes once or twice a month and has given up the steroids. Twelve years ago, he thought the miracle was a coincidence, but now he believes. This stuff works!

Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy
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Inspired by Living Mysticism

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By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattaffi

The moment I opened Gurudevi’s new calendar journal, Living Mysticism, I was inspired.

Each quote for the day is a profound sutra, worthy of contemplation, and relevant to my practice. Each quote is placed to help me deepen my inner state day by day.

The journal aspect of the book is inspiring me to be more consistent with journaling. I want to fill every day with my meditation experiences. I don’t skip even a day of meditation. In the same way, I don’t want to miss even a day of memorializing my progress inward in this sweet journal.

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Unfold Your Personal Story

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By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

This “calendar journal” comprises 366 curated sutras from Gurudevi’s teachings. That’s one for each day of the leap year.  

They have been gleaned from her 30 years of teaching articles.  Each day, you get a sacred reminder of who you are as a yogi. 

From Day One of 2024, you get encouragement to create a yogic life based in your Divine Essence.  Day by day, get guidance on how to let yoga propel you to Self-Realization.  

A sutra crowns the top of each four-by-seven blank page. Each invites you to plan your day and/or journal about it.  Within this book of succinct teachings, you are writing your own 2024 memoir.  

Unfold your personal story of being the Divine Essence that has created you.  Your book within this book will reflect your experience of the mystical truth of your life.  Simultaneously Divine and practical, you will see how you are a unique form of the eternal, infinite formless.

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Sukhasana: A Sweet Pose for Body, Mind and More

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By Nirooshitha Sethuram, Yogaratna

The sweetness of sitting is found in Sukhasana, one of my favorite poses. The name says it all. Sukha in Sanskrit means happiness, pleasant, ease, joy or bliss.

Sukhasana gives me all these experiences, and more, especially when well aligned with an upright spine. Then I settle into myself.  I find the balance point in my torso and use the natural support of my spinal column. 

I also use props to make myself comfortable.  Rolled blankets under my knees keep my thighs level, front to back. When I am well aligned with props, my head stays where it belongs, and my sit bones are leveled.  Then this relaxing, gentle pose helps ease any low back and knee pain. 

My whole spine lengthens from my tailbone all the way into my ribcage and neck.  I feel my hips opening. This spinal release unravels tension in my knees and ankles as well.

Then I can sit in Sukhasana for a longer time.   I simply abide in my own Self, settling into stillness, outside and inside.  I often sit in Sukhasana when I am listening to my Guru’s discourses and other teachings. I meditate in Sukhasana all the time.  The simplicity of this pose makes it easy for me to teach, meditate and pray.

Most of all, this pose soothes and calms my mind and grounds me inside.  It provides the physical support that allows me to experience a sense of inner peace and calmness while remaining completely present.  It fills me fully and brings contentment.  

Sitting in Sukhasana invites my mind to come inside, sit and stay. It also gives me the pillar of support while practicing Ujjayi Pranayama. I can accustom myself to the inner energies that are balancing and flowing up my spine.  My mind is quieted and my awareness turns easily inward.

This is all possible by the blessings of our Guru, Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati, whom we lovingly call GurudeviJi. I am forever grateful to my Guru and the practices she has blessed us with, so gracefully. 

Svaroopa® Yoga Classes
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Gurudevi’s New Year’s Retreat

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Give yourself a New Year’s gift — a fresh start ― online as well as on-site!  Gurudevi Nirmalananda explains,

I love the new year. It holds such promise, like the seed of that will grow, flower and fruit. It’s a time to celebrate life and the turning of a cycle. It’s time to plan how to make the most of the coming year. Let’s do it together!

This retreat includes yoga poses, chanting, meditation, teaching talks and more. Gurudevi leads you through deep inner experiences that transform your sense of self. Discover your eternal expansiveness. Be propelled into your highest potential for the year ahead and beyond.

I’m astonished at the impact of Gurudev’s 2023 New Year’s Retreat on my life. … Guru’s Grace propelled me into action.  My energy and zest for life returned. … It was the Grace flowing from Gurudevi during the New Year’s Retreat that made it possible. — Agnes H.

2024 Online Retreat
2024 On-Site Retreat