Author Archives: Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

The Shavasana Course Is Relaxing – and More…

By Jessica Soligon

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney  

I love Shavasana.  My life can get very stressful, and relaxing can be a challenge.  If things are crazy and I have a half hour, I turn to Shavasana.  I play Gurudevi’s Shavasana track on my phone, lie down and relax.

Earlier this year, I took the Shavasana Course.  The first night, Swami Prajñananada asked each of us to say why we were in the class.  I said I hoped to be still and relax.  I thought the course would teach me to slow down, and I’d learn more about relaxation.  What I got wasn’t what I expected.  

Six nights in a row, we did way more than relax.  I was submerged in my true Self.  I felt very calm and connected to something bigger than myself.  Sometimes I went within so deeply that I lost awareness of Swami P’s voice.  Those two hours and a half every night were an amazing and transformative experience.  I’m so glad the course didn’t meet my expectations!  

I loved the course and looked forward to it every day.  On really stressful days, I was especially grateful to go home and let go of the stress.  No matter how I felt during the day, the evening session left me feeling so good.  Since taking the course, I am more confident.  I know what to do to get centered and be in my Self.   

Now I’m more connected with my personal journey.  I have a better understanding of myself as a yogi.  My practice has deepened.  I am more comfortable and can participate freely without overthinking. Before I was always trying to figure things out.  The Shavasana Course helped me trust the process more. 

This Stuff Works Miracles

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Sherry began weekly Svaroopa® yoga classes with me due to mild, occasional sciatica. During the Covid 19 lockdown, she continued with online yoga classes and wasn’t bothered by sciatica.  

In March 2020, however, Sherry was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).  To complement her medical treatment, she continued online classes and dedicated time to home practice. 

In October 2021, Sherry began in-person yoga therapy to address stiffness and ache in her neck and shoulders.  She believed the tightening of those muscles was a side effect of her medical treatment for CLL.

Though she was asking for help with her neck and shoulders, I planned her sessions for lower spinal opening, following our “it starts at the tailbone” sutra.  And it worked.  Sherry noticed sweet relief in her neck and shoulders.  

At the end of her sessions she reported, “Tension throughout my body is diminished, relaxed … Openings in waist and shoulder area.  Openness through back and shoulders and neck … Zero pain; more relaxed, less tension throughout body.  Neck and shoulders feel normal.” 

With a deep remission in September 2022, Sherry stopped medical treatment for CLL due to side effects.  By October, her pain level was only 1 at her session’s beginning and 0 at the end.

However, six months later, Sherry reported extreme pain from sciatica in an online class.  I hadn’t seen that coming.  She was using a walker when I arrived at her house to give her a session.  At the end, she could put a bit of weight into the affected leg.  Fortunately, she agreed to Embodyment® Overlap Healing (a series of private sessions). 

After the first four sessions, she no longer needed the walker.  As the “overlap” concluded, she was walking without discomfort of any kind.  Her neck and shoulders were pain-free too.

In her last session, I could hear her miracle.  Her voice had a tone of deep peace as she said she felt calm and normal.  “It’s like all the cancer medication is gone from my body.”  Her long-term goal is to stay pain free and in deep remission.

My Favorite Pose

By Cayla (Mangala) Allen, Yogaratna

My favorite pose is a seated pose.  Asana means to sit.  I sit for meditation, the practice that gives me my Self.  Of all the seated poses, I am most drawn to Swastikasana, Auspicious Pose.  I feel grounded, and my body and mind come into balance.

I am settling into Swastikasana right now.  I closed my eyes for a moment and experienced the ease with which I become aware of who I am.  My eyes are open now.  In this moment, I know who I am.  I am Me, a unique expression of the One.  I am grateful for the gift my Guru has given me — Me!

Gurudevi has asked me to sit in Sukhasana with three blankets to address some tension (kyphosis) in my spine.  I heed her advice when I am sitting for meditation.  I also do so when seated for longer periods of time.  This is when I’m sitting at my Guru’s feet in retreats and trainings.  Yet I am drawn to Swastikasana. 

In YTT, we learn to have a “Sitting Pose” and a “Working Pose.”  My sitting pose is Sukhasana.  I am working toward Swastikasana.  When I sit in Swastikasana, I make sure to pull in a wedge (the edge of a folded blanket under my sitbones).  

I “level up” through my sitbones and notice my spine relaxing easily upright.  I ask myself, “Is the top of my head over my tailbone?”  It is.  

I widen across my collarbones, soften my shoulders, settle in and enjoy the soothing, calming benefits this pose offers me.  I dive deeper for a moment, or more.  Then I open my eyes, aware of this beautiful life and so much more…

Telecourse:  Leaps & Bounds

Learn and grow in this multi-media course, with substantive articles and teaching videos, all for you to do at your own pace.  Gurudevi has created a sweet, yet powerful inner process that opens you to your Self.

This course helped me learn to embrace life’s inevitable challenges, learn practical skills for handling them and welcome the resulting spiritual growth. – Marlene G.

Her teaching audios in the original “Leaps & Bounds” were profound.  Now with her videos, the Leaps & Bounds teachings will have even more profound impact. – Ellan C.

Be filled up by classical teaching stories as well as verses from Sanskrit texts. As always, Gurudevi brings it alive with her personal sharings, making the process so understandable and accessible.

My Shaktipat Awakening

By Darren Taylor

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

I lived in the spiritual mecca of Boulder CO for 10 years.  I thought it would be easy to have a spiritual awakening in a purportedly enlightened place.  But I had to move back to the suburbs of Philadelphia for a true awakening.  

Relocating in Downingtown PA, I regularly drove by Lokananda, the Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram’s retreat and training facility.  The prayer flags and life-sized poster of Gurudevi in the window caught my attention.  I wondered, “What is going on there?”  It looked supportive. Online research revealed it is steeped in traditional yoga.  I started taking yoga classes and saw results immediately — less discomfort and pain along with more flexibility.  

Early on, my teacher, Swami Satrupananda, asked what I wanted to get from the yoga.  I said, “Enlightenment, of course!”  She seemed startled and said I was in the right place! I’d wondered what Shaktipat and Kundalini awakening were all about.  I heard that Shaktipat was available in Downingtown.  I knew I would be a fool not to go to Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreat.

I enrolled late and got on the waitlist. It opened and things began happening.  The day before the Shaktipat retreat, Gurudevi appeared in a dream and gave me a shoulder adjustment.  When I arrived at Lokananda, my roommate and I felt like we’d known each other our whole life.  

During the first Shaktipat, Gurudevi put her hands on me.  Something inside was drawn upward toward my brow.  It felt like I was lifted out through my forehead.  My body was moved into various positions.  It felt like a chakra recalibration.  At satsangs now, when I look at Gurudevi, she’s a blinding light.  I have to squint or close my eyes.  

I have explored many traditions, but this one feels like the solution to my spiritual longing. It gives me tools, support and the lineage. When I repeat mantra and meditate, I know I will have depth.

Experiencing Timelessness through Yoga Therapy

By Rebecca (Jyoti) Yacobi

Interviewed by Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

At the end of 2022, I began treating a new client with yoga therapy.  She has a demanding, high intensity career.  Her home life as a wife and mother is very full.  The pressures of daily life have physically manifested as pain in her knees, shoulders and low back.  

Yoga therapy with poses and Embodyment® sessions have been highly effective in reducing her pain levels.  At a session’s end, her pain is down to one or two (on a scale of 0 to 10).  Often, it’s reduced to zero.  She has experienced silence, stillness, timelessness and opening to the deeper dimensions within.

In her first Embodyment® session, her mind stopped.  She exclaimed, “I thought I had to do days of meditation to feel this way.”  Cocooned under a blanket, she felt she could stay in that timeless space forever.  She loves being enfolded in “her own space” under the blanket.

We Svaroopa® Yoga Therapists learn to help clients open inward into the timelessness of their own Beingness.  It’s not solely about the effectiveness of the therapeutic angles and adjustments.  

The client softens and surrenders to Grace flowing through the Svaroopa® Sciences tradition.  The client’s own Divine Essence arises from within.  It is “That” which is the Source of Stillness and profound healing.

With a busy life, packed with responsibilities, my client continues to benefit from yoga therapy.  She is aware of her own healing power arising from within.  Calmer and clearer, she manages her demanding work more effectively. 

When she acknowledges the power of yoga for calming her mind, her eyes light up.  Through her sessions, she is being entrained into her Divine Essence.  This is her yoga miracle.

My Experience of the Heart

By Loretta Forsythe

Interviewed by Margie (Maitreyi) Wilsman

I am mesmerized by how Gurudevi’s “Yoga of the Heart” program has helped me work with my mind.  I first took this deep program during the Covid pandemic. Last year, I was thrilled when Gurudevi offered it again. The second time, I grasped much more of what she is teaching.  

In this program, Gurudevi leads us inwardly to our heart and then to our own Self. She choreographs and orchestrates her teachings on the depth of the heart so beautifully. She leads us through very gently.

Each session, Gurudevi gave us a discourse on the heart, the mind and the relationship between them. Gurudevi says that to become enlightened you must work on your mind. She explained our homework: exercises for experiential learning. Then she led us in meditation followed by group disscussion. After each of the four weekly sessions, I was amazed at the difference within myself.

During the week I practiced the exercises. Now I continue with them. They take only a few minutes. I do some during the day, others prior to meditation. They help me during the night when anxiety, my busy mind or pain keeps me awake.  

With sinus pain one night, I reflected on Gurudevi’s teaching about how the mind blocks access to your Self. This reflection took me into meditation. I saw that I am neither my body nor my physical symptoms. I became one with my own Self. The pain subsided, and I went into a deep good night’s sleep. 

Gurudevi teaches “The heart is all you think it is and so much more.” I now realize the difficulty of using the mind to feel the depth of the heart. She also teaches that my mind wants to go back to the heart. The heart is the entryway to the Self.

Gurudevi’s teachings are like seeds that go deep. The roots start growing, the buds come on, then the flowers bloom. Nourished by Guru’s Grace, my practices and understandings continue to unfold. From Gurudevi’s “Yoga of the Heart,” I know Grace is always there. It’s the experience of the heart.

One of My All-Time Favorite Poses

By Soraya (Sudevi) Pereira, Yogaratna

One of my all-time favorite poses is Prasarita Padottanasana (SloMo in the chair) with the variation: Push-Pull. I practice it after doing Ujjayi Pranayama in Shavasana with Legs on Chair. 

Sitting on the chair, I move into Prasarita Padottanasana to prepare for the variation’s specialized angles.  I feel the heads of both my thigh bones settle deeper inside my hip sockets.  

This starts a lovely chain of events, with my sitbones poking back more.  My tailbone releases and lengthens.  I always get these delicious changes. 

I also feel a wonderful release in the front of my sacrum.  This area of my low back sometimes gets achy.  All this lower spinal release makes me bend forward more deeply.  I feel more grounded on the chair.  I settle more deeply into all of those pose benefits.

With the help of my teacher Swami Shrutananda, I have learned to finesse the leg actions.  This allows my lower back to completely relax.  The pose then blossoms fully, reaching into my whole spine.  My body releases tension and my mind becomes fully present.  I love how powerful and reliable this pose is!

Telecourse: Leaps & Bounds

Make giant leaps into Consciousness in Gurudevi’s new Telecourse.  She has created a sweet, yet powerful inner process that opens you to your Self.

With substantive articles and teaching videos, you take this multimedia course at your own pace.  Your password is current for three months after you enroll.  Take any of the three modules or all of them:

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Module 2:  Living Spirituality — Riding on the shoulders of spiritual giants, how do you incorporate their great gifts into your everyday life?

Module 3:  Ordinary Monks & Mystics — Outgrowing your past & shaping your future. The loom of tantra: interweaving spirituality through life.

Bonus Video:  Resting on Your Laurels (free when you enroll in all 3 modules).

As always, Gurudevi brings it all alive with her personal sharings, making the process so understandable and accessible.  With the meaningful material in this deep course, you will experience a difference in your spiritual progress.

Intrigued?

The Amazing Gift of Shaktipat

By Alina (Avinashi) Uzhvieva

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

Nothing compares to being in the same room with an Enlightened Being.  In Gurudevi Nirmalananda’s presence, a vibration starts in my whole body.  It’s more than mere emotions; it’s coming from a place deeper inside.  

Attending Shaktipat at Lokananda also means being surrounded by beautiful smiles and serene faces of fellow yogis.  There is no judgement, only love and care.  Everyone there shares the same path to liberation.  

Before I received my first Shaktipat initiation I had so many expectations.  I wanted to get it all!  Receiving Gurudevi’s Shaktipat by touch was intense.  I experienced my greed and expectations turning into tears, anger, guilt and fear.  They were being cleared out.  

Then I realized that all my previous yogic practices had prepared me for this moment.  Suddenly the anguish stopped.  I felt completely still.  It was deeply calming and absolutely ecstatic.  

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Having learned my lesson, I was able to release all thoughts and feelings in Gurudevi’s second Shaktipat (by will).  Everything dissolved as I melted into the process.  I felt I was one with every yogi in the room.  It was a sweet state of Beingness.

When I returned to everyday life, I knew I wanted to integrate my experiences. Gurudevi provided us with many practical tools to support ourselves after Shaktipat.  At first, I did experience relapse, wanting to be back at Lokananda.  Yet I realized integrating even 1% of my expanded state of Beingness would improve my whole life. 

Now I have more clarity about being a mother and wife.  I want to keep my body and mind healthy to support my family.  This realization helped establish my daily practice.  I do yoga and meditate every day now.  

Less reactive and more responsive, I feel better and see everything in my life in a different light. Remembering my Shaktipat experience, I can be with whatever is happening.  I’m grateful for Guru’s Grace and to know where I am headed!