Author Archives: Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

The Astounding Power of Dakshina

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By Beth (Bhanumati) Cunningham

I am astounded at the power of dakshina.  Dakshina is the practice of supporting the financial health of our Ashram. For me, no other practice offers more tangible transformation.  If I didn’t give to the Ashram, what tremendous gems would I be missing out on? That’s why it’s important to me to donate.  I don’t want you to miss out either.  So I hope you’ll join me in donating to the Ashram’s “Body, Mind, Heart and More” fundraiser.

A year ago, my family and I were set for some travel.  I was also planning a yoga retreat in the summer.  Everything was funded.  Then, we had a large amount of money stolen.  We cancelled everything.  We even had to borrow to pay our taxes.  It was tough.  About two weeks later, I got a phone call to donate to the fundraiser going on at the time.  I had a good excuse not to, but it didn’t even cross my mind.  I re-assessed what we could offer and made a donation.

By the end of the evening, Grace showered the returns upon me.  I discovered a great compassion for the people who had stolen the money.  Then, I had a powerful karmic clearing.  I realized that throughout the entire ordeal, I was still Me.  My Self was still there, whole and untouched.  What had the thieves stolen — really?  Nothing that I would not have freely given for such priceless gifts.  

These gifts continue to unfold.  Soon after, I got a significant raise.  Within six months, I was earning double what I had been.  Somehow, with little effort on my part, we’ve quickly recuperated the money we lost.  I’ve also been able to take Ashram courses that I couldn’t afford before the theft.

Yes, I am astounded at the power of dakshina.  Please join me in donating and be astounded yourself.

Donate today on our website.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

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Knowing the Self in Two Ways

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

You need the theory to get beyond the theory. For the knowing of your own Self, you must have an understanding of the Self, so you can get there. But you must go beyond your understanding to actually get there.

It’s like going on a long car trip to a wonderful and beautiful destination. You plan your trip: figure out your timing, pack your bags and snacks, and set your GPS. Once you get there, you have to let go of the steering wheel and get out of the car. 

You have arrived. However, being in the new location changes how you see things and what you will do next. If you’ve read about the destination, you have an idea of what to do. In this way, the teachings help you make sense out of your new state once you are enlightened.

Vitarka aatmaj~naanam. — Shiva Sutras 1.17

Right understanding is Self-Knowingness.

The sutra is read forwards and backwards. Forwards: this means you can use the sutras and teachings to get to the Self. Backwards: When you know the Self, your mind gains a new understanding of everything. In both directions, this use of your mind is called “right understanding,” meaning it is accurate as well as beneficial.

What is the right understanding? First you use your mind to understand that you are more than your mind. You are the one who has a mind as well as a body. Cultivate your ability to see that you are the one seeing through your eyes. You are the one who speaks through your mouth, hears through your ears, who does what you do.  You are you even while you do what you do. 

As you distinguish between what you do and who you are, you grow into a greater sense of being, which opens up new possibilities. The most important of these is the possibility of inward expansion, the exploration of the “who” that you really are.

And when you explore your own Essence and Beingness, you discover that you are even more than what you thought you were. You go beyond your idea of your own Divine Essence — to experience your own Self, named “aatma” in this sutra.

This inner recognition of your own Self is beyond thought, beyond hope, beyond faith and belief. You realize that your own Self knows your own Self, and always has. You are That which has always existed, and is existing as you.

All the yogic practices and teachings are for this purpose — giving you the experiential knowing of your own Self. You are in your glory, shining with the inner light of being Consciousness-Itself.

This inner experience and knowingness now shines through your mind, illumining the shadows and burning away the foggy thinking. A new clarity informs your choices. Your decisions and actions are more direct, even simplified while being made more powerful and effective.

Now you live with right understanding, using your mind as a tool to implement the Divine Wisdom that is always arising within. This is the goal. What a way to live!

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Body, Mind, Heart and More

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By Kristine (Dhairyavati) Freeman

The Svaroopa® Sciences are all about yogic growth.  This encompasses your body, mind, heart and more.  My daily yoga practices support this growth in a slow and steady way.  

Then when I travel to our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram for onsite, immersion programs, I experience yogic shifts as a more rapid spiritual growth spurt.

My experience of dakshina follows a similar pattern.  Dakshina is the yogic practice of offering financial resources to support the Source of Grace and knowledge.  It sustains our Ashram as well as promoting its growth.  And dakshina does the same for us donors.  So I am inviting you to join me in this profound practice.

As a monthly donor, I consistently support the Ashram in a slow and steady way. Regular monthly and predictable financial support from us monthly donors helps sustain our Ashram.  Yet I benefit even more from offering the Ashram this ongoing support.

I also support the Ashram’s twice-yearly fundraisers with a larger donation.  Then I am doing a dakshina immersion!  It gives me another spiritual growth spurt.  And it provides essential financial support for the organization that supports me and so many others.

All your yoga practices open you to an inner flow that makes you want to share.  Dakshina is an organic extension of this inner flow. Gurudevi says, “You love to give.  Making a difference for others matters to you.”  It isn’t about how much you give.  It’s about the place inside from which you give.  As Gurudevi explains, when you settle into your own Essence and Beingness, you feel less needy and anxious. 

Giving from the depths of your being, you feel generous, organically. Open your body, mind, heart and more. Please join me in giving to the organization that gives us so much in return. Give to the organization that gives so much so freely to the world.

Donate today on our website.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

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My First Shaktipat

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By Todd Correa

Interviewed by Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

I signed up for the New Year’s Shaktipat Retreat to explore my humanness and understand myself better. I wanted to feel more connected to the cosmic Consciousness of the universe. I did not know what Shaktipat was, but I trusted the recommendation of my local Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation and sutras teacher.

I had enjoyed my local teacher’s three-part Learn to Meditate course. I recognized I could go deeper — something was happening inside. I even joined the Ashram’s Meditation Club. Without realizing it, I was preparing myself for my first Shaktipat experience.

Being brand new to an Ashram retreat, I was surprised by so much chanting and meditation. I was amazed I could sit for such long periods of time. I loved it!

When Gurudevi walked into the room, I felt there was something special about her. She looked at me and “saw me.” I felt accepted, as if I belonged there. She knew who I was and am: Shiva.

Sometimes it felt a bit overwhelming, with my senses bursting open. I felt like a deer caught in headlights! Yet I wanted this new experience to feel like mine, fully authentic. I accepted it, as it unfolded.

It was weird, but I embraced it. I wrote in my journal: “My whole being is opening up, in a burst of life. My head is opening up like a flower. I feel intense emotions, while being bathed in bliss.”

My first initiation by Gurudevi’s touch, my whole body went into hers, opening up to receive her Grace. I did not want this feeling of Oneness to stop. Afterward, I felt exhausted, my body depleted. I did not know how to put my experience in perspective. However, the retreat talks helped me understand what was going on. So I did some restorative Ujjayi breathing during our breaks.

When Gurudevi gave us Shaktipat by will, I was still right there, having an amazing experience. I wondered: “How does she do that from way over there?” Yet I knew in my core that it was real. Something beautiful and amazing had happened, and I am so grateful.

Before, I understood the theory of “One-ness.” But now I have experienced it because I was with a Self-Realized Being. I feel more empathy and the ability to be present to my therapy clients and students. I can go deeper within myself and assist others to go deeper as well. My work is my calling, so I am going to do Shaktipat again!

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Opening Your Mind, Body & Heart

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By Ruth (Rama) Brooke, Member

Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram Board of Directors

I love all the Svaroopa® practices.  So I also gratefully engage in dakshina.  It’s the ancient yogic practice of financially supporting the teacher and the teachings.  Please join me in expressing your gratitude for our great good fortune.  Together, we honor all that flows and all that we receive from this yoga.  Make your financial gift to our fundraising campaign “Body, Mind, Heart and More.”

What an apt title!  The Svaroopa® Sciences divinely support each facet of my being.  Asana (poses), Ujjayi pranayama (yogic breathing) and Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy heal my body.  Our devotional practices, including chanting and arati (candle waving ceremony), illumine my heart.  Vichara (guided self-inquiry), sutra studies and japa (mantra repetition) clear my mind. 

And, as Gurudevi says, I find the most reliable practice of all is meditation.  It showers Grace-filled benefits on the deepest dimensions of my being.  Then I get more!  I experience Self — the One Being All.

You, too, are so much more than you think you are.  You are a yoga gem, a diamond glistening with the light of Consciousness.  As a Svaroopi, your practices have honed and polished the facets of your being: body, mind and heart!  You know how it feels to shine with this light that arises from within.  You know upliftment, openness, and clarity.  You know how to settle deeper into your own Self.  You feel more like You.

Dakshina is not about the amount of your contribution.  Dakshina is the yogic practice of giving financial resources from your Capital-S Self.  All your yoga practices open an inner flow that makes you want to share.  Dakshina is an organic extension of this.

Donate today on our website.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

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Do More Yoga

Surgery at Birth

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By Maria Sichel

With the Svaroopa® Sciences practices, miracles happen reliably.  Encouraged by his wife, my client Marc took an introductory class last September.  With two partial knee replacements, he described himself as “stiff” and said he had back and knee pain.  After this introduction, Marc felt so good he enrolled in weekly classes.

Marc’s Svaroopa® yoga class became a highlight of his week.  He often reported with wonder that he felt so much better at the end of class.  Early on, he remarked, “I wasn’t expecting the added benefit of mental relief!  I am astounded to be calmer with less pain, more mobility and an overall good feeling.  My body has opened in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”

In February, he decided to try yoga therapy.  He described, “I was born with a double hernia.  Correction at birth created scar tissue that affected my psoas muscles.  At 26, I developed a slight herniation on the right side of the L4–L5 vertebrae.  On-and-off debilitating pain resulted.”

Marc got some relief from massage therapy and chiropractic treatments.  However, the extreme tightness on his right side from his neck down to his hip continued.  Arriving for his first yoga therapy session, Marc reported pain spreading through his neck, entire right side, sacrum and both knees.  Afterward, he reported no pain!  Being persuaded by the miracle of 20 minutes of Ujjayi Pranayama, Marc became a daily “breather” at home.

At his fifth session, Marc reports enjoying his consistent daily Ujjayi breathing.  When he fills out the initial pain scale, he now targets only two small spots.  He leaves the session with zeros. 

Marc says, “I am amazed at the breathing practice.  I have been able to stop visiting the chiropractor every week.  This weekend I overdid it and was in quite a negative state.  I did my breathing, poses and some meditation, and I was transformed.”

I say that Marc is in the “midst of a miracle.”  I don’t know how “good” good can get for Marc.  And neither does he.  But he continues to be curious and run the experiment.

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Radical Transformation

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By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Body, Mind, Heart and More — this phrase resonates with me on all levels.  It’s the title of our current Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram fundraising campaign.  It’s also where I’ve received profound, beneficial change all the way to the roots of my being.  And this deep shift orients me to what I always wanted.  That’s why I gratefully donate to our Ashram each month as well as in the twice-yearly campaigns.

I invite you to join me in this glorious yoga practice: dakshina.  Practicing dakshina, we give back in gratitude to the source of the transformative yogic teachings.

For two decades, the Svaroopa® Sciences have unraveled the roots of my mental and physical pain.  Already a yoga teacher in another style, I accidentally discovered Svaroopa® yoga and meditation.  My main reason for pivoting to the Svaroopa® practices was wanting to teach them.  They gave me the previously unknown experience of Consciousness arising from within — pure bliss.  The Svaroopa® poses and meditation reliably opened me inward to this experience.  

I wanted it!  I wanted teaching it to be my life’s work.  Unlike in previous styles, Svaroopa® yoga and meditation reliably, consistently opened me inward to bliss — even in home practice.  In teaching, I see my students experience the same.

My heart opens.  My relationships improve — with myself as well as others and the world!  The most radical shift has been in what I want.  While I did get teaching Svaroopa® yoga and meditation as my life’s work, I got more.  I got “ME.”  This is the experience of the One Self Being All.  In the beginning, I had a vague awareness that was what I longed for.  Now it’s clear.  What I’ve always wanted is to be rooted in Self.

What do you yearn for?  What do you receive from our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram?  I hope your answers guide you to join me in practicing dakshina.  Allow your beautiful generosity to unfold from gratitude.  Be ready to experience even more of the bliss of knowing yourself as the Ever-Existing Self.

Donate today on our website.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

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Dakshina – A Magical Practice 

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By Beth (Bhanumati) Cunningham

As a child, I was often accused of “expecting the world on a silver platter.”  I learned that I had to work hard to get anything.  Then, I stumbled into Svaroopa® Foundations.  
Behold, the Silver Platter!  

It spilled over with the gems of yoga: “Body, Mind and Heart and More” — the theme of the Ashram’s current fundraiser.  It reminds me of how full and rich yoga has made my life.  It reminds me of all the different ways inside to the Self.  It reminds me that “There is nowhere there is not Shiva.”  

For that teaching alone, I support our Ashram, Gurudevi and her teaching swamis.  Please join me in donating to the Ashram in gratitude for all you receive.

In supporting the Ashram, I have benefitted from another of yoga’s gems – dakshina. Dakshina is a precious and magical yogic practice. It is the practice of giving selflessly through financial contributions.  While this helps the Ashram, it helps me far more. 

Dakshina has sanctified my relationship with money, and with the work I do to make money.  I work hard, yes, but it is no longer drudgery.  I welcome the easiness of life and appreciate what comes to me.  I want to give and give freely.  I give in gratitude for teachings and the teachers who have given me my Self.  Every time I give, my silver platter gets bigger and fuller.  Grace is truly generous beyond measure.

I invite you to join me in sharing this gem of a practice – dakshina.  Give what you can and get more than you can imagine.

Donate today on our website.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

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A Turning Point 

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By Gayle Haney

Interviewed by Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

For several years at Downingtown Yoga, I enjoyed Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy, classes and Gurudevi’s Satsangs.  I also took a Learn to Meditate course.  

Then in September 2021, I enrolled in the five-day, residential course – Foundations of Svaroopa® Yoga.  My purpose was to learn more about how these practices work and design a home practice.  In addition, I reached a deeper level of Consciousness and understanding.  

Each day began with chanting and meditation.  Then we dove into the primary poses for spinal opening.  In partner-pairs, we learned how to give instructions for alignments, adjustments and propping.  

With this meticulous training I went deeper.  I learned how to lead a group in japa (out loud mantra repetition).  I learned the history and meaning of the chants and how to do arati (the flame circles ceremony).  During meals and recesses, I refrained from worrying about work and checking my email and phone.  The benefits of Svaroopa® yoga saturated me on all levels.

Several years before, back problems had led me to Svaroopa® yoga.  There were times when I couldn’t stand up or even move.  Now my doctors recognize my progress and the improvements in my health.  

After Foundations, my local Svaroopa® yoga teacher and therapist gave me an Embodyment® session, and reported a profound change in my body: “Your sacrum has never been in this position and has never moved like this.”

My Foundations immersion was a turning point for my mind as well.  I attained a deep level of inner peace and quiet.  I became aware of how much I value this calm.  To maintain it, I use the tools that Foundations delivered.  A year and a half later, I am committed to my daily practice.

While I don’t teach, I have shared Svaroopa® yoga with my sister.  She and I now attend the same weekly class, and I support her when she has questions.  We recently took a Learn to Meditate course together.

Reflecting on my Foundations immersion, I have to say it’s a big investment.  And you get out of it what you put into it.

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A Yoga Breakthrough

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By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

Board Member, Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

Sometimes you really need a breakthrough.  Yet you can’t get there doing what you’ve always done.  For me, it required a “yoga rescue.”  The Svaroopa® practices are a Consciousness-based rescue kit for my body, mind, heart and more.

This is why I support our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram.  Please join me in offering your loving donation today during our 2023 fundraiser – Body, Mind, Heart and More.

In January, I initiated my “yoga rescue” at the five-day Yoga Healing Retreat.  Each and every day included all of the Svaroopa® Sciences practices.  I fully experienced how the practices all work together.  They provided multi-dimensional healing, on every level of my being.  I got my breakthrough, the inner freedom I was longing for.  And the deepening inward continues.

Gurudevi Nirmalananda, our living Yoga Master, curated the ancient, time-tested practices into a full yoga system.  I turn to the asana (poses) and breathing practices to decompress my spine.  They release the physical tensions that cause me pain. 

I schedule a vichara session to unravel the suffering caused by the crazy, limiting ways I use my mind.  Our chanting and meditation techniques propel me inward and open my heart.  I dive deeply into the ocean of my own Beingness.  This is the source of all healing and transformation.  I am able to experience the freedom of knowing and being my own Self.  This is inner freedom!

Your own breakthrough is so close.  You don’t have to search the world over, testing out various styles and modalities.  The Svaroopa® system frees you from all the guesswork.

Your financial support of the work Gurudevi and her teachers offer to the world is so important.  The world needs their work more than ever. 

Donate today on our website.  You can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

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