Join Gurudevi Nirmalananda for her Swami Sunday meditation program. She supports you in the process of learning to live in the recognition of your own Divinity. With her as your teacher, the inner process is deep and easy.
Our traditional satsang format prepares you for a deep and easy meditation. Gurudevi includes chanting, sutras and teachings from the ancient tradition as well as meditation instruction. Know your own Self better by the end of the morning.
Attending Swami Sunday is the fast track to Self-Realization. In an hour-and-a-half, I am transmuted: every cell, realigned. — Madelyn J.
In my first Shaktipat Retreat with Gurudevi in 2013, I had an intense experience. I was changed. The retreat made a strong sensory impression on me. I was in a room with 40 or 50 other people. The energy was high. I could feel Gurudevi’s energy as she walked around from person to person. I could sense her getting closer to me. I had physical kriyas, body movements and different breathing patterns. When Gurudevi waved her peacock feathers at me, I could smell the distinct scent of the special oil on them.
There was also a physical sensation when she put her thumb on my forehead. With her touch, I felt an energy go straight down within me. The energy then traveled up my spine and through my arms and hands, and my fingers extended out. It was extraordinary. It felt like a faucet had turned on at the base of my spine.
This experience stayed with me. Afterwards, I remained focused in that area of my body at the base of my spine. The opening remained as a physical space to soften into. That physical awareness brought me inside to my Self.
When I returned home, everything was the same except that I had changed. The sensory experiences made it tangible to me and imprinted the experience in my mind. Recalling those sensory impressions brings me back to the experience again and again.
In an online Shaktipat Retreat with Gurudevi, she gave Shaktipat to the whole group of us at one time. Preparation for the retreat included receiving instructions on how to prepare our room at home. We online yogis also got recipe ideas for Ashram-style meals. I cleaned my yoga room. I set up my blankets and puja (meditation altar). I brought in more pictures of the Gurus. I sealed the room with incense and mantra repetition.
I discovered that Shaktipat can be transmitted online through Zoom! A wonderful benefit is that it brought the shakti into my home. I could feel it build up in my yoga room and into my whole house.
My Shaktipat experience was beyond my mind. What I got was a complete and utter knowing of the Self. I don’t have any doubts anymore about the Self being there. It’s not that I’m in the Self all the time. But I know that the Self and the flow of Grace are always there.
I am more grounded and clear-headed because I’m coming from Self more than I was before. It was happening before, but I didn’t recognize it. I didn’t see it. Now basing myself in the Self comes easier, and I recognize it when I’m there.
This makes me feel younger. I can see the limitations I put on myself, but they’re not as tight. I feel more open to changes and different ways of seeing things. My reactions don’t seem as important as they did before, so they go away sooner. And I’m not as hard on myself when I catch myself reacting. I have faith that I will have less and less reactivity by being on this path.
I made a decision before this Shaktipat retreat to stay open to whatever happened. I see now that expecting certain results is a way of putting up fences. It blocks the Grace. This big part of my personality is slowly melting away. It doesn’t have to be there anymore. I’m not fussing as much about what’s going to happen. I’m not living in the future as much. I know it’s all going to work out.
I feel so much closer to Gurudevi since Shaktipat. I feel the river of the Guru’s Grace. I feel part of it. I don’t have to analyze it to know it is all That. I feel the Guru in me. I feel the lineage and Grace more than I did before. It’s beyond the mind, but the feeling is there and it’s real.
It is hard to believe that our fall fundraiser, themed Guru’s Grace, is coming to an end. However, the Grace is still flowing. It continues to flow every day, everywhere and in everyone. Grace is always there for us.
I greatly appreciate your generous support of our Ashram’s mission through donating to the River of Teaching, the River of Freebies, and/or the River of Community. Swami Samvidaananda wrote, “It’s a tricky balance between taking care of your needs, your family’s needs, taking care of your future, and giving some away. The good works in the world won’t happen if you don’t support them.” (June 2015 Contemplation)
I feel such gratitude to all of you who give and support our Ashram. Donations make up a significant portion of the funds that support Gurudevi’s teachings. They reach seekers far and wide, through programs, satsangs and free podcasts, other Freebies and more.
I hope that Board member articles over the past few weeks have helped you contemplate the Grace in your life. Can you feel the Grace flowing? I hope that you were able to give in gratitude for all that you have received.
Your Ashram donation, in any amount that fits your budget, is a great benefit to the world. Even when you don’t expect a benefit for yourself, it comes to you as well. In his great poem Mukteshwari, Swami Muktananda writes:
Give freely, as God gives.
If after giving, you forget about it,
Then that gift grows fully. (verse 145)
May your gift grow fully as you deepen into yourself.
We are in the home stretch of our River of Grace fall fundraiser. Stories abound on how easy it is to access Guru’s Grace. Lately, I’ve spoken with many Svaroopis on this topic. Whether they’ve dipped their toes, or are in up to their knees, or are fully immersed in the river of Grace, they’re in the flow! The stories take different forms, but the effect is the same — uplifting, transformative. Gurudevi describes:
My ability to serve you is like a tributary of a great river. I am the riverbed. That flow of Grace comes from my Guru, and I am a wide-open channel for that flow. So are you.
So is our Ashram, our teachers, and our whole community. We are all part of the network of tributaries through which the river of Grace flows. This network needs support. With it, we’ll continue to receive, give and keep these Grace bestowing teachings alive. Financial support of the Ashram is crucial to our Svaroopa® community, especially in these challenging times. Please join me in contributing to the River of Grace fundraiser.
Guru’s Grace is so reliable. It’s like the sun, always there, shining and providing warmth even when behind the clouds. At times, I forget to look for Grace at work in my life. Or I’m blocking it so I can’t see it. Yet Guru’s Grace is always there. It’s a matter of opening my aperture (Disciple’s Grace).
Then I step back to receive a more expansive perspective (Guru’s Grace). For it to manifest in my heart and life, I need only call out to the Guru to ask for Grace. It is undeniably reliable. It is the gift of having received Shaktipat — Guru’s Grace. What a blessing!
I am filled with gratitude, and it motivates me to give back. Thus, I participate in the ever-flowing exchange of Guru’s Grace and Disciple’s Grace. In this season of giving, Disciple’s Grace takes the form of dakshina, yoga’s practice of financial giving.
Money is energy, as Gurudevi has said, and dakshina is a divine energy exchange. Through dakshina we shine the light of Consciousness into our finances. And as the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi, promises, in giving we shall receive. So I contemplate, and ask you to contemplate: How deep will you step into the flow of Grace?
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!
Along with our calendar year, our Ashram’s fall fundraiser is coming to an end. In the words of poet Maya Angelou, as long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good! It’s never too late to be lifted and carried by the Grace flowing through the Svaroopa® practices. Donating to the Ashram and being carried by the river of Grace are mutually inclusive activities.
You know how good it feels to do some good! You know how good it feels to be the recipient of some good! When your heart and your pocketbook open, it’s uplifting. And when you receive, it’s uplifting. In the moment that I donate to the Ashram’s fall and spring fundraisers something is set free within me. When I bask in the warmth of my Guru’s Grace, something is set free within me. What a win-win.
It’s not about how much you give or receive. It is the acts of giving and receiving themselves that put you in the river of Grace. Grace flows through the Svaroopa® practices and through their creator, Gurudevi Nirmalananda.
But Grace is even greater than the Guru. It’s everywhere, and it finds you when you need it. It’s Grace that has led you to the Svaroopa® practices. The Guru’s teachings are designed just for you. Take them to heart. Trust that Grace is available. Gurudevi says, “The Guru always gives the full flow of grace. The differences come from the capacity of the receiver.”
Guru’s Grace is like the sun. It never stops shining, even when you cannot see it. You can feel with warmth of Guru’s Grace at any time, you just have to be open to it. Free your heart and mind to donate today to support the gift that keeps on giving to you and to so many others.
Your financial contribution of any amount helps support the source of the teachings. When you support yoga and meditation teacher training, you keep the river flowing. When you support Gurudevi’s free teachings ― online and in person — you keep the river flowing. When you support the administrative and physical structure of the Ashram, you keep the river flowing.
As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good. Please consider a year-end donation to your Ashram.
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!
I’m not one who has flashy Shaktipat experiences. At the September Shaktipat Retreat, Swami Prajňananda explained the ways you might experience Kundalini. She talked about heat, colors and more. For me, in receiving Shaktipat, I feel steady, content, secure — right where I want to be. Gurudevi has said that even though Muktananda was very visual, she didn’t often experience colors. It’s reassuring.
I’ve done a lot of yoga and heard a lot of Gurudevi’s Swami Sunday talks. Shaktipat has been written about for thousands of years. I find a lot of comfort in all the preparation we go through before Shaktipat. Knowing other yogis have been through similar preparation is reassuring. We’re part of a long history and tradition. With the chanting, talks and all, I felt very well-prepared in my recent Shaktipat Retreat. I could lean into Shaktipat. I knew — I’m safe, whatever I’m experiencing. I’m in the presence of the Guru and the Guru she had.
At the end of the retreat’s second day, I returned to the dorm room I shared with some other women. We sat around and talked about Shaktipat. It was lovely to have people that I barely knew being so open about these unusual experiences. Who else can you talk to about Shaktipat? I felt very connected to them even though I had met some of them only 24 hours earlier. In our conversation, it was so easy to see the Self in all of them.
My Shaktipat experiences continue. Things are happening in unexpected ways. Svaroopa® yoga is all about the tailbone. The week I came back from Shaktipat, there was an undeniable sensation in the region of my tailbone. After returning home, I taught a couple asana classes. My students seemed to feel something too. A high percentage reached out afterwards and said how deep the class was. I had even made a joke before leaving for Shaktipat. I’d told them that since I wasn’t doing a training, I wouldn’t be bringing anything back for them. One longtime student said she felt she could really let go in class. Previously, she has had a hard time letting go. My only explanation is that it was the Shaktipat.
Guru’s Grace is unconditional and always available. I could never even imagine asking for as much as it gives me. But you do have to tune in to it. Different yoga practices work on your ability to dive inside and allow Grace in. As Gurudevi says, “The key is your receptivity.”
One of yoga’s most important practices is dakshina — selfless financial giving. Like devotion to Guru’s Grace, dakshina comes from a deeper place within. It’s a sweet surrender that flows from your heart. This gift keeps Gurudevi’s River of Grace flowing to you. You can help others be led to the river as well. Please join me in donating to our fundraiser, titled Guru’s Grace.
It’s not about how much you give. It is the act of giving itself that puts you in the River of Grace. A contribution of any amount helps support the source of the teachings. You support our yoga and meditation programs. Your donation also supports the administrative and physical structure of the Ashram. You keep the river flowing.
My practice of dakshina started with supporting Gurudevi’s free teachings. A few years into my Svaroopa® journey, I got married and started a family. As I had young children, I wasn’t able to leave them and attend teacher trainings or other programs. Instead, I discovered I could listen to Gurudevi’s discourses that were, and still are, available online. I would do my mothering and listen to the discourses. I could stay in the flow both by listening to the discourses and by financially supporting her teachings.
Guru’s Grace always supports and guides me. Often, when I’m looking for an answer to a problem or a question, the response arises from within. I can tell it’s not coming from my mind but rather from a deeper knowing. This often happens when my students ask me questions. Sometimes my reaction is a small-s thought: “I really don’t know the answer, I can’t help you here.” Then I settle; I become a riverbed that fills up with the flow of Guru’s Grace. In that moment of settling, the answer just pours into my awareness.
Such is the power of Guru’s Grace! It makes a difference in your life. Consider for yourself, how is it that you recognize when Grace is coming your way? And please join me in expressing gratitude for Guru’s Grace by donating to the Ashram.
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!
I love that Thanksgiving begins our holiday season with a reminder to give thanks. Giving thanks shifts me inside. I experience a timeless gratitude that melts my heart. When I surrender into the moment, great gratitude bubbles up. I am most grateful for Gurudevi. She has given me my Self. How can I give thanks for this eternal gift?
One way I give thanks is through dakshina — yoga’s ancient practice of selfless financial giving. I am so grateful to give to our Ashram’s fall campaign in gratitude for Gurudevi. And I’m grateful for the organization through which her Grace-full teachings flow. Please join me during this Thanksgiving season in supporting her and the Ashram, who offer so much. This path offers fulfillment of life’s full potential, Self-Realization.
From my first Svaroopa® yoga class, I knew I received more than just a “yoga class.” Then in my first immersion, Kundalini rose quite boldly. I sensed a recognition the instant I laid eyes on Gurudevi. How could I not support one who instantly gave me so much? I began monthly donations. I continue monthly giving, increasing it over time. I also put aside money for the annual spring and fall fundraisers.
You may be like me, not really understanding the full gift of our Svaroopa® Sciences initially. No worries. Gurudevi never tires of serving, offering programs, guiding and sometimes blasting us through our blind spots. Gurudevi reveals an inspiring capacity for giving thanks and gratitude. She serves her Baba 100% every day. She knows the power of deeply offering. During Thanksgiving season, she gives us this opportunity too.
I never tire of giving her support. It is an honor to offer dakshina to one who gives so much. I also see it as a necessity. I want others to receive what she gives so freely to us. Our giving keeps these teachings accessible. It keeps the doors of the Ashram open to everyone. Every story of others’ upliftment makes me even more dedicated to dakshina and seva, selfless service.
I recently taught a meditation series. A few weeks later, I saw one of the attendees. She rushed up to me and pressed some money in my hand. She said, “This meditation and the mantra saved my life. Please take this gift for your teachings.” I thanked her and told her I would gladly send it to the Ashram. What she received opened her in such a way she could not resist giving back. That is the flow of Grace running through this lineage. Dakshina supports everything that Gurudevi does and offers.
So many of us have received the gift of Guru’s Grace — even if we’ve never met Gurudevi in person. The Grace of the Svaroopa® lineage flows through the teachings, and all the teachers whom Gurudevi has trained. It even flows online.
Gurudevi says, “My ability to serve is like a tributary of a great river. I am the riverbed. That flow of Grace comes from my Guru, and I am a wide-open channel for that flow.”
I am incredibly grateful for Shaktipat, the ultimate gift from my Guru, Swami Nirmalananda. I am equally grateful to her Guru, Swami Muktananda, and to his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda as well as to all the great beings in this lineage. It has carried this great gift and these sacred teachings forward. Thus, over time, they have reached us. These Masters have dedicated their life to Self-Realization.
With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. It’s Grace that has led you to the Svaroopa®practices. The Guru’s teachings are designed just for you. Take them to heart. Express the gratitude in your heart. How has our River of Grace supported you? Join me in giving to allow many more to join us in the River of Grace. We have so many opportunities for reflection and gratitude on this day when Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. A wonderful day to offer your dakshina of gratitude to the Ashram!
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!
For the Magic Four, you need only a few props and the NEW Magic Four handout! This is the original article, published in Yoga International, with color photos of Swami Nirmalananda demonstrating the poses!
The Magic Four is an accessible, effective set of yoga poses for everyone. Each pose is explained in detail to help you target deep spinal release. Along with written instructions, this handout provides background about how Svaroopa® yoga works and the outcomes of your practice.
You only need 20 minutes a day to feel the benefits. Ease through the Magic Four and discover your inherent bliss. Price: $7.55
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