Come chant and meditate with Gurudevi Nirmalananda in her free Wednesday evening program, live in Downingtown.  To zoom in, enroll in our online Yoga Wednesday (Bookends or Full Day).

This satsang features a long chant and meditation, both led by Gurudevi.  Live music accompanies the chant in the traditional yoga style.  You’ll find it easy to follow the printed words and everyone else singing along.  After the chant, Gurudevi guides the meditation, making it easy for newcomers, while simultaneously making it deep and profound for everyone.

The chant and meditation during Gurudevi’s mid-week satsang is powerfully deep.  I settle in much more deeply than I can with chanting and meditating on my own.  I attend every week! – Lynn C.

Amanda (Purna) Schmidt 

Build your home practice of Svaroopa^® yoga with Daily Practice pose cards.  They complement the Foundational Poses found in the Svaroopa^® Yoga Basics set.  Learn how to establish a consistent home practice that suits your needs. 

Practice deeper variations of reliable spinal release poses, and get more comfortable with seated poses.  If you are interested in meditation, this new information helps you get started.  New and experienced yogis alike can benefit from these pose cards.  Revel in the results of daily practice! 

Pose Instruction Cards: Daily Practice

Dimensions: 8.5” x 5.5” 

Price: $11.95 

Free Binder: Cards come hole-punched to fit your matching binder (FREE with the purchase of the Svaroopa^® Yoga Basics Pose Cards. 

Every day at 6:30 am, you can join Gurudevi for your morning meditation.  The most important of yoga’s practices is meditation.  But it can be hard to get it going on your own.  Meditating with others makes it much easier, especially when they are experienced meditators.  When you meditate with a Master, your meditation is fueled by the blessing of their knowing. 

Meditation Club — so much Grace.  To have daily access through phone connection direct from the Ashram community is divine. –Barbara H. 

Let Gurudevi and the Ashram residents support your process by sharing our daily Ashram meditation with you.  Meditation Club is available on Zoom by monthly subscription.  Gurudevi begins with a short reading from her Guru, followed by a short chant, invoking blessings on your meditation.  Next you sit in the holy silence, transmitted from the Ashram, for the rest of the hour, a sweet and Grace-filled experience. 

By Kelly McKee, interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

Sitting in that Grace-filled room with all the yogis and Gurudevi, a Shaktipat Guru, I thought: “This is really remarkable.  How did I get here?  What are the chances?  This is extraordinary.”  I live in the same town as a Shaktipat Guru.  Yet I knew nothing about this kind of yoga until five years ago. 

In a community flyer, I saw an ad for yoga classes at Downingtown Yoga & Meditation Center, a branch of Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram.  I showed up for the class with a beach towel for a mat.  My teacher was super kind and got me all set up.  Soon afterwards, I received a postcard in the mail about a free meditation class with Swami Samvidaananda.  I loved it and wanted more.   

Attending Swami Sunday Satsangs, I loved listening to Gurudevi give her discourses on the ancient teachings.  That’s how I learned about Shaktipat.  I’d never heard of it before.  I’d been interested in a spiritual path and what Gurudevi said made sense to me.   

One day, I was browsing the Ashram website.  I needed a part-time job.  On a whim, I looked in the Opportunities Section and saw the Ashram needed part-time help.  It was just what I was looking for.  I now assist with Ashram meal preparation and other household tasks.  I keep thinking how lucky I am to be working at an Ashram.  Again, I wonder, “How did this happen?” 

When the May Shaktipat Retreat came along, I wanted to sign up.  I told Swami Praj~nananda I wanted to go, but she said the On-Site spots were already filled.  Soon after, someone cancelled.  At the last minute, I was able to get into the On-Site Shaktipat Retreat. 

Gurudevi spoke about her Guru, Baba Muktananda, and how he gave her the teachings she shares with us.  Even more, he gave her the inner experience that the teachings describe.  I realized, the gift of Shaktipat is receiving that inner experience.  It’s totally amazing.  I remember feeling reassurance and being hopeful.  Here I am, I’m on this path.  I’m sitting here with a teacher from an extraordinary lineage.  I have been put on the path to enlightenment.  That’s the big goal.   

Since the retreat, I’ve noticed changes.  Meditations are definitely deeper and more expansive.  My spine feels more open and straighter.  I’m more even and kinder and less reactive to other people.  Words that I don’t want to have don’t fly out of my mouth anymore.  I feel less separateness and more a part of everything.  And I realize I don’t have to be perfect.  The “small-s self” part of me is being worked on.  My essence is already perfect.   

I feel immense gratitude for Gurudevi, Grace and the lineage.  I’m so grateful for Shaktipat and receiving that gift of glimpses of my Self.  Sometimes how graced I am just washes over me.  What an extraordinary gift it is to have her. 

By Amanda (Purna) Schmidt

Expand into your vast inner space with Gurudevi’s Embodied Infinity CD.  This collection of chants evokes the timeless depths of your being.  Slow and stirring melodies ground you deeply in your body, and beyond.  

Enjoy this CD during your home practice for added stillness.  Or let it play in the background throughout your day.  Feel your body and mind align with the ancient Sanskrit vibrations.  Settle easily into your own inherent Divinity.  Price: $19.95

CD Tracks:

1. Introductory Mantras
2. Maha mrtyunjaya mantra
3. Om gangayai namaha
4. Low-slow shivo’ham

By Ruth (Rama) Brooke, interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

After taking Meditation Teacher Training (MTT), I felt I was embodying the teachings.  I gained a depth of knowing that I didn’t have before.  It was experiential knowing, beyond the intellectual knowing I had previously.

This in-depth course is amazing.  Every afternoon, we got a cosmic download from Gurudevi.  She gave us the deeper teachings.  Every day, we steeped in the shakti (energy) and Grace of the Guru.  During evenings, we wrote a 10-minute discourse to deliver to fellow students the next day.  We put into our own words what we learned and understood from the afternoon’s download.

I had just opened a larger studio space in 2015.  The timing of the upcoming MTT course was perfect.  I was making a bigger commitment to teaching.  I knew that I wanted to teach meditation.  I also knew the course would deepen my own practice.

I had already been meditating for nearly eight years.  My daily practice was pretty regular.  But MTT took my meditation experiences to a whole new level.  My understanding of Kashmiri Shaivism and Svaroopa^® Vidya meditation expanded considerably.  And my understanding of the purpose of Shaktipat and the Guru deepened profoundly.

The experiential learning I received in MTT has made it so much easier to teach.  My new depth and knowledge turned into deeper experiences even for my asana students.  Most who took the meditation course had profoundly deep experiences.  Some have maintained a home meditation practice since.  Some repeat the course nearly every time I offer it.  I continued my training in the Meditation Group Leader course so I can also offer satsangs.  Students who took my three-class “Learn to Meditate” series now attend my satsangs regularly.

MTT gave me a whole new level of confidence and deepened my teaching.  It even boosted my confidence to speak in front of groups in general, whatever the topic.  I used to get the jitters just speaking to a small group of three or four people.  But MTT changed that.  For me, MTT was transformative in many ways.

Immediately after MTT, I offered a meditation course to my students, continuing with a couple each year.  While I wasn’t able to offer them during the pandemic, I am planning to start again this fall.

Meditate with Gurudevi Nirmalananda on Wednesday evenings.  She leads our evening program, which features a long chant and meditation.  Live music accompanies the chant in the traditional yoga style.  Everyone else singing along and printed words make chanting easy.   

Then Gurudevi guides the meditation, making it easy for newcomers as well as deep for everyone.  You explore the multiple dimensions of your own being. 

Attending Gurudevi’s satsang in person, I feel blanketed by profound stillness.

— Barbara B 

Join us On-Site in Downingtown for free.  Or enroll in our online Yoga Wednesday (bookends or full day); this program is included.