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. 

by Chelsea (Rajni) King 

Meditation Teacher Training (MTT) was a turning point in my experience and understanding of the Svaroopa^® sciences.  MTT’s length and depth settled me into a more expansive state than ever before.  I vividly remember feeling so deep and comfortable in my own Self.  It was a profound immersion in Consciousness.  

Steeping in the experience of Gurudevi’s teachings was an amazing process.  For 11 days, we marinated in the teachings and practices.  It was all easy, organic and natural.  As Gurudevi rendered the teachings and sutras of our lineage, I took notes.  Then we meditated.  With each day, I settled more and more into the state the sutras were describing.

I hadn’t thought to bring my computer to take notes and write talks.  I did everything the old fashioned, handwritten way, which helped Gurudevi’s teachings sink in.  The process of hearing the teachings and then handwriting the notes was deep and effective.  After dinner, I felt thoroughly prepared to write my talks for the next day.  They just poured out onto the paper.  

After MTT, my understanding and teaching of asana shifted and made me a better asana teacher.  As a Certified Svaroopa^® Yoga Teacher, I had been teaching yoga classes for more than a decade.  The reason for the way we teach asana became absolutely clear.  The purpose of Svaroopa^® yoga is to settle into Self.  

This yoga’s customized propping and precise angles in poses reliably open our spines so Kundalini can move.  I understood it in a way I hadn’t before.  I realized that it isn’t about the body, it is about the state.  Even though I had heard it over and over again, I hadn’t had the deep, tangible experience of Self that MTT gave me.  It was undeniable. 

My meditations were forever changed after MTT.  It solidified my daily practice and made it easier to sit every day.  Learning how to teach others to meditate is a great incentive to making sure that I’m doing the practices that I’m teaching.  The tangible Grace flowing through this lineage propels me on the path.  Teaching others to meditate is a gift.  I am so blessed to be a modern-day representative of this ancient tradition!

I created our Vowed Order because I saw so many yogis who wanted to give more of themselves.  Why did they feel that way?  They had already figured out that when you give more of yourself, you get more of your Self.  In this way, yoga works like everything else.  When you give, you get more than if you merely try to receive.

No one has to take vows to do Svaroopa^® yoga or meditation.  You can study with me for free, or you can dive into the tuition-based immersions and courses if you want more.  You can come and go as frequently or infrequently as you like.  I welcome you with all my heart whenever you give me a chance to connect with you.  I’m delighted to see you!

But those who want more need to be met where they are at.  The power of your yearning touches my heart.  I will help you fulfill it completely if you allow me to do so.  That’s what I got from my Guru.  He gave me what I wanted.  He gave me God.

Nothing else would satisfy me.  I already knew that by the time I met Baba.  I’d tried everything else and proved it didn’t work for me.  Most swamis have a checkered past, which is one reason we understand others without judgment.  I wanted God but couldn’t find him anywhere.

Baba showed me that God is everywhere!  That includes inside as well as outside.  And inside is the closest place to find God – an intimate and intensely personal experience.  That was what I wanted.  That is what I got and live in now.  

You’re not going to get there unless you apply both your head and your heart.  Vows engage both fully.  From the moment you take the vow, you are changed.  That change grows in you, blossoming like a flower, expanding you into your own inherent Divinity.

But a vow is not enough by itself.  You can make a vow, anytime and anywhere, all by yourself.  It’s powerful.  I highly recommend it!  But when you’re in a Vowed Order, you share your depth of commitment with others in the same process.  That makes it an inside-outside and an outside-inside process, which is necessary if you want to make it all the way.  Any part of yourself that you leave out of the process isn’t going to shine with light.

Being in relationship is such an important part of life.  However, if your yearning is strong, your nearest and dearest may not understand you.  The other vowed yogis do.  They meet you there.  That means sometimes you are laughing together, and sometimes crying together.  And sometimes you push each other’s buttons.  Then you turn around and help when someone needs help.  It’s real.  It’s life.  And it’s all about God.  This is what I call yoga.