Author Archives: Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

People Want to Meditate

One meditation app boasts of 100 million users worldwide.

But data shows that paid subscriptions began declining a couple of years ago. Since early 2025, internet searches for in-person meditation have increased exponentially.

It is true that the apps give easy access to moments of peace and stress relief.  Yet people are now seeking a deeper meditative experience.

When you become a Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation Teacher, you can fulfill their profound spiritual longing. You will offer seekers a more lasting and powerful experience. You’ll give them reliable tools to create their own practice and delve deeper inward.

In addition, your Meditation Teacher Training (MTT) gives you even more. You discover your own deep calm and clarity. You explore the source: your own Divine Essence. And you develop the capacity to share this with others.

Learning to teach meditation is now easier and more accessible than ever. Our new MTT format gives you six months of Online classes following your initial On-Site immersion.

Meditation Teacher Training

Begins April 7

On-Site & Online

On-Site, you’ll experience the tools that unravel the knots in your mind. You will discover the deeper dimensions of your own Self and delve into that Beingness. Learning key sutras amplifies your inner experience, especially as you begin putting your own words to these ancient principles.

Experiencing your own Divine Essence is the key part of the process. This is why a Shaktipat Day is included!

Your Online classes begin after you return home. Continuing your sutra studies, you practice giving the teachings in your mentored calls. You also lengthen and deepen your meditations in daily meditations with Gurudevi. Her weekly satsangs (meditation programs) ensure that you continue to marinate in Consciousness.

Your final two-day retreat that culminates your training is also Online. You will be prepared to teach your first series of meditation classes, supported by a Mentor all the way through.

An Adventure in Food

You Can’t Not Change

By Swami Satrupananda

Shivaratri — The Night of Shiva

Join Gurudevi on Sunday, February 15, to celebrate a holy day in our yoga calendar. This Swami Sunday will be a special day, focused on Shiva, which means it is focused on you.

Every Swami Sunday includes her discourse as well as chanting and guidance into meditation.

On this Sunday, you will learn more about Shivarati as well as how it pertains to your spiritual advancement. Imbibing her teachings, you are Grace-fully nourished on your spiritual path.

The chanting, teachings and meditation with Gurudevi uplift my soul. Shifted into a sense of ease, I settle into my own Self. — Cayla A.

The Yoga of Cancer: My Miracle Year

By Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

I had two choices when I was diagnosed with cancer. I could be miserable and just try to gut it out. Or I could harness the power of Divine revelation.

A few weeks before, Gurudevi had suggested I look more closely at my fear of death. It had been running me my whole life. But now this fear had begun provoking panic attacks.

What came next was Divine perfection. I received a serious breast cancer diagnosis. “Curing me” would require surgery and 14 months of rigorous treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation.

Yet “healing me” became an inside job, fueled by Consciousness. I decided to embrace the teachings of yoga like never before and put them into action.

Of course I didn’t get there alone. A beloved Guru sister, a cancer survivor herself, guided me weekly through the process. She helped me see what a gift cancer was: an opportunity for a profound purification of body, mind and soul. But first, I had to learn to accept that nothing would be on “my schedule.”

What a difference radical acceptance makes! From confusion grew clarity. From fear, gratitude blossomed and kept rippling into more and more waves of bliss.

It was as if I took a magic carpet ride into the unknown skies of my own Self. Every day, I discovered each moment could be made holy as I looked through Shiva’s eyes.

The infusion lab became my temple. My oncology nurse, a Divine priestess. I began my first treatment with out-loud japa, of course. She chimed in: “Oh I know that mantra: I bow to my own Self.” A yoga miracle!

It also became a sweet, intimate time with my ever-present husband. At the last round of chemo, I taped a flower on the infusion bag, with great honor and respect for its role in my healing.

Daily Embodyment® sessions grounded me in Consciousness. Weekly acupuncture balanced my immune system. And as the chemo killed cells, three hours of Ujjayi Pranayama re-plenished my body with more prana. 

My meditations deepened. I taught my Zoom Svaroopa® yoga classes throughout my treatments. Retaining that normalcy was a real spirit booster. It seemed that everywhere, everyone was touched by this miracle called yoga.

My doctor has proclaimed NED (no evidence of disease). I am humbled by the cocoon of love and Grace that surrounded me in my time of need. These yoga practices are pure alchemy.

The scary can become a profound opening. The dross of something like cancer can transmute into the gold of Consciousness awareness.

Now I want only to live and serve from a place of inner knowing. Fear of death no longer runs me in the same way. I am at peace.

It is said, “You never know what life will bring.” Yet yoga promises that you will know who you are while in the midst of it all. And that, for me, is everything.

The Best of Both Worlds

Be empowered to give people the gift of their own Divine Essence. Our new MTT format gives you the best of both worlds — Online as well as On-Site.

Now learning to teach meditation is easier and more accessible than ever.

Meditation Teacher Training

Begins April 7

On-Site & Online

In your On-Site immersion, you’ll experience the tools that unravel the knots in your mind. You will discover the deeper dimensions of your own Self and delve into that Beingness.

Experiencing your own Divine Essence is the key part of the process. This is why a Shaktipat Day is included!

Your Online classes begin after you return home. You will lengthen and deepen your meditations in your daily group meditations. Weekly satsangs (meditation programs) with Gurudevi ensure that you continue to marinate in Consciousness.

The two-day retreat that culminates your training is also Online. You will be prepared to teach your first series of meditation classes, supported by a Mentor all the way through.

Chanting with My Guru

By Joan (Jayadevi) Bragar

I find myself singing along with Gurudevi while driving my car. “OM Guru Mere Guru.” 

On her album Honored Guru Gita, it’s a mere five minutes long, with a catchy melody. The words are easy to learn. I have downloaded it to my phone.

This chant in tribute to her Guru is sung in the Ashram every morning before Shree Guru Gita. The words honor the person of her own Guru, Baba Muktananda. 

At the same time, it honors the Guru-principle, Grace ― the revelatory power of God. Within each of the three short verses, succinct lines are repeated for a serene effect.

In Verse 1, you repeat the first line “OM Guru, OM Guru.” It stems from the mantra Guru OM, which Muktananda received from his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda. Muktananda gave this mantra to Gurudevi, and she shares its Grace with us. 

In the second line of Verse1, “OM Guru, Mere Guru” fondly calls the Guru “mere Guru” — my Guru.

We hail the Guru in Verse 2, by chanting “Jaya Guru OM” four times. Gurudevi renders this verse as “Hail to the revealer of the Divine within.” The concluding line of Verse 3 is OM Guru OM, sung sonorously four times.

Chanting the three verses through, even though it’s only three times, I am carried into peace.

Spiritual Living in 2026

By Amanda (Purna) Schmidt

Align every remaining day of this year with spiritual clarity and purpose.

Gurudevi’s “Living Mysticism” calendar journal supports you in attaining your spiritual goals. And it is still available.

The book is more than a planner or notebook. It’s a collection of quotes from Teachings Articles spanning decades.

The heading of each page is a sutra-like excerpt selected from Gurudevi’s Teaching Articles, with the article’s title, month and year.

Below, you have plenty of space for sketching and writing. Some yogis report that they read the full article daily, diving deeper into these timeless teachings.

This book gives you accessibility to Gurudevi’s teachings and presence through her written words. You can easily have the Guru in the middle of your life day by day.

Return to the quote throughout the day for inspiration and guidance. Weave the sacred into your daily life.

Meditation Teacher Training

Easier & More Accessible

Learn to teach deep meditation in our online training.

Meditation Teacher Training

Begins April 7, On-Site & Online

You begin with an On-Site immersion at Lokananda. This is primarily focused on deepening your own meditations. You cannot teach what you haven’t experienced.

Day by day, you will lengthen and deepen your meditations. The Shaktipat Day opens you inward to the powerful flow of meditative energy.

Experiencing your own Divine Essence is the key part of the process. In addition, by studying the sutras, you learn how to guide others in the same process.  

When you return home, your online classes begin. Plus you get daily group meditations and weekly meditation programs with Gurudevi Nirmalananda. This ensures that you continue to marinate in Consciousness.

Your live-streamed MTT classes train you in increasingly powerful meditation tools. You hone your communication skills as you learn to teach about bliss and awareness. You are also trained to answer students’ questions and help them with practicalities.

Another meditation retreat completes your training – this one is online. You do it from home. Plus you get mentoring afterward, supporting you as you teach your first “Intro to Meditation” series.

This program gives you everything you need to begin teaching.