Author Archives: Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram

A Living Guru

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By Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington

In early 2025, I had the privilege of attending Gurudevi’s India retreat.

One highlight was a talk by Balkrishna, a Brahmin priest serving in Bhagavan Nityananda’s temple. Balkrishna told us repeatedly, with solemn emphasis: “You are so blessed to have a living Guru. Spend time with her, do what she tells you.”

I have heard Gurudevi put it a little differently, but I believe her meaning is similar: “Dead Gurus don’t kick ass!” Every week in her Satsangs, Gurudevi gives us little kicks in the butt.

While there is usually laughter as well, her message could not be more serious. We have the possibility of becoming enlightened in this lifetime, but we must do our part. It is always lovely to hear this, yet sometimes so difficult to do.

Living in the UK, I don’t have many chances to attend satsangs in person. Swami Sunday online has become my lifeline. Gurudevi’s teachings bypass my mind and go directly to my heart.

Yet Balkrishna’s words have continued to echo through my mind. One Swami Sunday, as I chanted with the group online, I was thinking “I should be there in person.” At that moment, Gurudevi’s photo fell off the wall onto my puja table!

It was too clear a message to ignore. A few months later, I travelled to visit my living Guru and get my butt kicked.

What I got was not so much a kick. It was more like a verbal, encouraging pat on the back. This was accompanied by a powerful injection of Vitamin G: G for Guru, G for Grace.

This vital infusion of Grace has propelled me into action that was long overdue. I have been teaching Svaroopa® Yoga online for three years. But I have not had the courage to start in-person classes here. Upon returning home from the Ashram, I went into action.

Scouring the area for a suitable venue, I tried ten places before finding a beautiful, welcoming studio. I quickly put out promotional material advertising a free “taster” class.

In early December, I taught my first in-person class in over twelve years. And there is considerable interest in weekly classes that will begin in January 2026.

I have learned that I am never doing this alone. I can tap into the flow of Grace whenever I need support. For me, listening to Gurudevi teaching live is the most effective way to stay in that flow.

Swami Sunday
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Don’t Slacken Now

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By Swami Shrutananda

A yoga therapy client told me:

I no longer get headaches. My skull is still tight. Mostly I don’t notice this tightness.

I no longer get the mild dizziness while doing a pose. My neck and upper back are tight, but not as tight as when we first started.

My chest tightness is mild. Walking around Lokananda or out for a stroll with fellow yogis, I didn’t notice the tightness.

This is a trap!  You might be trapped into thinking that how you feel now is probably as good as it gets.

You feel underlying tensions, some aches, maybe areas of your body that trouble you. So you do some yoga, and you feel better after doing yoga.

Yet you cannot address those deep underlying tensions on your own. You settle into the trap of assuming “this is good enough.”

You only get one body in this lifetime. That tightness and underlying tension, whether noticed or not, will surface in your future. If unaddressed, it will become a condition that doctors will later give a name to. Some conditions are life threating.

Don’t slacken now!

Svaroopa® Yoga Therapists specialize in releasing deeply held tensions along your whole spine from tail-to-top. Regular sessions, once a week minimum, are essential. A series of sessions will propel your healing process.

Most effective are ten sessions in a row, ten every other day and ten every third day. Repeat this 10-10-10 series as needed. Your body is the home you live in 24/7. Take care of it.

Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy addresses the deeper underlying tensions you have. Regular, consistent sessions enable you to live a comfortable life, a healthy life, a happy life. Don’t settle for less.

Let 2026 be the year you do more yoga therapy sessions. I dare you to feel better than you can even imagine!

Yoga Therapy

New Storefront

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Look at our big new windows and doors! Bright, shiny and new for the new year – let the light shine in.

This is the first stage of our storefront upgrade, with new colors and front steps coming soon. With a big thank you to the generosity of a donor and a number of sevites who have been working on the project for months.

This will make it easier to see us – and to come in for more yoga…

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Golden Jubilee in Ganeshpuri

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November 2026

Join Gurudevi in celebrating her 50th anniversary of teaching as well as her 80th birthday in Ganeshpuri, India. She is generously inviting you to join her in her Golden Jubilee, explaining,

I had been planning a personal retreat for my 80th birthday, marking off tentative dates in my calendar. Then I realized it is also the 50th anniversary of my teaching. That means you are part of the reason I’m going. You are the reason why I do what I do. So you are invited!

This retreat focuses on diving deep. Daily practices begin at 4:20 am in Nityananda’s temple, followed by breakfast, chanting and a yoga class.  A leisurely lunch and recess follows.

The afternoon includes a sutra discourse, more chanting and meditation. After dinner, Nityananda’s temple has a special closing ceremony every night. Day by day, hour by hour, you will join Gurudevi in marinating in Consciousness.

Yogis who have previously traveled with her to Ganeshpuri describe their powerful experiences:

The practices are intensified by being performed on these sacred lands. Each
time I come to India, my starting point is where I left off last time. — Bob (Rudra) Nogue

Ganeshpuri puts me physically in the riverbed of Grace that flows through this lineage. Doing practices with Gurudevi in the dusty village that was built around Nityananda is a magical combination. Being submerged in a village culture that is full of love for Guru and God opens my heart. I blossom as I spend immersive time with Gurudevi and like-minded yogis. — Rosemary (Rudrani) Nogue

I have traveled to Ganeshpuri three times to be with Gurudevi in the place where she was with her teacher. Early morning, meditations in Nityananda’s mahasamadhi room propelled me deeper and deeper inside. When I visited Muktananda’s mahasamadhi shrine and laid my head on his silver-casted sandals, a wave of Shakti shot through me and unlocked access to my Self. I saw my future. — Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver

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A Continuing Miracle

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By Lori (Priya) Kenney

One of my students has been taking yoga classes for 20 years, most recently online. She has been an Embodyment® client of mine for almost two years. Her online asana teacher suggested she would benefit from in-person classes to reduce pain and become calmer. She is the reason I started teaching!   

During her weekly Embodyment® sessions, I see and feel the benefits from her years of asana classes.  Muscle tension releases much more quickly, and she has greater range of motion.  Likewise, I see her flexibility and range of motion increasing dramatically in classes due to her Embodyment® sessions.  

She is leaning into all the poses more deeply. Her Lunges are more extended. She’s taller and more lengthened through her rib cage in Seated Side Stretch. She has more ease in doing poses that were challenging before. And she’s a stellar example of coming to class, getting settled in Shavasana and immediately turning inside. The combination of Embodyment® Yoga Therapy and asana classes is very effective.

I feel connected to this student in a very human way.  We have an easy and trusting relationship. I noticed this again upon returning from YTT1 when I began teaching new poses. She has taken Foundations at least twice and used to occasionally substitute teach for another teacher.  

From the beginning, she has been supportive and encouraging about my teaching. Her awareness of the teaching and class process goes beyond that of being a student. She’s like a silent cheerleader for me and the other students.  

She’s patient with those new to Svaroopa® yoga.  I see her quietly giving suggestions to nearby students working to get into a pose when I’m assisting others. She brought her partner to class, who is now a dedicated student too.   

Her original teacher subbed for me when I went to Lokananda for YTT1.  That teacher also noticed a difference in this student — her greater mobility, her spot-on Lunge alignments and more ease in her poses overall. 

While this student has a reserved nature, she’s a steady presence in our yoga class community.  She is engaged and spontaneous with other students. Sometimes she chimes in about how she feels different the second time we do a marker pose.  Or she will joke with another student.   

I especially appreciate this student’s tenacity and determination while going through several very difficult life passages. She has leaned into yoga through all of it and talks about how it has steadied her.   

She has experience turning within and settling.  She knows the power of an open body and quiet mind.  She is a miracle in progress.  I see her deepening and blossoming, all at the same time.  

Such transformation is due to the power of this yoga. Gurudevi Nirmalananda, our Master Teacher, created this yoga in order to bring asana practice back to its original purpose. The goal is to open us to our deep, expansive and timeless inner essence. 

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Spiritual Living

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I remember when Walt Disney invented the moving sidewalk, which he called the “PeopleMover.” He installed it at Disneyland, near my childhood home.

I loved that each stride carried me farther than walking alone. Getting Shaktipat is like this, boosting the results you get from your spiritual practices.

In Sanskrit, your practices are called “sadhana,” the means you use to attain your spiritual goal. One who does sadhana is called a “sadhaka.”  The root word is “sat,” meaning Truth, indicating that the practices are taking you to the Truth of your own Beingness.

Research has proven that any approach to spiritual development grants you many benefits. Spiritual practitioners have a better quality of life. They experience less depression and live longer. They have better health outcomes.  This means both that they are healthier and, when they do need medical care, they get better results.

Yet spirituality is not merely about improved quality of life. It’s about “spirit.” While different systems define spirit differently, yoga has a clear definition:  your own spirit is your inherent Divinity. Finding your own essence is finding the One Divine Reality within, oh Shiva. Shaktipat makes it findable.

Personally I experienced the difference that Shaktipat makes. My first attempt at meditation was following the instructions in a yoga book. I sat with my spine upright and closed my eyes. I didn’t last even a minute. My racing mind repeated my to-do list many times, each time more urgently, until I bolted and began sprinting through my day.

Still, I really wanted to meditate. I didn’t understand what made it so important to me, but it was a recurrent inner impulse. I found a local group who offered a free meditation program every week. My first experience there gave me a profound and deep meditative immersion. Yes, it was one of my Baba’s meditation centers. His Grace propelled me deep within — deep and easy.

This is why the sages of India say you must have a Shaktipat Guru. While anyone can sit for meditation and repeat mantras, they reap many worldly benefits. But it is only with Divine Grace that your efforts bring true spiritual advancement.

Udyamo bhairava. — Shiva Sutras 1.5

The inner arising of transcendental Consciousness shatters your not-knowingness to set you free.

The inner arising is the meditative energy that climbs your spine, Kundalini. In this sutra, this energy is called Bhairava, naming Shiva in the act of destruction. Here, he is destroying your not-knowingness, the energetic binding that makes you feel small, inadequate, lost, alone and afraid. I had found that inner binding the first time I tried to meditate…

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20 Minutes Twice a Day

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By Swami Prajñananda

Twenty minutes twice a day — Ujjayi Pranayama is the first step in your healing. 

Your yoga therapist will give you Ujjayi Pranayama to do right away.

They will teach you the practice in your session and make sure you know how to do it for yourself at home. In the beginning, you might think it doesn’t sound like a lot, but this practice gives you so much. 

Recently, a woman came in for her first yoga therapy session. She was in a lot of pain. On her intake form, she marked areas of her body at a pain level of 8 or 9 out of 10. It was hard for her to get down on the floor to lay in Shavasana.

By the time she went through the 20 minutes of guided Ujjayi Pranayama with me, she was transformed. She got up easier. Her face was wider and her eyes clear and bright. She reported with surprise that all her pain had gone down and the chronic pain in her shoulder was much less. 

What was the most significant was she sounded hopeful that she could actually get better. Amazing! 

She was ready to take the practice home with her. That is the key. For the benefits of Ujjayi Pranayama are not only profound, but they are also cumulative. And yet, getting a steady home practice can be a challenge. 

I even see longtime yogis who neglect this. When they come in for a session, I’ll ask them, “Have you been doing your Ujjayi Pranayama twice a day?” Often times, they haven’t. So that’s always where we begin. Once they get consistent with their Ujjayi, their healing really takes off.

It works because Ujjayi Pranayama works with your prana, your vital energy. Any tight or painful areas of your body are areas that are low on prana. They are shut down or even dying on the vine. When you do your Ujjayi, you not only move your breath, but you move your prana as well.

Lying on the floor in Shavasana is best so your spine is fully supported. Then as your breath moves, your muscles also release and your slow breath seeps through your body, enlivening even the shutdown areas. 

Your mind too is soothed by the sound of your breath, quieting and turning it inward. When you settle deeper inside, you settle into the source of healing itself. Then healing happens from the inside out. It all starts with 20 minutes twice a day.

Yoga Therapy
Teacher Directory

Prepare for the New Year

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By Amanda (Purna) Schmidt

Now is the time to get your “Living Mysticism” calendar journal for 2026. 

This year is extra-special, marking Gurudevi’s Golden Jubilee. More than a mere notebook or planner, this calendar journal gives you plenty of space for sketching, writing and noting appointments.

However you choose to use “Living Mysticism,” you bring Gurudevi into your daily life. Each page offers a sutra-like excerpt from her teachings over five decades.

Return to this quote throughout the day for inspiration and guidance. Or follow the thread deeper by reading the associated Teaching Article. On each page, you get the title, month and year of publication. 

And there’s more: at the start of our Meditation Club each morning, Gurudevi reads the daily quote and adds even more depth in her commentary. Let this calendar journal weave the mystical into every day. Be inspired to do more yoga!

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