By Kumuda (Karen) Schaub, interviewed by Matrika Gast

Before taking a Shaktipat Retreat with Swami Nirmalananda, I’d always felt that discipline was punishment.  Now I understand that the discipline of Svaroopa® Vidya practices is a kindness to myself.  It is deep support for my internal process.  Having received Shaktipat from Swamiji yearly since 2013, I’m eagerly anticipating my fifth in October.

My first was quite surprising.  I’d been a yoga student for about three years when my teacher mentioned Shaktipat.  She casually asked, “Do you want to come?”  With each new Svaroopa^® yoga experience over time, I knew it was what I needed.  So, even though I didn’t know exactly what to expect with Shaktipat, I signed up.

At the beginning, I knew nothing about the Guru or the Guru’s function.  I knew nothing about her Guru, Baba Muktananda, nor his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda.  I now know this is our lineage of Shaktipat Gurus.  It is the source of transformative power and Grace.

Rooted in this lineage, Swamiji gave Shaktipat three different times in the retreat.  With the first, I felt that she had reached through my whole spine and into my tailbone.  Physically, my tailbone was painful.  I wanted to be anywhere except sitting on my stack of blankets for meditation!

At lunch Swamiji said, “It’s like childbirth.  The pain has a purpose.”  For me, the laser beam of Shaktipat into my tailbone initiated profound changes.  When I returned home, I was different.  Even though a beloved pet died a few weeks afterward, I navigated that process in a new way.  I was more able to be present with the pain and sorrow instead of reacting against it or retreating.  Again, I knew that this Svaroopa® Vidya path had given me exactly what I needed.

After my second Shaktipat Retreat, I felt that everything inside was different.  I had shifted.  I thought, I don’t know what to do with myself.  Then I thought, That’s right.  To live from Self is different.  The doors to my Self had blown open.  And at my third Shaktipat Retreat, these doors opened to a vision of the whole galaxy.  I realized this is what is inside.

With each Shaktipat, the effect was more subtle and more profound.  The uncovering of my deep Self continues to be a revelation.  Every time, there’s more of that for me to experience, more of what I never knew was there.  The More.

I have come to know that these immersions bring me into the process of deep excavation.  It unpacks the things I’ve carried with me for lifetimes.  It can be painful.  Yet I know that it’s only painful because my “small-s” self wants to avoid those things that are so deep.  Ultimately, this process is joyful.

So I keep doing my practices, and talking with myself about what I really want.  I want to know the Self all the time.  Now I know Self in my meditation, in my little home and talking to another yogi.  But I want to know it at my job, at the grocery store and while taking out the garbage.  My mind can’t quite wrap itself around what it means to be Enlightened.

Yet through Shaktipat Retreats I’ve experienced beautiful glimmers of my Self.  Being That all the time is an amazing goal.  Shaktipat continues to create big openings, more space, more room within.  I am then able to settle into my Self in a different way.

My practices have evolved into a steadfast discipline in the last six months.  Until then, practice first thing in the morning was not always a priority.  My “to do” list would sometimes take precedence; I would get lost in the shuffle.  But with steady practice now, I guarantee time in the morning for Ujjayi Pranayama, asana (poses) and meditation.  When possible, I add chanting of Sri Guru Gita.  If not, I chant it on the way to work, or sometimes at work.  These practices support my state, integrating the experience of Self into daily life.

My appreciation and gratitude for the ability to be in my life in this way — in relationship with a Guru who is there for me without fail — is immense.

Ute Mazel-Reeves, interviewed by Matrika Gast

For 8 years as my husband’s caregiver, I continued to deepen my Svaroopa® Vidya practices.  I continued to feel I was growing in my process.  When he died last year, I thought I’d pick up where I’d left off as a householder.  It had involved extensive socializing with friends as well as traveling.  However, I realized it was an identity I no longer related to.  I remembered Swamiji’s teachings.

As old identities fell away, I didn’t want to construct another “small-s” identity.  I sensed a powerful opportunity to see what lay beneath my personal stories.  This process, however, was anything BUT blissful!  I felt that I was stuck in darkness.  I experienced a sense of nothingness.

I still knew who I was in the deepest levels.  Yet I couldn’t feel myself as Beingness.  I had clarity of where I was.  But I could feel only the contractions, the limitations that that bind us into time and space.  They felt so heavy on the lightness that I knew myself to be.

From Swami Nirmalananda’s deep teachings, I recognized what was going on for me.  I was in fear of annihilation (anavamala).  This is the all-too-human limitation that blocks our knowing of our own Self.  Maya creates the swirl of the external world of objects and experiences (through Her kanchukas, Her powers), further covering that inner knowing.  Anavamala drives us to construct identities for our small-s self.

Resisting that urge, I was yet not able to experience my deeper Beingness.  So, I reached out to my Guru.  I signed up for the July Shaktipat Retreat with Swamiji.  Everything changed.  With Her, I am always on the path, embraced by Guru’s Grace.  Within, I asked her to please make me fearless.  With Shaktipat, my state shifted.  I felt opened to new possibilities, to explore how to be joyfully and meaningfully alive, without the small-s identity.

It feels like progress; the fog is lifting.  My path is clearer, with Guru as my guide.  I foresee new understandings forming.  I am learning how I can express myself from the authentic place of my Self.  To let go of constructed identifies, I am exploring their remnants.  Meditating, japa and chanting Sri Guru Gita give me the lifeline for which I’ve been reaching.

Remembering a profound experience from the July Shaktipat continues to propel me into knowing my own Self as the One Self Being All.  I felt there was no barrier between my Guru’s heart and mine.  Infinite heart space was encompassing us both.

By Addie Alex

Hit by a chairlift while skiing, Claudia’s pelvis had been fractured in three places as well as her arm. She also developed sciatic pain. For six months she faithfully did physical therapy along with chiropractic sessions and acupuncture. In August 2017 she found Svaroopa^® yoga at the suggestion of her sister-in-law.

Even though her range of motion was improving, her left leg and arm were numb, she had no strength, and her hips were crooked. At her first session, she told me that she had trouble getting out of her car and even a chair. Having spent many hours fruitlessly trying to feel better, she felt frustrated and depressed.

Once she saw that she got results, she committed herself to Yoga Therapy twice weekly and a home practice that included Ujjayi Pranayama at least once daily.  When she said her goal was to get back to skiing, I had my reservations, both because of her discomfort level and occasional pain.

“After a few sessions,” Claudia describes, “I began to feel the change in my body. Over the next two months, with twice weekly Yoga Therapy sessions and daily yoga practice at home, I stopped going to Physical Therapist, the chiropractor and acupuncture.”

The amazing thing is, she got the results she sought in less than three months.   Thanksgiving weekend she texted me a picture of herself and two daughters in their ski gear looking very happy! Being able to get back to this family activity was very important to Claudia.

“Now the numbness in my leg and arm is almost completely gone. I no longer experience sciatic pain. I am feeling stronger. My hips are more level, and I am able to get out of a chair and not limp. Feeling more fluid and flexible, I find myself running upstairs. I am sleeping better and feel less stressed. I owe feeling great to Addie, her staff and Svaroopa^® yoga.”

By Swami Nirmalananda

I’d never heard of it.  I’d been doing yoga off and on for almost 15 years, and didn’t know that such a thing was possible.  Someone can simply propel you into deep and profound meditation?  Wow!  Really?  Then I experienced it.  I got Shaktipat and my life changed forever.  I am so grateful.

“Such Masters are rare,” my Guru often used a classical yogic metaphor to explain.  “Instead of teaching you how to grow a mango tree, they slice open a ripe mango for you to eat.”  Such Masters must qualify to do this work.  They must have been born unenlightened, received Shaktipat from their Guru, served him and studied with him until authorized to do the work.  They must be a Kundalini Master, one who has completed the inner journey and can ignite it for others.  My Baba qualified on every count.

Baba Muktananda giving Shaktipat

Immediate and profound meditative experiences opened up from the moment I received his initiation.  It’s called Maha-Shaktipat Diksha, “maha” meaning the greatest of all the types of “shaktipat,” meaning an energetic infusion that falls in the category of “diksha,” a holy consecration or initiation.

Other types of dishka are not energetic infusions.  For example, mantra diskha is when you receive a mantra, which might be from an enlightened or an unenlightened being.  It gives you Sanskrit words to use on yourself, words that are more beneficial and uplifting than the things you usually say or think.  Over time, they wear away your limitations.  How wonderful!

There are other types of Shaktipat, energetic infusions that are about healing and happiness.  While these are beneficial and important goals, they are not yoga.  Yoga’s goal is that you become enlightened in this lifetime.  Do you want it?

I did.  At the time, I didn’t have the words to name what I wanted, but it was what I had been seeking in so many ways.  The map of my life had been like a dotted line meandering through a desert, looking for an oasis of spirituality.  I visited many oases, but without finding the river that fed them all.  When I got Shaktipat, I found not only the river, but the source of the river.  I’ve been drinking from it ever since.  It’s inside.  Maha-Shaktipat Diksha opens it up.

Swami Nirmalananda giving Shaktipat

Now I am graced with the privilege of giving the gift my Guru gave me.  Muktananda gave Shaktipat to tens of thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands.  We were so fortunate to receive his gift.  Yet few have been authorized to carry on his work.  It’s a sacred trust.  It is my way of serving him, by serving you.

Near the end of his life, he had so much to give.  Instead of resting on his laurels, of which he had many, he continued to give us Shaktipat.  Several times every evening, without warning, he’d burst into the meditation hall adjoining his bedroom and walk among us, touching our foreheads and blasting us open again.  In the years I had with him, I received Shaktipat over 200 times.  Only once is needed, they say, but I needed more.  It was like I’d been dying of thirst, having lived in a spiritual desert for so many years.  I soaked up what he gave; it emanated off of him.  He had a vibe.

Consciousness has a vibe.  Your innermost essence is Divine Consciousness, but you don’t know.  Not yet.  It needs to be uncovered.  It needs to be initiated — a new beginning.  Maha-Shaktipat-Diksha gives you your own Self.

OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo nama.h

To your inherent Divinity, again and again I bow.

By Karuna (Carolyn) Beaver

A dog drops everything to chase after a squirrel. My mind frequently drops everything to chase after nothing. Nothing but repetitive, wandering, mindless, meaningless and often negative “stuff.” It fills my mind, but doesn’t fill me or lift me up.

Trying to remedy this, I’m using my mind differently by doing more japa. When repeating mantra silently, I can lose track of it, making it more difficult to stay conscious. So I decided to set aside some times for out loud mantra repetition. Repeating mantra out loud, I can coax my mind into staying present.

My daily “mantra breaks” include driving my car. The garage door goes up, so mantra begins. Another is when I’m cooking. Walking into the kitchen is my cue to start mantra as well as dinner.

By doing japa, I am using external cues to start an internal process called dharana. The August contemplation article Use Your Mind Differently explains this first step towards meditation. Swami Nirmalananda and Rukmini write, “Dharana cultivates your ability to focus, but uses it to focus inward instead of outward.” Swamiji translates dharana as contemplation.

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Wonderfully, this contemplation draws my focus inward in the midst of outward activity. This is yoga in the midst of life! Recently I made pesto. With a sink full of basil, I repeated mantra as I plucked each leaf. As I mixed basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil, my mantras swirled together. They were as loud as the food processor. I watched in total bliss as the ingredients came together. My husband commented that it was the best pesto I’d ever made.  I think he could taste the mantra.

It’s great to infuse my food and my driving with the Grace of the mantra. Yet I don’t do it to improve my cooking or driving. I do it to reshape my mind. As Swami and Rukmini say in their article, I do japa to imprint my mind with Consciousness.

Our Shaktipat tradition gives us the gift of an enlivened mantra, infused with the power and Grace of our lineage. I am grateful to be part of this lineage of meditation masters. Because I’ve received the gift of Kundalini awakening from Swami Nirmalananda, mantra fills me up. Filled from the inside, I’m transported into the bliss of my own being.

I’m looking for new ways to build more mantra into my life. Swami’s advice is golden: “to elevate and uplift your mind, to have a Divine mind, do more japa.”

By Janaki Murray

Shopping, watching TV, even talking and listening a lot in social situations draw my mind outward.  However, I’m also aware that I pursue the opposite these days.  I spend more time in activities that quiet my mind.  They allow me to draw my senses inward more easily.  In our July Contemplation, Delving Inward, Vidyadevi mentions a few: listening to music, being in nature, daydreaming.  Of course, many Svaroopa^® yoga practices are included.

I realise my mind is thus becoming more and more inclined towards Consciousness.  These changes have been gradual and incremental.  I don’t even notice them sometimes.  Consequently, the yoga philosophy in our Contemplation Articles is so helpful.  It brings awareness to where I’ve come from, where I am and where I’m headed.

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My husband and I are very fond of chocolate (who isn’t?).  A box in our fridge holds a wide variety of chocolate.  We like to choose!  Two or three times a year, I have a chocolate-free month to practice tapas.  It so happens that this July is one.  Last evening, my husband sat next to me munching away.  Yet, I felt no desire for chocolate.  This is the first time I have not had that craving during a chocolate-free month.  This really did give me a sense of freedom, just like Vidyadevi’s experience of losing her desire for an apple fritter and coffee.

My mind was quiet, no longer harassing me with a chocolate craving.  In fact, I didn’t feel the need for anything.  I was content.  What a stark contrast to the effect of “pursuing my senses.” Then my mind is hanging onto a thought or to a desire, not letting go.  It is unsettling, disturbing, even annoying.  I used to live like that all the time.  No wonder I had such a busy mind!

Vidyadevi & Swamiji said, “When a desire arises, don’t indulge it.  Channel that energy into your quest for Consciousness.  Consciousness is reliable.”  I am grateful for this coaching on the practice of pratyahara (withdrawing the senses).  I don’t find it easy, but it helps me deal with desires.  It helps quiet my mind and facilitates my inward journey.

I also find a two-way street in operation here.  It is meditation that really gives me my daily “dip in the ocean” of Consciousness.  That is where I find my own Self.  It is the inner experience of my own Self that flows into my life making all things easier – including the practice of pratyahara.

By Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati

I didn’t know.  I’d never met an enlightened being before.  How was I supposed to tell?  And even if I could tell, what was I supposed to do with him?

As I took my seat on the floor in front of Baba, along with 250 others of us who’d just arrived in India, I wondered all these things.  Except that I wasn’t thinking coherently, so I didn’t really have the words I’m using now.  I was feeling joy and deep peace, mixed with gratitude and unexplainable love.  It was very confusing, especially since I’d never actually met him before.

We Westerners lack the basic training.  Growing up in India, you imbibe basic information from childhood about realized beings and the human capacity to know Consciousness.  Fortunately, my Baba explained about Self-Realization, both so we could see it in him as well as find it in ourselves.  One of the Sanskrit texts we chanted daily says:

“sruti.h pratyak.sam aitihyam

anumaana”s catu.s.tayam,

yasya caatmatapo veda

de”sika.m ca sadaa smaret.”—Srii Guru Gita 65

You must decide the Guru’s worth

by the four sources of knowledge:

the Vedas, sacred histories,

your inspection and inference.

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That morning, as I sat in the courtyard under the mango trees with the sun rising, I was using inspection and inference.  But I didn’t know the Vedas or sacred histories.  I had no yardstick to measure him against.  Yet something was happening to me, something I liked, something I had longed for all my life — or longer.  As I sat there, my inner pain was lessening, ebbing away.

Peace arose within me, even bliss, every time I sat under the mango trees with him.  I went back every day after that first time.  I understood it only when he explained, “You measure the value of the Guru by the change in you.”  Duh!  That change was obvious to me.

Yoga’s ancient writings describe the characteristics of a Guru clearly and carefully:

A qualified Guru is knowledgeable in the texts,

a devotee of God, free from jealousy,

an expert in yoga, does yoga practices,

is always in a pure yogic state.

He is devoted to his own Guru

and is a knower of the Self.

Only one with these qualifications may properly serve as Guru.

— Advaya Taraka Upanishad 14-15

(rendered by Swami Nirmalananda)

An impressive list of qualifications — this is what makes a Guru worth meeting or spending time and studying with.  Their teachings must be consistent with the ancient sources, yet they teach from their own experience as well as intellectual knowledge.  Thus, they are not teaching mere theory, nor are they making it up.  Also, the Guru is devoted to his own Guru, which means he had a Guru — no self-appointed teachers.  His inner state must be steady, the attainment promised by all the yogic texts.

My Baba hit the mark on every count.  After years with him, I had the yardstick and could evaluate the Gurus I later met, so many of them available in America.  But while Muktananda was alive, there was nowhere else I wanted to go.  There was nothing else I needed.

His fullness overflowed into me.  His inner perfection triggered mine to arise within me.  I followed him, not because of him, but because of what happened inside me.  That’s the only true test, one validated by the root text of Kashmiri Shaivism:

yo’ vipastho j~naahetu.sca — Shiva Sutras 3.29

Only one with mastery over Kundalini is competent to enlighten others.

(rendered by Swami Nirmalananda)

How can you tell if a Guru is worth their salt?  In our tradition, the pivotal point is whether or not he can give Shaktipat.  This inner awakening is the beginning of your Self-Realization.  Once awakened, Kundalini is the fuel that carries your rocket ship all the way to God.  Only a Guru who can awaken Kundalini is fully qualified.  I studied with such a Guru and am privileged to bring His blessings to you.

Happy Guru Purnima!

On this full moon, dedicated to the Guru, again and again I bow.

OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo nama.h

By Krishna Milgrom

Surprisingly, Googling “plow” gives you the yoga pose as the second definition, along with a fitting example:

…a yoga pose assumed by lying on one’s back and swinging one’s legs over one’s head until the outstretched feet approach or touch the floor.  “positions like plow and headstand can strain the neck”

Further down the page is another pertinent definition:

(especially of a vehicle) [to] move in a fast and uncontrolled manner

These aptly describe how I used to do Plow Pose before Svaroopa^® yoga: recklessly!   I plowed into the pose, hurling my legs over my head.  I didn’t settle into asana — I settled into a crash landing.  My whole spine tightened, and I had way too much weight on my head.  The pose was a pain in the neck, but I did it anyway: my yoga books said it’s good for me.

Then came Svaroopa^® yoga.  I learned a way to do what was good for me in a way that is good for me.  My Halasana pink handout (October 2004) says:

This is “supposed” to be relaxing, restful.  Do it with less effort!

With blankets to remove pressure from my neck, and blocks or a chair to settle my feet on when the floor was too far away, I could experience the Plow as it is supposed to be.

I am grateful to Swami not only for teaching me this way of doing the pose.  I’m also thankful for her recommendation several years ago that we practice the pose daily.  I plowed right into it, as in another definition on the same Google page:

continue steadily despite difficulties…

With steady practice, and less effort, Plow has become relaxing and restful.  When I settle into the pose, it becomes blissful.  Following the pink sheet instructions, I come out of the pose gently.  Instead of hurling my legs back to the floor as I used to do, I secure my lower back with my palms and bring one leg at a time to the wall.  With both feet on the wall and knees bent, I lay my arms alongside me as in Shavasana.  Then I slowly roll my back to the floor.  Ahhhhh! What bliss! As each vertebra unfolds one by one, my spine pops and crackles with released energy.  Bliss streams from my tailbone through my heart and into my skull.

I don’t want to move.

Then, as recommended, I do Matsyasana (Fish).  This opens my heart and rib cage in the opposite way from how Plow does.  I need this.  Having worked for decades sitting bent over a keyboard, I find my posture tends to the Neanderthal look.  Matsyasana helps ensure that I stand more erect.

After practice, I feel lighter and more open.  I practice every day.  My body grumbles when I miss a day.

I have not received all the benefits that the pink sheet describes for the Plow.  For example, I still have varicose veins, but they have moved from my lower legs to my neck.  (Just kidding! However, in my legs they are definitely much less noticeable.)  And I am still gray and balding, although my pink sheet suggests the opposite:

“It has been said that it prevents (and even cures) gray hair and baldness.  Who knows?”

Well, I know.  But so what! When you have a heart full of love, a healthy spine, and a skull full of bliss, who needs hair?

By Marti Monk

I enrolled in Vidyadevi’s workshop in Boise as soon as I heard about it. Thus, on May 12^th I was deeply settled into my blankets next to three of my equally deeply contented yoga buddies. For a decade, Theresa, Shan and I have been faithful students of Svaroopa^® yoga, through Beginning, Continuing and now Deeper classes. A decade ago, our beloved Deeper Teacher, Betsy Ayers, was a student along with us. In this workshop, she got to be “just a student” again.

While each of us benefit greatly from this practice, the four of us together receive so much more. In this Mandali Travels workshop, Vidyadevi talked about “bliss” and how it’s always deep within. As I listened to her words, I glanced at my three longtime yoga buddies. I realized our practice together has not only bonded us in a deep sisterhood. It has opened each of us to the precious presence of bliss within.

I was 54 years old when I became a yoga student. Soon after my husband died suddenly, I explored jazzercise as well as fast-flow yoga and even astrology. In the midst of turmoil from such a life change, I needed something to settle me down. I found a spiritually oriented yoga studio in Boise, and a teacher who offered a nurturing style. It included classical standing poses as well as twisting into pretzel shapes.

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After a year or so, that teacher, Matrika Gast, discovered Svaroopa^® yoga and took Foundations. Suddenly we were on the floor, learning to align, relax and soften to release spinal tension. Beautiful, thick plaid blankets had replaced our sticky mats. The power of this practice didn’t hit me between the eyes right away. Because I’d been exercising, “opening up” was a new concept. If I opened up, would I fall apart? At the beginning, as my tight muscles released tension, they ached. But my teacher kept me going. Sometimes I thought, “Good grief, will this ever stop?” Yet I never considered walking out, and that phase really didn’t last all that long.

Gradually, I developed a personal Svaroopa^® yoga practice, and it became a part of me. I looked forward to it every morning. The night before, I would wonder: What poses will I do? As I began to experience more and more physical core opening, my heart opened as well. I reached out to classmates, they became yoga buddies, and we developed closeness. We bonded in workshops and immersions as well. This process never happened in any other groups that I joined.

I’ve taken Foundations, the five-day immersion training, twice. As this yoga continues to transform my heart, I feel better in a way that I can’t fully explain. And I don’t quite yet know the value of this change. In the world of my brain that’s skilled in writing grant proposals, “bliss” means happiness and satisfaction. But the experience of Bliss found through Svaroopa^® yoga is something more. When we talked about Bliss with Vidyadevi in the May workshop, I and my three yoga buddies had just been (with about 8 other classmates) in Rotated Stomach Pose. So I was remembering that, on one side, I had sensed Theresa’s hand next to mine. On the other side, Betsy patted my hand. As we talked about Bliss, Shan, who seldom speaks in discussion, described Bliss as what she was experiencing in the workshop: “Beyond all the details, there’s the sense of Oneness.”

Vidyadevi’s workshop opened me to an experience of deeper knowing. I realized that I am living a life that’s interwoven with powerful yoga. Bliss for me is a sense of recognition. I see in a yoga buddy that big-S Self that I am finding within as my own Self. I recognize in her the same Self as in you — and in everyone.

I am grateful to be living a life interwoven with yoga, thanks to all my Svaroopa^® yoga experiences.

By Bindu Shortt

In the US, pitta season runs from July through October.  According to Ayurveda, pitta qualities are mostly heat and moisture.  Think humidity.  These qualities can accumulate and express in you as skin conditions, irritability, sour or acid stomach, or loose bowels.  To soothe your pitta energies, apply the principle of opposites.

Avoid foods that are themselves heating, such as coffee, alcohol and meat as well as fried and spicy foods.  Favor seasonal veggies and fruits that are cooling.  Summer is the only season in which the cooling qualities of melons are beneficial.  How wonderful that nature gives us the foods needed to keep us balanced in each season!

Because digestion itself is warm, Ayurveda still recommends eating most of your foods cooked during pitta season.  This allows for strong digestion and maximum energy from your food.  Salads may be eaten a few times a week, when used as a condiment rather than your main dish.  Fruits also are still better eaten cooked (grilled peaches, blueberry cobblers).  Most people, however, can tolerate raw fruit a few times a week.

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Drink cooling beverages including room temperature water with mint, cucumber, lemon or lime.  Or try coconut water, purchased at the store.  Homemade lassi in the summer can include some rose water and cilantro for extra pitta relief.

In your daily self-massage either switch to all coconut oil or do half and half with your regular oil.  This will cool your body from the outside in.  In addition to your yoga, swimming is a wonderful for summer activity as it does not overheat.  If you do another activity, do it in the cooler morning or evening hours.

Saffron is an exotic spice that has been used throughout history for its scent, its color, and its medicinal properties.  Ayurveda prizes saffron as a pitta balancing herb, since it is both bitter and astringent, two tastes that pacify pitta.  Just 1 to 5 strands of saffron is all you need to receive its benefits.  The following saffron rice recipe goes well with any dahl (lentil or bean dish) or with summer steamed veggies.  Its simplicity is appropriate for summer cooking:

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SAFFRON RICE

1 cup white basmati rice, washed

5 strands of saffron

3 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

1. Wash and rinse the rice. You can soak it for 30 minutes to make it more digestible.
2. Dry roast the saffron in a medium saucepan. This brings out its flavor.
3. Add the rice, water and salt and cook, covered, over a low heat for 20 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the rice is soft.