By Matrika Gast

Learning for survival starts at birth and continues even into old age. While lactation consultants help new moms learn to breastfeed, often they also need to help newborns learn to “latch on.” B. F. Skinner’s Enjoy Old Age teaches tactics and techniques for continuing a vibrant life in the midst of failing hearing, eyesight and physical and mental capacity.

In between birth and old age, we learn to walk, talk, tie our shoes, read, write and do math. We get job training in a trade or a profession, and keep our work-related knowledge and skills up to date with continuing education. Parents take classes, read articles and books to hone their parenting skills as well as learn from other parents.

Lifelong learning also provides enrichment. Community education programs offer so many options:  practicalities (accounting and starting a business); whimsy (becoming a clown); arts, music lessons and exercise of all kinds; history (from local to world); martial arts, yoga and meditation; gardening, raising chickens and cooking — and more.

When you become a Svaroopa^® yogi, lifelong learning is a given. But your learning turns out to be about much MORE than merely survival or even enrichment. You take your first class and then keep on going, while you gain more than you ever imagined. Along with your daily pose and meditation practice, you have an expanded perspective on your life and purpose. Perhaps you even become a teacher, so your lifelong learning fulfills your formal, professional commitment for Continuing Ed.

When you continue Svaroopa^® yoga practices, with or without a professional goal, you are engaged in lifelong learning.  That’s because with every spinal sequence, you learn something new. At the same time, your body changes, preparing you for new learning the next day. With every meditation, you learn something new, plus your mind and your life change, opening up in beautiful ways. Every practice gives you a new dimension of yourself and your Self. Layer by layer, inner and outer contraction melts. At a deep level, you learn yoga’s first teaching: “You are perfect and divine. Know this Truth and live it.”[1]

This is embodied learning. More happens.  Outside, you notice the green leaves of an ordinary tree against a sapphire blue sky — intensely beautiful!  Yet you know that the ineffable pleasure arising from within you is Divine. You hear the sound of wind in the trees or the constant flow of a river as sacred mantra. You see the eyes of an acquaintance brighten when she talks about the children she taught in kindergarten, showing you firsthand that she is a manifestation of Divine Consciousness.

If you need a refresher course in this Divine Reality, “Freebies” on our svaroopa.org website are just a click away. Listen to recordings of Swamiji’s contemplations articles, with each one building on the other in our yearlong theme of Yoga & Spirituality.  Her satsang audios give you specific guidance on how to stay “fresh” with the knowing of your own Self through yogic practices and disciplines.

This lifelong learning is profoundly different than any other, because you are doing so much more than acquiring knowledge and skills. You are learning to experience own Self. You are learning to know your Self as a tangible reality. You “learn” that knowing again and again, until again becomes always.

Taking this pathway to Self-Realization requires your effort. Like with any learning, commitment is necessary. Yet this path is blessed with a Master Teacher whose nature is to dispense Grace. This Grace carries you forward in your lifelong learning without struggle. You get the More you have always been seeking.

[1] September 2016 Contemplation: Yoga & Spirituality #9, “Being a Role Model” By Swami Nirmalananda & Vidyadevi Stillman

Our newly streamlined YTT 1 was offered in August, and turned out to be a great program.  Only 5 days long, it offered the depth that Svaroopa^® yoga has long been known for, with great responses from the students.

Marjane Vitaletti says, “My Level 1 experience gave me a deeper knowing of my mind, my body and more. Learning more poses as well as expanding on Foundation poses was amazing. I look forward to teaching them, so my students can take yoga outside the classroom, particularly standing in Tadasana. Equally inspiring and empowering were the talks on Consciousness and the power of the Self. My meditations deepened daily, as I became more and more open with every breath and every asana. YTT Level 1 taught me where I am in this process, and it previewed the wonderful journey I continue to look forward to.”

Cindy Rust recently moved to Tallahassee FL, where she is the only Svaroopi. She reports, “For a while I was unsure about continuing my Yoga Teacher Training. Yet, since my two previous trainings at Lokananda were so fruitful, I jumped at the chance when the opportunity arose to take YTT Level 1 in the new streamlined format. As usual, the YTT Teacher Trainers met my expectation of skillful, exacting and compassionate training. Throughout the course, they demonstrated shining examples of Svaroopa^® yoga’s many benefits. I like the shorter training format, bookended by half-days. This schedule makes the travel less daunting. The days are long but supported by the yoga itself, and I returned home refreshed.

“Most valuable of all was the generous time spent learning and practicing the fundamentals of planning and teaching yoga classes. Our Practice Teaching class for beginners was arranged ahead of time, and each of us received detailed individual feedback (compliments and coaching) on our teaching. Plus, we received important technical details for setting up our yoga business locally. This information included promotional material used in recruiting the students for our practicum; release forms presented and signed; after-class follow-up with the new yoga students. I am looking forward to completing DTS, and am already more comfortable with my abilities as a yoga teacher. The whole experience of Level 1 has renewed my appreciation for Svaroopa^® yoga, and I am now thrilled with the opportunity of introducing it in my new hometown.”

They also enjoyed their housing and meals at Lokananda, our retreat facility.  Cindy describes, “Accommodations were more than adequate. With some beds removed from the suites, more space is available for both personal yoga practice and personal storage. Not only was the food yummy, but the new chef listened to all our input, and provided well for my gluten-free needs.”

Marjane joins in, “I also fell in love with Lokananda. I remember opening day as I bustled around preparing for Swami and other teachers-in-training to arrive. Seeing the transformation of this old building was heartwarming. Being housed and trained at Lokananda for my Level 1 immersion gave me a sense of beingness and belonging. I look forward to going back.”

By Kristine Freeman, SVA Board Member

Looking back, I can see that I have always been a spiritual seeker.  Born to parents with a deep Catholic faith and practice, I was blessed to be raised in relationship with God. There was mass every Sunday at our local church and a formal religious education. At home, grace was said before meals and prayers  before bed. And yet it wasn’t enough for me. I needed more.

It was this inner yearning that made me a seeker. Swami says, “This is what makes you different, even when you don’t want to be. It means that you are simply unable to satisfy your yearning with the things that satisfy others.”

As a young teen, I remember attending a youth retreat, a wonderfully expansive weekend of group activities and worship, including folk music, prayers and religious talks. We shared meals, bunkrooms and hall bathrooms. We enjoyed the freedom of being away from the responsibilities of home and school. I loved it. And yet at the end of the weekend, Sister Bernadette, the incredible spiritual being who ran the program and the center, explained that as special as the weekend had been, “You can’t live here.” Literally and figuratively, it was time to return to our normal lives. I cried. A lot. I didn’t want to return to the contraction.

Fast forward 40 years and I find myself at Lokananda, our bliss place. Listening to our Guru explain, “Bliss is your birthright. I want you to live in the wholeness, live from that place of joy all the time.” She is telling and showing us that living from that expanded place is possible. Her words bring me such joy. I have reached the stage in the spiritual process where I yearn to spend more and more time with my Guru. Swami describes this stage:

This yearning happens because the Guru’s state is infectious. When you sit with the Guru, you experience reciprocal adaptation, otherwise known as a ‘contact high.’ Though your eyes and your mind are full of the Guru, what you are experiencing is your own Self. That’s the value of the Guru — to give you your own Self.

Priceless. Please join me in making an additional contribution to our Lokananda Capital Campaign. The practice of financial support, dakshina, is a powerful practice. Is your yearning powerful enough to provide the funding to ensure Svaroopa® immersion programs will continue in Lokananda? When you support your yogic process, and the Master who makes it possible, you take a powerful step in your spiritual journey.

Click here to donate.

By Matrika Gast, SVA Board Member 

William Wordsworth first awakened my yearning for transcendence. In a poem about a blissful experience in nature, he described it as “a sense sublime… Whose dwelling is…”

…the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.  — “Tintern Abby” 1798

This passage makes me remember glimpsing the Divine in sunsets when I was in high school, in a swirl of adolescent angst and family dysfunction. I was relieved to feel a sense of eternal Presence that “rolls through all things.” It was just slightly out of reach. If I worked hard enough in school, I could get to It, I thought.

Decades later I accidentally took a Svaroopa® yoga class at a yoga teachers’ conference in another style. I loved the chant CD that accompanied the practice, with poses supported by fluffy pillows. But, really, what was up with this rolling around on the floor? But when I walked down the hall afterward, my back felt light and airy, like a fresh marshmallow. Before that, a deep ache was all I had ever felt in my back.

Five years later (I’m a slow learner), my yearning for transcendence led me to Svaroopa® YTT Level 1. I was sitting in Sukhasana, effortlessly, when a pink flow arose from deep within; I felt it to be the pure love of God and knew it was Real. That was the first of more and more experiences of Self, continuing to strengthen the yearning Patanjali describes:

Teevra-samvegaanaan-aasanah — Yoga Sutras 1.21 

This summer in ATT 402: Deeper Practice, we received Swami Nirmalananda’s renderings of Patanjali’s Sutras, including Sutra 1.21. Because it is the narrative of my own life, I especially resonate with this one:

All your life, you have been experiencing a yearning — it is the yearning for God. Recognize the yearning itself. It is the fuel for the rocket ship that takes you to God.

I am finally discovering that “sitting” with the “yearning itself,” without directing it to conventional pursuits, is a practice in itself. I love that it was in Sukhasana that I first had that experience of God as my own Self. The sutra’s final Sanskrit word “aasanah” means “sitting near.” When you allow yourself to experience your strong yearning, you are already sitting near your own Self. You are infinitesimally close to the transcendence that you earnestly seek. Our Svaroopa® Sciences, given to us by our Master Teacher, provide a banquet of yogic practices to nourish the yearning that first drew us to seek the “More.”

You, I and all our Svaroopa sisters and brothers stepped onto this path because we yearned for the “More.”  Maybe it was more health, more wellbeing or even transformation and illumination. Maybe it was for more fulfilling work in the world, becoming a Svaroopa® yoga teacher. Maybe you were already a seeker, yearning to be established in your own Self. What would any of us do without our Svaroopa® Sciences: asana, meditation, chant, study of the ancient texts, puja, etc.?

Now we have a Place of Bliss — Lokananda — a physical structure. The building serves us with full-service, immersed trainings and retreats, with the cultivation of physical healing, ever-expanding wellbeing and mystical transcendence.  For all of us, on our individual paths, Lokananda serves us.  Here, we clear the “shrama,” accumulated world-weariness, and immerse in the Svaroopa® Sciences teachings and practices.  At Lokananda, we support the fulfillment of our yearning and our dharma.

Our tantric teachings say the Divine and the mundane are inextricably interwoven. So Lokananda needs a new roof! What could be more mundane? We need to fund that expensive repair as well to replenish the reserves used to renovate this beautiful old building. It is infused with Grace from our ancient lineage extending. Lokananda is for you, for me, and for our Svaroopa sisters and brothers — to cultivate your yearning and to fulfill yoga’s promise.  Our Place of Bliss is our yoga home.

Over the past year, we have raised two-thirds of our $150,000 goal. If you have already contributed, you already know the vital importance of this building to our organization. If you have waited until now, the time is at hand to make a significant difference with your contribution.

Either way, please step up for this final leg of our Capital Campaign, raising the final $50,000.00, to ensure this building that takes you — and our current and future community — all the way home to your own Self.

Click here to donate.

By Matrika Gast

If you take yoga classes, you are a yogi. You are being educated in the science of yoga. You can count on your “yoga studies” to ensure that you are in a process of personal growth.

Search for “personal growth” on AmazonSmile and you’ll find hundreds of titles, largely focusing on cultivating career and success in the world.  A yogi’s personal growth certainly includes career and worldly pursuits. In fact, your education as a yogi makes this type of success more available to you.

But yogic education does not focus on outward achievement. When you are a yogi, your education is directed inward, an expansion on the inside. You may have started yoga because of physical or emotional pain.  While Svaroopa^® yoga poses improves your condition, rather these practices make you able to turn your awareness inward. That change in direction dissolves inner tensions that create so much of the pain in body and mind. This release allows you to grow from within as naturally as an acorn sprouts into an oak tree.

This is true education, coming from the Latin verb educere, meaning to bring forth that which is hidden. You have learned yogic practices that not only make you more effective in the world but, more importantly, open you to your own True Nature. You become more and more illuminated from the source within, the light of your own Self . When you unravel the deep layers of physical tension and mental contraction, you bloom from within in the glory of that Light.

This education transforms you inside and outside, as it brings forth that which was always there in you — but hidden. You are able to use more effectively your inborn talents as well as your life skills. Certainly, your life improves outwardly. Yet this education teaches you that you never needed to improve yourself. You find that you were always whole, you were always the eternal Divine Essence. You are able to live more and more in that inner knowing, which frees you. Yes, reliably, you become more effective in what you do in the world, yet your joy, your bliss, arises from within.

By Prakash (David) Falbaum, SVA Board Member 

Our “Place of Bliss” grounds the Grace.It stands as a full-service yoga and meditation teacher training facility, as a retreat center, and as the local venue for Swami Nirmalananda’s Grace-filled teachings. Living in MN, I have only a few opportunities a year to visit the Ashram and be in the presence of Swami Nirmalananda. Every time, I have very deep experiences. I know that these experiences are fueled by Guru’s Grace, powerfully available to us all at Lokananda.

This Grace has given me everything. I started Svaroopa® yoga as a very contracted person. The more I am able to be in Swami’s presence, the less contracted I am. Her satsangs open me up the way Muktananda’s Shaktipat set him free, free to know himself as the One Self.

I have always yearned for the “More.” Until I encountered the teachings about Self-Realization in Swami Nirmalananda’s Svaroopa® Sciences, I felt incomplete. Even though I have a successful career and a wonderful family life, I felt worthless. When I was born, I was destined to be adopted out so was not held in my mother’s arms. Contraction began for me on Day 1. When I found Svaroopa® yoga, I had become almost an automaton. Yet everything changed when I took my first Svaroopa® yoga class. I got Shaktipat. It came through my local teacher, because Svaroopa® yoga teacher training and practices are empowered by the Grace of the Guru, from Nityananda through Muktananda, and through Swamiji. After that first Svaroopa® yoga class, I went home and walked my dogs. I felt as though I was walking on air. I felt that light.

I now know that I was noticing Kundalini beginning her work on me. More than five years later, at Swamiji’s August 14 Satsang, where her discourse focused on Baba’s Shaktipat, I felt more completely free, becoming more and more freed from the limitations of my mind. This deep clearing of contraction manifests in my ability to listen to other people, to let myself be known to others and to speak the Truth of this path to Self-Realization. My mind no longer has the power to inhibit the Truth I want share. The more yoga I do, the more I feel myself to be my Self. And it all happens at Lokananda, where Swamiji’s teachings and the deepening practices of our community are saturated with transformative Shakti.

During our annual SVA Board retreat, I attended Swami Sunday at Lokananda. We celebrated Baba’s Shaktipat anniversary.  India gained independence from the British Empire on that same day in 1947. Baba’s name, Muktananda, means the bliss of moksha (freedom). When Swamiji spoke about the intersection of all these freedoms, I experienced a profound shift. Swami gave me Muktananda. At this satsang, I realized that I am Muktananda. Such experiences happen to me, to you, to our Svaroopa® sisters and brothers because we can come to trainings, retreats and other programs at Lokananda.

Join me in contributing to the third leg of our Capital Campaign for Lokananda. Since campaign began about a year ago, we have raised $100,000 of our $150,000 goal. To date, these generous contributions have supported the renovations and furnishings of our 130-year-old Lokananda. She shines! But she also needs a new roof now, and a maintenance reserve for those future capital repairs that are inevitable. Please open your heart as well as your wallet. Let us together complete this Capital Campaign for Lokananda now. Then, for ourselves and others to come, we can count on a place to be in the bliss that will fulfill the yearning that first pulled us on to this Svaroopa® Sciences path.

Click here to donate.

By Tirtha Richards

After reading our August contemplation article, “Inspired by Great Beings”, I am ever so grateful for my Guru, Swami Nirmalananda. It is a reminder that my life circumstances have led me to this Guru, who has received the greatest of gifts from her own Guru, and has dedicated her life to passing forward this precious gift to us. As I write these words, I feel the impact of it throughout my body. The Grace flows through me filling me with bliss, calm and peacefulness.

Role models in my family were slim. Coming from a complex and large family dynamic left me with few to emulate.  As I read about the women in the article, I was so impressed with all they were, and all they accomplished. But when I see the picture of my Guru, before I even read the words about her, I am transported into the state of Grace. I stop and let it fill me. Swamiji has given me everything. Guru’s Grace has transformed me and continues to do so. Granting not only me, but my family with gifts, and service, beyond our imagination!

There is so much available to us. We can listen to her on recordings, read her words, chant with her, see her image and bask in her Grace. All this without leaving our houses, just by going online. But nothing can compare to being in the Guru’s presence. Having Swamiji in this world with us is a gift, but in the same room is powerful beyond imagination. The experience of sitting with the Guru shows us the way, reminds us why we are here, and lets us know what is possible if we follow the path.

I was not the one in a billion to have had a spontaneous mystical experience in youth, so I am extra grateful for my living Guru. She is that living example of all that is available to us if we are willing to do the practice.  This beautiful Shaktipat lineage is the perfect path for me. Receiving Shaktipat from Swamiji has allowed me to have that experience of spontaneous revelation, showing me all that is possible.

Peter Gallagher, SVA Board Member

The inner experience of Self is closest for those whose yearning is strongest.
— Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras 1.21.

I’ve just returned home from our annual face-to-face Board meeting and retreat. While we met at the Ashram, we were housed at Lokananda. The accommodations are beautifully functional and comfortable. But it is a 130-year old building, and daily as my roommate left our room for his 4 am meditation, I heard the doors squeak. Thinking that SVA admin staff needed to be notified of the problem, we told Swami Nirmalananda about it. Swami told us where to find the can of WD-40. That clinched my sense of truly being at home in Lokananda.

Driving from Downingtown to my “other home,” I thought about other journeys. I have learned that saving for retirement is a journey that begins with a single step and takes another thousand steps. You start with saving a little, plan ahead and step by step you will arrive at retirement with enough funds to support you.

As I approach retirement, I start another journey of a thousand steps on our Svaroopa^® Vidya path to Self-Realization. The yearning to be at home in my own Self is a strong pull. The yearning for Self-Realization feels like it is magnetizing me toward an ultimate home. To get there, I just need to let the yearning orient me to that “home” the way a magnet is aligned with the North Pole. I can fulfill my longing with mantra, to be turned inward to my own Self. All I have to do is cultivate the yearning and everything will just flow. That Grace-filled flow, emanating from Swami Nirmalananda, carries me to Self-Realization.

Lokananda, our Place of Bliss, is the physical home that gives me a Shakti-saturated place to stay where I can be in the presence of our Guru, Swami Nirmalananda. Lokananda is an essential element in cultivating the yearning that promises to take you to Self-Realization. I must take care of this second home as I do my own residence. Capital repairs, the stuff you do every few decades, such as getting a new roof, must be done. I understand the need to sustain the organization which provides the physical support for Swamiji’s teachings that carry me, you, and current and future seekers on the path. We need to take responsibility for Lokananda, our spiritual home, just as we do for our own personal homes. My donation to this phase of the Lokananda Capital Campaign feels like another step on the way home.

Our capital campaign goal of $150,000 was set in July 2015. We are enormously grateful for the $100,000 in donations received so far. They enabled us to renovate the sturdy old building for beauty and comfort. Our goal for this leg of the campaign is $50,000, which will complete our appeal.We will first be able to get a much needed new roof, and then replenish the reserves that support the programs that carry you forward on your spiritual journey.

I also understand the devotional aspect of contributing to the capital campaign for Lokananda, just as you bring a flower to Swamiji as an offering out of gratitude. Will you join me in opening your heart to decide on a gift to establish Lokananda in good and ongoing repair? It is the physical structure in which your yearning can be cultivated and fulfilled as Patanjali promises in Sutra 1.21. The strength of your yearning will take you to your Self. When you contribute to the last leg of the Lokananda Capital Campaign, you are oriented to the home in which you will always find the “More.”

Click here to donate.

By Amala Cattafi, SVA Board President

The inner experience of Self is closest for those whose yearning is strongest. — Patanjali Yoga Sutras 1.21

Everyone experiences spiritual yearning, but not everyone acts on it.  — Joseph Campbell

Most people find ways to divert this powerful yearning into other, more conventional, safer things.  Baba Muktananda explained:

• Out of 100 who feel the yearning, one recognizes it as a yearning for something the world cannot provide.
• Out of 100 who recognize it as a spiritual longing, one looks for a Guru
• Out of 100 who look for a Guru, one finds a Master who can give the experience as well as the teachings.
• Out of 100 who find such a Master, one opens their heart and mind.
• Out of 100 who open their heart and mind, one does the discipline.
• Out of 100 who do the discipline, one comes to know God.

When we started our “Lokananda:  Your Bliss Place” capital campaign last fall we knew that many of you Svaroopis are included in the 1 in 100. You are not only dedicated to your personal practice and the source of those teachings, but also to your community and the space she has dedicated to serving you.

We knew you were out there, and you did not disappoint! We have raised $100,000 of our original $150,000 goal. This achievement is due to a great many of you who have selflessly (and Self-fully) stepped up to support the physical location that is the heart of our Svaroopa^® Sciences. BUT WE ARE NOT YET DONE.

Your generous donations to date in this Capital Campaign have paid for renovations and the costs incurred in buying Lokananda. But we will soon need a new roof, and have several additional improvements planned to make your retreat experiences even more comfortable.

If you have previously opened your heart and given generously, we want to share our gratitude. Please know how much you have done to benefit your Svaroopa^® community. We hope you will do it again!

If you have not yet found the impulse to give for this very important purpose, NOW IS THE TIME! I can tell you from experience that the act of opening your heart and your hands, even when you think you can’t, is one of the most deeply satisfying acts that a human being can experience. Live your life every day as the 1 yogi in 100 who not only cares, but takes action to help.

Consider Baba’s teaching about the 1 in 100 yogis. He is talking about Self-realization. With Swami Nirmalananda as our Master Teacher, we are positioned to reach the ultimate state that yoga promises. We belong to the small percentage of the world population who recognizes the inner longing for what it truly is, the desire to know the Self.

Join me and the SVA Board in completing our Lokananda Capital Campaign successfully. When you contribute to its last leg, you securely establish the place filled with Grace, your spiritual home in which you will always fulfill your yearning for the “More.”

By Yogeshwaree (Melissa) Fountain

As Svaroopis, we are blessed to have so many ways to practice our yoga: meditation, asana, japa (out loud mantra repetition), seva (selfless service to others), Ujjayii Pranayama, the yoga of eating, chanting, and svadhyaya, one of the niyamas that means the reading and studying of yogic texts.

You may already do many of these practices, but for me, svadhyaya stands out as incredibly powerful and sustaining. I can go very deep in the poses or meditation, but how I carry that inner opening into the world is what matters most to me.  Studying and applying the words of a true master feed me at the deepest level. It is what the Shiva Sutras describe as “j~naanam annam,” that knowledge of the Self is the true food.

We can be looking everywhere else but what we long for is the Truth of who we really are. Swamiji, in her love and care for us, provides this nourishment in many ways. One of the most potent is her second collection of monthly contemplations: Yoga: Inside and Outside: Carrying Inner Bliss into Your Life.

I have often sat down with a cup of tea and pen, and read a chapter as if chatting with my dearest friend, underlining points I’d mention to Swamiji if she were sitting right there. This enlivens the text for me, and I always get what I need.

As a Weekend Workshop Leader, I rely on her contemplation articles to guide me through the theme of the weekend, using her text as the springboard for my talks and selections of poses.  The contemplation shapes the vessel I am creating to contain the weekend.  My students and fellow teachers describe how they interact with this book:

“Reading Swamiji’s book has really deepened my meditations.  I love that each day I read a contemplation article, it helps to bring me to the Self.  I am an avid reader, but also feel that my mind is very busy. Reading Swamiji’s words helps to center my focus back to the Self rather than in the many directions that my mind is going in.  I also have found that reading it as my preparation for my morning meditation makes it carry into my day.  It is amazing how the contemplating the Truth can bring comfort and clarity to me, or really bring a spotlight to something I have been struggling with.  It sometimes feels like the message was written specifically for me.”  — Carol Waite

“Little did I know that Svaroopa^® and this book would impact my life so profoundly. I was preparing (although I didn’t even know it at the time!) for a huge transition in my life and every day I would read one of Swami Nirmalananda’s meditations. Often I would meditate on them.  Through her ability to communicate deeply authentic insights along with her
personal experiences, always with humility and humor, she reached deep into my heart and inspired, sustained and changed me in ways I never anticipated… such a surprise, such a delight, such a gift. Thank you Swami Nirmalananda!” — Janet Neff

“Yoga: Inside and Outside brings the teachings and practices of yoga directly into my everyday life.  Swamiji’s articles guide me into how to more fully relax my body (“Living in Shavasana” May 2004) and quiet my mind (“Quiet Mind, March 2007), in ways I’d never experienced before. Yoga class gives me so much, but using my mind in this way is enlightening! Anymore, if I am stressed out or in fear, I know to look at the chapter titles, make a selection, and find the help I need.” — Lyn Hoyt