Your life lessons are presented over, and over, and over again until you get it. Once you learn the lesson you don’t need to repeat it. You can move on, which I call “Outgrowing Your Past.” Even if the same or similar events recur, you see them differently. Thus, you react differently. Your knee-jerk responses, your old ways of confronting or hiding…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Are You Ready?“
By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell
Ashram Board President
It is my pleasure to introduce our current 2026 fundraiser – “Unmilana” – blossoming forth.
Please join me in the yogic practice of dakshina, selfless financial giving. When you support our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, you give to the one that helps you to discover your own Self.
The Sanskrit word unmilana means blossoming forth, like a flower blooming or the opening of your eyes. The spiritual meaning is discovering your own light and bringing it forth into the world.
After meditation, Gurudevi tells us to “slowly open your eyes.” She says it is in the opening of our eyes that we can see our inner depth.
Sometimes my meditation is filled with what I call “mind stories” or my body is aching. My mind tells me that it was not a good meditation. Yet, when I open my eyes and check in, I feel peace and contentment within. Sometimes it’s pure joy or a feeling of being grounded.
My meditation has cleared something out of the way. I am now different. I am lighter. I am more me. When I get up from my meditation seat, I am taking the lighter and more peaceful me into the world.
Gurudevi tells us, “Your own blossoming forth is assured, just like daffodils that will bloom in the spring, but you don’t know when the spring will come. The teachings give you ways to push it along.”
She gives us the tools to help us bloom by making the teachings and practices easily available. A few examples are her books, monthly Teaching Articles, programs (including free meditation intros and Q&As), weekly satsangs and Shaktipat Retreats.
The world outside may be chaotic, but Gurudevi says, “Like a star at night, you can bring the light of your own being into the world, which makes a difference for everyone.”
If you have benefited from any of the tools or practices available to us through the Ashram, please join me in donating. Help SVA to continue helping you and others to blossom forth and shine in this world.
Donate online or call us at (610) 644-7555. Or send your check to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, PO Box 143, Downingtown PA 19335. Thank you again and again!
By Swami Shrutananda Saraswati
If you are in pain (physical, mental or emotional), you may need tangible and personal support. Like a person with a broken leg, you need crutches.
I have been trained to provide this support. And I love to do so! I check in with you, “Are you doing your 20 minutes of Ujjayi twice a day — every day?”
Often, when I pose this question to students, the answer is “no.” I am surprised by how many students, and even teachers, have amnesia over this protocol. With any kind of pain, you must add this second time period to your day.
Ujjayi spreads prana — life force — through your whole body. Where you hurt is where your healing energy, prana, is low. When your body and mind are full of prana, your pain will be gone. So, I help you figure out where to fit a second 20 minutes of Ujjayi into your day.
I also encourage you to take not merely one yoga class a week, but two. I know you can do more yoga at home. However, will you? More importantly, who will fine tune your propping, check your alignments, and give you an adjustment for deeper openings? Who will see what it is that you need? Only a yoga teacher.
You can’t see what you don’t see. A teacher can see where you are stuck. The benefits of taking two yoga classes a week, or more, is not merely cumulative. The benefits are exponential.
Two 20-minute Ujjayi Pranayama practices daily plus at least a second weekly yoga class really work for you. I have seen it so many times, simply doing Ujjayi twice a day and increasing their weekly classes, they heal quicker.
Recently, a student came in with pain in her neck, level 8 out of 10 possible. She increased her Ujjayi practice to 20 minutes twice a day. And she came to class twice a week for three weeks. The predictable miracle happened. The pain level in her neck is now gone. Doing more yoga really works!
Even better, your teacher will motivate you to do poses you don’t want to do. But, for your body and mind to be healthy and vibrant, these are the poses you need.
A teacher will motivate you to do abdominal poses as well as poses that strengthen your legs and your arms. These poses will keep your spine open between classes.
At home, typically, students only do the poses they like and can do easily. They don’t realize that they never get into their stuck areas. At some point, those areas will make you eligible for a formal diagnosis by your doctor, if it hasn’t happened already.
Who will motivate you? A teacher who has been through the same process. Teachers teach from their own experience. They are kind, motivational and in your face when needed. A teacher cares about you. This is why we teach.
I challenge you to double up during this season. Start with doing 20 minutes of Ujjayi twice a day and take an extra yoga class each week, for one month. Tell your teacher your plan. She will motivate you to follow through.
You will be amazed at how you will feel by month’s end. Gurudevi says, “Vibrant health, vitality and enthusiasm follow, like when you were a child.” [March 2026 Teachings Article You Have a Body]
Take care of your body. You only get one body in this lifetime.
Your mind is made of cosmic Consciousness but mixed with your individual prana. Which means your mind accesses only a limited part of Consciousness, only as much as your prana allows. And that means when you’re low on prana, your mind is dying on the vine. So, your mind brings up all the threatening things that could happen, or have happened, giving you thoughts that match…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Prana – Life Energy“
Online or On-Site
Discover a whole new dimension to your own being and learn tools that help you bring that into your life.
The profound inward path of Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation begins with Shaktipat.
Receiving this initiation from Gurudevi opens inner access to the powerful flow of meditative energy within you.
Her teachings support you in understanding the goal — knowing your own Self. And you learn how to manage the enlightenment process along the way.
Learn the differences between Online and On-Site here.
I felt an enormous rush of heat moving up from the base of my spine. Then a vision of pure white light also rushed up my spine. I melted into a supreme state of bliss. — Elena P.
My experience was sublime. When Gurudevi touched my forehead, I was infused with mantra. I felt this go from between my eyebrows and land with a slight jolt just below my navel. I have experienced subtle changes ever since. I approach my practices with a deeper sense of reverence and calm, which I can carry through the day now. I am more open and accepting. — Ellan C.
It is your soul, purusha, that reincarnates from one lifetime to the next. Shaktipat gives you freedom from the cycle of lifetimes, freedom from the limitation of feeling separate from others, freedom from the feeling of being separate from God. For God is being you, and me, and everyone and everything. When you look all the way inward, you find…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Body, Mind & More“
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
You have earned your current condition. Yoga calls this your bhava, meaning your state of mind and body as well as the circumstances of your life and status of your relationships.
You have invested your time and energy into getting what you’ve got, which includes the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s called karma-phala, the repercussions of your prior actions.
This is karma-bhumi, the world of action. Bhumi means land, literally earth, also referring to our planet. Karma means action. You must have a body to exist in this plane. Having a body means you are propelled into action.
This plane of existence is based in perpetual motion. Even if you decide to abstain from external activity, your mind keeps going. The key question is — what is your motivation for any of your actions? Your motivation determines what your karmic repercussions are.
Being a good person is a primary motivator for most people. They will forego pleasures in order to take care of their loved ones and handle other obligations. The Bhagavadgita, an ancient yogic text, focuses on you being a yogi while fulfilling your dharma — your roles and responsibilities.
Classical yoga systems begin with morality and ethics. The yamas and niyamas are lifestyle practices that clean up your act. My Baba summarized them succinctly:
They are nothing but rules of self-control: living a regular and disciplined life, going to bed and getting up punctually, talking less, speaking the truth and eating only as much as you can digest. Now who in the world doesn’t need these rules?
When I met Baba, I hadn’t been following the rules. I had invested years in breaking every rule I could find. As a teenager in the 1960’s, I took rebellion seriously. Fortunately, tantra is for everyone. Even if your lifestyle isn’t yogic and your karma is a bit messy…
I describe it this way: you are more than what the world tells you that you are. You are more than you think you are. You discover who and what you really are, oh Shiva, by looking within. And you still live in the world. You still have experiences, but they don’t make you who you are. Now, based in Self, you draw on Divine intelligence within to guide…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Self-Mastery“
You are not your body. You have a body. Your body is not who you are. Everyone identifies with their body. If they are coughing and sneezing, they say, “I have a cold,” or “I have allergies.” If you change your words and say, “My body has a cold,” or “My body has allergies,” you might actually….
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Your Physical Condition“
Join Gurudevi as she honors her spiritual roots on her 80th birthday. Two special events are planned!
On the day before her birthday, Gurudevi will do a special fire ceremony, only for 80-year-olds. Sahasrara Chandra Darshanam celebrates that she has lived through 1,000 full moons. It conveys gratitude, longevity and spiritual maturity.
On her birth anniversary, Gurudevi will participate in the morning ceremonies for Nityananda in his temple. She has done this several times before, and says:
I am grateful to be able to honor Nityananda in such an intimate and personal way. This ceremony always gives me the feeling I had when sitting with my Baba. What a glorious way to honor my Baba — by honoring his Baba.
You are invited to join her. You will sit at her feet just as she sat at the feet of her Guru. The transformative effects of her teachings and practices will be amplified.
Golden Jubilee
Begins Monday November 9
You will dive deep into Consciousness with Gurudevi each day. Sutra discourses, chanting and meditation prepare you for profound transformation. Svaroopis who have travelled with her to Ganeshpuri attest to this:
Gurudevi already has us on the fast track to enlightenment. Being in Ganeshpuri with her adds a turbo boost. The power and Grace in every square inch of Ganeshpuri adds to what she already gives. — Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi
Sitting with Gurudevi in my home over Zoom is awesome. Sitting at Gurudevi’s feet at Lokananda, I am enveloped in Grace. Sitting at Gurudevi’s feet in India is being transported to the land of Grace, to the Heart of Being. I’ve been to Ganeshpuri with Gurudevi twice. Nothing surpasses sitting with her in the powerful, mystical presence of her Guru and his Guru. This is truly a sacred journey of a lifetime.
— Lori (Priya) Kenney
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
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