by Heidi (Hamsaa) Flannery

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

Having a Guru seemed like a fairytale before meeting Gurudevi Nirmalananda. I met her at Swami Sunday in May 2022. It felt familiar and I knew, “I’m where I’m supposed to be.” I’ve loved Gurudevi’s Swami Sunday programs from the beginning. Every discourse brings me what I need to know that week.

I am reading a lot of books, including Gurudevi’s A Yogic Lifestyle. Two years ago, I decided to pick a word for my New Year’s resolution: humility. The next Swami Sunday, Gurudevi asked what our resolutions were. I raised my hand when no one else did. When I told her my word, she asked if she could change it. I nodded. She looked at me fiercely and said, “Warrior!”

In reflection, it felt like she placed it into my heart. At home I put warrior pictures and phrases all over the house. I was in the middle of a divorce and my ex wasn’t being generous financially. Gurudevi told me I needed to hire a lawyer — for my children. It was both practical and spiritual advice. I did what she told me to do. That whole year, I did warrior poses to help me stand up for my girls. I owe it all to Gurudevi. I needed her to point me in the right direction.

Every other Sunday when my girls are with me, I do Swami Sunday online. Gurudevi told me to keep doing it for my daughters, even though my own attention is divided. My girls smile at Gurudevi, touch the screen and call out to her. They chant “Jyota se Jyota” with us or while playing. I’m so grateful they have access to Gurudevi.

I never dreamed I would meet my forever teacher. Nor that I would announce it to the world and myself. The moment Gurudevi walks in the room, I don’t want to take my eyes from her. I love the devotional part of being there, honoring her, bowing to her, loving her. Yoga used to be a hobby or a class. Now it’s my whole life.

La Jolla ‘02

Feel the vibe, the shakti of all the teachers chanting with Gurudevi in 2002.

Back then, she was Rama, leading the first Svaroopa^® Yoga Teachers Conference. Some yogi musicians joined her, with sitar and drum, leading to an ecstatic evening!

• Shree Ma
• Jaya Shiva Shankara
• Mt. Kailasa OM Namah Shivaya

Get singles or buy the whole album. Chant along to experience the bliss of Consciousness or play it in your headphones. People will ask why your smile is so bright.

When you incorporate tantric methodologies into your life, it begins to shine with the Light of Consciousness. It was always there, but you couldn’t see it. It’s not your life that needs to change.  It is….    

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Yoga gives you recipes.

 Just like scientists, for your inner experiment you do what has been proven to work by those who have preceded you.  When you apply proven methodology, you will get reliable, predictable and replicable results.  

What are those results?  A deeper dimension of your own being opens up for you to know and experience within.

It’s not that you sit on the surface level of your being with your mind peering deeper inside.  Instead, you settle inward to a deeper level.  It is like you are leaning into your Self, or opening into your Self, or even like you are backing into your Self.  As you apply your mind in this inward direction, the opening is very easy.  It proves the methodology works.  

As you deepen into Self, your sense of who you are is “Oh, I am me.”  It is not a sense of discovering something new, fantastic and different inside.  You become more yourself.  You experience an inner freedom from all the stuff that you are not.  

You get free from all the limitations and fears, negativities and resistances, all the paranoia, obsessions and compulsions.  You discover an inherent Beingness that yoga calls Shiva, your own Divine Essence.  This is your own capital-S Self.

Excerpt from Embodied Spirituality, pages 26‒27

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

 The universe exploded out from a Big Bang, they say. This scientific theory was proposed in 1927. Scientists studied it for decades with a critical piece of evidence provided in 1964. It was enough that a press conference was held. The next-day newspapers announced, in big headlines, “Big Bang Proved.”

Since then, the scientists continue to refine their theory and come up with new terminology. They now say there was something there before the bang. I call it the “something that banged.”

What was there? What banged? It was a single point, a dot. They call it a singularity. In Sanskrit it is “bindu.” It still exists. It was not destroyed in the bang. You find the bindu inside. It is blue.

My Baba called it the “Blue Pearl.” When you see it in meditation, you are assured of liberation in this lifetime. It is the mystical form of your own Self, which is the source of the universe yet containing the whole.

The sages drew this as the mystical syllable OM. A multilayered sound, you may hear it or see the character when in a deep meditative state. It shows what preceded the Big Bang.

The two stacked semi-circles (like a numeral 3) are the vibration of the One, echoing itself within itself. You can replicate this sound by…

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

The quality of your life is determined by how you use your mind, not by external events and situations.  

One person can feel crushed about losing her or his job, while another person feels grateful for the chance to reinvent herself or himself.  When you lose someone dear to you, a person or even a pet, you can focus on the loss or you can focus on your gratitude for the way they enriched your life for so long.

Because of the complexity of the mind, yoga offers many tools to help you with your mind.  Yoga has more tools for your mind than for your body.  

One of the most important yogic techniques for your mind is substitution.  Whenever you notice that you are caught up in thoughts that tighten your body or upset you, you can choose to substitute something better.  For example, you may be a worrier. Instead of worrying, you can say a little prayer or send a yogic blessing.

This is a very simple, yet sophisticated technique.  It is based on the understanding that you only worry about people or things that you care about.  The worrying is a way of reminding yourself that you love them.  Unfortunately, every worry makes your body live through the experience as though it is really happening, even though it probably never will…

Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, pages 166‒167

By Sue (Shuchi) Cilley

I anchor my week in Swami Sunday.  I anchor my days in Meditation Club — every day of the week. 

It’s amazing how often Sunday comes around again.  Every Sunday, Gurudevi makes time in her schedule.  She invites me (and everyone else) to Lokananda for Satsang.  I come on Zoom.  Others, who live closer, come in person. 

I make it a priority in my week.  A monthly subscription makes it easy. Occasionally I can’t attend, but it’s rare. I care.

Baba says if you want enlightenment, go to one who’s got it.  I am so grateful to be able to spend this time with Gurudevi.  

What’s so great about Swami Sunday?  Technically it’s called Satsang. It’s an opportunity to experience Truth (sat), your own inherent Divinity, in the company of others (sangha). What’s a better use of time? 

Swami Sunday has a formal structure to it.  Using ancient practices invokes the inner arising of your own inherent Divinity.  It’s totally reliable.  So many practices.  We chant at several different times, we listen to stories and Gurudevi’s illumined teachings.  Can you keep your eyes open while she’s speaking?  

We use a candle flame ceremony to invoke the power of revelation. She gives meditation instructions; we repeat the lineage mantra and meditate.  She’s endlessly creative, always giving the gift of Self-Knowingness.  If you want to know, go to one who knows and can give it to you.

And now the Sunday subscription includes the Wednesday evening programs as well!  What a bonus that is!  

It’s a less formal evening, but no less powerful.  Each evening Gurudevi unpacks the nuances of the language from a multi-line quote from Baba’s writings.  Somehow each of them is magnifying the clarity of each other, invoking Grace.  She’s enlivening the teachings.  

Her words are profound and easy to understand.  I dive in deeper and deeper.  Then we do a longer chant and a longer meditation.  It couldn’t be any more perfect.  I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be there.  Her invitation is open to everyone. 

Now Wednesdays are becoming a commitment, too.  All my inner and outer obstacles to attending have melted away.  I’m more securely aligned with the Grace which flows into every aspect of my life.  

If you want to know, go to one who knows and can give it to you.  I want to know and I keep showing up, sitting at the feet of my Guru – via Zoom.  Jai Gurudevi!

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

When I lead a meditation, at the end I ring the gong quietly five times. It invokes Grace, the fifth of the five powers of God.  

Creation marks the beginning. However, from Shiva’s perspective, this universe is part of the continuity of his own existence, which continues whether there is a universe or not. Creating the universe out of his own energy is a Divine act of great joy and playfulness, like a dog jumping around and spinning in circles. 

Maintaining what he has brought forth is another of Shiva’s cosmic powers, supporting and nurturing its continuation. Bringing things to an end when their time is up is another Divine act, called destruction. This includes unforeseen endings as well as the end of winter. Shiva as the destroyer is greatly honored by yogis, for he grants enlightenment by ending delusion. 

These three actions are frequently cited in the Old Testament, naming God as the creator, the nurturer, and the chastiser. The book of Psalms includes all three: 

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. (104.24) 

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (46:1) 

He opposes the wicked and condemns them. (34:18) 

Yoga recognizes two additional Divine actions: concealment and revelation. Of many Sanskrit names for God, it is specifically Shiva that conceals and reveals. Shiva is the mysterious one, the mystical one, the most benevolent, the revealer of the hidden dimensions within every human being. 

Concealment is accomplished by Shiva masquerading as the mundane world, hidden within all beings, all objects and all actions. God disappears by… 

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Yoga says that if you quiet your mind, even for a moment, you will experience your own “capital-S Self.”

You don’t have to create a Divine Essence because your Essence is already Divine.  You don’t have to become somebody or something.  You are already radiant Consciousness.  All you need to do is uncover it. 

Yoga practices essentially subtract away the stuff that gets in the way.  They remove the blockages until your own capital-S Self is revealed. 

This is why, at the beginning and at the end of programs, I bow to your own Divine Essence.  I chant: “OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo namah.”  Namo means “I bow to,” and namah means “I bow to.”  So I translate namo namah as “again and again I bow.” 

To what do I bow?  To svaroopa, your own Divine Essence.  Yet while I am bowing to you, I am bowing to my own Divine Essence.  Because there is only one Divine Essence.  The One Reality is being each of us and all of us at the same time. 

It is like light that shines through a window with many panes; the reflection on the floor looks like different squares.  Yet there is only one light.  The one light takes on all the different shapes so it can shine in all the different forms.  The One Reality has become you, me and all that exists…

— Excerpt from Yoga: Embodied Spirituality, pages 17‒18