Due to Nityananda’s command, Nityananda had a house built for Baba and told him to live there. Only then did Baba’s wanderings slow down. They eventually extended throughout much of the Western world, but not because he was seeking anymore. He had something to give. Something that the world hungers for — God, inside. Who can give you God inside you? Only one who knows. 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Becoming Shiva“

You see, you don’t have compartments inside.  There’s not a spiritual you, and a real you.  Inside, in the deeper level called turiya, you find you.  Now you show up for life, including spiritual practices, as well as relationships and responsibilities.  Spiritual living is that you bring your wholeness with you everywhere you go — open mind, open heart, open breath, deep inner center, grounded in the inner infinity of your own Divinity. 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Bliss & Beyond“

If the Guru shares their home with others, the residents live in a microwave of Grace. And they’re usually quite busy with many and varied responsibilities. Baba kept us very busy. No time for idle hands. No time for idle tongues. No time to nurture old habits and self-defeating patterns. Beyond the benefit that the residents get personally from their immersion, they serve as conduits of Grace, making the Guru able to uplift more people and support them in their inner process.

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sacred Site“

By TC (Tattvananda) Richards

After the opening chant, a Swami welcomes us in-person and online attendees.

Then she introduces Gurudevi and reads a quote from Baba Muktananda, Gurudevi’s Guru. As a satsang subscriber, I’m there online every week.

For her discourse, Gurudevi unpacks Baba’s quote, explaining its layers of meaning. She calls this riffing on Consciousness!

Gurudevi has an incredible ability to make these ancient teachings pertinent to modern life.  Whatever she is saying always feels like she is giving a personal teaching for me. It’s always exactly what I need.

I know in reality she is speaking to the One Self in all. I am not alone in feeling these teachings are just for me.

I feel that I am sharing a private moment with Gurudevi as I’m listening to her profound teachings. I love her informality,  which opens me into Self. So I receive her teachings deeply. I am shifted inward by the meaning of her teaching as well as her presence.

She has told us many times that when we are based in Self, Consciousness shines through our mind. We get to see this in her satsangs. The light of Consciousness clearly shines through her genius mind.

Her devotion to Baba Muktananda also flows through her teachings. Feeling this gives me an even stronger sense of connection with Gurudevi as my beloved Guru.

Wednesday satsang is complete with a long chant, a delicious teaching and deep meditation. This supports me through the hardest part of my work week — Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Settled into my Self, I can do what needs to be done to serve clients effectively.  My energy is not depleted. I can bring living yoga into my work.

The mantra is the portable Guru, because the word Guru means energy.  A specific type of energy, Shiva’s Divine Energy of revelation, revealing your own Self to your Self.  The person of the Guru is a concentrated form of this energy, like a lightning bolt is a concentrated form of energy.  It isn’t about…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Spiritual Power“

Just like Baba said, “Most people who meditate make the same mistake. When they sit for meditation, they do not focus on the Self, instead they run after the mind trying to find out what it is doing.” So, focus on your own Self. Use the mantra, this ancient sacred formula, to pierce through the mental activity that you usually find so intriguing. Mantra gives you your own Self.

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sublime Spiritual State“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I opened the door one Halloween evening to find a family in costume, three children with their mom and dad. His T-Rex costume towered over them all, an inflatable wonder that made me laugh out loud. Later in the winter, he wore it while steering his mini-snowplow. Yet I never thought he was actually a dinosaur. I knew it was a costume. So did he.

In the same way, Shiva is being you, wearing the costume of your body while using your mind to move through the world. When you know who you are, all your insecurities vanish. You are being your own Self, in the midst of life, oh Shiva.

In full enlightenment, you are being Shiva while you are seeing Shiva being all. Self-Realization is a totality of Beingness, beyond the emptiness of nirvana, beyond the Divine love described in most religions and beyond the bliss of Consciousness described by yoga.

Nirvana is only partial enlightenment per the sage Abhinavagupta. While you are freed from suffering, this is merely a mental attainment. You have not found the one who has a mind. Nirvana means emptiness. There is no real physical or material existence. This is also called “no self.” While you are free from desire, aversion and delusion, you are stuck in emptiness, which yogis call “the void” (shunya).

The void is merely Shiva’s black cloak, hiding his fullness in an illusion of emptiness. When you experience the void (and how great that is!), consider who is experiencing the void. You will find your own Self. Shiva is revealed within you, being you.

Another path to partial enlightenment is…

You have the power to realize that God lies hidden in your own heart. Too much of the time, when you come from your heart, you’re coming from your emotional residue, your unfinished business. Your heart carries the weight of lifetimes – resentments and fears, unhappy memories and…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Heaven?“