Your mind is so powerful. It creates whatever you choose. If you choose to repeat the litany of your pains, you can do this. If you choose to repeat the litany of your pleasures, you can do this. Yet, yoga recommends neither. You see, both of these litanies are still about…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Your Mind’s Greatness“

Now you can no longer think of God as something you earn with lifetimes of purity and striving for perfection.   You don’t earn God.  You are God. You’ve simply been looking in the wrong place. You’ve been looking at the ceremonies, at the rituals, at the mountains, the rising sun, the full moon. Yes, Yes! God is…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sacred Acts“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Yoga teaches surrender. This is how you get enlightened. It is also how you fall in love.

Surrender is how you experience God, whether you’re looking outward or inward. This is why we formally teach the art of yogic surrender in every Svaroopa^® yoga class – twice.

In English, the word surrender means you have lost the battle. As the loser, you now stand to suffer even more. Sanskrit has words that mean this but yoga doesn’t use them. Yoga’s texts use different Sanskrit words:

avasrj — to let off, let loose, let go, send, dismiss, abandon…

tyaj — to get rid of, free oneself from…

da — to give, grant, bestow, offer, to hand or deliver over…

parida — to surrender through devotion, to deliver up, to entrust…

sharana — to take refuge, to get help, shelter or sanctuary…

Some of these terms point to becoming free, a central theme of my young adulthood. Others mean bestowing or granting something precious to the care of another. The terms for taking refuge, shelter, sanctuary and protection are also paired with devotion.

King Vatsaraja described this in 1000 BCE in the Kamasiddhistuti:

I seek refuge (sharana) with the glorious Goddess Sundari, the benefactress of prosperity, the secret heart, whose heart is soaked with compassion. She is blazing with an utmost tenacity steeped in joy, and consequently beaming with plenteous light that shimmers spontaneously.

What a Divine surrender! Yet you must go through stages in learning how to give over. Few are able to begin with being wonderfully overwhelmed by the glorious Goddess Sundari. Most start simpler. Bottom line, it is the experience of surrender that yoga values — not to whom you are surrendering. Why? Because each time you surrender…

You long to know your own Self as Consciousness, and to live in the bliss-filled beingness that is your Essence.  Yet, you already know at a deep inner level.  You already are free. You see, you won’t long for something unless…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Bondage & Freedom“

Even if you lived free — no prison bars, no ankle bracelet, you can be imprisoned by your mind.  My Baba described it this way, “His own outlook is the thing that shrinks him day by day.  As he meditates on and ponders his own limitations, he becomes completely bound.” You do meditate on your limitations.  You obsess on…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Bliss of Freedom“

Where are your complaints?  They’re in your mind, usually in the forefront of your mind.  Repeating over and over, your mind loops around on them. So you look in the space where your complaints usually are, right here, in the forefront of your mind…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Love“

Knowing about your own Self is not the same as experiencing your own Self.  I can talk about your Divine Essence all day, and you may love the theory.  But even a moment of experiential knowing stops you, settles you, fills you from the inside out. 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Unlearning“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Shining in the dark, the moon reflects the light of the sun. It is cooling, luminous light showing your way through the mounded shapes in the night.

Your mind shines with the reflected light of your own Self, your Divine Essence, found within. When your mind is clear, the light is cooling and luminous.

But the dark you are trying to find your way through is created by the mounds and masses in your mind. They block the very light that you need so greatly.

The Guru’s mind has been cleared, so their light shines through. Yet their purpose is not to merely shine light on your pathway, but to illumine you from the inside out. July’s full moon is dedicated to the Guru — Guru Purnima.

The ancient sages dedicated each purnima to a different purpose. Some of them are seasonal, like the fall moon dedicated to the Goddess Lakshmi. She is the giver of earthly blessings including an abundant harvest. Dattatreya and Hanuman have their full moons, along with other deities.

On Vata Purnima, falling in May-June, married women do practices to insure the health and longevity of their husbands. One is to tie a string around the trunk of a banyan tree, in honor of Savitri, the wife who saved her husband by confronting the Lord of Death. Personally, I have seen many banyan trees circled with hundreds of strings, as I have often traveled to India for the July Purnima.

Perhaps this is why the ancients dedicated the moon to the Guru, since a true Guru is hard to find and even harder to follow.

Yet dedication does pay off. Every time I waited for the clouds to clear on Guru Purnima, my heart’s wish was fulfilled.

My Guru explained there are many false Gurus. Some of them lead you into worldliness. This is clearly described in today’s terminology: investment guru, fashion guru, advertising Guru and there is even a basement guru in my local area.

Other types of false gurus give spiritual teachings but without the depth of tradition that supports them and you. Baba said that zircons only exist because there are diamonds. In your spiritual search, you must find a diamond.

How can you tell? You measure the value of a Guru by the change in you. Do what the Guru recommends for six months and see if you like the changes in yourself. If so, plan on another six months. I did this with my Guru for six years, reevaluating twice a year, until I realized I was in the right place.

On Guru Purnima, the disciple makes every effort to spend time with their Guru. Traditionally, this is the day they give gifts to support the Guru and their mission. For me, back in the day, having time with my Guru on this auspicious day involved a trip to India. It is easier these days with internet programs zooming through.

If you cannot be with your Guru and are not able to zoom in, then do some extra practices on this day. For those studying with me, you can watch a discourse video, read a book or blog, or one of my monthly Teachings Article.

Chant the mantra, using one of my recordings. Do arati, the candle flame ceremony, to honor the Guru, including my Guru and his Guru.

And get darshan of the full moon, even a glimpse. In 2025, it is on July 10, peaking at 4:37 pm EDT, while it appears to be full on the nights before and after.

What’s so special about the Guru that they get a full moon? The book J~nanasindhu describes the Goddess Parvati telling her son:

Kartikeya, the Guru is without beginning or end, even though you can see him in a physical form.

While we can get caught up in appreciating the Guru’s physical presence as well as their unique qualities, it is their deeper essence that matters. As I described above, Divine light shines through their mind without obstruction, giving them the radiance that is so captivating.

I was definitely captivated by my Baba. I loved to watch him. Even now I watch videos of his discourses online, many English translations. I love to watch his expressions, his hand gestures, his eyes and his smile.

You can liken it to sunlight shining through a window in your home. While the same light shines through every window, you may have a favorite. You and the cat love to bask in the sun in that special spot.

In this way, you get to appreciate the unique qualities of your own Guru, while recognizing that it’s the Divine light shining through that matters.

Yet this is true of you as well. The same Divine light is full and intact within you, shining from deeper within than where you usually look. Yet your ability to access these deeper dimensions is limited until the Guru unlocks the door. Jaya Gurudev! Hail to the Divine Guru.

Your attachments define you.  They limit you. They take hold of you, defining who you are and what you can do. Thus, yoga’s goal is freedom.  Freedom from limitation.  Freedom from compulsion.  Freedom from being driven.  You gain yogic freedom by an internal redefinition of…

 —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Clinging“