Category Archives: About Gurudevi

Yoga Nidra — Yogic Sleep

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

You lie on your back in yoga’s relaxation pose, Shavasana. Or you may prefer to lean back in a recliner.  

You drift into a quasi-meditative state without going all the way to sleep — this is yogic sleep, yoga nidra.

It is a state of deep rest but without the heaviness of sleep. In a short time, you arise refreshed, perhaps even more so than after a full night of sleep. Three hours of yoga nidra can substitute for a full night of sleep. I have taken advantage of this on many overnight flights. It is a lifesaver when my day’s activities overflow into late night hours, especially since I don’t want to give up my early morning yoga practices.

As a yoga teacher, I learned how to lead yoga nidra as part of a yoga class. We called it a “Guided Relaxation” even though it’s not really about relaxing. It is an awareness practice, where you extend your awareness into the inner spaces of your body and being. Thus I changed the name of it to “Guided Awareness,” which we still include in every Svaroopa®yoga class.  Twice.  At the beginning and at the end.  This is how important it is.

Its roots lie deep in the yogic tradition, with references in several ancient Sanskrit texts. Yoga nidra was brought to the West by students of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. In recent years, it has been used as a healing therapy for veterans and others with PTSD.

Most people are simply looking for an easy way to meditate. The value of following a Guided Awareness for yoga nidra is that it reins in your mind, bringing it back to where you are physically located. As you become more present in your body, you are becoming more present. It is your presence that matters.

We include yoga nidra in Ashram programs in several ways:

  • Svaroopa® yoga classes — every class begins and ends with yoga nidra. Online and On-Site classes are available around the world. Click for our Global Class Calendar.
  • Guided Meditation Series — this online series uses yoga nidra as a stepping stone to seated meditation, which offers you deeper and more powerful experiences. Find the next class series on our Programs Calendar.
  • Audio Recording — I have recorded the classic Guided Awareness for you on my album, “Experience Shavasana.” It can help you get to sleep, recover from stress or anxiety, or prepare for a deeper meditation.

Yoga nidra can be a little tricky. As you begin to settle more deeply within, you may want to roll over into your favorite sleeping position. Or your head may lean over toward one side. These are ways of going unconscious, into a sweet deep sleep, but not yogic sleep.

Yoga nidra is a light meditative state, yet not sleep but not wakefulness. Your mind is restful but not unconscious. Someone is still home inside.  Who is that someone? That is you. This is the whole point, that you find the deeper dimensionality within. This is what yoga is all about.

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Experience Shavasana

Busy Meditations

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While you may wish for bliss in every meditation, it’s actually the busy meditations that are moving you toward enlightenment faster.  Just like a car speeding along the highway passes more scenery, when you’re really zipping along…   

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Growing into Self“

Watch Full Discourse Here

What Is Enlightenment?

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Sometimes you can tell what’s going on inside a person by the way they look. Their silly grin or their wrinkled brow tells you what they are thinking and feeling.

Yet someone can be smiling while thinking negative or harmful thoughts. In poker and in politics, the pathway to success is to hide your true feelings. This can sometimes be true in close relationships as well.

Can you look at someone and see that they are enlightened? This is important because you want to study with the best. They can help you make rapid progress toward your own enlightenment. What is enlightenment like, both inside and outside? Fortunately, Arjuna asked this question for us:

Arjuna uvacha, sthita-prajnasya ka bhasha samadhi-sthasya keshava

sthita-dhih kim prabhasheta kim asita vrajeta kim. — Bhagavadgita 2.54

Arjuna asked, “What is the inner experience of an enlightened being? In worldly activities, how do they talk? How do they sit? How do they walk?”

The next eighteen verses are Krishna’s answer. He describes the process of becoming enlightened as well as how the enlightened being lives.

By divine Grace, all his sorrows are destroyed. With a peaceful mind, he abides in a Divine state of inner steadiness. — Bhagavadgita 2.65

Your understanding of this description begins from your own experiences of a peaceful mind. But what is “a Divine state?” These experiences are pivot points in your life.

I remember being a teenager at summer camp in the mountains. I often sat in a sacred grove that had a view of the valley. It was reserved as a silent lookout point. In the beginning, the view transported me. I felt like I could almost fly across the vast terrain. I felt free.

My experience changed as I returned again, sometimes multiple times daily. It became an inner vastness that was much greater than the view. At the same time, I felt…

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The Bliss of Consciousness

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You have a right to bliss.  The bliss of Consciousness, for it is what you are made of.  If you aren’t experiencing the bliss of Consciousness, you don’t know who you really are.  Fortunately, on this path, the bliss comes early.  But it’s not unconscious bliss… 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda  

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Bliss Comes Early“

Watch Full Discourse Here

Free Q&A Satsang with Gurudevi

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Join Gurudevi Nirmalananda in a free Zoom call so you can ask your questions. In response, Gurudevi gives you ancient yogic teachings applicable to your modern life.

Enroll even if you don’t yet have a question. Everyone benefits from hearing the discussion.


These Q&A satsangs are amazing. I am sometimes not clear about my question, so I ramble. Gurudevi listens with patience and full attention. Then she asks me questions that help me finetune my question.


Her answer illuminates what I need to understand and shines light on an effective way forward to solving my problem. I get more than I imagined possible.


This is also my experience when I don’t have a question and just listen to others on the call. Gurudevi’s responses always turn out to be of great value to me as well.

— Terese R.

April 10 Q&A

Enlivened by Grace

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You know, the teachings are not enough. They must be enlivened by Grace.  You can read the teachings. We read them in translation from the ancient texts, and you can read them for decades and never have a real experience.  You certainly will get understandings, aha moments, intellectual breakthroughs, but without any real depth.  The experience of your own Self is a feeling, not a thought.  It is a deep quality of beingness, not a….

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Root of Meditation“

Watch Full Discourse Here

Something Worth Finding

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Yoga explains that there is something worth finding, but it is located inside.  Yoga gives you a peek at it – a glimpse of your own Self.  And tools to attune yourself to your own Self – ways to progressively surrender into who you already are.  And yoga gives you proof.  Proof that there is a…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Expansive Experiences“

Watch Full Discourse Here

Enlightenment Is a Process

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I wanted instant enlightenment. I didn’t get it.  I wanted the express elevator to the penthouse. I had to climb the stairs.

At least I knew where I was headed for I’d had amazing experiences after receiving Shaktipat from my Guru. This inner awakening showed me that there was more to me than I dreamed possible. I’d had a peek at Consciousness. It was a promise of my future. It made me willing to do the climb.

Like stairs with landings, at each new level I grew into expanded perceptions and profound understandings as well as progressively more and more bliss. Fortunately the bliss starts early. My early morning meditations anchored my day in an inner spaciousness. The bliss kept me in the game. 

I moved through the process very physically. As the energy of Consciousness climbed my spine, I experienced lots of kriyas, spontaneous physical movements. These are Kundalini, clearing away inner blockages.  After these clearings, my energy channels were more open to the flow of bliss.

I loved it all and wanted to share it, so I took Teacher Training. As a yoga teacher, I have helped thousands of people get free from pain. Our Svaroopa® yoga poses come from my kriyas, thus using Kundalini’s intelligence for healing and empowering you on all levels. Best of all is the bliss. While pain might bring you in for a yoga class, it is the bliss that brings you back.

This is especially tangible after the closing Shavasana and Guided Awareness, particularly when you roll on your side and hear the short teaching being offered by your teacher. In that inner ease and blissful depth, the teaching rings with truth, giving you a new understanding of yoga – even a new understanding of your life. You are growing into Self. 

Vismayo yogabhumikah.[1] — Shiva Sutras 1.12

The stages of yoga are truly amazing.

Your inner process unfolds in predictable stages, like the blossoming of a rose. Your early experiences of bliss lead to a quiet inner peace that carries into your day.  It lies just under the activities of your mind. Like seeing into a lake with ripples on the surface, you discover an inner depth in the deeper waters. Your thoughts can no longer…

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[1] Vismayo yogabhuumikaa.h

That Yoga Feeling

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The feeling I had after my first yoga class was the beginning of how I always feel now. The peace, the awe, the inner vastness, the lightness of being, the ease and openness —­ I was experiencing Self.  My first yoga teacher didn’t give me words for it.  I could only call it “that yoga feeling.”  It made me want….

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Dedicated Time“

Watch Full Discourse Here