Put Gurudevi in your pocket and take her with you wherever you go. 

It is so easy to listen to podcasts, watch videos, read Gurudevi’s Teachings Articles and more.

Your daily quote is at the top of the page.  Tap on the quote to open up a search box for over 7,000 E-Quotes from the last 30+ years.

Check out our program calendar. Read the latest in both our blogs – SVA Blog and YogaMysticism.Today.

Easily access the words for Satsang chants, or attend the Satsang live with Gurudevi.

Enroll for your next program. Make a donation. Check out our latest social media posts.

We love to connect with you!

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Don’t beat people up with your spirituality!

If you were truly a sannyasi (spiritual adept), you would watch the football game with them, serving them by sharing the time with them.

The feeling that you don’t want to be there means you haven’t yet renounced your desire to separate yourself from others, nor your desire to choose your own pleasurable activities. Sannyasa is when you know, “If no one was home, I would meditate, but they are home, so I am going to sit with them.” Sannyasa is renunciation, not rejection and not abandonment.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a sannyasi in order to become Self-Realized! Neither do you have to be initiated as a sannyasi, nor do you have to wait until you age into it. Gurudevi says, “My Baba often taught about the householder-saints in yoga. You can become Self-Realized today in the life you are already living. You have my permission and my blessing.”

How do you weave your spirituality into the stage of life you currently inhabit? You begin with accepting the stage you are in. The bottom line is, “Be Here Now.”

You can focus on “Be,” which is the ultimate mystical Knowingness of who you are. Or you can focus on “Now,” a popular way of pointing you inward toward your own spiritual essence. But you also have to focus on “here.” You are in the stage of life that you are in. Enjoy it.

Live a spiritual life and progressively deepen your spiritual practices. This is a beautiful life.

Excerpt from A Yogic Lifestyle, pages 243‒244

Develop your understanding of the Guru through the teachings in Shree Guru Gita – now sung in English! 

Gurudevi Nirmalananda has completed her versification of the text, rendering the Sanskrit words in modern English. And she recorded so it is easy to sing along for a profound inner opening.  

This inner opening is the purpose of the chant as well as the purpose of having a Guru.

She sings it, ending with her English version of Jyota se Jyota, the poem of praise and gratitude that honors her Baba. The words are in her companion book, “Sacred Songs: Chants of Svaroopa^® Yoga.”

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Your senses pull you outward in a constant search for bliss. But the bliss is inside. Crazy-making?

Fortunately, these two things work together. They are perfectly paired to keep you in bondage and delusion. By contrast, yoga sets you free.

I experienced the power of the senses with the scent of honeysuckle. I was walking briskly but a cloud of fragrance stopped me in my tracks. I stood there and breathed it in. Motionless for a long while, I felt deeply centered and peaceful. It is a mild state of bliss.

When I opened my eyes, I turned outward again, looking around to find the source. After that, every time I walked through there, I paused and sniffed the air to see if the honeysuckle was blooming. I looked outward for honeysuckle, thinking it was the source of my bliss. But what really happened is that delicate fragrance stilled my mind so I experienced the bliss that is always inside.

Your senses are always scanning outward: your eyes, your ears, your nose, your tongue and whole-body sensation. Think of it like a radar screen, with your senses looking for the little blip — looking for something you will enjoy.

The word enjoy could be spelled in-joy. That’s really what you want — to be in joy. I wish for you that your whole life be joy-filled. But that will happen only when you find the source of joy. It doesn’t come from outside.

When you in-joy something, it’s because inner joy is arising to fill you. To live a joy-filled life, tap into the inner source of joy so it fills you all the time. What is this source? It is your own Self, your inherent Divinity. The yogic sage Patanjali explained this over 2,000 years ago…