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 Swami Satrupananda
You had help creating your aches and pains. People in your life have contributed to your stresses. Thus you need help reversing the process.
This is why you take a yoga class with a yoga teacher or you attend a meditation program with a meditation master. But if you want to accelerate your progress, work one-on-one with a yoga therapist.
A private yoga therapy session is all about you. The yoga therapist meets you where you are at – understanding your current needs and goals. Then the yoga practices are customized for you.
In this one-on-one setting, the yoga therapist can utilize yoga’s most powerful tools. You will feel the difference in your first session. As you continue with more sessions, dramatic changes are possible – more than you ever imagined.
This is possible because yoga’s therapeutic tools open you up to your inherent wholeness. Your health comes from your wholeness. This is even built into the word “health” as it comes from an Old English word “hale” which means “wholeness.”
Yes! The ancient yogic teachings agree. Your body, mind and emotions are all integrated and aligned with your wholeness and you feel great.
When you are fragmented, divided or scattered, you do not feel well. Your body, mind and emotions are taking you in different directions blocking your own inherent wholeness. Your body aches. Your bodily functions don’t work well. Your mind and emotions are at odds with each other creating internal turmoil.
The key to feeling better is to experience your wholeness again. This is the purpose of all of yoga’s practices. In a yoga therapy session, your therapist gives you the tools that reweave your inner fragmentation.
As you experience your wholeness, your body, mind and emotions are rejuvenated. As you continue to experience your wholeness again and again, you align to this wholeness. Then you live your whole life this way. Aches and pains fade away. Your breath, heart and other organs function better. And best of all, your mind and emotions are soothed and focused.
As the Beatles said, “with a little help from my friends.” Your healing is not a DIY project. Get a little help and a lot more with support and expertise from a yoga therapist. Your own yoga therapy sessions can be the boost you need to reclaim your wholeness.
Talk to a yoga therapist at 484.678.2078 to find out more.
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
Clarity is when you look inside for answers, even about external things.
Integrity is when you base your words and actions in the inner levels of your being.
Transparency is when you let your inner radiance shine through your mind and life.
They are all based in one thing — your own Self, the light of your own divinity. When your life is based on anything else, you experience the opposite: confusion, fragmentation and density. I call that “normal” because yoga says this is the norm; it’s how most people live. Getting from normal (confusion, fragmentation and density) to a yogic state (clarity, integrity and transparency) is a process.
The process is a complex and multi-layered journey. Yoga’s practices keep you moving and support you along the way. Each time you do your breathing (pranayama) and poses (asana), you open in an inward direction. Svaroopa® yoga makes the opening tangible and even blissful, decompressing your spine from tail to top in every class, in every yoga therapy session or in your personal practice session.
Unfortunately, you can go from blissful inner openness to painful relapse in minutes if you don’t begin to work with your mind. It only takes a short conversation or even just a few of your own thoughts to create the tensions that you spent an hour or more unraveling. Your mind must do more yoga, too. Fortunately, yoga offers practices for your mind.
Excerpt from A Yogic Lifestyle, page 33
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
To practice contentment might make you a disruptive element in our modern world.
Yoga names contentment, samtosha, as a primary practice. But the everyday influences of society propel you to an endless stream of desires. All you have to do is watch one television show and your “Discontent Factor” increases. It is not the shows themselves as much as it is the ads.
They are exceptionally effective at stimulating your desires, which makes you more and more dis-content. Yoga makes you content.
I remember the first time I felt content. I was sitting in my bedroom in a yoga ashram (residential yoga center), and I realized I felt strange. Something was missing on the inside. Something familiar was gone, and I did not feel quite like the “me” that I had known for so many years. But I did not know what it was. I cast about, looking for what was missing, and could not find it. So, I tried instead to describe to myself more specifically how I was feeling.
Finally, I realized that I felt content. That scared me! While it felt so good to feel such deep contentment, I instantly felt fear that I would never strive for anything again. I realized that all the activities of my life had been motivated by a deep discontent, and now it was gone. It seemed that there was no reason to do anything, ever again.
Excerpt from Yoga in Every Moment, page 46
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
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
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