Your mind has the ability to erase an old way of looking at the world. Your mind has the ability to create a new relationship with the world. Your mind has the ability to see the same old world in a whole new way. You’ve been looking for the change to come from…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “One Pulsation“

By Dhairyavati (Kristine) Freeman

Happy Birthday to Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram! I’m so grateful you were born.

Gurudevi says, “The birth of a person is into limitation, the exploration of individual identity.” Shree Guru Gita says it this way:

Birth is into not-knowingness,
spellbound by Maayaa’s worldly dance.
Giver of the upwelling light
of your own Self is called Guru.

But the birth of an Ashram begins the liberation process that benefits more than merely one individual. Thus, our Ashram exists to support all who yearn to know the highest. For this reason, our Ashram’s birthday is deeply meaningful.

I remember when our Ashram was born.  Swami Nirmalananda (now called Gurudevi) was newly initiated as a sannyasi and authorized to serve as Guru. When she founded Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram on September 28, 2009, I was excited to see the Ashram doors open.

I was longing to explore meditation and yoga philosophy deeply.  The Ashram offered a precious opportunity to study directly with Gurudevi. I quickly enrolled in Gurudevi’s first “Year-Long Programme.” I was already a Certified Svaroopa^® Yoga Teacher. Later, I became certified as a Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation Teacher.

This September, our Ashram turns 16 ― a milestone birthday. I associate my own 16^th birthday with the freedom of getting a driver’s license. No longer merely along for the ride, I was finally in the driver’s seat. I loved the freedom to explore the world on my own. My state was described by a verse in Snow Patrol’s song “Chasing Cars:” “I need your Grace, to remind me to find my own.”

Now I’m blessed to be the beneficiary of 16 years of Ashram Grace, personified by Gurudevi. As Gurudevi so generously shared her state, I’ve ridden the waves of Grace to explore inward. With Shaktipat, and so much more, Gurudevi has given me the experience of inner freedom.

Through her Ashram programs — Meditation Club, Swami Sunday, a Vowed Order — she supports us seekers in continuing to explore the deeper dimensions of being. What a gift! With any of your chosen practices and programs, you focus on, find and experience the Divine within you ― which is you, your own Self.

Reflecting on this auspicious birthday, Gurudevi says,

Today we celebrate the organization that serves thousands of yogis, making a difference by developing their inner experience and carrying it into the world.

This year, the Ashram’s September 28^th Birthday falls on a Sunday. What a wonderful time to attend Swami Sunday! Profoundly auspicious, Swami Sunday on October 5^th is Gurudevi’s formal celebration of Baba Muktananda’s Punyatithi as well as our Ashram’s birthday.

What an opportunity to celebrate by attending on either On-Site or Online. It is also the culmination of a Shaktipat Retreat, so you are sure to be infused!

Clinging means your happiness depends on this certain thing. Repulsion means your unhappiness is guaranteed by a certain thing. But when any single thing will either give you happiness or unhappiness, that thing or that person is in charge. You already know not to rely on the weather for your happiness, yes? How about…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Differences Divide“

What are you hanging on to?  Let me put it another way. Anything that you’re hanging on to, if God wants you to have it, you will still have it when you surrender to God. God wants the best for you…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Surrender to God“

What do you do when there’s nothing left to seek? There’s nowhere to go, nothing to gain, for it is all already found within, oh, Shiva. Instead of looking for something to get, something to fill me, I am already full. So, I look for what I… 

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sanctification“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

At the beach, I revel in watching the waves rolling onto the shore. Each has its own personality. One wave is taller but another is wider.

One wave washes farther up the shore. Another gets swallowed up by one coming from behind. Yet they are all made of the same ocean water. They are all the same while they are all different.

Like this, Shiva is being everything in the universe. Every individual and every single thing is different from the others, yet all are made of Shiva. Shiva is having a glorious time being multifaceted, like a bride wearing three different wedding gowns at her wedding events. We love the play of the differences!

While Shiva is having a good time being you, you might not be enjoying it quite so much. Your focus on differences creates a “pushmi-pullyu” effect. Simply look at a serving platter full of cupcakes. You can get caught up in which of them will be most to your liking. But if someone beats you to it, you might have a few words to say or maybe a plan for payback. Unfortunately, things can escalate, even get out of control quickly.

Yoga says, “Look within. Find your own essence — see the One Divine Reality hidden in all.” Then you delight in the superficial differences. Your experience is like turning the wheel on a kaleidoscope, getting ever changing colors tumbling in the unchanging ray of light. And you get to eat your cupcake.

One way to work on your inner deepening is based on a sophisticated understanding of how energy becomes matter, including the physical matter of your own body.

You delve into your own experiences, exploring the cosmic process in reverse. You expand your awareness in a meticulously step-by-step process.

Sharire samhara kalanam. — Shiva Sutras 3.4

Dissolve the tattvas, each into the preceding, to realize the highest tattva, Shiva.

An easy example is vision. While you are seeing an object right now, perhaps words on a page, this is because you have the ability to see. This capacity of seeing is more subtle than any single object upon which you gaze. In this awareness, you have now expanded inward, dissolving from a single visual into your capacity for seeing. Each of these levels is a tattva (principle of Consciousness).

Delving into your ability to see, you realize that it is merely one type of perception, utilizing only one specific sensory capacity. Perception itself is greater than any single sensory pathway. Exploring into perception itself, you encounter…