Category Archives: Courses

2025 New Year’s Retreat 

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Celebrate life and the turning of a new cycle with Gurudevi at this retreat.  She will get you ready for a fresh start.  A chance for renewal and recommitment.  From a deep place inside springs the newness of life. That source is your own Self. 

Your retreat includes asana (yoga poses), chanting, meditation, Gurudev’s teaching talks and more. Gurudevi leads you through deep inner experiences that transform your sense of self. 

Discover your eternal expansiveness.  Be propelled into your highest potential for the year ahead and beyond. 

I have made it a point to attend the Ashram’s New Year’s Retreat each year.  It always delivers — always giving me what I need, when I exactly need it.  I ground deeper into my own true Self.  This determines my resolve for the new year.  There’s no better way to start the new year. — Andrea P.

New Year’s Retreat

What Is Your Purpose?

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When you live with purpose, you live like your life really matters.  

Delve deep into yoga’s timeless teachings in this three-class sutra course with Gurudevi.  She leads you through a process of self-discovery.  

You find your inner compass that always points you to where you want to go. You get the inner answers to your questions about your life’s purpose.

While your worldly processes are enhanced, you move toward enlightenment. This combination is the hallmark of tantric mysticism.

My Purpose

My Shaktipat Experience 

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By Ellan (Shanti) Catacchio

I have received Shaktipat from Gurudevi Nirmalananda many times over the years.  

Each one is different yet the same. After the immediate and unique experience of receiving Shaktipat, changes manifest over time.   

My most recent immediate experience was sublime.  When Gurudevi touched my forehead, I was infused with mantra.  I felt this go from between my eyebrows (aj~na chakra) to my third chakra (manipura).  It landed with a slight jolt just below my navel.

I have experienced subtle changes ever since.  Mantra is more present in my life, often running through the background of my day.  I am doing more out spoken japa before meditation and at the end of the day.  This, of course, brings me closer to Consciousness, closer to God, within.

https://yogapractice.com/yoga/benefits-anjali-mudra/

I approach my practices with a deeper sense of reverence and calm, which I can carry through the day now.   I am more open and accepting than I was.  While I am aware of these changes in retrospect, they happened to me gradually over time.  Though I am grateful for them, I did not deliberately plan or work on attaining them.

With another opportunity to receive Shaktipat this year, I’m planning to attend.   It is important to me to keep the gift of Guru’s Grace flowing.  This helps me to get closer to being ME.  

9/27 Shaktipat Retreat Online
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Yogic Nutrition with Gurudevi 

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Online beginning October 14

Delicious, nutritious vegetarian food, with lots of plant-based protein — Gurudevi shows you how to cook & eat as a yogi.  

Zoom from your kitchen into her Ashram kitchen, you learn to feed yourself consciously. 

She draws on yoga, Ayurveda and scientific nutritional guidelines. Improved health as well as pleasure and (most importantly) spiritual development are in your future.  

Enrollment is limited, so everyone can participate in the discussions as well as get personalized support and recommendations.

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Boost Your Bliss

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Short Course Begins September 17

Expand and deepen your experience of bliss. Discover the inner source from which bliss arises, even when you think it’s coming from sensory experiences.

Swami Shrutananda guides you through ancient techniques from the Vij~nana Bhairava, a tantric text listing 112 shortcuts to bliss. 

Experience how easy it is to access bliss in every moment by deepening your inner experience of your own Self.

If you want to be happier in your life, this is the course for you. Learn how to bring your bliss with you, even when life isn’t perfect.

Enlightenment Studies 

Your three class meetings each include a discourse and group discussion.  Meditation deepens your understanding. Then you get takeaways – things you can do to maximize your bliss as well as to share it.

This is part of our Enlightenment Studies courses. You may take them in any order. They move you toward enlightenment while they enhance your worldly processes – this combination is the hallmark of tantric mysticism.

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Enlightenment Studies

The Wonders of Shaktipat

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By Ashley (Tarini) Molson

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney 

I was alone in my own home for the September Shaktipat Retreat.  Even online, I had profound experiences.  Gurudevi has no limitations.   

Remarkable things happened and are continuing.  Chanting had been something I felt uneasy doing.  With no one listening, I sang out freely.  By the end of the weekend, I had no inhibitions and was chanting loudly from my depths. 

While receiving Shaktipat from Gurudevi, I found myself falling at her feet.  It wasn’t me making a heartfelt or mental choice to fall.  It truly felt as if I fell at her feet in full surrender.  My spine was straight up, but my heart was bowing.  It wasn’t something I thought myself into, it happened inside. In this moment, I fully embraced Gurudevi as my Guru.     

The devotion has continued blossoming. I immediately signed up for Meditation Club so I can meditate with Gurudevi and the other Svaroopis.  It wasn’t a priority before ¾ I always hit snooze.  I now wake up most mornings between 3:45 and 4 am.  

After Shaktipat, meditating more and spending more time with Gurudevi isn’t even a question. It’s like breathing.  I want more time with Gurudevi to continue deepening my experience.    

Shaktipat lit a fire that is filling me with the strength of my Sanskrit name.  Tarini is one of the names of Durga.  I’m feeling her strength, and it’s moving me to do things that seemed impossible before.   

I own my own business and work full time. It’s intense and there’s no “off button.”   I’ve been remembering what a gift it is to learn this yoga.  I feel incredibly grateful to Gurudevi.  She poured into me and now I’m saying, “Where am I needed?  Where can I pour it out to others?”    

I’m inspired to teach yoga again. It’s amazing — time and space are opening up for me.   

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Yogic Nutrition

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Online — Beginning Tuesday March 26

What does a yogi eat? To achieve health as well as pleasure and (most importantly) spiritual development, yogis feed themselves consciously.

This course focuses on what to eat, when and why. Drawing on yoga, Ayurveda and scientific nutritional guidelines, Swami Samvidaananda and Gurudevi give you easy ways to improve your nutritional profile.

Each class includes teachings as well as a tasting session with discussion and easy recipes for your homework. If you were able to be in-person, your tasting session would be foods prepared by the Ashram, but for an online course, you’ll have to do some simple preparation before class. It may include slicing apples or perhaps the heating up of milk or a non-dairy alternative. 

As these principles begin working for you, you’ll notice a change in your digestion, assimilation and elimination. Taste is also important, especially as it contributes to your nutrition as well as your quality of life.   

I loved taking this joyful, practical online course! It was full of fascinating nutritional information that showed me new ways to approach meal planning. Much of it happened in our kitchens, which created a relaxed vibe. We had fun tasting our experiments and comparing results. An especially important part for me was the personal advice I received. As a result, I am now consulting an Ayurvedic doctor to help with digestive imbalances. – Agnes H.

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Gurudevi’s Chanting & Meditation Weekend

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By Andrea (Arya) Perry

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney  

Feelings of uneasiness and self-consciousness arise when I sing.  I am hesitant and resistant to sing.  

Consequently, chanting is tapas (doing the hard stuff).  Cultivating the opposite and tapas helps me dissolve these self-limiting patterns and deepen into Self.  Also chanting is a good way to open your heart.  By opening your heart, you open and transform your mind.  For these reasons, I registered for Gurudevi’s online Chanting and Meditation Weekend two years ago.

It stems back to when I was a child.  I loved singing camp songs.  In sixth grade, I decided to try out for chorus.  The teacher’s “put-down” responses to my singing translated into feelings of rejection, inadequacies, unacceptance and isolation.  They squashed ME.

Being self-conscious of singing is an old pattern.  Because I now know I am Self, Consciousness-Itself, no matter what, this pattern no longer defines who I am.  It needs to be dissolved.  And it is progressively dissolving over time through Gurudevi’s yogic teachings, practices and Grace.

The theme of our Chanting and Meditation Weekend retreat was Durga.  I wasn’t familiar with her.  I learned that Durga embodies the strength and power that destroy obstacles and block knowingness.  She’s the protector of knowingness.  

We chanted “Kali Durge” over and over again.  We listened to stories about Durga, and we meditated.  The interweaving of chanting, storytelling and meditation gave rise to the qualities of Durga within me. 

By the end of the retreat, I was Durga.  I was the warrior Durga that overcomes and is victorious over all obstacles to unknowingness.

Chanting and Meditation Weekend

Your State Affects Your Life

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Excerpt from Telecourse by Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Your mental and emotional state affects your relationships, your work and even your health.

Emotional pain and psychological needs can be what motivated you to start yoga, but everything changes when you discover what you really get — your capital-S Self.

The bliss of the Self is far greater than any blissful sensory experience. The depth at which you live, within yourself, is more meaningful than anything outside of you can provide. While the Svaroopa® practices improve your psychology, they’re not about psychology. They’re about enlightenment.

Yet, on the way to enlightenment, you become a better person, a happier person, more understanding, more generous, more genuinely present in everything you do. But if your goal is to be better, happier, understanding, etc., you’ll settle for too little. Wearing the clothes, wearing the jewelry and wearing the mask of spirituality just freezes you into another superficial sense of self

Yoga’s spirituality is for a purpose. Just like a car’s purpose is to provide you with reliable transportation, not to give you an identity. For example, I’m now driving my 6th Honda over the years, but I don’t have the identity of being a Honda owner.

The Guru keeps you on track, if you let yourself be seen. Many Svaroopis keep a careful distance from me, because they know that, if they come, I’ll see how they are and where they’re at. Of course! I care about you! If you’re stuck in your stuff, do I want to leave you there?

Excerpt from Leaps & Bounds, Module 2

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Gurudevi’s New Year’s Retreat

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Give yourself a New Year’s gift — a fresh start ― online as well as on-site!  Gurudevi Nirmalananda explains,

I love the new year. It holds such promise, like the seed of that will grow, flower and fruit. It’s a time to celebrate life and the turning of a cycle. It’s time to plan how to make the most of the coming year. Let’s do it together!

This retreat includes yoga poses, chanting, meditation, teaching talks and more. Gurudevi leads you through deep inner experiences that transform your sense of self. Discover your eternal expansiveness. Be propelled into your highest potential for the year ahead and beyond.

I’m astonished at the impact of Gurudev’s 2023 New Year’s Retreat on my life. … Guru’s Grace propelled me into action.  My energy and zest for life returned. … It was the Grace flowing from Gurudevi during the New Year’s Retreat that made it possible. — Agnes H.

2024 Online Retreat
2024 On-Site Retreat