By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Breakthroughs are not dependent on receiving Shaktipat.  Grace is not so limited.  Grace is part of life, always available. 

You’ve been lifted out of your small-s self so many times by Divine Grace.  Shaktipat is the form of Grace that awakens your inner meditative energy, so the upliftment keeps coming, again and again, every time you meditate.  It arises within.

While Svaroopa^® yoga specializes in Shaktipat, you were uplifted and sheltered by Grace before yoga.  Your life has had many moments of Grace.  Like a child sitting on daddy’s shoulders, Grace shows you what you could not see.  Yet you still have to come down to earth and go through the process of growing into your own future. 

It’s easier to navigate to your future when you’ve seen where you’re going, and even easier when you have a GPS.  Yoga’s teachings provide both:  the description of your goal as well as how you get there.  They describe levels and stages that can help you understand where you’re at, and give you practices that help you make the next leap forward. 

That’s what I’m presenting in this Telecourse – the levels and stages of your upliftment.  It tends to happen in leaps and bounds.

By Judy (Jagruti) Goodkin

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

I felt like I was getting an invitation when I received Shaktipat from Gurudevi.  When she placed her thumb on my forehead, it was as if she said, “Follow me.”  In her Q&A session later, someone asked about discipline with yoga practices. Gurudevi’s encouraging response has stayed with me.  It feels like the time for me to be more disciplined.  This willingness to be more disciplined is powerful, both in daily life and my practices.

At a recent Swami Sunday, Gurudevi talked about the gift of Shaktipat.  She gives the gift, but we have to open it and look inside.  It feels like I’m truly opening Gurudevi’s gift of Shaktipat and looking inside.  I’m taking Gurudevi’s “Living Sutras” course.  The course is very deep, and I am experiencing much awakening within.  Ordinarily, I would have more resistance to course assignments.  Yet now I feel very open to them.  I am even adding more than is being asked for.  My awareness of what I need to do for my body and mind is greater.

I appreciate how the Ashram Swamis also help us process our Shaktipat experiences.  Each time, their answers help me greatly.  I asked Samvidaananda about Kundalini in my meditation.  I had been waiting for Kundalini to stop moving me so I could meditate.  Samvidaanada said, “The Kundalini is your meditation.  Just repeat mantra while that is going on.”  

When I returned home and meditated, I let Kundalini have her way.  I experienced powerful movements.  During these kriyas, I was grateful for Samvidaananda’s guidance, and I repeated mantra.  Within a week, my body settled down.  I still get kriyas in meditation, but they are gentler now. 

I’m so grateful for Gurudevi’s invitation.  Opening the gift of Shaktipat has me settling into a deeper place.  Everything I do feels more purposeful.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Juice squirts out of the ripe peach I cut into, dripping down my chin as I bite into a chunk.  Yum!  It’s called rasa — the juice, the nectar or blissful essence.  Similarly, every chef will tell you that it’s the sauce that makes the dish.  In the same way, you want your life to be juicy, vibrant and meaningful.  Yogis get their rasa from the inside.

Meditation is the direct path to the rasa of Self-Knowingness. By delving into your own inner dimensionality, you tap into the source of life, the power of love, the delight of creativity and the peace of timelessness.  These fill you from within.

Yoga poses and breathing practices make this inner exploration easier. Svaroopa^® Yoga poses target your spinal tensions, dissolving them to open up interior space in your body.  You breathe easier.  You get taller as you get happier.  You move freely as your joints glide due to the synovial fluid lubricating them more effectively.  It’s called rasa.

Your laugh is deeper and more frequent.  Your eyes shine with light, especially after meditating.  Your heart overflows and you act on your compassionate impulses.  Your synapses fire, making connections that give you…

Online Beginning September 14

Gurudevi Nirmalananda walks you through the inner exploration of your own heart to its core.  This experience, plus the wisdom of the sages, empowers your ability to bring it into your life and relationships in the way you always wanted.

This online course gives you both the experience of your heart and the understanding of your experience.  Together, they mature into profound wisdom, in which you can base your life.

Gurudevi’s teachings are like seeds that go deep.  The roots grow, the buds come on, and then the flowers bloom.. — Loretta F.

Learn and grow in this multi-media course, with substantive articles and teaching videos, all for you to do at your own pace.  Gurudevi has created a sweet, yet powerful inner process that opens you to your Self.

This course helped me learn to embrace life’s inevitable challenges, learn practical skills for handling them and welcome the resulting spiritual growth. – Marlene G.

Her teaching audios in the original “Leaps & Bounds” were profound.  Now with her videos, the Leaps & Bounds teachings will have even more profound impact. – Ellan C.

Be filled up by classical teaching stories as well as verses from Sanskrit texts. As always, Gurudevi brings it alive with her personal sharings, making the process so understandable and accessible.

By Darren Taylor

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

I lived in the spiritual mecca of Boulder CO for 10 years.  I thought it would be easy to have a spiritual awakening in a purportedly enlightened place.  But I had to move back to the suburbs of Philadelphia for a true awakening.  

Relocating in Downingtown PA, I regularly drove by Lokananda, the Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram’s retreat and training facility.  The prayer flags and life-sized poster of Gurudevi in the window caught my attention.  I wondered, “What is going on there?”  It looked supportive. Online research revealed it is steeped in traditional yoga.  I started taking yoga classes and saw results immediately — less discomfort and pain along with more flexibility.  

Early on, my teacher, Swami Satrupananda, asked what I wanted to get from the yoga.  I said, “Enlightenment, of course!”  She seemed startled and said I was in the right place! I’d wondered what Shaktipat and Kundalini awakening were all about.  I heard that Shaktipat was available in Downingtown.  I knew I would be a fool not to go to Gurudevi’s Shaktipat Retreat.

I enrolled late and got on the waitlist. It opened and things began happening.  The day before the Shaktipat retreat, Gurudevi appeared in a dream and gave me a shoulder adjustment.  When I arrived at Lokananda, my roommate and I felt like we’d known each other our whole life.  

During the first Shaktipat, Gurudevi put her hands on me.  Something inside was drawn upward toward my brow.  It felt like I was lifted out through my forehead.  My body was moved into various positions.  It felt like a chakra recalibration.  At satsangs now, when I look at Gurudevi, she’s a blinding light.  I have to squint or close my eyes.  

I have explored many traditions, but this one feels like the solution to my spiritual longing. It gives me tools, support and the lineage. When I repeat mantra and meditate, I know I will have depth.

By Loretta Forsythe

Interviewed by Margie (Maitreyi) Wilsman

I am mesmerized by how Gurudevi’s “Yoga of the Heart” program has helped me work with my mind.  I first took this deep program during the Covid pandemic. Last year, I was thrilled when Gurudevi offered it again. The second time, I grasped much more of what she is teaching.  

In this program, Gurudevi leads us inwardly to our heart and then to our own Self. She choreographs and orchestrates her teachings on the depth of the heart so beautifully. She leads us through very gently.

Each session, Gurudevi gave us a discourse on the heart, the mind and the relationship between them. Gurudevi says that to become enlightened you must work on your mind. She explained our homework: exercises for experiential learning. Then she led us in meditation followed by group disscussion. After each of the four weekly sessions, I was amazed at the difference within myself.

During the week I practiced the exercises. Now I continue with them. They take only a few minutes. I do some during the day, others prior to meditation. They help me during the night when anxiety, my busy mind or pain keeps me awake.  

With sinus pain one night, I reflected on Gurudevi’s teaching about how the mind blocks access to your Self. This reflection took me into meditation. I saw that I am neither my body nor my physical symptoms. I became one with my own Self. The pain subsided, and I went into a deep good night’s sleep. 

Gurudevi teaches “The heart is all you think it is and so much more.” I now realize the difficulty of using the mind to feel the depth of the heart. She also teaches that my mind wants to go back to the heart. The heart is the entryway to the Self.

Gurudevi’s teachings are like seeds that go deep. The roots start growing, the buds come on, then the flowers bloom. Nourished by Guru’s Grace, my practices and understandings continue to unfold. From Gurudevi’s “Yoga of the Heart,” I know Grace is always there. It’s the experience of the heart.