Category Archives: Courses

The Shavasana Course Is Relaxing – and More…

By Jessica Soligon

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney  

I love Shavasana.  My life can get very stressful, and relaxing can be a challenge.  If things are crazy and I have a half hour, I turn to Shavasana.  I play Gurudevi’s Shavasana track on my phone, lie down and relax.

Earlier this year, I took the Shavasana Course.  The first night, Swami Prajñananada asked each of us to say why we were in the class.  I said I hoped to be still and relax.  I thought the course would teach me to slow down, and I’d learn more about relaxation.  What I got wasn’t what I expected.  

Six nights in a row, we did way more than relax.  I was submerged in my true Self.  I felt very calm and connected to something bigger than myself.  Sometimes I went within so deeply that I lost awareness of Swami P’s voice.  Those two hours and a half every night were an amazing and transformative experience.  I’m so glad the course didn’t meet my expectations!  

I loved the course and looked forward to it every day.  On really stressful days, I was especially grateful to go home and let go of the stress.  No matter how I felt during the day, the evening session left me feeling so good.  Since taking the course, I am more confident.  I know what to do to get centered and be in my Self.   

Now I’m more connected with my personal journey.  I have a better understanding of myself as a yogi.  My practice has deepened.  I am more comfortable and can participate freely without overthinking. Before I was always trying to figure things out.  The Shavasana Course helped me trust the process more. 

Yoga for Upper Back Pain

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

You’re hiding your heart.  When your upper back rounds over, it crunches your neck and can cause a lot of pain.  It’s all because you’re hiding your heart – not only from others, but also from yourself.  When what you really want is for your heart to be open.  Open and safe, that is.

If you are currently living in circumstances that require you to hide your heart, I support you in necessary self-protection.  But if those circumstances were in the past, it’s time to begin unraveling the spinal tensions that you installed when needed.  Are they needed now?

While yoga poses and breathing practices do help, it is the deeper inner experience that makes the biggest difference.  When you use poses and yogic breathing as the ancient system recommends, they dissolve deep physical tensions as well as mental-emotional reactivity.  As these dissolve, your deeper essence is revealed, called svaroopa in Sanskrit, meaning your own capital-S Self.

Svaroopa is your own Divine Essence, the source of all healing, creativity, love and joy.  As you settle inward, the past dissolves and you become aware of being aware. Your own Self knows your own Self.  In this inner Knowingness, your body begins a cosmic reset, dissolving the old patterns that don’t serve you anymore.

Now your heart is full, filled from the inner source. From that fullness, you have a new level of clarity about your life and your own being.  From that inner fullness, you have something worth sharing.  Now you’re ready for your heart to show, for all you really ever wanted to do was to share from your essence.  Yoga empowers you to live this way.

Yoga of the Heart with Gurudevi 

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.

Telecourse:  Leaps & Bounds

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.

My Shaktipat Awakening

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.

Experiencing Timelessness through Yoga Therapy

By Rebecca (Jyoti) Yacobi

Interviewed by Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

At the end of 2022, I began treating a new client with yoga therapy.  She has a demanding, high intensity career.  Her home life as a wife and mother is very full.  The pressures of daily life have physically manifested as pain in her knees, shoulders and low back.  

Yoga therapy with poses and Embodyment® sessions have been highly effective in reducing her pain levels.  At a session’s end, her pain is down to one or two (on a scale of 0 to 10).  Often, it’s reduced to zero.  She has experienced silence, stillness, timelessness and opening to the deeper dimensions within.

In her first Embodyment® session, her mind stopped.  She exclaimed, “I thought I had to do days of meditation to feel this way.”  Cocooned under a blanket, she felt she could stay in that timeless space forever.  She loves being enfolded in “her own space” under the blanket.

We Svaroopa® Yoga Therapists learn to help clients open inward into the timelessness of their own Beingness.  It’s not solely about the effectiveness of the therapeutic angles and adjustments.  

The client softens and surrenders to Grace flowing through the Svaroopa® Sciences tradition.  The client’s own Divine Essence arises from within.  It is “That” which is the Source of Stillness and profound healing.

With a busy life, packed with responsibilities, my client continues to benefit from yoga therapy.  She is aware of her own healing power arising from within.  Calmer and clearer, she manages her demanding work more effectively. 

When she acknowledges the power of yoga for calming her mind, her eyes light up.  Through her sessions, she is being entrained into her Divine Essence.  This is her yoga miracle.

My Experience of the Heart

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.

Telecourse: Leaps & Bounds

Make giant leaps into Consciousness in Gurudevi’s new Telecourse.  She has created a sweet, yet powerful inner process that opens you to your Self.

With substantive articles and teaching videos, you take this multimedia course at your own pace.  Your password is current for three months after you enroll.  Take any of the three modules or all of them:

Module 1:  Growth Spurts — Leaping forward, bounding into Consciousness, making fast progress easily 

Module 2:  Living Spirituality — Riding on the shoulders of spiritual giants, how do you incorporate their great gifts into your everyday life?

Module 3:  Ordinary Monks & Mystics — Outgrowing your past & shaping your future. The loom of tantra: interweaving spirituality through life.

Bonus Video:  Resting on Your Laurels (free when you enroll in all 3 modules).

As always, Gurudevi brings it all alive with her personal sharings, making the process so understandable and accessible.  With the meaningful material in this deep course, you will experience a difference in your spiritual progress.

Intrigued?

Leaps & Bounds

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

I remember getting leg pains in my adolescence.  I felt a deep inner ache that had a sharp edge to it.  The doctor called them growing pains.  

He offered no treatment, no help whatsoever, saying I’d outgrow the growing pains.  It’s true; I did.  You will, too.

Those growing pains are caused by muscular tension.  The bones are growing faster than the muscles.  The muscles are holding tight while the bones attached to them are growing longer, stretching the muscles and tendons to a new length.  

If my childhood doctor had simply recommended some gentle massage, or maybe some yoga, my growing pains would have disappeared.  Nowadays, maybe they even recommend yoga?  Looking back, I can see that it would have helped me grow into myself much more smoothly:  on all levels, body, mind, heart and spirit…

International Day of Yoga 2023

The World is Doing More Yoga

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Join us in celebrating this UN-proclaimed observance, created in 2014.  The summer solstice was chosen, honored in India for the most daylight (in the northern hemisphere).  The resolution received support from 177 nations, the highest number of co-sponsors for any UN resolution.

Fun Facts:

  • 300 million people worldwide regularly practice yoga
  • 36 million Americans practice yoga regularly
  • 1.7 million American children under 17 practice yoga
  • 1 in 3 Americans have at least tried yoga
  • 150% more men are practicing yoga from 2012-2016, from 4 million to 10 million
  • 86% report a reduction in stress
  • 69% report a positive increase in temperament and mood
  • 59% report an improvement in sleep quality and quantity
  • 86% report an overall improved sense of mental wellness and clarity
  • 79% report a feeling of closeness with their community and wanting to give back
  • 55% of regular yoga practitioners attend 2-3 classes per week
  • 50% increase in USA yoga practitioners since 2017
  • 50% of yoga practitioners focus on meditation
  • 50% of yoga practitioners are more likely to volunteer and have donated to charities in the last year
  • 41% of yogis are vegetarian
  • 5% have given Sanskrit names to either their children or their pets

For this special day, the Indian government has given us some online activities to do – click here for a yoga quiz, an online discussion forum, to share a video, design a mascot, create a poster or a poem, create a doodle, offer a jingle or an essay and more…

Please join us at one of our events:

Fun Facts:  https://yogaearth.com/yoga-research