By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell, President
SVA Board of Directors

Arise! Awake! Learn! is the theme for our spring fundraiser. The fundraiser runs April 25th to June 6th. Please join me in supporting SVA and Gurudevi Nirmalananda by donating. Give to the organization that gives back to you.

Our theme reminds me of my story and how I met Gurudevi. I had some protruding discs in my lower back. My doctor suggested yoga and/or acupuncture, so I decided to try both. The company I worked for offered a yoga class at lunch time. I heard that there were blankets used in the class, and it intrigued me.

I went to my first class. I felt taller and something else. I felt deeper inside like I had more space around me. I continued attending the class when I could. Gurudevi says, “With a regular process, your sense-of-self is found in a deeper inner dimension of reality and is less a function of the circumstances around you.” Yes, that is what I received in my very first class, a sourcing from my inner depths. A place I was not used to being. I feel this was my awakening.

I stopped going to classes when my job was transferred to another town. I tweaked my back. I Googled the teacher’s name and found out she also taught in the town I was transferred to! I started attending classes. Eventually, I signed up for a Shaktipat Retreat.

Gurudevi says, “Peace and joy arise from within when your mind stops blocking them.” Yes, that was my experience of that Shaktipat. Such peace and joy. Joy and peace. I wanted more. Kundalini arose and gave me a peek into what could be.

The poses, teachings and meditation have given me more. This is why I continue to financially support Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram. I want Gurudevi to continue to bring these teachings into the world. To quote Gurudevi, “You already know that giving makes you happy. Create a happy life. Live with a generous spirit!” Please join me in giving to Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram.

Click on the button below to donate online through our website. Thank you.

By Barbara (Girijiananda) Hess

Within the first months of practicing Svaroopa^® Yoga, I began giving financially to the Ashram. Why?

I knew my body was more energized and had less pain. I knew my mind did not seem quite so crazy. I knew something was stirring inside. The first time I met Swami Nirmalananda, whom we call Gurudevi, I knew these changes were somehow linked to her.

I’m sure you can relate to the effects of these amazing practices. Please join me in another practice, dakshina, or selfless giving. Our financial gifts allow Gurudevi to do what she does best — be a light unto the world.

Gurudevi has trained hundreds of yoga and meditation teachers to share these practices. She continues an active teaching schedule herself at the Ashram and online. She has filled the Ashram website with deep, profound — and free — teachings. Serving as a light unto the world, she helps us find and shine our own Divine Light.

I love the childhood song “This Little Light of Mine,” with its avowal “I’m gonna let it shine.” I must admit, I always hoped there was something far more grand inside than a little light. I saw it when I met Gurudevi. She provides so many ways for me to experience my own grander light.

Let your own Divine Light shine by joining me in offering dakshina. Year-end giving to the Ashram is tax deductible. The Ashram is now able to accept stock transfers as well as other donation payment methods. We even have a dedicated email for you to contact: donations@svaroopayoga.org.

By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi

Outside my picture window, sunlight shines through leaves and flowers. Appearing illuminated from within, they are positively glowing with light.  In the same way, Svaroopa^® Yoga is the yoga of your own personal illumination. 

Our Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram is the beacon that shines this illumined yoga into the world.  This light reaches you right where you are.  Please join me today in offering your financial support to your Ashram. 

Gurudevi says, 

Light is important to you because you are made of light. You already know this, not because of a scientific theory or an ancient teaching, as inspiring as they can be. You know this because of your own experience. You feel most like yourself when you are shining with light.

When your eyes twinkle, when your heart overflows, when your words have a melody hidden in them, and when your actions show your generous and loving nature, you feel so natural. You feel like yourself. You are radiant with light in those moments. You are your own Self.

All Svaroopa^® yoga practices make you shine brilliantly with your own light. That light doesn’t come from the sun, or from any other outside source. It is the light of Consciousness. Svaroopa^® Yoga and Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation give you the tools to uncover the light that you already are. 

Then you can shine it into the world. Thus, supporting the Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram is greatly beneficial to you as well as the organization.  Gurudevi and the Swamis have found their own light within. They are dedicating their lives to helping you find your light. Please support their work in the world. It is so needed, now more than ever. 

Today, Giving Tuesday, is a perfect day to shine your light. This global movement celebrates and unleashes the power of generosity. 

 You might want to honor the light of the master teachers of our lineage. You could donate to the light of gratitude, in honor of Giving Tuesday. 

Or you might make a gift to honor the light that shines within us all, the Light of Consciousness.  

Click here to choose the most meaningful of these several ways to give.

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

 “Wow! Just what I’ve always wanted!” It’s like I open a box, and a beautiful, gleaming gift is revealed.  

I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for all I receive from our Ashram.  The yogic practice of dakshina — financial support for the source of the teachings — is the only way I can begin to give back.

I hope you will join me!  Together, let’s make our Ashram’s year-end fundraiser a festival of gratitude.  In a real sense, we’re all sitting at the same table.  We are all being nourished by the practices of Gurudevi’s Svaroopa^® Sciences.  We can help ensure the continued flow of those teachings to ourselves and the world beyond.  And, by doing so, we Shine with Divine Light.

In my mid-seventies, I’ve pondered our culture’s socially respectable invitation to take it easy.  I’ve taught yoga for decades.  So many logistics to manage!  So many finances to figure out!  Isn’t it time to retire?  

Then I reflect on my experiences of the ancient, authentic yogic practices that Gurudevi gives us.  They have healed, supported and protected me through life’s “scrapes.”   Gurudevi’s presence invites Divine Light to Shine from within me.  When it wells up, it burns off the fog of delusion.  Through this yoga, I can Shine with Divine Light to serve friends, family and students.  It’s the gift I’ve always wanted.

So please join me in our Ashram’s year-end gratitude celebration.  Please reflect on what you’ve received from the Svaroopa^® Sciences.  Based in the Divine Light of your natural gratitude and generosity, decide on your donation.  

With your financial support, in any amount, you receive our heartfelt thanks. Shining your Divine Light in this way, you are helping spread Gurudevi’s teachings to the world — so very important right now.  

You can donate by clicking the button below.  You can also call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or you can send your check, in honor of Gurudevi’s Birthday, to Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave, Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!

By Kristine (Dhairyavati) Freeman

Please join me in donating to our “Shine with Divine Light” fall fundraising campaign.

Gurudevi says that light is so important to you because you are made of light. You feel most like yourself when you are shining with light. When your actions show your generous and loving nature, you feel so natural. You feel like yourself. You are radiant with light in those moments. You are your own Self.

As a freshman in college, I wasn’t feeling like myself. The social and academic transition was a challenging one. But twice a week I volunteered to give campus tours to prospective students and their parents. I noticed that I always felt better after giving a tour. I felt more like myself. Yet my light was limited, and I could get depleted quite quickly. I was like a little spark of light.

Gurudevi taught me how to be a steady flame. I am forever grateful for this gift.

As a Svaroopa^® Yoga and Meditation teacher, I serve as an internal tour guide.  I offer others yogic tools to access their own Divine light, so we can shine together. Like a blaze of light.

When you shine with the light of Consciousness, you too are a light unto the world. And when you give of yourself, you truly do receive. This is why dakshina, or selfless giving, is one of yoga’s most important practices.

As an Ashram donor, you make what we do possible. Yet you are the one who gets the most benefit. You are making a difference in the world. You are helping Gurudevi make a difference in the world.

That difference is an inner difference. When you’re changed on the inside, then you can truly work to benefit the world and all in it. It’s another reason to do more yoga. Let your Divine Light shine. Make a difference.

By Kristine (Dhairyavati) Freeman

Interviewed by Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Two years ago, a bone scan showed osteopenia in one of my hips.  

Last spring, I wanted a home practice sequence with standing poses to address it. So I scheduled a private session with one of our Swamis.  I also knew that, at the same time, I’d be in a retreat with Gurudevi at the Ashram.

Instead of a pose practice, Gurudevi said I needed three thirty-session sets of Embodyment^® Yoga Therapy.  This was a Shakti Blast to my brain!  I reacted with shock.  How could I find the time — or the budget?  Yet in my Embodyment^® session with Swami Praj~nanda, I heard inner guidance: This is a gift from your Guru.  Can you find a way to accept it?

Home in MA, I found a longtime Embodyment® Yoga Therapist and realized I could make this happen. At first, I took lots of notes after my sessions. My lingering question was what if I do all these sessions and nothing happens?  Still, I felt an undercurrent of Grace supporting me.  I felt deeply settled, a steady stillness in the world.

By July, I’d completed my first set of 30 sessions. At the Ashram for another retreat, I could easily sit on the floor for meditation.  I could do all the poses without the modifications I had needed before.

During recesses, I didn’t need to rest in Shavasana and do Ujjayi.  My stamina had increased.  I was told my face looked lighter.  In August, a bone scan showed the osteopenia had stabilized at the level shown years before. The best-case scenario!

Now I’m in my third set of 30 Overlap Healing sessions.  Once again, I’m at the Ashram for a retreat with Gurudevi.  The seven-hour drive from MA was easy. I did not need long breaks, nor did I need caffeine. My body is free from the deep fatigue that I’d been living with before these therapy sessions.

I feel that “investing” in my bones has also delivered increased longevity and quality of life. With stabilized bone density, I don’t need medication for osteoporosis.  I am so grateful for Gurudevi’s Shakti Blast!  It’s been a highly effective intervention and so much more.

By Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell, President

Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram Board of Directors

Our Ashram’s year-end fundraiser theme is “Shine with Divine Light.”  

Please join me in donating with a one-time amount or starting a monthly donation, or increasing your current monthly amount.  Any gift will help your Ashram shine its Divine Light brighter into the world.

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Kindly take a look at our Vision and Mission statements at the bottom of all our emails.  Our Vision is “To engage in and teach the worship of Paramashiva, the all-pervasive Divine Reality, focusing on finding and experiencing the Divine within the individual.”  

Our Mission Statement explains how we do that.  It says “We provide yoga and meditation programs, teacher training and a vowed order. As a conduit of Grace in an ancient yogic lineage, we serve seekers of Self-Realization.”

This means our fundraising theme, Shine with Divine Light, is what we do.  Gurudevi Nirmalananda, our Master Teacher, says

It’s about shining in a way that you help others find their own light.

Think of the world and everyone as a string of lights.  Not all the lights are shining or functioning at their full wattage. The Svaroopa^® Sciences help you look inside so you find the source that powers your light to its fullest.  Once you are sourced this way, you in turn affect others in your circle.  

How many lights can turn on or shine brighter?  Your donation will help us to provide the opportunity for you and others to “Shine with Divine Light.” How? By doing more yoga.  Your generous donation is a shining example!

Donate today on our website.  Or you can call us at (610) 644-7555.  Or simply send your check to Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, 116 E. Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335.  Thank You!