Category Archives: Fundraiser

Bringing Your Best into the World by Saguna (Kelly) Goss

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Saguna Goss

Saguna Goss

My yoga path started with one class each week. After seven years of weekly classes, I had an “a-ha” moment and exclaimed with great excitement and amazement at my discovery, “There is something more to yoga than these poses!”  Now, after diving into the many offerings available for studying Svaroopa® yoga, I can’t help laughing when I share that story.  It seems so obvious. And while I laugh, I am also so amazed. What kept me coming back for seven years taking yoga classes if I thought it was simply rolling around on yoga blankets every week for an hour and a half?

I kept coming back because, even though I wasn’t aware of it, the yoga was changing who I was. Today I keep coming back because I know it is changing me.  The yoga is opening up who I truly am so that I can bring the best of myself into the world and, more importantly, bring my Self into the world.

Over the years there are so many stories of life-marker-poses, where I find myself in a familiar situation but having a completely different reaction: being friendlier to strangers, a nicer driver, less reactive to button-pushing-situations, making better food choices and so much more!  Yoga has changed me so much that it is hard to even remember what it used to be like before yoga. It’s hard to comprehend the amount of change.  And I know there is still so much more to come.

Yoga is changing me and therefore changing the world around me. I am so grateful!  This is why I offer dakshina — financial support for the organization that supports me, for my Teacher and the transformative Teachings that she brings us.  Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram exists solely for our transformation, and we must support the organization so it can support us.  Please join me in making a financial offering so that we can bring more yoga into the world, more yoga that changes me, changes you — and everyone we know and meet, whether they realize it or not!

Click here to support your Ashram and your practice.

Who Gives? Who Receives? by Kanchan Mohn

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Kanchan Mohn

Kanchan Mohn

As a member of the Svaroopa® community, as a practicing yogi, you are always connected to the Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram (SVA)…your ashram…the epicenter of the Svaroopa® community. And you are always held in a deep heartfelt embrace by your Master Teacher, our Beloved Guru, Swamiji, and her precious lineage.

You have all felt this embrace or you wouldn’t be reading this now. You repeatedly feel it in your body, in your mind, and, incredibly, you notice it weaving itself more and more into your daily life…both inside and out…the experience of your own Divine Essence (svaroopa), the experience of your Self, the gift of Grace.

What a gift our Guru gives to us by being so accessible, and by insisting that the teachings and the vehicles to Self are accessible at all times to the world.  SVA offers hundreds of free written and audio teachings via the website…your virtual Ashram.  SVA offers free phone courses, in-person satsangs, meditation programs, and yoga classes. Even the precious enlivened mantra is available for the asking.  And are you noticing that wherever you are in the world, your Self is available to you?

So how do we express our overwhelming gratitude for the gifts we have been given? How do we insure that our community, our organization and our Teacher continue to flourish and to serve Self? By giving back, of course.  And I ask you, by giving to Self, who receives?

For this reason, I support my Ashram, my Guru, and Self through service on the Ashram Board, through regular seva and donations, and through gratitude for the gift of Grace that I can never repay. I invite you to join me.  Support your community with whatever generous financial contribution fits your budget.  Relax into that profound embrace.

Om Namah Shivaaya!

Click here to support your Ashram and your practice today.

The Mystical Teachings Have Changed the Way I Live by Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

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Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

A yoga student gave me a greeting card a few years back. It said, “The way you live your life has changed how I live my life.” The way Swamiji gives so generously of the mystical teachings, which she learned at the feet of her Guru Muktananda, has changed how I live my life. And, the way I live my life keeps evolving, the more yoga practices I do and the more I avail myself of Swamiji’s Grace. I couldn’t go back to how I used to be even if I wanted to — which I don’t.

The more I dive into practices and programs, the more I get bite-sized pieces of understanding that guide or push me along to my inner Self. These include practicing and teaching asana and leading group meditations, my own meditation and japa, chanting the Guru Gita and listening to Swamiji’s talks online, the year long course “Guru & Self,” offering seva and taking more training (I recently retook Meditation Teacher Training). Everything I do is designed by Swami Nirmalananda who, along with my own efforts, is birthing me into who I really am.

Back in 1999, when I started training with Swamiji (then Rama), I came to learn yoga poses to teach. But this path I have been given is so much more than what I originally came for, more than I even knew was possible. I have been given mystical teachings that, for centuries, were secret teachings. Having Swamiji as my Guru has put me in the flow of this living lineage, through which the teachings have been passed from teacher to disciple for thousands of years. Swamiji has been charged with bringing the yogic mystical teachings into the world. Mystical teachings are not mainstream; they are not popular and they are not for everybody. But they are for me, and my guess is that they are for you, because you are reading this.

How do I live my life now? I am more ME. I am more present, more aware, more at ease, more kind and more clear. I am more able to be aware when I am not Self and I know how to get back. I am more willing to risk. Recently, after Swamiji’s Shaktipat weekend that I hosted in Calgary, I had my first clear experience of speaking up louder when I was inner connected and teaching a yoga class. Clearly, more of my Self had been uncovered through the mystical mystery of our Shaktipat weekend. This allowed me to be Self-connected and speak out at the same time. It was time to speak up and be heard, and something had been cleared that allowed me to do that.

So now it is time for me to use my stronger and clearer voice to ask you to donate during our April Fundraiser, “Yoga in the World,” to support the continuing flow of the mystical yogic teachings into the world. Please join me and my husband with your donation to support the rare gift of a living, accessible Guru who imparts mystical teachings in an understandable way.  Because this path isn’t mainstream, we depend on donations for one third of the income needed to run SVA. From your deep gratitude and your deeper Self, please make an offering so the Ashram can flourish and continue to offer the secrets of yoga to you and to our community. Click here and make as meaningful a contribution as you are able, to support the generous way that Swamiji imparts the mystical teachings to us.

Yogic Hearts Together by Swami Nirmalananda

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Your yogic heart continues to amaze me. While I’ve seen many of you at your best, I’ve also seen you at your worst, facing your fears, slaying your own inner demons. I hear the stories of what you have faced and are facing in your life, and still you do yoga. In fact, it might be that those things are what drive you to yoga! Your heart had the strength of a survivalist long before you began yoga. But what you’ve gotten from yoga is the growth in your resiliency (your bounce-back) and generosity. They physical opening automatically makes you more resilient and generous. It’s reliable! And our Thanksgiving fundraising campaign has shown that to be true – again. Thank you.

I’m happy to report that your generous gifts, and the monthly donations that many of you are offering, are supporting a newly reorganized structure, with a few finishing touches to complete before the new year begins. The cleanup after the storm of Reawakening has been arduous, supported by many sevites in addition to our admin team. We’re almost ready for the 2014 Initiatives to fulfill their promise: an enlivened and exciting place to study the Svaroopa® yoga sciences.  Whether working with your body or mind, all the practices are guaranteed to give you svaroopa – your own Self. All of them are guaranteed to improve your life. All of them make you feel better, look better, and be better, within yourself and in your life.

A few weeks of gathering heart-and-hand photos as well as receiving regular updates on the donation stream have propelled my own heart deeper into gratitude. Long ago I made the shift into continual gratitude to my own Guru, who gave me all I’ve got. Now I find myself in perpetual gratitude to you, to each of you and to all of you, for making this yoga organization a place that I can do my work. A Yogic Heart just keeps expanding!

OM svaroopa svasvabhava.h namo nama.h

Resounding Support from Your Yogic Hearts! by Marlene Gast CSYT, MYF Board VP Communications, SVA Board Asana Committee

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Marlene Gast

Marlene Gast

Your yogic hearts have responded to our Thanksgiving fundraising!  We have received many messages of  gratitude for Svaroopa® yoga, accompanying gifts expressing the generosity of the season, as well as photos of your hands and hearts [click to see our slide show].

We are grateful to announce an increase in monthly donations as well as the generous, total dollar amount of $18,401.  Your gifts beautifully support us in the lean months of November/December, when we cannot run any programs, while helping us prepare for the new year: 2014, a pivotal year for us! A consolidated year!!

Clearly each donation received was a holiday gift wrapped in love for your Svaroopa® Sciences practices — and for all of our teachers.  We are blessed by wonderful teachers, beginning with Swami Nirmalananda and spreading out through our Teacher Trainers, through local Svaroopa® yoga teachers and Meditation Group Leaders worldwide. With every donation that you make, you support this whole, wondrous network. In turn, all of us support the expansion of Consciousness through the unswerving avenues of the ancient teachings.  This is cause for great jubilation and heartfelt congratulations!

Thus I write today with gratitude on behalf of the SVA Board and the MYF Board.  A great deal of the Board’s responsibility is fiduciary: A board of directors is responsible for ensuring the availability of adequate financial resources, an essential part of keeping any organization robust and vigorous.  We are grateful to you for helping us fulfill this responsibility.  Your donation and commitment support the organization, which supports Swami Nirmalananda along with our Teacher Trainers as well as administrative staff that bring the teachings into the world.

Yet the organization is simply a part of the whole.  You are the essential element that completes the whole. It is you, centered in your yogic heart; you are precious and indispensable. In the words of SVA Board President Amala Cattafi, you are more precious than gold, whether or not your personal circumstances allow for financial support of the organization.

The personal pronouns of English — you, I — divide us into individual units. “Us” is the closest pronoun to present us together as community — and “we”: We are yogic family.  You are — we are — wondrous, shining threads in the imperisable fabric of essential connection.  Our connection is the relationship in consciousness, the being of consciousness, but the being of consciousness-together while being consciousness individually.  We are individual persons, choosing to be in community, as yogis who can feel the presence of one another in the depths of Consciousness to which our practices open us.  Thank you.

The More I Give, the More I Receive by Louise Davis, MYF Board Treasurer

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louise

Louise Davis

I recently received a thank you note from one of my students. She thanked me for bringing yoga to our city and shared that it has changed her life. I was so touched, and so grateful to read her words. More importantly, I was so grateful to be able to share this amazing yoga with such amazing people. This student, let’s call her Lucy, is a true karma yogi: not only at our yoga studio, but in all parts of her life. She is always looking for ways to help and give back. This got me thinking about giving: do we feel more gratitude because we give, or do we give because we feel gratitude? My short answer is yes!

Svaroopa® Yoga and Meditation has changed my life as well, in ways too numerous to mention. And I feel such deep gratitude for its presence in my life. I serve on the Board of Master Yoga, in part, as a way to give back for all that I have received. And the more I’ve given, the more I seem to receive.

I grew up in a Christian church, so I was very familiar with the concept of tithing, or donating to the organization (church) which sustains you spiritually. In the last few years, I’ve noticed that much – even most – of my spiritual nurturement was coming from yoga. Why couldn’t I divide my tithe to support this organization as well? Such a simple solution!

I invite you to consider doing this as well. In this season and spirit of Thanksgiving, would you open your yogic heart and make a one-time or monthly financial donation – or increase your current gift? Even a small monthly donation of $5-10 will make a big difference. And your giving will continue to give back.

Click here to give from your Yogic Heart.  A one-time gift or monthly pledge in any size that works for you makes a difference in our ability to serve you; thank you.  Monthly donors receive our new Namaste poster as a thank you gift, for a new or increased monthly pledge.

Luxuriating in the Gratitude, by Swamiji

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On the day after the orgy of gratitude that is our national holiday, I am grateful for the Thanksgiving holiday itself.  I am deeply grateful to see and feel the world slow down a bit. Even in their rush to go see loved ones, there’s another motivator under the hurry.  Even in the early morning lines for Black Thursday, the gratitude they formally celebrated the day before still leaves an imprint on their heart – a perfect introduction to the holiday spirit that infects the airwaves and even people’s hearts. 

These are sweet times every year, the shortening of the days, the cuddle-into-your-covers nights, the choosing to slow down a bit.  That’s one of the reasons I left southern California:  there are no snow days.  They don’t know how to turn the switch off.  That took me a long time to learn, too.

It snowed.  The afternoon before Thanksgiving, it came drifting down outside my window for a couple of hours.  Two miles away, at Downingtown Yoga it was wet and rainy, but this hillside home got big puffy flakes.  It melted on contact, making it all rather easy — beauty without the hassle.  Another thing to be grateful for.

Today I’m still luxuriating in the gratitude.  Now that I think about it, that’s every day for me, for I revel always in what my Guru gave me – a gift beyond comparison, the gift of Self.  It was the only thing I ever wanted.  And now he lets me serve Him by serving you.  Thank you for wanting the only thing I ever wanted.  It gives us a starting point, a common cause, something you’ve said matters to you too. It’s really easy to make progress — just do more yoga!

swamiji

Thank you to the many of you who sent me birthday gifts, over $1,500 in donations to honor the day I was born into this world.  I must say I enjoyed this birthday more than any in the last few decades – the bliss is growing!

Our Thanksgiving fundraiser has already achieved $15,330 in financial offerings, but we only have one more week to go – Click here to send your gift, or to send your heart photo for our slide show and poster.

With love and blessings, Swami Nirmalananda

2 Thank Yous: for Monthly Donors and from a Board Member

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Namaste Poster

NEW! Monthly Donor Gift – see info below…
Send us a photo of your hands for our online gallery (to jennifer@masteryoga.org), include your name and zip code.

by Peter Gallagher, Board Member

Thirteen years ago I went to a local massage therapist to relieve the tension and feeling of compression I had in my back. At the conclusion of the appointment, he told me that he was unable to tell the difference between muscle and bone in my body. He sent me to Tarlika Margery Anderson for a class in Svaroopa® Yoga.

After three classes I went to a weekend workshop given by Rama Berch. Rotated stomach pose required her personal touch to get the apparent 90 degree angle just right. The power of asana for me was the relief of my physical pain. The unexpected bonus was the relief of my mental and emotional pain.

Asana remains the steadiest, most reliable easiest practice for me. Yet something “more” continues to show up. I experience the Self in my family, work and casual relationships. I am more open, trusting and joyful.

It is natural for me to be thankful at this time of year. I was born on Thanksgiving. A few years ago I began making small, safe monthly donations to Master Yoga because I was thankful for what I had received. Sometime later, I thought I could be a little more thankful and I increased my monthly donation.

Peter

Peter in Anjali Mudra
Send us a photo of your hands for our online gallery (to jennifer@masteryoga.org), include your name and zip code.

Two years ago I was asked to do seva. I agreed and promptly put it off for a year. Last year I joined the Master Yoga Foundation Board because I was thankful for the gifts I had been given. This year’s increased monthly commitment of time and money has propelled me into fears. As promised the container has gotten larger. I can be present even during a storm. The unexpected benefit is a growing sense of community and gratitude.

I invite you to participate in your own experiment. Make a one-time or a monthly financial gift from the abundance of what you have received from your asana practice. Increase your current gift to sustain and grow this practice for others. Sit back and observe how your gift continues to give to you.

Click Here to Give a Gift From Your Heart!

Hands & Hearts – irresistible!

Your photos are irresistible!  The online slide show gets a little longer every day, but you lose track of time watching it, so it doesn’t matter.  Time doesn’t count if you’re not counting it.

Now we’re making it into a poster, to say thank you for your donation at this Thanksgiving time. New monthly donors will receive a free 16”x20” poster of many yogis’ hands in Anjali Mudra, with Swamiji’s hands in the center (at the “heart” of the poster).  If you are already a monthly donor, simply increase your monthly gift and you will receive this wonderful thank you – our “Namaste” poster.

Choose any category for your gift, dedicated to supporting meditation programs (SVA) or asana programs (MYF), our Ganeshpuri Music School or a general donation that empowers the Board to determine where your generosity will best serve.  Click here to make a donation – choose “monthly” instead of “one-time”, and set up the amount you desire by changing the “quantity.”

Swamiji

Swami Nirmalananda’s hands

Thank you for your heart-felt practice of yoga.  That’s what makes serving you such a pleasure for us!

OM svaroopa svasvabhava.h namo nama.h

Seeing, Caring and Sharing by Rudrani Nogue, Board Member

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Rudrani

Rudrani in Anjali Mudra
Send us a photo of your hands in Anjali Mudra (prayer position). Please include your name and zip code. We’ll add your heart-full hands to our online gallery – click the picture above to see it as it grows

A Yogic Heart is big and open because it is filled from our inner infinite Source. A Yogic Heart provides us with an opportunity to live our lives with an expanded capacity to see, care and share.  We are able to see people and situations at a deeper level and to understand what is really going on. A Yogic Heart allows us to care about ourselves, and to share with and support others in an easier and bigger way.  A yogic Heart keeps you engaged in your life without becoming caught in the drama of your life.

I learned at a very young age to do whatever was expected of me. For decades I did whatever I felt I “should” do, by going through the motions, but my Heart wasn’t in it. I was pretending and I wasn’t being who I really am. In hindsight, I realize living this way separated me from my Heart, including my inherent joy and my ability to sing. It made life much harder than it needed to be.

Through practicing the Svaroopa® Sciences and through the Grace of the Guru, I have found joy, my singing voice and my Yogic Heart. As this Svaroopa® path and practices have so generously been shared with me, I joyfully and gratefully share them with our Svaroopa® community and beyond.

Some ways I gladly share my Yogic Heart’s growing capacity are by chanting daily, supporting students in and after class, supporting students to become teachers,  co-hosting weekend workshops, leading group meditations as seva, co-editing “Tadaa!”, serving on the SVA Board and supporting the Svaroopa® sciences through monthly donations.

The ways that I am able to see, care and share now would not have been possible without uncovering my Yogic Heart. And, as I recognize and honour my true Heart I also recognize and honour the true Heart of others.

On this path your yogic Heart is ever expanding in its capacity to see, care and share. I invite you to show your caring through a generous donation, supporting our teacher and the Svaroopa® path.

What is a Yogic Heart? by Amala (Lynn) Cataffi, SVA Board President

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Amala

Amala in Anjali Mudra
Send us a photo of your hands in Anjali Mudra (prayer position). Please include your name and zip code. We’ll add your heart-full hands to our online gallery – click the picture above to see it as it grows!

For me, a yogic heart is an ongoing love affair with Grace. That flow of Grace is the essence of Svaroopa® yoga. I have chosen to partake of all of the limbs of yoga that the Svaroopa® sciences offer: asana, meditation, seva, and gladly, boldly, into the deepest teachings of all.  Whether you choose any or all of these limbs, the Grace is always showering you and aiding your personal process. My love affair is expressed outwardly through my giving (dakshina) and my giving back (seva).

During the last India trip this was so vivid for me. We had just finished the Maha Abishek at the Nityananda temple. This ancient ritual honors Nityananda as a form of the Divine – the formless in form. As a Board member, I helped perform the ceremony, but I had a strong sense that the experience was not about me.  It was not even for me, but was about giving and service.

When we left, we were given fruit and flowers that had been on the huge murti (enlivened statue) of Nityananda during the ceremony. There were 2 Indian women outside who had obviously not eaten well in some time, and I gave them the fruit, even though I secretly wanted it. Immediately, I was propelled into a state of peace and love that I had never before known or experienced. It was so overwhelmingly beautiful that I could almost not move or speak! I could have stood there in bliss all day!

Every time I donate money or time, I open myself further to that flow.  It does not always manifest in such a “POW!!” experience, but giving is something that opens you up like nothing else… Talk about core opening!

Come and share the experience of a deeper core opening than you have ever known. Give to support that which has given YOU so much to be thankful for!

In service and gratitude…Amala

Click Here to Give a Gift From Your Heart!