For the Magic Four, you need only a few props and the NEW Magic Four handout! This is the original article, published in Yoga International, with color photos of Swami Nirmalananda demonstrating the poses!
The Magic Four is an accessible, effective set of yoga poses for everyone. Each pose is explained in detail to help you target deep spinal release. Along with written instructions, this handout provides background about how Svaroopa® yoga works and the outcomes of your practice.
You only need 20 minutes a day to feel the benefits. Ease through the Magic Four and discover your inherent bliss. Price: $7.55
Your body needs help or you know someone who needs yoga; that’s why you’re here. When you’ve got aches and pains, perhaps even impaired movement due to injury or illness, you need a yoga that meets you where you’re at. Svaroopa® Yoga is your answer.
This is a slower-paced yoga, using chairs and other props to customize every pose to your needs. You can even sign up for private sessions or semi-private therapeutics classes. All this is available Online or On-Site. You can come to us in Downingtown PA or we can Zoom into your home through your phone or other device.
While we meet you where you’re at, you don’t stay there. Your condition improves quickly. You feel better after your first class. Within a few sessions, you have less pain. You have more stamina and are stronger. Best of all, you are happier and have more to share. Everyone who knows you celebrates your improvement and enjoys your new condition.
Our methodology is spine-centric. Every pose decompresses specific spinal vertebrae. With precise alignments and compassionate propping, we lead you through a full spinal series in every class. Your spine lengthens, your breath opens up and your smile gets wider. It’s mechanical. It’s reliable. It’s predictable. And it’s fun.
If you’ve been slowed down by illness, injury or age, we recommend you start with a private yoga therapy session. We begin with an assessment and intake, then move you through an easy introductory yoga practice. At the end of the hour, another assessment follows, to see if you’re getting any improvement. We’re happy to report that 99.5% of our clients get improvement in their first hour!
We will also give you a treatment plan. It may include 3-8 weeks of yoga sessions, usually 2-3 times weekly. By then, you’re usually ready for our regular yoga classes, which will continue to expand your knowledge as well as improve your condition.
If you don’t have a specific diagnosis or limitation, you may be able to begin in regular classes. We offer 10 or more per week, On-Site as well as Online.
If you don’t know what your best pathway is, simply sign up for one private session to get your assessment and treatment plan. We delight in helping you find your way to health and vitality through yoga!
Meet your mind where it’s at. Having a crazy-busy mind is normal these days, unfortunately. You aspire to a better state, a deeper inner center, a quality of being that fills your life with light. Mantra meditation lassoes your mind and brings it back home, to your core essence, called “your own Self.”
You need the right mantra, of course. And you need to get it from someone who knows it fully, inside and out. An authorized teacher within an authentic tradition can open the inner doorway for you in amazing ways. That’s what happened for me, an inner awakening that transformed my life from the inside-out.
I got the mantra from a local meditation teacher. She had been authorized by her teacher in India. It gave me deep meditation immediately.
It was only later that I understood the greatness of the gift I had been given – the enlivened mantra, full of blessings and grace.
It infused me with a sense of wholeness and purpose that I had never known before. And all I had to do was meditate daily, which renewed and deepened it.
Now, almost 50 years later, I offer the same to those who aspire higher. In free online programs as well as course and retreats, you can get this mantra and instruction in how to use it. Let those who have done their spiritual work give you a head start on yours!
Your Svaroopa® yoga class begins with you lying on your back in the yoga pose named Shavasana. After your guided relaxation, each additional pose targets a specific part of your spine, unraveling deep tensions.
Your internal organs get more interior space for optimal functioning. After you end with another Shavasana, you can tell that this stuff works. Every class welcomes new students while supporting experienced yogis.
Working at home, I find getting to my weekly Saturday morning class is a great remedy for isolation. Taught by a swami, the class has a special vibe that resonates through us students. I get a lot of relaxation and benefits including relief from a herniated disc. Plus, I learn tools for self-healing at home. — Beth S.
Every person has a baseline requirement for bliss, which is your Bliss Quotient (BQ). When you’re not meeting your BQ, you go looking for something to create bliss. Unfortunately, the places you look have side effects. If the side effects damage your health, your mind, or your life, it is called “addiction”. Drugs and alcohol have been fairly easy to identify as addictions. Now food, work and exercise are also identifiable addictions.
Yet all of these things can be catalysts to the experience of bliss and are being used to meet your basic BQ. A famous writer once described how he decided to live in bliss by staying high on LSD all the time. He discovered after several days that it was impossible, because he couldn’t handle basic life needs (like eating), and because the side effects were damaging his body. So he decided to go to the bliss experts, the yogis in India.
The teachings of the ancient sages describe that your desire for bliss is a desire to know your own nature, but you’re currently cut off from yourself. Yoga or “union” is the resolving of this inner split so that you experience the natural bliss of your own Being. This internal split shows up in the endless conversations you have with yourself inside your head. It shows in your posture and habitual facial expression, in your relationships (which often have a disturbingly repetitive quality), in your Freudian slips and more. It is easier to point out others’ internal splits than to see your own. Yet the split is there, or you would be living in constant bliss, and you wouldn’t need anything external to trigger it.
Bliss that is triggered by externals is temporary bliss. If your bliss comes from skiing, you’ll only be in bliss while you’re skiing, or while you’re talking about skiing, or planning to go skiing, or buying skiing supplies and magazines, etc. Your focus on skiing will be complete, because skiing is your catalyst to bliss. All your friends will take up skiing, or you’ll make new friends with the people you meet on skis.
Yoga says there’s nothing wrong with skiing. The problem is that your bliss is temporary; it only happens when you’re skiing. You have a low BQ. Where’s your bliss when you’re eating or sleeping? What about your work and relationships, or when you’re stuck in a traffic jam? You’re stuck with “dependent bliss”, meaning your bliss depends on something outside of you and is only temporary. Also, your skiing bliss is only partial. You’re not a “perfect” skier. You may fall down, or your form is imperfect. Or perhaps you’re really good at it but your mind is running the litany of all your problems. Where’s your bliss?
Yoga is the science of bliss. Every technique of Svaroopa® yoga is for the purpose of increasing your bliss. The first stage of bliss is relaxation, which progresses to a tingling aliveness throughout your whole body. Then it becomes a contagious joy that arises from inside, without any external cause. This bliss is more than merely physical and is accessed by a variety of yoga practices including yoga poses, breathing, chanting, meditation, contemplation and study of the ancient texts, etc.
How does Svaroopa® yoga work? Each of the practices is for the purpose of stilling the relentless activity of your mind. That mental activity distracts you from the bliss already there. Yoga’s practices quiet your mind so you can discover the bliss that is inside you and has always been there. Bliss is what you experience when you’re not worrying, ruminating or analyzing your life, and arises naturally when you quit looking for something outside of you to create your bliss. Yoga shows you how.
You have to actively do something to get out of the normal rut that you live in, and you can’t do it with the tools you already have at hand. All the tools you’ve been taught, or been given by example, produce what you now experience. Would you describe yourself as truly healthy and completely happy? The emphasis on rational-logical mind and the techniques of the West are excellent for business and competition, but not very useful for bliss. The question is, “Can an old dog (you) learn new tricks?” That’s what our classes and meditation programs are for.
Though my professional career was in banking, I’ve trained to teach yoga as a Certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher. Born in Sri Lanka, I was brought up in a yogic culture. I have always been interested in spirituality. While growing up, I studied the Hindu scriptures in school. On my own, I read many books on these ancient yogic teachings. I learned that they advise us repeatedly on the importance of the Guru on the spiritual path:
Only through a Guru can you understand the Vedas. [translated by Swami Mukundananda in his commentary on Bhagavad Gita 4.34]
In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna states the importance of the Guru:
tad viddhi praṇipaatena paripra”snena sevayaa upadek.syanti te j~naanaṁ j~naaninas tattva-dar”sina.h. — Bhagavadgita 4.34
Learn the Truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him with reverence and render service unto him. Such an enlightened Saint can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the Truth. [translated by Swami Mukundananda, Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God]
Yet even though the scriptures talk about finding a Guru, I wasn’t interested in finding one. Then everything changed the first time I met Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati. I knew that I was in the presence of someone who had an extraordinary understanding of the teachings of yoga. Her skill at explaining these deep and profound teachings was exceptional. I realized I had been engaged in a “do it to yourself” spiritual process. Just reading about the great yogic teachings couldn’t give me experiential knowing.
After meeting Swami Nirmalananda, whom we affectionately call Gurudevi, I didn’t just want to teach yoga. I wanted to live yoga. I am forever grateful. It was truly transforming. That’s when I realized that having a Guru is more than important. This relationship is essential.
If you wanted to climb Mt. Everest and make it to the top, would you do it on your own? No, you would need a guide. You would need to be with someone who knows the way and would guide you. Gurudevi is my guide for the spiritual journey inside. Every step of the way, she is supporting me in scaling the heights. Yes, that is why I became a disciple of my Guru. God’s greatest gift has been bringing me to the feet of my Gurudeviji.
Having a Guru is essential because the human soul is clouded by ignorance from countless lifetimes. We don’t know the truth of who we are. We don’t know our Divine Essence. We need to receive this experiential knowing from a Self-Realized being who embodies the Absolute Truth. One cannot overcome their ignorance simply by their own effort. A person’s self-effort is essential. But without Guru’s Grace, individual effort is like a bird with one wing.
I was captivated by Gurudeviji’s unique capacity for teaching. She enables us laymen to understand the high philosophies of the ancient teachings. Her delivery of these great teachings suits the century that we live in. As I grew up, I felt one attained Self-Realization — liberation — only after living righteously for many more lifetimes. It seemed unattainable in my current life.
When I heard Gurudevi say that you can realize the Self in this lifetime, she certainly got my attention. Not only does she say it, she also leads us by being a living example. I am grateful to Gurudeviji for being the light dispelling the darkness, For that, I bow again and again!
You know how to drive, to manage household and personal needs, even to manage other people and their needs. Your education and professional skills make you able to adapt to changing times, like now. But your self-care skills might need some improvement. The current pandemic conditions may prompt another round of pandemic panic. It’s time to take inventory. How do you handle this?
Masking – you know how. I first saw people wearing masks over their nose and mouth in my travels in Asia over 30 years ago. I thought it was brilliant! I didn’t adopt it at home because of peer pressure, but now the pressure is going the other way. You are completely capable of breathing, talking and smiling under that mask. You may even have your preferred mask style along with a lanyard, bracket or nose strip. Plus you’ve even got designer options.
Social Distancing – you know how. As fall brings us indoors again, you’ll need to use this skill again. It’s like riding a bike; once you know how, you can do it again. It’s an easy thing to do. In most conversations, we’re seated or standing about 6 feet apart anyway.
Self-Care — you know how. You know you feel better when you do yoga every day. Your quality of life improves if you’re hydrated, if you have regular mealtimes and if you get up before the sun. Meditation is even more important and fits into all the others. Meditating before the sunrise is the most blissful. Yoga helps prepare you for a better meditation. And when you’ve meditated today, you’re more likely to feed yourself properly and drink enough water. Not to mention being kinder, even more intelligent. How bad will you let yourself get before you do something about it? The time is now. Do more yoga.
It all lies within, you’ve heard it said before. But you must get beyond the theory in order to experience your own mystical essence. That’s why you need training. That’s why you need a teacher. One who knows the way makes it easy for those who follow.
Know Your Own Self
A deeper inner knowing of your deeper essence, this is the goal of meditation. Your inward exploration is easy when you study with one who already knows the Self. This is the mystical secret of Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation, that the doorway inside is opened for you.
Sourced Within
Discover the source of love and the source of your creativity. It all lies within you, so you have to look inward to find the source. But you can get stuck at the superficial level of mind and emotions. Learn how to look deeper with Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation.
Easy Inner Immersion
Like a scuba diver floating in the vastness of the undersea world, meditation is about diving deep. Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation makes it easy to get there, deeper within your own being. In that depth and inner vastness, you experience a whole new dimensionality, one you can learn to live in.
If it were not for my mind, I would be enlightened! I blurted out this statement in conversation with a yoga buddy one day. I’d never allowed myself to own this elevated aspiration. Yet I knew it to be true.
The ancient teachings on Self-Realization as offered by Gurudevi compel me. At a deep level, I know their absolute Truth. In that moment, in a flash of insight, I see my mind blocking me on the path. I see my mind as a standalone entity, with its own agenda. It’s dense and determined to hold on to certain attitudes. Sometimes it’s a two-year-old, sometimes an adolescent.
I really got to know this mind during my two glorious years of Ashram residency. The routine of morning chant and meditation, days devoted to seva, and evening satsangs took me deep. I loved chanting our food mantra with Gurudevi, the Swamis and other residents before each meal.
During my Ashram stay, I went deeper than I’d imagined going when I applied for residency. My main reason for residency was the desire for a consistency of practice. In my first months, I could physically feel the untangling of old brain wiring while chanting Sri Guru Gita. What a relief!
This opened up enough inner space for angry inner voices to have their say. I recognized my “inner two-year-old” and more articulate “inner adolescent.” They were lonely, scared, sad. They/I had based my sense of self on “doing things right.” Avoiding punishment, staying safe and surviving formed the goal. Daily life, regardless of responsibilities and activities, is bound to frustrate those desires. Anger erupts when I (with two-year-old and adolescent mind) don’t get what I want. They emerged from the depths and took up residence near the forefront of my mind. I got to know their insistent voices well.
Given Guru’s Grace, with her profound teachings, I knew to befriend these rascals. I knew that, as contracted forms of Shiva, my own Is-ness, they were not to be banished. I learned to sweettalk them with mantra, and give them luxurious rest in meditation. Doing so, I can apply their energy to more mantra and more meditation. I’m propelled deeper — even into ineffable peace and ultimate effulgence — sometimes.
More often, my meditation is a festival of emotional and mental kriyas. I am so grateful for this process. Afterward, that standalone entity of mind is calmed. It’s willing to courteously step aside. It no longer requires constant, hyperalert focus. I can go past mind into the infinitely vast expanse within. “Getting things done in the world” will always be a step into potential frustration. Yet my awareness turns inward to my Own Self as the One Self Being All. I see this clear path to enlightenment.
From uncovering inner peace to discovering the mystical truths, you must turn your attention inward. To get deeper than your mind and breath, you need help — the techniques and tools developed by the yogic sages. Study with a modern-day representative of the ancient tradition and get immediate results.
Access Inner Peace
Peace is found inside. It is already there. You’ve been looking in the wrong place, trying to get your outer circumstances to give you peace. Now it’s time to learn how to look within. Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation glides you inward, deeper than your mind, to the peace that is your inherent nature.
Seekers Become Finders
wellnessthatworks.com
You’re only a seeker until you find what you’ve been looking for. The deeper dimensions of your own being are what you yearn for. In Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation, you learn to meditate on your own Self. Experiencing your inherent Divinity changes everything. You find your Self.
Open Inward to Infinite Beingness
The inner infinity beckons you, an inner pull that is your own Self calling you home. Explore who you really are by turning inward. Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation reveals your inherent Divinity to you, a gift from the ancient yogic sages. The mystical truth is hidden within, awaiting your exploration.
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