Category Archives: Svaroopa Yoga

Trikonasana: A Pose Worth “Getting”

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By Lissa (Yogyananda) Fountain, Yogaratna

My favorite go-to standing pose is Trikonasana, Triangle Pose. It brings the openings of a spinal sequence into a dynamic verticality. 

First, Tadasana, then into Trikonasana. Once “I’m in,” I feel steady, secure and joyful. While leaning my heels into the floor, I’m grounded and expansive at the same time. 

Trikonasana gives me stamina and inner strength. It’s a feeling that I can rise above it all, while fully participating in every moment. When I’m finished, my legs and hips swing in perfect coordination as I cruise along. 

I like that a triangle is the strongest engineering construction. In Trikonasana, I can feel my body counterbalancing its weight.  I sculpt a series of modest triangles through the space around me. My legs and arm provide a base of support. Then my bottom hip slides under my top hip.  Gurudevi says it takes a good 10 years to really get this pose. Well, I’m in my 27th Svaroopa® yoga year, so I’m going for it!

Sometimes, if I’m feeling tight, I’ll use a chair and block under my supporting arm. My spine gets even more of a lift this way: creating more space for my vertebrae. But the free standing Trikonasana I can do anytime, anywhere. I’ll do it in my kitchen for a cooking break. Or on the beach while gazing at the sky. Such freedom!

Once I’m balanced, I slowly turn my head to look at my hand. In that moment, the bliss of my own Beingness arises through my spine. My head and heart are connected. It feels like I’m flying, while being grounded and settled in my bones.  Trikonasana: a pose worth ”getting”!

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What a Difference!

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By Agnes (Aikyaa) Hetherington

I’m astonished at the impact of Gurudevi’s 2023 New Year’s Retreat on my life.  

I was almost too ill to participate. A severe coughing spasm with pneumonia had caused a hard fall onto my back. Extreme pain and difficulty breathing left me lying on the couch watching the retreat online. 

I felt more like an observer than a participant. Yet reading my journal notes, I clearly see the seeds of change were sown. 

The illness was no coincidence. In the “old year,” I had suddenly lost two very dear loved ones and faced other challenges. The future looked vague and blurry at best. I dreaded the thought of making a New Year’s resolution.

Spending those pivotal retreat days with Gurudevi ignited a profound inner shift. After the closing meditation on New Year’s Day, I wrote two words: “Resolution! Tapas!”  Tapas means doing the hard stuff.

I chose “Gumption” as my word ― a beacon of light ― for the year ahead.

While my illness dragged on, I sought help from wonderful Ashram programs. A six-class Therapeutic Yoga series eased the tightness and pain in my back. Then I took a series of ten Vichara sessions, which helped with my mind. 

As I journaled, I often reminded myself about Gumption, especially when feeling overwhelmed. Guru’s Grace propelled me into action.

Within a few months I was teaching Svaroopa® yoga again after a seven-year hiatus. I also increased my community seva, lovingly performing mundane tasks at our local Hospice. My energy and zest for life returned. 

I know I didn’t accomplish these changes by myself. It was the Grace flowing from Gurudevi during the New Year’s Retreat that made it possible. I am so grateful.

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The Yoga of Relationship

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

The intimate connection that you seek with another person is more than a meeting of minds and more than a meeting of bodies.

The point at which com­munication becomes communion is the experience of union. This is the goal of yoga, and the meaning of the Sanskrit word “yoga” itself — union. 

Once your innate yearning connects with your own inner source that fills it, you experi­ence this connection and communion with everyone. It is the natural outward expression of the inner experience. 

My own experience of relationships has been transformed by yoga. I have dif­ficulty naming it “love.” It is somehow both more and less than what I always thought love was. Whatever you want to call it, it is yoga. This is what makes our relationships work.

For me, it includes a deep respect for every person, along with a genuine interest and caring for how they think, how they feel, and for what is going on in their lives. 

Because of this, I never tire of talking with students about their lives, about their body, about their feelings, and especially about their experiences of yoga. I feel deeply honored by their sharing with me. I am grateful for this opportu­nity to share my understanding and my experience of yoga with you..

– excerpt from Yoga in Every Moment, page 2 

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Inner Strength & Clarity

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By Jules (Brahmani) Watson, Yogaratna

I am grateful for the flexibility that Svaroopa® yoga has given me! I can now sit comfortably without props in the classical Vajrasana (Lightning Bolt pose). This was not the case when I first started yoga.

I sit in Vajrasana to teach classes. Settling into my sit bones, I begin by leading students into Shavasana with the Guided Awareness. Then I guide them in Ujjayi Pranayama. During class I sometimes sit in this pose beside a student to assist them. I also sit in Vajrasana to give private yoga therapy sessions. With an upright spine, I feel balanced and present. 

When I want to sit longer in my own practice, I bring in blanket props. This takes the pressure off my ankles and allows the blood to flow freely to my feet. It also takes the pressure off my knees and supports my spine. Then I can stay sitting longer.

It’s delicious! My spine lengthens upward, my belly softens. I feel vibrational energy in my solar plexus, my breathing is easier, and I feel expansive. My spine softens even more, and my awareness turns inward easily. I am at peace.

I am held by my inner stambha (the arising column of spinal energy). And I slip into the bliss of the Self. After sitting in Vajrasana for this longer time, I feel balanced and composed with a new sense of inner strength and clarity.

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Embodied Spirituality

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Tantra means loom, like a weaver’s loom that interweaves the warp and the woof threads.  It means that you find the infinite in this finite reality.  

You discover the Divine which is already present within the mundane.  The tantric sages say that the One Reality, which has always existed, decided to manifest the entire world and everyone in it. Everything is Shiva being the world as well as being beyond the world.  

The doorway into this tantric tradition is through initiation — Shaktipat.  It is a transmission of energy that awakens your own dormant energy, hidden within.  Your awakened energy then climbs your spine from the tip of your tailbone to the top of your head.  The purpose of all Svaroopa® practices is to awaken and support the blossoming of this spiritual energy in you.  

During meditation, signs of this inner awakening include little swaying movements, even small little jerks that deepen your meditation.  You may feel an inner heat climbing up your spine and spreading through your body.  You can be drawn into a deep and profound meditative state, so deep that it feels like sleep.  It is a deep meditative immersion into Consciousness.  

In your inner explorations, you may see lights, colors and visions, or you may hear divine inner sounds.  Or sudden and profound insights may be revealed.  These are all the results of Shaktipat — the inner awakening.  This is the beginning of embodied spirituality.  

Once you have received Shaktipat, the end goal is guaranteed — enlightenment in this lifetime.  I describe it like this: Once a baby is born, puberty is guaranteed.  Once you receive Shaktipat, realization is guaranteed.  

As cosmic energy moves through your spine, it vitalizes your body.  I can’t say revitalize because that would imply you were getting energy you’d previously had.  Rather, this is a vitality you never knew.  Your body undergoes energetic and cellular changes, profoundly beneficial.  

Yet the most important effect is that a profound inner state opens up for you.  Your new inner stability and depth provide additional physical benefits.  Your inner essence is expressed through your body and is experienced in your body, even while there is so much more.  

Svaroopa® yoga poses create and support this process.  Our sequencing always starts at the tip of your tailbone, followed by poses that mirror the inner opening of Shaktipat.  These practices support your inner upliftment, helping to dissolve blockages along the way.  Yet, as powerful, beautiful, wonderful and blissful as the poses are, they are only the starting point.  

Ultimately, the real work is accomplished in meditation. Meditation is where you let your Divine inner energy move through your spine.  This energy restructures your body and opens up your mind.  Your most powerful practices are mantra and meditation.  They will fulfill the promise of the sages, embodied spirituality: 

to know without thought

to BE without effort

to experience without fear or desire

to abide in the bliss of Consciousness

to live in the multidimensionality of your own being

to know your own Self as the Divine Incarnation that you already are.

-Excerpt, pages 22-24
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Tired of Living with Pain

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By Kelly (Kushala) Sharp

Tired of living with pain, Jen started a Yoga Therapy healing series with me.  

Before her first session, she reported pain in her right shoulder at 8 (out of 10), with her right wrist at 6, and her right ribs at 7.  After her first session, her shoulder pain was down to 4, with her wrist pain at 0, and her rib pain at 5.

Jen reported, “After three days in a row of my Embodyment® sessions, I played golf.  I found that I hit the ball 20 yards farther.  I had to slow my swing down, and I could let my club do the work.  Usually when I swing the ball, I grip my toes.  I didn’t do that, so I didn’t have any cramping in my feet.  After the game, I didn’t experience any of my usual stiffness.”  These improvements supported Jen’s resolve to do her 20-minute Ujjayi practice twice daily.

By the time Jen was on session 13 of 30, she was free from pain.  She consistently reported having more energy and better sleep.  On session 30, Jen couldn’t recall what the chronic pain areas were when she started her series.  Her daily practices had become more consistent.  

Now two months into her weekly maintenance sessions, Jen continues to see improvements.  In Shavasana she feels her heels leaning more heavily into their support.  She sits in Baddha Konasana (Cobbler’s Pose) with her feet together, without efforting to hold them together.  Having done Svaroopa® yoga for many years, Jen is very excited to feel these changes in her body.  She continues to experience reduced pain and more energy.  And she’s still doing her home practice regularly!

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Diagonal Leg Deliciousness!

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Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver, Yogaratna

One of my go-to poses is Diagonal Alternate Leg.  It has a wonderful way of resetting my unstable hip joints.  Lately, however, I have been slowing it W-A-Y down.  Then I get all the juice I can from it.  It feels like my own self-administered Cure All Knee Press.

It’s a two-for-one pose.  You start in the regular angle of Alternate Leg.  I linger just a little, first with my knee in towards my chest.  Then, I move my leg into an advanced and deeper angle, thus I can feel my tailbone release in both angles. Ahh…

I take my time moving my leg across my body into the diagonal angle.  I go slow, and then pause.  When I coax my knee in towards my chest, I might even feel into a tight spot.  Some softening breaths, and I can feel those muscles let go.  It’s the “Cure All” effect!

My favorite part of all?  Allowing my leg to lean in towards my chest slowly and naturally, as I ease it back to its starting point.  I can feel my thigh bone pivoting and settling into my hip socket in a different and deeper way.  And even better than all this?  I get to do it all on the other side!

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Telecourse: Being, Light & Bliss

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Gurudevi’s Telecourse helped me remember I am more than my daily to-do list.  I am a human BE-ing.  My greatest potential is realized not by becoming but by relaxing into who I already am. I am the Light and Bliss of Consciousness.  The constant obsession for fulfilling my to-do list wears me down.  The constant knowing of my own Divine Beingness lights me up.

— Phil M.

Each of Gurudevi’s Telecourses has several modules.  Enroll in them all for a discount or take only the ones you want.  You have personal access to all the articles and videos for months.  You can dive in deep, even reviewing each offering multiple times.  This is guaranteed to shift your sense of who you are, supporting your life in the world from the inside-outward.

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Inclined Towards Enlightenment

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

How would you like to have a mind that is inclined toward Consciousness.  The ancient sage Patanjali promises exactly this:

Then your mind is inclined

towards discernment and

 is heading toward liberation.

Tadaa viveka-nimna.m kaivalya-

praagbhaara.m cittam.   

— Yoga Sutras 4.26

This sutra is near the end of his text, meaning you’ve done the deep spiritual work he describes.  Then, having trained your mind for a while, it becomes inclined towards two things:  discernment and liberation.  Discernment means you easily distinguish between what uplifts you compared to what tears you down, and that you make intelligent choices. Liberation means you become free from the cycle of reincarnation, thus this is your last lifetime.

There’s a hitch.  First you have to train your mind for a while.  How long?  Well, just like training your dog to sit, it depends on how much time you put into it every day.  If you make a stab at it once a week for 10 minutes, it will take much longer than if you spend an hour on it daily.  You choose, basing your choice on what’s important to you.  If you want to get enlightened, you like to put time and energy into it, just like with anything else for which you might aspire.

A research study proves that Patanjali’s promise is valid.  When you put some time and energy into upliftment, you get uplifted.  

Burton & King1 asked participants to write about IPEs (intensely positive experiences) for 20 minutes daily for three days.  The members of their control group wrote about different topics.

They were all evaluated for mood and health at the beginning and three months later.  Those who wrote about IPEs for 3 days had enhanced positive mood scores compared to the control group. They also had significantly fewer medical visits for illness in the three months.

Do you want to improve your mood and be healthier?  Write about the happiest moments of your life for three days, 20 minutes a day.  Amazingly easy!  And the effects will last at least three months.  If you want them to last longer, you may have to continue your writing assignment or redo it.

Do you want to get enlightened?  It will take more than three days.  But it’s worth it because enlightenment is so much greater than mere mood management. Enlightenment is about shining with the light of your own Beingness all the time.

This light is already there within you, but covered over by things that weigh you down and tear you up.  Yoga’s meditative practices lighten your load and reweave the fragmented parts of your being back into wholeness.

In ancient India, yoga was not an athletic endeavor.  In the 1900s, one yoga teacher mixed British calisthenics into his classes.  He became famous, starting a trend that continues today, with athletic yoga, aerobic yoga and even gymnastic and aerial yoga.  But for thousands of years prior to that, yoga was always a meditative process. 

I call it “slow yoga.” That’s what we do – slow you down so you can go through three reliable stages:

1, Healing – both body and mind need some TLC.  Slow yoga gives you the recovery time and deep reconditioning you need.

2. Transformation – the upliftment of your mind brings your emotions along.  It starts with inner peace, gradually expanding into happiness, generosity and bliss.

3. Illumination – enlightenment is within your reach as your mind becomes naturally inclined toward discernment and liberation, just as the sage describes.  He calls it “svaroopa,” which names your own Divine Essence.  That’s why our yoga is named Svaroopa® yoga.

However, you don’t actually “reach” for enlightenment.  You settle into it.  That’s because Divine Light, as in the word en-lighten-ment, is already within.  You are an incarnation of Divine Light. You merely need to look within in order to find it.  That’s called meditation. 

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  1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656603000588?via%3Dihub ↩︎

Saved Her Life

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By Rebecca (Rasa) Rivers

Interviewed by Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

From her yoga classes and yoga therapy sessions with me, Clair credits yoga with “saving her life.” She describes it in these ways:

I mean that Svaroopa® yoga has enabled me to live the life that I want.  Both of my parents and my older sister suffered from genetic-based osteoarthritis.  At an early age, I was warned that I could look forward to serious physical issues.

In 1972, in my early 30s, I had my first surgery to address complications of osteoarthritis.  Given my family’s health history, I was not surprised.  In the early 2000s, I had knee replacement surgery.  In 2011, when my physician suggested a hip replacement, I said, “Let me think on that.”

I’d taken yoga classes from Rebecca (Rasa) Rivers in a nearby town.  By 2011, she was teaching Svaroopa®yoga in my town, so I got in touch with her.  After an assessment, she suggested that I join her classes.  I also availed myself of her private sessions.  I received yoga therapy and private instruction on specific poses for my condition. 

When I saw my surgeon a year later, he said, “I don’t know what you did, but you no longer need hip surgery.”

Indeed, I was able to climb mountains again, walk three miles a day, and return to swimming.  Given the therapeutic effects of Svaroopa® yoga, I am so grateful and so happy to be alive.  

Since 10-years-old, I’ve been doing things that are positive for my body, including diet and exercise.  When I’ve walked through forests, their scent and vibrations have uplifted me.  I’m conscious now of the same sense of fulfillment from Svaroopa® yoga poses.

I have also become interested in learning more about yoga philosophy.  My original interest was focused on yoga’s physical benefits only.  Having recently completed a Learn to Mediate course, I am expanding my interests to yoga’s spiritual teachings as well as Svaroopa® Vidya meditation.

Seeing clients experience such profound change is one of the joys of my serving as a Svaroopa® yoga therapist.