By Rebecca (Jyoti) Yacobi

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

Chanting is a powerful, effective way for me to prepare for meditation.  It draws me very deep, very quickly.  

And when I chant with Gurudevi, the sound reverberates progressively deeper and deeper.  Then, in meditation, what bliss!  My meditation is light-filled.  Like a magnet, it draws me even deeper.  Chanting and meditation with Gurudevi give me an experience of a spacious, expansive mind.  It almost feels like the space between my neurons is opened.

Gurudevi offered two Grace-infused Chanting and Meditation Retreats online in 2021.  I felt like a kid in a candy shop.  In April, the whole weekend was devoted to mantra.  I delved into the power of our mantra.  

Then she led us through the experience of chanting it.  Carried by the vibration of the sound, I tracked back deeper and deeper within. I had an embodied experience of what Gurudevi described — mantra is one with Self, with the Guru, with Shiva.

This April retreat was so blissful and transformative that I signed up for the next one. I wanted more.  It was dedicated to the warrior Goddess Durga, the Goddess who protects us. Chanting her name with Gurudevi was extraordinary.  It wasn’t just chanting a Great Being’s name.  I felt the amplification that comes from Grace flowing through her name. 

I just love chanting and meditation together.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Your energy field extends beyond the edges of your body, often called “aura” by those who can see or feel it.  

This electromagnetic field is emitted by all living things.  It is called prana in Sanskrit.  Prana is the life force that makes your body be a living body instead of a corpse.  Corpses don’t have auras.

Thousands of years ago, yogis described the human aura as part of the cosmic process by which energy becomes matter.  The energy of Consciousness becomes your body and mind, for you to live in and work with.  Yet you are not your body, nor your mind.  You are the one who lives in them and uses them to have experiences and to express your light into the world.

The energy that materializes as your body is named your “subtle body” (sukshma-sharira).  This is where your chakras (energy centers) are found as well as your nadis (energy currents), all 720,000,000 of them.  In Chinese Medicine, nadis are called meridians.

A woman shared about going to an acupuncturist.  He advised that her meridians needed balancing.  They agreed on a plan for 12 weekly treatments. A few days later, she came to a meditation program with my Guru. She decided to stay on for the weekend Shaktipat Retreat.  Reluctantly leaving on Tuesday, she went for her acupuncture appointment. 

The acupuncturist checked her over and said, with a shocked tone, “What have you been doing?”  The woman asked why.  The acupuncturist said, “All your meridians are balanced.  I’ve never seen this happen!”  “Oh,” she said, “I got Shaktipat last weekend.”  The acupuncturist came to meet Baba.

How does Shaktipat do this?  It’s because the “shakti” of Shaktipat is the energy of Consciousness, which is the source of your prana.  Yes, it does mean that your energy field improves with Shaktipat.  It also improves with yoga poses, with breathing practices and with meditation.

In yoga’s poses and breathing practices, you are working with your body.  In meditation, you’re working with your mind. Yet there is more going on.  All the practices actually target your energies, your subtle body. This is a much more powerful level of your multidimensionality.  

As your pranic flows are optimized, physical health and vitality are merely the beginning.  Your mental-emotional energies are uplifted.  Best of all are the spiritual effects, as the subtle dimensions within are opened up for your exploration.  The goal is to…

By Joan Brager

I love the chant “Jaya Jaya Arati Nityananda,” track 7 on this CD. The first time I heard it at the Ashram, it sounded like a march for a noble cause.

I wanted to sing along. I found the refrain lively and simple enough for me to quickly catch on: “Jaya Jaya aaratee Nityananda.”

I knew we were singing about Nityananda. I had read and heard enough about him to know that he was a great spiritual being. I knew that “jaya jaya” meant “Hail hail.” But the sound of jaya jaya is better than that translation. You know you are heralding someone great when you sing it out.

So I boldly sang out the refrain.

I learned later, when I looked up the translation, that the refrain says ”Hail Hail, I offer lights to Nityananda.” That is a fitting tribute to someone who brought so much light to so many.

Hearing this chant in Gurudevi’s beautiful singing voice is a pleasure that I repeat often.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Primordial Consciousness takes on a body – yours.

Primordial Consciousness takes on all bodies –even rocks, mountains, trees and rivers, and the many objects. Consciousness is being the whole universe and all it comprises – including you.

Why? Out of the bliss of pure Beingness, Consciousness is overflowing in exuberant creativity. Each thing that Consciousness becomes is a blossoming forth, with the whole contained in it.

The purpose of yoga is to empower your discovery that the whole of Consciousness is hidden within you. Thus you will live in the continuing knowing of Consciousness being you. Consciousness, which we call Shiva, is being your quirks and peculiarities as well as your talents, skills and loving heart.

From Shiva’s perspective, it’s like light shining through a crystal hanging in the window. The ray of light becomes many colored lights dancing around the room. Shiva is the one light. You are one of the different colored lights. You think you are merely small, a dot of light among many, with each being less than the whole. Yet, when you look into the dancing dot of light, you see that it is made of light. Fully, wholly and completely made of light…

But when you haven’t yet attained your own Beingness, it all looks starkly different. As an individual, a contracted form of Consciousness, you don’t experience the fullness of your inherent bliss and Divinity all the time, at least not yet. You don’t know you are made of light. Your dance includes sorrow as well as joy. Your internal GPS has lost…

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

This “calendar journal” comprises 366 curated sutras from Gurudevi’s teachings. That’s one for each day of the leap year.  

They have been gleaned from her 30 years of teaching articles.  Each day, you get a sacred reminder of who you are as a yogi. 

From Day One of 2024, you get encouragement to create a yogic life based in your Divine Essence.  Day by day, get guidance on how to let yoga propel you to Self-Realization.  

A sutra crowns the top of each four-by-seven blank page. Each invites you to plan your day and/or journal about it.  Within this book of succinct teachings, you are writing your own 2024 memoir.  

Unfold your personal story of being the Divine Essence that has created you.  Your book within this book will reflect your experience of the mystical truth of your life.  Simultaneously Divine and practical, you will see how you are a unique form of the eternal, infinite formless.