Category Archives: Yoga in Life

Gurudevi’s CD: Honored Guru Gita

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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.

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Miracles for My Dad

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By Evy (Kalyani) Zavolas

Interviewed by Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington

I began teaching Svaroopa® yoga in 2000 and begged my family to try my classes. For years their response was always,“No thanks.” 

Twelve years ago, my dad developed severe neck pain, probably from his work as a mechanic. It was so bad he had to close his business for a month. A doctor examined him and said, “Come back tomorrow for a shot of pain relief.”

I happened to drop by that evening and saw how much he was suffering. With no arguments, I put him into Slow Motion Dive, Stage 1. After a few minutes he came out saying, “Oh, the pain is gone, it must be a miracle!” An hour later he told my mom to “call the doctor and cancel that appointment!”

The neck pain never came back, but Dad continued to have lower grade pain. Three herniated discs left him unable to stand or walk for too long. He could “live with it” by sitting down every 10–15 minutes. A doctor told him he would eventually need surgery. 

A few months ago, it worsened after a long trip overseas. Again, I begged him to try yoga, but he had forgotten the miracle 12 years before. For 6 years, he had done physical therapy, had 15–20 epidurals, and ended up taking steroids. The side effects were terrible, especially the inability to sleep. He was waiting to see a surgeon with the results of an MRI.

Finally, in desperation he agreed to try a yoga class. He felt better immediately. The next day he told me “the pain is 90% gone,” and asked for another class. He still went to see the surgeon, who told Dad, “You don’t need surgery, just keep doing what you’re doing.” 

Now he comes to classes once or twice a month and has given up the steroids. Twelve years ago, he thought the miracle was a coincidence, but now he believes. This stuff works!

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Inspired by Living Mysticism

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By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattaffi

The moment I opened Gurudevi’s new calendar journal, Living Mysticism, I was inspired.

Each quote for the day is a profound sutra, worthy of contemplation, and relevant to my practice. Each quote is placed to help me deepen my inner state day by day.

The journal aspect of the book is inspiring me to be more consistent with journaling. I want to fill every day with my meditation experiences. I don’t skip even a day of meditation. In the same way, I don’t want to miss even a day of memorializing my progress inward in this sweet journal.

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Embodied Consciousness

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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…

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Unfold Your Personal Story

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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.

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Self-Improvement

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

It’s predictable. You start doing yoga or meditating and pretty soon you’re eating healthier.

How does that come about? Your life is becoming “yogified.” I confess that I made up the word, specifically to describe the organic process of upliftment yoga provides.

This experience is the fulfillment of a promise made thousands of years ago, repeated through the ages by India’s ancient and modern sages.

In addition to physical improvements, your life begins to change. You are less anxious, so you deal with situations and people differently. You sleep better. Dare I accuse you of becoming more peaceful? Your relationships improve as a result; you even see those around you from a different perspective.

These results are predictable because you’re aligning yourself with Consciousness-Itself. The light of your inherent Divinity, svaroopa, is beginning to shine through. These organic lifestyle changes are the best part of yoga! They are your first steps toward enlightenment — you’re cleaning up your act.

It’s helpful to understand what’s happening to you. When you get the map of the inner terrain you are traversing, you can cooperate with the process and anticipate your next steps. The writings of the sages describe clearly how you…

— Excerpt from A Yogic Lifestyle, pages ix-xii

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Sukhasana: A Sweet Pose for Body, Mind and More

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By Nirooshitha Sethuram, Yogaratna

The sweetness of sitting is found in Sukhasana, one of my favorite poses. The name says it all. Sukha in Sanskrit means happiness, pleasant, ease, joy or bliss.

Sukhasana gives me all these experiences, and more, especially when well aligned with an upright spine. Then I settle into myself.  I find the balance point in my torso and use the natural support of my spinal column. 

I also use props to make myself comfortable.  Rolled blankets under my knees keep my thighs level, front to back. When I am well aligned with props, my head stays where it belongs, and my sit bones are leveled.  Then this relaxing, gentle pose helps ease any low back and knee pain. 

My whole spine lengthens from my tailbone all the way into my ribcage and neck.  I feel my hips opening. This spinal release unravels tension in my knees and ankles as well.

Then I can sit in Sukhasana for a longer time.   I simply abide in my own Self, settling into stillness, outside and inside.  I often sit in Sukhasana when I am listening to my Guru’s discourses and other teachings. I meditate in Sukhasana all the time.  The simplicity of this pose makes it easy for me to teach, meditate and pray.

Most of all, this pose soothes and calms my mind and grounds me inside.  It provides the physical support that allows me to experience a sense of inner peace and calmness while remaining completely present.  It fills me fully and brings contentment.  

Sitting in Sukhasana invites my mind to come inside, sit and stay. It also gives me the pillar of support while practicing Ujjayi Pranayama. I can accustom myself to the inner energies that are balancing and flowing up my spine.  My mind is quieted and my awareness turns easily inward.

This is all possible by the blessings of our Guru, Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati, whom we lovingly call GurudeviJi. I am forever grateful to my Guru and the practices she has blessed us with, so gracefully. 

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Gurudevi’s Dedication

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Her 2024 Calendar Journal begins with her dedication – dedicated to you!  

She truly wants you to get the most out of your new year.  See what she promises you in this book:

May you get the most out of each day

by putting yourself into it most deeply,

most profoundly, most deliciously,

by bringing your own Self with you

everywhere you go,

every why you do,

every when you are,

with every single one you see.

Live as though it matters.

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Yogic Discipline

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

In yoga, discipline is not the same as “spare the rod and spoil the child” — punishment and enforcement.

Yogic discipline is the means by which you are uplifted and transformed. It is how you can get the highest and the best from your yoga practice.

Continued application of your own effort, on a regular basis, is what makes you successful at anything in your life: yoga, art, business, relationships, etc.

The best athletes and musicians must practice daily, yet they do not consider it an onerous duty. Top musicians love to do the scales! True discipline is doing regularly what makes you feel best. Regularity is the key, and it is what ultimately makes it easy. Consider who creates this regularity? Your job may require you to keep certain hours. This then determines when you eat, get up, go to bed, and have free time.

A newly self-employed or retired person often has difficulty organizing these things, because they are used to an externally imposed discipline. Yet, even enforced discipline can yield great benefits. A woman in her ‘60s told me she hated her mother for sending her to piano lessons and making her practice every day. Now the piano is one of the greatest joys in her life. In yoga class you experience…

Excerpt from Yoga in Every Moment, Gurudevi’s first book (page 4)

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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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