By Cayla (Mangala) Allen

The chanting, teachings and meditation with Gurudevi uplift my soul. Shifted into a sense of ease, I settle into my own Self.

Every week, I attend Gurudevi’s satsangs online: Swami Sunday and Wednesday Chant and Meditation. She delivers the full package from chanting, through teachings and on to deep meditation.

She brings this maha (great) yoga to life by making the ancient teachings accessible and relevant to our modern day lives.

Gurudevi’s Teachings Article comes out at the beginning of each month. It’s like a two-page sutra.  Reading it, I receive mini aha moments.

At Swami Sundays, Gurudevi unpacks what she wrote making the article even easier to understand. I receive huge aha moments. This makes it easy to apply the teachings to my life.

Each satsang offers layers of understanding. While sitting at her feet, whether in person or online, I receive this by simply being aware. The effect on me, and on who I feel myself to be, is awesome. 

Then sweet, deep meditation sets in as she offers her guidance. I settle in deeper as the meditation arises.

What I experience in these moments is beyond words. Sometimes unconscious, sometimes conscious, in Consciousness, I am somewhere beyond my mind. 

The gong sounds. Gurudevi brings us through the sweet pause that closes meditation. I practice bringing my deep experience into my life.

I used to think the key to life was to live passionately. I now know it is to live fully enlivened from within, living in Self in every moment. 

Passionate for me was living on the edge, riding the roller coaster of life with all its ups and downs. Now I live from center, blissfully observing the multi-diversity of the universe.

I revel in amazement of all that exists, knowing there is more than I can imagine. I am grateful for all. On some level I know there is only One and I am That. 

I am grateful for a true Guru who reveals all and leads me to greater understanding. This readies me to receive more as I move toward Enlightenment.

Who am I? Why was I born? Who created me? And what am I supposed to do here? Why am I here? Your mind cannot answer these questions. Your mind asks them, even mulls them over and repeats them again and again. This is called contemplation. Your mind may try on various answers, but your mind won’t rest until….

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Having Experiences“

Your Inner Essence is deep, timeless, expansive, unchanging — the inner infinity of your own Divinity. And everything else is also Divine.  So, you care. You care and you act on that caring, but freely, without need, without greed and without…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Perception“

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Every birth is a Divine embodiment, a manifestation of the One Source. Each and every one of us is made of the Divine energy that becomes all.

This means your birth was a Divine birth. It may be that your parents felt it. New babies are easy to adore. It is because they don’t yet know how to block their inner light from shining through.

Yet some babies grow up to share the Divine Light with others. The world celebrates the birth anniversary of a few: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed. But were they the only ones?

No. Many saints are honored in several traditions, with their life stories told and retold in order to inspire and to bless others.

India specializes in saints. Not only do they honor more of them, throughout a longer timeline, but they acknowledge that anyone can become a saint. Even you? Yes, even you. But you have to apply yourself, like with anything you want to accomplish. And you need training.

Gururupaaya.h. — Shiva Sutras 2.6

The Guru is the goal as well as the path.

The Guru both teaches you about your Divine Essence and gives you tools to experience it — both the goal and the pathway to it. Since the Sanskrit word “guru” means teacher, it applies to a teacher of any subject. Maybe you had a piano guru when you were growing up.

The West has adopted this term to refer to an expert in any field, like a stock market guru or a basement guru. Yet the term came from India, specifically naming the God-inspired yogis who began coming to America in the 1800s.

A Divine teacher teaches about God. This is true of any priest, minister or pastor. Yet yoga holds them to a higher standard in order to qualify for the title, Guru. They must have found God, not merely on the outside, but within their own being. Now they are a Divine teacher in two ways: being Divine and teaching about God.

You are also able to find God within, yet you might not have the dharma to teach. Being a saint without having a world mission means you…

Something keeps your breath moving and your heart beating, even when you’re asleep. Oh, Shiva. The whole point of yoga is to know who and what this is, that makes your body be a living body – that makes the screen of your mind be so…

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Inner Self“

Your essence is Divine Consciousness concentrated in a unique and individualized form, but you compare your individuality to everyone else’s, and you can always find someone who…

—  Gurudevi Nirmalananda

From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Response Ability“