Aura

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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…

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The Seeds of Your Future

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

January 1 of any year is no different than other day, except that we agree on a special name for it, “New Years Day.”

The universe did not begin 2000 years ago, so it is really not a “new” year nor a “new” millennium. 

Even the names we give to the days of the week have no real significance. However, more people die of heart attacks on Monday mornings between 3 and 7 am than any other day and time.

Doctors tell us that squirrels die of heart attacks too, but no more of them die on Monday mornings than on other days. That is because squirrels don’t have Mondays. We are affected because we layer meanings onto the names of the days and the activities related to them. They are very real for us — and can even be fatal! 

The New Year and New Millennium is created by the mind, but the mind is incredibly powerful! Your mind creates your reality. You perceive things around you, make decisions and then act upon them, which affects you and the world around you. This is the law of karma — what you do has an effect, what you say has an even stronger effect, and what you think has the strongest effect of all. So what do you think of the New Millennium? Is this all hype, or is it that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? What you think determines what you will do with it. 

The Shiva Sutras describe the state of an enlightened being: iccha shaktir uma-kumari, — s/he lives in the fullness of knowing of every moment as a divine moment, blossoming with the newness of spring and saturated with the joy of a newborn baby. For such a master, every moment is a golden one. There is no need for an annual rite of new beginnings. But the rest of us need a jump-start. 

You are laying the seeds of your future in what you think and in what you decide to do. If you go to yoga classes, you’ll feel better and be healthier. But if you don’t do yoga, how will you feel in another two years? Your plan may be to let your body get better by itself, but has it so far? You may have already proved to yourself that your body needs some help.

Yoga offers more than physical benefits. It is not merely about how you feel. It is really about who you feel yourself to be. With regular yoga practice, your sense-of-self is found in a deeper inner dimension of reality and is less a function of the circumstances around you. In other words, you develop an inner locus of control — you are less a victim of circumstances. And you may even find some of that “inner bliss” that everyone is talking about! 

When you take yoga classes, you will also improve other people’s lives. One man came to his wife’s graduation from our Teacher Training program and announced that he’d recommended that everyone in his office do yoga. We asked, “Why? You’re not doing it yourself.”

He said, “Yes, but my life has improved so much since my wife began yoga, I figured it would get even better if everyone at work would do it.” This was a smart man. Now, he’s even smarter — he’s doing yoga himself! 

Your future arises from the present; what you are doing right now determines how you will feel later today, tomorrow and the rest of your life. The New Millennium is a golden opportunity — what are you doing with it?

— Excerpt from Yoga in Every Moment, pages 132 ‒ 133 

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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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My Favorite Marker Pose

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By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast, Yogaratna

Every time I do Downward Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana), I savor the experience.

To prepare, I lengthen my arms out on the floor, and feel a soft knot unravel between my shoulder blades. It’s like a looped scarf simply smoothing out. Nearly effortlessly, I back into the pose.

I feel supported and protected by my leg bones. Miraculously stable, they take my body’s weight. My torso feels fluid and light. I feel enlivened and timeless. A pure, blissful awareness of being expands from within and envelopes me.

In my 30’s, I found I could do yoga, though I’d nearly flunked high school physical education. Down Dog has been a loyal friend. In Down Dog, I proudly sunk my heels into the floor while others had to lift theirs. True, the teacher suggested I seek a chiropractor for my visibly tight upper spine. But my heels landed! I was good (or so I thought)! For decades, I continued with yoga classes in different styles. Down Dog was always my favorite pose. I stayed in delusion.

Finding Svaroopa® yoga, I first felt the bliss of spinal opening and then learned the truth. Overstretched ligaments are a big problem. I could press my Down Dog feet into the floor and go into all kinds of pretzel poses. But this deceptive flexibility kept my spine tight.

Fortunately, I enrolled in Foundations. That “iceberg” hiding in the depths came to light. After YTT 1, I vowed to practice Svaroopa® yoga poses exclusively. No more Down Dog — not until YTT 3 a few years later.

Being trained to teach Downward Facing Dog as a Svaroopa® yoga pose was a breakthrough. I felt my spine and whole body come alive. It’s a lifetime Marker Pose for me. Down Dog shows me, in no uncertain terms, the miraculous power of Svaroopa® yoga’s spinal decompression.

I now do Down Dog with reverence. It reveals the sanctity of my human body and sends me into bliss.

Meditation Tips & Tricks

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Free Program with Gurudevi

A day without meditation would be like a day without eating — you can do it, but why?

Enjoy all the benefits you’ve heard about:  inner clarity, creativity, peace, healing and happiness. 

Learn directly from Gurudevi Nirmalananda in this FREE online program.

Wednesday February 7

1:30 – 3:00 pm (Eastern Time)

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Your take-away is personal, empowering you to make a choice about when and how you meditate as well as why.  When all these factors line up, you wouldn’t want to miss a day! 

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Tantra Means Loom

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By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Embodied spirituality is built into all our Svaroopa® Sciences.  It’s there from the yoga poses, through your subtle internal processes and especially including your meditative practices.  Svaroopa® yoga is a modern-day expression of the very ancient tradition of tantra. 

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 from Embodied Spirituality, pages 7‒10

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Gurudevi’s Chanting & Meditation Weekend

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By Andrea (Arya) Perry

Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney  

Feelings of uneasiness and self-consciousness arise when I sing.  I am hesitant and resistant to sing.  

Consequently, chanting is tapas (doing the hard stuff).  Cultivating the opposite and tapas helps me dissolve these self-limiting patterns and deepen into Self.  Also chanting is a good way to open your heart.  By opening your heart, you open and transform your mind.  For these reasons, I registered for Gurudevi’s online Chanting and Meditation Weekend two years ago.

It stems back to when I was a child.  I loved singing camp songs.  In sixth grade, I decided to try out for chorus.  The teacher’s “put-down” responses to my singing translated into feelings of rejection, inadequacies, unacceptance and isolation.  They squashed ME.

Being self-conscious of singing is an old pattern.  Because I now know I am Self, Consciousness-Itself, no matter what, this pattern no longer defines who I am.  It needs to be dissolved.  And it is progressively dissolving over time through Gurudevi’s yogic teachings, practices and Grace.

The theme of our Chanting and Meditation Weekend retreat was Durga.  I wasn’t familiar with her.  I learned that Durga embodies the strength and power that destroy obstacles and block knowingness.  She’s the protector of knowingness.  

We chanted “Kali Durge” over and over again.  We listened to stories about Durga, and we meditated.  The interweaving of chanting, storytelling and meditation gave rise to the qualities of Durga within me. 

By the end of the retreat, I was Durga.  I was the warrior Durga that overcomes and is victorious over all obstacles to unknowingness.

Chanting and Meditation Weekend

Living Mysticism Day-by-Day

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Take a peek inside. See how Gurudevi’s new Calendar Journal helps you with yogifying your day, every day.

January 18  

Svaroopa® yoga specializes in core opening, the decompression of your spine, both physically and energetically.

January 19

Each time you lift and open your spine, you stay a little more open and become more able to live in that openness.

January 20  

Svaroopa® Yoga’s practices turn life’s momentum from contraction to expansion.

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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!

Svaroopa® Yoga Therapy
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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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