Clinging means your happiness depends on this certain thing. Repulsion means your unhappiness is guaranteed by a certain thing. But when any single thing will either give you happiness or unhappiness, that thing or that person is in charge. You already know not to rely on the weather for your happiness, yes? How about…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Differences Divide“
What are you hanging on to? Let me put it another way. Anything that you’re hanging on to, if God wants you to have it, you will still have it when you surrender to God. God wants the best for you…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Surrender to God“
By Amanda (Purna) Schmidt
Our Namaste poster offers a sweet reminder of your inherent Divinity.
It features the hands of Svaroopa® yogis — including Gurudevi Nirmalananda at the center — in Anjali Mudra.
This simple gesture expresses respect and gratitude. The word “namaste” carries deep meaning. It serves to acknowledge the Divine in all.
Touching my heart, I honor the Divine in yours, from the infinity of my own Divinity ― the One in All.
What a beautiful way to honor yourself as well as others.
Learn what to eat as a yogi — and when and why. Each class includes Gurudevi’s teachings as well as a tasting session with discussion and easy recipes.
Drawing on yoga, Ayurveda and scientific nutritional guidelines, she teaches you how to feed yourself healthfully, deliciously and consciously in your own home.
As the principles you learn begin working for you, you’ll notice a change in your physical and spiritual well-being.
Enrollment is limited, so everyone can participate in the discussions as well as get personalized support and recommendations from Gurudevi.
A previous student shares her enthusiasm for what she got from “Yogic Nutrition”:
A great course! It’s interactive and delicious in every way. Learning from a Guru and a Swami, how can you go wrong? They take you right into their kitchen. And they come into yours. – Therese R
What do you do when there’s nothing left to seek? There’s nowhere to go, nothing to gain, for it is all already found within, oh, Shiva. Instead of looking for something to get, something to fill me, I am already full. So, I look for what I…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sanctification“
By Barbara (Girijananda) Hess, Yogaratna
Interviewed by Agnes (Aikya) Hetherington
I supported three students in profound healing through their Svaroopa® yoga practices as well as their receiving Embodyment® Yoga Therapy sessions.
The first was a colleague in her twenties. Our job setting was new to her.
Overwhelmed by stress, she cried everyday. When she learned that I teach yoga, she soon started attending my Svaroopa® yoga classes.
Before long, she enrolled in my three-week series “Ease into Meditation.” Then she enrolled in the Mandali Travels “Deepen Your Meditation,” a program taught by an Ashram Swami. She has continued deepening inward with Sutra Studies as well as a daily home practice. She has learned how to access inner peace and bliss.
All this has transformed her. “I no longer worry about stuff. I know I can keep my mind on a short leash,” she says. “I feel different around my friends. I don’t complain all the time.”
I was honored to be invited to her wedding a few months ago. From her new husband, I heard that she said, “I need to meditate and repeat mantra,” when she was agitated before the ceremony. Throughout the whole wedding, she was glowing and calm.
The second miracle is a client with two replacements of the same hip and neuropathy in her feet. She has returned to normal activity including walking without an assistive device!
I gave her weekly Embodyment® sessions, taught her Ujjayi Pranayama, and recommended a pose sequence for home practice. Besides the dramatic improvement in her surgical hip, she also gained sensation in her feet.
She had had neuropathy for two years. At a recent appointment, the neurologist said, “If this is working, keep doing it.”
Another of my co-workers is my third Miracle Story. She was having panic attacks in the course of supporting her mother, who was in hospice. In private sessions, I taught her Ujjayi breathing in Shavasana. With weekly private sessions, she anchored securely into her twice daily Ujjayi practices. The panic attacks ended.
Our Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation guides us in opening to our Divine Essence within. Encountering these teachings, she could see herself being a strong divine daughter. She felt much more present with her mom during her transition.
Now this colleague continues coming to my yoga classes. While staying loyal to her Christian beliefs, she embraces the experience of her own Divinity.
By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
At the beach, I revel in watching the waves rolling onto the shore. Each has its own personality. One wave is taller but another is wider.
One wave washes farther up the shore. Another gets swallowed up by one coming from behind. Yet they are all made of the same ocean water. They are all the same while they are all different.
Like this, Shiva is being everything in the universe. Every individual and every single thing is different from the others, yet all are made of Shiva. Shiva is having a glorious time being multifaceted, like a bride wearing three different wedding gowns at her wedding events. We love the play of the differences!
While Shiva is having a good time being you, you might not be enjoying it quite so much. Your focus on differences creates a “pushmi-pullyu” effect. Simply look at a serving platter full of cupcakes. You can get caught up in which of them will be most to your liking. But if someone beats you to it, you might have a few words to say or maybe a plan for payback. Unfortunately, things can escalate, even get out of control quickly.
Yoga says, “Look within. Find your own essence — see the One Divine Reality hidden in all.” Then you delight in the superficial differences. Your experience is like turning the wheel on a kaleidoscope, getting ever changing colors tumbling in the unchanging ray of light. And you get to eat your cupcake.
One way to work on your inner deepening is based on a sophisticated understanding of how energy becomes matter, including the physical matter of your own body.
You delve into your own experiences, exploring the cosmic process in reverse. You expand your awareness in a meticulously step-by-step process.
Sharire samhara kalanam. — Shiva Sutras 3.4
Dissolve the tattvas, each into the preceding, to realize the highest tattva, Shiva.
An easy example is vision. While you are seeing an object right now, perhaps words on a page, this is because you have the ability to see. This capacity of seeing is more subtle than any single object upon which you gaze. In this awareness, you have now expanded inward, dissolving from a single visual into your capacity for seeing. Each of these levels is a tattva (principle of Consciousness).
Delving into your ability to see, you realize that it is merely one type of perception, utilizing only one specific sensory capacity. Perception itself is greater than any single sensory pathway. Exploring into perception itself, you encounter…
Your own Self is always manifest, always present, always accessible, always easy to find. You just have to look in the right direction — inward. But your mind is constructed to look the other way. Your mind is a concentrated form of Consciousness with…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Jiva Becomes Shiva“
To discover who you are is the purpose of meditation. It is an inner exploration that takes you deeper and deeper within. But at the end of your meditation, your peripheral vision is wider. Your focus didn’t shut you down. It opened you up. Your capacity for caring, compassion…
— Gurudevi Nirmalananda
From Gurudevi’s full discourse “Peripheral Vision“
By Swami Satrupananda
More reps. Heavier weights. Longer distances. This is what we’ve been taught will give us physical health.
You get more by doing more. You push your body further and harder. You push through the pain. Grit your teeth and bear it.
And then once you’ve pushed your body as much as you can, you rest. You’re exhausted and maybe even in pain. You rest so that your body can heal from what you’ve done to it.
Is there another way?
Yes! Svaroopa® yoga starts with the resting. We begin every class with Shavasana, yoga’s relaxation pose. Lying on the floor, you prop your legs up, which supports your lower back. You put a blanket under your head. You rest and settle.
Your teacher then offers you a Guided Awareness: “Become aware of your toes, all ten toes, all at the same time . . .”
In this relaxation pose, your physical tensions melt away. As you are guided through being aware of your own body, your mind settles. Your mind slows down. You clear away the physical and mental fatigue of life.
Your class continues with an ease-full breathing practice that builds your reservoir of energy. The yoga poses target muscular tension in your spine. For this release, you move your body into easy angles. You prop your body with blankets and blocks. And then you soften into the pose.
Even in the standing poses, you soften into it. The goal is not pushing further and trying harder. Instead, the purpose is to open up to an ease of being in your own body, which is health-full, bliss-full and powerful.
Our classes end with Shavasana, and you experience the Guided Awareness again. This practice is so important that we do it twice. And you need the practice! You need the practice in resting, in settling into an easy state of being.
At the end of Shavasana, students sit up. As their teacher, I ask for comments. Their most common feedback is feeling peaceful, relaxed and full of energy all at the same time.
Yes, that is the way to live — all the time! You can feel that way too, by practicing Svaroopa® Yoga.
practice & grace: giving you your Self
revealing the mystery
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