By Maureen (Bindu) Shortt

“Microbiome” refers to all the organisms that live on us and in us.  There are primarily bacteria in your gut.  Your gut — your digestion — starts in your mouth extending down through your esophagus and stomach, on into your small intestine and through your large intestine.  Hole to hole, I fondly call it.

Within this system you have about six cups of bacteria.  They are meant to reside in a ratio of about four cups good bacteria to two cups bad bacteria.  The good bacteria finish digestion, particularly of carbohydrates and dairy.  They produce immune factors and Vitamin K, which keeps your blood as thick or thin as it needs to be.  They produce energy.  They kill off bad bacteria and viruses.  They neutralize carcinogenic substances.  They produce neurotransmitters that influence our mood and stress handling abilities.

The bad bacteria let their other bad bacteria set up in your GI tract.  They let viruses and harmful substances through.  They deplete energy, making us crave carbs, the food easiest for them to digest.  They don’t help with the digestion of other foods.  They weaken immunity.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to reverse the ideal ratio of good to bad bacteria.  All it took was that first course of antibiotics when you were a child.  It reversed your microbiome, leaving up to four cups of bad bacteria and only two of the good.  This inverse ratio impacts health throughout your body.  It impairs your ability to think clearly and to emote well.  Steroid medications, chlorinated water, smoking, birth control pills and even the biochemicals of chronic stress — all compromise your microbiome.

This compromise is now known to contribute to many health imbalances.  And not just in your digestive system.  The state of your microbiome influences obesity, allergies, auto-immune diseases, skin conditions, and many psychological conditions.  Ayurveda teaches that ama, toxins from an imbalanced microbiome, can settle in any body tissue.  This activates an immune response.

Fortunately, Ayurveda offers us many foods that replenish the good bacteria for stronger digestion and immunity.  Turmeric is anti-inflammatory.  Psyllium binds and removes toxins and bad bacteria.  Leafy greens, bran, barley and oats, onions, garlic and leeks, beans and lentils are all prebiotics.  Prebiotics feed the good bacteria, helping grow their population.

Ayurveda does not recommend taking probiotic supplements.  Instead, re-implant friendly bacteria by drinking homemade lassi a few times a week.  Lassi is made with live bacteria yogurt.  It feeds a fresh supply of good bacteria, which can then colonize further.

You can make the following recipe with just the yogurt, water, salt and cumin.  The mango, cilantro, and rose water help to soothe and calm excess summer pitta.  Have some of your lassi with your lunch, and then sip and enjoy the rest throughout the afternoon.  For one servicing of lassi, mix the ingredients below in a blender for 2 minutes (no less):

¼ cup live culture whole milk plain yogurt

1 cup water

Mango-fresh or frozen-to taste

Capful of rose water

Fresh cilantro to taste

Pinch of salt 2 pinches of ground cumin

By Deb (Sarmani) Beutel

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Take me again to Downingtown to see,

If I can learn to love me just for me.

To breathe and to pose, both inward and out,

It’s not what you say or you think or you shout.

It’s deeper within, a place you will find,

If you breathe and you pose, and you quiet your mind.

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Bring it all up and out it shall go;

Tears may start flowing but then you will know;

The pain and the stuff all frozen within,

will soften and melt, and let you back in.

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Yoga with new friends, slowing the time,

Do this a lot and you will be fine!

Leave all the stress and traffic and more.

Enter the Ashram and life’s not such a chore.

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I love Svaroopa® yoga, it gives me such peace,

I want to come back and gain a new lease,

On the true meaning of life and the changes I seek,

A fresh new perspective on how to release,

And the path to samadhi, just give me a peek.

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Kamala & Chiti, the best teachers and guides,

Embrace the teachings to soften your ride.

Life can be crazy full of busyness and haste,

But, if you choose wisely, yours won’t be a waste!

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Swami is so peaceful and the epitome of grace

Listening and watching her, to slow down your pace.

Meditation and chanting slows the breathing and mind,

Calmer you will be, and peace you will finally find.

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I slept through the night for the first time in years,

I finally let it all go through the poses and tears!

Listen and learn and do your asanas,

And life will be good and you won’t notice the piranhas.

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Practice you must, home or away,

and ensure you complete the Magic Four every day.

Practice your breathing, your Uijayi Pranayama;

Then let go you can of past pain and the trauma.

Bring back the joy and peace you will find,

Do Svaroopa® yoga and the world will be kind!

Originally from Southern California, Deb Beutel is retired from the Marine Corps after more than 20 years of service.  Trained in several other yoga styles, Deb is a recent graduate of the Foundations of Svaroopa® Yoga course.  Her experience of Foundations inspired this poem.  For more on her personal yoga journey, see her Yoga Alliance biography.

Dearest Svaroopis,

In closing our spring fundraiser — With All Your Heart — I want to thank you for your donation, with all my heart.

This fundraising initiative has been the most exciting so far.  Many of you responded with a gift for the first time.  in addition, many of you reached out to your own sphere of influence through Facebook.  In just a few weeks, you have greatly increased the visibility and name recognition of the Svaroopa® Sciences as well as contributed to the Ashram’s financial support.  Thank you, with all my heart.

Another amazing result is that you have shared an important part of yourself with those you love and value.  By setting up your own fundraiser on your personal Facebook page, you shared something important to you.  As well, it could be beneficial to family, friends and acquaintances.  How beautiful to be sharing the love widely!  I thank you, with all my heart.

Of course, some of you may not have felt comfortable using social media in this way.  Yet so many of you generously opened your heart by donating on the Svaroopa Vidya Ashram Facebook page, on another Svaroopi’s Facebook page or directly to the Ashram.  Together, your generous donations have and exceeded our goal of $20,000.  I thank you, with all my heart.

Giving is the ultimate heart opener.  Just like the riddle of the chicken and the egg, which comes first?  Your heart opens and then you give, or you give and your heart opens?  The good news is, no answer is needed.  Either order works miraculously!

In the coming year, your Board of Directors will be focusing on expanding the reach of the Svaroopa® Sciences.  The purpose is to bring Swamiji and the ancient teachings to spiritual seekers the world over.  Your loving generosity is supporting the flow of Grace far and wide.  Your financial contribution, given with all your heart, makes it possible for Swamiji to fulfill this vision.  Your loving donation, no matter the amount, fuels this transformation.

From my heart, to your heart, I thank you.

With Love and Gratitude, Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi, SVA Board President

By TC (Tattvananda) Richards

Svaroopa^® yoga opens my heart, which is one of the many things I love about it.  All the practices of the Svaroopa^® Sciences, no matter which I choose, open my heart.  Then who I really am is revealed.  The more I practice, the more I reside in my own Divine Essence.  What a gift!

The practices quiet my mind and turn me inward to an expansive experience. I call it my “heart,” but really I am settling into my Self.  I am carried into a place of immeasurable vastness.  It is infinitely greater than my mind can ever imagine.  When I live from this inner vastness, everything changes.  I love more purely.  I live more Divinely.  I move through the world with an ease I never thought possible.  The more I maintain a steady practice, the more steady my state remains.  Weaving this profound yoga into my life keeps me immersed in the Self.

Recently, a Svaroopa^® yoga teacher said to me, “I have to tell you, Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram is a world class teaching organization.”  She had just returned from a Teacher Training program.  She marvels that this yoga is developed specifically to take us to our own Divine Essence.  by Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda created every detail of the practices just for this inner experience and revelation.

Every part of Svaroopa^® yoga opens your heart, thus opening you to your own Divine Essence.  The practice of dakshina is one of those practices, unconditional giving.  It supports the organization for practical purposes.  It is important to keep the organization running smoothly.  In other not-for-profit organizations, financial support is called fundraising.  In this world class organization, however, fundraising is “dakshina.”  

Like your other Svaroopa^® yoga practices, its purpose is support on the journey to Self-Realization.  Dakshina frees you from fear and opens your heart.  Swamiji has based all these practices in yoga’s ancient authentic teachings.  She has designed them to open our hearts so we move through the world differently.  The love that she gives us in doing this is just so beautiful.

I practice dakshina with gratitude, to give back for the many things I am immensely grateful for receiving.  Just like all the other practices, it opens me to a place more expansive than my mind can imagine.  It opens my heart and settles me into the Self.  The more steadily I give, the steadier is my state.  Yet it is a paradox.  This practice, which is meant to be motivated by pure inner impulse, gives more back to me than I can give to it.

Please help the Ashram continue to serve you in the many magnificent ways it does.  Click to donate on our Facebook page or on our website page.  Your generosity is heart-fully appreciated.

This fundraising season we have found an easy way for you to open your own heart in this way, as well as to make this practice available to those near and dear to you.  Through a Facebook Fundraising Event, you can share your heart and raise awareness of Swamiji’s profound teachings that mean so much to you.

On our Facebook page, you’ll find the information to make a direct donation to the Ashram and create your own fundraiser for the Ashram.  It is easy to do. Here is how.

• For a single personal donation, go to the Ashram Facebook page.  Click on the Donate button on the cover photo.  When asked, designate an amount and a payment method.  Then click Donate again.  One, two three — that’s it.

• Create your own event, to magnify your capacity to share your heart — with the Ashram — AND with your Facebook friends.  Here’s how to create your own Ashram fundraiser on Facebook:

1. Click Fundraisers in the left-side menu of your News Feed. Then, click Raise Money and select Nonprofit/Charity.

2. Type in Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, and click on the link given.

3. Choose a cover photo, fill in the fundraiser details (we’re happy to provide them) and click Create.

4. When you’re given the opportunity to decide with whom you want to share this fundraiser, we suggest people who know how much you love your yoga, and who love you!  We suggest you NOT send it to your Svaroopa^® yoga friends on Facebook.  Let’s avoid sending the same fundraiser repeatedly to our community.

I invite you to do more yoga, open your heart, contribute today and offer this great practice to others.

By Carolyn (Karuna) Beaver

“Busy mind — busy life.” Sigh.

“It’s your mind that propels your frenetic pace.” Sigh.  

Swami Nirmalananda writes that our minds mess with us.  Our minds compel us to perpetual motion.

When I lead yoga philosophy discussions, I ask participants to find a phrase or sentence in a teachings article that resonates with them.  Maybe it’s something they relate to.  Maybe it’s something that provokes a reaction.  One such line jumped out at me Swamiji’s May article: The Inner Threshold. “You do things, lots and lots of things, simply because you want them to make you happy,” Swamiji writes.

Yes, I do lots and lots of things.  But I thought I did them out of love and responsibility.  I’m sandwiched between my elderly parents and my disabled daughter.  Also, between my paid jobs and seva duties, I’m still working full time.  Initially I didn’t agree that my mind compelled me to do all these things to make myself happy.  I was wrong.

I discovered this when I looked a little deeper, tracking back.  All the things I do come with an identity.  It is linked to an expectation — a “pay off” of sorts.  I am a devoted daughter, a loving mother and wife, an effective employee, a good yoga teacher, a dedicated sevite.  My expectations of my actions — devotion, love, effectiveness, dedication — are all about using these identities to give me something.  In other words, what I do makes me happy with who I am.  My mind is messing with me, no doubt about it.  Sigh.

When I get wrapped up in the do, do, do, my mind needs help.  I need to remember who and what I REALLY am — Shiva!  Swami says that it’s as easy as taking a breath and allowing a deep yogic sigh.  It’s her quick fix for May.  And it works, of course!

Every afternoon I stop the madness by doing at least 20-30 minutes of Ujjjayi Pranayama.  Yet when I need a quick fix, as I do often, I can do a yogic sigh.  It’s a technique from the Vij~nana Bhairava, an ancient yogic text in our Kashmiri Shaivism tradition.  Having learned it in Meditation Teacher Training, I often teach it in my introduction to meditation classes.  Swami calls the space after a long sigh, before the breath moves again, a “divine pause.” She’s right.  It’s heavenly.

In that pause, time stops.  My mind stops.  Swamiji calls it a “magical, mystical moment of complete stillness.”  Bahya kumbhaka is the pause after an exhalation, before your breath moves again.  It’s the pause that refreshes.  Swamiji says when you linger and relax into the pause, you hover “in the threshold between inside and outside.”  She calls it a surrender, a melting, into your capital-S Self.   I don’t see my activity level changing any time soon.  I have responsibilities.  I have dharma — duties to perform.  As I carry them out, what can change is my state.  With a sigh, I gain access to who I am at my core.  The “pay off” is the calm and clarity arising from within.  I recognize who I am inside.  I don’t rely on recognition from others or even from my own small-s self.  And all I have to do in the midst of my busy life is take a breath.  What a sweet way to live! Sigh.

By Kristine (Dhairyavati) Freeman, SVA Board Member

I was stunned by an inner visual of my heart frozen in a block of ice.  Swami Nirmalananda (then Rama Berch) had asked us to travel inward, down from our heads and into our hearts.  This was many years ago in Swamiji’s ”Heart Openers” workshop at a yoga retreat center.  Later, I realized that I had traveled through some tough times at a young age.  At that time, I had been unable to experience my experience while I was experiencing it.  The block of ice was actually a gift.  It preserved my heart for the future.  Swamiji’s workshop was the beginning of opening my heart and living from my heart.

Though I couldn’t feel my heart, I could feel layers and layers of muscular pain in my body. Practicing Svaroopa^® yoga began the process of unraveling my body’s muscular tension.  As my body began to open, I noticed the yoga defrosting my heart as well.  When I was able to add Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation to my daily practice, the process accelerated.  I had more and more experiences of my Divine Self within.  I felt grounded and supported by the inner vastness, the undercurrent of quiet joy.  I began to take that feeling into my life.

No matter which of yoga’s many practices you choose, yoga’s goal is the experiential knowing of your own Self.  It’s an inside undertaking, an insight job, propelled by your practices.  The Shiva Sutras, a primary text in the Svaroopa^® Sciences philosophy, describes the process this way: 

aasanastha.h sukha.m h.rde nimajjati — “Siva Sutras, 3.16 

Firmly seated in the heart, the yogi will be easily steeped in pure bliss.
(translated by Swami Nirmalananda)

“Firmly seated in the heart” doesn’t refer to your physical heart or your emotional heart, but the heart of who you really are.  Swami Nirmalananda describes it, “It’s what yoga does for you – immerses you in the heart of your own beingness.  This is the essential part of every human being, that core essence that yoga names ‘svaroopa.’”

When you open your heart, you naturally want to give from the bottomless depth of your being.  You want to contribute.  It works the other way too.  Swamiji says that when you open your wallet, even a little bit, you open your heart. Giving and sharing are a mark of personal, and yogic, growth.  You grow by caring.  You grow by contributing.  

Please join me in participating in our Spring Fundraiser: With All Your Heart.  Giving back to the source of the gift is the ancient yoga practice of dakshina.  Yet we are offering you a completely modern way to engage in it.  Make your donation online in our Enrollment System or on our Facebook page.

Do more yoga. Open your heart. Grow by caring. Contribute today!

By Ben Waters, interviewed by Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast

I have begun to wake up free and happy, as I did as a child.  My first waking thought is a happy one, “My God! What’s this day going to bring?”  I feel more connected to other people, at the Ashram and everywhere else.  I am experiencing a space of true freedom.  Day by day, it continues to unfold.

For most of my adulthood, I experienced life from a place of loneliness and isolation.  Sometime in 2014, I discovered Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda and got on the Kundalini path of Svaroopa^® Vidya.  From the first, I trusted Swamiji and her Teachings.  Deep knowings began to arise within me.  I knew I was headed in the right direction.  I could tell that longstanding pain was clearing as well as other “deep stuff.”

In early 2019 I experienced a monumental shift.  I felt energy move in my heart area: waves of bliss and a sense of expanding love.  As energy moved into my heart space, I felt that clearing was beginning. In that instant, a great amount of pain was released. 

In childhood, as I awoke each morning, I would wonder with delight what the day would bring.  At puberty, I lost my childhood self.  I turned into what other people thought I was. Over the years I forgot who I was.  I identified with the thought stream in my head.  I believed there was an inherent brokenness in part of me that needed to be healed before I was OK.  I always thought that I wouldn’t be whole, happy or complete until I became a better a person.  Life goals needed to be fulfilled; then I’d be happy.

When I first experienced Kundalini awakening , I did get scared.  Who am I without this familiar small-s self?  I feared I wouldn’t know who I am.  Now, however, I am coming to who I am — who I have always been.  Who I am is not someone new. It’s a deep remembering of who I truly am.  Then from this deeper space I am realizing nothing within me was ever broken.  I have a sense of acceptance of everything as it is.  I feel a welcoming toward who I am right now.  There’s no sense of little corners hiding things I don’t like about myself.  I see myself through a different lens, and realize there never was a problem.  There is no better version of me, even spiritually.  The only problem was that I didn’t know who I was.

These days, I read and listen to spiritual teachings, and do the Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation practices almost 24/7.  Then, just outside of my thinking mind, my inner voice says, “Oh yeah, everything is perfect. I just couldn’t see it from my old vantage point.” Then I forget!  And that keeps me on the path, steering me back to clear seeing.  Thank goodness, that has been established.

Swamiji’s Teachings are invaluable in supporting me on this path.  Her Teachings are seemingly so simple, yet incredibly deep and transformative.  In a recent Satsang, Swamiji talked about how the practices of the Svaroopa^® Sciences will take you to the heart.  Yogis sitting closer to her began to ask, “What is the heart?  The physical heart?  The heart chakra?  Is God love?”  Swamiji responded, “Would you just stop thinking about the heart?!”  She’s so good at taking us back to the actual, reliable practices.  The practices will get you there.  You can count on them to open your spine and your heart.  Tripping on the mind, wondering about concepts, is ineffective.  Instead, just do the practices.  They will give you your own authentic experiences.  The knowing that arises when you open up is beyond the mind.  

All I know is, Swami Nirmalananda gave us the practices.  If we do them, they lead us to this space of Self within.  The only thing to do is engage in the practices: yoga, japa (repeating mantra), meditation. When I apply effort to them with my whole heart, they take me to my own Self.

The blessing is that Swamiji has traveled the path as laid out by the lineage of her Guru and his Guru and so on back through the ages.  The practices have been passed down from time beyond memory, saturated with the blessings of all the Masters on whose shoulders we stand.  On this path, you don’t have to imagine transformation into existence.  It’s a given.

By David (Devananda) King, SVA Board Vice President

What does it mean to follow my heart?  How do I live from my heart? Before yoga, I really thought Hallmark made the whole heart/love thing up to sell greeting cards.

In school I was told to “pursue my passion.”  I was encouraged to choose a vocation that I could put my heart into.  After school it was suggested I follow my heart’s desire, find a job I loved.  I just could not reconcile the role of my “heart” in my life.  I did all the things I was supposed to do: career, house, wife, kids, neighborhood cookouts.  But there was a big gap between what I had and what I wanted.  When I started yoga, things came into focus.  Yoga reveals your heart, the heart of your own beingness, your own Divine Essence. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t have a miraculous epiphany.  Often fueled by desperation, moving from neighborhood cookouts to where I stand now has been a lengthy process.  Yet yoga gave me the tools to cooperate with the process.  Svaroopa^® yoga, specifically, leads one to understanding the heart’s role in a human being.  Yoga doesn’t refer to your physical heart or your emotional heart.  Yoga’s teachings on the heart refer to who you really are.

Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda teaches, “It’s what yoga does for you – immerses you in the heart of your own beingness… This is the essential part of every human being, that core essence that yoga names ‘svaroopa.’”  The Heart of who you really are! 

My story is not unique.  The lineage that Swamiji teaches from has supported countless people travelling this path.  What is unique is how accessible she is and how she brings the ancient teachings to life.  She does so in offering free programs weekly, recording her discourses and making them available as online Freebies.  Having access to these ancient teachings triggers in me an immense gratitude for Swami Nirmalananda.  She is the One who can lead us to our own Self.  Knowing that She can lead us all to the Heart of own Self further opens my heart.

When your heart opens, naturally you want to give from the bottomless depth of your being.  You want to contribute.  It works the other way too.  Swamiji says that when you open your wallet, even a little bit, you open your heart.  Giving and sharing are a mark of personal, and yogic, growth.  You grow by caring.  You grow by contributing.

This spring, we ask you to share your heart, your joy, your hope with those nearest and dearest to you.  We ask you to share the love by donating to the organization and the practices that give us so much.  We are also asking you to share the love by using social media to raise funds and to raise awareness of Swamiji’s profound teachings. We’ve only got 3 weeks to go for our Spring Fundraiser.  Help us by supporting the Ashram and its many services and programs.

We’re on our way to our goal, with only 3 weeks to go.  Thank you to the many donors who have contributed $16,000 toward our $20,000 goal – help us make it all the way by donating now.

And see our new Donor Gifts, a heart-full momento of your loving gift. 

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On our Facebook page, you’ll find information to help you either make a direct donation to the Ashram, or to create your own fundraiser for the Ashram.  When you create your own event, you magnify your ability to share your heart, not only with the Ashram, but with your Facebook friends.

It’s easy to do – here’s how. 

• For a single personal donation, go to the Ashram Facebook page.  Click on the “Donate” button on the cover photo.  Designate an amount and a payment method, then click donate again.  One, two three — that’s it!
• To create your own Ashram fundraiser, click Fundraisers in the left-side menu of your News Feed.  Then, click Raise Money. Select Nonprofit/Charity. Type in Svaroopa Vidya Ashram, and click on the link given.  You will choose a cover photo and fill in the fundraiser details, which we are happy to provide.  Click create and choose with whom you want to share this fundraiser.  Send it to people who know how much you love your yoga, and who love you! Don’t send it to your Svaroopa^® yoga friends on Facebook or they get the same fundraiser over and over again.  

After you make a donation, you’ll receive an email confirmation to the primary email listed on your Facebook account.  The email receipt shows that you’ve made this donation as a charitable contribution, and that you’re not receiving any goods or services in return.  Facebook sends your donation directly to the Ashram a few days after you make it! There are no fees to you, and no fees to the Ashram.  It’s simple and effective.

Want some help creating your fundraiser? Let us know and we’ll have someone phone you and walk you through the steps.  Call 610.644.7555 or email donate@svaroopayoga.org.  

Swamiji says, “Life is rich and full and varied, and there’s enough time and money for you to nourish all the aspects of your life, including your spirit of generosity.” But, she says, “you must give if you want to be happy. It is part of human nature; it’s the way it works for a human being. And it is yoga.” Do more yoga. Open your heart. Grow by caring. Contribute today!

Ellen (Lajja) Mitchell, SVA Board Member

You take a Svaroopa^® yoga class, then feel more peaceful and settled, yes?  Then, someone comments on your eyes and face being so bright and how content you seem.  This is due to the Grace of our lineage.  The practice opens you to Grace, which saturates your mind and your life with light and love. 

In 2013, I experienced this on the India trip with Swami Nirmalananda.  As our wonderful time in India drew to a close, I knew my life had changed.  I told Swamiji she had removed walls from around my heart, but I was not sure I could let the walls stay down at home.  Swamiji asked that I keep an opening for her.

Now I sometimes want to rebuild those walls.  Yet I have learned what this path teaches:  you put your heart into whatever you do, especially into your yogic practices.  As yoga quiets your mind, you tune into your heart, your own inner essence. 

“Heart-full experiences are essential to life,” says Swamiji. “Without them, life has no meaning.  You want to have the feeling of your heart being full… overflowing with what you have to give.”  When you do the Svaroopa^® Sciences practices with all your heart, your heart fills with love and gratitude.  Then you have so much to give. 

Reflect on what your Svaroopa^® yoga practices have given you.  Share the love by donating to our Spring Fundraiser, supporting the organization and the practices that give you so much.  

We’re also asking you to share the love by using social media to raise funds and to raise awareness of Swamiji’s profound teachings.  I thank you from the bottom of my heart, whether you donate directly and/or help us raise awareness and funds through Facebook.

Here’s how you do it.  Make a quick and easy donation on our Facebook page.  Simply click on the Donate button at the top of the page.  One, two, three — give your name, the amount of your gift and payment method.  You’ve just participated in dakshina, giving back to the source of the teachings.

Or create your own Fundraiser for the Ashram.  
* In the News Feed section of your own Facebook page, click on Fundraisers.  
* Another window opens.  Click Raise Money; then select Nonprofit/Charity.
* On the Select page that opens, type Svaroopa Vidya Ashram at the top and click on the Ashram link displayed.
* Choose a cover photo; below it, fill in what the Ashram is and why you are raising funds for it.
* Set an amount you’d like to raise.  Almost done!
* After clicking Create, decide with whom you want to share this fundraiser.  Invite those who know how much you love your yoga, those who love you.  Don’t send it to your Svaroopa^® Yoga Facebook friends to avoid sending the same fundraiser over and over again to our community.

Want some help creating your fundraiser? Let us know and we’ll have someone phone you and walk you through the steps.

To firmly seat yourself in your heart, contribute today. Steep yourself in svaroopa: the bliss of your own being.  Call 610.644.7555 or email donate@svaroopayoga.org.

By Lynn (Gurupremananda) Cattafi Heinlein
SVA Board President

When Swami Nirmalananda first asked me to do seva, I had a fulltime job.  Actually, it was the equivalent of two fulltime jobs.  I was living with a lot of stress.  She had just taken initiation as a swami and the Ashram was still in the early stages.  You might think that being asked to do more work would send me right over the edge.  On the contrary!  I chose to plunge in with both feet.  Surprisingly, seva saved me from my small-s self.  Seva continues to give me my Self.

I am not the only one who is having this experience.  Currently, approximately 100 sevites are actively working to support Swamiji and the Ashram mission. Their generous offering of time and talent is a priceless gift.  It takes pressure off our Ashram staff and helps operations run more smoothly.  Our 11 working Board members, all volunteers, have stepped into deeper levels of responsibility.  Their commitment has enabled Swamiji to spend more time teaching, writing, and traveling to support you and your local communities.

Why do sevites do all this? What is the payoff?  Seva keeps the sevite in the loving and transformational flow of Grace.  While Grace is always present in your Svaroopa^® practices, stepping into serving the flow of Grace is another level of experience entirely.  Profound moments of transformation — spiritual breakthroughs — arise from supporting Grace through seva.  No matter what your seva is, you are making a difference for your fellow yogis, and even more for yourself. The more seva you do, the more you push through your limitations.  This increases your capacity for personal growth.  The more you surrender into “not having enough time,” and dive into serving, the steadier your inner state becomes.  It is quite amazing.  Pushing yourself beyond your limitations through seva actually gives you your Self!  Ask any sevite.  You will likely hear the same thing.  When you donate your time, your expertise, your hands and your heart, you will be reimbursed 100-fold.  You get paid in joy!