By Sonya (Sharaddhananda) McNeill
Interviewed by Marlene (Matrika) Gast

The people in Ganeshpuri have this incredible capacity to make you feel welcome.  It seems deeper than general kindness and hospitality.  I first traveled to Ganeshpuri with Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda in 2013.  On the 2017 trip, I was greeted with a personal warmth that made me feel as though I had returned home.  It was as though they had held me in their hearts for four years.  During my stay I was taken care of in a myriad of ways that I could never have anticipated.

Our group stayed at the Fire Mountain Retreat, headed by disciples of Bhagawan Nityananda.  One of their charitable initiatives is training women in impoverished communities in sewing.  They craft beautiful quilts, coiled fabric purses, placemats and various other items.  I had the opportunity to visit their shop. I met the seamstresses and picked out fabric for quilts for my nieces’ Christmas gifts. After a few days, the head seamstress showed me the base square for each quilt.  My nieces cherish the splendid finished quilts —this piece of India that I brought to them.

My most ecstatic memory is two-fold: the yaj~na (Vedic fire ceremony) and receiving my Sanskrit name from Swamiji the next day.  The Brahmin priests lit the fire by wrapping rope around a slender stick, standing in a long wooden tray filled with light cotton fibers.  A priest held both ends of the rope and pulled it back and forth, feet braced against the tray, twisting the upright stick with all his might.  It reminded me of the Shivaratri story of churning the ocean. 

We all chanted mantra as the priests worked ardently to light the sacred fire.  There was a continuous play of process, being present and letting go of outcome and attachment.  All the while, the Brahmin priests, their faces full of joy, were laughing and chanting. 

They playfully challenged each other. The chanting was like a battle of the bands.  They multitasked, arranging flowers, fruit and other offerings for the fire.  They chanted ancient Sanskrit words with specific intonations.  They marked the beat and emphasis of the words with hand gestures.  It was a miraculous blend of cacophony and melody.

Our group participated in the yaj~na, feeding ghee and other offerings to the fire.  I felt like I fed my “small-s self” to the fire.  I was transformed.  The culmination was my exchange with Swamiji when I took my Brahmacharya vow and received my Sanskrit name.  Since our yaj~na, I have felt continuously supported by Grace.  I’m carried in the midst of my life as though seated on an arati tray as an offering to God.  My transformation continues, mentally and spiritually and I am profoundly grateful.

By Valerie (Dasi) Light Trautlein. Interviewed by Lori (Priya) Kenney

Becoming a Svaroopa^® yoga teacher happened to me in stages.  I started practicing yoga at age 20.  In my mid-20s, I had a profound experience that detached me from the world.  I felt there was nothing left.  But I thought, “I’m here, so I’ll serve God.”  Then I realized I wanted to teach yoga. 

I tried all different kinds of yoga and took a Svaroopa^® yoga class.  I fell in love with Svaroopa^® yoga and wanted to incorporate it into my home practice.  I borrowed The Primary Practice DVD that first day!  First, I went through the whole DVD, doing the poses.  Re-watching the DVD, I paused it many times to take detailed notes on each pose.  Thus, I could practice them after I returned the DVD.

In 2008, I realized that Svaroopa^® yoga was what I wanted to teach.  This happened when my mind quieted completely while I lay in Jathara Parivrttanasana (Rotated Stomach Pose).  Less than a month later, I was off to take Foundations of Svaroopa^® Yoga.  My local Svaroopa^® yoga teachers had opened the door.  Inside was the Guru.  Once I met Swami Nirmalananda (Rama at the time), I couldn’t stop thinking about her.  She had knowledge I wanted.  She had a deeper presence and a capacity to impact so many people so effectively.  In my Foundations course there were 65 people.  She was impacting all of them.

Over the years, I had tried different kinds of work and odd jobs.  I’d kept thinking, “There must be a career for me out there.”  I tried social work in group homes and being a chiropractic assistant and managing the office.  I cashiered and managed a store.  I taught preschool and people with developmental disabilities.  For a time, I was a self-employed healer.  Nothing worked until I gave myself to teaching Svaroopa^® yoga.  Teaching Svaroopa^® yoga gives me everything I’ve ever wanted, while I’m doing my job.

Teaching makes my own path easier.  My understanding of the teachings increases.  I understand now that when Swami Nirmalanandaji repeats something it’s really important.  Teaching deepens my experience of the importance of releasing tension around the spine.  And More — teaching brings me closer to my Guru.  The Grace of the lineage is flowing through me as I’m teaching.

But, bottom line, I teach Svaroopa^® yoga because I have been blessed with Sadguru Nirmalanandaji as my teacher.  As my Guru, she opens me teaching in a deeply rooted, spiritual lineage.  In Yoga, Sweat and Mysticism, she writes:

…if you read the ancient yogic sages, they say yoga is about who you are, deep inside…  This is yoga — pure mysticism, meaning it is about the mystery of life, the mystery that is hidden inside every human heart and being.

Svaroopa^® yoga offers upliftment, freedom and choice.  You learn how to live in a new way.  You honor yourself and your own Divine Self (svaroopa), inherent within you.

By Ruth (Rama) Brooke

“Yoga” can be defined as ‘and’,” explained Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda in a recent Shaktipat Retreat.  This definition is my favorite takeaway from that weekend.  It led me to realize how I’d been living for so long in the “either/or.”

I would berate myself for slipping out of yoga (capital-S Self) and into life (small-s self).  Then I would retreat from life (self) back to yoga (Self) to recover.  I felt like a hamster on a wheel, never getting anywhere.  With all the yoga I do, I thought I shouldn’t experience intense emotional pain.  I shouldn’t have a bothersome, busy mind.  I would become frustrated.  I didn’t know it was possible to live in the “AND.”  The Shaktipat Retreat gave me a whole new perspective.

Swami Nirmalananda gives intentional shaktipat three times during a Shaktipat Retreat.  Other time is spent in blissful preparation, with discourses, meditations and chanting.  Meal breaks nourish the body with blessed food.  Our Guru designs the menus.  The whole experience is thus prasad, Guru’s sacred gift.

On Saturday, Swamiji leads us in the pre-dawn Sri Guru Gita chant and meditation.  After breakfast, as well as a discourse and ecstatic preparation chants, Swamiji gives the first intentional shaktipat.  Although there are three levels of shaktipat — mild, medium and intense — she always gives intense shaktipat.  What a recipient gets depends on their ability to receive. 

At first, I thought that not much was happening for me.  I knew that meant I needed to make myself more available, more vulnerable.  I needed to let go of anticipation and judgment.  As soon as I did, I began to feel the familiar power of Grace.  I felt the shakti rippling through the room and Kundalini rippling through me.

In repeated Shaktipat Retreats, I have learned to let go of expectations.  I’ve experienced similarities and differences in my shaktipat experiences.  I’ve stopped comparing my experiences to that of others.  Shaktipat gives us just what we need.  Our individual experience is customized.

For me, shaktipat is more about what happens when I return to daily life.  Integrating my shaktipat experience there, I am more reliable and more present.  This happens because shaktipat has cleared internal blockages.  My inner knowing of Self deepens.  I feel more secure and stable, even during tumultuous times.  Storms swirling around me do not change who I am on the inside.  I can be in the discomfort that life sometimes puts forth, AND experience my Self simultaneously.

My mind can be busy, even multi-tasking to accomplish what needs doing.  AND I can be present and aware.  My priorities are clearer.  I dive deep and do more yoga.  AND, at the same time, I fit life (and my many small-s selves) in around my Self.  When I notice the disturbances in the atmosphere around me, I know to look inward.  The answers are within. I am grateful beyond words for the power of shaktipat, revelation, Grace and the great Being in our midst, Sadguru Nirmalananda Saraswati.  They are all the One, who shines the light upon us so that we may see the light that we are.

By Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati

Sometimes people need help but don’t know they need it.  When it’s gone to an extreme, an intervention might be called for.  Interventions are designed to help then see how bad it is as well as show them they have other options to choose from and people who will help.  It’s a gut-wrenching, heart-opening experience whether you’re intervening or being targeted with such love.  Yoga is much the same.

The ancient sage Patanjali defined yoga as an intervention for your mind.  His second sutra is a “definition sutra,” yoga is the quieting of your mind.  All of yoga’s practices are for the purpose of quieting your mind, including poses, breathing practices, chanting, study, devotions and more.  As an intervention, yoga is supremely effective.  Do a little yoga and your mind is more peaceful.  Do more yoga and your mind settles into a deeper dimension.  It’s a doorway to meditation.

Hopefully you catch yourself before you’re lost in the extremes of what your mind can do to you.  The mind’s capacity to harass you is already proven.  Taken to an extreme, a true intervention might be called for.  But yoga pulls you back from the self-created precipice, providing not only health and beauty, but a new perspective on life that gives you sanity.  The most powerful of yoga’s tools for this purpose are things you do to work with your mind directly, the meditative practices.

To understand the importance of yoga’s intervention, simply try to meditate after a busy day.  Your mind keeps going even though your body has come to a halt, seated in your meditation pose.  Buddhist meditative systems have you watch your mind or breath.  Yogic systems have you intervene with your mind and direct its attention inward. 

It’s mystical, seeing how easily this works, especially when you’re doing it with someone who has been trained and authorized to move you through the process.  I learned from a great Meditation Master from India.  He trained me how to help you get past your mind to the deeper dimension within.  He also authorized me to share this ancient system with you, so you don’t get trapped in your mind any more.

By Annie (Aanandi) Ross

Being driven to my dentist, I was feeling anxious.  A filling had fallen out of a tooth.  I didn’t know whether it could be repaired or whether it would be extracted.  I had just read Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda’s March Teachings: Elevate Your State.  I needed to elevate my state, so I took her “quick fix challenge”:

Your quick fix for the month is to do two minutes of mantra repetition.  Stop whatever you are doing and apply your mind to mantra.  Watch the clock. See if you can repeat more mantras than one-per-second!

I closed my eyes and started repeating mantra out loud, very fast — very, very fast.  Well, I never thought of going so fast.  I began to feel a sensation.  My chest vibrated, both in the front and in the back.  Inside, I felt joy, bliss, delight and laughter well up.  I knew I was the one All-Beingness.  I was both the One-All, and the One being me, in my individual form, simultaneously.  It was ecstatic.

This elevated state reminded me of a similar experience the day before.  I had visited a beautiful Hindu Temple, tucked away in a small corner room of a Dartmouth College chapel.  I go there sometimes to share in their nightly evening puja.  On the evening of March 4^th, I had attended their Maha Shivaratri Puja.  During it, abhishek (a holy bath) was performed for Shiva. 

For the congregation, worshiping — in ways our Sadguru teaches us — is second nature.  Their chanting was continuous.  In this sacred space, fragrances were intoxicating.  Many candles blazed.  Near the end, bells rang and rang, from the front and back of the room.  The ringing vibrated in my ears, on and on.  I felt vibration in my chest.  I felt that everything was All One, and being all, at the same time.  I felt the vibration of Beingness.

The Maha Shivaratri Puja elevated my state.  So did my two-minute, fast repetition of the mantra I have received from Sadguru Nirmalananda.  I experienced what she describes in her March Teachings:

All-Beingness becomes pure vibration, which splinters itself into many individual vibrations.  These vibrations are mantras…

To know the “more” that you already are… you need an enlivened mantra, one passed down through the generations of yoga Masters.  Such a mantra gives you your “capital-S Self,” the experiential knowing of your own Divinity. In delight, I understand experientially.  Thank you, Swamiji.

By Marlene (Matrikaa) Gast

DIY usually means “Do It Yourself” but, at the Ashram, it’s about how you “Deepen It Yourself.”  Each DIY long weekend cultivates your mastery of the practices that make the biggest difference.  Students describe their experiences below, to give you a look at the many DIY benefits:

All my DIY experiences have been wonderful.  These programs are exquisitely crafted and executed, designed for maximum results.  The teachings, the asana, the home program practice, and the follow-up phone calls.  Perfect. — Connie M.

Poses are taught and taken apart so that I could understand the subtle nuances.  The pose handouts describe each pose from beginning to end. — Deena R.

The poses, gorgeous chanting, vichara (guided self-inquiry), meditations and discourses — all conspire to take you to that unshakable depth.  And the luxury of time with Swami throughout the weekend was a great, great gift. — Deborah W.

It enlivened me on many levels: body, mind and spirit.  As a result, I am now able to practice asana and meditation daily.  I experienced the “Peace that Passeth Understanding” in a profound way and got tools to continue doing so. — Barbara B.

The balance of poses, chanting, meditation and Swami’s discourses all leads you inward to Self.  Each one builds on the next, creating “aha’s” as well as “aaaaaaaa-hhhhhhhhhh’s.” —Ellan C.

This exceptional program is well created to open you up to all levels of your being: physically, emotionally and most important spiritually.  You are carefully guided into a deeper level of consciousness, your own Self. — Loretta F.

In this immersion retreat, we spend so much delicious time with Swamiji; these programs are very personal.  These retreats are gems. — Belle M.

It was so transformational.  It has deepened my practice and my life. — Marilyn A.

Grace flows through the whole program like a river.  The more I swim in this river of Grace, the more I abide in Grace. — Judith K.

Amazing integration of Svaroopa^® yoga practices and lovely interactive time with Swami. Great integration for return home.  I’m so blessed to have had this time with other dedicated yogis and the depth and length of time with Swami. — Barbara H.

By Maureen (Bindu) Shortt

The three Ayurveda seasons roughly follow cultivation cycles.  This means the Ayurveda seasons vary among different geographies.  In the USA, we look at Kapha season running from March through June.  This is when the earth awakens from her winter slumber.  She sends out tender shoots, which the animals eat for cleansing.  Most crop planting happens during this time.  It is a season of heavy cold moistness, both in the fields and in your body.

During winter, November through February, we eat to support the warmth and immunity needed to make it through cold months.  Winter’s cold dryness can prompt your body and mind to compensate by over-producing mucus.  It can settle in your digestive tract as ama or toxicity.  In spring, your body and mind want to clear out any accumulated ama and rejuvenate through all levels of tissues.

Your digestive tract runs from your mouth through your esophagus to your stomach and small and large intestines.  The organs that support digestion also can get congested.  These include your liver, gall bladder and your sinuses.  (Yes, your sinuses!)  Digestion is meant to contribute eighty percent of your daily energy.  Your digestion can be so compromised that it depletes eighty percent of your daily energy.  Unfortunately, this is the case for most people.

Season of renewal and growth, spring is a great time to clean out and strengthen digestion.  Agni is the Ayurvedic word for the digestive element, likened to fire.  This fire transforms food into tissues and energy.  Agni is also considered the fire of intelligence.  Certainly, your digestive system has its own innate intelligence whereby the thousands of processes happen.  In this way agni is a bridge between our physical and non-physical selves.  It ultimately digests and transforms all our experiences.  Hence the importance of keeping it running strong.  This also explains why, in Ayurveda, digestion is called “the gateway to your health.”

To support your digestion, and thus your health, stoke your agni with four simple steps:

1. Eat your meals at about the same time each day. When you do, your digestion will start to produce its enzymes about 20 to 30 minutes before your next meal.
2. Eat only at meals. If you snack between meals or chew gum, digestion becomes strained as it tries to produce digestive juices it was not anticipating.
3. Choose foods that support strong digestion. Cold foods and beverages, leftovers, fried foods, heavy combinations of two or more proteins, drinking a lot with meals — all inhibit the fire of digestion. Warm, cooked meals of grains, beans, fruits and veggies are all easily and completely digested.
4. Cultivate your digestive consciousness. Don’t read or use technology while eating. Sit still and give awareness to your digestion as divine intelligence.

To help with digestive strengthening and cleansing this spring, try Turmeric Black Pepper Tea:

Bring to a boil 2 cups of water, 2 teaspoons of turmeric and ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Then it’s your choice whether you strain the tea through cheesecloth or, like I do, just pour it in the cup.

You can add a little sweetener such as honey. This tea is also a great anti-inflammatory drink. Once you’ve made it once and tasted it you will know if you want to adjust the turmeric for more or less bitterness and the pepper for more or less pungency.

By TC (Tattvananda) Richards

When I first started doing Svaroopa^® yoga poses, I hated Lunge.  Now it’s my cure-all for life.  I use it for every ache and ailment.  I do Lunge when I’m not feeling well and when I’m grouchy.

I actually began Svaroopa^® yoga with individual Embodyment^® sessions and vichara (guided self-inquiry).  Later, for a home practice, I relied on recorded guidance to do Four on the Floor.  I avoided Lunge — the third pose in the sequence — I just lay in Shavasana instead.  When I attended an asana class, naturally, I would have to do a Lunge.  It did get easier with repeated classes.  Then I took the Foundations of Svaroopa^® Yoga course, and everything changed.  I found a love for Lunge.

Because Foundations is a five-day introductory teacher training, you learn to teach the primary poses to others.  Thus, you stay in poses longer and learn more about alignments and propping.  That’s when Lunge became my favorite pose.  With extra support to meet my personal needs, I was able to relax into the pose.  Then I could feel its benefits profoundly.  My legs and spine expanded.  And expansion spread into my heart and mind.

While I did not take Foundations in order to teach, the program was hugely beneficial to me.  I experienced profound opening.  I learned to prop myself in my home practice more effectively.  My feelings for Lunge morphed into love. Overall, I experienced more deeply the transformative effects of releasing spinal tension.  And I learned more about the importance of precise alignment and customized propping to meet my individual tensions.  Lunge as well as other poses in my home practice are delightful now.  It’s amazing to have such reliable tools for living life to the fullest.

By Lissa (Yogeshwari) Fountain

l consider myself the queen of self-care.  I can’t remember the last time I needed to take a sick day.  Doing my practices keeps my immune system strong, my spine flexible.  My spirits stay uplifted and steady.  Ujjayi Pranayama, meditation, chanting and asana start my morning.  I offer seva, repeat mantra and try to remember my Guru throughout each day.

Still, I am capable of throwing myself off a deep end, forgetting how to swim!  Swami Nirmalananda’s Teachings article, Assess Your Condition, could not have come at a better time.  Swamiji points out, “While yoga’s tools work better than anything else, you need to pay attention to how you’re feeling and what you need.”

A lot is going on in my life.  My husband is retiring, and we are putting our house on the market.  I’m teaching my classes, travelling and teaching for the Ashram.  I am seeing clients, leading satsangs, writing blogs, etc.  Endings, beginnings and maintenance — it’s all Shiva dancing through form and beyond form.  Yet it is so easy to give into my distracted mind’s demands.  I’m in hurry.  I forget that all is Shiva, being me.  I find myself doing my “wonder woman yogi” routine.  Then it’s time to stop and assess the condition of my body and mind.

I am noticing the four symptoms of a mind distracted from Self.  Rendering Patanjali Yoga Sutras 1.31, Swamiji lists them: pain, despair, nervousness and interrupted breathing.  She reveals that “in addition to the four symptoms, there’s a mystical secret hidden in this sutra.  Patanjali explains their common cause: vik.sepa (vik-SHAY-paw) — distracted mind.  He means your mind is distracted from your deeper essence.”

I find I am most susceptible to interrupted breathing (shvasa-prashvasah).  My mind is fragmented with endless details and plans.  In this busy time, I need a moment-to-moment infusion of Divine Essence.  I need to settle down, and tap in.  Swamiji’s February “quick fix” makes this accessible: “do a few Ujjayi breaths, anywhere and anytime.”

Just today, a yoga buddy could hear the anxiety in my voice.  So, together, we stopped everything and took a few slow, long, easy Ujjayi breaths.  The space between us filled in with Self.  The sound of my breath got me out of my head and into my body.  The space within me filled with my essence and expanded.  It opened me to the still center within.  Shiva!

Swamiji describes that “you hold your breath so you won’t feel the feelings that are surfacing or are just below the surface.”  Until I read this, I had no idea it could be happening to me.  The truth is, I am experiencing a major life transition.  I am trying to dial down the accompanying emotions and dramas.  There are, however, some big feelings to feel, not to repress! Doing a minute of Ujjayi breathing re-centers me.  Divine Essence fills me.  Nothing outside is so urgent.  Perspective returns.  It was just the mind, after all.  When I feel thrown into the deep end, I don’t have to flail my arms.  I don’t even have to swim.  I can breathe, listen to my breath’s sweet sound and soften.  Then I float in Guru’s Grace.

By Ellan (Shanti) Catacchio
Interviewed by Marlene (Matrika) Gast

I confused seva with volunteering.  I know now, however, that seva is yoga because it puts me in my stuff.  That inner experience triggers spiritual growth.  In volunteering, I just focused on getting the job done.  In offering seva, I look at the effects of the process on me.  I used to say I work better under pressure.  Then I realized I only worked under pressure.  Seva has helped me change that.

My first seva involved updating contact information.  The three-part process included calling, emailing and finally sending snail mail.  I learned a bit about how to navigate an online communications system.  All the while, I had to push myself through resistance and a deeply engrained habit of procrastination.  I kept telling myself it was seva.  You just do it.  Humbly.  In my case, grumbly.

Liberation came in the form of my next seva: transcribing Swamiji’s recorded talks.  Heaven.  I actually asked Swamiji if it was still seva if I enjoyed it.  Thus, I was treated to one of her wholehearted laughs.  I was confusing seva with tapas.  I loved that this new seva took information from my ears to my fingers and then to my eyes to review what I had transcribed.  It required a lot of going back and listening again and again.  How sweet that was.  But nothing lasts.  We transcribers were far ahead of the editors.  So, then, I was asked to do editing.

I confessed up front that editing was not my best skill set.  Yet I stuck it out for a time.  I got books for help but was not effectively contributing to the final product.  Still, this seva was full of the Grace of revelation.  It threw me into some very old stuff from school days.  I recognized that gap couldn’t be closed and other sevites had that skill.  I was able to release the editing seva without my small-s self being devastated.

My current sevas include labeling and organizing our photos in an online app.  I also send letters to non-cash donors, providing documentation for tax purposes, and I send notes to honorees who have been named in cash donations. Through seva I’ve learned to recognize old identities and bad habits I need to shed.  I’ve learned humility in doing what I am told when I don’t want to.  I’ve learned to trust in a process I don’t fully understand.  I have cultivated willingness to learn new things and the capacity to step out of my comfort zone.  Doing seva is doing more yoga; doing more yoga reveals our true Divinity.  In the meantime, it gets stuff done.  How great is that!