By Krishna (Phil) Milgrom

Do you wonder who adds the Daily E-Quote to the Ashram website homepage?  That is Pam Church, CSYT & Svaroopa Vidya^® Meditation Teacher.  She is honored and thrilled to be serving the community in this way since 2014.

She sets up all the daily quotes on the Ashram homepage, making sure each one corresponds to the Daily E-Quote emailed to subscribers.  To do so, she coordinates with Margot Garritt, whose seva is to email the quotations.  The source of all is our monthly teaching article and the Contemplation Quotes Svaroopa^® yoga teachers offer at the end of each class.

Pam finds her seva enriching.  Monthly, she goes through all these inspiring quotes, giving her the opportunity to immerse into the teachings more deeply.  “When I am doing this seva, I am paying attention to detail and so must be fully present,” she describes.  “I have the opportunity to carefully read all the monthly quotes as I enter them.  I take in all that they have to offer.  In the process, I feel my connection to Swamiji, the Ashram and the lineage.  I feel the support that this brings for my own learning and inner opening.”

Pam wonders whether she’s getting “too much” relative to what she is giving.  Yet she is comforted knowing her service is making large ripples.  “This seva brings the daily quotes to a wider audience.  Whoever visits www.svaroopa.org, from anywhere in the world, will automatically see them! How wonderful to get the teachings out into the world this way.”

The Seva webpage explains, “In ancient India, seva was believed to help one’s spiritual growth and at the same time contribute to the improvement of a community.”  For Pam Church, seva is truly all that.  She feels spiritually transformed, while her seva supports the spiritual transformation of her beloved Svaroopa^® yoga community.

By Swami Nirmalananda

If you were studying Zen, you’d look for a Roshi.  In Tibetan Buddhism, the teachers is often a lama, even a Rinpoche, who is a reincarnation of a previously recognized lama.  In Theravada Buddhism (aka Mindfulness Meditation), the root teachers are honored by the title Ajahn, a monk who is a teacher in the forest tradition of Burma.

In yoga-based meditation, for the deepest teachings and fastest progress toward enlightenment, you study with a Swami, a yoga-monk.  As a student, you get benefit from any teacher who is ahead of you on the path, but you get the most from the teacher who has gone the deepest.  A swami is one who has dedicated their life to Self-Realization, commonly called enlightenment.

Mainstream lifestyle focuses on family, wealth, beauty, sexuality and peer pressure, well depicted in media.  Monks are people who say, “Been there, done that,” whether it was in a past lifetime or in a misspent youth (like myself).  Most swamis born in India take the initiation before turning 30; Western swamis usually take longer to figure out that spiritual development is the most important thing in their life.  I became a swami in my 60’s.

You don’t have to be a swami to teach.  There are many good yoga teachers and meditation teachers who practice deeply and continue their studies beyond their preliminary certification.  Correspondingly, I was a good teacher before I became a swami.  I lived a yogic lifestyle, based in my own home, focused on family relationships and working as a full time yoga teacher.  I did my best for my students and they got benefit.

My sannyasa (swami-hood) initiation was done at a Vedic fire ceremony, yaj~na.  Facing God in the fire changes you.  Ever after, swamis wear orange, the color of the fire.  When I became a swami, all the other priorities fell away.  I am forever grateful.  Only one thing remains — Consciousness.

A swami is not a priest.  Priests are called “brahmins,” who perform religious ceremonies, including weddings, funerals and Vedic fire ceremonies.  As important as this is, it’s religion, not yoga.  Swamis are yogis, devoted to God but devoted to the God within.  This is yoga, not religion.  A yogi who attains yoga’s ultimate promise, and dedicates their life to serving others on the path, must be authorized by one who was authorized.  Only then can they serve as a Guru.

Not every swami is a Guru; some are still working on their own enlightenment.  They simply have a deeper commitment and apply more of their time and energy to it.  Not every Guru is a swami.  Many of the yogic lineages feature married teachers, even passing their Guruhood on to their children as a family legacy.  My tradition, Kashmiri Shaivism, is a Tantric tradition with several thousand years of swamis leading the way.

Most Westerners have trouble with the long Sanskrit names, so most people call me “Swami.”  Swami is the title of a yoga-monk.  Sva means “Self,” your own Divine Essence, so swami means “one who is one with his Self.”  Some people call me “Swamiji” (pronounced SWAH-mee-jee), with the -ji on the end being a term of love and respect.

My given name is Nirmalananda, which means “the bliss of freedom.”  My parents had named me Pamela, a precursor to my swami name, Nirmala.  The names even rhyme!  At the end of Nirmala is -ananda, which all monks in my vowed order get.  It means bliss.  What a beautiful promise is held in my name.

Saraswati is the Goddess of Wisdom and Creativity.  I am a member of the Saraswati order, as are most of the monks that brought yoga’s root teachings to the West.  The Saraswati order is a teaching order, thus I teach.  Technically, I am a member of the Mahanirvani Akhara, based in Mumbai and Haridwar, India.  I lead two facilities in Downingtown PA, a residential Ashram and a retreat facility, as well as one in Varanasi India, where I am in residence twice a year.

I have been authorized to share the depth of yoga’s timeless teachings, both through initiation as well as through teachings and practices.  It is a privilege to serve spiritual seekers, to awaken them to a deeper dimension within and to make this time-tested technology available to a hungry world.  As is traditional, most of my teaching programs are free, to make them easily accessible.  I am deeply grateful to the international community of yogis who provide the financial support that makes my Downingtown locations possible and gives me the luxury of teaching for free.  To share the highest with others, to give your heart and being freely, it’s a glorious way to live!

By Chiti Aion

Get up, quick breakfast, go to work, dinner, Netflix? Then repeat.  The day-to-day routine can get tired after a while, not to mention stressful.  I remember this feeling during my first year as an elementary school teacher.

Not only was every day repetitive, I was still completing my graduate degree.  My routine was getting up, grabbing a quick breakfast, getting to work by 7 am, working through lunch and dinner, getting home at 9 pm, getting to sleep — and repeat.  I needed something to maintain this schedule and to revive my enthusiasm for life.  That was when I started Svaroopa^® yoga.

To fit the yoga poses into my morning routine, I got up earlier.  The effects were immediate.  Even though I was getting less sleep, I had more energy throughout the entire day! Instead of dragging myself through the day, I had pep in my step.  I was doing the same things I always did, but everything had changed.  I knew it was because of the yoga.

The difference was coming from the inside.  I was already filled with joy, so everything I did reflected that state.  My coworkers commented that I always had a smile on my face.  Hugs and “you’re the best teacher ever” letters from my students were at an all-time high.

When I realized what I was getting from Svaroopa^® yoga, I knew I had to share it with others.  I started by creating a yoga program for fellow teachers at my elementary school.  They too were amazed by feeling both calm and energized after class.  The effects of one class would carry them through the week, feeling more alive, focused and refreshed.

I look forward to offering you the same experience — and more — in our upcoming 6-week series: “Re-Energize Your Boring Life!” Click here to register.

By Kumuda (Karen) Schaub, interviewed by Matrika Gast

Before taking a Shaktipat Retreat with Swami Nirmalananda, I’d always felt that discipline was punishment.  Now I understand that the discipline of Svaroopa® Vidya practices is a kindness to myself.  It is deep support for my internal process.  Having received Shaktipat from Swamiji yearly since 2013, I’m eagerly anticipating my fifth in October.

My first was quite surprising.  I’d been a yoga student for about three years when my teacher mentioned Shaktipat.  She casually asked, “Do you want to come?”  With each new Svaroopa^® yoga experience over time, I knew it was what I needed.  So, even though I didn’t know exactly what to expect with Shaktipat, I signed up.

At the beginning, I knew nothing about the Guru or the Guru’s function.  I knew nothing about her Guru, Baba Muktananda, nor his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda.  I now know this is our lineage of Shaktipat Gurus.  It is the source of transformative power and Grace.

Rooted in this lineage, Swamiji gave Shaktipat three different times in the retreat.  With the first, I felt that she had reached through my whole spine and into my tailbone.  Physically, my tailbone was painful.  I wanted to be anywhere except sitting on my stack of blankets for meditation!

At lunch Swamiji said, “It’s like childbirth.  The pain has a purpose.”  For me, the laser beam of Shaktipat into my tailbone initiated profound changes.  When I returned home, I was different.  Even though a beloved pet died a few weeks afterward, I navigated that process in a new way.  I was more able to be present with the pain and sorrow instead of reacting against it or retreating.  Again, I knew that this Svaroopa® Vidya path had given me exactly what I needed.

After my second Shaktipat Retreat, I felt that everything inside was different.  I had shifted.  I thought, I don’t know what to do with myself.  Then I thought, That’s right.  To live from Self is different.  The doors to my Self had blown open.  And at my third Shaktipat Retreat, these doors opened to a vision of the whole galaxy.  I realized this is what is inside.

With each Shaktipat, the effect was more subtle and more profound.  The uncovering of my deep Self continues to be a revelation.  Every time, there’s more of that for me to experience, more of what I never knew was there.  The More.

I have come to know that these immersions bring me into the process of deep excavation.  It unpacks the things I’ve carried with me for lifetimes.  It can be painful.  Yet I know that it’s only painful because my “small-s” self wants to avoid those things that are so deep.  Ultimately, this process is joyful.

So I keep doing my practices, and talking with myself about what I really want.  I want to know the Self all the time.  Now I know Self in my meditation, in my little home and talking to another yogi.  But I want to know it at my job, at the grocery store and while taking out the garbage.  My mind can’t quite wrap itself around what it means to be Enlightened.

Yet through Shaktipat Retreats I’ve experienced beautiful glimmers of my Self.  Being That all the time is an amazing goal.  Shaktipat continues to create big openings, more space, more room within.  I am then able to settle into my Self in a different way.

My practices have evolved into a steadfast discipline in the last six months.  Until then, practice first thing in the morning was not always a priority.  My “to do” list would sometimes take precedence; I would get lost in the shuffle.  But with steady practice now, I guarantee time in the morning for Ujjayi Pranayama, asana (poses) and meditation.  When possible, I add chanting of Sri Guru Gita.  If not, I chant it on the way to work, or sometimes at work.  These practices support my state, integrating the experience of Self into daily life.

My appreciation and gratitude for the ability to be in my life in this way — in relationship with a Guru who is there for me without fail — is immense.

Ute Mazel-Reeves, interviewed by Matrika Gast

For 8 years as my husband’s caregiver, I continued to deepen my Svaroopa® Vidya practices.  I continued to feel I was growing in my process.  When he died last year, I thought I’d pick up where I’d left off as a householder.  It had involved extensive socializing with friends as well as traveling.  However, I realized it was an identity I no longer related to.  I remembered Swamiji’s teachings.

As old identities fell away, I didn’t want to construct another “small-s” identity.  I sensed a powerful opportunity to see what lay beneath my personal stories.  This process, however, was anything BUT blissful!  I felt that I was stuck in darkness.  I experienced a sense of nothingness.

I still knew who I was in the deepest levels.  Yet I couldn’t feel myself as Beingness.  I had clarity of where I was.  But I could feel only the contractions, the limitations that that bind us into time and space.  They felt so heavy on the lightness that I knew myself to be.

From Swami Nirmalananda’s deep teachings, I recognized what was going on for me.  I was in fear of annihilation (anavamala).  This is the all-too-human limitation that blocks our knowing of our own Self.  Maya creates the swirl of the external world of objects and experiences (through Her kanchukas, Her powers), further covering that inner knowing.  Anavamala drives us to construct identities for our small-s self.

Resisting that urge, I was yet not able to experience my deeper Beingness.  So, I reached out to my Guru.  I signed up for the July Shaktipat Retreat with Swamiji.  Everything changed.  With Her, I am always on the path, embraced by Guru’s Grace.  Within, I asked her to please make me fearless.  With Shaktipat, my state shifted.  I felt opened to new possibilities, to explore how to be joyfully and meaningfully alive, without the small-s identity.

It feels like progress; the fog is lifting.  My path is clearer, with Guru as my guide.  I foresee new understandings forming.  I am learning how I can express myself from the authentic place of my Self.  To let go of constructed identifies, I am exploring their remnants.  Meditating, japa and chanting Sri Guru Gita give me the lifeline for which I’ve been reaching.

Remembering a profound experience from the July Shaktipat continues to propel me into knowing my own Self as the One Self Being All.  I felt there was no barrier between my Guru’s heart and mine.  Infinite heart space was encompassing us both.

By Addie Alex

Hit by a chairlift while skiing, Claudia’s pelvis had been fractured in three places as well as her arm. She also developed sciatic pain. For six months she faithfully did physical therapy along with chiropractic sessions and acupuncture. In August 2017 she found Svaroopa^® yoga at the suggestion of her sister-in-law.

Even though her range of motion was improving, her left leg and arm were numb, she had no strength, and her hips were crooked. At her first session, she told me that she had trouble getting out of her car and even a chair. Having spent many hours fruitlessly trying to feel better, she felt frustrated and depressed.

Once she saw that she got results, she committed herself to Yoga Therapy twice weekly and a home practice that included Ujjayi Pranayama at least once daily.  When she said her goal was to get back to skiing, I had my reservations, both because of her discomfort level and occasional pain.

“After a few sessions,” Claudia describes, “I began to feel the change in my body. Over the next two months, with twice weekly Yoga Therapy sessions and daily yoga practice at home, I stopped going to Physical Therapist, the chiropractor and acupuncture.”

The amazing thing is, she got the results she sought in less than three months.   Thanksgiving weekend she texted me a picture of herself and two daughters in their ski gear looking very happy! Being able to get back to this family activity was very important to Claudia.

“Now the numbness in my leg and arm is almost completely gone. I no longer experience sciatic pain. I am feeling stronger. My hips are more level, and I am able to get out of a chair and not limp. Feeling more fluid and flexible, I find myself running upstairs. I am sleeping better and feel less stressed. I owe feeling great to Addie, her staff and Svaroopa^® yoga.”

By Swami Nirmalananda

I’d never heard of it.  I’d been doing yoga off and on for almost 15 years, and didn’t know that such a thing was possible.  Someone can simply propel you into deep and profound meditation?  Wow!  Really?  Then I experienced it.  I got Shaktipat and my life changed forever.  I am so grateful.

“Such Masters are rare,” my Guru often used a classical yogic metaphor to explain.  “Instead of teaching you how to grow a mango tree, they slice open a ripe mango for you to eat.”  Such Masters must qualify to do this work.  They must have been born unenlightened, received Shaktipat from their Guru, served him and studied with him until authorized to do the work.  They must be a Kundalini Master, one who has completed the inner journey and can ignite it for others.  My Baba qualified on every count.

Baba Muktananda giving Shaktipat

Immediate and profound meditative experiences opened up from the moment I received his initiation.  It’s called Maha-Shaktipat Diksha, “maha” meaning the greatest of all the types of “shaktipat,” meaning an energetic infusion that falls in the category of “diksha,” a holy consecration or initiation.

Other types of dishka are not energetic infusions.  For example, mantra diskha is when you receive a mantra, which might be from an enlightened or an unenlightened being.  It gives you Sanskrit words to use on yourself, words that are more beneficial and uplifting than the things you usually say or think.  Over time, they wear away your limitations.  How wonderful!

There are other types of Shaktipat, energetic infusions that are about healing and happiness.  While these are beneficial and important goals, they are not yoga.  Yoga’s goal is that you become enlightened in this lifetime.  Do you want it?

I did.  At the time, I didn’t have the words to name what I wanted, but it was what I had been seeking in so many ways.  The map of my life had been like a dotted line meandering through a desert, looking for an oasis of spirituality.  I visited many oases, but without finding the river that fed them all.  When I got Shaktipat, I found not only the river, but the source of the river.  I’ve been drinking from it ever since.  It’s inside.  Maha-Shaktipat Diksha opens it up.

Swami Nirmalananda giving Shaktipat

Now I am graced with the privilege of giving the gift my Guru gave me.  Muktananda gave Shaktipat to tens of thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands.  We were so fortunate to receive his gift.  Yet few have been authorized to carry on his work.  It’s a sacred trust.  It is my way of serving him, by serving you.

Near the end of his life, he had so much to give.  Instead of resting on his laurels, of which he had many, he continued to give us Shaktipat.  Several times every evening, without warning, he’d burst into the meditation hall adjoining his bedroom and walk among us, touching our foreheads and blasting us open again.  In the years I had with him, I received Shaktipat over 200 times.  Only once is needed, they say, but I needed more.  It was like I’d been dying of thirst, having lived in a spiritual desert for so many years.  I soaked up what he gave; it emanated off of him.  He had a vibe.

Consciousness has a vibe.  Your innermost essence is Divine Consciousness, but you don’t know.  Not yet.  It needs to be uncovered.  It needs to be initiated — a new beginning.  Maha-Shaktipat-Diksha gives you your own Self.

OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo nama.h

To your inherent Divinity, again and again I bow.

By Karuna (Carolyn) Beaver

A dog drops everything to chase after a squirrel. My mind frequently drops everything to chase after nothing. Nothing but repetitive, wandering, mindless, meaningless and often negative “stuff.” It fills my mind, but doesn’t fill me or lift me up.

Trying to remedy this, I’m using my mind differently by doing more japa. When repeating mantra silently, I can lose track of it, making it more difficult to stay conscious. So I decided to set aside some times for out loud mantra repetition. Repeating mantra out loud, I can coax my mind into staying present.

My daily “mantra breaks” include driving my car. The garage door goes up, so mantra begins. Another is when I’m cooking. Walking into the kitchen is my cue to start mantra as well as dinner.

By doing japa, I am using external cues to start an internal process called dharana. The August contemplation article Use Your Mind Differently explains this first step towards meditation. Swami Nirmalananda and Rukmini write, “Dharana cultivates your ability to focus, but uses it to focus inward instead of outward.” Swamiji translates dharana as contemplation.

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Wonderfully, this contemplation draws my focus inward in the midst of outward activity. This is yoga in the midst of life! Recently I made pesto. With a sink full of basil, I repeated mantra as I plucked each leaf. As I mixed basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil, my mantras swirled together. They were as loud as the food processor. I watched in total bliss as the ingredients came together. My husband commented that it was the best pesto I’d ever made.  I think he could taste the mantra.

It’s great to infuse my food and my driving with the Grace of the mantra. Yet I don’t do it to improve my cooking or driving. I do it to reshape my mind. As Swami and Rukmini say in their article, I do japa to imprint my mind with Consciousness.

Our Shaktipat tradition gives us the gift of an enlivened mantra, infused with the power and Grace of our lineage. I am grateful to be part of this lineage of meditation masters. Because I’ve received the gift of Kundalini awakening from Swami Nirmalananda, mantra fills me up. Filled from the inside, I’m transported into the bliss of my own being.

I’m looking for new ways to build more mantra into my life. Swami’s advice is golden: “to elevate and uplift your mind, to have a Divine mind, do more japa.”

By Janaki Murray

Shopping, watching TV, even talking and listening a lot in social situations draw my mind outward.  However, I’m also aware that I pursue the opposite these days.  I spend more time in activities that quiet my mind.  They allow me to draw my senses inward more easily.  In our July Contemplation, Delving Inward, Vidyadevi mentions a few: listening to music, being in nature, daydreaming.  Of course, many Svaroopa^® yoga practices are included.

I realise my mind is thus becoming more and more inclined towards Consciousness.  These changes have been gradual and incremental.  I don’t even notice them sometimes.  Consequently, the yoga philosophy in our Contemplation Articles is so helpful.  It brings awareness to where I’ve come from, where I am and where I’m headed.

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My husband and I are very fond of chocolate (who isn’t?).  A box in our fridge holds a wide variety of chocolate.  We like to choose!  Two or three times a year, I have a chocolate-free month to practice tapas.  It so happens that this July is one.  Last evening, my husband sat next to me munching away.  Yet, I felt no desire for chocolate.  This is the first time I have not had that craving during a chocolate-free month.  This really did give me a sense of freedom, just like Vidyadevi’s experience of losing her desire for an apple fritter and coffee.

My mind was quiet, no longer harassing me with a chocolate craving.  In fact, I didn’t feel the need for anything.  I was content.  What a stark contrast to the effect of “pursuing my senses.” Then my mind is hanging onto a thought or to a desire, not letting go.  It is unsettling, disturbing, even annoying.  I used to live like that all the time.  No wonder I had such a busy mind!

Vidyadevi & Swamiji said, “When a desire arises, don’t indulge it.  Channel that energy into your quest for Consciousness.  Consciousness is reliable.”  I am grateful for this coaching on the practice of pratyahara (withdrawing the senses).  I don’t find it easy, but it helps me deal with desires.  It helps quiet my mind and facilitates my inward journey.

I also find a two-way street in operation here.  It is meditation that really gives me my daily “dip in the ocean” of Consciousness.  That is where I find my own Self.  It is the inner experience of my own Self that flows into my life making all things easier – including the practice of pratyahara.

By Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati

I didn’t know.  I’d never met an enlightened being before.  How was I supposed to tell?  And even if I could tell, what was I supposed to do with him?

As I took my seat on the floor in front of Baba, along with 250 others of us who’d just arrived in India, I wondered all these things.  Except that I wasn’t thinking coherently, so I didn’t really have the words I’m using now.  I was feeling joy and deep peace, mixed with gratitude and unexplainable love.  It was very confusing, especially since I’d never actually met him before.

We Westerners lack the basic training.  Growing up in India, you imbibe basic information from childhood about realized beings and the human capacity to know Consciousness.  Fortunately, my Baba explained about Self-Realization, both so we could see it in him as well as find it in ourselves.  One of the Sanskrit texts we chanted daily says:

“sruti.h pratyak.sam aitihyam

anumaana”s catu.s.tayam,

yasya caatmatapo veda

de”sika.m ca sadaa smaret.”—Srii Guru Gita 65

You must decide the Guru’s worth

by the four sources of knowledge:

the Vedas, sacred histories,

your inspection and inference.

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That morning, as I sat in the courtyard under the mango trees with the sun rising, I was using inspection and inference.  But I didn’t know the Vedas or sacred histories.  I had no yardstick to measure him against.  Yet something was happening to me, something I liked, something I had longed for all my life — or longer.  As I sat there, my inner pain was lessening, ebbing away.

Peace arose within me, even bliss, every time I sat under the mango trees with him.  I went back every day after that first time.  I understood it only when he explained, “You measure the value of the Guru by the change in you.”  Duh!  That change was obvious to me.

Yoga’s ancient writings describe the characteristics of a Guru clearly and carefully:

A qualified Guru is knowledgeable in the texts,

a devotee of God, free from jealousy,

an expert in yoga, does yoga practices,

is always in a pure yogic state.

He is devoted to his own Guru

and is a knower of the Self.

Only one with these qualifications may properly serve as Guru.

— Advaya Taraka Upanishad 14-15

(rendered by Swami Nirmalananda)

An impressive list of qualifications — this is what makes a Guru worth meeting or spending time and studying with.  Their teachings must be consistent with the ancient sources, yet they teach from their own experience as well as intellectual knowledge.  Thus, they are not teaching mere theory, nor are they making it up.  Also, the Guru is devoted to his own Guru, which means he had a Guru — no self-appointed teachers.  His inner state must be steady, the attainment promised by all the yogic texts.

My Baba hit the mark on every count.  After years with him, I had the yardstick and could evaluate the Gurus I later met, so many of them available in America.  But while Muktananda was alive, there was nowhere else I wanted to go.  There was nothing else I needed.

His fullness overflowed into me.  His inner perfection triggered mine to arise within me.  I followed him, not because of him, but because of what happened inside me.  That’s the only true test, one validated by the root text of Kashmiri Shaivism:

yo’ vipastho j~naahetu.sca — Shiva Sutras 3.29

Only one with mastery over Kundalini is competent to enlighten others.

(rendered by Swami Nirmalananda)

How can you tell if a Guru is worth their salt?  In our tradition, the pivotal point is whether or not he can give Shaktipat.  This inner awakening is the beginning of your Self-Realization.  Once awakened, Kundalini is the fuel that carries your rocket ship all the way to God.  Only a Guru who can awaken Kundalini is fully qualified.  I studied with such a Guru and am privileged to bring His blessings to you.

Happy Guru Purnima!

On this full moon, dedicated to the Guru, again and again I bow.

OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo nama.h