By Karuna Beaver, SVA Board Member
I am more than merely thankful for Svaroopa® yoga and meditation. I have become downright grateful for the practices and their originator, my teacher and Guru, Swami Nirmalananda. Her years of deep study, devotion and hard work have helped her to help me as well as so many others. All the practices come directly from Swami Nirmalananda. Thank you Swamiji! Yet she will tell you that everything comes straight from her own spiritual teacher and Guru, Swami Muktananda. Again, and again she says, “I owe everything to my Baba.”
I began with being thankful to find practices that transformed my achy body and my crazy mind. I was thankful enough to begin doing seva and making donations to the Ashram. But it took me a while to figure out that mere thankfulness is not real gratitude. Gratitude is more. Gratitude is about feeling thankful down to your bones, down into your heart. Gratitude is about getting out of your own way — your ego — and letting down your guard. Gratitude is humbling and awe-inspiring.
At first, I didn’t understand the depth of my feeling. I do not easily let down my guard. But, gradually, the walls have been coming down. Now I am able, more and more often, to feel into the depth of my devotion. It’s because the power of my yogic practices is eroding years, maybe lifetimes, of “guck” around my heart. And I owe it all to my Guru.
One of my favorite songs captures the way I feel. It asks, “Have I told you lately that I love you, that there is no one else above you?” It describes the effect of this love: it can “fill my heart with gladness, take away my sadness, ease my troubles.” The song goes on to say that this love is “less defined; it’s yours and it’s mine.” And, at the end of the day, we “should give thanks to the One.” Yes, this is how I feel.
Gratitude to the Master is an important part of yoga, and thus part of our svaroopavidya practices. “This is how I feel about my Baba,” explained Swami in a satsang audio a few years ago. “I had only seven years with him. He stripped me down and left me bare, and I am so grateful to him. I had the great fortune to bow in front of my Baba for those years. I always felt ennobled, not humbled. He always said, ‘You are Me — you are the One.’”
Baba gave Swami that One. He gave her the experience of her own Self. This is what she gives to us. She says, “In the mystical merging of Self, there is only One. When there’s only One, there is no gratitude. But when I indulge myself in gratitude, it also recognizes that there are two. It’s a magical, mystical play.”
I indulge in this gratitude and mystical play every day when I meditate. Before I begin, I express my gratitude to the One who reminds me who I am. In meditation, I feel the separation between my individuality and my Guru’s individuality begin to blur. It truly does feel as if there is only One, even if I can’t always maintain that feeling throughout the day.
In this glorious season of thankfulness and giving, I encourage you to let down your guard. Open up to the gifts your yogic practices give you. Open your heart to the “more” that you are. I hope you will also give thanks to the One. And if this takes the form of a heartfelt donation to the yogic organization that makes this possible for you, I would be eternally grateful.
Please click here to donate, or call 610.644.7555. Every gift, of any size and frequency, makes a difference.
By Aanandi Ross
How ironic that “stopping” to practice Ujjayi Pranayama will give you more “time.” You might think if you stop to breathe for 20 minutes that you’ll lose the time to get 4 or 5 things done on your list. Or maybe you believe you’ll be in more of a frenzy to make up for lost time. However, when spending time with timelessness, you feel a shift in perception. You might even conclude that some of the things you thought were so important on your list are not. Priorities change. Life flows in surprising and delightful ways.
Over twenty years ago was the first time I heard that if you’re always thinking about the future, you’re not in the present moment. Still, I often hear people say, “Wow, I can’t believe that September (or summer, or vacation or some other experience) is almost over!” Yoga gives you a shift of perspective, “Wow, this season (of late summer) is so rich and full. The breeze is warm (or cool); the colors of harvest are so magnificent (or transforming); this day is glorious, just as it is.”
By Matrika Gast, SVA Board Member
Gratitude & Grace are present in my daily life, thanks to Swami Nirmalananda, our Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram, our Teacher Trainers, our Svaroopa® Sciences practices — and you, my fellow Svaroopis. There is so much to be grateful for.
By Rama (Ruth) Brooke, SVA Board Member
Gratitude and Grace move you. They overwhelm in a wonderful way. They open your heart, not only to others, but to a deeper perspective. They make you able to see what you have, truly an ever-expanding inner abundance. And that creates generosity.
By Rajni (Chelsea) King
When I contemplate my journey on this path and my relationship to Swami Nirmalananda, “support” is the first word that comes up. Being in relationship with Swamiji has brought Grace-filled, Grace-fueled support to my life, on the inside and the outside. Svaroopa® yoga asana practice first gave me tangible physical support. Swamiji originated this yoga style from spontaneous Kundalini movements arising during her meditations. Her Guru, Baba Muktananda, blessed her with these openings, borne of the inner power of revelation.
The greatest blessing of my Guru is the gift of Shaktipat, the awakening of the Kundalini energy. It opens me to the tangible support of my inner Guru, my inner guide. When I stepped onto this path, I was riddled with self-doubt. I was convinced that “I wasn’t doing it right.” I felt that I didn’t really know how to meditate, that I wasn’t getting it! I felt numb mentally and physically.
Much later, I understood that I had received Guru initiation. It was a spontaneous Shaktipat. The Grace of the Gurus propelled me along the path and continues to propel me forward. Swamiji’s Grace supports me on the inside and the outside. Thus, I too can live in the ever-expanding pure joy and contentment of my own Self!
By Dhananjaya King, SVA Board Member
Because I am grateful to Guruji, I feel compelled to show my gratitude. Yet how do you show gratitude to her, when she attributes everything that she gives as coming from her own Guru? When you thank her for all she has given, Guruji says she does what Baba has empowered her to do. She offers to us what Baba offered to her. She gives to us what we are able to receive.
Or perhaps looking at this another way works better for you. A better question may be how much can you receive? Perhaps you don’t yet notice what she has planted in you. If so, pondering this question will help you notice the new you that is beginning to form, thanks to Swami Nirmalananda’s teachings and presence.
By Vibhuti King
At the end of class today, I invited each student to choose their CD. I was delighted that many already had some of Nirmalananda’s CDs. Some requested a duplicate of their “favorite.” The CD was getting worn out!
I am grateful for this time of sharing, of community, of coming together around the ancient practice of lifting our voices to that which uplifts us. We all have so much to be grateful for. Often it’s more than we know. This sharing allowed me to see my students in a deeper way. It showed me how they turn to their practice to express themselves and how personal these chants are to them.
The woman who began this chant a cappella later shared how that chant saw her through a very dark time. We have so much to be grateful for. Thank you to my students and thank you to my teacher, my Guru, Swami Nirmalananda.
By Bindu Shortt
Ayurvedically we are moving into vata season. Vata means “wind.” It is the element of nature that brings the qualities of cold, light, dry, rough and irregular. Vata comprises the energies of air and of the ether (space). Thus, vata can bring a sense of void.
First, notice the changes in nature where you live. When it is cold, dry and windy, give yourself warmth, oiliness and stability. It is natural to eat more winter squashes, and root veggies such as beets and carrots and parsnips. All of these build warmth in your body. Include them in your daily diet, rather than the melons and salads of summer, which cooled you.
Consider adding oils on the outside of your body, by doing a daily oil massage before you shower or bathe. This practice, called abhyanga, will go a long way toward keeping you warm, soothing your nervous system, and moistening your skin. An oil massage also moves your lymph, for a detox. In vata season, sesame is the oil of choice for most people, as it has the most warming qualities. Searching online using “Ayurvedic self-massage video” yields more than a hundred hits! 
Reported by Matrika Gast
“A new student came to class with so much pain in her hip that she could hardly manage stairs,” reports Kamala (Michelle) Gross, Certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher (CSYT) and Yoga Therapist. “She was even was in pain while she slept. Lying in Jathara Parivrttanasana (Rotated Stomach Pose) with her knees touching, one foot hung in the air due to the severe twist in her hips. I supported it on a large blanket roll. After a few classes, she began yoga therapy private sessions weekly. Just two months later, her feet rested together in Rotated Stomach Pose due to the realignment in her spine and hips. After a year of committed yoga practice and weekly sessions, she was climbing stairs nearly pain free, aware only of an occasional, minor hip ache. Her whole body was more upright and comfortable.”
A student of Jyoti (Rebecca) Yacobi, CSYT took Svaroopa® yoga classes for two years, had several Embodyment® sessions and committed to a daily Magic 4 and Ujjayi home practice. Jyoti reports that these approaches “significantly improved mobility in her lower spine. The tightness and pain in her sacrum is gone.”
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