By Kristine Freeman

We members of the Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram community are in partnership with our Teacher, Swami Nirmalananda. The essence of this partnership is the flow between Guru’s Grace and Disciple’s Grace. Because Guru’s Grace enlivens the physical space in which she teaches, Lokananda, our new program and training facility, is now tangibly full of transformative Shakti. Disciple’s Grace flows in the form of financial support to manifest Lokananda, the place where our Guru’s embodied Divine Grace can be grounded.

Over the past year and a half, our 130-year-old Lokananda has been diligently, intelligently and artfully renovated. It’s already a turbocharged space. Through more than a decade in the Svaroopa® yoga community, I have experienced teacher training and other programs in many different places. None of them have felt as “rocket powered” as our new Lokananda, which physically integrates all facets of our organization under one roof: meditation center, training facility, immersions and retreats, local classes and administration. Lokananda is your launch pad into your own Self. This space has the capacity to help open you to your inner fast track.

Kailasa – Meditation Room

My experience of the Divine within has already been so much greater than in any other space. Speaking for myself and the rest of our Board, I thank the 36 donors who have already contributed to the Capital Campaign; you have taken us a huge step forward — in fact, 20% of the way toward our goal of $150,0000. Because of your financial support, the interior of Lokananda is comfortable, beautiful and fully supportive of your experience of svaroopa!

But more work on the “old dame” is needed, such as a new roof (isn’t that most always the case with the purchase of a new home?), more plumbing and wiring and a reserve for upcoming needs. Please look into your heart and into your wallet to see how you can be a part of Disciple’s Grace with a contribution to our Bliss Place Capital Campaign. Be part of creating the place for easy access to your own Divine Self.

To the 36 donors who have already contributed, we thank you so much. We could not have gotten where you are without you. Now we need the larger community to step in and help us get to the final goal. When we say any amount is welcome, we mean it!! We truly do!!! Your participation is even more important than the amount. Let us count you in. Then Lokananda will be ready to welcome you into a sacred space like no other.
“Just as a lightning bolt strikes the earth, Divine Grace must be grounded. It is yogis who make this happen, through their own practices as well as by providing a home for the Master who embodies and shares this Grace. I am forever grateful to those who make me able to do my work.” — Swami Nirmalananda

At Lokananda, your Bliss Place, you will be nourished from inside and outside. Swami Nirmalananda carefully selects not only the curriculum of each program and the design and decor of your cozy accommodations, but the menu that will help feed your body, mind and Self. Nirmalananda explains, “Integrating Ayurvedic principles supports your physical changes, mental and emotional processes and the inner experiences you are having. Cooking with Ayurveda is not yoga – but it’s very yogic.”

Annapurna – Dining Hall at Lokananda

Annapurna – Dining Hall at Lokananda

“Excellent. Chef William was very responsive and willing to change things as required.”               Maitreyi

“The rooms are cozy and very well kept. The meals are very tasty and nourishing. My special food needs were met.”                                                                                                                                            Mangala Allen

“Both the housing and meals at Lokananda were a very positive experience for me.”              Rudrani Rosemary Nogue

Click here to help nourish Lokananda’s two teaching halls and upstairs apartments that house our immersion programs.

By Prakash (David) Falbaum

Together we are becoming established in bliss, as a community. Nothing has made this clearer than last fall’s great start on our Bliss Place Capital Campaign. The generosity of many Svaroopis has provided some of the needed funds to move our renovations of Lokananda forward, to make it our full-service retreat center for our full-spectrum yoga.

Lokananda means “bliss place,” and is ready to welcome you into a center saturated with shakti, streaming with the Grace of the Guru.  I feel that Lokananda is truly my home away from home and I hope you feel the same way. Here you are nurtured with delicious, healthful vegetarian meals to support your practices. Our Chef is able to customize any dish for soy-free, gluten-free, vegan and any other dietary restrictions. Lokananda houses you in comfort and community and at 23% less than The Desmond. Even the dormitories are infused with shakti. Wow!

I feel intensely how much the Ashram means to me, knowing now we are all housed in an Ashram campus. Now that we are housed, fed, immersed and trained in Lokananda, we receive a direct connection to all the inspiration that flows through Swamiji, without any external impediments.

While our Fall Capital Campaign got us going on the updating of our “new” 130-year-old building, there’s lots more to do. As we appeal for your support of this important project, I hope you’ll eagerly jump in, for you are creating your own spiritual home – for yourself and for others. Especially if you are not one of the 36 donors who generously gave last fall, we invite you to participate now in “raising a bliss building.” This event is a more profound community endeavor than even the traditional barn raising!

It feels good to give when you can see the future that your contribution will bring about. When you contribute financially to complete Lokananda renovations and prepare for the care of the building, you can be sure your donation goes to an immeasurably good cause for others as well as for yourself. As your opening to Self expands, you pave the way for others who seek the More.

With donations to date, we have been able to complete a full year of renovations, but we still need your contribution. As with any construction project, we are dealing with overruns. As can be the case with a real estate purchase, a new roof is needed. And then there are the unforeseen maintenance issues that arise anywhere.

So we still need $113,000. That can sound like a lot of money, but we are a large community, and your contribution, in any amount, moves us toward our goal. If each yogi contributes the amount that truly fits your budget, out of gratitude for the growth and opening you’ve already experienced, we are THERE, established in our Place of Bliss. We are established in a strong and charming building already steeped in Shakti. I hope you will join me in giving until it feels good!

Click here to donate or for more info, or simply phone us at 610.644.7555.  Thank you for your loving generosity.

OM svaroopa svasvabhavah namo namah

Lokananda renovations continue, yet we already have housing for 16 students, with a beautiful new dining hall and student lounge making it comfortable for all.

Kailasa – Meditation Hall at Lokananda

Deviloka – Student Lounge

Annapurna – Dining Hall

Kitchen

Bedroom

Bedroom

Lokananda

Lokananda

Student Lounge

“LOVE having the retreat in our own dedicated space, surrounded by the world we live in.” – Priya Kenney

“The sense of being in an ashram has been created.” – Matrika Gast

“The food was very good, sweet space to stay, love the lounge.” – Michelle Kamala Gross

“Thanks for the lovely new home.” – Maitreyi Wilsman

We need your support to complete the needed work, so we are continuing our Capital Campaign to fund all that will make this a yogic home for all.

Christmas is turning into a secular holiday in America.  I’ve watched the light displays on peoples’ lawns change in the last decade.  The stables and mangers are gone.  There are no crosses made out of lights.  Now the suburban lawns feature Santa, tall spirals of lights representing trees, oversize stockings, snowmen and even the Grinch. The focus is on families and gift giving.  Even Thanksgiving is no longer about giving thanks but it’s a time to gather with loved ones and to indulge yourself in every sensory pleasure possible.  What happened?

In the last 7 years, Christian denominations have lost a total of 10% of their faithful, with non-Christian faiths and the “unaffiliated” growing by 37%.¹  Yet it is the Millennials who are moving the most; 40-50% of them affiliate with a religion than young adults in prior generations.²

The Millennials were born in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and included lots of yoga bhrashtas who took advantage of an astrological configuration that only comes every 250 years.  A yoga bhrashta is one who did a lot of yoga practice in previous lifetimes but did not attain enlightenment.  Their prior practices have given them a wealth of good karma so they are born in a country that is peaceful and prosperous.  They pick up on their yoga saadhana (process) where they left off at the end of their last lifetime.

Saad-hana is the practice and the process that leads you toward “saat,” Truth with a capital-T:  the Truth of your own Beingness.  Since Beingness is a description of who and what you are, no single religion owns it, though all explain it (in different ways).  The ultimate goal of yoga is that you abide in your own Beingness, which Patanjali calls “svaroopa” in his Yoga Sutras.  The mystics of all religions through all the ages shared the same goal as the yogis.  It’s not a religious goal, nor even a yogic goal.  It’s a human goal.  It’s the purpose of your life.  You were born for the purpose of knowing the Divinity of your own Self.

Yoga gives you a methodology that reveals your Self as pure Beingness, the One Beingness that is being all that exists.  And extends beyond all that exists.  We call this Shiva.  Beyond the poses and breathing, yoga offers you the experiential knowing of your own svaroopa. You are THAT which yogis call Shiva.

The glory of Christmas, as a religious festival, is that it helps you reach outward to find God.  When you use the songs, the decorations, the pageants and church services to find God, where do you experience God?  No matter where you are physically located, your experience of God is an inner experience.  You are changed.  Think of it this way – when you bump into God (accidentally or intentionally), which one of you is going to be changed?

The glory of Christmas, as a secular holiday, is that it helps you experience your Divine Essence.  When you give the perfect gift to a person that you care about, and you get to see them light up when they open it up, what happens inside you?  It’s the same inner experience.  You are changed.  This inner experience is the same as when you sing along with the choir in Handel’s Hallelujah.  The receiver of the gift got all lit up, and so did you.  You are aglow with the light of Consciousness, which is your own Beingness, which is your own Self.  The same thing happens in the moment of reunion with your loved ones.  The same thing happens in those special moments of true connection that are sprinkled through the weekend.

This means that Christmas is spiritual, whether you’re religious or not.  Why?  Because it’s all about you experiencing your own “spirit” (built into the word “spiritual”).  Your spirit is Divine.  You are Shiva.  You are that Beingness that is being all and beyond all.  You merely need to know your own svaroopa, to know who you are.  This is the goal of yoga.  This is the goal of life.

And, if you are reading this, you are a yoga bhrashta.

Merry Christmas!

OM svaroopa svasvabhava namo nama.h

By Rudrani (Rosemary) Nogue

It has been a significant growth process for me. With the original “syllabus course,” the training was challenging. Even so, it felt like a blissful reunion with inner knowing, which I hadn’t given the opportunity to bloom.  Once I allowed it to emerge, I understood that teaching meditation is an integral part of the journey on the path of the Svaroopa® Sciences.

That original MTT was hard yet amazing for me all at the same time. While the intensity of the experience was surprising, it was also amazing to hear about the unique experiences of each teacher-in-training as she or he shared.  The shakti within the group and Swamiji’s teachings opened each of us to a deep internal experience. In the very first course I taught at home, I had 14 participants. My students were completely ready for the “More.” Over the years, classes continued to fill, and I have been glad to be able to serve my students so well.

Then after Swamiji took sannyas, she offered the MTT Upgrade. My response was “I need to take it!”  The Empowered Mantra takes people immediately into the Self. When I teach meditation now, Grace abounds, flowing to us so directly with Swamiji as our conduit of Grace embodied in our lineage. Students are propelled immediately into Self in their first class. Our Svaroopa® yoga community has grown larger as Consciousness has expanded within us.  In November we’re once again hosting Foundations, with 22 already registered.

If you are certified to teach the original syllabus course, you are already experiencing the wonders of introducing your students to the “More.” If you have focused on teaching our marvelous Svaroopa® yoga asana protocols, you have doubtless given your students access to bliss within. Yet, with the Empowered Mantra MTT, you can count on so easily propelling yourself and them into profoundly greater depths.

Let Swamiji do for you and your students what a recent MTT grad experienced: “Swamiji is a generous Master Teacher. She reaches inside you and brings forth that knowingness beyond knowing. Makes it accessible and useful.”