Svaroopa Vidya Ashram’s Podcast

10/16/2022 The Greatest Motivator

Prana is the enlivening source, it’s the power of life. Prana is what keeps you alive, vibrant, healthy, and happy. Pain calls your attention to the area that is low on prana and motivates you to do something about it. Pain is the greatest motivator and can be felt at the physical, mental, emotional, psychic, or soul level.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Teachings Article - A Living Temple

Your body is a living temple, housing the One Divine Reality. Yoga helps you develop your ability to tune in and to discern the difference between your purpose and your desires. Then your worldly actions will be an outer expression of your inner peace and dimensionality. Your life will be a celebration of the interweaving of the Divine in the mundane.

Hear it read by Yogaratna Yogyananda.

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Sound Bite: Self Is the Source

The Guru makes himself into what he himself is, the Self. And when you have your own Self, you have everything. For your own Self is the source of joy, the source of love, the source of healing, the source of life itself, the source of your own existence, the source of all existence, the source of the universe. By delving within, you discover that it is all contained within you. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

10/09/2022 Inside Out

Yoga gives you direct access to the bliss of your own Beingness. The closer you get to your own Self, the more happiness you experience. You become smarter, more focused, more intentional and less driven by instinct, fear and desire. This all comes from the inside out. When you know your own Innermost Essence, you are fully and authentically yourself.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

10/2/2022 The Greatness Within

We are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Baba Muktananda’s mahasamadhi. Muktananda didn’t merely inspire people to follow him, he gave them greatness itself. Greatness lies within you; you simply haven’t tapped into it fully yet. What Muktananda found within is Self.  Self is you; Self is all, Self is beyond all. But the closest is within.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Meditation

Some people think that meditation is about reducing stress, which is true. Others say that meditation is about healing, or improving your relationships, which also does happen. Others say that meditation is about equanimity in the face of difficulties. Good stuff! Yet, all of this happens because meditation gives you your own Self. When you are your own Self, you are not as stressed by stressful things. Your body and your mind heal more deeply and more easily. You are more present in your relationships. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

9/25/2022 A Dedicated Lifestyle

A living master lives in the continuous flow of Divine Grace and can reveal the mystery hidden within you. What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it? It’s about seeing your own Divinity again and again, until again turns into always.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

9/18/2022 When You Look Inward

What you find when you look inward depends on how deeply you look. Yoga says to look deeper than your mind. The purpose of meditation is to establish yourself in the bliss of your own Self. When you attain the light of your own Self within yourself, that light emerges as supreme love. When you look inward what will you find?

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Get in Your Body

We begin with, “Notice your toes… all ten toes… all at the same time. Become aware of both feet… outside and inside.” We talk you through the process of becoming present in your own body. Right here, in this body, in this place, in this moment in time. You see, your body is never in the future. It is never in the past. When you get in your body, you are present in the present moment. It’s a fantastic pathway to the here and now.  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

Teachings Article - Consciousness Imprints

Meditation leaves Consciousness imprints in your mind. Not only does your mind become filled with Consciousness, each of these impressions dissolves prior impressions, freeing you from your history. The goal is to always live based in the Consciousness that you are. Yoga makes you able to harness the energy of your mind and pour it toward your inherent Divinity.

Hear it read by Swami Prajñananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

9/11/22 I, Me, My, Mine

Your focus is on your mind and heart, your body and life.  But you are the one who HAS a mind, who has a body, who has a life, who has a past and who has a future. Yoga says you are more than who you think you are. You are that existence which is being all that exists. There is more to you on the inside than the outside can ever convey.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

9/4/2022 What You Are Not

You grab on to things to construct your sense of self. Wherever you go, whatever you do, who you know, none of it makes you who you really are. Your core Essence is intact no matter what comes your way. Can you stay in the Self while you do what you do?

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Filled From the Inside

Yes, my body needs care. But here I am in my seventies, with less aches and pains than I had in my thirties. I don’t have to press the reset button. I don’t have to push myself to get going. Why? Because I’m filled from the inside. Baba gave me that. That which is called That. That reality that pervades all of existence, and also pervades inside my own existence, and inside yours. There is only one.  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

8/28/2022 Finding Your Inner Light

The light of your own Divinity shines in you and through you. Yoga is about finding, knowing and being the Self that you already are. There is more to you than what you experience by seeing, thinking, feeling or doing. Cultivate the inner experience of your own Self and live in that experience all the time.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Teachings Article - Perception & Action

Yoga says that you are the perceiver, not what you perceive. Know who you are, even while you are perceiving and acting. You can use your mind without getting trapped in it. Let the light of your own Self shine through your mind and into the world, so all your actions are based in love and generosity. 

Read by Aanandi Ross.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

8/14/2022 I was Clueless

Shaktipat is an initiation that awakens your own Divine energy within, but you need to nurture it afterward, by repeating the mantra of this tradition. The mantra is powerful due to the energy installed in it by the Guru.  It is filled with the Light of Consciousness. Every time you say the mantra you draw on the Guru’s energy, which helps you know your own Self.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Yoga is Amazing

Yoga is amazing. You step on to the path followed by other yogis for millenia, and you just put one foot in front of the other. How limiting that sounds. Yet, it is the path to freedom and its fruits are reliable. I was standing outside the other day, watching some of our regular yoga students as they walked to their cars. They moved so freely. They called to each other and laughed so freely. Doing the poses makes such a difference…  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

8/7/2022 Limitation & Beyond

Your true essence is completely free of limitations, even while you are in a body and often trapped in your own mind. You can know your own Self and still be engaged with the world. Yoga shows you how to use your mind to get beyond the limitations, so you can be free to be who you really are.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Stay in Your Own Skin

You’re used to jumping out of your own skin. Moving forward into the space in front of your body. Racing against time, and trying to prove your worth. Instead, stay in your own skin. Be present in the space of your own body. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

Teachings Article - No More Negativity

Yoga works on dissolving your resistances, melting your negativities, and freeing you from your fears. Once you get past the ways you negate yourself, you discover the vast dimensionality of your own existence. Gurudevi Nirmalananda clears your access to the inner light that is always within, so that it will shine and illumine your mind from the inside outward. Learn how to stop using external things to give you a sense of self-worth. What if you said “yes” to life more often?

Read by Yogaratna Yogyananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

7/24/2022 Choosing to be Shiva

Once you’re feeling balanced and peaceful, it’s easy to turn your attention inward to delve into your own essence, and to experience your own Self. The process is one of settling inward, deepening into who you already are. If you’re not feeling balanced and peaceful, yoga gives you tools to work on your body and mind.  

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Inner Plentitude

Once you know, you know… This is yoga’s purpose, to give you the knowing of your own Self. It begins with an experience of stillness or depth. An inner plentitude or fullness that is like none other. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

7/17/2022 Who You Are and Who You Think You Are

You exist. Your body is an outer shell by which your existence is known in this world. Your experiences allow you to show different aspects of the multi-dimensional reality that you are. But your essence never changes. Yoga gives you tools so that you can become based in the knowing of your own Self. You are Beingness-Itself. It’s about who you think you are compared to who you really are.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

7/10/2022 Knowledge, Knowing & Knowingness

When you know ABOUT things, that’s knowledge, but when you’ve experienced the truth of it – you have a knowing.  

 * Knowledge is what you know. 

 * Knowing is how you know it. 

The goal is knowingness.  This is when your own Capital-S Self knows its own Self.   

 * Knowingness is deeper. 

When you are outside and you look inward, that is meditation. The reality is that you only need to look inward when you’re outside of yourself.  It’s good to look inward.  When you’ve gotten lost out there again, you need to head back home.  But Self-Realization is when you’re inside, looking outward. 

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: A New Way to Live

Yoga’s poses and breathing practices gave me a new way to live in my physical body, inside my own skin, in a more enlivened, more relaxed, and more powerful way. The chanting, meditation, and sutra study gave me a new way to live in my mind, which is part of being inside my own skin. Being present in my own presence with my mind contributing to the value of experience rather than tearing me down. Oh mind! – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

7/3/2022 God or the World?

You don’t have to withdraw from life to find God. There is only one Reality, that which is being everyone. When you see through Divine eyes, you see the Divine in all. Yoga makes you able to live your life in alignment with God. The world is where you do your spiritual practice and where you become enlightened. Can you bring your own Self with you while you live your life? 

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Teachings Article - Freedom

Yoga describes freedom as an inner experience, living in the knowing of your inherent Divinity. In these teachings, Gurudevi Nirmalananda introduces three systematic processes that move you through the stages of inner expansion. Which of the three you use depends on your starting point. Discover the light and bliss of your own Being and allow it to fill your heart and mind. That is the true goal of freedom that yoga promises.

Read by Swami Samvidaananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

6/26/2022 I Want to Give You a Breakthrough

Learn from a Shaktipat Guru what a breakthrough can do for you. Your inner state becomes deep and steady, and you are no longer dependant on external things to support you. What you say, what you mean, what you feel and what you do are all in alignment with each other. When all is given, how much will you carry home with you?

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Inner Fullness

Overwhelm is one of the most important experiences of life, and if you allow yourself to surrender into it, it becomes a breakthrough. You cannot reinstall the barbed wire and the armor you’ve been used to hiding behind. You are seen. You are known.  

You are appreciated in your uniqueness and your fullness. A fullness that is already there and always has been. Yoga doesn’t fill you up, like you fill your car’s gas tank. Yoga gives you access to the inner fullness that is already there. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

6/19/2022 International Day of Yoga

This year’s theme for International Day of Yoga is “Yoga for Humanity.” Yoga gives you your own Self. Once you know your own Self, you see Self in all. Then you are drawn into a new level of relationship with the world and everyone in it. Yoga improves your health, your life, and your state of mind. The light of your own Divinity begins to shine through you. In this illuminating discourse you will learn more about the benefits of yoga for yourself, as well as for all of humanity.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

6/12/2022 Flying Free

You yearn to fly so you can shatter the shackles that keep you bound. Yoga and meditation show you the infinity that lies within you. Find the bliss of your own Self and you will become free. It doesn’t matter where you are or what you do, what matters is who you are and what your inner state is. Let the Guru’s Grace help you go beyond your sense of individuality. You can be fully embodied, fully alive, and fully present.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Alive

When people are numb, they look for something to make them feel alive. They want exciting or entertaining stuff. Something that will stir up their prana, their life energy, so they feel alive. But a yogi feels alive all the time. How’s that? Think of it this way, do you feel more alive after a yoga class? After a meditation?  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

6/5/2022 Eureka! I Found It!

Becoming enlightened is about living in the knowing of the light of your own Divinity. It’s a breakthrough that is more than a “Eureka” moment. You can find your own Self by letting your mind become still and going beyond your mind. You can be propelled by Divine wisdom while doing what you do if you keep turning your mind’s eye inward. Find out more in this insightful discourse from Gurudevi Nirmalananda.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

05/29/2022 Being Birthed into Reality

You need someone to open you up to the one Divine Reality that is within.  The One is being all while being you. Individual perspective creates delusions that need to be burned away before that Reality is truly seen and known. A Shaktipat Guru reveals a whole new way of living to you. You can learn to use your mind while remaining based in the Self.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Teachings Article - Breakthrough!

That’s what you really want, a breakthrough: a shift in perception, an insight or realization that makes you “get it”.  Suddenly you’re free… It’s true, we want to fly, to shatter the shackles that keep us bound.  It’s the norm to live in your agendas, entangled in emotions and chasing wisps of thought.  But the desire for freedom is there, inside.  So many popular musicians sing, “I want to be free!”  Yes!  Freedom!  Yoga is all about freedom.

Read by Swami Prajñananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Sound Bite: Light Banishes Dark

It’s like you sit in the dark, in your room, counting and keeping track of all the limiting thoughts, memories, and fears. You keep an inventory. But since it’s dark, you can’t write anything down, so you just keep it all in your mind. And you keep reviewing it over and over, so you know what you’ve got. All your pains and sorrows. And the Guru shines light in there. Light banishes dark.  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

5/22/2022 Soul and Self

To experience your own Self is to go beyond the soul level.  There, inside, you find that you are the One who has become your soul.  Drawing on Greek Mythology and classical metaphors, Gurudevi Nirmalananda gives you an understanding of what soul and Self are from a yogic perspective.  She gives you the yogic tools to help you discover that the Self you seek is within you, as well as being all that exists.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: All Religions & Traditions

He said, “This yoga is not a Guru cult, but in every field, one needs a guide. On the spiritual path, too, a Guru is necessary. At certain times in one’s life, healers, psychologists, psychics and professors may all be necessary. In the same way, in spiritual life, one needs a guide.” If you want what the Guru has to give, then you see that the Guru has it, and offers it. That moves you in deep ways. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

5/15/2022 He Gave His Life to God

Gurudevi Nirmalananda honors her Guru, Swami Muktananda, on his birthday. How did someone who gave his life to God live his life? What can you learn from someone who dedicated his life to the spiritual quest? The most significant thing you can do with your life is to uncover your inherent Divinity. The Guru shines the light of your own Self into the darkness of your mind. The profound teachings and practices passed down through this lineage give you access to the Divine within to fulfill the purpose of life itself.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

05/08/22 ChitiShakti Ma

ChitiShakti is the power of universal Consciousness, recognized as the Divine Mother. She is the primal force hidden within us all. Your own body and mind are made of ChitiShakti, the energy of Consciousness. But this energy is coiled down, ratcheted down by a temporary state of limitation. In this illuminating satsang from Gurudevi Nirmalananda you will learn why we honor the Divine Mother on Mother’s Day. 

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Who You Really Are

Do you really think that you still are who you were as a child?  How long ago was that — a few years or maybe even decades ago?… I see you differently. I see the light shining through you. I see the light of Consciousness shining as you. Can’t you see who you really are? – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

5/1/2022 Looking in the Right Direction

It is the feeling of need that causes the suffering, even when you don’t really need the thing you think you need.  Freedom is the opposite – freedom from need brings freedom from suffering.  Freedom is also the inner space to be creative, to be generous, to be loving and understanding, to live in the spontaneity of pure bliss.  Freedom is the goal, clearly defined in yoga’s teachings and texts… - Gurudevi Nirmalananda  

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: The Ache in My Heart

Whether I loved others or I allowed myself to feel the love that they had for me, the ache in my heart was untouched... The yearning.  It’s so painful, yet it is the only thing that keeps you alive. 

This is an audio excerpt from the intro video for Gurudevi's Telecourse "Enlightenment: Stages & Steps" - TL-ESS Intro Video 220512 | Svaroopa Yoga and Meditation.

4/24/2022 How Big is Your Heart

Where will you go to find your Self?  Gurudevi says to start with your heart but then go deeper. Your heart is an entry point into the mystical heart of Beingness Itself. To get there: 1) meditate and repeat mantra to work with your mind (right understanding), and 2) receive Shaktipat (Guru’s Grace) to live in the unwavering awareness that is the knowing of the Self. Then you’ll experience a heart that is big enough to hold the whole universe and all that are in it.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Teachings Article - Psychology and Spirituality

Psychology is the study of the mind, while spirituality is about getting beyond your mind.  Psychology analyzes mind and emotions.  By contrast, seekers are trying to get past their mind.  They seek a spiritual experience, an expansive and blissful moment, something that transports them afar.  Yoga says neither is enough.  What you really want, and what you really need, is to know...

Read by Yogaratna Yogyananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

4/17/2022 A Great and Holy Day

This discourse was given on Easter Sunday.  This day honors Jesus for his life death resurrection as well as over 2,000 years of influence.  Gurudevi discusses how Jesus joins an assemblage of many great and holy beings, like Buddha and Shankaracharya as well as many countless great yogis and gurus.  Many of Jesus’ teachings echo the ancient sages of India.  Listen to Gurudevi’s discourse to learn more about the teachings of Jesus and the Divine beings and gurus of India. 

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Sound Bite: Outgrowing Old Stuff

When you were a child, you outgrew your clothes every summer. Growth means you leave some things behind. In adulthood, the process is more internal. You outgrow limited attitudes. You outgrow your fears. They can no longer hold you. You lose the ability to hold a grudge or blame others for your situation. Your heart grows, along with your willingness to participate. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

4/10/2022 Peace Follows Renunciation

Renunciation means embracing the world without becoming entangled in it. When you settle into the Self there’s nothing to cling to, nothing to need. Listen to this insightful discourse by Gurudevi Nirmalananda and discover that you are so much more than you think you are.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

4/3/2022 Why Are You Not Enlightened Yet

You want something more. You want to become enlightened. When you put your mind and heart into Consciousness and truly participate in the process, you will find the Divine Essence you have always been. To become enlightened, you need to spend more time dissolving limitations than installing them. Gurudevi explains how to base yourself deeper within your own Self. Thus, you outgrow old and limiting attitudes.  

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

Teachings Article - Yoga & Worldly Life

Everyone matters.  But no one person matters any more than any other person.  Each and every one matters fully.  This is the mystical perspective.  You have this perspective when you are experiencing your own Self.  The One Divine Essence shines through as every single being and every single thing.  They are all lovable.  They are all to be...

Read by Anandi Ross.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.