Svaroopa Vidya Ashram’s Podcast

Sound Bite: What's Happening Matters

Why do you care about the world?  Why do you care about people you’ve never met?  This caring comes from recognition, the key principle of our tantric path.  Recognition is even the name of one of the primary texts of Kashmiri Shaivism, the Pratyabhijnahrdayam. The title is made up of two words, hyrdayam, which means the heart, the essence or the core of the teaching; and pratyabhijna which means recognition.    

 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "What's Happening Matters" here.

Teachings Article - Just Do It!

Bring your spirituality into the world. It’s not about fulfilling your desires; it’s about serving others. You choose to share, to give, to live in a spirit of generosity. Your life becomes filled by the river of Grace. You see the bigger picture and choose to operate from that higher perspective. Yoga is skillful action. Just do it!

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Sound Bite: Happiness and Bliss

What’s the difference between happiness and bliss? Happiness is the mind’s experience of bliss. Bliss is deeper and more expansive. When it arises from its source within, which is your own Self, it can fill your mind. That’s happiness. When you let the bliss arise from deep within, and you let it come up inside, come all the way up, literally through your neck and.... – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Sound Bite: Your Bliss Tank

Bliss is what fuels your life. When you abide in turiya, even while waking, then the bliss is always arising. But, if you’re not abiding in turiya, you don’t have enough fuel to get through the day. So you have to fill your tank. If you don’t have enough bliss in your tank, you sputter, and die out. You can’t keep going. You gotta get your bliss. Why? Because bliss is… – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Teachings Article - Pleasure, Happiness & Bliss

When you do something pleasurable you get happy for a short while. The happy feeling comes from a momentary experience of supreme bliss. When you know your own Self as Consciousness-Itself, you live in a steady state of contagious bliss. It uplifts those around you as well as yourself. Instead of pursuing pleasure, follow the bliss!

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Sound Bite: Happiness in Action

Your inner feeling of happiness supports you from the inside, while you do whatever needs to be done. Like, after a beautiful holiday meal, you and everyone else is happy. So, you just pop up and.... – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

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Sound Bite: What Is Happiness

You look for happiness on the outside because your inherent nature is happiness. Wait, does that make sense? Even though you are made of happiness, you’re looking for it on the outside.  I don’t get it. Here’s the situation. Yes, happiness, better yet bliss, is your nature — but you’re not looking at your inherent nature, so you think you don’t have it. Thus, you feel you are missing something essential to you — your bliss filled essence is missing. So, you go looking for it.

 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "What Is Happiness" here.

 

Sound Bite: The Quest For Bliss

The creative power of Consciousness is on tap for you, ready to give you answers to all your problems, as well as to empower you to create fascinating opportunities.  All you have to do is tap into it, but it’s like standing in front of your bathroom sink.  The water won’t run unless you turn on the tap, so you actually have to do something to get the creative power of Consciousness to flow through you.  What do you do?  It’s called yoga.  Yoga is the science of Consciousness, the way you discover the Consciousness that is your own Divine Beingness — so you live in a constant inner bliss and profound clarity — leading to illumined actions.  It’s how you want to live. 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "The Quest For Bliss" here.

Teachings Article - A Juicy Life

In meditation you delve into your own inner dimensionality; you tap into the source of life. Yoga calls this rasa. Fill your tank before going out into the world and eventually learn how to base your life in the inner flow. Rasa is juice, spirit, energy. Bring yours with you and you have something worth sharing.

 

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Sound Bite: What a Guru Does

I don’t fix your problems. I don’t fix you. That’s not what a Guru does. I give you the tools to see your problems a different way, to see yourself a different way. To see the light of your own Divinity, which is already shining forth. And you have to do…

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Sound Bite: Perfectly Imperfect

You are already perfect. Now, there might be someone in your life who doesn’t think you’re so perfect. Or maybe even your own mind tells you that you’re not perfect. I agree. You are both perfect and not perfect at the same time. Dare we say you are perfectly imperfect? But your Essence is perfection itself. You are the One Divine Reality, which is purna, perfection itself.

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Teachings Article - Where Are You Going?

Your destiny is to know your deeper essence, to live in the constant flow of inner inspiration. Let your Divine light overflow into your life, your relationships, and the world. Shape your thoughts and actions as if you were already enlightened. What you are thinking is what you are becoming.

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Sound Bite: Illumined Actions

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Sound Bite: My Life Was Changed

My life was changed the day I got Shaktipat from my Baba. At the time, of course, I didn’t understand it. The energy climbing my spine at that moment was so ecstatic that I wanted nothing else. And it happened again every morning during meditation. At first, nothing external changed. I lived in the same place and pursued the same desires. But gradually, I found I needed less and less of those things. Particularly the ones that weren’t good for me fell away…

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Sound Bite: This is Perfect

True wisdom comes from the Self, the inner fullness of being, your own essence and Beingness which is purna — full, whole, complete, effulgent, perfect.   You are already perfect.  Now there might be someone in your life who doesn't think you're so perfect or maybe your own mind tells you that you're not perfect.   I agree.  You are both perfect and not perfect at the same time.  Dare we say you are perfectly imperfect?   But your essence is perfection itself.  You are the One Divine Reality which is purna — perfection itself.   
 
Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “This Is Perfect” here.

 

Teachings Article - Your Mind’s True Capacity

Your mind is Consciousness in a contracted form. It changes its shape to match what you perceive. Through meditation and contemplation, you come to see the source of your brilliance, your creativity, your bliss, and your ability to love. Live in total awareness, perfect bliss, and full contentment.

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Sound Bite: Who Knew?

When I was looking for a Guru, I didn’t know I was looking for a Guru. I knew I wanted something, but I couldn’t explain what the something was. I read books. I went to different churches, healers, and to spiritual groups. Nothing really worked for me. Someone did a reading on the tarot cards for me…

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Sound Bite: Illumined Action

The creative power of Consciousness is on tap for you, ready to give you answers to all your problems, as well as to empower you to create fascinating opportunities.  All you have to do is tap into it, but it’s like standing in front of your bathroom sink.  The water won’t run unless you turn on the tap, so you actually have to do something to get the creative power of Consciousness to flow through you.  What do you do?  It’s called yoga.  Yoga is the science of Consciousness, the way you discover the Consciousness that is your own Divine Beingness — so you live in a constant inner bliss and profound clarity — leading to illumined actions.  It’s how you want to live. 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "Illumined Action" here:

Sound Bite: The Promise of Freedom

Baba’s gift of Shaktipat Initiation, his teachings, and the practices he gave us made us able to attain his promise of Freedom. You need the bliss, yes. But you also need to understand it, and to support it. The teachings make you able to understand it. The practices support it, so you can live in the bliss of your beingness right in the middle…

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Sound Bite: Who Can Give You Enlightenment

You can only tell that the wind is blowing by its effects.  You can see the tops of the trees moving or a flag flapping on its pole.  You see people tucking their sweater or their jacket in close to their body or pulling on a hat. Thus, you know it’s windy.  It’s a force of nature that you cannot see.  Baba was like that.  You couldn’t see what he was, really, and you couldn’t see what he was doing to you.  There were no fireworks, no glittery clothes, no fancy dance steps. Nothing to entertain or captivate your mind. And all the while, the wind was blowing through your depths.  You were getting cleared out of who you thought you were and filled up with a freshness, a newness, your own Beingness. 

 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "Who Can Give You Enlightenment" here.

Sound Bite: Steady State

When your inner state is steady, based in the dimensionless, limitless, expansiveness of your own Divine Essence, you face life head on. You don’t manufacture problems, but you don’t run from them, either. And everything that comes to you, you embrace with your heart, as well as with your mind. Okay, this is what we’re doing now. Your answers come from an inner depth that gives you wisdom on the go.

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse here

Teachings Article - What Kind of Karma?

You can do things to change your karma. When desire motivates you to do things, you get karmic repercussions. But when you do things out of pure altruism you get none. Desireless action is your pathway to freedom. When you live this way you’re not creating new karmas for yourself. Create a happy life. Live with a generous spirit!

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Sound Bite: A Child of God

There were times that your mother or your father, or both of them, truly understood you, supported and guided you in a way that met your needs. You were loved and nourished in just the right way.  And there were other times, I don’t know about you, but I certainly wondered, who are these people?  I am a child of God so how did I end up here. Your only problem is that you didn’t have perfect karma. You had the karma to be born to imperfect people.  You got what you earned in your prior lifetime and your birth family served as your launching pad.  But when you truly launch and when you fly into the stratosphere, you need someone who understands where you’re going. That’s the Guru.

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "A Child of God" here.

 

Sound Bite: Look Deeper Within

When I look in your eyes, I see that you are looking at your limitations, your needs, and fears. But you could look deeper within. That’s what satsang is all about. That’s why I come to you, and hopefully, that’s why you come to see me. So you see you. So you can look into your own eyes and see all the way to God. Because that’s who’s inside. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Sound Bite: You are Immortal

You know, you’re usually on the outside, looking inward. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you see your body, so you think you are your body. But look into your own eyes. Get up close in the mirror, and look into your own eyes. There’s somebody in there. That somebody is you. You are so much more than your body. Yes, your body has a limited lifespan. But the you that is in your body, the you that is looking through your eyes, that you, the real you – you are immortal. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse here

Sound Bite: Two Options

It’s about cultivating Consciousness. There comes a point where you prefer Consciousness to the many forms of unconsciousness you can find or create. This is why Baba said you’ve got two options — focused on your limitations, marching into the grave — or focusing on your own Divine Essence, getting progressively more and more free. If you’ve got options, you’ve got choices. Who makes the choices?  Who chooses? That would be you.

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "Two Options" here.

Teachings Article - Changing Your Future

Yoga’s goal is for you to know your own Self. This frees you from the fear of death, for you know you are immortal, an individualized form of the One Divine Reality. It’s only your body that dies, not your Self. But you need to take care of your body and mind if you want them to last. You can change your future by doing more yoga!

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Sound Bite: Steady and Deep

This steady and deep inner experience is likened to a steady candle flame in a windless place. I got this experience from Baba. He gave it to me with just a glance. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "SACRED, HOLY, PURE"  here

Sound Bite: Sacred, Holy and Pure

So yoga says, you have to go beyond the theory. You must have an experience. It’s only when you feel it inside that you know it to be true. You must have an experience of your own holiness, of your own Divine essence. Once you experience God within, you know that God is within. Once you experience that God is being you, you know who you really are.                     

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sacred, Holy and Pure” here.

Sound Bite: Inner Answers

I began to rely on these inner answers, for they were always right. They cut through my doubts and fears. They ended my internal dialogues. I began to live with a clarity and a sense of purpose. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "KNOWLEDGE IS FOOD" here

Sound Bite: Knowledge Is Food

True knowledge is food. This is from the outside in. You’re taking these words, these teachings that you hear on the outside, and as you let them in, they feed you at a level that nothing else reaches. These teachings are amazing roadmaps gifted to us by the sages of India, knowers of Consciousness, Self-Realized beings. The words are spoken from their depths of that inner knowing, and carry the full weight, the full light that shines from that inner space.    

 

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “KNOWLEDGE IS FOOD” here.

            

Sound Bite: Propelled Deeper Within

Most people think that meditation is about what you do with your mind. But Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation is about using your mind to get beyond your mind. I’ll teach you and, for many of you, remind you to use mantra during meditation. When you fill your mind with the mantra, you are propelled deeper within. In that depth, you find your own Divine Essence. This is called meditation on your own Self. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "CLARITY & COMPASSION" here

Teachings Article: Making a DIfference

Yoga inspires altruism. You discover that your own essence is the One Essence that is being all. Only when you give of yourself do you truly receive. When you’re changed on the inside, then you can truly work to benefit the world and all in it. It’s another reason to do more yoga.

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Sound Bite: Meditation Matters Most

Keep going. Keep doing your practices. Most importantly, keep meditating. It’s meditation that matters most. All the other practices help. They help you with your body. They help you with your mind. But most importantly, they help you with your meditation. Even if you haven’t found the universe within, somehow, you get it when I tell you it’s there. You already have a sense of the truth of it. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "Living on an Even Keel" here

Sound Bite: Learning Your Lessons

Beyond where you live and who you share your life with, who are you? The inner answers are the only ones that count.  Particularly after Shaktipat, these answers become more available.  They are more available and more powerful.  Beyond guidance for handling life’s problems, the inner answers reveal the source from which they come.  You see, you think you are the one getting the inner answers.  You think that the answers arise from an inner Source that is separate from you — that you have an inner Source and you are someone who is separate from that Source and you are getting the answers.  However, you are the Source.

-Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Learning Your Lessons” here:

Teachings Article - Choosing Your State

You can choose your attitude as well as your words and actions. You are choosing how to live and who to be. Use your mind without losing your inner state. Your mind functions with more clarity and creativity, when it is rooted in your deeper essence called Self.  Your choices are based in Consciousness. So is your life. So are you.

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Sound Bite: Where Is the Happiness?

Bliss happens inside. Happiness happens inside. You already know this when the weather is just right, or when everybody is doing exactly what you want. Ha! And it all works so you can be happy. Where do you feel the happiness? Where is it? It’s inside. Happiness is just a hint of the bliss that’s a little deeper within. So go for the source. Dive inside, and then bring your bliss with you. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse "The World Needs More Yogis" here

Sound Bite: Inner Spaces

Now, my spiritual geography might be different than yours. When I think of God, or when I look for God, I look in the inner spaces of my own being. I remember when I used to look outside for God. I confess that I didn’t really know where to look. I’d look up toward the sky, and if there were clouds, I’d wonder, “Well, which one is God on?” And if the sky were clear, well, in that vast space, where would I find God? – Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

 

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Sound Bite: Living on an Even Keel

When you live from this inner dimensionality, no matter what happens, you sail right through it. You've got a deep keel. You walk and talk, you live in the world, you do things and share your life with others, but they do not make you who you are. You bring the whole of you into everything you do but you're never limited by those things, nor by other people’s ideas of who or what you should be. You know you are more. You know your own Self.

Watch Gurudevi's full discourse "Living on an Even Keel" here: 

Teachings Article - Being a Yogi in the World

Being a yogi in the world doesn’t mean withdrawing from the world. What seems to be only a mundane world is divinely designed to engage you fully. When you ground your sense of self in the deeper dimension of your own being, you are you, even in the midst of life’s realities. Bring the light of your own Being into the world.

Read by Aanandi Ross.

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Sound Bite: Experience Your Own Self

That’s why everything we do here is to give you this extraordinary inner experience, the experience of God within. God being you. This is the experience of your own Self. This is what meditation is about, and all of yoga’s other wonderful practices. From poses through breathing, chanting, seva, and certainly the study of the teachings, they all prepare you for this experience. The whole point is for you to have an experience of your own Self. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

Sound Bite: The World Needs More Yogis

When you shine with the light of Consciousness, you bring that light into your life and into the world.  You become an agent of light.  You’re not a messenger of light. A messenger carries a message from someone else. This light doesn’t belong to someone else. It’s your light.  It’s the light of your own being.

 

Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “The World Needs More Yogis” here.

 

Sound Bite: What You Put into It

To pour your energies toward something that has meaning to you. To volunteer your time, and do simple tasks that support the Ashram and the Guru’s work. It makes your life more meaning filled. The meaning of life is found in what you put into it, not what you get out of it.  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

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Teachings Article - Wholeness

Yoga is about an integrated way of living. It makes you able to express yourself powerfully, yet lovingly at the same time. The essence of tantra is that you know your own Capital-S Self while doing all the things that your many small-s selves do. You are you, at all levels of your being. In your wholeness, you see the sacred in yourself and all that exists.

Read by Swami Samvidaananda

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Sound Bite: Your Notebook

All the papers have painful stories written on them. Some of them are true, and some of them are just your take on things. You carry your notebook with you everywhere you go. You read and re-read the stories, and share them with other people, even if you’ve shared them before… Instead, I recommend you take a new notebook, even a small one. Like the one we have for newcomers, our welcome journal notebook. And, all those lovely blank pages, and all of those empty spaces, you can write mantra.  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Listen to Gurudevi’s full discourse here.

Sound Bite: Spending Time with a Saint

If you don’t know your Self yet, not all the time, and if you don’t live in the bliss of Consciousness yet, not all the time, what’s the best way to get there? My Baba said if you want to become a siddha, a realized master, you have to spend enough time with a siddha. Really? Just spending time with a saint makes you more saintly? Yes! He described it this way. If you keep the company of a saint, your inner being changes.  – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

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Sound Bite: Prana

“Prana is the most important element in the body. When the prana leaves the body, it becomes worth only a few pennies,” my Baba explained.  Prana is what makes your body a living body. Prana makes your heart beat. It makes your eyes able to see. It makes your breath move. 

It’s interesting that we use yogic breathing to move your prana, yet it is the prana that makes your breath move. Your breath is at a crossroads, a place where you can use the physical to affect the subtle. – Gurudevi Nirmalananda

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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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.