Svaroopa Vidya Ashram’s Podcast

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.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

Join Gurudevi online at her next Meditation Program.

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

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

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.

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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses 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.

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

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses 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.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

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 

Watch Gurudevi's full discourses here.

Krishna Avatar Part 31

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.

Teachings Article - Psychology & 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.

Krishna Avatar Part 30

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.

4/3/2022 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.

Teachings Article - The Bliss of Consciousness

Bliss is not the goal.  Consciousness is.  This can be confusing because most seekers are looking for bliss.  But Consciousness is what matters.  Still, bliss is incredibly important.  Why?  The need for bliss is built into you.  Your body is hard-wired for bliss; it’s called your parasympathetic nervous system.  Your body has bliss software; it’s called your...

Read by Swami Samvidaananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Teachings Article - Two in One

Yoga shows you how to look inward to take you beyond who you think you are. You are the one who is having the experience, you are not the experience. Gurudevi Nirmalananda gives you the key to understanding the ever-existent Reality that is being the universe while being you. 

Read by Swami Prajñananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Teachings Article - One

Every being consists of the same essence, the One Reality which has become all. Gurudevi explains the multi-dimensionality you find within and the importance of understanding this human capacity. Learn how to live in the knowing of the One within.

Read by Yogyananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Jaya Shiva Shankara Audio Sample

Guru Mantras from Spiritual Hunger & Fulfillment

Chanting Guru Mantras

By Joan Bragar

I want to chant along during the opening of Ashram offerings both online and in person.  I feel more part of it when I join in the chant of “Guru Mantras.”  Consequently, more shakti moves through me. 

I’ve been working on memorizing them on my morning walk. On Track 5 of Spiritual Hunger & Fulfillment, I get to hear Gurudevi’s beautiful voice repeating them for a full 25 minutes. 

This is a sample of that audio.

Read Blog:  https://svaroopablog.org/2024/03/21/chanting-guru-mantras/

Download Audio: https://music.apple.com/us/album/spiritual-hunger-fulfillment/1482038110

 

OM Gangayai namah sample

OM Guru OM Guru OM Gurudev Sample

Mystical Song of the Guru

Gurudeva Hamara Pyara from Honoring The One Who Needs No Praise

Honoring the One Who Needs No Praise 

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

Enjoy these joyful songs of praise, dedicated to the one who needs no praise. They honor the Gurus of my lineage, Baba Muktananda and Bhagavan Nityananda.  

We usually do a candle flame ceremony when chanting them. Yet you can chant them or listen to them anytime, with or without waving the light. 

Jyota se Jyota — Light my Inner Flame 

Gurudeva Hamara Pyara — Our Beloved Guru 

I made these recordings several years ago, specifically for us to use in Ashram programs. People hearing them and chanting along have been asking if they could get them somewhere. And now you can! 

The title comes from Shree Guru Gita, intro verse 2: 

Nana-vidhani chanda.msi 

"srii-guru-paramatma devata. 

Verses with diff’rent melodies 

honor the One who needs no praise. 

Satguru, the Supreme Self is 

the Divine One being honored. 

Hear me chanting this verse in Sanskrit and the commentary on it in my Guru Gita Podcast. 

And fill your heart with joy by buying these splendid songs of praise!  They will fill your day with light when you play them.  

Download Honoring The One Who Needs No Praise:

Apple Music    Amazon

Teachings Article - Who or What is God?

“Numinous — expansive, holy, sacred, all-knowing, filled with God.”  But who or what is God? Listen to Gurudevi answer this important question.  Learn about your own God-ness.  Discover how to live in the inner knowing that yoga describes, the knowing of your own Divine Essence.

Read by Aanandi Ross.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies

Teachings Article - Wherefrom and Why?

Where have you come from and why are you here? Gurudevi explains the origins of the universe as described by yoga’s ancient sages. She delves into the mystical practices of yoga and discusses how these answer the most powerful and basic questions of your existence.

Read by Swami Samvidaananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Teachings Article - What is Life?

What is this thing we call life? It is the energy of aliveness (prana) that makes you and everything and everyone alive. Yoga says this entire universe is created out of Shiva’s bliss. Your own life is your personal version of Shiva’s cosmic dance. Find your own Self, your deepest essence, and take it with you everywhere you go. Then you don’t merely survive, you thrive! 

Read by Swami Sahajananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Teachings Article - What is Death?

“The Self does not die,” Gurudevi explains.  The one thing that continues without end is the One Reality from which all has come. You are not something that was created. God did not create you, but became you, and is being you now. You are that which never dies.  Your own essence, your own Self, is immortal.  The purpose of human life is to know your own Self.

Read by Yogyananda Fountain.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Teachings Article - What is Consciousness?

The universe is not merely conscious, as the physicist have discovered, but Consciousness. Listen to Swami Nirmalananda answer the question, what is consciousness.

Read by Aanandi Ross.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.

Teachings Article - Is All This Real?

Let Gurudevi Nirmalananda expand your understanding of what Real, really means, and help you experience your true Reality, Consciousness! 

Read by Read by Swami Samvidaananda.

Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our Freebies.