By Swami Samvidaananda

I love spring.  Crocuses and daffodils bloom in the yard.  The trees’ limbs unfurl fresh new leaves and blossoms. Spring feels like a celebration of life.  Every day there are new signs of life.  Every day feels fresh and new.  I treasure that feeling.  I used to rely on the newborn beauty of spring to trigger it for me.

That changed when I found yoga.  Yoga says the entrancing newness of spring is always available to you.  It’s a quality of your Divine Essence.  This is described in a yogic text called the Shiva Sutras:

iccha-shaktir uma-kumari

In every moment, the yogi enjoys the newness of life, the gift of the Goddess. — Shiva Sutras 1.13

Uma-Kumari is the Goddess.  She is the energy that births the universe into existence.  She existed before time began, and she exists now, creating every moment anew.  She uses her Divine will, iccha-shakti, to blossom forth the world and everything that exists.  Everything that exists is made from her own existence, out of pure delight.  Including you.  You are an expression of the Goddess.  

You are made of her Divinity.  Except she and you are not two.  There’s only One.  One Divine Reality, called Goddess, called God, called Self.  Your Self.  You are the One Divine Reality.  Except you don’t know your Divinity, most of the time.  You get glimpses, like the way springtime gives me a fleeting glimpse of the glorious ever-newness of life.

So how does the yogi enjoy the newness of life in every moment?  This gift of the Goddess comes from another gift.  It’s the mystical initiation called Shaktipat.  Shaktipat awakens within you the knowing of your own Divinity.  That capacity to know has been lying dormant within you.  It is like a seed buried in the soil, awaiting spring.  My teacher, Gurudevi Nirmalananda, is a Shaktipat Guru.  She is a yoga master who has the capacity to spark awake your inner knowing.  When you receive this awakening, you’ll know your Self: immortal, ever-existent, ever-new. 

You probably won’t know all the time, right away.  A rare few do.  For the rest of us, we have our part to play.  Meditation is your most important practice.  The meditation in this lineage is called Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation.  Every time you meditate, you clear away more of the blockages that keep you from living your Divinity.  It’s like your seed has been awakened and is doing its best to grow.  But the soil is a little rocky.  Meditation clears away the mental and emotional pebbles and rocks that get in your way.

And day by day, meditation by meditation, the energy of your Divinity arises within you.  It’s the source of your aliveness, your joy and your happiness.  It’s the source of life itself.  So is it any surprise that you will become more fully alive, more fully present, more fully engaged in your life?  Whether the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing, or it’s a frigid winter day.  Or it’s a hurricane!  You’ll embrace it all, celebrating every Divine moment.  This is your destiny.  Gurudevi will give you Shaktipat if you want her to.  Are you ready?