By Swami Prajñananda

I used to wish that I didn’t need to sleep. It seemed like such a waste of time.

And I did a pretty good job over the years of burning the candle at both ends. The most extreme of which was when I was part of a dance team that started practice at midnight. After practice I would walk home, get about three hours of sleep, wake up, go to work and then do it all again. Yeah, I only lasted a couple months on that schedule.

In retrospect, I can see that part of me was onto something with my lifestyle. I wanted to be awake. I couldn’t put words to it at the time, but it was a desire to know that my life was meaningful — that I was meaningful.

So I kept busy and poured myself into everything that I did. Unfortunately, the main thing I got from all this was exhaustion, called “shrama” in Sanskrit. Technically shrama means the fatigue that comes from worldliness.

What is worldliness? It is the focus and pouring of your energies into the world. When you do this without being based in your own inner depth, you drain yourself easily. You are not present in your body, but rather “out there” somewhere.

You may want to blame it on a busy day, but there is more going on. Truly, you drain yourself more with your mind than anything you can do with your body. For how many thoughts do you think in a day? Some research says the average is about 60,000 with 80% of those thoughts being negative.

Unfortunately, everyone’s mind loves to dwell on painful memories and future worries, yours too. Each time you do, your own presence leaves your body and goes out with your thoughts. Not only is this painful, it is also draining. This is why we fall into bed at the end of the day exhausted. We’ve lost our own presence and have drained our own energy.

This is a big reason why people come, or should come, to an ashram. For “ashram” means without (“a-”) fatigue (“shrama”). When you come to an ashram, you begin to dissolve your lifetime’s worth of exhaustion (or perhaps from many lifetimes). You also learn how to live in a way as to not create more.

Yet this is not about escaping the world. No, that’s not it at all. In fact you don’t even have to physically go to an ashram. Rather, you can do the practices that the ashram recommends: poses, breathing, chanting, mantra, meditation and more. When you apply yourself to these practices, you learn how to live in your body in a whole new way. And this completely changes your experience of the world.

Instead of looking outward for what you think you need, or running away from what you think you don’t, you stay grounded inside. You are centered in your own presence, your own Self. This is truly what it means to be awake. This is described in the Shiva Sutras 1.8:

J~naana.m jaagrat

Knowledge is wakefulness

We usually think of knowledge as what you learn with your mind. But, this sutra describes a deeper knowing. It is the experience of your own presence, beyond your mind. This is your essence, the light of your own being.

When you ground into the inner infinity of your own light, it is called wakefulness. You are awake! When you are lost looking outward to the world to complete you, this is called darkness. You don’t know who you are. You are asleep even with your eyes open.

So how do you move from darkness to light? It is not something you do easily on your own. Otherwise, you would have done it by now. You need someone who can show you the way. Just like you needed someone to teach you how to tie your shoes, learn the ABC’s and ride a bike, you also need a teacher to show you how to move towards the light.

This is the literal translation of the Sanskrit word “Guru.” Guru is a compound word: “gu” means darkness and “ru” means light. The Guru is one who takes you from darkness to light. They give you an inner awakening, so you begin to shine from the inside out. You learn how to stay based in your own light and even to see the same light in the world.

Now, when you act, even when you think, you aren’t creating shrama. You aren’t draining your energy. For, the fact is, you are based in the source of energy itself. You can be a light onto the world. Living in joy and spreading that joy everywhere you go. If you like how this sounds, well, it’s time to wake up.

(1) coloradoparent.com

By Swami Prajñananda 

Before yoga, I had this burning desire to make something of myself. I wanted to go places and do things, big things.

Yet, no matter where I went or how much I did, I didn’t have peace. At least not for long. I knew I was looking for something desperately, but I didn’t know what it was. So I kept looking. The funny thing was I kept thinking, “I need a teacher. I need a teacher.”  

I somehow knew without having the vocabulary for it, that I needed a Guru, a spiritual teacher. I found her when I met Gurudevi Nirmalananda. She directed my attention inward to discover what I had been looking for all along. I began to explore the mystery and majesty of my own inner world. I was like a child, re-discovering how to walk and talk, even how to breathe. The highlight of each day became my morning meditations. I never knew what I would experience, but it was always a new wonder. 

This wonder extended beyond my meditation seat. For the rest of my day, I had this new quality of ease. Instead of the constant underlying anxiety, I was feeling quite different: calmer, steadier — dare I say peaceful?   

Yes. It was peace. And it didn’t matter what was happening on the outside. Life still had its ups and downs. The pressures were still there, yet they no longer had a hold on me like before. Instead, I was drawing from a deep inner well. It was a well of bliss and peace that I had been plumbing in each morning meditation. Their waters nourished me the whole rest of the day. And they continue to do so to this day.  

To explain further, I have selected a verse from the teachings of Bhagavan Nityananda, a Great Being in our tradition: 

Once you attain perfect inner peace, there is 

No need to travel anywhere. 

No need to see anything. 

No need for pilgrimages to holy places. 

All can be seen within. 

— Bhagavan Nityananda, “The Sky of the Heart” verse 33 

What a shift in perspective! And it comes from meditation. Meditation gives you the experience of inner peace, your own Self. When you are full inside, you have no need.  

Yes, you can travel, but you don’t need to. You can go and see great wonders in the world or even right in your hometown, but you don’t need to. You can go to the holiest of places, yet the most holy of them lies right within you. As Nityananda says, “All can be seen within.” 

Yet, don’t confuse the message. This is not about isolation and non-participation. Instead, this is about prioritizing your inner state. When you are full, you bring your fullness with you everywhere you go. So instead of going out of need, you go out of choice. You choose to go where you go. You choose to see what you see. And when you are so full from within, you choose to give from your fullness. It is an extraordinary way to live.  

By Swami Prajñananda 

My birthday is this week.  A day to celebrate life.  I’ve been contemplating this, starting with my body.  It has changed quite a bit since I was born.  It has grown as I have grown.  It has learned as I have learned.  

My body has served me very well, but I haven’t always served it well.  Yet I need my body to live my life.  My quality of life is directly affected by the care I give it.  Just like a car, the better you care for it, the longer it will last and the better condition it will be in. 

I have to admit, pre-yoga I was not very good at caring for my body.  I pushed it to the max and beyond, many times.  Even after finding yoga, I’ve been known to do this. Yet Svaroopa^® yoga and meditation excel at self-care. 

It starts with getting you in your body.  For most of us, we live our life in our mind, which is always on the go.  It can take you to the moon and back in a second.  It can mire you in your most terrible memories and send you chasing after possible future scenarios.  Every thought creates a castle in the sky, dragging you away from the present moment. 

This is why every Svaroopa^® yoga class begins with a Guided Awareness.  You start with your toes, all ten toes…all at the same time.  You get present in your own body from toe to top.  This is so important, for your body needs your presence to be a living body. 

Next you do Ujjayi Pranayama, the breathing practice that re-enlivens you.  It pumps your prana, your vital life force.  It’s very much like taking your car to the gas station.  Without fuel, your car won’t go far.  It is the same with your body.  It needs to be fueled up with prana to work at full capacity. 

After Shavasana and Ujjayi, you do some yoga poses which release your muscular tensions. Your aches and pains melt away, and you move more easily and fluidly.  Your body is transformed.  This makes a difference in your day-to-day life.  Yet the truest purpose is to make you fit to explore the deeper dimensions of your being.

There is a big misconception about spirituality, that you must transcend your body.  It is actually quite the opposite.  For it is in your own body that you have the ability to explore your own greatness.  Gurudevi says it this way in her new book, Yoga: Embodied Spirituality: 

You must dive into your own body, your own mind, your own being and discover who you are
and what you are made of.  Yours is such a precious body.  What an extraordinary place, a
physical location, to enter into and to explore.  What a great gift the body is!

Truely, your body is a great gift.  You were born with a body and mind to explore the outer world as well as the inner world.  We have gotten very good at focusing externally.  Now it is time to use your body and mind differently, to explore inside. 

Your body is a pathway inward. For when you are present in your body, you are in the here and now.  In this place, in this space, in your own skin.  When you look inward, deeper than your mind, you discover that you are Presence-Itself.  Presence is not so limited to your idea of outside and inside.  For Presence is all-expansive, all-encompassing, Existence-Itself. Yet when you are finding your own Presence, you don’t start with the macro.  You start with the micro.  

While a birthday is a day that we label as special, really every day is a celebration of you.  You were born into a body for the precious opportunity to discover who you truly are.  It is with your own body that you can do these spiritual practices.  It is with your body that you can explore the inner dimensions of your own being.  There is so much to discover inside.  If you’re not sure where to begin, start with your toes! 

By Swami Prajñananda

I wished I could stop time.  In the dark of the night, I used to wake up terrified, remembering that one day I would die.  I was only a child, but my looming death weighed heavily on me.  I wished for time to stop, but I could feel it still ticking steadily onward.  During the day, it was easy to forget about death.  But, in those quiet moments in the dark, I couldn’t push the thoughts away.

Part of the reason it was so scary was that I wasn’t experiencing God.  I had some basic training in religion growing up, but I wasn’t actually having the experience.  So, death felt like the end — absolute oblivion.  

This nihilistic belief system continued for me until I met Gurudevi Nirmalananda.  Being in her presence and receiving her teachings, I experienced that there is more to me than I thought.  Sitting for meditation and turning inward, I would feel a sense of eternity.  This eternality would fill me from the inside.  Meditation after meditation gave me this inner fullness without start or end.  

Each day, I would look forward to my daily meditation.  I was finding that “something” that I had been missing and looking for, for so long.  My usual inner feeling of emptiness was replaced by expansive fullness.  Over time, I realized the eternality I was finding inside was in fact God.  God is eternal, Existence-Itself.  God has no beginning or end.  God is all-pervasive.  This means God is being this entire world, including me.  

I hadn’t been successful at reaching for God on the outside. However, thanks to Gurudevi, I was having major success at finding God on the inside.  Gurudevi explains this more:

For a yogi, reaching to God is an inward reach, turning your attention, turning your mind and heart to the sacred space inside, finding the Divine dimension that is yoga’s focus and yoga’s specialty.

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda, “You’re in the Holidays,” December 4, 2022

Yes! Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation excels at this.  While I am sharing my personal experience with you, it is not a rare or unique experience in this tradition.  When you meditate with Gurudevi, you will discover the same, even in your first meditation.  This is because everyone has the same sacred space inside.  It is God’s space.  It is your space.  You simply need someone to guide you there.  

Gurudevi is a Meditation Master who serves as your spiritual GPS.  Your usual worldly GPS rivets your attention outside of yourself.  Focused on your relationships and what you see and do, you lose track of your own Divine Essence.  When you replace your worldly GPS with a spiritual one, your attention is directed inside.  I call it a God Positioning System, for it places you right where God is.  Right here.  Right now.  Right inside. 

How? Through meditation. 

Gurudevi’s own depth, coming from the lineage of Masters who precede her, gives you an inner boost.  In meditation, you are glided inward, past the pitfalls and snags of your mind.  You are guided all the way to the deepest dimension of your being.  You experience God inside.  When you open your eyes, you can see God outside too.  And at the same time, you are the one being both.  Inside and outside, all at the same time.  To discover this for yourself, meditate with a Master.