By Swami Satrupananda Saraswati

Awe, elation and wonder … this is how I felt as I floated out of my first yoga class. I was completely relaxed and full of energy, both at the same time.

I was 18 years old.  Yet I was so rejuvenated that I felt five years old again. I was instantly hooked on yoga. Now, two-and-half decades later, I continue to be in awe and wonder. It just keeps getting better.

The benefits of yoga are truly amazing! The ancient sages have been saying this for centuries: 

Vismayo yogabhuumikaa.h.

— Shiva Sutras 1.12

The stages and experiences of yoga are truly amazing.

Both ancient and modern yoga sages give us this bold promise. If you do the yoga practices, you will have amazing experiences. Their certainty does not come from a research study with many people over a long time period. They didn’t crunch the numbers at the end to prove the benefits statistically. No. The sages confidently make this promise because they know how the system works. It is completely reliable.

Yoga is an inside-out process. All of the yoga practices are for the purpose of opening you up to the truth of your own existence. The you that you truly are is pure and full. Yet you don’t always experience or know this truth. You limit yourself by thinking that you are merely what you do, who you know or where you live. Yet you are so much more. Your true essence is Existence-Itself.

As your yoga practices unveil your true essence, then your own essence shines forth. Wonder, amazement and awe are guaranteed. As your own essence shines through your body, you feel bliss. Your essence also fills your senses — you rejoice in this human experience. And as your own true essence fills your mind, you experience peace, clarity, focus and more.

While this is your future, the sages also tell us that there are stages to arriving at this destination. Like all transformational processes, it’s an evolution. It’s like walking out of a dark movie theatre at noon; your eyes need time to adjust to the light. Similarly, you need time to adjust to the brightness of your own essence. Unfortunately, you have been living in the dark, so it takes time to adjust to the light. 

The Svaroopa^® yoga practices are so effective at unveiling your own essence that we intentionally make the openings gradual. You learn to live in your increasing brightness. You integrate your new light into your life. You learn to live in a way that allows the light to continue to shine forth. Then you open up to even more light. It’s a step-by-step process.

Sometimes you even take a few steps back. When you don’t know how to live in your brightness, you can slide back into the dark. You go back to your old familiar habits. This can be painful or, at the very least, difficult. While the darkness is familiar, now you’ve experienced the light. The darkness was always painful, and now you know better. That can be tough. 

This is when you may wonder about the promise quoted above. Remember, it is part of the process. Keep doing your practices, keep opening up to the light of your own essence. With time, you will learn to live in the light. The darkness of your limitations won’t be able to hold you back anymore.

While you apply your own self-effort, you have incredible support along the way. You can rely on the yogic teachings which come from an ancient lineage. They have been passed down from teacher to disciple throughout time. These teachings are tested and true. We have proof that they work from the Great Masters who came before us. 

Perhaps more importantly, there is a power of revelation that flows through this lineage. This power is called “Grace.” While you put one foot in front of the other, it’s like you have jet engines on your shoes. With every step, Grace propels you further than you ever could go on your own.

So when the going gets tough, keep going. It’s simply one of the stages. If you take a few steps back, that’s okay; just return to stepping forward. There are various stages along the way. And you have help from the teachers who preceded you. 

You can rely on the promise from the yogic sages. They tell us that the wonders of yoga are truly amazing. They will be your inner wonders by you simply doing the practices.

By Swami Satrupananda

You decide it’s time for a vacation. You need a change of scenery, so you pack up your suitcase and head out.

After some travel, you get to your new location. You unpack and settle down to have a bite to eat or something to drink. You are enjoying your new location with new views, smells, tastes and more. And then your mind brings up the same worries and fears you left miles behind.

The reality of this was a shock to me. During university, I took a semester off and traveled to Southeast Asia. I spent my days exploring the exotic land, food and culture. I even took a meditation retreat. I was shocked when my mind would not stop obsessing on problems that were over 7,500 miles away.

The yogic texts say that your challenges come from your limited knowledge.

Jñanam bandhah.

Limited knowledge is bondage.

Shiva Sutras 1.2

Knowledge is not the problem. It is limited knowledge that creates bondage. Your mind works hard at knowing. Unfortunately, it works only on limited knowledge. You focus on knowing the external world. When all you know is the external world, you get your sense of self from it. As a result, you are impacted by your surroundings.

And even when you change your location, the distance does not protect you from your mind. Your mind can bring up problems from thousands of miles away.

In yoga practices, you stop looking outside for a sense of self. You turn your attention inward to know who you truly are. With each yoga practice, you experience your true Divine Self. With each experience, you come to know who you really are.

This knowledge is not limiting, it is freeing! You don’t merely find the knowledge of who you are. Ultimately, you find the Knowingness itself.

This shift from being outwardly focused to inward is emphasized in our Guided Awareness. In yoga classes, we guide you in being aware of your body on the outside and inside. “Become aware of your toes… all ten toes… outside and inside.”

In meditation, we take it a step farther. You turn your attention inward beyond your body and even beyond your mind. You dive deep inside directly to your own Self.

At first it can be challenging to turn your attention inward. We all have spent so much of our life looking outward. So you practice turning your attention inward again and again. Then it becomes a delight to have the opportunity to close your eyes and turn within.

I remember a few years ago, I was going through a challenging time. I no longer wanted to run away to the other side of the planet like during university. Instead, I wanted to escape inside. One morning, I didn’t want to end my meditation period. I wanted to stay inside. The inner space was my safe haven. This was progress.

Instead of chasing for external realities, I knew that I would only be satisfied by resting in my own Self. While it was progress, it was still limited. I couldn’t settle deep enough inside that I stayed there while also being in the world, regardless of the challenges.

This tantric system is not about leaving the world to find your Self on the inside. However, in the beginning, you do need to take recesses from the external world. You turn your attention inward to discover who you are. Then you learn how to live from your own Self while you step into the world. You go from the outside to the inside, then inside to the outside. You know and be your own Self while you are in the midst of the world. Then you can be in any location.

And there’s more. As you dive deeper into knowing and being your own Self, you come to know that Self is the source of everything. Then when you look inside, you see only your own Self. When you look outside, you see only your own Self. Then there is no inside and outside. There is only the One, who is you.

Yet there is still an inside and outside, and you are still impacted by the world outside you, but you go from outside to inside to outside. Do more yoga.

By Swami Satrupananda

“I want this.  I need that.  I don’t want this.  I don’t want that.”  

Want, want, want.  Need, need, need.  Your mind churns over your desires.  Again and again, it reviews what or where or how you are lacking. It’s exhausting both mentally and physically.  And worst of all, you too often live your life based on an assumption of “not enough.”

What if you lived your life based on the assumption of enough or — better yet —abundance? The reality is that you are likely amongst the more fortunate in this world.  You have Internet, you are literate and you have your basic needs met.  This gives you the opportunity to focus on your spirituality.  What if you saw the abundance in your life and wanted what you have? 

There are many well-known gratitude practices to cultivate a different mindset.  You can have a gratitude journal or jar.  Our Ashram Staff meetings end with a gratitude moment.  Each person shares what they are grateful for.  These psychological practices can be powerful for changing your mind’s perspective.  

Yet yoga approaches it differently.  While psychology changes the content of your mind, yoga targets the source of the problem. Yoga looks at why your mind is thinking those thoughts.  You want things because you feel incomplete, empty, not enough and/or alone.  Yoga cures this feeling.  

How?  By revealing to you the fullness and completeness of who you truly are.  When you feel like you are lacking something, you are not experiencing your true Essence.  When you are being your true Essence, you know and experience that you are full and complete. 

Yoga practices are designed to reveal to you the fullness that you are.  Over time, the yogic process that you go through fills you up from the inside.  You know this from your yoga practices already.  You do poses or breathing practices and then feel calmer, more satisfied and at ease. 

This is because you are experiencing your fullness on the inside.  You learn to live in that fullness all the time.  Then you see this same Essence being everyone and everything around you.  Living in the fullness of your Essence, you don’t need anything on the outside.  You don’t want or need anything to make you feel full.

D.r.s.tha-anu”sravaka-vishaya-vit.r.s.nasya vashiikaara-sa.mj~nyaa vairaagyam

— Yoga Sutras 1.15

Your mind becomes free from all desires, for externals and for things promised in the scriptures, giving a state of complete freedom and ease.

When you don’t want things, you gain great freedom.  Your mind no longer churns over your desires.  This frees up a tremendous amount of mental energy.  With your thoughts changed, your words and actions also change.  Instead of being a slave to your desires, you are free.

This freedom also includes the freedom to give more, love more and do more.  With actions, thoughts and words motivated by getting something, you are limited by what you can do.  You are limited by your focus on what you can get.  When you are full, you are looking at what to give.  Your capacity grows.  You have great freedom.  It’s the best way to live.

My favorite way to experience the truth of these teachings is by repeating mantra.  So many times, I’ve turned to mantra when I have been caught up in my desires.  I repeat mantra. Sometimes, it’s for just a few minutes. Sometimes it takes longer.  And, without fail, the mantra fills me up from the inside.  The mantra reveals my Self to me.  

The fullness of my Self leaves no room for desire.  Then the same external circumstances look completely different to me. Being full on the inside, my heart overflows.  I am looking at what I can give.  I care and I want to help. When you fill up from the inside, then you love more as well as care more.  You are fully and effectively engaged in the world.  

In the sutra above, the Sanskrit word vairaagyam is often translated as non-attachment or dispassion. This can lead to a misconception that you must distance yourself from the world.  But it’s the opposite really.  Filled up with knowing your own Self, you are freed from neediness and desires.  An abundance of love and caring fills you.  You stay engaged in the world so you can give from this abundance.

By Swami Satrupananda

We teach this saying to our children to help them be resilient to hurtful words. 

Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words shall never hurt me.

The reality is that words hurt.  They don’t only hurt children, they hurt everyone.  Words are powerful.  Unfortunately, they are sometimes used to be hurtful. As children we are taught to say nice words to others.  

But what do you say to yourself?  Too few of the thoughts you think are positive, encouraging and uplifting.  Instead, you worry about the future, remember hurtful memories or complain about the present.  Perhaps you compare yourself to others or wish for things you don’t have.  Your mind harasses with you with all these thoughts. 

This was my main takeaway from my first meditation retreat.  I had graduated from the university.  I was taking a semester off before starting graduate school.  Travelling in Southeast Asia, I decided to take a 10-day meditation retreat.  I was in a peaceful, tropical monastery, being fed delicious vegetarian meals and receiving ancient teachings.  It seemed like it was great.  

But during my meditations, I was in hell.  My mind harassed me relentlessly.  It reminded me of my most hurtful memories and biggest fears for the future.  While I was horrified by what my mind was doing, I was grateful to be aware of it. 

Even though your mind can harass you, your mind is not being bad.  It is doing exactly what it is designed to do.  Your mind is designed to distract you from the truth of your own existence.  Your existence is the One Divine Existence that has always existed and will always exist.  The One Divine Existence is the basis of existence for everyone and everything.  

In some way, you can give your mind a bit of credit.  It has the enormous job of blocking you from the Truth of your Existence.  You are Existence Itself.  How powerful is your mind and your thoughts that it can block you from Existence Itself?

Yet while your mind is doing a formidable job, you are not enjoying its harassment.  As a human being, you have the incredible ability to actively choose what you think.  You can even choose to know your own Self which is beyond your mind.  You can experience and live in the knowingness and beingness of your own Divine Existence.  Yoga is the methodology that gets you there.

To manage your harassing mind, yoga highly recommends mantra repetition: 

Mananaat traayate iti mantra.h

Mantra is that which protects and uplifts one who contemplates it.

Yes, you need protection from your mind.  Mantra is a Sanskrit phrase that names your own Divine Existence.  Repeating your Divine Name, again and again, will protect you from the thoughts you normally think.  It is a huge upgrade to what you normally repeat. 

From repeating your Divine Name, you get more than protection.  Researchers have shown that positive thinking can reduce your chance of a heart attack, lower your blood pressure and lengthen your life span.  Positive thinking also gives you more creativity, greater problem-solving skills and clearer thinking.  

Mantra repetition gives you all these benefits and more.  You are not merely thinking positively.  You are calling your own Divine Name.  What happens when you call someone’s name?  They respond.  When you repeat your own Divine Name, your own Divine Existence shows up. 

Sanskrit is a mystical language that specializes in names for your own Divine Existence.  There are millions of Sanskrit mantras that you can repeat.  The most powerful mantra is one from a Meditation Master who knows their own Divine Existence.  They repeated the mantra to come to know their own Divine Existence.  

When they share the mantra with you, they put their blessings into it.  This is called a chaitanya mantra, an enlivened mantra.  The mantra is enlivened with the Master’s own knowing of the One Divine Existence.  Swami Nirmalananda is such a Meditation Master. She gives you an enlivened mantra.

The mantra only protects and uplifts you if you repeat it.  So your job is to repeat mantra, all the time.  With our mantra, you use it for meditation and also throughout your day.  You can repeat the mantra when you get out of bed in the morning.  Repeat the mantra while you brush your teeth and bathe.  Repeat mantra while you eat and drink.  Repeat mantra while you drive.  Repeat mantra when chatting with your friend.  Repeat mantra while you work.

You have proven that you can think while doing all of these things.  Now your task is to repeat your own Divine Name, the mantra, instead.  While this is a simple task, it is not necessarily easy.  But it is worth the effort to remember to repeat your own Divine Name, the mantra the Guru gives you.  The mantra protects you and uplifts you to the knowing of your own Divine Existence.

By Swami Satrupananda

Do more.  Try harder.  I was given this advice as the key to success in life.  If you want to get a promotion at work, take on more responsibility.  If you want to improve your golf game, practice more.  If you are struggling with establishing a new lifestyle habit, try harder.  This is the notion that by doing more you’ll be more.  

However, yoga approaches it differently and says that surrender is essential.  

Surrender can be a scary word.  We associate surrender with waving the white flag, an admission of defeat.  Surrender can also be reluctantly accepting the current undesirable circumstances.  This is not what the yogis meant by surrender.  Throughout history, yogis have been people who were not satisfied with their personal status quo.  They wanted something different from life.  They applied themselves to a greater goal, even though it went against the cultural norms.  

So what is yogic surrender?

To understand yogic surrender, let’s compare the underlying principles between modern success and yogic attainment.  In the West, we are taught that by doing more you’ll be more.  

In contrast, yoga is based on the principle that you are already great, whole and complete.  You are not merely great, you are Greatness itself.  Any word you use to describe the whole of your being is limited. You are that Divine Essence which is beyond words.  The ancient yogis called it “That”.

The problem is, your Greatness is hidden inside, just behind your mind.  Since you don’t know your own Greatness, you feel lost, small, unworthy and alone.  You look for a replacement.  You construct identities around the work you do, the relationships you are in and the places you live.  Your mind works hard at creating and maintaining these identities. 

This is where yogic surrender comes in.  You are already Greatness; you are That. To discover That, you surrender your constructed identities.  You give up the notion that you are merely what you do, who you know and where you live.  You embrace that you are That.  You see and be your own That-ness, and you see it in everyone and everything.  Baba Muktananda described it:

Surrender means to become one with That, to merge with That.

You let go of your idea of being small and step into your Greatness.  You surrender to your Greatness.  It’s a great promise but not necessarily easy.  Letting go of your constructed identities can be difficult.  They are so familiar.  And they are so painful.

A few years ago, I had a busy mind at the beginning of a meditation period.  My mind was comparing me to others, and I was ending up on the bottom.  I was feeling small.  My constructed identity of being someone valuable and worthy was being threatened.  My mind wanted to do more and try harder to patch up my shaky constructed identity.

But I couldn’t find a solution that made me feel like it would work.  I was scared.  If I gave up this constructed identity, who would I be?  I didn’t know.  Yet I did know the instructions that my Guru gave me for meditation.  I followed them and repeated mantra.  As I continued to repeat mantra, a shift happened inside.  I settled deeper into my That-ness.  Then I could see that I was holding onto the constructed identity.  The act of comparing myself was what was keeping me small.  So I surrendered the comparison.  I surrendered my smallness, and I got my Greatness.

We can learn about surrendering from a way to catch a monkey.  In India, they take a jar with a wide base and a narrow opening.  The opening would be just wide enough for monkey to slide its hand into the jar.  The jar was then tied with a rope to something solid.  A shiny coin or piece of food was placed in the jar.  A monkey would pass by the jar and become interested in the treat inside.  It slipped its hand into the jar and grabbed the lucky prize.  Now, however, the fist, grabbing the treat, was too big to go through the jar’s narrow opening.  The monkey was trapped.  The monkey had a simple way of getting free.  Just let go of the little treat.  

But the monkey holds on tight and starts screaming.  They gave up their freedom for a little treat.  

The same is true for us.  We are the ones holding onto our limited constructed identities.  And the price we pay is our freedom.  We give up our Greatness.

So how do you develop your ability to surrender? Swami Muktananda tells us:

Meditate more and surrender will come.

Swami Muktananda, From the Finite to the Infinite, page 322

Every time you meditate, you experience your own Greatness.  The more you experience and know your own Greatness, the easier it is to surrender to your Greatness.  Then you abide in your Greatness all the time.

So meditate more, not to be more, but to surrender to your Greatness.  It can be a tricky balance to play.  I recommend meeting and studying with one who has fully surrendered and lives from the knowing of their Greatness within.  They know the yogic path to surrender and want to share it with you.  Come meet Satguru Nirmalananda.  She will help you surrender to your Greatness.