By Swami Shrutananda

I admit I am a Trekkie.  “Trekkie” is found in the dictionary. So, clearly, lots of people are fans of the science fiction TV program “Star Trek.”  

As the show begins, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) says, “To boldly go where no one has gone before!”  When I hear those words, there is a yearning that arises within me.  

Before yoga, my yearning was to know more, to do more, to see more, to be more.  I trekked all over the world.  I had wanderlust.  I thought seeing and knowing more about the world would take care of my yearning.  I didn’t know what I was truly yearning for until I found yoga. 

This yearning drives humankind to look outward, and even to reach out into the cosmos.  Voyager 1, a space probe launched by NASA, is now 14.6 billion miles from earth.  For what purpose?  The goal is to explore the solar system beyond the outer planets, to the outer limits of the sun’s sphere of influence, and possibly beyond.  There is this yearning to go beyond the beyond.

Ultimately, it is the yearning to experience your own infinity.  It is a yearning to know your own Self.  Everyone has this yearning, but very few act on it. It is a spiritual yearning.  

For yogis this is an inner exploration, for it is all found within you:

citi-sa.mkocaatmaa cetano’pi sa.mkucita-vi”sva-maya.h

 — Pratyabhij~nah.rdayam 4

Even while contracted, Consciousness is the essence of the individual, who embodies the entire universe. 

[rendered by Swami Nirmalananda]

Consciousness, the One Divine Reality, has contracted in order to be everything, including you.  Even though Consciousness is contracted, the whole of consciousness is found inside your own body.  

The ancient sages did explore “where no man had gone before.”  But they looked inward.  They sat in meditation and deepened within. What did they find?  They found the whole universe within their own body.  

From seeing the whole universe within, they came to understand the solar system and the galaxy.  And they even understood that space was expanding.  Into what?  The yogis would say it is expanding into the Self.  All of this is described in the ancient yoga texts.  Their knowledge came from exploring inward.

In meditation I had the experience of the universe being within me while I was being in the universe.  I saw planets, the stars and the space between the planets and the stars.  Not only was the universe outside me, but the universe was within me as well.  Moreover, I was more than the universe.

Baba Muktananda said, “The inner universe is much greater than the outer universe; it is so vast that the entire outer cosmos can be kept in just one comer of it.”  Right now, astrophysicists estimate that there are two trillion galaxies, and their estimate just keeps increasing.  But, as Baba Muktananda says, the two trillion galaxies can be kept in just one corner of your inner universe.   Wow!  There is so much more to explore within.

My mind cannot even fathom that.  That is because your mind can only take you so far.  To go beyond your mind and explore the innermost realms of your own being, you must meditate.  The vehicle you use to explore inward is mantra.  By repeating mantra, you place yourself in the mantra mobile  —  your rocket ship. 

Yet, if you want your rocket ship to take off for your inner exploration, you must fill your tank with special fuel — Guru’s Grace.  You cannot get there on your own.  Receiving Shaktipat from a Shaktipat Guru ignites your inner energy and it climbs your spine.  Now you are being propelled beyond the beyond into the inner infinity of your own Self.  

Wonder after wonder of yogic realizations will unfold.  Now you are exploring what you have yearned for all your life — to know and to experience your own greatness, your own Self.  This is the gift of the Guru.  This is why I have a Guru: Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati. 

By Swami Shrutananda

I was mesmerized when I heard the song You Raise Me Up, sung by Peter Hollens. Being so full of gratitude, love and devotion, it got me contemplating: whom do I have gratitude for?  

Who has raised me up?  The composer, Rolf Loveland, states everyone raises one another up.  Josh Groban, who wrote the lyrics, says God raises him up.  This is Grace.  

I have found that Grace has been there throughout my whole life.  Perhaps yours, too.  Not everything has been easy, but I have gotten help along the way.  As I listened to this song, I thought of my family, my teachers, co-workers, friends and God.  They all supported me and raised me up to more than I thought I could be.   

Then I found a spiritual master, a yoga Guru, Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati (aka Gurudevi).  She showed me that I am so much more.  More than others think I can be.  But more importantly — so much more than I think I can be.  

This is the specialty of the Svaroopa^® Sciences. They raise you up physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  You get it all!

You can’t pull yourself up to such a state by your own bootstraps.  You need a Guru.   A Guru is an agent of Grace.  The importance of the Guru is that they raise you up to what they got from their Guru. 

From their Guru, they got the knowing of their own Divine Greatness within, the one Self being everyone and everything. So a Guru is someone who can guide you, inspire you and push you when needed.  

For me the Grace of the Guru is described in this verse from “You Raise Me Up”: 

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary

When troubles come, and my heart burdened be

Then, I am still and wait here in the silence

Until You come and sit with me.

Soul level is the deepest level of your individual existence, reincarnating from lifetime to lifetime.  It empowers you to bring your sense of separation and pain with you, along with all your karma. Your soul needs a way to access the Ultimate Reality — your own Self — that you feel separate from. 

To end that sense of separation, meditation is a primary practice.  You sit in an easy upright position and wait in silence. But being left alone with your mind and all its thoughts can be a little daunting.  In Svaroopa^Ò Vidya meditation you are given the mantra of this lineage to repeat.  This sacred phrase settles you inward deeper than your mind.  Your meditations are deep and easy.

How does the mantra work?  The mantra is the portable Guru.  When repeating mantra, you are calling the Grace of this lineage to you.  With each repetition you are invoking their presence and their blessings.  They support you as you undertake your inner exploration of your own Divine Greatness. 

One morning during meditation, I suddenly felt like I was being lifted up right off my meditation seat.  I was reminded of this meditation experience by the song’s second verse:

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up to more than I can be.

In that meditation experience, I saw and felt the force that was beneath me. It was Bhagavan Nityananda, a Great Being of this lineage.   I was being lifted up on his shoulders.  Surges of bliss were coursing through my body.  Angels were singing his chant, Jaya Jaya Arati.  We chant this at the Ashram to honor Bhagavan Nityananda every morning.  I was ecstatic. 

From that experience, I know I am riding on the shoulders of the great spiritual giants of this lineage.  This is Grace.  The Gurus raise you up to more than you think you can be.  

Once you know your own Divine Greatness, you can stand on mountains.  Not only stand on mountains but know you are the mountains, the skies, the oceans and more.  You will come to know you are that One Divine Reality that has become everything and is being everything and more. 

You have equanimity of mind because you are anchored in the depths of your own Divine Greatness.  When based in your own Divine Greatness, you can walk on stormy seas.  

Yet, there is more.  This is a mystical tradition. In this tradition the Guru is a Shaktipat Guru who gives Shaktipat initiation.  Gurudevi is such a Guru.  Shaktipat initiation awakens your Kundalini, the Divine Energy within you.  

This empowers you to attain the highest goal of human life — knowing your own Divine Greatness, your own Self. This is Grace. When awakened by the Guru, Kundalini climbs your spine from tail to top. She is the mystical force that is the energy of your own Self-Realization, as described in the Sanskrit text, Shree Guru Gita: 

You should perceive your joyous Self

Through the gift of Guru’s grace.

This is the Guru’s proven path

Where Self-Knowing shines from within

— Sri Guru Gita verse 110 (1)

It is the gift of Guru’s Grace that raises me up to the knowing of my own Divine Greatness. You can receive this gift as well.  Meet my Guru online or in person.  She wants you to know your own Divine Greatness, your own Self.

(1) Rendered by Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati 

By Swami Shrutananda

You always look better at the end of a meditation program or yoga class.  That’s because, when you arrive, often you don’t look so good. Perhaps your skin is ashen and dry.  Or your face, your neck and shoulders are crooked – even your gait.  You may look anxious and worried, the outside showing what you feel like inside.

All this makes the light in your eyes dull and your face wrinkled.  Instead of skipping though life, you may be limping along.

I watch people come in for yoga classes and meditation programs. They limp in. They skip out. It’s completely reliable. 

— Gurudevi Nirmalananda, Changing Your Future, Teachings Article, April 2023

In the 16^th century, explorers looked for the Fountain of Youth to feel young and more alive again.  Yoga is the Fountain of Youth.  I love watching you during your yoga class or meditation program.  When it ends you look younger.   Your spine has lift.  Your face softens as your wrinkles melt away.  You have color in your face.  More light shines through your eyes.  You look radiant and you feel full of life.

I went through this too.  Before yoga, I was getting physical therapy for a neck & shoulder injury.  Unfortunately, it was not taking care of my pain. Then I started yoga.  My spine lifted and lengthened.  My pain lessened as my shoulders, neck and head moved back in line with my spine.  As I did more yoga, I felt better and better. 

Then Gurudevi taught me to meditate. I felt even better.  The pain in my neck completely went away.  My body was more fluid, and my mind was sharper and clearer.  I had more energy. I felt younger and more alive.   

How does this work?  Yoga and meditation ignite your own healing power.  Through these practices, the energy that was trapped by your spinal tensions begins to flow.  This energy is yoga’s fountain of youth.  When this energy is flowing through your spine, you get younger.  Simply look in the mirror.  This energy enlivens your body, your mind, your heart, and your life. 

Where does this energy come from?  Your own Self.  From your yoga practice you deepen more and more into the source of youth – your own Self, your own Divine Essence.  This is the mystery and the majesty of yoga.  As you deepen within, your own mystical energy flows stronger and stronger through your spine.  Along with being enlivened and youthened, you have access to deeper, richer and more profound experiences of your own Beingness.

You feel younger when you are more your Self. This is because your own essence that is arising is ever young.  It is the eternal.  Yet your body does have a limited life span.  Tick, tick, tick.  It means that the time is now!  Do more yoga and to deepen into your own Self while your body and mind can respond.

In a Teacher Training program, a middle-aged student was frustrated with another student who often distracted the group with her antics.  At one point the frustrated student said, “You are younger.  I am older.  I have less time left to deepen into these teachings.”  The younger yogi got it.  

Unfortunately, the frustrated teacher had less time than she thought.  A few years later she was diagnosed with cancer and died.  How much time do you have left?  Nobody knows.  How do you want to spend your time?

The poet Bhartrihari warns:

I thought I was enjoying sense pleasures;

I did not realize they were enjoying me.

I thought I was spending time;

I did not realize it was spending me.

   — Bhartrihari Vairaagya Shataka, verse 7

The reality is you always find time for what you really want to do.  If you want to feel better, you can make time for it.  It means that you miss out on another opportunity.  You can’t do everything.  Are you choosing to get old – or young?  Are you choosing to be peace-filled – or anxiety filled?  What you choose determines what you will get.  It is a personal choice.  To be young and vitally alive, as well as to deepen into the eternality of your own Beingness, do more yoga.

By Swami Shrutananda

Really!  Where is God?  God is inside. The One Divine Reality has chosen to become the universe and everything in it.  This is described in the Pratyabhij~nahrdayam, sutra 4: 

Citi-sa.mkocaatmaa cetano’pi sa.mkucita-vi”sva-maya.h.

Consciousness willingly takes on contraction, in order to become both the universe and the individuals, who have the universe as their bodies in a contracted form. – Rendered by Swami Nirmalananda

Before yoga, I looked for God outside.  God was up there somewhere.  My mind would imagine a white bearded guy up in the sky.  Some people see God as the formless.  Others see God in nature: in the sky, the trees, the majesty of the mountains, etc.  

Yoga agrees that God can be experienced when you look outside.  This is because the One Divine Reality manifested all things and becomes all things.  Yet this sutra also says more.  

The One Divine Reality, called “Consciousness” in this sutra, has chosen to become everything in this universe, including you.  God has become you and me.  Now, consider which is closer, God on the outside or God on the inside?  This is why yoga gives you practices for looking inside — particularly meditation.  

“Self” is the word yoga uses for the One Divine Reality when found inside.  Meditation, especially Svaroopa^® Vidya Meditation, gives you deep and profound experiences of your own Self.  God has not only become me, but God is also being me.  God is being you.  This is a pretty radical statement.  

At first, I didn’t take this teaching personally.  Yet I finally got it when I heard my Guru — Gurudevi — explain it.  She said, “Seeing your own inner Self is more tangible than the sky.”  When I heard those words, God crystalized into being me.  In my physical body, with my mind, through all the levels of my own being, I experienced that I am God.  I am the One Divine Reality whether looking outside or inside.  There was a joy, an aliveness, a delight in being me! 

This is the foundation of all the yoga practices and teachings: God is being you.  Where is God?  Right here!  You are a physical tangible expression of the One Divine Reality.  Additionally, your mind is a contracted form of the One Divine Reality.  God is being you.  

To fully understand this radical statement, you have to personalize it.  Say it out loud, or even whisper to yourself, “I am a physical, tangible expression of the One Divine Reality.” 

God wants to be you.  God, the Self, is willingly choosing to be you with all your quirks and idiosyncrasies.  God delights in being you.  All you ever wanted was to be more you.  This is what yoga gives you.  Yoga gives you the knowing and the experience that God is being you. It is time to know that you are truly Divine.  

How do you come to know?

• Do more Satsangs with Gurudevi.  She offers them every Sunday and Wednesday online or in person.  Gurudevi’s teachings and presence propel you inward to experience yoga’s profound, mystical truth that you are the Self.  

• Do more meditation.  Meditate every day.  For support in making your daily meditation consistent, join our online Meditation Club.  Gurudevi will make meditation deep and easy for you.

By Swami Shrutananda

My tears began to flow.  I was on a long drive back to the Ashram.  I found several religious stations that played upbeat and positive music.  A Christmas song about Jesus was the one full of the most tenderness and devotion, “Mary, Did You Know?” by Pentatonix.

The song makes Jesus personal:  “Mary, did you know… when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God?”  “Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?”  Mary, did you know “that sleeping child you’re holding is the great, I Am?”  Probably not.  

For me, the song describes the potential of a human being by describing the Jesus’ greatness.  Probably your mother did not know your greatness unless she herself was Self-Realized.  Yet, more importantly and more personally, do you know your own greatness, your own Divinity, your own Self?  Probably not.  Some students describe their knowingness of their own Beingness when they were young.  However, they shut it down as they grew.  

Does your mother need to know the greatness of your being for you to know?  Do others in your life?  If so, you will be waiting for a long time.  Yet this is what the Guru sees in you when they look at you or think about you.  Even if you cannot, the Guru sees your own greatness, your own Divinity, your own Self. 

When I hear devotional songs about other great beings, I think of my Guru, Gurudevi Nirmalananda.  I feel fortunate to have a living Guru.  I can tangibly see her form.  I can hear her teachings, made so relevant to me in this day and age.  I can talk to her on the outside or inside.  She is always accessible.  The yoga we practice comes from Siddha Yoga.  It is the yoga of being in relationship with a siddha, a Self-Realized being.  Gurudevi is such a being.

This song “Mary Did You Know?” touches me so deeply.  It touches my inner yearning to know my own greatness, my own Divinity, my own Self.  It brings up tears because the knowing is so close, yet just beyond my reach.  

Fortunately, I have a Guru, a living Guru, who reveals my own Divinity to me.  It is the function of the Guru to help you to reveal your own greatness to yourself.  This happens through the Guru’s presence, teachings and the practices they give you.  This is the gift of a living Guru.  

The Guru performs miracles.  The Guru’s miracles don’t include walking on water, curing blindness or bringing the dead alive.  The Guru’s miracle is much more personal to you.  She burns away that which gets in the way of you knowing your own Self.  You will feel fresh and new, and full of joy.

Gurudevi’s Guru said:

The power of the human being is so great that he can even transform himself into God.  God lives hidden in the heart of every human being, and everyone has the power to realize that.

-Swami Muktananda, Where Are You Going? page 5

You are embodied Divinity.  You already are God.  That is amazing.  But you simply don’t know, not yet.  Through your yoga practices, you come to know that you are God.  You are the Lord of all creation.  You are the great I Am.  The knowing is hidden within.  The Guru reveals that which is hidden in your own being.  It is the Guru’s function to reveal your own Self to you.

Traditionally, yoga does not honor a great Guru’s birthday.  We honor the anniversary of their death.  At the end of life, you see what that little baby did with their life.  Those we honor knew their own greatness, their own Divinity, their own Self.  And they helped others to find That within themselves.

Do you know?  Do you want to know?  Get a Guru.  I have one and I’ll share.