By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

You put words to your most important thoughts. It would be impossible to speak everything that runs through your mind, so you say only the most significant things. Thus, when you say something, it matters.

Yoga would have you speaking Divine words, names of your own inherent Divinity. Repeating such mantras — better yet, chanting them aloud — changes you from the inside out.

Chanting was not part of Western yoga when I started teaching. In the background, we played classical music, then “New Age” music as it developed. As I had already discovered the beauty and power of the ancient Sanskrit mantras, I wanted to share them. Thus I made a few recordings, pacing them for our slower-paced yoga practice.

Yet you are born into this delusion by taking on the human condition of not-knowingness. Your job is to discover who you really are by looking inward to the deepest dimensions of your own Beingness. For this, you need the help of one who already knows.

I celebrated the advent of kirtan-wallahs, musicians traveling to yoga centers to share the traditional Hindu chants. I led chanting evenings for my students, which even attracted a few musicians. We captured that bliss in a recording I recently released, “Gurudevi Live! La Jolla ’02.”

Yet the trend was toward chanting the names of Gods or Goddesses, even of Rama and Krishna. I only wanted to chant to the Self. So I began writing the music for Sanskrit verses, adding more audios to my collection.

My Guru explained my inner feeling. He said that chanting to an external God has much less power and significance than chanting to God on the inside – God in the form of your own Self. While God is out there, along with all the gods, goddesses and celestial beings, it is on the inside that God is closest.

For your own Self is the One Divine Reality. The One is being you. However, you don’t know it, not yet, not all the time. But the Absolute Truth is that there is not the slightest difference between your own Self and the Supreme Being. To see them as different is delusion.

I got that help from my Guru. Thus I lead chants to the Self and to the Guru, for the Guru is the one who gives you your own Self. Remember, Guru is spelled “gee, you are you.” My newest release features songs to the Guru, “Honoring the One Who Needs No Praise.”

And I still sometimes like to chant to God, in the form of the gods, goddesses and incarnations – as though they were only on the outside. But the truth is that you will find them all inside. You just have to look in the right place.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Sitting in a folding chair on a sandy beach, I watched the sun rise. Many others would be arriving soon to set up for the Easter sunrise service. It seemed strange to me that it was scheduled for an hour after the actual sunrise. So I simply went early.

After a while, people arrived and the service got going. It was full of beautiful hymns along with moving readings and an inspiring sermon. But I was confused. Why wasn’t I being filled by God, I wondered, especially on this holy morning?

I had been wonderfully uplifted by the sunrise, in a way that the songs and stories didn’t touch. As I sat facing the minister, my eyes kept wandering toward the ocean. My gaze fixed itself on the horizon, the meeting of sky and sea. My mind settled into a deep and expansive peacefulness, then I would think, “Pay attention to the service.”

When I looked at the horizon, my mind widened like my gaze. When I looked at the minister, my mind narrowed to a pinpoint focus on a man who died 2,000 years ago. The minister was telling me that Jesus could give me God. Yet the sunrise, the sand and sea were already filling me. And especially the meeting place between sky and sea – it was like the juncture between form and formless.

This is yoga’s focus, the dynamic stillness where form and formless meet and merge. As a tantric, I live on this tantalizing edge. The formless is being form, Shiva being the universe while being more. The whole of formlessness is present in every form, being you and being me, being all and beyond all.

Yes, the sunrise is a special time, the juncture between night and day. Yogis love to start before the dawn, preparing for the inner arising that comes with every sunrise. In this liminal zone, it’s easy to know that every form is holy, even your own body and mind. Every moment is a doorway into eternity, even the breath you’re taking now. Every being is Divine, whether you know it or not. The goal is to know.

I’m not confused anymore. That’s because a Divine human showed me the way inside. I needed a living teacher, one who could awaken me to my Divine Essence. Thank you, Baba.

You gave me the sun, the sand and sea, and especially the horizon line on the outside and inside. You gave me Jesus and all the other Divine beings who have ministered to humankind through the millennia. You broadened my heart along with my gaze. You gave me my own Self, which is the all in all, while being beyond the all.

That’s the whole point – to have easy access to the Divine experience that everyone seeks on such a holy day. It is an inner experience, the only kind that counts.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

I bring this book to you because I’ve been inspired by others.  I have seen many yogis sharing online about quotes they’ve read and memes they’ve seen.  Inspiration for how to live your life comes from so many sources. So, I thought a yogi could share about how to live as a yogi.

I was surprised to find out that I am quotable.  When I was President of Yoga Alliance, I was interviewed by journalists from many different publications. One of them told me, “Every line you say is so quotable.”  I was delighted to find that my message comes through so clearly.

Now I realize it is like sutras – short pithy sayings with layers and layers of meaning.  A way to capture your mind and heart so the Truth contained in them will echo inside for you.

I know where that clarity comes from, which is why I live in endless gratitude to my Baba.  And I recognize that, having been given such a gift, it is my dharma to share.

So I come to you daily, if you allow.  In this book, with daily quotes, which we will be using in my daily Meditation Club as well.  Let’s bring more light into the world, together.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Up close and personal — I’ve missed it during the pandemic.  Online is so useful, but there’s nothing like being together in-person. I’m delighted to serve so many of you through Telecourses and zoom satsangs, but when we get a weekend together, so much more happens. So I’ve created a program with five weekends, interspersed through the year. 

Digesting Life

5 weekend retreats with Gurudevi

Beginning February 17

Our group size is limited so we can dive deep together.  Every day, we’ll intersperse yoga practices with mental processes.  The practices deepen your experience of the inner infinity of your own Self.  The contemplations are to help you understand your inner experiences as well as to help you understand your life experiences. 

After each weekend, you take your new sense of Self home with you.  In the same place, with the same people and activities, you try out the new you.  Then you come back and we work it through.  What you learn about yourself makes you more powerful and more loving at the same time. 

Your enrollment is for all five weekends. Carve the time out of your schedule and make these weekends a priority. Don’t miss any! Your presence is a support to others, even while you’re in the process yourself.

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda 

When I lived in my Baba’s Ashram, one of my yoga-buddies often spoke a few words aloud, “An attitude of gratitude.”  While I knew that she was reminding herself, it still had an effect on me.  What I noticed was that I didn’t have an attitude of gratitude.  There I was, living in an Ashram with an enlightened being, but I wasn’t grateful.   

I was cranky, needy and impatient.  I definitely wanted what Baba was giving — the blessings, the Grace, the inner awakening and enlivening process that he was furthering in me.  I wanted all of it.  I wanted it NOW!  I wanted more and more, faster and faster.   

Every few days I would pray silently, “Dear Baba, faster, please.  Can’t you make this go a little faster?”  Then a few days later, I would be buckling under the intensity of my own growing pains.  So I’d pray, “Baba, Baba, softer, gentler…  Can you make it easier on me, please?”  The breathing space was immediate. 

Yet, a few days later, I’d have amnesia and ask again for more, “Speed this up, Baba!  I want to get enlightened now.”  One day I realized what I’d been doing repeatedly!  So I offered a new prayer, “Baba, please set the right speed for me.  You know more than I do.” 

Only then did I discover gratitude.  From that point onward, I could see that he knew more about the process than I did.  I could rely on his spiritual power to carry me through, like no one else I had ever known.  This is why I now live in a continual flow of gratitude. 

My life is full of Guru’s Grace.  I am grateful to the one who opened up the mystical reality for me.  My heart is always being filled from the inside.  My gratitude expands every day. 

When I teach, I am grateful for the opportunity to share this ancient spiritual science of yoga.  I thank each student who chooses this profound path and shares the process with me.  I am even grateful to myself, for the perseverance and diligence that made me able to receive all that Baba gave – and made me able to share it with others. 

I love Thanksgiving Day.  Every year we get to join in a national celebration of thanks.  But for me, one day is not enough.  Yes, I live in an attitude of gratitude.  It’s a glorious way to live!