By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

You have already had many expansive experiences. Yoga doesn’t have a copyright on bliss. It simply makes the bliss more accessible and longer lasting.

The goal is to live in the constant bliss of your own Self. Bliss is your essence. Bliss is your nature. Anything that stops your mind makes space for the bliss of your own Beingness to arise inside.

If you’re not in bliss, your mind is messin’ with you. You’re chasing your thoughts instead of abiding in the spontaneous bliss of Consciousness. How do you want to live? You get to choose.…

For me, it all changed once I got Shaktipat. Having a Guru made life easier for me, both easier and more understandable.

Life was more understandable because I could see the bigger picture. It wasn’t about what was happening today, not even about “what’s happening to me,” but it was about where I place myself on the timeline. And the timeline was longer – spiritual development spans lifetimes.

It felt like, instead of a sprint where I exhaust myself as fast as I can, I was on a trek where I needed to pace myself – steady, consistent progress, taking care of my mind and body along the way. Yes, life became more understandable.

I also found life to be easier. This was because I had inner depth, so little things didn’t throw me off center anymore. It was like I became a Weeble. You remember the kid’s toy, “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.”

Consider what happens if you don’t have a Guru.

• • You’re always looking for something, but you don’t know what you’re looking for.
  • You look everywhere because you don’t know where to look – inside.
  • Everything that happens is critical to your sense of self-worth, which depends on the outer world, which is always changing.
  • Other people’s opinions of you make you who you are. So you’re always trying to manage their minds, not merely your own.
  • And you look for escape hatches – ways to trigger bliss, peek experiences, p-e-e-k, but you don’t know how they work. Or what you’re peeking at.

This is called “normal.” It is also called bondage, that you’re tied up in knots, the gnarly knots in your mind and heart. And in your body. Yoga gives you a way to begin unraveling the knots. Yoga explains that there is something worth finding, but it is located inside.

Yoga gives you a peek at it, a glimpse of your own Self.  And tools to attune yourself to your own Self, ways to progressively surrender into who you really are.

And yoga gives you proof. Proof that there is a destination worth going to, proof that there is a path and a process, and proof that the goal is attainable. The Guru is the proof.

— Excerpt from Expansive Experiences discourse 2/16/25

Yoga’s promise is freedom. But there is no freedom without bondage.

People who live in oppressive situations long to be free, whether they are in a political quagmire or if they are in prison or merely trapped in a job or relationship that stifles them. Or their own mind. If you’re not in bliss, your mind is messing with you.

Yes, anyone who is in bondage longs for freedom, even strives for freedom. Even the critters want to be free.  I lived in San Diego for many years. In one beach town, called PB or Pacific Beach, there are a lot of outdoor cafes. One of the best parts of the meal was when the local flock of parrots would arrive overhead.

Fifty or sixty birds, all very noisy, all different sizes, from the giant macaws to the smaller Amazon greens. They flocked together. And when they flew in, landing on the rooftops and utility lines, you couldn’t hear your friend talking. The parrots were so loud, clearly having a good time. Cawing, yes. Singing, whistling, and talking – clearly they had been pets that got out somehow.

One day I was driving down a side street and saw a man outside, holding some bird treats in his hand, calling lovingly to a big macaw on a street light overhead. “Come on home, sweetie pie… Come on home…” But the bird wanted to be free.

So do you. Even if you aren’t confined by others or limited by external circumstances, you long for freedom. This impulse to freedom, the desire to fly high, to expand to the sky and beyond – it’s built into you. It is your own inner knowing of your own Self, Consciousness arising within, ready to blossom, ready to shine, effulging forth from your own Divine Essence. Oh, Shiva.

This longing for liberation is what propels you into spirituality, into seeking, into finding a place like this that offers answers – so you can see if these answers match your inner itch…