By Swami Samvidaananda

Self-help gurus. Fashion gurus. Investment gurus. Health gurus. When I’m looking for help or to learn something new, I want to learn from an expert.

If you are really good at what you do, and you help a lot of people, you are called a guru. It’s not inaccurate. Guru, a Sanskrit word, means “teacher” when spelled with a small-g, “guru.” What about when you want spiritual help? It would make sense to go to a spiritual Guru. Wouldn’t it? Yet that seems to be a less popular option.

I didn’t know I was looking for a spiritual, capital-G “Guru.” I just knew that underlying my day-to-day life, with its responsibilities, relationships, happiness and pain, there was a quiet despair. I wanted my life to have more meaning, but I couldn’t find it. I had moments of joy, even bliss. But I couldn’t hold onto them. It wasn’t enough.

Then I met Gurudevi Nirmalananda. I didn’t know the word Guru, and I would not have said I was looking for one. But I recognized her as my teacher. So I began to orient my life in her direction. I had been like a lost sunbeam that had somehow gotten disconnected from the sun. And now, when I aimed my beam towards her, I shone brighter, like a sunbeam radiates from the sun.

I was being lit up with my own inner light. I began to experience more joy, more happiness, more peace. She didn’t give me her light; she awakened my own light within me. It’s the light of my Divinity, of my own Self.

Yoga’s mystical teachings say there is One Divine Reality. Everything that exists comes from and is made of the One. This universe, the stars and the planets, and everything on the earth down to the smallest ant and grain of sand is Divinity, concentrated into form. Including me. Including you. That Divinity is inherently who you are, so the One is called your Self.

Because you are the Self, you have the capacity to know you are the Self. But you need help to get to that knowing because it is hidden from you. It’s a cosmic setup. So, what do you do? You get help from someone who knows. Someone who is an expert at awakening you to your deeper knowing. That’s a Guru.

Guru is spelled, “Gee, you are you.” It means that you have someone in your life who gives you your Divine Self — Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Gurudevi is such a Guru. She knows her Divine Self, and she can give that knowing to you. She does it through an initiation called Shaktipat. Shaktipat is a transmission of energy that sparks your inner knowing. This is like a cosmic jump-start.

Your knowing of your Divine Essence will fill you with joy, love, creativity, peace and bliss. You’ll discover you are the source of the happiness you’ve been seeking out in the world. And you’ll come to recognize that everyone and everything is a form of the same Divinity. How glorious!

How did Gurudevi become a Guru who can do this for you? She found her Guru, Baba Muktananda. And he gave her Shaktipat. He could do this for her because he found his Guru, Bhagavan Nityananda, who gave him Shaktipat. Gurudevi is part of a lineage of Shaktipat Gurus that stretches through time.

Each Guru was at some point a seeker, looking for something they could not find on their own. And they found a teacher who could give them what they were looking for. They were looking for an expert. And they found one!

Of course, when you find an expert, the story doesn’t end there. Like anything you want to accomplish, you have to apply yourself. Baba Muktananda gave Shaktipat to thousands and thousands of people. He wanted to awaken and uplift as many people as he could. And he gave them practices to do, especially meditation and repeating mantra.

Once your inner flame is ignited, it’s up to you to nurture and grow it. Many people took Baba’s teaching to heart. Because of him, there are many more meditators in the world. However, very few people applied themselves to blossoming the inner awakening all the way, to Self-Realization. Gurudevi did. She gave it her all.

Once she received Shaktipat from Baba, she tirelessly dedicated herself to her own upliftment. She became Self-Realized, meaning she knows she is the Self, all the time. And she became authorized as a Guru, so she can give the inner awakening of Shaktipat to you. Now, she tirelessly dedicates herself to uplifting you. She’s not a Guru because she wants attention or fame or followers.

She wants you to have what she has. Do you want it?

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 Swami Samvidaananda

I went to India and met other swamis — Australian swamis!  It felt like a sweet reunion with family members I’ve never met.  There was an ease, a ready friendliness, and an enjoyment of each other’s company.  We were all there for a retreat hosted by the Aussies at our lineage home of Ganeshpuri MH, India.  

The Aussies were sweet and welcoming in general, but underlying that was something more. The swamis’ deep practice and commitment to yoga really showed.  How? It was their bliss.  My experience with them is described in a yogic text:

Lokaananda.h samaadhi-sukham. — Shiva Sutras 1.18

This yogi experiences the sweet bliss of the Self in every location and situation, and shares it with others.
[rendered by Gurudevi Nirmalananda]

This yogi is a knower of the Self.  They know their Divinity. Such a yogi experiences the sweet bliss of the Self everywhere — in every location and every situation.  

There are other names for “a Knower of the Self”: Self-Realized, Enlightened, Illumined, God-intoxicated.  When you are Enlightened, you take your illumined Self-Knowing everywhere you go.  No place or circumstance can diminish your bliss, nor can it enhance it.

Meditation doesn’t make you more blissful.  Being out in the world doesn’t make you less so.  Your experience of the bliss of the Self is steady.  

And you share it with others.  God-intoxicated beings love to share! They don’t even need to try. They vibrate with bliss everywhere they are, whomever they are with, whatever they are doing.  They radiate bliss the way the sun radiates light and heat. 

The swamis I met in India have dedicated themselves to becoming a yogi like this.  Actually, they have dedicated themselves to a yogi who is already like this.  They are on the traditional Guru-disciple path. Just like me!  Their Guru, Swami Shankarananda (called Guruji), and my Guru, Swami Nirmalananda (called Gurudevi), are Self-Realized beings. More than that, they are both Shaktipat Gurus.  A Shaktipat Guru has the capacity to awaken you to the inner knowing of your Self, an initiation called Shaktipat.

Shaktipat Gurus are extremely rare. And I was in India with two of them. Actually, three.  No, four! Another Shaktipat Guru was there at his Ashram, just outside of town.  His name is Swami Nityananda (of Magod).  And Swami Brahmananda was there as well, another Shaktipat Guru. 

One afternoon, I had the unique and delightful opportunity to spend time with them as well as several other swamis. They had all lived at the Ashram in Ganeshpuri together many years ago, studying with their Guru, Swami Muktananda. You could call them Guru-brothers and Guru-sisters.

For me, being in the presence of these Great Beings was like being among superheroes.  My heroes.  But for them, it seemed more like the after-credits scene I loved from one of the Avengers movies.  All the superheroes had banded together and saved the world.  End of movie — roll the credits.  Then, there’s a brief scene of all of them together around a table in a tiny restaurant, eating in companionable silence.

What happens when Shaktipat Gurus get together? They chat.  They catch up.  They drink some chai. They enjoy each other’s company.  They are present, engaged and happy.  And then, they say goodbye, and go on to their next task, equally present, engaged and happy. They certainly appreciated the opportunity to spend some time with each other.  But they are Knowers of the Self: Lokaananda.h samaadhi-sukham.  And so their bliss was not increased by being together, nor was it diminished when they said goodbye.

This constancy and steadiness doesn’t mean that an Enlightened being’s life is boring, every day the same. It’s not that they’re “beyond it,” meaning they don’t care.  The opposite is true.  Enlightened beings are some of the most active, engaged, loving, generous, caring people you’ll meet.  This is their state, and it can be yours.

I don’t mean you have to become a Shaktipat Guru.  Nor do you have to become a swami, wear orange or move to an Ashram.  I mean you can live your life, do what you do, with the people you love, and you can be more YOU.  

You can be you at your best all the time: happy, content, loving, generous.  You can be your glorious Divine Self in every location and every situation.

How? First, get Shaktipat. This sacred and ancient initiation jumpstarts your knowing of your Self like nothing else can.  Then, you have your part to do: meditate.  Svaroopa^® Vidya meditation gives you the experiential knowing of your Divinity.  

Meditation by meditation, your inner realization that you are the Self deepens and develops.  Until one day, you’ll never not know that you are the Self.  And you will recognize that everyone and everything is another form of the same Self.  Everything is Divine, and YOU are that Divinity.  

Then you will be the yogi who experiences the sweet bliss of the Self in every location and situation, and shares it with others. This is your future, if you want it to be.

1. Avengers shawarma scene – https://ew.com/article/2012/11/29/avengers-shawarma-scene/

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 Satrupananda

You want to live your life with an open heart. You want everything you do to warm your heart. 

You want your heart to overflow and to share that with others. This can be your physical and emotional heart, but it is only truly satisfying if it is the heart of your being. 

When you show up full-hearted, it is about putting your whole self into it. Your body, mind, heart and more all show up — open and ready to give. This is how you want to live. Then even washing the dishes is fulfilling. It’s not about the task. It’s not even about your heart. It’s about your wholeness. 

While you want to live from your wholeness, it can be challenging. You might have been hurt in the past, so you protect your heart. Your body might have aches and pains, so you’ve numbed out parts of your body. And there may be some dark corners of your mind where your scariest thoughts lurk. To protect yourself, you don’t go there. While you are protecting yourself from these pains, the result is that you don’t have your wholeness. 

Yoga reverses this process. The yoga poses and breathing practices open up your body and breath, making you more embodied. You breathe deeper, have less pain and have a more capable body. Meditation and chanting open up your mind and heart. You have clarity, decisiveness and the ability to follow through with your decisions. 

As your heart opens up, you are able to feel more love and to love more. And there are more dimensions of your wholeness that yoga opens up for you. One of yoga’s maps lists 36 dimensions of your own being.

The purpose of the yoga practices is for you to rediscover your multi-dimensionality and the wholeness of who you truly are. Then you can bring your wholeness into every moment of your life. To get to yoga’s promise, simply do the practices that are recommended. It’s like anything in life — you follow the instructions to get the promised outcome. 

Patanjali, a yogic sage, gives us guidance on our yoga practice:

Sa tu deergha-kaala nairantarya-satkaaraasevito drdha-bhoomih

Practice becomes firmly established by being continued for a long time without interruption and with devotion.

– Yoga Sutras 1.13

Like everything in life, you work at something for a long time and without interruption to make progress. The same is true and necessary when you are opening up to your inner wholeness. You do practices every day. Every day you re-open again what has closed down as well as open up new dimensionality. 

Bit by bit, you open up more and more of who you truly are. The incremental changes delightfully creep up on you. Then something happens in your life, and you realize that you have changed. There is more of you here now.

Pain is a great motivator to do the yoga practices. It is painful to be closed down to the multi-dimensionality of your inner wholeness. This includes physical pain as well as mental and emotional pain. Pain can motivate you to begin your yoga practices. And pain can motivate you to continue your yoga practices for a long time and without interruption. 

And Patanjali tells us that devotion is also needed. You need to put your heart into your practice. This comes naturally as you love the practices, or love how you feel after doing the practices. But it is also about actively putting your heart into your practices. Then your yoga practices take on a new vibrancy as you put your heart into them. 

I loved how the practices made me feel from the very beginning. This, along with pain, was a great motivator to consistently attend weekly yoga classes. Over time, this grew into a home practice and then a consistent daily home practice. 

And, now, I do the practices because I love them. I also love how they make me feel. And I do the practices because of my devotion to those who shared them with me.

My Guru, Gurudevi Nirmalananda, shares the teachings and practices with me. As a Shaktipat Guru, she fuels the practices with Grace, the power that reveals to you your inner wholeness. I do the practices out of devotion to Gurudevi, to the Grace. I feel there is no better expression for my gratitude and love than doing the practices.

So, do the yoga practices because you love to do them or because you love how they make you feel. The more yoga practices you do, the more you know and you be your wholeness. Then you bring the whole of you into your life. This includes your heart and so much more. 

Then you have not merely a full-hearted life but, more importantly, the wholeness of your being. You have a “full-You” life. What a glorious way to live!

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 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