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 

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Bittersweet chocolate is the best.  The sage Narada agrees, describing the yearning for God as the most painful and most blissful of the 11 types of Divine Love.  

Today, I honor my Guru on the anniversary of his departure from this earthly plane.  It is a day of great grief and a day of great gratitude – both of which are based in Divine love.

Grief is when you feel you’ve lost something important to you.  Yet the fact that it was important means you are grateful for what it gave.  Thus, grief is the flip side of gratitude.

Wonderfully, this gives you a pathway out of grief — simply express your gratitude.  When you put words to all you’ve received from that source, you are filled up inside and there’s no room left for grief.

I was in Spain when Baba left.  At the pivotal time in India, it was sunset where I was, on private retreat in a small town overlooking the Mediterranean.  That sunset lasted longer than any I’ve ever seen, with colors ranging from golden orange into deep purple.  

As I sat and watched it, Baba spoke to me inside.  For a long time.  Mostly it was wordless communion, but sometimes a few words would come – deeply loving while giving me direction for my life.

He was my sunset.  He was my sunrise.  He was the sun that lit up my whole world, even my inner universe.  Or I thought he was.  As long as he was in his body, I could see only Baba.  He took up the radar screen of my mind in an ecstatic and glorious way.  It was a whole lot better than anything else I’d had on my radar.

It was only after he was gone (seemingly gone) that I could look past my mind and discover what he had given me.  He gave me my own Self, the vast profundity and inner reality of Beingness being me.  But frankly, I’d rather look at him than look at me.

That’s bhakti yoga, the science of Divine Love.  Tukaram, a poet saint of India said it this way, “Please, please, dear God.  Keep me just a little separate from you, so there’s still a ‘me’ to love you.”  Yes, I love to love Baba.  Which is why I indulge myself in sweet moments of Divine Grief – so I can feel the love, the longing, the yearning, while I know I am the One who was He.

There is only One Reality, the ultimate, ever-existent, present-right-here-and now Beingness.  Called by many names, our tradition honors the One by the name Shiva, meaning the Auspicious One who plants his auspiciousness in all.

But it’s not like planting a seed in earth, with the seed being different from the earth.  Instead, Shiva plants himself in you by being you.  Shiva is being you while being me, while being all and beyond all.  Oh, Shiva!

So when I look for Baba, I find him inside. I love to look at his photos, but it is always he who is looking through my eyes.  I masquerade as a bhakta, lost in love of the Divine, while being the One who is being both the lover and the beloved.  There’s no better way to live, always lost in Divine Love, yet knowing that it is me loving me – even when I am loving you.

Jai Muktananda!  Hail to Muktananda!  As he said about himself, I also proclaim to the world – I don’t care what anyone says about my Baba.  He gave me everything.  

And he sends me to share it with you. Does anyone want some bittersweet chocolate?  We can laugh and cry together.  It’s a glorious way to live!

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 Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Enlightenment is not what you think.  Firstly, enlightenment is not what you think it is.  Secondly, and more importantly, enlightenment is not about your mind, so it’s not about what you are thinking.  Yet your mind can keep you from being enlightened.

In other words, you must use your mind to get enlightened, but you use your mind in a way that gets you beyond your mind.  Enlightenment is a state of being, not a state of mind.  It is a deep inner feeling, but not an emotion. Best of all, it’s effortless.  

Being unenlightened is hard!  You have to constantly review your anxieties and limitations.  Your sense of self worth is dependent on how others see you, which means you’re always performing, trying to win their good opinions.  Worse, your opinion of yourself needs help.

Enlightenment is a state of profound ease and joy.  It needs no external support or feedback as it arises from within.  The ever-arising flow of Divine Consciousness washes away all anxieties and limitations.  This is called freedom, freedom from who you thought you were so you can be who you really are – Consciousness Incarnate. 

How do you get enlightened?  You get it from one who has it. It’s just like if you are shopping for shoes.  Don’t go to the florist.  You’ve probably been trying to get enlightened by learning from unenlightened people.  No wonder it’s hard!

It’s time to go shopping for enlightened beings.  Find a few, meet them in person if you can. Try out the practices they give and see what you get.  Just like shoe shopping – slip them on and walk around in them for a bit. 

But the difference with enlightened beings is that you want one that both uplifts you and challenges you, so you can’t stay in your old ruts.  It’s dark in there.

By Swami Satrupananda

I delight in stopping at our local gas station and convenience store.  While the location is convenient, it’s the people that make the difference.  One of the cashiers recognizes me.  She calls me “Dear.”  We chit-chat and exchange smiles.  Simple, yet caring and meaningful. 

In contrast, I tried to have a conversation with ChatGPT, the newest artificial intelligence (AI) buzz. “Dear ChatGPT, how are you today?” I asked.

It replied, “As an AI language model, I don’t have personal feelings or emotions…”  There was no eye contact.  No smiles. No connection.  I went on to ask ChatGPT a variety of questions and got lots of interesting facts.  It is impressive technology.  But it does not compare to my exchange with the cashier. 

Human relationships are important.  “Namaste,” a customary greeting in India, illuminates the significance of human relationships: 

I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells.

I honor the place in you in which is love, truth, light and peace.

When you are in that place in you & I am in that place in me, we are one.

(attributed to Ram Dass)

When you truly greet someone, you see and honor the One Divine Reality that is being them.  It is the same Divine Reality that is being you and everyone.  The One Divine Reality is also the source of the whole universe.  Love, truth, light and peace arise from this One Divine Reality.  When you truly greet someone, it is the Divine Reality seeing and honoring the same Divine Reality in the other. 

The One Divine Reality has become everyone and everything.  You can see and honor the One Divine Reality in all its manifestations.  As I write this blog, the Ashram cat jumps onto my lap asking for food and cuddles.  While I see her as the one Divine Reality being a cat, she sees me as a source of food and pets.  It’s a delightful exchange, but it’s not as meaningful as with humans.  That’s because we humans have the capacity to know our own Divine Reality.  Therefore, when humans see each other, there is a capacity and depth of seeing that is deeper.  So human relationships are important to being human.

While relationships are important, they are also challenging.  When your dear ones are at their best, their one Divine Reality shines through their eyes, words and deeds.  They are so loveable.  But your dear ones aren’t always at their best.  When they are having a bad day, the One Divine Reality isn’t shining through as much.  Instead of being bathed in the rays of Divine Reality pouring through them, they are like a dark stormy cloud casting shadows.  You respond to their clouds and even forget your own light.  Then the two of you are lost in the shadows.  Relationships can be difficult.

Spiritual seekers have taken different approaches in dealing with the trickiness of human relationships.  A popular approach is to avoid human relationships.  Throughout time and across cultures, people have left relationships to live in solitude in the name of their spiritual search.  Saint Benedictine left Rome because he was disturbed by the immorality of the people.  He lived as a hermit in a cave for three years.  Similarly, India has a strong tradition of yogis living in the caves of the Himalayas. These yogis left relationships behind to avoid their distraction and impact.

In contrast, other spiritual traditions make relationships the keystone.  Some orders of nuns marry Jesus as part of their vows.  Bhakti yogis in India focus their practice on their love for God, typically Krishna as an incarnation of God.  Seekers on these paths pour their human capacity for relationship towards God.  God purifies and expands this human capacity.

Kashmir Shaivism is founded on a living human relationship.  It is centered on the Guru-Disciple relationship.  The Guru is one who abides in their own Divine Reality and has the duty to uplift others.  They don’t have any clouds casting shadows on their Divine Reality.  Instead, they shine brightly all the time.  When a Guru greets you, they only see your Divine Reality.  This is the blessing of the Guru-Disciple relationship.

One of the rituals that focuses on this divine sighting is called darshan.  The disciple comes up to the Guru, typically bows, and then has a moment with the Guru.  I have done this ritual with my Guru, Gurudevi Nirmalananda, hundreds of times.  

Recently, I had the opportunity for darshan after a deep meditation.  I felt grounded and expanded in my Divine Reality.  When I bowed and came up, Gurudevi was looking at me.  I could tell that she was seeing something more in me than I was experiencing.  She sees my Divinity even when I can’t.  Yet by seeing her seeing me, I knew there was more to me. And it felt magnetic.  Based in her Divine Reality, Gurudevi was drawing out the same One Divine Reality in me. 

Kashmir Shaivism also emphasizes that you are in a relationship with a living Guru.  You can have relationships with the past Gurus, similar to how the nuns marry Jesus and bhaktis devote their life to Krishna.  But the living Guru talks back.  The living Guru gives you practices.  The living Guru incorporates the reality of your physical form and senses.  The living Guru gives you a full bodied, multidimensional relationship.  In this way, all levels of your being may be purified by the light of the Divine Reality that shines from them.

The goal of the Guru relationship is for you to know your own Divine Reality.  The Guru sees the Divine Reality in you.  The Guru shines their Divine Reality fully to you.  You follow the Guru’s directions and practices to cooperate in the process.  Then you come to know your own Divine Reality all the time. Then you shine fully.  You then bring your Divine light into your relationships.  You don’t need your loved ones to shine to make them loveable.  Instead, you shine.  You see and honor the Divine Reality in them.