By Swami Samvidaananda

Your own Self is the One Divine Reality, the source and substance of everything that exists. 

When you know your own Self, you feel blissful, whole, and complete. But you probably don’t experience the bliss of your Self as often as you would like to. My Guru, Gurudevi Nirmalananda, explains how you can:

Your own Self is always there, always right here, inside. All you have to do is look deeper. The mantra gives you this ability.

With Svaroopa^® Vidya meditation, you repeat mantra, and it takes you deeper.  It takes you beyond your mind, to the glorious depths of your Self.   Beyond your mind? 

I didn’t understand how this was possible when I first began to meditate.  I’d had tantalizing experiences of my Self, from the start.  They were blissful glimpses. But it didn’t make sense to me that I was going beyond my mind.  After all, your mind is how you know and understand things, both in the world, and in your own body, mind and heart. And you use your mind to repeat the mantra in meditation. 

This is all true. Your mind is important. It is valuable.  But it is puny compared to your own Self.  Your Self is so much greater than your mind, that your mind can’t hold the whole of your Self.  A classic example is a bucket of water under a full moon.  

Imagine a clear night sky. The moon is big and full, a luminous ball glowing in the dark.  You fill a bucket with water and set it on the ground outside. When you peek in the bucket, you’ll see the reflection of the moon. The whole circle of the moon is glowing on the surface of the water.  

But is the bucket holding the whole moon? Could you take your bucket full of moon, spirit it away, and the moon will be gone from the sky?  No, the bucket is too small to hold the whole moon. It can only reflect it.  

Your mind is like the bucket of water.  It can only reflect your Self. The reflection is valid and real, but it’s not the whole.  The whole of your Self is much more. 

You are not just someone with a bucket full of moon. You are the bucket, the ground beneath you, and the moon and sky above you.  You are the whole of the earth. You are the whole of the universe, while being you. You are the One Reality that created this whole universe, is being this universe, and is beyond this universe. That is your Self.  

Because you are the Self, you have the capacity to know you are the Self. That knowing is deeper than your mind.  But you need help to get to that knowing because it has been hidden from you.  That’s why you don’t experience the bliss of your Self all the time.  It’s a cosmic set-up.  

So you need help from someone who knows.  Someone who can point the way.  Someone who has the key to unlock your deeper knowing. Someone like Gurudevi.  She is a yoga master, in a lineage of yoga masters called Gurus. She has dedicated her life to your upliftment.  

You can trust her when she says, “Your own Self is always there, always right here, inside. All you have to do is look deeper.” Except, you don’t have to trust her. That’s because she gives you what you need so you can know for yourself, as she explains, “The mantra gives you this ability.” 

The mantra is the key that unlocks your not-knowing.  She gives it freely to everyone who asks for it.  It is the mantra of Gurudevi’s lineage.  The Gurus have enlivened the mantra with the energy of revelation.

This is the cosmic power that reveals your Self to you.  Repeating this enlivened mantra propels you beyond your mind. You dive into the depths and infinite expansiveness of your Self.  

In the beginning, I didn’t understand how this could be true.  But now I know that it is. You can know, too. You are already whole.  More than whole, you are holy. Here, now.  

And you find your wholeness, you find your holiness, by meditating with the lineage mantra.  If you want the mantra, ask Gurudevi. She will give it to you.