August, 2013Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram
by Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati
Bliss is the feeling of touching infinity. It’s a tangible and undeniable sensory experience. My Baba said, “God is in your bhav.” Bhav is a multi-modal feeling, including your thoughts, emotions, quality of being and physical expression — all at the same time.
It’s easy to see when someone is angry or sad. Their face changes along with their tone of voice, their physical posture, their breath, the look in their eyes, their thoughts and words. You do it, too.!...[Click here to read more in TADAA!].
July, 2013
Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram
Change is the Only Constant
by Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati
You started yoga because you wanted to change. I warn new yogis, if you don't want to change, don't do yoga. If you're happy with how your body feels, how your life is going and how you feel within your life, keep doing exactly what you've been doing, because it's giving you proven results. Hold steady to the course!...[Click here to read more in TADAA!].
June, 2013
Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram
When you surrender to God, my Baba promised,what you get in return is God incarnate — your own Self. Three problematical words: “surrender,” “God” and “Self” are precise terms in yoga. “Surrender” does not mean that you cannot win the battle, so you are giving up and now you are going to be abused. This has already happened to you many times. It’s why you live with your guard up. What if you could live with your guard down? Surrender means you give up your resistances and anxieties. You give up your agenda for how things should be going, because a better plan is already set in motion. This is guaranteed by your karma, especially combined with Grace. The Sanskrit “tyaj” means you abandon your ...Click HERE for the full article and the complete E-Zine.
May, 2013
Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram
“Yoga’s going to get me ‘out there,’ right? I mean, I want to go beyond… The world is full of war, of pain and pollution. I don’t see any reason to be here. Yoga is cosmic, right?”The answer is yes. Yoga is cosmic, especially meditation. You can come specifically to experience cosmic consciousness, but you’ll find that it is “in there,” not “out there.” And “in there” means you’re going to become more embodied as you go along.
And “in there” means you’re going to become more embodied as you go along. You’ll reach a level of mastery where you embrace the physical process that we call life. Here’s how it works: Svaroopa® Vidya Meditation will propel you past your mind, expanding you beyond your idea of what is possible. It will immerse you in a personal...Click HERE for the full article and the complete E-Zine.
April, 2013
Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram
It was always about the stillness. When I first learned yoga poses, I could feel the changes happening while we were staying in the pose, not during the moving in or moving out. It worked when we stopped the “doing.” Now I know that’s the way life works, too.Spring catalogs show beautiful garden furniture promising you a sweet future: that hammock or chaise lounge will lure you outside so you can give over to “undoing.” Something happens there, something indescribable. Yoga describes it. Yoga specializes in it. I discovered this secret part of yoga when I found my Guru. Just sitting in His presence...Click HERE for the full article and the complete E-Zine.
My first exposure to yoga was TV, magazine articles and books. Now people begin with videos or online classes. I call it “flatline” yoga. There’s no prana in it; it’s not alive. Looking back, I can see that I was trying to learn without exposing myself to relationship. I always lived with my guard up; I didn’t want to let any strangers in. My delusion was that I thought the teachings were important, when what is important is the person giving them. This is true regardless of the subject. If you wanted to do something on your computer,
so you had someone read the instructions to you, but the reader didn’t understand the instructions — would you understand them? No. Only embodied knowledge matters. This...Click HERE for the full article and the complete E-Zine.
If you had to do it all by yourself, you’d never get it done. This is true of enlightenment, but it is also true of everything else in your life. Everything you’ve ever learned and everything you do involves other people. You’ve always had help. You might not be good at accepting help from others, and you might not be good at acknowledging the help you’ve gotten, but it’s always been there. Yogis know this is true.At first I thought that the ancient yogis lived in solitary caves in the Himalayas. Only after 20 years of living and practicing in a yoga community did I realize that the ancient
texts document that yogis always lived and practiced in community. Those who seek the highest love to spend time with others sharing ...Click HERE for the full article and the complete E-Zine.
January, 2013
Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram
I want to giggle as I welcome our new magazine with an exclamation, “Tadaa!” We have arrived! All of us who work to bring you the Svaroopa® Sciences are collaborating in this great adventure, a magazine dedicated to the discovery of your own Inherent Divinity. All the practices I teach share the same
purpose, taken from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: Tadaa dra.s.tu.h svaruupe’vasthaanam — Sutra 1.3
Tadaa [in the moment your mind is stilled], you are established in svaroopa [your own Divine Self].
I was inspired by this sutra to give the name svaroopa to our practices, both in Svaroopa® Yoga and Svaroopa® Vidya. The name itself...Click HERE for the full article and the complete E-Zine.
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