Svaroopa Vidya Ashram’s Podcast

I wanted something that my parents didn’t want. I wanted something that my school teachers never talked about. I wanted something that wasn’t described in church. Joseph Campbell rescued me from my self-doubt. In a series of television interviews titled “The Power of Myth”, he explained that everyone longs for something greater, but only a few... — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full dis...

Your mind is so powerful. It creates whatever you choose. If you choose to repeat the litany of your pains, you can do this. If you choose to repeat the litany of your pleasures, you can do this. Yet, yoga recommends neither. You see, both of these litanies are still about… — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Your Mind’s Greatness” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/your...

Yoga teaches surrender. This is how you get enlightened. It is also how you fall in love. Surrender is how you experience God, whether looking outward or inward.  In English, surrender means you lost the battle. Yoga uses Sanskrit words that point to becoming free, giving something to the care of another or taking refuge. You go through stages in learning how to give over. Bottom line, it is surre...

By Gurudevi Nirmalananda  We love the moon’s silvery-white light, a cooling light. Its soft glow illumines the darkness, soothing and calming your mind. Yet the moon is not the source of its light. It merely reflects the light of the sun. Similarly, the light of Consciousness shines through your mind. The source is within, your own Divine Essence. If your mind were clear and spacious, your mind’s...

Now you can no longer think of God as something you earn with lifetimes of purity and striving for perfection.   You don’t earn God.  You are God. You’ve simply been looking in the wrong place. You’ve been looking at the ceremonies, at the rituals, at the mountains, the rising sun, the full moon. Yes, Yes! God is… —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Sacred Acts” here: https...

You long to know your own Self as Consciousness, and to live in the bliss-filled beingness that is your Essence.  Yet, you already know at a deep inner level.  You already are free. You see, you won’t long for something unless… —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Bondage & Freedom” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/bondage-freedom-1-19-25   #spirituality #meditatio...

Even if you lived free — no prison bars, no ankle bracelet, you can be imprisoned by your mind.  My Baba described it this way, “His own outlook is the thing that shrinks him day by day.  As he meditates on and ponders his own limitations, he becomes completely bound.” You do meditate on your limitations.  You obsess on… — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Bliss of Freed...

Where are your complaints?  They’re in your mind, usually in the forefront of your mind.  Repeating over and over, your mind loops around on them. So you look in the space where your complaints usually are, right here, in the forefront of your mind… —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Love” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/what-is-love-6-29-25   #yogamysticism...

Knowing about your own Self is not the same as experiencing your own Self.  I can talk about your Divine Essence all day, and you may love the theory.  But even a moment of experiential knowing stops you, settles you, fills you from the inside out.  —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Unlearning” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/unlearning-6-22-25   #yogamysticism #gu...

Your attachments define you.  They limit you. They take hold of you, defining who you are and what you can do. Thus, yoga’s goal is freedom.  Freedom from limitation.  Freedom from compulsion.  Freedom from being driven.  You gain yogic freedom by an internal redefinition of…   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Clinging” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/clinging-6-15-25   #spirituality #medit...

While the Guru is one who dispenses God’s Grace, don’t confuse the Guru with a particular personality or physical form. Yes, I loved spending time with my Guru.  I love his photos, to see these images of his physical form.  Yet, I know it’s the Divine Reality in him that made him lovable…  —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “You Need a Guru” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/pr...

Of course, you can have a breakthrough on a vision quest in nature, or in a dream.  Maybe not a piece of chocolate.  But anything, potentially anything can stop your mind and let your inherent Divinity peek through.  How great it is.  Or rather, how great it was...  —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Guru's Grace” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/guru-s-grace-6-1-25...

You know, in the beginning most people use mantra to calm themselves when they’re upset.  How great that it works for you.  You can calm yourself.  You can get centered again when you’ve been thrown off center.  Yes, use mantra for this.  But consider, what if you did mantra when you didn’t “need” it?  If it will give you your Self when…   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “I Got It!” here: https://...

Growing up, I was confused. My schoolteachers, at church and my own family said and did self-contradictory things. It took me decades to figure out that the problem wasn’t me. I needed better teachers. Searching far and wide, I found that only yoga gave me teachings I could trust and a teacher I could rely on. Better yet, I was given genuine upliftment as well as practical ways to better myself. Y...

When you look for others’ opinions to make you feel good about you, it’s called other-worth, not self-worth.  It’s a deeper sense of self that you need.  And when you uncover this deeper sense of self, you still…   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Words of Power” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/words-of-power-5-18-25   #spirituality #meditation #Gurudevi #yogamysticism #svaroopa #meditate #...

You can be so entrenched in your patterns and habits, even in your ideas about who you are that you don’t let the fire of Consciousness burn away your limitations. Chanting helps with this.  Vichara, our guided self-inquiry process, helps with this. Japa, mantra repetition, helps. And… — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Changing Your Past” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/prod...

Yoga says, “Look inward.”  It doesn’t mean that you stop doing things, but that you find who you are while you’re doing them.  What you find is your own Self.   Your early experiences of Self are peace, creativity and happiness.  And then it gets better. The experience of your own Self, as you learn…   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “How to Find Happiness” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/h...

Words are important. The radar screen of your mind is filled with what you say and what others say to you. You’re always tracking the moving blips. If words can shut you down, are there words that can open you up? Yes! The enlivened mantra is sacred words. words of power. They invoke the upwelling of Consciousness within you. This inner arising transforms you completely, bringing a whole new level...

You see, when you have an amazing experience, and how important that is, the fact that it is amazing means it’s different from your everyday experience. And then you go back to everyday. Your expanded experience might last a minute, a day, a month, or longer. But you go back to everyday. The point is to… — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “The Moment of Enlightenment” here:...

This is a key point in tantra.  It comes from the recognition that Shiva is being all.  Everything in the world and even everything in your mind is Shiva in disguise. So, what part of the world should you reject?  What part of you should you reject?  Certainly, your mind needs some conditioning, like a runner preparing for a marathon.  Your mind needs...  —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’...

If you don’t desire something specific to happen in the future, then you won’t be anxious about it. Freedom from desire also frees you from anger. The only time you experience anger is when you desire something but… — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Not Normal” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/not-normal-4-13-25   #spirituality #meditation #Gurudevi #yogamysticism #s...

No one’s working on attaining equanimity.  Well, that’s not precisely true. You probably have tried to get a little peace by withdrawing from news, from the politicians, from the musicians, the social media influencers, and even your family and friends. But you bring your mind with you, even when you isolate yourself or numb out. —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Equanimi...

When you hear these teachings, you are fed at the deepest level of your own being.  The words and the energy turn your mind inward, while the words name your own Divine Essence. So you experience Self again and again.  This is why I give discourses, to pour this stream of Grace-infused teachings into your head, and heart, and deeper.  Again and again.   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Who's In Ch...

How do you meditate on your own Self when you don’t know your own Self?  In one way, it’s kind of like you lived in a cave your whole life and I tried to teach you to meditate on the sun or the moon.  You wouldn’t know what they are.  This is why the mantra names your own Self.. —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Meditating on Your Own Self” here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/p...

Can you look at someone and see that they are enlightened? This is important because you want to study with the best. They can help you make rapid progress toward your own enlightenment. What is enlightenment like, both inside and outside? Answers from the yogic texts give you an understanding of the inner state as well as how to get there…   Read Gurudevi's Teachings Article in our  Freebies.