Svaroopa Vidya Ashram’s Podcast

So, there is an inner process you go through. The process is that you’re flipping life on its head. Most people look for outer things to change the way they feel inside. A yogi finds the Self inside and then shares their Essence with others. Instead of waiting or wanting others to fill you, you come from fullness, your own inner Essence. Oh, Shiva. — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full d...

When you start meditating, turning your attention inward is challenging because you haven’t cleared your mind first. Trying to look inward, you get an internalized version of your external world. Tantra makes it easy. In Svaroopa® Vidya meditation, we repeat mantra and… bloop! You’re immersed within. You settle into your own Divine Essence. You bring ease of being, expansiveness, peace and bliss w...

Why a Guru? To set you free. The Guru doesn’t make you Divine. The Guru shows you that you are already Divine. The Guru doesn’t make you great, but shows you that you are already blazing with Divine Light. Baba said it this way, “Just as the wind disperses the clouds, but does not create another blazing sun, so the Grace of a Siddha simply removes the veil of ignorance so that you realize you are...

I call it embodied Consciousness, that you know your own Divine Essence while you participate in the world. This approach to spiritual development is not a process of transcendence. You don’t rise above the world. You live in it, but in a new way. You don’t…— Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Your Cosmic Birthright" here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/your-cosmic-birthrig...

In the last 20 or 25 years researchers have been doing brain scans of meditators. They’re finding that we use our brains differently than the rest of the world does. Meditation utilizes some parts of your brain that other people are barely using. And meditation quiets down some areas that other people are afflicted by... — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Made for More" her...

Oh Shiva, how can I bow to you? If I see you as separate from me, what direction do I turn to bow? Shiva above me, around me, being the earth beneath my feet. Oh Shiva, where do I turn to bow? If I see you as within me - you reside in my crown, so how can I lower my head to bow? I can only bow by turning my heart toward you, but ...  —  Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “You...

You Came from God Babies! That round sweet face, those incredible eyes… You look in a baby’s eyes, you can see all the way to God… Yes, that’s where they came from. Divine light still shines through them so clearly, without all the mental constructs to get in the way. You were like that back then. You came from God. Before you were born, you inhabited a subtle realm suffused with Divine Essence. I...

One Halloween, the dad’s T-Rex costume towered over everyone. I laughed! Yet I never thought he was a dinosaur. I knew it was a costume. So did he. In this way, Shiva is being you, wearing the costume of your body, using your mind to manage the world. When you know who you are, all your insecurities vanish. In full enlightenment, you are being Shiva while you are seeing Shiva being all. Self-Reali...

And if you’re not yet established in your own Self, if you’re not yet enlightened, fill your mind with mantra. It’s only your mind that gets in the way of your inner knowingness, with the many words that it uses to bind you. So, use different words. The enlivened mantra holds… — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Beyond the Beyond" here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/beyon...

Most people use their body to pursue their senses. They seek endless pleasures, hoping that pleasure will make them happy. But pleasure is not enough. You have learned this, probably, by taking a second helping of dessert. It just doesn’t satisfy. What you truly want is... — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “You Are Not Your Body" here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/you-a...

Due to Nityananda’s command, Nityananda had a house built for Baba and told him to live there. Only then did Baba’s wanderings slow down. They eventually extended throughout much of the Western world, but not because he was seeking anymore. He had something to give. Something that the world hungers for — God, inside. Who can give you God inside you? Only one who knows. — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Wa...

You see, you don’t have compartments inside.  There’s not a spiritual you, and a real you.  Inside, in the deeper level called turiya, you find you.  Now you show up for life, including spiritual practices, as well as relationships and responsibilities.  Spiritual living is that you bring your wholeness with you everywhere you go — open mind, open heart, open breath, deep inner center, grounded in...

If the Guru shares their home with others, the residents live in a microwave of Grace. And they’re usually quite busy with many and varied responsibilities. Baba kept us very busy. No time for idle hands. No time for idle tongues. No time to nurture old habits and self-defeating patterns. Beyond the benefit that the residents get personally from their immersion, they serve as conduits of Grace, ma...

The mantra is the portable Guru, because the word Guru means energy.  A specific type of energy, Shiva’s Divine Energy of revelation, revealing your own Self to your Self.  The person of the Guru is a concentrated form of this energy, like a lightning bolt is a concentrated form of energy.  It isn’t about... — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Spiritual Power" here: https://...

Just like Baba said, “Most people who meditate make the same mistake. When they sit for meditation, they do not focus on the Self, instead they run after the mind trying to find out what it is doing.” So, focus on your own Self. Use the mantra, this ancient sacred formula, to pierce through the mental activity that you usually find so intriguing. Mantra gives you your own Self. — Gurudevi Nirmalan...

You have the power to realize that God lies hidden in your own heart. Too much of the time, when you come from your heart, you’re coming from your emotional residue, your unfinished business. Your heart carries the weight of lifetimes – resentments and fears, unhappy memories and…   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “What is Heaven?" here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/products/what-is-heaven-7-12-26   #s...

Yoga also describes how you usually use your mind, as well as a greater possibility.  But yoga is the only one of all these traditions, that I have found, that says your Essence is Divine.  How will you know if this is true?  You will have to delve deeper within to see who you find in there, oh Shiva.  You may go beyond who you think you are. This is why we meditate.  — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Wat...

I live in the Ashram, heaven on earth. I felt this way when living with my Baba. His India Ashram was heavenly. At 3 am, I walked by night-blooming jasmine to get to the meditation hall, along pathways with sacred statues in every corner. Yet it was his presence that made it heavenly. We sat with him as he moved his amber mala, doing japa for all of us.  My mind flowed with mantra-virya, the mantr...

The sage says: Tadah drastuh svaroope vastanam — Yoga Sutras 1.3 In the moment your mind becomes still, you abide in svaroopa, your own Divine Essence. Here you are, revealed in the space between your thoughts. This means your thoughts are usually hiding you from yourself. This is why all the yoga practices are for your mind, to quiet your mind, so you discover who you are. The you that is svaroop...

Getting enlightened is a little like watching the sunrise.  It’s amazing how long it takes, from the time the sky starts getting lighter, until the sun is above the horizon line. It’s about forty minutes of gradual lightening, and then the sun comes up quick, in only two minutes.  Getting enlightened works the same way.  It takes longer to get ready than to actually light up.   — Gurudevi Nirmalan...

Your soul is great and Divine, even if it’s carrying some baggage.  You know how when you’re wearing a heavy backpack, or carrying a suitcase or two, it can throw you off-center? So, you might be trying to live your life while balancing all the baggage, meaning you’re living off-center.  The good news is that you’re shedding the baggage with every yoga practice, with every meditation, with every m...

Here’s the secret that nobody wants to know about desire. The more you fulfill your desires, the more desires you will have. When you don’t fulfill a desire, it comes back. You don’t fulfill it; it comes back again. When you don’t fulfill it again, it takes longer for it to come back. And you don’t fulfil it, it takes even longer for the desire to arise and it is... — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch...

However, there is a danger in the relationship with a Siddha. In this yoga of relationship, you can get so wonderfully overwhelmed with the Guru’s light that you forget to look for your own. You have to listen and learn. You have to watch closely for the Guru honors you, as much as they…  — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full discourse “Auspicious Day" here: https://gurudevi.vhx.tv/produ...

Infinite Beingness is being finite by being you.  Like an iceberg in the ocean, you have a clear and distinct sense of individuality, yet you are made of the same substance you are melting into. Iceberg and sea are like time and timelessness interwoven together. I found timelessness by listening to the clocks ticking in my elementary classrooms. I stopped hearing the teacher as I listened to the s...

To get enlightened you have to cooperate with the process.  So you may have to revamp your diet. And your mental diet.  What thoughts do you feed yourself?  And you may have to work on how you show up in relationships.  Meditating in solitude won’t make you a master of relationships.  A yoga master is a master of the world, as well as a master of... — Gurudevi Nirmalananda   Watch Gurudevi’s full...