THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
Discover how globalist education is over; here's the new education that nationalist populist governments are beginning to establish!!! ***Support my channel by getting our gear and accessories that celebrate all things nationalist, populist, and traditionalist! https://teespring.com/stores/turleyta...
German society is destabilizing as migrants and jihadists pour in through open borders, warns police officer and politician Martin Hess. Hess, who serves in the Bundestag as a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, eviscerated his colleagues from establishment parties during a recent speech on the floor of parliament, accusing them of abdicated their duties to protect citizens and secure the nation's borders.
"The threat of terrorism is higher than ever before, and therefore we must act now to implement measures to protect our citizens," Hess said. "Enough talk. Now is the time for action, and this requires that the main problem be solved, which is responsible for the disasters in the area of internal security: our open borders."
"The truth has been and remains: Germany is uncertain as never before. Never before in our country have we needed to protect our Christmas markets with concrete bollards from Islamist attacks. Never before in the history of our country did we need 'women's protection zones' to be set up at public events to protect our women."
Hess pointed out that there were 776 Islamic terror suspects in Germany as of July, 2018, compared with 165 in 2014. He also noted that "almost all" terror suspects entered Germany as "refugees."
"You irresponsibly neglect the security and protection of our citizens," Hess said. "As long as this cardinal error of 'open borders' is not corrected in German security policy, all attempts to improve the security agencies will have no impact."
Hess called out the hypocrisy of government officials who spare no expense or resource in protecting themselves, while failing to do the same for their constituents, pointing to a massive security and border control campaign for the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg during which police arrested some 744 known criminals.
"People without a legitimate reason for entry [into Germany] should be consistently rejected, and all persons who are staying illegally in our country should be permanently removed," Hess said.
He blasted prominent politicians who gaslight citizens by telling them terrorism is "just a risk of 21st century life" or that "we will have to learn to live with terror - because the opposite is true."
"In the name of our citizens, our children and grandchildren, we cannot and will not live with this terror," Hess vowed. "We want a safe Germany without concrete bollards and without women's protection zones . . . We need politicians who are determined to fight Islamist terrorism effectively and make this fight a top priority, right now."
As Infowars Europe reported last week, authorities arrested three Iraqi migrants under "suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence" involving a bomb and a vehicle in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Dan Lyman, Infowars' European correspondent, joins Alex Jones break down how the globalist elites' Islamic immigration invasion program has triggered an unstoppable populist revolution that seeks to replace European globalism with national sovereignty.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The Muslim Community Patrol will doubtless be on the lookout for incidents of “Islamophobia,” that is, anti-Muslim “hate crimes,” which is entirely unnecessary, since the NYPD exists, and such incidents are actually quite rare according to FBI hate crime statistics — much less common than incidents of anti-Semitism.
Will the Muslim Community Patrols also be on the lookout for Muslims who are violating Sharia provisions, such as the prohibition on drinking alcohol? It isn’t inconceivable, although the very question will be denounced as “Islamophobic.” But we have seen Sharia patrols in Austria, Denmark, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany. So why is it inconceivable that they could arise in New York City? It isn’t.
Then what will happen if the MCP apprehends someone for violating Sharia in a way that does not contravene American law?
Also, last month NYPD Sergeant Jessica McRorie stated: “This is not an NYPD vehicle. The NYPD did not outfit or label this vehicle. This group is not officially sanctioned by the NYPD and they are subject to the law.”
If the Muslim Community Patrol is not officially sanctioned by the NYPD, isn’t it subject to laws regarding impersonating a police officer? But would anyone dare risk charges of “Islamophobia” in Bill de Blasio’s New York by pursuing such an inquiry? Not on your life.
“Muslims Form Community Patrol. Some Neighbors Say No, Thanks.,” by Alexandra E. Petri, New York Times, February 3, 2019:
…Mr. Ali is among the first 30 members of the all-volunteer Muslim Community Patrol & Services that is preparing to operate in neighborhoods in Brooklyn, with a goal of growing its fleet of two cars to five by the end of the month and eventually expanding citywide. The group recently held a training led by off-duty officers from the Police Department’s 72nd Precinct.
“It’s like a neighborhood watch but on steroids,” said Noor Rabah, the group’s 31-year-old vice president who lives in Sunset Park.
As word of the new patrol has begun to spread, the backlash has been swift, even among some members of the Muslim community who have criticized the lack of information, and even questioned the need for the patrol.
Like the Shomrim that patrols largely Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Asian Safety Patrol that operates mainly in Sunset Park, the new group — believed to be the first of its kind in the country — hopes to function as extra sets of eyes and ears for the police.
The unarmed civilian patrol will offer translation services — its members are fluent in any of seven languages — explain cultural nuances, report suspicious activity, respond to traffic accidents and even help in searches for the missing. The patrol has the support of Brooklyn’s borough president, Eric L. Adams, and Assistant Chief Brian J. Conroy, the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South.
“More than buildings went down in 9/11. Trust between communities went down,” Mr. Adams said. “We are building it back one brick at a time, and this patrol is one of those bricks.”
Leaders said the group is self-funded and used donations to purchase the cars and navy blue uniforms for its members, many of whom are involved with the Muslim Community Center in Sunset Park.
Volunteers plan to work in shifts, watching over arrival and dismissal times at three Islamic schools in Brooklyn and conducting patrols from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., mostly near mosques and bus and subway stops in Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, where there are large Muslim populations. It will also link residents to food pantries, mentorship programs and counseling services. It aims to serve anyone who needs help, Mr. Rabah said, not just Muslims.
“Presence is prevention,” Mr. Rabah said. “Just us being around should deter the average criminal mind of doing something to harm another person.”…
CNN is trying to destroy Trump’s pick for UN ambassador, Heather Nauert, by noting that in 2009, she featured Frank Gaffney, Tarek Fatah and me on Fox News. But I was on CNN six years after that, in 2015. So once again the fake news propagandists at CNN trip on their own feet. But it is a sad indication of how much the public discourse in America has degenerated that CNN propagandist Andrew Kaczynski would even consider the possibility that it would hurt Nauert to try to associate her with foes of jihad mass murder and Sharia oppression of women, gays, and others. The fact that opposing jihad terror carries a stigma in the public square today is an illustration of the insidious power of propaganda, and an indication that some extremely insidious forces are operating at CNN and other establishment media outlets.
This problem is compounded by cowardice on the other side. “State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino told CNN in a statement that interviewing guests ‘does not mean the moderator agrees with the views expressed’ and added that CNN itself has interviewed those same people.”
What Palladino should have said is that the interviewees were opponents of jihad terror and Sharia oppression, and defenders of human rights for all people, and anyone who thought that was wrong was suffering from extreme moral confusion.
“CNN Attacks Heather Nauert For Interviewing Anti-Sharia Guests. They Also Appeared On CNN,” by Amber Athey, Daily Caller, February 4, 2019:
CNN launched an attack on President Donald Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador, Heather Nauert, that inadvertently turned the microscope on itself.
Nauert, a former Fox News host, was nominated for the UN post vacated by Nikki Haley in December. Since then, news outlets have raised questions about her qualifications for office and her time working for Fox. In a story published Monday, CNN claimed that Nauert’s confirmation process could be complicated because she hosted a “panel on Sharia law conspiracies” on the network in 2009.
The panel was on a webcast called “Terror from Within” and featured anti-jihad activists Frank Gaffney and Robert Spencer, and Canadian journalist and Muslim critic Tarek Fatah.
State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino told CNN in a statement that interviewing guests “does not mean the moderator agrees with the views expressed” and added that CNN itself has interviewed those same people.
A review of interviews on CNN reveals that they have, in fact, interviewed Gaffney, Spencer and Fateh on multiple occasions. CNN’s most recent interview with Spencer occurred in 2015 — six years after Nauert interviewed him for the webcast.
During a June 2015 interview, Spencer clashed with the CNN hosts after he accused the media of kowtowing to radical violent Islamists and argued that Muslims in Boston weren’t doing a good enough job of countering extremists in their faith.
Gaffney appeared on CNN for an interview as recently as 2013 about U.S. relations with the Iranian regime. He was also interviewed on Syria in 2012 and debated American Conservative Union board member Suhail Khan in 2011….
CNN gave Nauert credit for “ask[ing] clarifying questions and push[ing] her guests to specify that not all Muslims support extremism or Sharia law,” a similar rhetorical move used by CNN anchors in their interviews with Spencer. However, CNN claimed that Nauert was not tough enough on her guests, stating that she did not attack the “broader theme” of their comments….
Trevor Loudon sits in with The New American to discuss Presidential candidate Cory Booker's history and connections. Booker announced late last week his intent to run for the 2020 Presidency.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed his state’s revenue shortfall of $2.8 billion on Donald Trump during a press conference on Monday, stating,
There is no doubt that the budget we put forward [$175 billion for fiscal year 2019-20] is not supported by the revenues. It’s as serious as a heart attack….
SALT [which capped deductions for state income and local property taxes for the wealthy in Trump’s tax reform act] was an economic civil war. It literally restructured the economy to help red [Republican] states at the cost of blue [Democrat] states.
That’s exactly what it did. It was a diabolical, political maneuver.
Cuomo could have accepted the blame for the state’s ongoing exodus (out-migration) of wealthy individuals by pinning the blame where it belonged: on his state’s increasingly unfavorable environment for them thanks to its high taxes. Instead, he said he did the right thing by extending the temporary “millionaires’ tax” levied following the financial crisis a decade ago, and signing into law a bill raising sales tax rates to 8.82 percent.
In other words, Cuomo attacked the very people he needed the most to pay for his spending bill: the top one percent of New York’s taxpayers that account for almost half of the state’s tax revenues.
Cuomo complained that since the exodus doesn’t “support” his budget, he is going to have to cut it somewhere, and has until February 15 to come up with a new plan.
Outmigration of the wealthy from the Empire State has been going on for years, and the SALT limitation was, for many, just the final straw. It has spawned a new industry: advisors helping the wealthy escape to warmer and friendlier tax climes, such as Miami, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
In December, Edmund McMahon, research director of the Empire State Center for Public Policy, put the numbers on that outmigration: “During the 12 months ending July 2018, 180,306 more residents moved out of New York State than moved in from the rest of the country.… New York was one of only nine states to experience a population decline during this period.” He estimates the emigration from New York since 2010 has been 1.2 million people.
And a lot of them are headed for Florida. According to Census data released in December, Florida had the highest level of net domestic migration from July 2017 to July 2018, while New York during that same period was the largest overall population loser.
It’s not hard to discern why: According to the Tax Foundation, Florida is ranked fourth on its list of the 10 best states from a tax perspective, while New York is ranked 48th. This ranking comes from analyzing corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and unemployment insurance taxes. Florida ranks near the top in nearly all categories, while New York ranks near the bottom.
Even Cuomo admitted that it is tough to compete with Florida’s climate, both weather and fiscal: “A taxpayer in Florida would see no increase [in taxes], probably would see a decrease, and Florida also has the advantage of no estate tax.”
New York is just one of several northeastern states whose populations are shrinking as residents head for warmer and friendlier environs. Tax Foundation lists New Jersey dead last on its list, and explains why:
The states in the bottom 10 tend to have a number of afflictions in common: complex, nonneutral taxes with comparatively high rates.
New Jersey, for example, is hampered by some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, recently implemented the second highest-rate corporate income tax in the country, levies an inheritance tax, and maintains some of the nation’s worst-structured individual income taxes.
As mentioned above, this out-migration from high-tax states has been going on for years, long before Trump’s tax reform. But with the SALT deductions capped, it is likely to continue and even accelerate. Since 2007, Texas and Florida (neither of which have a state income tax) have gained 1.4 million and 850,000 residents, respectively, from other states. California and New York have jointly lost more than 2.2 million residents. Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore estimated that about 3.5 million Americans, on net, have relocated from the highest-tax states to the lowest-tax states, with another 800,000 or more likely to move in the next three years.
The real reason the wealthy are increasingly moving to places such as Miami, Phoenix, and Las Vegas is because they can. They are, by and large, highly flexible and mobile, and many are driven by Rule Number One for getting and staying rich: Cut your expenses. The fact that the weather might be nicer there is just a bonus (and tax-free at that).
Cuomo has no one to blame but himself and his fellow Democrats. Typical of a politician, that’s why he tried to put the blame on Trump for his state's revenue shortfalls.
TRENTON, N.J. —Residents in the state of New Jersey may now more easily apply to amend their birth certificate to correspond with their “gender identity” rather than their birth sex after a new law took effect on Friday. The accommodation also allows residents to select a third option of “undesignated/nonbinary.”
The New Jersey Department of Health has posted information about the law on its website, characterizing the bill that was signed in July by Gov. Phil Murphy as being “landmark legislation.”
As previously reported, Murphy, a Democrat, similarly called the signing of the bill, S.B. 478, an “important day for New Jersey as we continue to strive toward equality for all of our residents, regardless of sex or gender expression.”
“Allowing vital records to match gender identity is an important step forward that will allow transgender individuals to control the disclosure of their transgender status,” he remarked.
The measure, known as the Babs Siperstein Law, instructs that the “State registrar shall issue an amended certificate of birth to a person born in this state who requests an amended certificate of birth which shows the gender and, if applicable, the name of the person as it has been changed.”
It is named after Babs Siperstein, the first elected “transgender” member of the Democratic National Committee.
The law eliminates the requirement to present documentation from the person’s physician that they have undergone a “sex change” operation. Applicants may now simply sign an attestation that the application is solely to “conform [their] legal gender to [their] gender identity and is not for any fraudulent purpose.”
Three options are provided on the request form: male, female and “undesignated/nonbinary.” The Department of Health outlines in its FAQ document that the term “encompasses all gender identities that are not exclusively male or female, including, but not limited to: intersex, agender, amalgagender, androgynous, bigender, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, neutrois, nonbinary, pangender, third sex, transsexual, Two Spirit, or otherwise unspecified.”
If the individual who wishes to amend their birth certificate is under age 18, their parent or guardian may apply on their behalf. Applicants may also change their birth name if they have obtained a court order granting their request to change their legal name.
“The Babs Siperstein Law is a historic, life-changing moment for transgender New Jerseyans,” Christian Fuscarino, executive director of Garden State Equality, said in a statement, according to NJ Advance Media. “New Jersey has always been a leader for LGBTQ equality, and this law moves us one step further in bringing dignity, respect and affirmation to every transgender person in our state.”
New Jersey now joins California, Oregon and Washington in providing a “gender neutral” option for those who desire to amend their birth certificate.
As previously reported, the Bible teaches that all men are in the same predicament: All are born with the Adamic sin nature and are “by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), having various inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God and being utterly incapable of changing themselves. It is why Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus saith unto him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ‘Ye must be born again.’”
In his sermon “Regeneration,” the late Anglican preacher J.C. Ryle once said, “Can any change his own heart? No! The thing is impossible. We can no more quicken and impart life to our souls than we can to our bodies; we can no more rise and become new men in our own strength than wash away sins by our own performances. It is impossible! The natural man is as helpless as Lazarus was when he lay still and cold and motionless in the tomb. We may remove the stone, as it were, and expose the sad work of death—but we can do no more.”
“There must be a power far mightier than any power of earth in exercise before the natural man can awake and arise and come forth as a new creature. And to do all this is the special office of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to send. It is He who quickens; it is He who gives life.”
Swami Nirmalananda (formerly known as Rama Berch) is the originator of Svaroopa® Yoga as well as the founder of Master Yoga and of Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram. In 2009 she was honored with initiation into the ancient order of Saraswati monks.
Now wearing the traditional orange, she has openly dedicated her life to serving others. Usually called Swamiji, she makes the highest teachings easily accessible, guiding seekers to the knowledge and experience of their own Divine Essence.
For more information on Svaroopa® Yoga or to find a teacher near you, contact Master Yoga Foundation at 1-866-LUVYOGA (588-9642) or info@masteryoga.org, or visit the teacher directory at www.masteryoga.org. Rama’s clothing was supplied by Blisswear. To see more of their line visit blisswear.com or e-mail debby@blisswear.com.
"I remember the first time I looked into Swamiji’s eyes and saw consciousness. I had to look away. It was like being blinded by the sun. Today I yearn to look into her eyes and I do it whenever I can." Melissa H., Australia
Sadguru Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati
Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati is the spiritual head of the Svaroopa®Vidya Ashram. She was honored with the title "Sadguru" in 2015 by the Brahmin priests in her Guru's home town of Ganeshpuri. As a Kundalini Master and renunciant, she has dedicated her life to serving those who want to become Self-Realized.
“She has so much love, compassion, understanding, and awareness. She sees so much." — Phil (Krishna) Milgrom, Warren MA
“Hosting Swami Nirmalananda in Brisbane, Australia, I found her wonderfully personable and relatable.” — Lyndall (Leela) Madden, Bulimba QLD, Australia
As a modern-day sage and Guru, she awakens Kundalini, your inner spiritual energy, through Shaktipat. She is a Kundalini Master, addressing your yearning to know your inherent Divinity by propelling you into it. She supports you in the process of learning to live in the recognition of your own Divinity as well as to recognize the Divine in everyone and everything. With Swami Nirmalananda as your teacher, the inner process is deep and easy.
Affectionately referred to as "Swamiji", she pioneered the Svaroopa® Sciences, based in the ancient teachings of Kashmiri Shaivism. She learned them from her Guru, Swami Muktananda, which enlivens these comprehensive practices including:
Shaktipat
meditation
mantra
chanting
sutra study
guided self-inquiry
breathing practices
yoga poses (asana)
and seva.
One branch of the Svaroopa® Sciences is Svaroopa® yoga. Swamiji created it in order to bring asana practice back to its original purpose, the awakening of Kundalini and the knowing of Self. Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram continues to offer Svaroopa® yoga teacher training, with Swamiji serving as Master Teacher, directing and supporting our other Teacher Trainers.
"Yoga itself claims to be a science. It uses proven methodology to get predictable results, just like the battery in your car. On the physical level, the methodologies provide reliable results, often likened to medical therapies, yet the sages always targeted a deeper goal… [to] become one with consciousness… to know your own Divine Self (svaroopa), inherent within you.
The results are reliable: if you do what the sages teach, you will experience what they promise. This is yoga — pure mysticism, meaning it is about the mystery of life, the mystery that is hidden inside every human heart and being."
This perspective informs all of Swami Nirmalananda’s teaching. Warm, lighthearted and down-to-earth, she makes the mystical teachings accessible through examples from our everyday lives and relationships. Students cherish their relationship with Swami Nirmalananda, as it carries them forward into yoga’s ancient promise:
"Swami Nirmalananda never ceases to amaze me… she is a master teacher and is both forthcoming and real in every moment.” — Rosemary (Rudrani) Nogue, Calgary AB, Canada
"Her presence is like tapping into the main stream. The hot socket." — Lori (Priya) Kenney, Portland OR
“She knows my mind better than I do.” — Melissa (Yogeshwari) Fountain, Southborough MA
Swami Nirmalananda credits her own Guru, Swami Muktananda, with everything. She describes that years of living in Baba’s Ashrams in the USA, Europe and India allowed her to indulge her total focus on Baba and his teachings. She says, “Six weeks before he left this world, he sent me back to America to raise my children and to teach.”
Now Swami Nirmalananda ensures these ancient teachings are alive and thriving. In Downingtown PA, the Ashram provides Lokananda, your “Bliss Place,” a full-service retreat facility for immersion programs, including Swamiji’s Shaktipat retreats, immersions for deeper practices, and professional training courses for yoga teachers, yoga therapists and meditation teachers. Weekly, Swamiji offers satsangs (free meditation programs) including chanting, meditation and teachings to guide you on your path.
Swami Nirmalananda also travels throughout the USA, Canada and Australia, offering free programs as well as weekend Shaktipat Retreats. She regularly leads pilgrimages to Ganeshpuri India, the home village of her Guru with the Samadhi Temple of his Guru, Bhagawan Nityananda.
Her generosity is legendary, including an enormous library of free online teachings on this website. They include contemplation articles, daily e-quotes and recordings from her satsangs. She also offers tuition-based, multimedia distance learning in a year-long programme, beginning each spring.
Under her guidance, the Ashram runs charitable projects in the USA and India. In Downingtown PA, we offer Stress Relief Inservice, training schoolteachers in centering self-care, so they can better serve their students. In India, we have partnered with Fire Mountain Ashram to offer Yoga in the Village, bringing yoga to school children in impoverished areas.
Swamiji says, “It is such a privilege to give yoga back to the land of its origin, especially in the local schools in Ganeshpuri and the whole Tansa River valley. The native population of this region never had access to the yogic or Vedic tradition. Like Native Americans or Australian Aborigines, they were the forgotten people, now working to find their place in mainstream society in India. To bring them the heritage of their own land is a deeply fulfilling project.”
We call our building Lokananda - your Bliss Place, but the sign on the front says "Downingtown Yoga & Meditation Center." This is our downtown Downingtown campus, which houses two types of programs:
Meditation & Yoga:
We offer free meditation programs two or three times weekly, plus 5 or more yoga classes and periodic Half Day Workshops. Formal meditation courses are offered every two or three months. We have a well-stocked yoga shop for your convenience. Click here for more info.
Yogimmersions:
Our retreats and professional trainings are now housed in our "new" 130-year old historic building. Massive renovations have been completed with more underway, to make this beautiful "old dame" ready for modern-day yogis. This move offers two great benefits: lowered housing & meals fees plus the bliss of a dedicated spiritual environment.
Ashram — Residential Facility
1400 Hampton Drive, Downingtown PA 19335
This is Swami Nirmalananda’s residence, which she shares with other committed yogis. Residents have taken vows as brahmacharis (temporary monkhood) and participate in several hours of daily practice with Swamiji. She frequently welcomes invited guests for meals and other events. Click here for more info.
Airport Shuttle
We are happy to welcome Lyft and Uber to our area. They are now well established, providing cost effective transportation which you book through your smartphone. Due to their availability and affordability, we no longer provide airport shuttle service.
On Time Transport, our previous limo service, is also available and gives you a discounted rate when you use the name “Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram.” Call them at 610-647-1354.
We email you the course roster when your program is confirmed so you can coordinate shared rides to reduce your expense.
You may prefer to take the train from the airport to the Downingtown train station. We provide free shuttle service to and from this train station during these times:
Monday to Friday: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday: from 2 hours before your program begins and up to 2 hours after your program ends.
You must arrange our train shuttle service at least 48 hours in advance so that we have a staff member available. For further information visit: septa.org or amtrak.com.
Since ancient times, the Sanskrit word ashram names the place where the Guru lives. The Ashram houses the Guru’s physical being, as well as the shakti, the divine energy of Grace, that flows through the Guru. If you have spent any time with Swami Nirmalananda, you have experienced this current of shakti. While it is present in everything that exists, it is stronger and more concentrated in a yogi who has dedicated herself to serve in this way. The deeper Swamiji takes her own practice, the stronger the shakti flows through her. The Ashram serves as a place to house it, to nurture it, and to “plant it” on the physical plane. As a visitor you will feel it, perhaps when you first enter, or after you’ve been there for a while, or even after you leave. Swamiji wants us to consider the Ashram our home, as well as hers.
What is it like to visit the Ashram?
If you are enrolled in a Svaroopa® Yoga & Meditation course in Pennsylvania, you will likely be invited for lunch at the Ashram. The house appears from the outside like any other large suburban home in the neighborhood. You’ll be greeted at the door with a traditional arati, a waving of a candle flame, and a dot of sacred ash on your forehead. These honor your inherent Divinity, which is the that which Swamiji bows to in herself and in her Guru.
Upon entering, you’ll remove your shoes and coat, and be invited to walk through the downstairs rooms, which are filled with photographs of our lineage and murtis (divine statues), all to invoke your profound and deep experience of your own Self. You’ll sit in the meditation room for a few minutes with Swamiji and participate in the lunchtime japa, mantra repetition, one of our three daily sessions that Ashram residents share with Swamiji.
Lunch is in the sunny dining area off the kitchen, and consists of a vegetarian meal, served by ashram chefs who follow Ayurvedic cooking guidelines. Swamiji eats with her guests, making sure everyone is well fed. After a delicious dessert, she presents you with a blessed gift of a rudraksha bead (sacred bead).
May I stay or live at the Ashram?
Yes! Swami Nirmalananda encourages those who are committed to the exploring the deeper science of the Self to deepen their practice and experience of the Self. If we have available space, you may apply for residency. We also have a B&B program so that visitors may experience the gifts that the Ashram offers.
As previously reported, the Bible teaches that all men are in the same predicament: All are born with the Adamic sin nature and are “by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), having various inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God and being utterly incapable of changing themselves. It is why Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.
One branch of the Svaroopa® Sciences is Svaroopa® yoga. Swamiji created it in order to bring asana practice back to its original purpose, the awakening of Kundalini and the knowing of Self. Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram continues to offer Svaroopa® yoga teacher training, with Swamiji serving as Master Teacher, directing and supporting our other Teacher Trainers.
This perspective informs all of Swami Nirmalananda’s teaching. Warm, lighthearted and down-to-earth, she makes the mystical teachings accessible through examples from our everyday lives and relationships. Students cherish their relationship with Swami Nirmalananda, as it carries them forward into yoga’s ancient promise:
Now Swami Nirmalananda ensures these ancient teachings are alive and thriving. In Downingtown PA, the Ashram provides Lokananda, your “Bliss Place,” a full-service retreat facility for immersion programs, including Swamiji’s Shaktipat retreats, immersions for deeper practices, and professional training courses for yoga teachers, yoga therapists and meditation teachers. Weekly, Swamiji offers satsangs (free meditation programs) including chanting, meditation and teachings to guide you on your path.
Swamiji says, “It is such a privilege to give yoga back to the land of its origin, especially in the local schools in Ganeshpuri and the whole Tansa River valley. The native population of this region never had access to the yogic or Vedic tradition. Like Native Americans or Australian Aborigines, they were the forgotten people, now working to find their place in mainstream society in India. To bring them the heritage of their own land is a deeply fulfilling project.”
