ABOUT Svaroopa^® Vidya Ashram

An Ashram is a residential yoga center. We offer meditation programs as well as yoga classes and yoga therapy.  We also train teachers in our dedicated style - Svaroopa^® Yoga,

Five swamis offer our wide-ranging curriculum, along with other highly qualified teachers.

On-Site programs are offered at Downingtown Yoga & Meditation Center, Downingtown PA USA. Online programs are delivered to you wherever you are.

Our teachers also travel to lead programs throughout the world, with an extensive calendar of programs available.

Our immersion programs include housing and meals in our retreat center, Lokananda, meaning "Place of Bliss" in Downingtown PA.

Satguru Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati is our founder and spiritual head.  We call her Gurudevi, which means Teacher of the Divine.  She has dedicated her life to serving those who yearn to become Self-Realized.

As a Shaktipat Guru, she propels you into the experiential knowing of your inherent Divinity.  She supports your process of seeing the Divine in everyone and everything. 

Gurudevi’s teaching is based in the ancient wisdom of Kashmiri Shaivism.  In “Yoga, Sweat and Mysticism,” an article written for Yoga Alliance, she explains the essence of yoga:

Yoga describes itself as 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 Gurudevi'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 Gurudevi.  It carries them forward into yoga’s ancient promise.  Longtime students describe the Guru’s power:

Gurudevi Nirmalananda never ceases to amaze me… she is a master teacher and is both forthcoming and real in every moment. — Rosemary N.

Her presence is like tapping into the main stream.  The hot socket. — Lori K.

Gurudevi Nirmalananda credits her own Guru for all she offers. Years of living in his Ashrams in the USA, Europe and India allowed her to indulge her total focus on his teachings.  Now Gurudevi Nirmalananda ensures these ancient teachings are alive and thriving, in Online and On-Site offerings.