Swami Nirmalananda Saraswati
CSYT, RYT 500, E-RYT 500
“Nirmalananda’s knowledge is awesome!” – Lauren P.
“Nirmalananda is a force and witnessing her is a privilege.
” – Peter S.
“Nirmalananda’s wisdom and knowledge of yoga and yoga philosophy is meaningful and powerful. She has an ability to teach and apply them to our life and our practice” – Andrea P.
Formerly known as Rama Berch, Nirmalananda has recently been honored with initiation into the ancient order of Saraswati monks. Now wearing the traditional orange, she has openly dedicated her life to serving others. For photos of her recent initiation ceremony, click here.
Also called Swamiji or Nirmalaji, she makes the highest teachings accessible to everyone, guiding them to the knowledge and experience of their own divine essence. She shares her incredible knowledge in a personal and life-embracing way, through her humor as well as her caring presence. Whether she is teaching meditation, yoga poses or how to bring yoga into daily living, her programs are always wonderfully deep, supportive & life changing. This is because she learned it from her Guru and she lives the yoga in her life. She created Svaroopa® yoga and founded Master Yoga Foundation to be its home.
Born in Los Angeles in 1946, she married before completing college and started into a traditional family life in the suburbs. She describes that “a divine discontent grew to an undeniable urge that affected everything in my life, but I didn’t know what to do with it.” She began exploring psychology, yoga, meditation, healing, massage and Eastern traditions in the 1960s. Her studies did not satisfy her inner promptings, which led her to a divorce and raising her three children as a single mother. “I found my destiny when I attended a program at a meditation center in 1976. I had no idea what was happening, but I had found my Guru and everything began to fall together after that.”
As a result of her visit to the meditation center, Nirmalananda received a powerful and spontaneous initiation, maha-shaktipat-diksha, which came from Swami Muktananda though he was physically in India at the time. MahaKundalini initiation shows up differently in every person. In Nirmalaji, it manifested as spontaneous yoga poses that moved her throughout her hour-long meditation every morning before her children awoke. She reoriented her life around these early morning adventures, as they became the most important part of her day. Studying Baba’s books, attending weekly meditations and learning how to play several Indian musical instruments provided a structure that supported the blossoming within her, while life speeded up around her. “In hindsight, I can see that I had to complete certain karmas, but it got really crazy.”
Her first yoga asana classes were held in her home in 1976. Her experiences of the spontaneous asanas every morning had shown her the power of the spine as a conduit of consciousness. “But when we did the classical poses in the classes as I had learned them in the teacher trainings I took, that spinal opening wasn’t happening. There was a lot of efforting and it was getting in the way. The whole idea of ‘posing’ and of perfecting the body was incredibly foreign to me.” It would be 15 years before she would understand what had happened inside her.
In 1978, Nirmalananda moved into the ashram to study with her Guru, amassing teaching certifications in many yogic disciplines, including certification and training in five yoga styles as a hatha yoga teacher, advanced hatha yoga teacher, and pranayama teacher as well as certifications as a meditation teacher and yoga philosophy teacher. Her immersion and total focus on Baba’s teachings laid the foundation for her life and work since then.
A serious traffic accident in 1986 sidelined Nirmalananda, who was mostly bedridden for two years. She says, “I am grateful for this experience because now I know pain. I am not afraid of it. I am not afraid of my pain; I am not afraid of your pain. This gives me great freedom and makes me able to see past the problem to the cause. Then the solution is easy.”
She settled in San Diego in 1986 and began teaching. She describes her unique and powerful way of teaching as “a cosmic download, given to me by my Guru. He gave it to me in one instant, whole and complete, but it took me 15 years to figure out what I got. I certainly am a slow learner!” She was urged to name it and accepted the help of a student in establishing the copyright and trademark protection for Svaroopa® yoga, protecting both the name and the body of teachings in order to preserve their integrity. Yoga Journal listed Svaroopa® yoga as a style in 1996, providing national recognition of its growth and effectiveness. Master Yoga Foundation was created as a not-for-profit organization to be the home for Svaroopa® yoga, to foster and protect its teachings.
Nirmalananda created and directed the yoga program for Dr. Deepak Chopra for five years and served as the founding president of Yoga Alliance as well as the San Diego teacher association, Y.E.S. (Yoga Education Society). Svaroopa® yoga teachers began inviting her to teach in their cities, so she added weekend workshops to her schedule, holding the first one in Calgary Canada. That led to her teaching at many yoga conferences and yoga retreat centers, as well as offering many workshops in Australia, England, South Korea and Mexico as well as yoga studios throughout the USA.
Traveling to India for biannual personal retreats, Nirmalananda returned each time with her state obviously deepened. Her ability to teach and lead others to their own inner experience expanded simultaneously. After traveling extensively to teach for more than 12 years, she and Master Yoga moved to the Philadelphia area in 2006, to establish a central location for Svaroopis as well as to support Nirmalaji’s needs as Master Teacher.
After one year, an overnight fire destroyed the building and everything in it. Nirmalananda’s response was, “Instead of worrying, send blessings.” The Board created a fundraising campaign, “Rebuilding From the Ashes”, which energized the world-wide Svaroopa® yoga community and began shifting Master Yoga to the next level of leadership and service.
In 2008 Nirmalananda reconnected with an old friend, Swami Shankarananda of Melbourne Australia, who offered her sannyasa initiation. She completed that initiation in February 2009 (click here for a report and photos). Nirmalananda continues to head Svaroopa® yoga even as she begins to turn her attention to founding the Svaroopa® yoga ashram (click here for more information).
Nirmalananda says, “My first guru was my mother; she taught me to love God. My second guru was my father; he taught me unconditional love by giving it to me. I live in undying gratitude to Muktananda, who opened the door to my own divinity. Yet I didn’t know how to step across the threshold, and needed the nurturance and support of so many gurus along the way. My heart fills with gratitude for their love and support. Yet my life is Muktananda – there is nothing but Muktananda.”
What is a Swami? For FAQS, click here.
For more information about Swami Nirmalananda, click here.
“Nirmalananda has an ability to answer questions at every level.” – Angela B.
“Nirmalananda is an amazing teacher.” – Jacqui C.
“Nirmalananda is a treasure in our lifetime.” – Jennifer G.
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