The Light Within With Swami Nityananda Blossom Your Awesome Podcast

Blossom Your Awesome Podcast The Light Within With Swami Nityananda

Swami Nityananda is the spiritual teacher of the Awake Yoga Meditation community. She is an author, speaker and professor of literature at Loyola University.

She was consecrated by Swami Shankarananda as a Swami in 2014. Her teachings help   listeners and readers connect with the reality of love, wisdom, liberation, joy, harmony, and kindness.

To learn more about Swami Nityananda click here. 

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/awakeyogameditation

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link to book, Awake: The Yoga of Pure Awareness

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Transcript

Sue (00:01.078)
Hi there, today on the show, we have got Swami Nityananda here. I am so honored and delighted to have you here. Welcome to the show.

Swami Nityananda (00:10.077)
Sue, it's wonderful to talk with you, thank you.

Sue (00:12.934)
I'm so excited to have you here and get into your story. So you are just so remarkable. You're a spiritual teacher, you're an author, you're a professor of English at Loyola University, you are a speaker. It goes on and on. You're a spiritual leader at Awake Yoga Meditation. Give us the backstory here.

Swami Nityananda (00:37.705)
So, I mean, I think the backstory is that for every human, the invitation for every listener is to connect directly with the light within ourselves, and then to, there's a feeling of joy. There's a feeling of aliveness. There's a feeling of vibrancy and almost like curiosity and exploration. And so if you follow that energy, that will always guide you to the next step forward. And so as I followed that energy.

I earned a PhD. It's been my great joy and honor. I still serve as a full professor of English at a university. And then I met my meditation teacher in 2010. His name was Swami Shankarananda. And he, before he left the body, as yogis say before he passed, consecrated me as Swami Nityananda and asked me to carry on sharing the teachings of yoga philosophy and meditation. And so it's been my great joy and honor since 2014 to do that.

Sue (01:31.054)
Wow, that is so amazing. But give us the story prior to that, how you started delving into the spiritual space and yoga and all of that, were you always spiritual? What led you there?

Swami Nityananda (01:44.885)
So for every listener as well, I'm happy to share my story, but I'm inviting every listener to tune in. My earliest awareness was I could feel my body connected to the natural world and I could feel my body was an extension of the natural world. The natural world was an extension of my body. So there's almost like a unified field of oneness that we're all part of. And I just arrived.

in this lifetime, being able to feel that, especially in relation to the natural world, but also in relation to pure hearted human beings, in relation to music and art and poetry. And so as I've just followed that energy, it's always led me. In terms of when I specifically connected with yoga, I think it's been about 20 years. And there was one week I saw a friend who said, I do yoga, you should do yoga. And then the very next week.

Another friend said to me, I do yoga, you should do yoga. And just back to back like that. I listened, you know, of course to my first friend as well. But when my second friend said that I was like, okay, I'm going to do yoga. And so I, for a couple of years, that friend lived like partway between where I live and the yoga studio. So I would just pick her up like every week on the way to yoga practice. And I would say that for both my friend and I, we recognized the practices as soon as we started practicing them.

was just like a familiarity and an awareness of the way the practices move energy. And I'm speaking right now about yoga asana. Um, and so then that very, very immediately also led to a meditation practice as well. So for listeners, I think the question is to be aware of what your languages are. The ways in which that energy of joy and aliveness and light speak through you because every human who's on the planet.

we're connected to that same energy of joy and aliveness and light. So for you just to name for yourself, like what are your entry points? What are your connections? And then to cultivate those connections and really trust them and allow that energy of light that's with you and within you always to keep guiding you. And it's present, it's available always. And when we connect with that, there's like a way in which life opens up and we live in this energy of joy, we live in this energy of peace.

Swami Nityananda (04:04.145)
We live in this energy of freedom and nothing external has to change in order for us to feel this joy and this peace and this freedom. And then, of course, as we're living in the joy and the peace and the freedom, of course, there will be outer change as well in our lives, but it arrives from within as we're connected with that energy of joy and peace and freedom.

Sue (04:26.982)
is such beautiful practical guidance there. And now, you know, tell us because I know, obviously, yoga resonates deeply with you personally, right? And that was kind of the light for you. But it is possible while some people may be resistant to it. It's just such a powerful thing that can evoke and awaken that light within.

Swami Nityananda (04:53.109)
Absolutely. So, I mean, I've talked to people who, I also should say the practice of yoga asana very quickly led to meditation for me, and that is the tradition. In the yogic tradition, the postures help you be ready to sit for meditation. So they harmonize the body so that the body can be calm. And for anyone who's ever done yoga asana, when you allow yourself to rest after doing the yoga postures and you just feel so calm and balanced,

you're almost in a meditative state already. So meditation just arrives and arises naturally. Meditation really is just letting go of separateness and being in contact with the true self that is always with you and within you. And so, I mean, I would say the yoga asanas and the meditative practices that we share at Awake Yoga Meditation, at Awake Yoga Meditation, we go straight to meditation. So we specifically focus on those practices.

they're universally available. So I would say that humans from all backgrounds, and this is true at Awake Yoga Meditation, we have humans from all backgrounds, all walks of life, all traditions, all nationalities. And sometimes people are long-time meditators, but sometimes they're brand new. And there is almost like when you come into contact with a teacher who's living these teachings of truth, this is what happened to me, and it's what still happens to people when they arrive at the meditation community.

There's almost like just this recognition of light or like almost a transmission of light or you enter into this field or frequency of energy that's just so dynamic, it's so filled with joy that people experience spontaneous awakenings as they walk in the door. They become aware of this energy of joy that is eternal, that is beyond the physical, that is beyond.

what the human mind can possibly name or comprehend. And it's present, it's alive, it's available. And it's actually, I would say, I have a sense of humor about this, but it's more real than anything in time and space. And so there is just this sort of awareness of, well, yes, of course, this eternal joy is more true. It's more vibrant, it's more beautiful, it's more alive than anything else because it's of the source.

Swami Nityananda (07:10.765)
It's of the radiance that projects into time and space and takes form as all of this.

Sue (07:17.366)
Okay, this is so beautiful, Swami Nithyananda. I have to commend you. I've been in a lot of spaces of yoga, meditation. I've been around spiritual teachers and stuff. And this idea of the transmission of light, that is so absolutely what it is. But I think your particular space where you're evoking this in this grand way speaks volumes to your own light.

Swami Nityananda (07:45.077)
Thank you.

Sue (07:46.722)
Yeah, I think the way you're articulating it, the way you're vibrating with it and what you're bringing to your own space has so much to do with probably why it's such a high energy, high vibration space. Because a lot of times when the, you know, the spiritual teacher, the leader is not emanating that in that way. Um, it's hard for the disciples and students to really start tapping into that.

Swami Nityananda (08:12.377)
Yeah, in respect. And I would also just say, I'm paying tribute to my teacher. My teacher was an absolute being of light. And my teacher made a really beautiful, very profound decision when he was approaching the end of his time in embodiment to pass on that light, to have a successor, to appoint a successor. And my teacher really lived this truth that it is possible to embody the light. It is possible to fully embody the light. So I saw that in my teacher. And then my teacher very clearly

made a decision to transmit that and to testify like with his life and with that decision to the importance of having an embodied teacher, the importance of having someone who's here in physical form, who's, you know, dealing with the, I have feet, sometimes they get cold if I'm walking outside and it's cold. And how do you live the teachings of light if you have cold feet? You know, just how do you navigate being in whatever body you're in?

in whatever life circumstances you're in, how do you do that and have it be that it's just pure source energy? And so what my teacher taught me was that this is the truth for every single human on the planet. And I believe this and I see this daily in my life and work, I see this daily, that every single human on the planet is a beloved expression of the same light. So there really is no separateness.

The non-separateness is the reality. And when we wake up, when we remember, we're always connected, we're always supported, then there's fearlessness. Then there's this sense of joy and this sense of fun, this sense of humor, this sense of pleafulness. I, you use the word vibration, I think, or frequency. So we lift ourselves into the reality, which is that we are all high vibration beings in our true nature, in our true name. So.

In our human experience, we can feel whatever the things that we feel. We can feel betrayal. We can feel anguish. We can feel hurt. We can feel shame or pain. And those are dense, heavy, painful experiences. They're not the lasting truth of our being. So any one of us at any moment can say and mean, that's not the truth of my being. The truth of my being is I am.

Swami Nityananda (10:37.745)
Love immortal. I am life immortal that shall not perish. And I'm going to remember the truth of my being, which is peace is here. Joy is here. Light is here. And so the moment I remember that, I'm able to just let go. Like the way, if you've ever seen a swan or a duck or a dog shake droplets of water off and they just go, we each have the ability to do that with denser energy.

or the more painful human experiences. So we don't have to actually hold onto any of the painful or less preferred human experiences that we may have encountered.

Sue (11:20.526)
Wow, I just you are bringing so much wisdom and so much speaking of the light so much light here. And again, I just think it's so remarkable. And like you say, your master, your teacher, you know, imparted this on you. But there was a part of you again, Swami Nityananda, I have to commend you that was able to receive it in this way.

and then bring that back out there into the world. Like you're just emanating so much light, so much love and so much wisdom. I think it's so amazing. Now tell us for people at home, what about some practical guidance for just starting to kind of tap into the light?

Swami Nityananda (12:07.313)
Absolutely. So one of the things that my teacher said to me, and I was kind of smiling to myself because he said, I'm giving you my mantle, you don't need it. Everything you need is within you. So he really did teach me to turn straight to the light within myself. For every human on the planet, everything you need is within you.

So what happens when you come into contact with a teacher who is completely embodying the light the way my teacher did embody the light, that teacher just points you within and tells you the truth, which is the light that you see in me is the same light that is in you. So turn within and trust that light. That light is with you every single breath, every single moment, every single heartbeat.

And as you go directly to that light and realize the same light that you love in your teacher, that's the love that loves you into this lifetime. It can never let you go. It can never leave you. And so then there's almost just this sense of awe and the sense of wonder, the sense of magnificence and magic and the sense of fun, and then anything that is more painful.

So I do want to acknowledge that humans in time and space experience what the yogis call the pairs of opposites. So we experience pleasure, but then also pain. We experience victory, but then we also experience defeat. We experience gain, but we also experience loss. And what happens is as we move through those pairs of opposites from a human perspective, we can start to crave the pleasure and start to be afraid.

of the pain and what happens then is we're sort of blocking our own energy and we're holding ourselves off from what you would call like the universal life energy or pure source energy, that pure light that is always available to all of us. So the moment we remember and turn within and reconnect with this overflowing light that is within the heart of each of us, we will always have guidance. It's very simple guidance. It's very pure. It's very innocent. It's very honorable.

Swami Nityananda (14:18.897)
The voice from your own heart, it'll say things like, let it go. It'll say things like, peace. It'll say things like, laugh. It's not complicated. And it also, the voice of truth that is within each of us, it knows that there's no human on the planet that is more loved than any other human on the planet. We're all completely loved.

And the moment that we realize, I'm completely loved, then there's no lack, there's no limitation. We're moving in the energy of abundance. We're open to the beauty that is here in every single moment. And I'm talking like, I'm looking at my tree, looking out my window and there's this tree, like that tree is so precious. And then when I'm noticing the preciousness of the tree, then I'll also notice the preciousness of a neighbor's smile, or I'll notice the preciousness of.

a child or I'll notice the preciousness of the sense of humor that's within my own heart that allows me to laugh and be present and appreciate and feel joy. And so this is just simply the truth that each of us is here always as a beloved emanation of this same one light. So we're never separate. And the moment we remember that, then we're sort of in this, I think the contemporary word for it is flow. We're in this dynamic.

movement where we're always open-hearted, we're always grounded and calm and centered and balanced and clear. And what happens then is this pure source energy is able to connect us with possibilities that just would never even occur to our human brain. And so then we're continually surprised, we're continually delighted by doing the dishes, by moving through the regular tasks of our day.

we're greeting the light in the form of the water and in the form of the dish, and we're aware like all of this is simply light in form. And it is true then that creation and work and relationships, anything that we want to help make visible in time and space, does happen with more ease. It does happen with more fun and with more joy. So it's less of the sort of like...

Swami Nityananda (16:41.385)
heavy feeling that humans can have, like that feeling of sometimes you wake up and you feel like you're dragging your body and your body feels like a sack of potatoes that you're dragging. So less of that and more like, I'm dancing in this moment. I'm dancing with life itself. Like life itself is my dance partner. And then anything that I encounter, it's of that energy of the dance.

Sue (17:06.434)
That is so beautiful. I just love all of what you've shared. I'm gonna pause for one moment. So Swami, you're, you know, I think something's rubbing. Do you have a mic? Like a, there?

Swami Nityananda (17:20.953)
I can show you. I have a screen.

Sue (17:22.314)
Oh, that's your mic. Okay, because something seemed like when there was movement, I thought something was maybe rubbing against the mic, but I think it's okay. We'll continue. There was a little kind of like, there's like a fuzzy kind of sound coming through. But okay, I just wanted to make sure something wasn't rubbing against that. Okay, so let me just mark that for later. Okay, wow, this is just.

Swami Nityananda (17:36.594)
Okay. Yeah.

Sue (17:50.518)
So incredible. You just make it sound so inviting, all of it. Now, I want to talk to you about your literature background. And one, a conversation, an angle that I've never touched on before. This idea of deep mindfulness practice and how that's got to enhance the literature.

Swami Nityananda (18:15.465)
Absolutely. So one of the things that I would say, because I think people looking at my biography might have this question, like, how does meditation go with literature? But there's actually non-separateness there as well. So in the university classroom, people call me Dr. Ellis. I'm a professor of English at Loyola University, Maryland. And I share teachings that also focus on truth and liberation and hope and peace and justice. And so it's all of a whole. So in any context in which I work, it's

Respect is the foundation, caring and awareness and understanding and community are the foundation. And so the writers that I teach are also focused on what Frederick Douglass calls truth, love, and justice. And that's very consonant with the yogic teachings as well. The yogic teachings of truth, the yogic teachings of oneness, for example, undermine the painful things that humans have created, such as racism.

So truth, love, and justice is something that we talk about at Awake Oga Meditation, as well as something that I talk about as Dr. Juniper Ellis in the university classroom as well.

Sue (19:20.215)
Now, so is there like a specialty that you focus on in your class? What is that class called?

Swami Nityananda (19:26.541)
Yeah, sure. So for example, one of the classes that I was just alluding to, it's called Justice and Hope, Writing the U.S. And there's also a play like it's writing us as well. It's writing us. And so that particular class focuses on stories of Frederick Douglas and stories of Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, contemporary writers like Rudy Francisco, Jacqueline

Swami Nityananda (19:56.605)
Like Frederick Douglass is born into enslavement in Maryland and he looks around as a child of seven. He sees the violence, he sees the hatred, he sees the racism, and as a child of seven, he comes to the awareness of this does not make sense. And he shares that his earliest understanding, he knows he is not born to be enslaved. He knows that he is born to be free from his.

earliest awareness. And so he moves to Baltimore, he learns to read and write. A lot of it is he teaches himself to read and write, and he starts reading teachings about freedom, teachings that are abolitionist, teachings that say, we don't have to keep doing this. We don't have to perpetuate these structures of injustice. And he frees himself inwardly first, and then he frees himself outwardly after he escapes and he's living in the North.

He starts telling his own story about how he did this so that he can help others escape as well. And I think it's important to note he's not only telling the story so that those who are enslaved can free themselves, he's also telling the story so that those who are perpetuating the structures of enslavement can free themselves because he sees that they are binding themselves as well. No one is free in the structures of slavery.

the way that he describes it. And so it's absolutely imperative for everyone to free themselves in the ways that he articulates. And so the amazing students in the class and I talked through the implications of this and we talked through, we're still today under that same injunction. It's a requirement for each of us to free ourselves from bias, from ignorance, from oppression, from prejudice. And this is true, whatever our skin color, whatever our nationality, whatever.

our background, whatever our walk of life, we get to be accountable. We get to take responsibility for the thoughts that we think and for the ways in which our choices and our words have deep potency in the world. And so each of us is affecting hundreds of other people. And Frederick Douglass is an example. The way that he lived his life, because he kept choosing truth and love and justice, he changed the face of this world.

Swami Nityananda (22:23.413)
And he was, readers might be interested to know, the most photographed human in this country in the 19th century. And that's the power of truth. That's the power of love. That's the power of justice. And so he just allowed his life to make that visible. It takes courage. It took great courage for him to be putting his life on the line every time he told his story in the way that he did. And because he lived in that way,

He makes it visible that for each of us in our own ways, we're not going to do it in the same way that he did, but in our own ways, we each have the power to live truth and love and justice. And every time we choose hope, every time we choose justice, we are actually creating a ripple effect that goes on out beyond us. And some of the ways that our choices affect others come back to us and are reflected to us immediately.

they always make a difference. And so there's this joy, but there's also something of an urgency and something of a responsibility to becoming aware of what are my patterns of thinking? So not only individually, but also collectively, what are my patterns of thinking? What are my patterns of speaking? What are the choices that I'm making? And how are those choices either contributing to truth, love, and justice for myself and for all, or not contributing?

And if there are any ways in which I'm not contributing to truth, love, and justice, may I instantly self-correct? May I instantly take responsibility and do something that is more helpful for the good of the whole?

Sue (24:05.942)
This is so profound. I've, it's just mind blowing. And this idea of, you just explained it so perfectly how the two merge and how they meet. And this idea of like the yogic tradition with someone like Frederick Douglass and this notion of going inward, right? When you're, the adversity, whatever you're facing, so often we externalize.

where it's his fault, her fault, it's because of that, this is happening to me, but that kind of going inward first is always so necessary to get to the root of the external and release it.

Swami Nityananda (24:48.693)
So one of the phrases that Frederick Douglass uses, it is just a phrase that sends shivers down my spine. It's about halfway through his book. So his book, and it's available online free for anyone who hasn't read it, I think everyone who lives in this country, I recommend that you read Frederick Douglass. Anyone anywhere around the world who wants to learn about the history of this country, I recommend that you read Frederick Douglass.

but it's called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and it's available online free. And about halfway through that book, he says, you have heard how a man became a slave. Now you shall hear how a slave became a man. And it's this incredible pivot point where he goes within and he frees himself inwardly. And he says after that, I might have been a slave outwardly.

I was not a slave, in fact. I was not a slave inwardly. And so he makes it completely clear. He freed himself first inwardly. He claimed, I am a human. I am not a slave. I am not confined by this absurd structure that humans have created. It cannot contain me. And so then from then on, it was only a matter of time until he freed himself outwardly. So.

One of the ways to connect that to the yogic tradition is he exercised self-sovereignty. The word Swami simply means that one is sovereign of oneself. And so you could say that was exactly what he did. He demonstrated, I am sovereign of myself. And if I am sovereign of myself, I am free always. And there is nothing that can come at me in time and space that can make me anything other than free.

And so he did that and then he lived that with his life and he kept living it every time he told his story. So for every listener, then the invitation is, how may I turn within? And I wanna echo what you just said. The crux of it is, I have the capacity to free myself. No one else can free me. No one else can. And so all the teachings of truth from all of the traditions.

Swami Nityananda (27:10.293)
They're helping us realize that they're helping us turn within. They're helping us know the light is within me. This pure energy that is truth, love and justice. It is within me and nothing that happens in the realm of time and space can touch that or dim that or diminish that. And when I have that awareness, then I'm fearless. And that's why slave holders were so

terrified of Frederick Douglass and of others who encountered this voice of liberation and truth within themselves because enslavement was based on a lie. And so the moment this recognition arises, I'm a human, I'm a man, light is within me, truth, love, and justice are within me, then the structure of slavery crumbles. And so that's why the slave owners living in fear were so

I mean, that's another thing that comes across very clearly from his narrative is that the people who are practicing enslaving other humans are terrified and they're also miserable and they're also degrading their own light as they attempt to degrade the light of others and clearly don't succeed in degrading the light of others. They end up degrading their own beauty and their own goodness.

Sue (28:39.07)
Wow, that is so amazing. Now I need your wisdom and your insights here for something that you just said, this idea of liberation. And I believe that we all have this limitless potential and can free ourselves and do whatever and be whatever. I truly believe that. But so often, suffering and things that happen in life keep

people in a space I find at times and no judgment here, everyone processes and goes through things, you know, in their own way. But sometimes, as you know, Swami Nityananda, like, we suffer more than we need to, right? So often, we keep ourselves in that space. So what is that? Two questions. What is that? Why do we do that? And how do we liberate ourselves from

Swami Nityananda (29:36.969)
Fabulous questions, very honest and very spiritually compassionate questions. And so one of the things that I would say is that there can be a human tendency to create an identity out of a painful experience that we had, like say that we received a diagnosis or say that there was some sort of trauma that happened in the past. If we identify with that and we sort of build our life around that, we don't actually know who we would be without that.

And so there can actually be this feeling of fear. Like who would I be if I felt happy and I felt healthy because I'm so used to managing my life around whatever it is that's been sort of structuring my days and my nights and my thinking patterns. And so there does need to be a willingness. Frederick Douglass had to let go of everyone he knew in Maryland in order to move to the North to be free. That's terrifying.

to some humans, letting go of everything that you know in order to be free. And in his life, when he moved to the North, he was able to build happiness. He was able to build a wonderful life for himself, a wonderful profession, a wonderful family. But that took being willing to leave behind what was familiar and comfortable. And so we have to be willing to leave behind what is familiar and comfortable. We can keep the wisdom.

and let go of the pain. And I think that's one of the quickest ways to do this, to say, I choose to keep the wisdom, I choose to let go of the suffering, I choose to drop all stories about that, I choose to not identify myself with the most painful things I've experienced, I know that is not the eternal truth of my being, and I choose to liberate myself, I choose to shift my energy, my focus, my attention. What would I love to create? What would be more fun? What would bring me more happiness? What would bring me more joy?

And I'm talking here not about a selfish kind of happiness, but a joyful freeing happiness. Like Frederick Douglass freed himself, but then also contributed to the good of the whole by the way that he went on and made his choices. And the same is true for all of us. So I can give an example. I was talking with a beautiful human a couple of months ago whose spouse passed away. She loved her spouse.

Swami Nityananda (31:59.217)
And so this is like a deep process of grieving that she is going through. And because of who she is, she has a very pure heart. She's very helpful and very hopeful. She's using her experience to benefit other people. She's being really honest and she's talking with other people who have experienced grief. And so she's looking at it as how may I expand even in the midst of the pain? How may I expand hope?

for myself and how may I expand hope for others, even in the midst of I'm grieving right now. How may I allow this to help me appreciate the beauty that is in my life? And how may I connect with others in a way that helps them appreciate the beauty that is in their life as well? Another thing that's really helpful and kind of comforting from the yogic teachings, and this is the truth, is that we go on and on and on beyond this body and beyond this life.

And so when our loved ones leave the body, their love is still with us, their consciousness, their presence, their awareness, it's still here. And so if we can look at it as, this is a temporary separation, sort of like if you've ever gone to a wedding and your family members are staying in the same hotel and you know like my aunt's across the hall, my brother's downstairs, my mom's up there, it's more like that. And so you know they're fine. They might be in another room, they're fine, and you will see them again.

And it can really help to have that perspective as well. So if you sort of take a step back and you're connecting with your own spirit, your own boundless immeasurable heart and that light and that joy and that zest and that vitality within yourself, there will always be a deeper purpose for any experience that we go through in time and space. And that can help as well. And we can let it be easy. Like you can have a conversation with your soul.

with the divine, if you use that word, where you say, I'm giving myself permission for this to be surprisingly easy. I am opening to the wisdom, I'm opening to the joy that's present even now in this moment. And I give myself permission for this to move with surprising peace, with surprising wisdom, with surprising insight, with surprising compassion. And that's possible, even in the moments when we have

Swami Nityananda (34:24.493)
experiences that from a human perspective we would not choose or we would not consider preferred, it is actually possible to say, my sense of humor is here, I'm going to enjoy this particular moment as much as I possibly can. I'm going to notice and appreciate the beauty that is here, the goodness that is here, and this can be surprisingly easy and fun, even this.

Sue (34:48.605)
That is great. Now talk to us about

Sue (34:54.754)
Service, being of service to others.

Swami Nityananda (34:59.829)
My reason for being here is just to share light. And I would say that for many people, this is the truth. It is just to share light. And I would also say that this light that we share, it's who we are. So there's nothing extra or more that we have to do or be. This is, if you are a parent, the way that you parent, if you are a child.

It's the way that you interact with your parents. If you are a friend, it's the way that you engage with your friends. If you are a singer, it's the way that you sing. If you work with coding or AI or you're a CEO or you're a surgeon, it's the way that you are. We're all sharing light continually. And that's why we're here, is just to share light. And when we remember that, then things become simpler. They become easier.

It's the joy that I am is with me always. And so that's with me when I sleep at night. It's with me when I wake in the morning. It's with me in any physical space where I find myself. If I have a question or I have a laughter, it's just continually present. It's continually there. So definitely for me, service is first, last, and always, it's always just, how may I be hopeful, how may I be helpful, but it's non-separate. I hope.

that comes across very clearly as well. So I'm trying to think of how to say this. There's no way in which there's any savior complex and there's no way in which there's anyone who's higher or lower. There's like you walking through the grocery store, you are light, everyone that you encounter is light. How much fun is it to walk through the grocery store when it's just light meeting light?

And so then naturally you'll also be the beneficiary. So that energy of help and that energy of hopefulness will also flow back to you. So like, you might receive help from a plumber when that's not your skill set, but then the plumber might receive help from a massage therapist when that's not the plumber's skill set. And so there's just this circle of light and this circle of, you will be sharing your highest and best. And so naturally what will be drawn to you.

Swami Nityananda (37:22.353)
is other humans who are also sharing their highest and their best.

Sue (37:28.502)
Now, what about, I just have to say, you're sharing so much light and so much wisdom and just profundity with us. And I just am so honored for all that you're imparting here on us. Just wanted to say that for a moment before my next question. So, can you give us some practical guidance for someone?

You know, so often we hear people, oh, I can't meditate, it's too hard, I can't turn my mind off, this and that. What's a really practical, a few practical tips for getting started to just start sitting in quietude?

Swami Nityananda (38:09.381)
Absolutely. So one is just to say that your breath is your friend and your breath is with you always. And so if you are a person who has that feeling of when I sit down, then I notice all of my thoughts. First of all to just know there's nothing wrong with you and to allow your breath to be your friend just to breathe a breath of absolute love into your own heart. And you can do that three times. I breathe a breath of absolute love into my own heart.

And I invite listeners to do that right now if it's safe for you to breathe a breath of absolute love into your own heart and you'll feel instantly each of us is connected to the energy of pure potentiality. So as I simply say, I breathe a breath of absolute love into my heart, I'm activating that energy of pure potentiality. I am filling my heart with the energy of absolute love. So this will.

be felt and registered in the physical body of each of us in our own unique ways. So a singer, after breathing a breath of absolute love into the heart three times, might be inspired to sing, or a songwriter might be inspired to write a song, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a surgeon, or a dentist, or a CEO, they might be inspired. Whatever my next choice is, whatever my next client, or patient, or encounter is, whatever my next board meeting is, it's just this energy of absolute love.

that's going to be sharing through me, the energy of absolute love within me will connect with the energy of absolute love within everyone else. This is deeper than personalities. So this is deeper than opinions, it's deeper than the way that you usually interact with your quirky uncle or whoever it is. So it's sort of like without making a big deal about it, it sets aside any scripts and it allows us to have a fresh encounter.

as if we are encountering the human we're talking to for the first time. But it also, we're in that energy of universal friendship. And so for example, Sue, I'm meeting you for the first time. You feel like a friend. It's so fun to talk with you. It's so easy and so natural and so joyful and effortless. And so that's true for all of us. When we're connected with that pure heart energy, that also allows us to connect in ways that are deeper.

Swami Nityananda (40:27.305)
than personality patterns or habits or the separate individual self. And so we'll also just notice we're moving in this energy of friendship and even the squirrels as you walk down this street might interact with you in a different way when you're moving in this energy of universal friendship.

Sue (40:47.75)
is beautiful. I absolutely love that. Now tell us Swami Nityananda what is on the cards for you this year? What any books what's going on? Any courses? Give us some of those insights.

Swami Nityananda (41:03.205)
Yes, with pleasure. So February 2nd, we are launching, we call it a play shop. And so we send out teachings via email. We're sending out teachings from Swami Shankarananda. He gave a series of talks on Kriya Yoga, which is a form of meditation. He was a Kriya Yoga teacher. And when he left the body, he authorized me to teach Kriya Yoga as well. Kriya Yoga for readers who might have read Autobiography of a Yogi is a method of meditation brought to this country by

Swami Yogananda Paramahansa. And so my teacher, Swami Shankarananda, was consecrated as a Swami by Swami Premananda, who was a student of Yogananda. And so that's that particular line right there. So we're sharing some of Swami Shankarananda's teachings on Kriya Yoga. So if you sign up for this play shop, you would receive the audios along with emails, and then we have two live practice sessions, February 2nd and February 16th.

We are also launching a book, we're publishing a book by my teacher, Swami Shankarananda, which is an amazing compendium of his teachings. Just absolutely incredible. Awak is our website and we have books that are already published there. I published a book in December of 2022 called Awake the Yoga of Pure Awareness. So if you like what you've heard, you could follow up if you like to read.

We share teachings on YouTube. We also share teachings on Instagram and TikTok as well. And we're also going to be launching a Truth, Love and Justice series where we talk about how oneness undermines racism and oneness undermines the structures of separation that humans have created.

Sue (42:44.946)
goodness. Okay, and I'm going to be sure to have links to all of your stuff. So a couple of things I would love to have you back on and have that conversation about oneness. That would be amazing. So first and foremost, I just want to thank you so much. You have been so amazing and I have just loved listening to you in all of the amazing wisdom. I'm so honored to have had this time and I just thank you so much.

Swami Nityananda (43:13.673)
Sue, it's an absolute joy to talk with you. Thank you, incredible joy and blessings to you and to your listeners. Thank you for the light you share. I would love to talk again. It's just been such a joy.

Sue (43:24.266)
Oh, you're amazing. And now in closing, Swamina Tindandaya, I have to ask you if there were just one message, your hope for everybody, what is that closing message you wanna leave us with?

Swami Nityananda (43:35.445)
Connect with the light that you are always. It is with you every single moment, trust that light. It enfolds you, it upholds you, it always guides you, it supports you. And when you connect with that light, there's an ease, there's an effortlessness, there's a joy, there's a sense of humor, a sense of gladness, a sense of generosity. And it really is true that it is possible to live in time and space in joy and freedom. So you just reconnect with that reality and that truth.

Sue (44:06.678)
You've been so wonderful. Thank you so much.

Swami Nityananda (44:11.145)
So much joy. Thank you, Sue.

Sue (44:12.95)
Thank you.