Swami Nirmalananda

Swami Nirmalananda

Formerly known as Rama Berch, Swami Nirmalananda was honored with initiation into the ancient order of Saraswati monks in 2009. 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. She shares her incredible knowledge in a personal and life-embracing way, through her humor as well as her caring presence. No matter what she is teaching, her programs are always wonderfully deep, supportive & life changing.

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 six weeks later.  She describes, “I was walking down a hotel hallway at the end of a psychology conference, and an ecstatic energy began to surge up my spine. I entered my room, sat down on the floor for some odd reason. My feet twined themselves into the full lotus position.”  Nirmalaji had received maha-shaktipat-diksha from Swami Muktananda (Baba), though he was physically in India at the time. The seed had been planted at the meditation center six weeks earlier, and was now sprouting in a dramatic and ecstatic way.

She moved into Baba’s ashram to live with him and serve him full time for the last seven years of his life, and continued to develop what he gave her and study within the tradition since then.  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 yoga 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 two decades, 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 Master Yoga’s 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, which she completed in February 2009.  She continues to head Svaroopa® yoga even as she now turns her attention to Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram.  Swami 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.”