There is an advanced sadhana our lineage practices called the Panchagni. Panch meaning five and Agni meaning fire. It is a practice that goes from mid January to mid July in which a yogi or yogini will sit in the middle of 4 fires with the fifth fire being the the sun above them. They sit in different forms of meditation, performing mantra as a way to burn out the rest of their karma. 

These five fires symbolically represent the fires of Manipura chakra, which hold us in duality. Desire, Anger, Greed, Attachment, intoxication with pride, we experience them everyday, they are portals for us to explore the places where we need healing, where we need to let go, to soften. Can we learn to become aware of and witness these fires within us? You may have encountered these as feelings, frequencies or vibrations within your body and mind. I know when I have encountered them, I have found out how they distract us from life. When I’m on my game, meaning I have been consistent with my own daily yoga sadhana, I have been able to keep myself from that place of identifying with these five fires, and this helps me to be of better service.  Sn. Shivani’s invitation is: can we be the still point at the center of the chaos that these fires provoke and be the light for others in the current state of collective anxiety? This is. And she reminds us that to have the clarity to witness these fires, we need our Sadhana, our spiritual practice, sangha, our community and satsang, sitting in the presence of truth. Do you have those tools in your life? Or do you know where to find them? 

Welcome to Part 2 of Sn. Shivani’s conversation with guest Torgrim Mellum Stene about his exploration of divine masculinity. Torgrim further shares his process of healing his inner wounds which has brought more balance to his experience of his masculinity. It was very inspiring to hear a man speak so openly and vulnerably about his process. He tells a story about his quest to a stone circle in England and how the land was an important character in his quest and realization, This insightful story shares how the land is here to help us heal and show us the beauty that is all around us. This story also illustrates the current aspiration of humanity in which we are collectively moving into a time of interconnectivity. We hope you enjoy the second half of this wonderful interview.

We invite you to check out Torgrim, and his co-host Mikael’s podcast “In the Borderlands”; where they explore creativity, mythology and magic. The link can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c8wFKswoHmciLc8BnsePs

In this episode Sn Shivani sits with guest Torgrim Mellum Stene and they have a very engaging conversation about divine masculinity. Torgrim, and his co-host Miguel host their podcast “In the Borderlands”; they are professional story tellers. Torgrim has dedicated much of his life force to his exploration and embodiment of divine masculinity. In this first part of the interview we get to learn about his journey into accepting and integrating his masculinity, we hear about his encounters with masculine jungian archetypes and enjoy a beautiful story about his relationship with a wounded tree. We hope you enjoy this wonderful interview.

Tune in next week for the second half of this interview to hear about Torgrim’s story of his quest at a Stone Circle in England where the spirit of nature plays an important part of Torgrim’s realizations. And in the meantime, if you are interested to listen to In The Borderlands, Torgrim and Mikael’s wonderfully mysterious and folkloric podcast, the link can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c8wFKswoHmciLc8BnsePs

Have you realized how much life force energy we leak out of our lives? We tend to be either hooked on the past or focused on the future and often discontent with the present moment. Most of us have not been taught how to bring all of our energy into each moment. We get into something good in the present moment and then because we do to really know how to love who we are or where we are at we will go galavanting into FaceBook or Youtube Land or we fall back into the past or nail bite into the future. Me personally, I have a hard time keeping myself in the present moment for longer than 3 minutes. Sn. Shivani is inviting us in this episode to notice where are we leaking energy and to put systems in place to come back to the present so we don’t miss the overwhelming beauty and the miracle of life that envelopes us each and every moment. And then from there, who knows where this will take us? I get the feeling that this is where we will find the frequency of unconditional love. And with the practices of Yog, we get to prepare our bodies and minds to live in that higher frequency eventually for longer and longer periods of time. Enjoy!

Link to Interview By In The Borderlands
http://www.intheborderlands.com/?fbclid=IwAR2ZHFJe63G7tRKmZvFnrtLOvidrgk08vk6kut-ZxOogkZReYmezqJQAeUk

Sivani is interviewed by story tellers, Torgrim and Mikael on their podcast called In the Borderlands. Sivani shares a few personal stories brimming with synchronicities and serendipity, among them an amazing tale of her special relationship with bees. They cover so many beautiful topics in this interview; from Healing from Endometriosis to Karma Yoga to Krishna Das to Lyra to Shiva, and many more topics you will find amazing. So many good stories here. Enjoy!

Link here

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Link

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Hello! This is Chai, a long time student of Ishtadev Niwas, and we wanted to close our second season by inviting you to listen to the explanation of a teaching that is so practical in its application in today’s world. The three tenants of living Yoga.

The first tenant is Seva, which is offering service from a place of Atma Bhava. To get to this stage we practice Karma Yoga in an ashram. The second is Satsang, which is sitting in the presence of truth. This is when we gather in community and receive transmissions of light coming through our teachers. And last is Swadyaya, which translates as Self-study. This starts with the study of the scriptures, satsangs and then evolves into studying of how we are experiencing the teachings in real life and real time.

I could listen to these lectures over and over again, while I stir cheese here at Niwas. They are really soothing, and I would say its because of the transmission of light that they impart from the lineage. They inspire me to keep learning about myself. Here at Niwas, I get multiple opportunities to practice karma yoga, listen to or read Satsangs and practice Self Study. With the combination of all three of these, I have experienced grace, flow and an honest to goodness love for life!

I have also had multiple opportunities to experience some of my Samskara’s and the Vasana or impulse to act out the belief. It will grip me so strongly, bringing confusion, anger and finally tears - which is my usual pattern. Sometimes, I am at a place where I can breathe through it, and other times, it catches me by surprise and all I can do is watch myself come apart and fall back into old patterns. And then, like magic, the little details of living life here and the loving container that is the Ashram, will bring understanding and I gain a little bit more wisdom that allows me to open up to a whole new expanded experience of life. It gives me another foot hold to leap forward with enthusiasm and positivity at the opportunity of more karma yoga where I can practice loving life and living more deeply with the world.

I feel this is a good opportunity to mention that this is exactly what we get in Roots and Wings program that is coming up in April. The intact for registration is happening now, and the program is filled with healing practices, Satsangs and opportunities to practice karma yoga. Enjoy the lecture about Seva, Satsang and Swadyaya.

I find it so intriguing, all the secrets of the teachings of Yoga that help us understand how to drive this human vehicle! Like Sn. Sivani said, our soul is like a pound of pure, unmarked butter and our samskaras are a hand print in that pound of butter.

So, what is a samskara? Samskaras are our deep seated unconscious memories that make up the personality we have been given for our human vehicle. Understanding this makes the whole experience a little less personal and to me, its gives us a little distance to witness from, so we can observe and adjust. Then come the vasanas, which is when we take belief in the samskaras as truth and unconsciously behave in ways that will create and recreate the circumstances to prove the samsakras to be true. There you have it, that’s the cycle of samskara. In our impulse to prove the samskaras to be true we create more karma to be worked through in the future. And sadly we don’t see each other for who we really are, which is pure consciousness, we see the samskaras that the other has identified with. What is really cool, is because we are so deeply connected as this one organism, we will often try to mold into the each other’s samskara and vasanas to see if the pattern or memory fits for us. We are such cute and interesting creatures, us humans.

 How do we break free of this? With yogic practices such as asana, pranayama, dharana and spiritual journaling, we start to see our samskaras, feel our vasanas, and if your are in Ashram it is a lot easier to see these and then have enough discernment to choose differently. Once we start to recognize these samskaras, we then have a chance to stop acting out the vasanas and there you have it, we have purified just a little bit more, and that makes more room for the purity of our spirit to drive our human vehicle! Happy Samskaras discernment to you all. Enjoy!

Hello! This is Chai, a long time student of Ishtadev Niwas, and I am so excited to introduce this episode. Sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty! You know you are ready to learn something when you are actively seeking it out. I have been actively seeking, listening and trying to figure out what this thing, sovereignty, is for the past two years now! And here is the explanation that I have been waiting for. Sannyasi Sivani explains what sovereignty actually is, where we can go to develop it and how important it is to have to live a life in freedom.

She explains first that we need understand what Swadhistana Chakra is and that we need to master our relationship with our emotions. Knowing that our emotions are not WHO we are and that they are simply experiences, human experiences that our ego, our filter, observes and records. And until we are able to witness and watch our emotions, we are so easily manipulated. Then Sn, Sivani explains the next thing needed to be sovereign within ourselves is that we develop our own personal, unshakable relationship with the Divine. And then she ties it all together with what has been going in the world for the past 500 years in terms of power over and how things are changing as more people come into their own personal sovereignty and make small changes that create a new reality.

So as you listen to this episode, listen for a few key words and phrases: Easy Pickens, Two Year Olds, Divine, Teacher, Queen, codependency, the word “Just”, Ego, Filter, ignorance, consistency, clarity, discipline and Gem of your being. Towards the end of the episode, Sn. Sivani gives us a story of her first experiences of Ashram and learning about her sovereignty. It is a fantastic example for all of us! Enjoy.

A quote by Kahlil Gibran: “The Ploughman asked, “speak to us of Work. And the answer came forth:

"you work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. Always, you have been told that work is a curse, a labour, a misfortune. I say to you, that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream assigned to you when that dream was born, And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth, loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.”

In the following 2021 Karma to Dharma Lecture, Sannyasi Sivani speaks about the Western Mind Set where we are ego driven, working only to support ourselves or our family, and we’re missing the boat! Honestly, have you noticed how generally unhappy we are here, in the Western World? Because we are living from such a small minded, constrictive perspective. Sn. Sivani speaks about Karma Yoga as an advanced Yoga practice and how eventually it will expand us into soul filled, selfless service. And this is what will bring us, as a whole, into the next evolution of human consciousness.

Pavitra Galindo, also a student of Niwas said in her lovely Spanish accent, “the more I offer my life force to the good of all, the lighter I feel and I come into an understanding of myself more than ever. There is so much joy, peace, love, support and connection when we work for others. You have to experience it to feel it, which is why we go to Ashram”

Karma Yoga is the process of purifying our minds to what is needed in the bigger picture and when we surrender and let go, we experience the bliss that is learning how to work in the flow of life and earth. Earth lives in such synchronicity for the benefit of the whole. As humans being a part of earth, this can come as naturally as breathing, and it feels good. We go to the Ashram to learn how to be a HU MAN - how to be a being of light in service to all that is Earth. It is a beautiful, love of life. So get ready to work and Enjoy!

Hi there! This is Chai Chai, a long time student of Ishtadev Niwas and I have a question to ask you: do you want to learn how to master your life? Eastern cultures have known for thousand’s of years now how to seek a teacher and a master to help them grow into their highest potential. So, how do we, of the western culture, learn how to find a teacher and eventually a master that we trust and build that precious relationship with? In this lecture, Sannyasi Sivani empowers you to use your sovereignty and gratitude to find your teacher, so that you may grow into your highest potential. And it just so happens that our highest potential comes in the truest expression of ourselves, when we are surrendered to the good of all and you go from entitlement to empowerment. It is a magical place to be, in the heart space, and how do we know we are there? It shows up in our language; we say: I connect, I love, I serve, I empower. This is how you know you are living from the heart. And when enough people are doing this, we will know how this new earth will look like, because we will be living it. Towards the end of this episode, Sannyasi Sivani mentions finding your sovereignty through play within the Roots and Wings Program. I hope this peaks your interest and you have a look at this program on solaceandshine .ca.

To be so grateful to be part of our Solace and Shine community. Not only do we have the opportunities to learn, grow and evolve, this community introduces us to concepts like one Sannyasi Sivani is speaking about today; Right and responsibilities: to have the honour and privilege of serving others. From the light of a smile, to providing blankets, to feeding thousands. Sn, Shivani explains basic survival needs are our rights and the rights of others, and she invites us to move from a place of entitlement to a place of gratitude for the blessings we constantly and abundantly receive from Divine. And then it is our responsibility, our honour to make sure others needs are full filled from that abundance that flows. From giving a smile or serving a meal or providing water, we learn that it is our responsibility and our privilege to live in the resonance of the divine and to use our life force to share this resonance with others in all our daily interactions, remembering we are instruments for divinity to come through. Enjoy.

Welcome to the 5th episode of our 2nd season! In this beautifully educational 2020 Karma to Dharma lecture, Sannyasi Sivani describes a higher love. It is the love from Anahata. This love is all pervading, unconditional, has no expectations and is constant. It is a frequency that is not directed at one person or one thing, it is a frequency that comes through you and is the foundation of the 5th dimension. As I listened to this lecture, I had to smile and laugh because Sannyasi Sivani really smacks you in the face with the truth of what we humans have been accepting as love. Attachment, Grief, Martyrdom, love as a Currency. All of these things that we continue to repeat and teach to our younger generations. The answer, she explains, is that we are supposed to “Rise in Love, not Fall in Love.” And to experience this higher love we associate with those that have had that experience, who know or who embody that frequency because we can do this! We can learn to embody this Anahata, 5th dimensional, all pervading love by seeking the experience of it from our Gurus, from Nature. We hope you enjoy this episode and that it encourages you to observe your relationships, seek that which is the frequency of the fifth dimension and discover the quality of love your heart is capable of.

Hello Everyone! This is Chai, a long time student of Ishtadev Niwas. I am so excited about this episode; it is jam packed with one of the main secrets of how to live a fully embodied life. Lean in and listen really closely. Sn. Shivani describes entrainment as the process of surrendering the boundary of our individual soul (or jiv-atma) to a frequency that is in dharma like a guru or nature. To be in dharma means to be living in full potential. Just as she described the tree, so can we live in our dharma as a natural part of Earth. As we move into this new paradigm we need to learn how to entrain to frequencies higher than where we currently are in. The higher frequencies are a relaxed, calm, balanced, directional, fully aware and fully alive state of being and as we entrain to these we can bring more health to the planet and all of those around us. In this episode Sn. Shivani walks us through the technique of how expressing GRATITUDE can help listen to the messages that spirit is constantly giving us. This is a tool that is applicable in so many areas like counselling, parenting, teaching and even dog training. Basically, it is a tool that will serve in all of our daily interactions; holding a calm and fully aware state of being affects all that are around us. It is a state of good health that we can share, simply by being. We hope you start using this secret right away and experience its benefits. 

Welcome to our 2nd episode in our 2nd season. In this 2022 Karma to Dharma lecture, Sannyasi Shivani gives us a succinct explanation of what this new reality is. It is us, as we begin to expand and perceive beyond the 3rd dimension and into the 5th dimension. She provides tools such a mouna practice, reframing the stories of who we are, disidentifying from our samskaras and overall understanding that right now, we are going through a complete physical, emotional and mental realignment. She explains that this new reality is an internal exploration so we can step into the beings that we are meant to be. Using the brilliant analogy of a diamond, Shivani, explains how we can have awareness of our place within the whole and the importance of our inner work so we can let who we are shine through. This inner work involves understanding that where we put our energy is what becomes manifest. This inner work also involves understanding that we are not the doers and that our duty is to experience each sacred moment with full care. It brings a whole new meaning to life. 

Welcome to the second season of the Solace&Shine Podcast! In this 2021 Karma to Dharma lecture, Sn. Shivani offers us a revolutionary way of manifesting the future that we are all currently dreaming. 

Do you know those moments while you are getting some time in Nature, those moments that make you stop and revel in the beauty? The moments that feel exquisitely pure, fresh, clean. Can you imagine living in THAT feeling every day? 

Ultimately, this is the resonance that will become the North Star that we will orientate towards. The invitation, from Sn. Shivani,  is to say “I am here.  I am willing. I am listening. I am watching. I am softening my skin. I am recognizing the beauty, the resonance, the love, the light. And I open to embodying this and propagating this”

This episode is another timeless lecture from the 2021 Karma to Dharma program. Sannyasi Shivani explains depression through the lens of the chakras and offers us a way out as in she helps us understand what makes up the mechanics of depression. She also explains why as a society we are experiencing higher rates of anxiety and depression and how the symptoms of covid were an individual and a collective purification to help us step into something more, something beyond the mind, something more in heart mind connection. Her invitation is to see depression as a message of our soul telling us that we can no longer step forward from the foundation we are currently operating from and that we need to shift into a foundation of trust, so we can come into the foundation of the heart. If you are currently experiencing depression, please remember what Sannyasi Shivani said, “even if it is cloudy, the sun is shining, the light is there, even if you cannot see it, faith is there, even if the only thing you experience is fear, if you are listening to this, it is because you are ready, so doubting yourself and start trusting the path and trusting the work and do the work and grace will prevail.” Lastly she reminds us that we need not rush this process, on the contrary, we need to slow down and do the work that will help us expand our capacity to feel the interconnectivity with all.