Dear Feel Love Now Community,
We’ve put together answers to some of your most frequently asked questions in hopes it offers a greater sense of clarity, community, and enjoyment. We will update this page as needed.
Here are your top questions (scroll down to read the answers).
What's Substack? I've never heard of it.
Why Substack?
How much is a paid subscription?
Where does my money go? How much of my subscription fee goes to AYM?
What is included in a subscription?
Can I organize the videos, podcasts, and articles I receive on Substack?
Are there separate sections within Substack?
I'm just unclear—what do I need to do?
Any suggestions for navigating around or getting the most out of it?
Is paying for a subscription the only option for viewing recent full meditation services?
Are full AYM meditation services going to be posted on YouTube?
Can I purchase and download the services, podcasts, and videos?
Are eCourses included in a paid subscription?
In addition to the questions above, you can also view a replay of our live Substack Tutorial Session by clicking here.
If you have a question that is not answered here, please email awakeyogameditation@substack.com or message us on Substack:
In loving service,
The Karma Yoga Team at AYM
P.S. If you are interested in joining the Karma Yoga Team to expand your practice of selfless service, love in action, please click here.
What's Substack? I've never heard of it.
Substack is an online publishing platform that allows people to subscribe to organizations or authors they love either monthly or annually and receive published content from them.
Subscribers receive “posts” as emails in their inboxes (like an email newsletter), but they can also access posts in other ways. All together, there are four ways to access the content associated with your subscription level:
In your email inbox
The Substack website
The Substack Reader (via a browser)
The Substack app (where you can also receive push notifications if desired)
Substack provides creators with the technological tools to offer both free and paid subscriptions—giving those creators a low-cost way of supporting themselves by earning income from the content they produce.
Why Substack?
The short answer:
It helps support our mission to share yogic teachings of Self-realization—realization of the brilliant light and caring that are our true nature and the true nature of all beings.
It’s a cost effective way to share the teachings more broadly.
It helps increase support to Dakshina.
It has great technology but doesn’t require a “tech” person to manage it.
The more detailed answer:
1. It helps support our mission to share yogic teachings of Self-realization—realization of the brilliant light and caring that are our true nature and the true nature of all beings.
Substack helps increase support for sharing Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday meditations, and dynamic teachings in many formats.
All of our operating costs are funded through contributions from the meditation community participants. Sunday meditations, Tuesday meditations, Friday meditations, and all of the dynamic formats in which we share the teachings exist thanks to community members’ loving support and contributions.
2. It’s a cost-effective way to share the teachings more broadly.
Many organizations have a challenge of creating “content.” Awake Yoga Meditation has the opposite challenge. Our challenge is: How can we share the decades-worth of high-quality spiritual teachings that have been so lovingly offered, recorded, and transcribed and do so in a clean, professional way that is also enjoyable to experience and learn from.
We felt Substack helped solve this challenge without the need for AYM to invest tens of thousands of dollars in “tech.” Substack’s business model allows for free use of the platform in exchange for a 10% commission on paid subscriptions. This allows AYM to keep operational costs low and also incentivizes Substack to help us grow our subscriber-base (which shares more of the teachings). Substack has a proven track record for doing this well.
With Substack, we liked that we were able to start immediately offering access to the ever-expanding archive of teachings from Swami Nityananda, her teacher and AYM founder, Swami Shankarananda, AYM’s line of teachers, and AYM’s community teachers and do so using some of the most modern technology available in a way that serves our mission.
3. It helps increase support to Dakshina.
We wanted to offer a new service—outside of AYM’s existing offerings of eCourses, books, and workshops—that could not only increase support for sharing the teachings, but also for Dakshina.
By tradition, the presiding teacher of AYM, Swami Nityananda, does not draw a salary. It is the custom of meditation communities like AYM to support the presiding teacher through Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). By giving organizations like AYM the technology to seamlessly accept paying subscribers, Substack helps AYM meet this important organizational goal.
All of the other myriad expenses in the presiding teacher’s life are supported by students through donations to Swami’s Bowl, which, by tradition, AYM, as an organization, cannot contribute to.
If you’d like to donate to Swami’s Bowl, click here or use the button below:
4. It has great technology but doesn’t require a “tech” person to manage it.
Substack’s “backend” doesn’t require a degree in computer science to manage. This is important because AYM is supported by Karma Yogis—those who step forward to be of service in whatever way is truly helpful (you can be one too). Many Karma Yogis describe themselves as “non-techie” and all generously volunteer their time. Because of Substack’s intuitive design, Karma Yogis of many skill levels are able to produce the content and manage the publication in an effective, efficient way. This allows us to deliver more teachings and serve the mission of empowering people to live the teachings of meditation, Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad-Gita, and Kriya Yoga.
How much is a paid subscription?
At this time, paid subscriptions are available for $15 per month or $12 per month with an annual plan (20% savings). Check our subscription page for the most up-to-date prices.
There is also a Founding Subscription option. Founding Subscriptions give people the opportunity to offer more than the paid annual subscription price to further support AYM’s mission of empowering people to live the teachings of meditation, Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad-Gita, and Kriya Yoga.
Where does my money go? How much of my subscription fee goes to AYM?
Paid subscribers help financially support Awake Yoga Meditation’s mission to empower people to live the teachings of meditation, Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad-Gita, and Kriya Yoga.
Substack receives a 10% commission on each paid subscription in exchange for free use of the platform. This model allows Awake Yoga Meditation to keep operational costs low while also supporting our bringing live meditations to you every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday; offering transformative eCourses; and supporting the presiding teacher’s Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance). By tradition, the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda, does not take a salary.
All of the other myriad expenses in the presiding teacher’s life are supported by students through donations to Swami’s Bowl, which, by tradition, AYM, as an organization, cannot contribute to.
If you’d like to donate to Swami’s Bowl, click here or use the button below:
What is included in a subscription?
We keep subscription benefits up-to-date on these two pages to make it easy for you to decide which subscription level is right for you:
Can I organize the videos, podcasts, and articles I receive on Substack?
Substack allows users to “Save” posts when they are signed into their account so that they can easily access them later.
Here’s how to save a post on the Substack website:
Here’s how to save a post on the Substack app:
Here’s how to save a post on the Substack Reader (accessed via a browser):
At this time, we are not aware of any other content organization features available on Substack.
Are there separate sections within Substack?
Currently, there are six “sections” within Feel Love Now with Swami Nityananda, including the main feed. They are:
Feel Love Now with Swami Nityananda (the main feed)
Subscribers have the option of turning off notifications to (receiving emails for) any of these sections. To do this, select the dropdown menu in the upper-right corner of the website page, choose “Manage Subscription,” and then toggle the desired section on or off.
By default, all subscribers have each section toggled on and receive posts according to the benefits associated with their subscription level.
I'm just unclear—what do I need to do?
Simply by subscribing, you will start receiving all public posts from Feel Love Now with Swami Nityananda in your email inbox. This means you will receive select spiritual talks, articles, episodes of The Awake Yoga Meditation Podcast, and more.
All together, there are four ways to access the content associated with your subscription level:
In your email inbox
The Substack website
The Substack Reader (via a browser)
The Substack app (where you can also receive push notifications if desired)
After subscribing, the only major decision you need to make is whether you want to upgrade to a paid subscription where you will receive additional, exclusive content.
We keep subscription benefits up-to-date on these two pages to make it easy for you to decide which subscription level is right for you:
You can upgrade anytime by clicking here or by using the button below:
Any suggestions for navigating around or getting the most out of it?
Yes! We recommend downloading the Substack app. It gives you the ability to have all of our posts, articles, videos, and audios at your fingertips anywhere you go. It’s great for listening in the car or walking around or simply reading in a more comfortable position. Some other cool features include:
Ability to turn on notifications so you never miss a new post or update
Light/dark mode
All together, there are four ways to access the content associated with your subscription level:
In your email inbox
The Substack website
The Substack Reader (via a browser)
The Substack app (where you can also receive push notifications if desired)
There are also some quick ways to access certain sections and the archives from the Substack website:
Is paying for a subscription the only option for viewing recent full meditation services?
Yes.
For most of our history (prior to the pandemic), AYM made audio recordings of services available for a donation, which most recently was $7 per service.
The medium of these recordings evolved throughout the years as technology and people’s listening habits changed (i.e. listening to tapes, CDs, and MP3 players). Purchasing every meditation service in a month could be at least $84 per month.
Today, streaming is the primary technology and the most cost-effective, efficient way for AYM to share recordings of the teachings. Substack allows us to bring the cost way down so that we can make all recordings (from May 2024 onward) available for just $15 per month with a monthly plan or $12 per month with an annual plan (20% savings) while also providing access to lots of other content.
For a brief time, in response to the pandemic as we were expanding into (and experimenting with) streaming, we made all of the full services available for free on YouTube. But, it is a foundational spiritual practice dating to Swami Shankarananda’s time that meditation recordings are available for a modest donation.
Are full AYM meditation services going to be posted on YouTube?
No. Full meditation services will only be available through a paid subscription to the Feel Love Now with Swami Nityananda Substack. Please see the answer to the previous question for more details.
That said, some of the content available to free subscribers will be published on our other platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Can I purchase and download the services, podcasts, and videos?
From time to time, we will make some series available for purchase (like Swami Shankarananda’s Kriya Yoga: Inner Path to God series), but other than those select series, Substack will be the only way to access recordings.
That said, some of the content available to free subscribers will be published on our other platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
This model helps AYM cover the operating costs of bringing you dynamic, joyful, spiritual transformative teachings and meditations every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday. It also helps us meet the important organizational goal of covering Dakshina (reimbursement of basic living expenses for housing, transportation, and insurance for the presiding teacher). By tradition, it is the custom of meditation communities like AYM to support the presiding teacher through Dakshina because the presiding teacher, Swami Nityananda, does not draw a salary.
All of the other myriad expenses in the presiding teacher’s life are supported by students through donations to Swami’s Bowl, which, by tradition, AYM, as an organization, cannot contribute to.
If you’d like to donate to Swami’s Bowl, click here or use the button below:
Are eCourses included in a paid subscription?
Yes! As of June 2024, paid subscribers will receive eCourses. We will continue to ask for a self-determined tuition donation for each eCourse, as we have traditionally, but regardless of how much you choose to donate, they be available to paid subscribers.
The “Wisdom: Discovering the Peace in Our True Nature” eCourse, offered in May 2024, will also be available to paid subscribers by July 31, 2024.
Replay of the Substack Tutorial Session
You can view a replay of our live Substack Tutorial Session by clicking here or using the link below:
Again, if you have a question that is not answered here, please email awakeyogameditation@substack.com or message us on Substack: