Kriya Yoga

We examine tantra, a large sub-culture of Indian roots, and its development today. In modern times, Tantra is misunderstood as a collection of sexual practices, yet it has affected practically every aspect of spiritual knowledge including mantras, yantras, meditations, chakras, and more. It was an exploration of the subtle and physical body, highlighting the masculine and feminine energies.
Mahatvar Babaji, founder of Kriya Yoga, in front a group. Source: learnkriyayoga.com

Mahatvar Babaji, founder of Kriya Yoga, in front a group. Source: learnkriyayoga.com

Kriya yoga offers a yogi the same result of God-communion in a single day that a thousand years of natural evolution: or in other words, around 365,000 years of evolution in a single year. However, it is meant to be done under the tutelage of a guru, to meticulously prepare their body and mind to endure the strength created by this intense pranayama practise.

Kriya Yoga is a very simple way to get your blood to be decarbonated and filled with oxygen. It turns the extra oxygen into a life force that helps the brain and spinal cord work better. It helps to slow down the decay of tissues by stopping the buildup of blood in the veins. Kriya is a very old science. Many of the prophets who lived before us used Kriya or a similar technique, which made their bodies appear and disappear at will. It is said that Jesus, Kabir and Elijah have used kriya yoga in their lifetimes. Among the first teachers of this technique was Lord Krishna when he explained a certain breathwork to Arjuna before the great family feud in the Bhagavad Gita. The sage Patanjali, too, speaks of it in his Yoga Sutras, when he speaks of pranayama or breath work.

Lahiri Mahasya, one of the kriya yoga initiates and guru, learned it from his great teacher, Mahatvar Babaji, who was responsible for re-discovering and clarifying the method after it had been forgotten during the Dark Ages.

This yoga includes of many stages of pranayama, mantra, and mudra designed for spiritual growth and induce a deep state of calm and God-communion. It is historically only learnt through the Guru-disciple connection, with a secret initiation ritual. After his initiation into Kriya Yoga, Lahiri Mahasya once said that "[Mahatvar] Babaji instructed me in the ancient rigid rules which govern the transmission of the yogic art from Guru to disciple.”

Sri Yukteswar, another kriya yoga initiate and guru, once explained to his disciples: "The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India's unique and deathless contribution to the world's treasury of knowledge. The life force, which is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining heart action, must be freed for higher activities by a method of calming and stilling the ceaseless demands of the breath."

Paramahansa Yogananda set up the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) in 1917. It is headquartered in Daksineswar, as well as Ranchi and Jharkhand and has schools throughout India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldive Islands. Here one can take lessons on Kriya Yoga and become initiated into the practice through guru-disciple relationship. In 1920, he also established the Self-Realization Fellowship which provides lessons on the core of Yogananda’s teachings.

It is believed that methods of breath control have been taught from time immemorial, way before any of the organized sciences, or practices. Breath control can have deeply profound effects of calmness, and lead to samadhi, where one who lives in material word is completely absorbed in God-consciousness. This kind of development is the aim of yoga at large, that predates any religion and though it is part of the continuous Indic culture, it is an independent understanding of the many ways in which an individual can attain the highest states of being, and being in union. The human experience is full of delusions and illusions, and Kriya yoga is the yogis way of attaining perfection to activate the power of God through the material vessel.

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