The Science of Kriya Yoga

The science of Kriya Yoga, mentioned so often in these pages, became widely known in modern India
through the instrumentality of Lahiri Mahasaya, my guru's guru. The Sanskrit root of Kriya is kri, to do,
to act and react; the same root is found in the word karma, the natural principle of cause and effect.
Kriya Yoga is thus union !yoga" with the Infinite through a certain action or rite. # yogi who faithfully
follows its techni$ue is gradually freed from karma or the uni%ersal chain of causation.
&ecause of certain ancient yogic in'unctions, I cannot gi%e a full e(planation of Kriya Yoga in the
pages of a book intended for the general public. The actual techni$ue must be learned from a
Kriyaban or Kriya Yogi; here a broad reference must suffice.
Kriya Yoga is a simple, psychophysiological method by which the human blood is decarboni)ed and
recharged with o(ygen. The atoms of this e(tra o(ygen are transmuted into life current to re'u%enate
the brain and spinal centers.
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&y stopping the accumulation of %enous blood, the yogi is able to
lessen or pre%ent the decay of tissues; the ad%anced yogi transmutes his cells into pure energy.
*li'ah, +esus, ,abir and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya or a similar techni$ue,
by which they caused their bodies to demateriali)e at will.
Kriya is an ancient science. Lahiri Mahasaya recei%ed it from his guru, &aba'i, who redisco%ered and
clarified the techni$ue after it had been lost in the -ark #ges.
The Kriya Yoga which I am gi%ing to the world through you in this nineteenth century, &aba'i told
Lahiri Mahasaya, is a re%i%al of the same science which ,rishna ga%e, millenniums ago, to #r'una,
and which was later known to .atan'ali, and to /hrist, St. +ohn, St. .aul, and other disciples.
Kriya Yoga is referred to by ,rishna, India's greatest prophet, in a stan)a of the Bhagavad Gita:
0ffering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling
breath, the yogi neutrali)es both these breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and
brings it under his control.
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The interpretation is1 The yogi arrests decay in the body by an addition
of life force, and arrests the mutations of growth in the body by apan !eliminating current". Thus
neutrali)ing decay and growth, by $uieting the heart, the yogi learns life control.
,rishna also relates
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that it was he, in a former incarnation, who communicated the indestructible
yoga to an ancient illuminato, 2i%as%at, who ga%e it to Manu, the great legislator.
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3e, in turn,
instructed Ikshwaku, the father of India's solar warrior dynasty. .assing thus from one to another, the
royal yoga was guarded by the rishis until the coming of the materialistic ages.
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Then, due to priestly
secrecy and man's indifference, the sacred knowledge gradually became inaccessible.
Kriya Yoga is mentioned twice by the ancient sage .atan'ali, foremost e(ponent of yoga, who wrote1
Kriya Yoga consists of body discipline, mental control, and meditating on Aum.
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.atan'ali speaks of
4od as the actual /osmic Sound of Aum heard in meditation.
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Aum is the /reati%e 5ord,
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the sound
of the 2ibratory Motor. *%en the yoga6beginner soon inwardly hears the wondrous sound of Aum.
7ecei%ing this blissful spiritual encouragement, the de%otee becomes assured that he is in actual
touch with di%ine realms.
.atan'ali refers a second time to the life6control or Kriya techni$ue thus1 Liberation can be
accomplished by that pranayama which is attained by dis'oining the course of inspiration and
e(piration.
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St. .aul knew Kriya Yoga, or a techni$ue %ery similar to it, by which he could switch life currents to
and from the senses. 3e was therefore able to say1 2erily, I protest by our re'oicing which I ha%e in
/hrist, I die daily.
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&y daily withdrawing his bodily life force, he united it by yoga union with the
re'oicing !eternal bliss" of the /hrist consciousness. In that felicitous state, he was consciously aware
of being dead to the delusi%e sensory world of maya.
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In the initial states of 4od6contact !sabikalpa samadhi" the de%otee's consciousness merges with the
/osmic Spirit; his life force is withdrawn from the body, which appears dead, or motionless and rigid.
The yogi is fully aware of his bodily condition of suspended animation. #s he progresses to higher
spiritual states !nirbikalpa samadhi", howe%er, he communes with 4od without bodily fi(ation, and in
his ordinary waking consciousness, e%en in the midst of e(acting worldly duties.
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Kriya Yoga is an instrument through which human e%olution can be $uickened, Sri 8ukteswar
e(plained to his students. The ancient yogis disco%ered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is
intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India's uni$ue and deathless contribution to the world's
treasury of knowledge. The life force, which is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining the heart6pump,
must be freed for higher acti%ities by a method of calming and stilling the ceaseless demands of the
breath.
The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to re%ol%e, upward and downward, around the si(
spinal centers !medullary, cer%ical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal ple(uses" which correspond
to the twel%e astral signs of the )odiac, the symbolic /osmic Man. 0ne6half minute of re%olution of
energy around the sensiti%e spinal cord of man effects subtle progress in his e%olution; that half6
minute of Kriya e$uals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment.
The astral system of a human being, with si( !twel%e by polarity" inner constellations re%ol%ing around
the sun of the omniscient spiritual eye, is interrelated with the physical sun and the twel%e )odiacal
signs. #ll men are thus affected by an inner and an outer uni%erse. The ancient rishis disco%ered that
man's earthly and hea%enly en%ironment, in twel%e6year cycles, push him forward on his natural path.
The scriptures a%er that man re$uires a million years of normal, diseaseless e%olution to perfect his
human brain sufficiently to e(press cosmic consciousness.
0ne thousand Kriya practiced in eight hours gi%es the yogi, in one day, the e$ui%alent of one
thousand years of natural e%olution1 9:;,<<< years of e%olution in one year. In three years, a Kriya
Yogi can thus accomplish by intelligent self6effort the same result which nature brings to pass in a
million years. The Kriya short cut, of course, can be taken only by deeply de%eloped yogis. 5ith the
guidance of a guru, such yogis ha%e carefully prepared their bodies and brains to recei%e the power
created by intensi%e practice.
The Kriya beginner employs his yogic e(ercise only fourteen to twenty6eight times, twice daily. #
number of yogis achie%e emancipation in si( or twel%e or twenty6four or forty6eight years. # yogi who
dies before achie%ing full reali)ation carries with him the good karma of his past Kriya effort; in his
new life he is harmoniously propelled toward his Infinite 4oal.
The body of the a%erage man is like a fifty6watt lamp, which cannot accommodate the billion watts of
power roused by an e(cessi%e practice of Kriya. Through gradual and regular increase of the simple
and foolproof methods of Kriya, man's body becomes astrally transformed day by day, and is finally
fitted to e(press the infinite potentials of cosmic energythe first materially acti%e e(pression of Spirit.
Kriya Yoga has nothing in common with the unscientific breathing e(ercises taught by a number of
misguided )ealots. Their attempts to forcibly hold breath in the lungs is not only unnatural but
decidedly unpleasant. Kriya, on the other hand, is accompanied from the %ery beginning by an
accession of peace, and by soothing sensations of regenerati%e effect in the spine.
The ancient yogic techni$ue con%erts the breath into mind. &y spiritual ad%ancement, one is able to
cogni)e the breath as an act of minda dream6breath.
Many illustrations could be gi%en of the mathematical relationship between man's respiratory rate and
the %ariations in his states of consciousness. # person whose attention is wholly engrossed, as in
following some closely knit intellectual argument, or in attempting some delicate or difficult physical
feat, automatically breathes %ery slowly. =i(ity of attention depends on slow breathing; $uick or
une%en breaths are an ine%itable accompaniment of harmful emotional states1 fear, lust, anger. The
restless monkey breathes at the rate of 9> times a minute, in contrast to man's a%erage of ?@ times.
The elephant, tortoise, snake and other animals noted for their longe%ity ha%e a respiratory rate which
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is less than man's. The tortoise, for instance, who may attain the age of 9<< years,
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breathes only A
times per minute.
The re'u%enating effects of sleep are due to man's temporary unawareness of body and breathing.
The sleeping man becomes a yogi; each night he unconsciously performs the yogic rite of releasing
himself from bodily identification, and of merging the life force with healing currents in the main brain
region and the si( sub6dynamos of his spinal centers. The sleeper thus dips unknowingly into the
reser%oir of cosmic energy which sustains all life.
The %oluntary yogi performs a simple, natural process consciously, not unconsciously like the slow6
paced sleeper. The Kriya Yogi uses his techni$ue to saturate and feed all his physical cells with
undecaying light and keep them in a magneti)ed state. 3e scientifically makes breath unnecessary,
without producing the states of subconscious sleep or unconsciousness.
&y Kriya, the outgoing life force is not wasted and abused in the senses, but constrained to reunite
with subtler spinal energies. &y such reinforcement of life, the yogi's body and brain cells are
electrified with the spiritual eli(ir. Thus he remo%es himself from studied obser%ance of natural laws,
which can only take himby circuitous means as gi%en by proper food, sunlight, and harmonious
thoughtsto a million6year 4oal. It needs twel%e years of normal healthful li%ing to effect e%en slight
perceptible change in brain structure, and a million solar returns are e(acted to sufficiently refine the
cerebral tenement for manifestation of cosmic consciousness.
Bntying the cord of breath which binds the soul to the body, Kriya ser%es to prolong life and enlarge
the consciousness to infinity. The yoga method o%ercomes the tug of war between the mind and the
matter6bound senses, and frees the de%otee to reinherit his eternal kingdom. 3e knows his real nature
is bound neither by physical encasement nor by breath, symbol of the mortal ensla%ement to air, to
nature's elemental compulsions.
Introspection, or sitting in the silence, is an unscientific way of trying to force apart the mind and
senses, tied together by the life force. The contemplati%e mind, attempting its return to di%inity, is
constantly dragged back toward the senses by the life currents. Kriya, controlling the mind directly
through the life force, is the easiest, most effecti%e, and most scientific a%enue of approach to the
Infinite. In contrast to the slow, uncertain bullock cart theological path to 4od, Kriya may 'ustly be
called the airplane route.
The yogic science is based on an empirical consideration of all forms of concentration and meditation
e(ercises. 8oga enables the de%otee to switch off or on, at will, life current from the fi%e sense
telephones of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. #ttaining this power of sense6disconnection, the
yogi finds it simple to unite his mind at will with di%ine realms or with the world of matter. Co longer is
he unwillingly brought back by the life force to the mundane sphere of rowdy sensations and restless
thoughts. Master of his body and mind, the Kriya Yogi ultimately achie%es %ictory o%er the last
enemy, death.
So shalt thou feed on -eath, that feeds on men1
#nd -eath once dead, there's no more dying then.
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The life of an ad%anced Kriya Yogi is influenced, not by effects of past actions, but solely by directions
from the soul. The de%otee thus a%oids the slow, e%olutionary monitors of egoistic actions, good and
bad, of common life, cumbrous and snail6like to the eagle hearts.
The superior method of soul li%ing frees the yogi who, shorn of his ego6prison, tastes the deep air of
omnipresence. The thralldom of natural li%ing is, in contrast, set in a pace humiliating. /onforming his
life to the e%olutionary order, a man can command no concessionary haste from nature but, li%ing
without error against the laws of his physical and mental endowment, still re$uires about a million
years of incarnating mas$uerades to know final emancipation.
The telescopic methods of yogis, disengaging themsel%es from physical and mental identifications in
fa%or of soul6indi%iduality, thus commend themsel%es to those who eye with re%olt a thousand
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thousand years. This numerical periphery is enlarged for the ordinary man, who li%es in harmony not
e%en with nature, let alone his soul, but pursues instead unnatural comple(ities, thus offending in his
body and thoughts the sweet sanities of nature. =or him, two times a million years can scarce suffice
for liberation.
4ross man seldom or ne%er reali)es that his body is a kingdom, go%erned by *mperor Soul on the
throne of the cranium, with subsidiary regents in the si( spinal centers or spheres of consciousness.
This theocracy e(tends o%er a throng of obedient sub'ects1 twenty6se%en thousand billion
cellsendowed with a sure if automatic intelligence by which they perform all duties of bodily
growths, transformations, and dissolutionsand fifty million substratal thoughts, emotions, and
%ariations of alternating phases in man's consciousness in an a%erage life of si(ty years. #ny
apparent insurrection of bodily or cerebral cells toward *mperor Soul, manifesting as disease or
depression, is due to no disloyalty among the humble citi)ens, but to past or present misuse by man
of his indi%iduality or free will, gi%en to him simultaneous with a soul, and re%ocable ne%er.
Identifying himself with a shallow ego, man takes for granted that it is he who thinks, wills, feels,
digests meals, and keeps himself ali%e, ne%er admitting through reflection !only a little would sufficeD"
that in his ordinary life he is naught but a puppet of past actions !karma" and of nature or en%ironment.
*ach man's intellectual reactions, feelings, moods, and habits are circumscribed by effects of past
causes, whether of this or a prior life. Lofty abo%e such influences, howe%er, is his regal soul.
Spurning the transitory truths and freedoms, the Kriya Yogi passes beyond all disillusionment into his
unfettered &eing. #ll scriptures declare man to be not a corruptible body, but a li%ing soul; by Kriya he
is gi%en a method to pro%e the scriptural truth.
0utward ritual cannot destroy ignorance, because they are not mutually contradictory, wrote
Shankara in his famous entury o! "erses. 7eali)ed knowledge alone destroys ignorance. . . .
,nowledge cannot spring up by any other means than in$uiry. '5ho am IE 3ow was this uni%erse
bornE 5ho is its makerE 5hat is its material causeE' This is the kind of in$uiry referred to. The
intellect has no answer for these $uestions; hence the rishis e%ol%ed yoga as the techni$ue of spiritual
in$uiry.
Kriya Yoga is the real fire rite often e(tolled in the Bhagavad Gita. The purifying fires of yoga bring
eternal illumination, and thus differ much from outward and little6effecti%e religious fire ceremonies,
where perception of truth is oft burnt, to solemn chanted accompaniment, along with the incenseD
The ad%anced yogi, withholding all his mind, will, and feeling from false identification with bodily
desires, uniting his mind with superconscious forces in the spinal shrines, thus li%es in this world as
4od hath planned, not impelled by impulses from the past nor by new witlessnesses of fresh human
moti%ations. Such a yogi recei%es fulfillment of his Supreme -esire, safe in the final ha%en of
ine(haustibly blissful Spirit.
The yogi offers his labyrinthine human longings to a monotheistic bonfire dedicated to the
unparalleled 4od. This is indeed the true yogic fire ceremony, in which all past and present desires
are fuel consumed by lo%e di%ine. The Bltimate =lame recei%es the sacrifice of all human madness,
and man is pure of dross. 3is bones stripped of all desirous flesh, his karmic skeleton bleached in the
antiseptic suns of wisdom, he is clean at last, inoffensi%e before man and Maker.
7eferring to yoga's sure and methodical efficacy, Lord ,rishna praises the technological yogi in the
following words1 The yogi is greater than body6disciplining ascetics, greater e%en than the followers
of the path of wisdom !#nana Yoga", or of the path of action !Karma Yoga"; be thou, 0 disciple #r'una,
a yogiD
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Sadhaka : What is the place of various occult or mystic powers in Yoga practice?
Swamiji : One of the most important things that you have to know about them is that they are
by-products, all of which have to be passed by on way, since none of them is your
destination. They are a sure sign that you are progressing. They serve as encouragement.
These powers come as temptations to test your moral worth and they are the greatest barrier
to elf-knowledge. These powers gain entry into you so subtly, so insidiously, that unless you
are e!traordinarily introspective, watchful and e!tremely careful, even without your
knowledge you may succumb to them and become vain. The seeker has to be very careful
that he does not encourage these powers at all, that he does not have any thoughts about
them, and that he brushes them aside.
"ight from the beginning of the spiritual path, beware of occult powers. #f you are caught in
their fascination, you are lost. Your spiritual life is destroyed and all of your Yoga will
simply go away. #f you want $od, shun ruthlessly all powers, all occult phenomena, as
poison. These occult powers can become the greatest of corrupters, the greatest of obstacles
for the true seekers. %o not be diverted by them. The only thing the true aspirant should do is
to completely become blind to all these phenomena and think only of the &ord. &ive only for
the &ord. eek $od alone and never allow yourself to be diverted even one whit towards
anything other than $od.
Take from me, if you have $od, you have everything. #f you want $od, do not have the least
desire for anything else' and if these occult powers come in the way, then (ust ignore them.
To seekers, to aspirants, to those who want $od, there is no )uestion of the uses of those
powers, for the true seeker (ust ignores them. %o not run after shadows' hold on only to the
substance. %o not go after the chaff, go only after the grain that nourishes and gives life. %o
not be diverted from the path of truth by all that belongs to the realm of untruth.
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