Kriya Yoga (क्रियायोग) is described by its practitioners as the ancient Yoga system revived in modern times by Mahavatar Babaji through his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya, c. 1861. Kriya Yoga was brought to international awareness by Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi and through
Yogananda's introductions of the practice to the west from 1920. Kriya Yoga is
the "Yoga of Practice".
According to Yogananda the ancient Yogic text the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, contains a
description of Kriya Yoga in the second chapter II.49: "Liberation can be
attained by that pranayama which is accomplished by disjoining the course of
inspiration and expiration."
The Kriya yoga system consists of a number of levels of pranayama, mantra, and mudra based on techniques intended to rapidly accelerate spiritual
developmentand engender a profound state of tranquility and God-communion.
Yogananda attributes his description of Kriya Yoga to his lineage of gurus, Sri Yukteswar Giri, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Mahavatar Babaji. The latter is reported to have introduced the concept as essentially
identical to the Raja Yoga of Patanjali and the concept of Yoga as described in the Bhagavad Gita.
Kriya Yoga, as taught by Lahiri Mahasaya, is traditionally exclusively
learned via the Guru-disciple relationship and the initiation consists of a
secret ceremony. He recounted that after his initiation into Kriya Yoga,
"Babaji instructed me in the ancient rigid rules which govern the
transmission of the yogic art from Guru to disciple."
As Yogananda describes Kriya Yoga, "The Kriya Yogi mentally directs
his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers
(medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which correspond
to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man. One
half-minute of revolution of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of man
effects subtle progress in his evolution; that half-minute of Kriya equals one
year of natural spiritual unfoldment."
There seems to be a suggestion that the process of performing Kriya Yoga
leads to a certain purification of the blood which in turn frees up the life
force to withdraw into the spine. "Kriya Yoga is a simple,
psycho-physiological method by which the human blood is decarbonized and
recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life
current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping the
accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay
of tissues; the advanced yogi transmutes his cells into pure energy. Elijah,
Jesus, Kabir and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya or a
similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to dematerialize at
will."
In Kriya Quotes from Swami Satyananda, it is written, "Kriya
sadhana may be thought of as the sadhana of the 'practice
of being in Atman'".
Yogananda wrote in God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita that the
science of Kriya Yoga was given to Manu, the first man according to the Vedas, and through him to Janaka and other royal sages. According to
Yogananda, Kriya Yoga was well known in ancient India, but was eventually lost, due to "priestly secrecy and man’s
indifference". Yogananda says that Krishna refers to Kriya Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita:
Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing
breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he
thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control.
Yogananda also stated that Krishna was referring to Kriya Yoga when
"Lord Krishna ... relates that it was 'he', in a former incarnation, who
communicated the indestructible yoga to an ancient illuminato, Vivasvat, who
gave it to Manu, the great legislator. He, in turn, instructed Ikshwaku, the
father of India’s solar warrior dynasty." And again when he
says,"Liberation can be accomplished by that pranayama which is attained
by disjoining the course of inhalation and exhalation." A direct disciple
of Sri Yukteswar Giri, Sailendra
Dasgupta (d. 1984) has written that, "Kriya entails several acts that have
evidently been adapted from the Gita, the Yoga Sutras, Tantra shastras and from conceptions on the Yugas."
Kriya means action or doing or perform or movement.
The story of Lahiri Mahasaya receiving initiation into Kriya Yoga by the
yogi Mahavatar Babaji in 1861 is recounted in Autobiography of a Yogi.
Yogananda wrote that at that meeting, Mahavatar Babaji told Lahiri
Mahasaya, "The Kriya Yoga that I am giving to the world through you in
this nineteenth century, is a revival of the same science that Krishna gave
millenniums ago to Arjuna; and was later known to Patanjali, and to Christ, St.
John, St. Paul, and other disciples." Yogananda also wrote that Babaji and
Christ were in continual communion and together, "have planned the
spiritual technique of salvation for this age."
Through Lahiri Mahasaya, Kriya Yoga soon spread throughout India.
Yogananda, a disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri who was himself a
disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, then brought Kriya Yoga to the United States and
Europe during the 20th century.
Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples included his two sons, Dukouri Lahiri and Tinkouri Lahiri, Sri Yukteswar Giri, Panchanan Bhattacharya, Swami
Pranabananda, Swami Kebalananda, Keshavananda Brahmachari, Bhupendranath
Sanyal (Sanyal Mahasaya), and many others.
