In the beautiful book by Paramhansa Yoganandaji, called the Autobiography of a Yogi, there is a chapter on Kriya Yoga. Kriya Yoga is a pranayama which is given after discipleship and during an initiation. Yoganandaji called it the most advanced technique of Raja Yoga. It is a meditation practice – a pranayama where we control the energy in the spine.
He has written beautifully about it in his Autobiography and so has his disciple Swami Kriyananda. He has written multiple books in different ways through different chapters of Kriya Yoga, about the beauty and the universality of that practice.
Nayaswami Shivani, one of our kriyacharyas in Assisi, shared Yoganandaji’s statement that “Kriya yoga is the highest technique for self-healing.” Even if someone is not a Kriyaban, maybe that line will inspire them to learn about Kriya Yoga.
Kriya Yoga is not a sectarian practice. It is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Paramhansa Yoganandaji and many other sages have spoken about Kriya Yoga. Mahavatar Babaji actually gave diksha in 1861 to his disciple, Lahiri Mahasaya, who then popularized Kriya Yoga and it is now widely known of in spiritual circles.
When we do Kriya, it ideally is done by seeking the Guru’s blessings – with their attunement, with their presence, its effects, increase exponentially.
Now in Kriya Yoga like in most other meditations we sit with a straight spine. When we are sitting up straight, we all know it’s a sign of good health. When we bend forward with a hunched back, it is a sign that you’ve lost something or you’ve lost your health.
I used to be a doctor and I remember patients usually sit hunched forward in the waiting room. Naturally, the energy is low, they may be dehydrated or have perhaps just come out of a fainting episode. You don’t expect somebody to be up and about or they would not be in the hospital.
That’s understandable for patients but let’s look at people in general. What is their face look like? I remember many years ago a friend and I were taking a walk and I asked my friend, “What’s happened to people’s faces? There’s no joy, there’s no smile.” He said, “oh it’s the monsoon season. In the monsoon the sun doesn’t come out and it changes people’s complexion.”
I thought it was, on one level, quite an advanced explanation that my friend gave. But now that I’ve come on the path and I look back, I realized it was more than the physical sun. The spiritual eye located at the point between the eyebrows, is called the inner sun.
At the base of our spine, all yoga practitioners will tell us that there is what Kriyanandaji called the energy of the entire universe, the Kundalini energy, waiting to be awakened. Whether you’re meditating or going about your life or especially if you’re practicing Kriya Yoga, make sure that your spine is straight and relaxed.
A physical benefit of this is except for a few cranial nerves which come out in the cranium from the brain and brain stem, all other nerves for the body and every organ come out from the spine. If you kink the spine, or if you keep it one way or another, it impairs breathing, it impairs the blood flow, it of course changes the tone and the posture of the muscles and the spine.
In the long run those things are not good from a spiritual standpoint. The subtle spine – the energy or astral spine – is also hampered. Now it is not entirely dependent on our physical posture but the physical posture determines to quite a degree how much energy flows.
You could be saying, while in a hunched forward posture, “oh I’m happy. Don’t focus on my physical posture.” Yes, you may be right, but by and large most people who are in this position, are not happy – something is not right over there.
In my hospital rounds, instinctively I used to keep a hand on the patient’s shoulder, when I would be seeing them by their bedside, and just tap their spine two to three times and straighten them up.
Then I would ask them how they were doing, and they would say “oh I’m doing fine.” But, when I went just one or two beds beyond, they would go back into their bent spine posture. From there they would call out “oh by the way doctor, I forgot to tell you but I’m not feeling well.” When their spine was bent, they were complaining.
This is a very central spiritual teaching. Kriyanandaji said he never saw Yoganandaji, even once, with a bent spine. Keeping it continously straight requires great energy; you are called to breathe deeply and that brings the Kundalini energy, the Prana, the life force, up into the brain and spine and helps the entire body.
Taking a deep breath is linked to the straight spine. But not just a breath from the upper part of the chest or even the neck muscles, but the deep diaphragmatic breath.
It has been found now in multiple studies that just by deep intentional diaphragmatic breathing, which ideally is done in every Kriya, stress, anxiety, etc is taken care of in 40% cases. Heart rate slows down and breath rate slows down because you’re finally taking a breath the way you ought to. The diaphragm is the primary muscle of breathing. These are some practices and they will improve your Kriya practice.
When we practise Kriya Yoga, its main gift, is Satchitananda; Bliss. Bliss comes the more we clear up the spine, the more we burn up the karma, that is the energy vortices in the astral spine. The father of Yoga, Patanjali said yogas chitta vritti nirodha.
Yoga is attained and is the result when the chitta, the disturbed feelings of the heart are calmed- all yoga practice is based on that calming and neutralizing those vortices of energy which take us out in so many ways, it causes many diseases.
And through Kriya pranayama, we control that energy flow again and again using our breath. Using the grace of the Guru, we bring the energy to the spiritual eye and magnetize the spine. When the spine is magnetized then the energy which is going in so many different directions, finally goes in a unidirectional way towards the spiritual eye.
There is a single purpose of mind, there is clarity, there is that intention, which clearly reflects in not only the physical, mental and emotional state of the yoga practitioner, it also reflects in their spiritual aura, in their magnetism – a spiritual magnetism. Finally, Yoganandaji called it a “spiritually paralyzed spine” that many of us carry in the beginning, is becoming spiritually charged with energy.
The more we do it for ourselves, we can help others – even if others are not Kriya practitioners, you can pray for them. You can easily send healing energy because finally your body’s energy is streamlined.
In healing, we pray for other people or we seek healing in our lives. Yoganandaji said that whatever good you receive, share it with others; allow it to flow through you so that those blessings can be replenished and deepened in your own life, and then of course can reach out to your brothers and sisters in the world.
In a deeper sense when the energy rises in the spine, there is no need to keep the spine straight. The spine is straightened by that flow of energy. But because we’re not aware of that flow in the beginning we say, okay let us sit up straight. It is good to make that physical adjustment but remember these points: keeping the spine straight, deep relaxed long diaphragmatic breaths, and finally, clearing up that Karma – those seeds of illnesses which might be in the spine – physical illnesses emotional and psychological illnesses, as outlined by Yoganandaji.
Nayaswami Shivani said that Kriya Yoga is the highest technique of self-healing. It is available to each one of us so let’s use it every day with love and devotion and also use it as we serve as instruments to pray for other people.
Jai Guru.