Learn a lesson from the lobster: "Beware of that bait": it could be a herring in a lobster pot on the sea bed that makes the lobster crawl into the pot to get food. But can it get out again and survive for long afterwards in the free, where other dangers lurk? Maybe not.
Who is that dear lobster? And how well does the lobster pot tell of a half-enslaving sect? Is the dead, but shiny herring a cult bait? There are other forms of bait too. Who on earth or above could profit from catching lobsters (like you)?
It would be good to grasp the essentials before you get trapped or decrepit. But what are essentials in dealing with a guru that openly plays on and evokes ardent desires for great things, such as "Cosmic Consciousness through a simplifed, unverified kriya system"? The fellowship asks followers do forgo fair human rights for getting superb joy. Do not kill yourself if something untowards happens instead.
Don't fall beneath the power of craving . . .
the hindrance.
- From The Tibetan Dhammapada 2:12-16. In Sparham 1986)
In sum: To crave as others have told and profited from tells of a need for essential wisdom on your behalf. The Tibetan Dhammapada 7.11 advocates that you stick to your own, eminent control as far as you manage, if not better . . . (7.10). It is done by guarding your speech, focusing your mind, and abstaining from harm on the one hand, and do and say and focus on what is good and beneficial on the other. (7.1-11, condensed).
There are herrings and herrings
Hype, facts and the experiences. Goading, enticing words about kriya yoga may be glorious hype. One may suspect it. If they are word-bait, they may be like shiny, inflated herrings in a lobster trap (or cult).
There are other herrings in the sea too. A herring should not cause erring. A lobster or beginner had better take care not to be trapped because of enticing, ensnaring words or boasts. Yet, to discern well between what is factual and what is hype can be a hard task, for a person learns through experiences if he or she survives all of them, but surviving a lot of bad, ennervating experiences is not always a light thing to do.
A herring that lives. The live herring is dark on the upper side and bright on its belly side. Not so easy to detect unless you look well. It is different with shiny herrings that lie upside down in a lobster pot on the sea bed.
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Different kriya yogas are developed on top of ujjaji. Some have features of hatha-yoga added to it, but that is not all. There are many sets of kriya yoga, and still the basic part of kriya yoga is a form of gentle breathing. Ujjayi may be performed separately or along with body postures. [WP, "Ujjayi"].
The core part of a wider kriya system is "breathing calmly and attentively in and out": pranayama. If carefully and skilfully done, such breathing induces meditation very well, and quickly. It depends on just how one does it, and how refined the ujjayi variant happens to be, among other things.
There can be good sides to kriya yoga, kriya research indicates, as far as it goes. But results tend to depend on which kriya, and how it is done.
What Kriya Yoga Is
Kriya yoga is a form of gentle breathing. That is, basic kriya yoga is the ujjayi pranayama, a well known and gentle breathing method described in books and Internet articles. It has variants, and there is nothing secret about it.
In some kriya yoga lines, more is added to the gentle way of breathing called ujjayi. Just what is added to the breathing, differs. There are elaborations of ujjayi and several features added to it. However, quite a lot comes down to the old, gentle breathing method. It is indispensable.
Some get interested in learning kriya yoga after reading the influential Autobiography of a Yogi, among other works on kriya yoga, gurus and kriya yogis.
There is kriya (ujjayi) with and without special body poses
There are several alterations in the kriya system that is taught by Yogananda's fellowship. There are also many other traditions for teaching kriya yoga. Many of them trace their origin to a mystical guru, Babaji. However, ujjayi - or "core kriya" taught in Satyananda Yoga, is one of the most commonly practiced breathing techniques, one of the favoured pranayamas in hatha yoga. One form of ujjayi pranayama has been publicly known in India since the 1400s, and is described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter 2, verses 51-53. The ujjayi breath is typically done in association with asana practice, and is used in a variety of Taoist and Yoga practices, informs the Wikipedia (s.v. "Ujjayi breath"). There are many descriptions of ujjayi, both in books and on the Internet. For example, James Hewitt described it in a few yoga books [Tyy; Ybk].
"You say tomato, I say tomeito": You may call ujjayi coupled with tortuous body postures kriya yoga if you like. But straining the body and mind for doing difficult asanas along with the easy and well-known ujjay pranayama may hardly usher in a gentle ease with otherbring benefits.
Lines
When a teacher falls, she would do well to pick herself up again.
One kriya line is traced back to Babaji through Swami Sivananda and his line of disciples. Sivananda is the author of over 100 books on yoga, mediation and related matter. [Ets 89].
One of his disciples, Swami Satyananda Saraswati (1923-2009), founded the Bihar School of Yoga, and is known for Satyananda Yoga. He has written well-received books too, at least twelve books. Recently a scandal in Australia has risen around him but it should be pointed out: "Swami Satyananda Saraswati was never convicted during his life." [WP, "Satyananda Saraswati"]
Some of Satyananda's books are systematic manuals. In this line are Swami Janakananda Saraswati in Sweden; Swami Anandakapila Saraswati in Australia; and Swami Nischalananda Saraswati in Wales.
In other guru lines related to Babaji are Shibendu Lahiri in India and Swami Satyeswarananda Giri in the United States. I have commented on output by these two here and there.
In the West, kriya dissemination was formerly rather dominated by Self-Realization Fellowship, SRF, which was termed a sect by a former main SRF editor, Tara Mata.
Kriya yoga in Satyananda yoga may be learnt from one or more books. But ashram visits may not go well for everyone: In December 2014 investigations by a royal commision in Australia got testimonies of constant sexual abuse of children, beating, starving and neglecting them in an ashram belonging to Satyananda Yoga in New South Wales. Australian newspapers made people aware of further details. Now you have been warned. On the whole Satyananda books are fit. [WP, "Satyananda Yoga > Sources"]
I compare sides to Satyananda's kriya as it is presented in some of the books published by the Yoga Publications Trust, and Yogananda's kriya. Now, there are differences and nuances in how Yogananda's kriya is performed also, depending on what line of disciples is into it.
Some Background Information
My basic aim has been to get to facts in a field of much belief and sometimes murky practices, and present such facts so that those interested in learning kriya yoga, at least know they have a few choices. And for those who want to cry sillily or a lot, there is SRF. [Just look]
The differences between cultured TM (Transcendental Meditation) and various kriya transmissions are great, and the differences between different kriya traditions could amount to different life-styles and mind-sets. The SRF life-style is not free, and may be scaring too, once you know the details (below are some). For example, the much restricted sex life of a devoted Yogananda follower may suffer, and that of his or her mate too. There are examples of this.
⦾ There are variants of kriya yoga, and different organisations to spread them. And there is the free method of ujjayi ("bold breath").
~ೞ⬯ೞ~
First, before we go into two kriya yoga branches and compare them a little, I think I should point out that Transcendental Meditation may be a better all-round choice. It is the all-round "best in test" method, so it has a lot to go for it. In addition, ujjayi as explained on the Gold Scales is a free pranayama method, and goes along with relaxed living.
Satyananda's kriya is more elaborate, "full of yoga postures" - that is: physically demanding.
Yogananda's kriya, or SRF's kriya, has both removed parts and added elements, and to learn it one must join a special church that works as a lobster pot: You may get in, but what about getting out again? One should guard oneself and team up with only good fellows, as far as is reasonable, and stay out of touch with fiendish ones. Little by little they may be known by their deeds.
In the following the kriya lines of Satyananda and Yogananda are compared.
whereas SRF's kriya is marked by undue authoritarianism.
A. Satyananda's kriya as taught in his books focuses on practices, and integrates different yoga branches into a unified system, sahaja yoga. You get step-by-step guidelines, and may try for yourself if yoga can help you - kriya or other sides to yoga. The aim for book readers is hardly doctrines to believe and follow faithfully (ie, in curbed manners), as in Yogananda's church SRF.
You start from basic practices and may slowly gain more awareness, clarity. What is aimed at is yoga fitted into the daily routine, and that is your own business. "We do not presume to change your beliefs through any type of dogmatic preaching. We are only interested in helping you to gain maximum happiness and fulfilment in life." [Cy 3] It sounds nice -
B. As for SRF, that is, Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship, it is dominated by submission to authority, and is structured to concentrate power in a leader group that consists of monk(s) and/or nuns. They decide some sides to the organisation, often saying they obey their leader, Yogananda, are devoted and humble, and that sort of speech that serves monastics, but not free people.
However, they obey their long gone leader selectively and not gently enough for all monastics either. Around 2002 one third of the SRF monastics left the SRF premises, for example. Some of them have had severe adaptation problems afterward.
Monastics at the head of SRF demand submissiveness by lay members and monastics by degrees. First, while you are a non-committed "student" and not initiated in kriya, there are few express do's and don'ts. Afterwards the reins are tightened, as you may see further down the page.
⦾ Select your own noble endeavours, succumbing neither to authoritarian nor shady deals.
whereas SRF's kriya is marked by authoritarianism.
A. In A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya, Satyananda explains that kriya yoga is part of tantra, and does not ideally teach you to curb this and that, but to gain awareness linked to the movement of the breath. "Kriya yoga does not ask you to abstain from your sexual life," writes Satyananda. "Sexual activity is a natural part of life . . . under correct circumstances tantra has encouraged the use of sex as a means to evolve spiritually." "Continue your sexual relations, but don't dwell continually on sexual thoughts." "The practice of kriya yoga definitely does not ask you to change your way of life." [Cy 12-13]
It sounds OK, but a former child resident Bhakti Manning at the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain in Australia told a royal commision in Australia about sexual abuse committed by the movement's influential founder, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, at the Munger ashram in India. The commission also heard she had a sexual relationship with Satyananda's successor, Swami Niranjan, according to the Sidney Morning Herald [1].
There is more: In December 2014 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia investigated the responses of the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain, Australia as to complaints from the mid- to late-1980s. These complaints of sexual abuse had been made against Akhandananda Saraswati, at the time the spiritual leader of that Satyananda Yoga ashram.
The Commission heard evidence from former child residents that a Shishy, a female, former senior member of the ashram, allegedly subjected the children to fierce beatings and summoned teenage girls for sex with Akhandananda. Shishy herself told the Commission she was expected to have sex with Satyananda when he was visiting Australia, describing it as "on a continuum between bland and quite perverse".
Before these investigations the allegations had not been proven and Swami Satyananda Saraswati was never convicted during his life.
(WP, "Satyananda Saraswati" > 'Notes'.)
B. Now for SRF: The wife of an SRF member said. "I hate Yogananda! He ruined my marriage." And how? SRF tells members to have sex sparingly, for example once a month. SRF imposes other restrictions on life as well, through hundreds of don'ts and teaches in part antiquated and low propaganda about "conserving your fluids".
In SRF they do not influence you to get evolved by or along with having ample or normal sex, independently of it or actively using it for good..
⦾ Favour yoga methods and yoga organisations that don't curb your sex life and other natural, all right drives and the Human Rights.
whereas learning the SRF-taught, abridged kriya yoga means being dominated a lot.
A. One may learn Satyananda's kriya from publicly available books, which may be quite daunting, frankly, in that you may find you need to be non-fat and supple to do all the exercises involved, including preparatory exercises [Cy; Kta]. However, all the preparatory gymnastic exercises are not really needed to do basic kriya: you just breathe for it. Yes, the basic kriya method is a special form of gentle breathing. You can learn it for free here; no strings attached: [Free kriya]
Some teach one thing to the public and do quite other things hidden from the public. In Satyananda's kriya it is further taught: "A full preparation [for kriya] is essential." A question is what "full preparation" entails. After all, what you do during the main kriya method, is to sit and breathe in quiet.
Now, the right sort of awareness of your brain and breath could help awareness. You can be aware of your breath and breathe gently, attentively, to combat common stress. You can do it while walking, talking, working on routine tasks, or while sitting comfortably. Breath awareness is recommended in Buddhism too. The aim of breath awareness is to be (better) aware of your consciousness as a spectator or witness. Breath awareness is an essential part of kriya yoga. [Cy 11-12]
In Satyananda's tradition you are told to do the practices, relax well, and gain tranquillity. "There are no restrictions or barriers" as to age, diet, religion or whatever. They do not say, "No preparatory exercises are absolutely needed for gentle kriya breathing either," but I think they should. The needed thing is interest enough to put forth effective effort to reap many aligned benefits. [Cy 13-14]
B. In SRF, dogmatism rules. Much of the dogmatism in SRF seeks to bridge Krishna teachings and those of Jesus, falsely claiming they are in harmony. They are not. [In a nutshell]. You should not accept false play. SRF has many marks of a cult, former monastics say [More].
⦾ To learn kriya from books may be a way out, and lots of preparatory exercises seem uncalled for, really. Just do it as carefully as you can.
whereas SRF binds you to met or unmet gurus by an unbecoming oath and subjects you to Yogananda by it.
A. Satyananda's tradition sells books and arrange courses. The books of Satyananda do not bind you terribly and well, if at all. Satyananda's kriya is explained in detail in books, most notably these two: [Cy; Kta]. By studying them, you get an inkling of what the kriya lifestyle entails.
One of the free-standing kriya organisations in his tradition is Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School, located in Sweden.
By studying books in freedom you can escape frequent calls for money and for inheriting you. . Also,
B. The SRF's kriya pledge is shown and elaborated on on another page [Kriya, a joke?]. The oath serves to tie you to Yogananda for the rest of your lives (!). There could be up to unfit downsides to the arrangement. To enlarge on that:
1. SRF's changed and shortened Yogananda's kriya instructions may be considered secret. But some of the methods SRF teaches, are publicly known anyway. The central breathing method is the widely known ujjayi. It is a gentle breathing exercise (with variants) among others in hatha-yoga.
2. Sailendra Dasgupta tells what parts of Lahiri Mahasaya's kriya Yogananda removed, and the misgivings about it of kriya yogis in India.
One indispensable part of yoga sadhana [yogic practice] is "asana" [sitting posture], and in Kriya Yoga, another element is indispensable regarding higher levels of the practice � Khechari Mudra [yogic tongue-lifting], upon which all of the advanced levels of Kriya are based. . . . Yogananda adopted a few different methods [he added a few otherwise publicly available methods]. . . however, it is not possible through these new methods to fully attain that which is spoken of in the scriptures in terms of Kriya Yoga. . . .
Yogananda gave instructions for higher Kriyas even without Khechari. In the perspective of pure Kriya practice, this is not proper; and furthermore, the purpose of practicing higher Kriyas cannot be brought to fruition without Khechari. . . . From the second Kriya onward, all of the higher Kriyas must be performed with Khechari Mudra. Without Khechari, neither "Thokar" Kriya nor "Omkar" Kriya can be performed; if anyone says otherwise, then he is not speaking about Kriya Yoga. . . .
By teaching his particular way of Kriya practice . . . Yoganandaji has completely mixed the methods . . . And the possibility of . . . being misdirected has remained. (Dasgupta 2006, 108-10, passim)
It seems fair to say that Yogananda's kriya has not been tested in ways that pass as scientific in the scienticic community - many have written about their frustrations in SRF, notably one third of its monastics. They left the SRF premises between 2000 and 2005, reportedly (Parsons 2012, 170). Some of them wrote frequently but anonymously on the SRF Walrus, a discussion board meant for these Yogananda devotees. Many embarrassing subjects were brought to light by former monastics, who struggled to cope outside SRF's monastic settings.
Dissatisfaction with do's and don'ts (superego dangers) may arise outside the SRF monasteries too, with aspects of guru worship and much else.
⦾ Oath-binding takes away human freedom and is not necessary for solid progress. There is a great risk of loss of human dignity for the oath-bound.
⦾ A church or sect gets on by low rungs of the ladder - rigmarole, ceremonialism, and dogmatism - they are far from elevated spiritual matters, and faking it is not neat either, beneath the surfaces.
SRF people may be found to be as good as other US citizens, granted that the United States harbours from 1 to 5000 so-called cults. The estimate of Margaret Singer is 5000 (2003:xvii).
Lay members may prefer not to make a show of how Yogananda-dictated they are privately. As for dignity, it seems to me that those who make a show of devotion by public prayers and ceremonies and ritual have not quite arrived at "pray in private" (Matthew 6:5-6; 14:23; Mark 6:46; Luke 5:16; 9:18; John 6:15, etc.). Food might be blessed in public, though - (Mark 6:41 etc.).
Some who say with their lips they are Jesuans heed from the "no show, better gain" teaching in Matthew 6:5-6. Even though the Bible describes prayer in public too, the guideline given goes for private prayer. Much ritual ceremonialism ignores the gospel teaching not to pray in public and for show. The words of Jesus that his teachings and salvation are for Jews only are likewise blatantly dropped "for show". (Matthew 14.25; 10;5-8).
Some of those who have headed SRF have indulged in matters of secrecy. For example, the monks and nuns of the headquarters did not even know that their previous long-time leader, Daya Mata (born Faye Wright), had kept away from the place for thirty years to live in a villa with a view somewhere else. When the news broke, it could have contributed to the mass exodus of monastics mentioned above - one third of them left the SRF premises between 2000 and 2005. The scenario is not made lighter by "Their leader found a villa and another next to it suited her into her old age. There she lived with a carnal sister and a mountain view.
In SRF they try to submit as a main stride - submit to Yogananda's dictates or guidelines, and lay members submit to the clergy, and younger among those who run the "enterprise", submit to older ones. If you become the great leader, however, there are adjustments you can do - In actual practice SRF makes much of the difference between monastics and lay members, not getting into that their long-time leader and her sister preferred living in villas, and that the founder, Yogananda, stayed in a desert hut "for much of the last part of his life" and not among the monastics at the headquarters. (Dasgupta 2006, 102)
Monastics head the organisation. Monastics are the "officers", and lay members are the "crew" that is asked to donate money to their great cause. The lay members who may or may not refrain from misbehaving badly and having sex as they might prefer, are taking on the complementary roles of dutiful subjects. They are told some restraints avoid dissipations of many sorts. Yogananda talks against blantantly speculative television.
To drive home such fine points, SRF has published literature. One of the books is called The Master Said [Tms; Say; Spa] (Later editions called: Sayings of Yogananda and Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda). One may glimpse from it that in SRF they are greatly Yogananda-focused after they have edited his sayings to suit them too. His edited sayings are given weight, and the guru is called Master, Yoganandaji or Paramahansaji, and this looks like part of SRF's "serious business" of promoting Yogananda and his statements too. One repeated message is loud and clear: he is a parental figure there. From The Master Said I quote:
A television set was given to the Master. It was set up in a room where it could be used by all the disciples. They were going there so frequently that the Master said to them:
"So long as you have not found God, it is best not to be interested in amusements." [Tms 101]
Once again:
Every year, on the day before Christmas, the disciples would gather with the Master at the Mount Washington Center for meditation. The sacred session would usually last all day and into the evening hours. During the Christmas meditation in 1948 the Divine Mother* appeared to the Master, and . . . Suddenly he cried:
"Don't go! You say the subconscious material desires of these people are driving You away? Oh, come back! Come back!" [Tms 75]
The Divine Mother construct of SRF contains this:
"The Lord in the form of the Cosmic Mother appears in living tangibility before true bhaktas (devotees of a Personal God).
"The Lord manifests Himself before His saints in whatever form each of them holds dear. A . . . Hindu beholds Krishna, or the Goddess Kali, or an expanding Light if his worship takes an impersonal turn." [Tms 106]
Cry - well, here is a problem
Yogananda teaches, "You cannot summon God by a little cry; it must be unceasing." [Ak 447]. Unceasing crying demands having healthy lungs and maybe little time for food and loving. It may even annoy a mother so badly that she kills it in a fit. But: "To the naughty child who cries and cries for Her, She will come . . . first you must prove to Her that you want Her alone. You must cry urgently and unceasingly." [Ak 450]. But what will she do to the "faith-ful cry-baby" at forty and fifty? [Folly-dangerous practice]
It seems scientifically untested how crying for Divine Mother till she appears, is helpful, though Yogananda decrees his followers to cry like that. The practice calls for frustrations and maybe added twisting of the basic concepts in time too, as a way out.
It is not wise to fall for dualistic concepts and their decoys, but it looks like "the way of the world" that "Nothing is so laughable that it does not find worshippers (German)."
Ardent "baby-cry-ballyho" usually works against the basics of sound and deep meditation, as Yogananda is into too in his way: "You won't find God anywhere unless you find Him within [Jse 292]." "Discover Him within yourself [Ak 171]." Is God a "Him" now? Cry to "Her" and find "Him", what?
Should one "seek God," then, as Yogananda often urges followers to? If you form concepts, however grand-looking, such thought-forms could limit your expanse of inner awareness. We are supposed to transcend (go beyond) lots of concepts. Ramakrishna was taught this too by the naked, wandering Totapuri, in a memorable scene. [Link] Compare [Link]
All-round meditation guidance
The art of meditation is to glide within and transcend in deep and proficient meditation. Emotionalist ballyhoo and rigmarole could well act against what better states open up.
Here are a few Lahiri samples:
The fault is to desire; therefore, renouncing desire[,] be happy. [Gv 56].
Kriya should be practiced not for benefits but rather abandoning expectations for results. [Hw 132].
Tranquility (Sthirattva) is attained eventually by sincere Kriya practice which abandons the expectations for results therefrom. [Iv Back cover]
He suggests that to desire to be happy is something to renounce and abandon - for the sake of being happy (through kriya yoga, the core of which is ujjayi). Well, well, what Yogananda teaches about desiring and crying for Mom God, and what Lahiri teaches as about having no expectations, and Buddha's significant sayings hold different views as to expecting results - truth be told:
Whether they meditate with or without expectations, if they have the wrong ideas and the wrong methods, they will not get any [good] fruit from their meditation. . . .
But if somebody meditates with a wholesome attitude, with right attention and mindfulness, then whether he has expectations or not he will gain insight.
(Contracted from the Bhumija Sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya, by Anne Bancroft 2010:58-59)
Buddha allows us expectations and great benefits, and Lahiri cautions against expecting benefits from the kriya yoga system he is said to have streamlined. He could mean "drop expectations during the meditations," if various sayings are interpreted that way. But his teachings may seem to have been lost on devoted Yogananda. Why? Disciples of Lahiri withheld many of Lahiri's books from Yogananda. They did not trust him. And despite what Yogananda tells, Lahiri had written books, writes Satyeswarananda:
After retirement in 1885, Lahiri Mahasay engaged himself in writing interpretations of the scriptures. First, he started with the Bhagavad Gita. . . . Lahiri Mahasay published his Gita interpretations in 1888 through Panchanan Bhattacharya . . . Bhattacharya would distribute them only to initiated Kriya disciples. [Then] Priyanath [Yukteswar] began to tell his disciples publicly, "Gurudev [Lahiri Mahasaya] has not written any books . . ." . . . knowing full well that his Guru, Lahiri Mahasay, had given charge to publish and distribute his books to Panchanan Bhattacharya.
This led among the disciples of Priyanath, like Yogananda, to believe that Lahiri Mahasay did not write any books. [◦Swami Satyeswarananda]
From this we learn that Yogananda is not a good source when it comes to Shyama Lahiri books; not at all. The cry-for Mom guru is also at variance with what is taught in some of them.
It matters to know how devotedness turned outward may mar, and how devotedness turned inward may do good and help soundness if cultivated. Meditation helps inward-turning. It may be seen as a means of the right sort of devotion. "Devotion, the intentness of the soul on its own nature. Or devotion may be called intentness on the reality of the Self," writes Adi Shankara in a text called Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Again, "Sages worship Brahman with devotion as the ultimate reality within their own selves, the essence of all organs," Shankara affirms in his Hymn to Hari. So mature devotion maintains focus on one's self, and awareness may grow.
It might do much good to understand that Yogananda often talks against himself on many issues, and the art of meditating deeply and proficiently. Maybe devotion-cultishness got the better of him, and maybe not. Folly developed, suffice to say. There is no need to glorify it and its rigmarole after-effects.
It was observed by the late Swami Anandamoy of SRF that SRF conformity hardly suits those of independent attitudes. Be that as it may, the goal of yoga is aloneness, says Yukteswar in his book The Holy Science, telling that liberation is "aloneness", or "aloofness", or "separatedness" kaivalya. The Yogananda biography wonders if he asked Yogananda to base his teachings in America on that book (Dasgupta 2006, 46)
However, "Be ye separate" or "Away from me, ye!" as Yukteswar meant by 'separateness', did not become a catch phrase. Yet Yogananda did tell a disciple:
Don't take my word for anything. . . . please remember. - Yogananda, in Dietz 1998
It means a lot to find out that many of sound mind may go on without Yogananda words, and how many Yogananda sayings are of little value for a meditator.
SRF people and others in the Lahiri tradition are told to get rid of their "ego" too. This side to the widespread kriya teaching is suspect. Mental derangement may be brought on. A person needs his or her ego (in the psychoanalytical sense) to fight and bear fruit. There is a great need to clarify just that.
Gurus in the SRF line dare to call themselves "I", yet having got rid of the ego. "I" is the ego, and also a part of the name of the Lord in the Bible. It boils down to that. What is more, the Lord's self-presentation, "I am what I am" in Exodus 3:14 is about the same as "I". "I am" and "I" are not so different, for unless you are, you are no I. Unless you are, you cannot be. The one requires the other, thus. In other words, to be requires someone to be: an I.
Now Ramana Maharsi has a say about the value of I in good enough yoga too: "Awareness is itself the "I". [Tb 24] Many essential meditation methods are designed to help awareness, in other words a deep and fulfilling sense of "I". It can become jubilant.
⦾ An organisation led by monastics will usually go for prestige and resources from such as lay members, in the name of "spiritually fattening" or better, much better. At least better-sounding. We should not fall for glorious-gilded decoys.
Rescued and rescued
Some think they get rescued from bad things by entering Yogananda's cult. Also observe the organisation may be reluctant to admit to being a cult, even though it conforms to main criteria of cults. I do not say a cult may be all bad, only that it is authoritarian. Further, cult membership may suit those whose personalities are patterned similarly, perhaps. But you should know a cult when you see one.
Some come to see Yogananda teaches inconsistently and interprets religious teachings tendentiously and unfoundedly as suits himself. He makes much of his visions, telling Jesus is one of the six gurus, and explains the Holy Spirit as Aum, and so on. That is, he transforms Christian thought to fit ancient Hindu concepts without fair consideration, and SRF stubbornly upholds his wrong views. It is better to be aware of these things before you are stuck in the cult and feel too scared to leave SRF and also drop Yogananda, for example. This said, I have also got letters from SRF members who were content.
Yet, if you do not want to submit to elements that may bring on neuroses, try to sort out what kind of rescuing you can profit from. Do you want self-help? Yogananda's teachings are not ideal for it. Do you want submission and dependency and perhaps retrogression? Why not try to improve, rather than conform to unsound cultishness?
Satyananda's branch of kriya yoga allows for book-reader freedom. There are few or no dictates for doing kriya "faithfully" and so on. However, there are traditional rules and regulations for the yogi-fit life-style.
There is a difference between kriya and kriya in the SRF tradition too. Yogananda simplified parts, altered parts, and SRF does not teach exactly the same kriya now as it did back in 1933. Moreover, different disciples of Yogananda were allowed to teach kriya too, and some of their instructions differ.
It is also significant that whereas the guru's kriya system largely prepares for meditation, Transcendental Meditation (TM) is meditation. In some further, delicate states of dhyana (meditation) kriya breathing can come naturally and spontaneously, though. That sort of delicate, very gentle breathing is called ujjayi in yoga literature, and is the core of basic kriya too. And TM brings better results for meditators than other researched methods, says ▫David Orme-Johnson.
A nice combination of gentle breathing awareness altenating with TM (a form of mantra yoga) could be good. Among the essential factors are timely, correct, adapted practice with gentleness and as much ease as you manage to get, and not overdoing it.
⦾ Many inherently unsound cults offer beginners "wonderful aids" and meditation techniques, only to start limiting member's freedom once the goodies are hooked or go inside the pot.
~ೞ⬯ೞ~
Discerning between the essential and less helpful is great help.
Kriya yoga is a set of many techniques. Satyananda's tradition tells there are 76 kriyas, and teach 20 of them by stages. Satyananda describes them in the books A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya [Cy, passim] and Kundalini Tantra [Kta 284-315]. Thus, twenty kriyas are described in publicly available books. The Yogananda line operates with four kriyas, yet several subsets include a bundle of what the Satyananda tradition calls kriyas too, so the proportion is not 20 to 4. And the major technique of kriya yoga is given here.
Yogananda, the Hindu monk that made kriya yoga well known in the West, learnt kriya yoga in another line from Babaji, and he went on and simplified the kriya yoga he had learnt. First Lahiri Mahasaya (1828-95) simplified the kriya system, Yogananda tells, and later he himself removed some practices and changed the names of others. You may wonder if Yogananda's kriya is well simplified. Satyananda's tradition does not teach simplified kriya yoga, but rather kriya with additions by Satyananda, who culled the additions from scriptures.
The core part of Satyananda's kriya yoga is breathing in a particular way, a form of pranayama. It is a publicly known way of breathing called ujjayi ("victorious", also called "ocean breath"), This calming and vitalising breath may further"self-integration", and has common elements with the Tu-Na breathing in Taoist Qi Gong practice. One may build on the simple practice and turn it into meditation.
Among the ujjayi variants, it makes sense to go for the gentler. Besides, "Don't be bound by anything. That philosophy will save you." [Yogananda, Dr 26].
The Rising Serpent Power
In Kundalini Tantra Satyananda tells that for hundreds of years people have been talking about an experience called nirvana, . . . self-realization, . . . without understanding it properly. [3] He puts it into perspective by what is called kundalini awakening.
Kriya is first of all for awakening the kundalini, a dormant, potential force that usually resides at the root of the spinal culumn. Consciousness is aligned with it too, and levels of consciousness. Kaivalya, liberation, nirvana and so on, result from making the dormant energy rise to the head and then on to the heart, so to speak. Mantra japa is one means to awaken the kundalini. There are other means too, and kriya breathing is just one of many. [Kta 13-15]
Along the pathway(s) or of the rising serpent power (kundalini) are six chakras or "wheels" that are "stringed" to the course. The chakras are mental centres, and not physical ones, yogis inform. From bottom [Kta 127] these are counted in:
- Muladhara - the root centre around the perineum.
- Swadhistthana - sexual organs area
- Manipura - navel
- Anahata - heart
- Vishuddhi - throat
- Ajna - eyebrow-medulla. [Kta 23-25]
The top of the head is the seat of the Sahasrara chakra, the "thousand-petalled lotus". Each chakra is a vortex of bioplasma, and talked of as a lotus, padma, with coloured petals and with their own mantras too. That is the teaching.
⦾ Mantra yoga is a fine way. TM is mantra-yoga fit for many.
Descriptions and false beliefs blend in Yogananda's line
The Yogananda line draws in astrology signs in their teachings too, and teach that one round of kriya equals one year's evolution. Or do they all? Perhaps not, for as it turns out, Yogananda changed teachings he got from his own guru, Yukteswar, in ways that look suspect. It appears that their descriptions on how to "move the attention up and down the spine", is different too. I have come across three disctinctly different versions in the kriya tradition of Lahiri Mahasaya. He taught one thing, his disciple Yukteswar taught another, and Yogananda a third.
It has to be told: Better foretold than stuck in the mud of sad doctrine later, even if it is called divine wisdom.
You do not have to include belief in astrology and all sorts of additions to do your gentle breathing. But Yogananda teaches:
The kriya yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centres (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.
. . . The scriptures aver that man requires a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution to perfect his human brain sufficiently to express cosmic consciousness.
. . . In three years, a kriya yogi can thus accomplish by intelligent self-effort the same result which nature brings to pass in a million years . . .
The kriya beginner employs his yogic exercise only fourteen to twenty-eight times, twice daily . . . A yogi who dies before achieving full realisation carries with him the good karma of his past kriya effort; in his new life he is harmoniously propelled toward his infinite goal.
[Autobiography of a Yogi, chapter 26, "The Science of Kriya Yogi". Excerpts.
Do we have problems with that teaching? Maybe we should, for there is no good evidence of it, actually. And besides, the guru's teaching in the matter changed greatly from his first years in the US. After he had dispensed with parts of kriya that were held to be vital by his gurus, introduced extraneous elements and simplified the key kriya yoga practice too, he boldly declared that ordinary evolution could at best lead man to cosmic consciousness in a million years, whereas his guru Yukteswar has written twelve million years - longer than humans have surfaced the earth, according to latest studies of mankind's history. To ascertain Yukteswar's and Yogananda's homespun-looking claims and do it well, lies outside the scope of this article. Really.
And if such anomalities in the kriya teachings are not enough, the early Yogananda (before 1925) taught that one round of kriya equalled a month's diseasless evolution. After 1925 one kriya round equalled a year's evolution. He bolsters up his outré claims by "scriptural authorities", but never shows which seers and scriptures teach as he does. And his own guru and guru's guru do not. All of it made me, for my part, smell a rat. Such vital points are debated on some other pages here, and exact references are given there. However, a very brief summary of these facts was felt to be good at this point. [Link]
In higher yoga you are permitted to have sound, reasonable doubts and question the teacher. Deal with your doubts too. There are many good ways to do it toward proficiency."When in doubt, win the trick", Edmund Hoyle says. That is fit, and far better than succumbing to blind faith in false teachings. Buddha teaches how to doubt in a fit way instead of being credulous [Kalama Sutra].
- Yogananda teaches kriya is scientific, that it works like mathematics, and so on. But when people confronted him or complained that they had done so many kriyas that they should have had cosmic consciousness by now, he said, at least to one, "But your attitude was not right." Attitudes may not influence mathematics like that. Yogananda lined up to science and Christianity in ways that were unwise, in order to spread a message.
- The teaching of "revolving" vitality up and down differs from just channeling it up and down. And such somewhat different ideations are hardly necessary at all for good results of gentle breathing. [More] Maybe you can do away with "superimposed thrash" on your gentle breathing (pranayama), and just focus on the thing itself. That should be good.
- As for the astrological connection, remember to ask Yogananda for evidence. If that is lacking, do not settle for authority-fostered mere belief. That is general advice.
- As for how fast kriya boost inner evolution, his guru, who taught him kriya yoga, teaches one thing and Yogananda quite another. Yogananda's great-sounding ideas of cosmic consciousness and boosted evolution may be inspected on another page. [More]
- Yogananda also tells karma (samskaras) is said to be made ineffective by kriya. So how can you then carry with you good karma after doing kriya as he tells? Yogananda does not tell.
So beware of what Yogananda teaches you, for he brings "warbled" teachings. You soon end up in confusion and frustration if you seek to make sense of them all. Better be forewarned. This does not mean that he does not teach neat and useful things in between the others, though.
What we ought to realise on top of Yogananda is that simple yet effective yoga methods - kriya is an example - gets variants and a body of teachings that may or may not contain truth, may or may not contain distortions or gross foolishness, and calls for belief. And entering the cult of Yogananda, SRF, equals super-serfdom, that is, outright dependency for life after life. Maybe you should let it go.
⦾ Yogananda made a living of declaring astounding things without proof. Better be forewarned.
Biomagnetic charge - root cause of effects
Kriya yoga makes the life force, or prana, go up and down "in the spine" and thereby magnetise the organism, is a general teaching given.
The Satyananda tradition teaches that kriya effects your biomagnetism or bioplasma by what is generated from careful, successful practice. If kriya is done well, the head very soon takes on an extra charge of positive biomagnetism - and it can be felt too - and the root of the spine gets more negative biomagnetic charge also. The organism is polarised. As a result brain waves get altered as well. The brain waves get more coherent, unified, and the wave patterns improve. And there is some research on kriya yoga(s) that speaks of up to remarkable effects. [Kriya research]
How to make prana, vitality, ascend somewhat "along the spine" - that is, in a subtle (fine) thread or channel called sushumna nadi, which may not be seen by current scientific apparatus? How to do it properly? There are many methods. Kriya is one of several methods of breathing, or pranayama, to such an end. To do a little kriya is really comfortable, and pleasant too. It is important to realize that ascent of the kundalini does not have to manifest as visions of chakras, but is to be accompanied by higher levels of mind.
You do the easy method, and let the results take care of themselves. That is all there is to it, basically. However, much is added or clustered around the basic method of breathing in and out in particular ways, in the different kriya yoga traditions.
Now, since Satyananda's kriya (he learnt it from Sivananda, who learnt it from Babaji according to a Satyananda book [Ets]) is made public, there is perhaps little or no harm in giving a bird's-eye's view of the basic doings, and what is most profitable. The aim is greater awareness, and to instruct ordinary people to to become masters of the spiritual realm, says Satyananda. As soon as consciousness transcends (goes beyond) sense experience, that is what may happen, one day at a time. Put in other words, higher awareness develops. [36, 50-51]
In tantra, sahasrara, the crown centre, is the highest, body-related point of awareness. [192]
⦾ A fit aim, says Satyananda, is increasing awareness.
Kriya Practice in Perspective
To do kriya you need to know exactly what to do, and be purified too. [173]
Some divide kriya into preliminary and advanced techniques. There is nothing wrong with that. [197] They set forth sensible, averagely founded rules of when and where to do kriya, what to eat, how to sit. The delicate problem is you have no evidence as to what is really needed, as judged from facts, and what is the result of shared opinions in a group. I just draw attention to a delicate point, to your possible benefit.
See for example the traditional yogic attitude to onion. Some Indian yogis refuse to eat it out of prejudices masked as "teachings" of a tradition. They have been taught that onion grows in dirt, and therefore is dirty, and that it stimulates sexuality. There may not be good proof of any of it, and many other yogis eat onion as well. There are similar food prejudices in Norway too. Vaccinium uliginosum (Bog Bilberry or Northern Bilberry) is a very common, blue berry, for example. In Norway it was thought to be afrodisiacal, so people refused to eat it (!). In Denmark and Iceland it was different. The berry may replace blueberry in prepared products like jam, juice, and contains three more vitamin C too. Today people buy afrodisiacs rather wildly, but not this berry, because it has no such documented effects. [Vib 52-56]. It is the same with eating onion - it should not arouse much sexual energy apart from possible, shared placebo effects as to which foods cause what.
You are advised to sit straight, yet relaxed, and that is probably good. Maybe you wonder, "Can some get awakened without sitting straight?" In the tradition there are tales of such people. Among them is a woman who was milking her cow when it happened. You may wonder whether there are many such cases. Maybe there are, but the standard advice is still to sit straight and yet relaxed while breathing in and out. There should be no harm in that.
Ordinarily, kriya yoga - which is gentle breathing with some features added - is put into the eight-limbed yoga of Patanjali.
⦾ Other yogis eat onions too -
The Eight Limbs of Traditional Yoga and the Place of Kriya in It
- Yama (abstentions) - (1) non-killing,
(2) truthfulness,
(3) non-stealing,
(4) continence,
(5) non-receiving of gifts.
- Niyama (regulations) - (6) cleanliness,
7. contentment,
8. austerity,
9. study,
10. polite and fit inward-attunement first is the greatest surrender
- Asana, posture: There are for keeping the spine and neck steady and essentially upright, and other postures too.
- Pranayama, or control of the prana (vital energy) - Here is where kriya yoga comes in, at least the simplest, lowest level of it. It is for preparing the body-mind for the next stages. By focusing on the eyebrow area and breathing in particular ways, one may eventually feel charged in the head, so to speak. Intense focusing in this way may activate "snake power" in the scrotum area or wherever it is hid.
- Pratyahara - withdrawal of the mind from the senses. Inwardturning of the mind, making the mind turn inward, is what happen when falling asleep. During meditation one retains conscious awareness.
- Dharana - When the mind has become interiorised, the next to do is keeping the mind steady so. in the interiorised position (or mode), maybe fixing the mind on a spot, for example the heart and eyebrows at the same time (You can do it).
- Prolonged dharana is called dhyana, or deep meditation.
- Samadhi is still longer, deeper meditation. Samadhi is what we experience when the mind soars free from senses, when the consciousness transcends (goes beyond). Prolonged, deep meditation is the fundament for samyana, 'together-control', which is holding one's attention steady on something in the superconscious state. Various attainments are taught to be attainable in this way, and they are often called miraculous powers. Patanjali enumerates many of them.
⦾ The eight limbs of Patanjali work toward sanyama, where the practitioner seeks to use and direct higher states of mind to some end.
Aiming at Simple Measures
You should not think that you have to start from bottom and gradually work your way upwards through the system. If you want to meditate, meditate. If you want to prepare the body-mind too, that may work well.
In Transcendental Meditation this is a great service: It takes you directly to the main thing. In kriya yoga, also a simplified system of it, you may be taken to the threshold of meditation, and need not go deeply into 76 variants - They take time to learn, and may be dispensed with, almost all of them if what you want is to charge your body-mind for meditation and work by some deep breathing with a few elements added. That is how it is.
"It does not have to be so simple," you may rightly say. But check how much spare time you have and are willing to invest in good yoga and meditation. The simpler it is, the easier to carry through, and the less time it should consume. By giving attention and time to the main things, you could go deeper, get substantial progress faster and easier. But that is your business. If you feel a desire to contort your body in a hundred body postures, learn locks and other means to prepare for meditation, that is feasible too, at least for those of young and supple bodies. But I doubt if it is needed. A little yoga is good, it may help, it may prepare for kriya too, but see to that preparations do not consume most of the time available. And when you learn kriyas, see to that the 76 variants do not crowd out maximum time spent on the best things.
Satyananda's kriya tradition publishes a programme of 36 lessons [Cy], starting with simple ones to train in, and then go on to more difficult ones to master, by stages. Also, the time spent on various practices is increased in time. You are also taught to combine various elements from the simpler practices. Also, simpler techniques are replaced by more advanced ones. There is a whole lot to learn in the traditional yogi way. And this may be added: The books by Satyananda on kriya and yoga nidra are admirable as to structure, clarity and thoroughness of presentation. They cover a wide range of traditional methods, give precise instructions, and do not seek to indoctrinate you at every turn. All this means I like them.
The question is now: How to simplify kriya yoga or a similar breathing method to work along with Transcendental Meditation, TM, which seems to be the best meditation method of our time, according to much research? Can the simplified kriya or similar methods advance cosmic consciousness, or is that part of the Yogananda's teaching a big bait? One reason for getting suspicious in the matter is that he teaches with two mouths. On the one hand he teahes that the purpose of life is to evolve ego-consciousness, on the other hand he teaches "kill the ego". Can you have your cake and eat it too? Can you kill the ego (rational mind) and still evolve it into cosmic consciousness all the same? Do not get confused. [More]
⦾ Consider whether it seems plausible to you to get Cosmic Consciousness (God) by some delicate breathing (kriya) and sitting still. I think there are many who do not get It soon. You are free to try as far as I am concerned.
Suggested
Below are three nuggets.
1. In Satyananda yoga you are taught several of of the other parts of the kriya system, for example "the closing of the seven gates". Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth are closed during the practice. [258]. Such "plugging" is done along with the kriya, during retention of the breath after breathing in. There is to be no strain, no discomfort.
2. Also, you start with simple sides to yoga and kriya, and goes on to listen to subtle sounds of your prana system, according to general Tantra yoga teachings [254-57]. There are methods for it. You plug your ears in some described way, and start listening. After some time you may detect the Om sound, a medley.
3. Satyananda's line also teaches another of the techniques of kriya. A mantra is mentally intoned for each chakra while breathing. However, this kriya practice is not among the twenty kriyas Satyananda normally teaches. It is taught in the kriya system that came to Yogananda as navi kriya, but he dispensed with it. Various mantras to chant mentally at the chakras are mentioned. They are as Satyananda kriya-guru Sivananda taught them. What you do is to bring your attention to each chakra and mentally repeat a different mantra for each. In this way you learn several mantras - the practice is done to prepare for kriya . . . but may be done away with, then [272-74].
⦾ You "plug your ears", but do you "get to God" by it? Anyway, there is a method - with variants - used for such an aim.
No strain
As you practice the preliminaries and perfect the practice, you move on to the next set of practices to perfect yourself in, and told that all the rules and regulations enumerated, apply to kriya yoga too. There are twenty practices that are called integral for breathing in and out in the kriya way - and they are described in detail in a book. It is claimed it is essential that you master them, and that you will get very little benefit from kriya unless you perfect the twenty other methods. [Cy] [280]
Among the sensible counsels is: "Do not strain physically or mentally under any circumstances." "Do not hold the breath for longer than is comfortable." "Check that you are doing all the steps and that they are being done correctly." [282-83]
⦾ Specific details help only if their over-riding methods are helpful.
The Core of These Tidings
For meditation, kriya is preparatory, and may consume very much time. There is also a kriya-ic way of breathing that occurs spontaneously in deep meditation toward transcendence.
Among the many kriyas, some methods are core methods. One common feature of the core methods is special breathing, just as in the silent variant of the traditional breath technique that is called ujjayi.
Thus, learn yogic deep breathing and add the most delicate verson of ujjayi to it, and there you are. You have to find out just how much you can do of this "almost adult kriya". do not overdo it.
This is to put deep yogic breathing and ujjayi into perspective. It goes along with body postures, and also with kriya yoga as taught in the Satyananda line. The rather inaudible sound made during this breathing method come close to the sound of doing basic kriya as taught in SRF, but there are a few small differences too.
You may cut to the chase unless you want to be involved in advanced kriya or need to be bogged down by SRF teachings:
Combine the better part of simple, sensible deep breathing and unheard ujjayi to get benefits. You may find that just one very simple kriya method may do before meditating on a fit mantra, actually.
Safe enough, simple yoga postures are commendable also. Hint: A series of consecutive asanas are here: [Link] However, they do not have to be that many, and are not mandatory. Asanas are, rather, additional for those who like.
A simple kriya along with mantra meditation is indeed feasible for most people, and may give benefits many are after. [284]
Satyananda and Yogananda teaches variants of the same mantra method (ajapa jap). In one, the mantra hamsa - spelled "hong-saw" - is silently thought along with breathing in and out naturally. "Hong" or "hang" accompanies the inbreath, and "saw" the outbreath. It is all done in a non-directive manner. [Cy 583]
It may be good for many to realise that simple ways may work well. Transcendental Meditation, TM, is a good example. And combining it with a gentle breathing method is nothing new either. What may be new is the breathing technique's delicate details.
The bottom line is that what you may need, is meditation, and preparations may not take much time, at least the first few years. After you have experienced what meditation can do for you, you may add to your methods, refine some of them, and incorporate other sides of yoga that you feel for deep inside.
So take heart. Meditation and yoga do not have to be complicated and much time-consuming. The better the methods, the better results are had in a shorter time.
You decide how involved you want to get, and how much time you are willing to spend. Do not strain, and do not overdo it.
⦾ Transcendence is feasible, although there could be some meditators who have not got It yet.
