Kriya Yoga Teachings of Lahiri Mahasaya

• Kriya Yoga Tenets of Lahiri Mahasaya
• A Few Sayings of Lahiri Mahasaya Commented On

Kriya Yoga Teachings of Lahiri Mahasaya

How to deal with yogi sayings? First be a yogi yourself.

What is called kriya yoga differs a bit from one school to another. How to deal with or understand enigmatic yogi teachings? First be a yogi yourself, and do not worry a lot about the sayings of others.

Sayings of Lahiri Mahasaya with comments are found below.

Lahiri's Kriya Tenets

1. Kriya is truth, and the rest is false.

There is much falseness in the world, in other words.

To study books well is normally a fruit of reading. It gives pain to some, but alternatives to fair study may not be of much worth.

2. Practicing kriya is the study of the Vedas. kriya is jagya [performance of Vedic rituals]. All should perform this jagya.

Study. This saying consists of two equations and an endorsement. Basically, kriya is gentle breathing, as explained. It has been shown by a research team, N. N. Das and H. Gastaut, that some who practice kriya, get astoundingly improved brain waves, especially beta waves. Up to 40-45 Herz were measured, and over the whole brain in one kriya yogi. A later study on the effects of TM, by J. P. Banquet, confirms similar effects of meditation; he measured brain waves of up to 40 Herz [Meb 36-37; 24-25].

Brain waves go along with states of mind. Beta waves like those above, are about the double of what you get by focusing on reading intently. Hence, apprehension can be linked to beta waves. Accordingly, to the degree that kriya panting improves your brain waves and their coherence, your understanding should improve too. In such altered states some get insights too. The better the brain works, the better ground (conditions) for top insights, one can postulate.

To study the Vedas is to study the Vedas. To do kriya (gentle breathing) or other meditation methods, may improve one's understanding, but basically, breathing is breathing. In daily practice it may be experienced that TM and perhaps kriya too (depending on methods used, and such things), may ease study. That is no small benefit.

Rituals. To perform rituals is through ceremonies involving muscles, limbs, gestures movements and so on. An obvious effect of meaning that gentle breathing with or without additions to it (postures, etc) is a Vedic ritual, could be to get kriya accepted among very orthodox Hindus, who are "stuck in Vedas", which they believe are of divine origin and the ultimate verification.

You do not have to care about Vedas and Vedic rituals if you meditate well, is one underlying message. You should get enlightened first. And, to repeat, meditation and study complement one another, and this sound fact is mobilised in the TM teachings too. A fit balance of daily activities is of much worth, and this is a core principle of Waldolf Education too, as in life itself.

It usually helps to build from bottom. It must be very sensible to blend at least three ways:

1. A way of relaxing (kriya can be included);
2. A way of coping (includes much more than ceremonies and pastimes);
3. A way of sound cognitive development. It involves maturing and learning.

3. All devatas, [Indian] gods, practice these kriyas [i.e. kriya rounds] One who practices kriya is a devata [it corresponds to an angel].

Learn to question, for example, "But isn't there anything better in store than that?" For example, Jesus said "you are gods" and allowed for - called for - greater works than he did (John 14:12). Thus: maybe you should say: "Better than a god!" That, in fact, is the age-old teaching of Self-realization or Self (Brahman) of the Upanishads and many other Hindu teachings.

Basically, those who do kriya are themselves and should know the gates to mature and be themselves - to develop themselves.

In higher states of awareness one may cease thinking. It is reported that Ramakrishna came out of such states without being able to count full well for a little while. [Cf Gra]

And cramped, limited thinking could work well where many are cramped and limited, but it is not wise to be one of them, in a larger perspective.

5. Kriya practice opens the eye of wisdom.

The 'eye of wisdom' is a part of the guru's teachings. As you train yourself in the kriya way - using a method that focuses on the area between the eyebrows, you may become aware that you have a blue eye. It is a tunnel of vital force, prana. A circle of golden light surrounds it; much as in the left image above: [MORE]

6. The knowledge of Brahma, the ultimate Self, is attained by the practice of pranayam. [By special breathing, in other words]

It helps fair persons to have a wide horizon of understanding. You get the guru's confirmation that there is something better in store for some that "just being gods" (cf. saying 3, above) - 'Self' is a word with many meanings. Brahma in Lahiri Baba's teachings is the ultimate self (Saying 81), formless and pure void, a great voidness which is a void inside a void [as if that were possible] (76, 78, 83,105).

Now when you experience a void, you are someone experiencing it. Judged from that, the void is not truly void: Don't overlook yourself in it. Some call it the Self.

The Brahma Self may be seen between the eyebrows and in the sun (Sayings 51, 46), beyond a point inside, that point is called bindu (a yogi term). (Saying 76) Get into the pure, formless void, Brahma (Self), and cope well (77, 78).

8. By the practice of pranayam, ignorance is dispelled and knowledge of the Self reveals.

Overdoing it has its price; neglect another. Overdoing it is not it, and can be hazardious to health. A savoury balance that is fairly profitable and rewarding, may be had - at a price.

9. One who does not see kutastha [the inner Self between the eyebrows] with the help of one's own guru's advice in this physical body is a blind one.

To the illumined, the world that is perceived by the eyes and other senses, is blank. It resembles being blinded by gazing at the sun, and not being able to see things clearly for a while afterward (Do not try it, for the sake of your eyes).

"I am ever with those who practice Kriya," he would say consolingly to chelas (close friends) who could not remain near him. "I will guide you to the Cosmic Home through your ever enlarging spiritual perceptions." [Ha 323; cf. Ha 9]

There are many other definitions.

Mantrayana. 'The way of mantras' is a firm part of Buddhism, and Hinduism too. Mantras are syllables and sets of syllables. Meanings may be attached to the sound-works too, but are not said to be essential. Mantras are intoned either loudly, or muttered, or silently. The last way is maintained to work best for meditators; accordingly, think-repeat the beneficial, well-selected sound(s) according to the traditional, handed over rules, and things could go your way. That is the teaching, in essence. Yogananda teaches the ancient mantra way of hamsa, hong-saw, etc, and so do Satyananda and others. [MORE]

The principal mantra in Buddhism is Om mani padme hum. Initiation into many Hindu sects involves the whispering of a secret mantra to the initiate by the great preceptor. In the Indian tradition, mantras are thought to be truly efficacious only when they are got verbally from one's mentor in that way.

Tantra involves secretive practices and fosters candour by and large. Tantric yoga is thought to tie in with Rikvedic penances. In tantra works that deal with yoga, certain practices may get focused on a certain root energy (lust), awakening it and making careful use of it for various purposes. Copulation can become one of these "left-hand" practices.

13. When the tongue is raised, the senses are subdued.

Try it out, and you're almost sure it won't work . . . By that little test you could gain a negative conviction: "These kriya teachings are bogus (etc)." But wait - suppose this common yogi practice has potential when conditions for it are all right, what then? Then your test has been inconclusive, and you need to ferret out better and maybe more refined ways of ascertaining whether yogic tongue-lifting works, and how far, and so on.

Those who lift their tongues and state that they didn't subdue all their senses, they have at least experimented, and maybe prematurely. The question is whether lifting the tongue in particular ways have the potential of subduing the senses in combination with other elements and how to find out of things like that. And there is the added topic of the possible, accumulated effects of practice and practice with skill.

What you find, depends on how you go about, depends on the methods you use and how advanced the trainees are. You have to take into account the effects of coincidence, expectations, and other placebo items. A fit research design adjusts to these factors and several others.

By falling asleep the senses are naturally subdued to a great extent, so yes, it may not be ruled out that the senses may be substantially subdued by yoga training, even though good results may come only to a few.

A further given in this terrain: "Some say this, some say that" - gurus do not always agree. Lahiri teaches that tongue-lifting is essential for kriya. Yogananda made his more relaxed variant of kriya, and Yogananda's disciple Norman Paulsen finally concluded that the practice was not really necessary. Who teaches best? Belief is not a way to find out. Maybe cultivated practice is, on an individual level.

If you haven't learnt to perform basic kriya with skill along with your tongue-lifting, merely lifting your tongue may not not further much.

It is not your fault if you feel other needs and have other interests than getting good at lifting your tongue. Connect for greater things. Connecting the tongue with the soft palate and uvula (a part of yogic tongue-lifting) well enough as a part of a more comprehensive practice, is not alien to the context it may be fit to study Lahiri's statement in. Speaking of connections, the bond of union between guru and disciple is more than a regular marriage bond, they say. How can you find out whether the venerated one you have married spiritually cares for you and helps you in the long run, or pretend to be a helper while making use of you secretly? Hinduism teaches there are good and bad gurus, many impostors, and that the false gurus may outnumber the real gurus big time. A guru who teaches that yoga is sacrifice, and teaches you how to sacrifice yourself (give up), is not that good for you.

15. One whose khechari [regular tongue-lifting] is successful is fortunate.

"Lift your tongue and become masterly successful," is to be understood within its yogic context, which is an over-arching yoga-training program. Able research into its proposed effects need to take such a setting into account too, among other things.

17. Air [breath] is lord.

"Breath" in this passage is probably a translation of "prana". The Sanskrit word prana is translated as "vital energy" (being zestful rests on it), "breath", "air" etc. So it happens that "prana" goes for "breath".
      In ancient Indian literature the concept of prana is understandable in divergent ways. See for example,

I understand that breath is Brahman [God] . . . Khandogya Upanishad 4.10.

Breath is the life of beings, therefore it is called sarvayusha (all-enlivening).' Taittiriyaka Upanishad 2.3 [So]

On the literal-minded rungs of the ladder of expressions we say that air is physical, a mixture of gases, that is, elements in gas forms, and that a barometer is a fine thing to have. Much air gives rising air pressure, much "such Lord" over you..

On the more inward-turned rungs you may translate 'air' into "life energy" or prana.

The term prana is translated into 'breath' and 'air', but it is not as easy as that. In the organism the term "prana" (life energy) covers many pranas (prana functions behind hiccups and bowel movements, etc, etc.).

19. If one moves the breath [practices pranayam] always, breath ceases and becomes tranquil, sthira.
20. The state of sthirattva, tranquillity, is called yoga.

If you always move your breath, it cannot be still, as it is moving. That is the basic fact here. Another thing that you could be able to ascertain if you like, is that kriya yoga practice calms the organism and its need for breath - for a while. And that higher yoga states go along with peace and calm and tranquillity, is likewise something you may experience if you undertake yoga training into pranayama and beyond. Possibly several millions Americans do, as yoga and meditation has gone mainstream in the U. S. A.

22. If one strikes the door with the reverse air then it will open. This is called reverse japam.

This saying uses an illustration where there is a door and "reverse air". What is referred to is ajapa japa. The Hong-So method of meditation is ajapa japa. I leave the rest of the teachings at this point unexplained.

23. Having practiced kriya, one should hold onto the after-effect-poise of kriya.

The question is "How?" (1) Protect your peace by building garden walls, by dropping detrimental companionship, crooked and foolishly selfish ways of living, and so on, and not getting too uptight. Dwarfing influences have to be counteracted too. The findings of stress research could help you a lot.

25. If you feel pain in the body [during the kriya practice at least], then understand that the practice is not going well.

The practice is to be delicate and pleasant to go well. One is not to overdo it either.

34. May 13, 1873 - Whatever one wants to do, he can do.

Oh well, it may take time, in case. Suppose you want to ascertain something about God, for example: "Can God Almighty make a burrito so hot that He cannot eat it?" [Homer Simpson]. "Can God create stone so heavy that he cannot lift it?" [Stephen Hawking] - and so on.

There are limits to many things. Make the best out of that, as you please. You may not find out how to colonise any planet in a distant galaxy in your lifetime and do it well either - supposedly.

45. Aug 13, 1873 - Today, I became mahapurusa, "the great man."

It speaks of a noble yoga attainment.

90. Knowledge of the ultimate Self is to know oneself by oneself.

108. All realization is possible by the practice of the first kriya. One is required to practice . . .

Good luck. And it is rather essential to grasp that you do not have to believe anything odd to practice kriya yoga. You might consider teachings and tenets as provisional, as your working hypotheses - things like that. At least Buddha allows for that basic attitude in his Kalama Sutta. [LINK]

it is the delicate training that bears fruits, not your beliefs for or against this and that.

• 108 sayings by Lahiri Baba (Lahiri Mahasaya)

A Few Sayings of Lahiri Mahasaya Commented On

What if the supreme guy doesn't think at the time of death?

"Whatever one thinks at the time of death, accordingly one becomes that . . ." (Lahiri statement No 68).

Don't think of tuna and sins at that time, but something nicer. If all who die think: "I am the next world dictator from, say, 2005 AD," can it be realised? Or "I am the Sole Lord and Sole Doer"? I hardly think so.

The Lahiri saying is rooted in an old, Hindu teaching I think is too short-sighted and which may not account for much. Some tone down the teaching to "The Vedic scriptures say that a man will be born in his next birth as that thing about which he was thinking most at the time of his death [Wikipedia, sv. "Jadabharata"]." Here is an example:

The deer and last thoughts

A dying king, thinking of his dear deer.

A fabled king, Bharata, had a pet deer and thought of the animal when dying. In his next life he became a deer, the scriptures tell. As a deer he had these secret thoughts written down, "How foolish of me to have . . . become attached to an animal? And now I suffer for it." When the deer died, it was reborn as a human, and that happened the next time around too. At that time the boy had no attachment to his family and did not speak. His father died, and his brothers gave him up as an idiot. He was now a ripe sage who dressed scantily and roamed about and other things in that vein. The story appears in the second section of the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana (canto five), and still more texts.

Why don't I support the "last moment thought" teaching? I don't think it is fit. I think it is idiotic, even. What matters most is likely to be the sum of your deeds - thoughts, works - through a life-time. That is a part of the beneficial karma teachings of Buddha, at any rate.

Suppose your last thought is "I doubt that teaching!"? How can a human possibly become "I doubt that teaching" - the last thought at death?

What if you think: "I am me"? Can you come back to the exact life that you left? Well, life is not that stationary. Of what if you glimpse a part of your nose, which is much common? Do you really think you become a part of your nose in your next life?

What if you think of the invented, basically surreal painting of a nude and the battle of two armies around her? What you will become is either that surreal painting on canvas of brush-strokes, including the frame - but it all exists already, and forgery is not always welcome in art! - or you might become what is depicted in it, an unchanged nude, both armies and a static battle?

What if you become both the painting with the canvas and frame and what it depicts in a still-life world - all of it?

In his saying, Lahiri did not talk about the first thoughts you get concerned with right after dying. That might be overlooked - but the Tibetan Book of the Dead and other Buddhist works seek to remedy much here. [Cf. Til; Dead; Tiy]

Should all that you are, really be changed into a speck of dust at your nose if that is what you think of at the moment of death? We humans seem to contain so much more wit, awareness and momentum. Perhaps the last flimsy, stray thought like "There's a fly on my nose!" does not matter. (Do not expect to be reborn as a fly on the nose and the nose you left. Adhere to positive thinking instead!) Lately, there have been much research into dying persons. Americans who have died have been revived and come back again and interviewed. Here are some points and references: (2)

Revived and interviewed people

Popular interest in near-death experiences was initially sparked by Raymond Moody Jr's book "Life After Life" [Lif], first published in 1975.

Most persons who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife. According to a Gallup poll, approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience. And data from a Gallup and Proctor survey in 1980-1981, of a representative sample of the American population, showed that 15% had a near-death experience. Such an experience is usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead, or otherwise very close to death. With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of NDEs reported has increased. Most of the scientific community regards such experiences as hallucinatory, and paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists claim them to be evidence of an afterlife.

Children, who typically do not have enough time to develop strongly towards one faith, had very limited NDEs. An ND experience typically follows a distinct progression, which includes the following selection:

1. Pleasant emotions; calmness and serenity;
2. A sensation of floating above one's own body and seeing the surrounding area;
3. Floating up a blue tunnel with a strong, bright light or garden at the end;
4. Meeting spiritual figures;
5. Encountering a being of light, or a light;
6. Having a life review;
7. A feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance.

Some people have also experienced extremely distressing NDEs, emptiness or dread, but a "core" near-death experience encompasses peace, joy, and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences.

Near-death experiences can have tremendous effects on the people who have them, their families, and medical workers. Changes in values and beliefs often occur after a near-death experience, including changes in personality and outlook on life, appreciation for life, higher self-esteem, a heightened sense of purpose and self-understanding, and a desire to learn.

There are many religious and physiological views of near-death experiences. The NDE is often cited as evidence for the existence of the human soul, the afterlife, heaven and hell, ideas that appear in many religious traditions. But sceptics view NDEs as purely neurological and chemical phenomena in the brain. The imagery in the experiences also varies within cultures. [Main source: Wikipedia, sv "near death experiences"]

Thinking about the extraordinary but only fancied, do you end up like that - extraordinary, but just fancied?

It can be so easy to get outsmarted "by Krishna".

"I assume human form to confuse and spread plots" - is that the hidden but real-life motto of the avatar?

Summary so far

1. Things are not always what they look like. Having a good life is a fruit of competing and going along. Solid assets count more than many people imagine. What often matters is what you can master of what is locally applicable. In those cases a phrase of Kurt Levin is appropriate: "There is nothing as practical as a good theory". [Sop 11]
2. Considering that fervent belief makes the cult in the first place, to the degree that solid evidence is lacking, it may pay to bid the tide, so to speak, and refrain from acting on unverified belief alone.
3. Happenings and ideas coupled to them constitute experience. But personal experience may cost dearly and be too hard-won. So prefer to stand of the shoulder of the collective efforts of others by proper schooling. All the sons and daughters of Krishna were drowned with his consent. Why? Because they became such a burden for the earth, he said. His offspring. And even his close friends, the Pandava brothers, left the world feeling empty - climbing a mountain to die.

Literature  

Clh: Dimmit, Cornelia, and J. A. B. van Buitenen, trs. Classical Hindu Mythology. Philadelphia: Temple University, 1978.

Dead: Mullin, Glenn. Death and Dying: The Tibetan Tradition. Harmondsworth: Arkana/Penguin, 1987.

Gra: Jagadananda, swami, tr. Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master. 4th ed. Mylapore: Ramakrishna Math, 1970.

Ha: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1981.

Lif: Moody, Raymond. Life after Life: the Investigation of a Phenomenon - Survival of Bodily Death. New York: Bantam.1976.

Meb: Olsen, Per. Lægevidenskabelig og psykologisk forskning på yoga og meditation. Generelle virkninger og behandlingsmuligheder. 2. utg. København: Bindu, 1978.

So: Deussen, Paul, tr. Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Vols 1-2. Varanasi: Banarsidass, 1980.

Sop: Smith, Eliot R., and Diane M. Mackie. Social Psychology. 2nd ed. Hove: Psychology Press, 2000.

Til: Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling, ed. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup's English Rendering. London: Oxford University Press, 1927.

Tiy: Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling, ed. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.



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