Hariharananda's Kriya Lore
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Plumbing Hariharananda's Kriya Yoga Teachings
Hariharananda Biography
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| After duly considering that "The onlooker may not get potent benefits". [See all] |
Hariharananda, a kriya guru, was born on 27 May 1907 at Habibpur in Nadia, West Bengal and passed away on 3 December 2002. He was in the line of Babaji, Lahiri Baba, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahamsa Yogananda.
He was initiated into the second kriya by Yogananda in 1935. He learnt other kriyas from other swamis and teachers in the Lahiri Baba line too. In 1945 he received the fifth and sixth kriyas from Bhupendranath Sannyal. Maybe it should be pointed out here that Yogananda's fellowship SRF teaches only four graded kriyas while claiming to teach all the kriyas Yogananada knew.
In 1950 Hariharananda became teacher or head (acarya) of a certain ashram (centre) at the request of Yogananda. In 1951 he was authorised by Yogananda to initiate people into kriya yoga.
By the advice and instructions of two of his masters he came to Switzerland in 1974, and later visited many other countries, including the USA.
He established several ashrams (centres) in different parts of India and outside
it, and published books on yoga and kriya.
[/www.hariharanandakriyayoga.org/]
Many of the brief tenets below tie in with his teachings. The gist depends on Hariharananda sources, now outdated, at bottom of the page.
To be broad-minded is like being large inside.
Some Hariharananda Tenets
By the following selections and extracts from "Hariharananda Kriya Yoga" you might get an inkling of the orientation that is involved in it.
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"Conscious realization of one's unity with the spirit is the goal of life. Kriya Yoga is not a sectarian discipline. Kriya Yoga . . . is very simple, it is easy to perform. Practice of Kriya . . . helps to elevate the mind. The simple and easy breath control prescribed in Kriya Yoga technique restores lost equilibrium." [All five: "Paramhamsa Hariharananda on Kriya Yoga"] "Yoga's limitless treasure-trove of spiritual development remains to this day virtually untapped, ignored, or, far worse, reduced to a marketable commodity." ["Kriya Yoga"] "Certain scriptures and texts [are said to be] essential: The Bhagavad Gita; The Yoga Sutras by Sage Patanjali Maharshi (150 B.C.E.); The Avadhuta Gita by Sage Dattatreya; The Uddhava Gita; The Upanishads (composed from 1450 B.C.E. onward); The Yoga Vasishtha by Sage Valmiki (500 B.C.E.) . . . The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads are at the centre of our practice. ["YOGA - a few definitions", extract] "What was the line of [kriya] transmission? The Bhagavad Gita 4:1 says that God first revealed it to Vivashvat (his name means "Shining Forth", and Hindu mythology describe him as the Sun-God.) Vivashvat passed it to his son Manu Vaivashvata, the seventh of the fourteen Manus or progenitors of the human race." ["History of Kriya Yoga", extract] |
COMMENTS
Sectarians. In itself the gentle breathing of kriya is not sectarian, and does not have to be a tool in sectarian developments either. It is basically a very simple practice that may be performed without strain. Get carefully instructed to breathe in and out and be lit up somewhat accordingly. But in the hands of fervent fellows, kriya becomes surrounded by words of God, series of dogmas and blind, perhaps dwarfing beliefs, bullies and unwise bartering for gains, and serves as a key part of sectarian development: Some have noted the sectarian glide in Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship, for example.
So-called essential. Books with at best obscure references to kriya yoga are not actually essentially for kriya of non-sectarians either, and do not pave the way for correct practice. As a matter of fact, there is hardly one clear reference to kriya yoga methods in ancient Sanskrit works. Further, the term "kriya yoga" was coined by the guru Babaji, maybe in the second half of the 1800s AD, and did not refer specifically to gentle breathing before that - at least there seems to be no evidence whatever that it did: Where the term "kriya" appears in older Sanskrit works, it is ordinarily - by translators that do not infiltrate kriya yoga breathing into those works - taken to mean "work, action" and similar. [MORE]
So beware of improper use of Hindu scriptures in kriya circles too. Satyananda's kriya yoga line does not misuse scriptures and enjoin them on meditators, but teaches fairly. We do well to adjust accordingly.
Hindu faith is not essential for gentle breathing either.. References to traditions that included the Sun-god and the world-view of Hindus relate to a faith - and blind faith may work havoc in the mind, may not be good for sound, rational development throughout life, may limit one's mind severely, may become offensive, and can thus be dangerous. Blind faith narrows your life by turns, and behind it is misdirected naïveté - and lack of proper assertiveness deep within.
Predominant yoga outlooks have changed very much over time.
It shows up that very many outlooks of gurus of old have been
somewhat discarded nowadays due to the fact that most modern gurus think according to
Vedanta philosophy. There are many Vedanta schools (cults) of Vedanta. Historically they competed among themselves and with many others. In earlier times still (Vedic times), conditions and teachings were different. Vedanta teachings were not the most popular ones. In modern days most gurus preach Vedanta, says the Encyclopedia Britannica (s.v. "guru")
This goes a long way to show that quite a lot of outlooks from guru dynasties and ranks
have been mistaken, no matter how sacred they were thought to be. A wrong notion does not really deserve to be set in motion and rigidly upheld through faith.
You have perhaps noted that even though Hariharahanda says kriya yoga is nothing sectarian, Hindu scriptures are yet called essential by him? A large amount of Hindu scriptures pertain to cults of Hinduism. Hinduism consists of cults and their hailed scriptures. Krishna is the main object of worship in the Vishnu cult of Hinduism. About nine out of ten Hindus are Vishnu adherents. The Bhagavad Gita and Uddhava Gita are in fact cult books of Hinduism; they pertain to Vishnuism. And I do miss valid evidence that any of them really refer to Babaji's system of kriya yoga at all. I think one may accept that although kriya yoga in itself is gentle breathing and as such not dependent on any faith, many who live to spread the kriya of Lahiri Mahasaya, have a faith - basically Hinduism - and perhaps a facade that looks lovely.
At any rate, gentle kriya breathing and its effects do not rely on ancient works and dubious references. In the face of great inconsistencies between central guru words and deeds, venture to ask: "What is he up to?" If that triggers some ideas, the next step - for your own good - is not to believe them blindly either, but seek some proper substantiation if you can, or otherwise keep your reserve. That is quite polite.
Seek to establish the facts before the goings get sectarian and not your way.
On Love and Marriage and Kriya Love
An extreme lovely guru . . . wants to pull us into the divine fire of love. - Hariharananda. [See F]"A wife is a person who helps you through all the troubles you wouldn't have had if you hadn't got married." [Ole, in Rsn; Online]
The Norwegian-American joke above covers splendid insight, it is a hard summary. Below you may see how true it is far and wide.
Love may be annoying, stressful, and work terribly. Severe stress may maim and eventually kill through psychosomatic mechanisms. And troubles make you gasp or pant. Panting may be further refined. Kriya yoga is much refined, gentle "panting". "What next?", you may wonder.
Consider typical effects of love:
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Up to 11 of the 14 most stressing experiences of Americans tie in with
love and love-making. Love can be quite a killer, and normal aging brings about death. Here are averaged life events on the much used Holmes-Rahes scale, where 100 points is allotted to the worst single event:
*: Very likely to tie in with wedding someone. +: Quite likely to tie in with wedding somebody. |
Does this mean you should avoid the opposite sex and marriage? Hindu monks do, and some of them talk of love.
Now if you get carefully instructed in love-making and the art of getting along with tact and so on, the fire of love is hardly terrible. Then shared love may not be terrible, only annoying as time goes by . . . but it may take seventy years, for example.
Do not disregard old and new expertise in modeling your life, for you may need all the help you can get, considering the many dark sides to current conformity in affluent countries, for example.
Wealth and happiness
"No one has attained happiness from acquiring wealth, and it will never happen." - Lahiri Mahasaya
The truth of a statement like that would depend on what is meant by 'happiness' and what is meant by 'wealth'. When you see lottery winners, for example, do not let gullible belief in a guru - or indoctrination - hinder you from seeing things as they are: that some lottery winners get very, very glad and not just relieved.
Material wealth such as money is good and necessary to most men and women. "Money can't buy everything, just about 95%." Add a careful "give and take" to that too, so as to be on the safe side. This folk wisdom is a broad suggestion of the importance of money or wealth. You may invest it in the things that further and allow for happiness much more too and enjoy freedom and comforts. You may use wealth to build good karma and try to live exemplary too.
American wisdom: "Wealth means power; it means leisure; it means ability."
Detachment from words on detachment and the like
"God remains detached," says Hariharananda [C] That is not the Bible's message at all.Be that as it may, in a main yoga work, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, detachment, vairagya, is spoken well of for yoga training. But there are limits to many things. Make sure that you avoid going to extremes. "Measure in all things" is good. How to attain it? In the Avadhut Gita, there is a good piece of advice about renouncing well. "Renounce, renounce the world, and also renounce renunciation, and even give up the absence of renunciation." (4:21).
Accordingly, renounce both attachment and detachment, and you may end up like someone normal.
Renounce attachment to the Bhagavad Gita and its words as well, for that surely is a fruit of its own teaching too. Attachment to the Gita is attachment, and "yogis act without attachment", says Shankara [Wa 54]. Attachment gives confusion, says swami Nikhilananda further [Ibid].
A practical stand in the matter: At least give up unwholesome attachments. The proper saying to adhere to might be: "Yogis act without undue attachment and may end up looking normal too."
Extreme love for air
If you give extreme love to the breath [work at it], you are a kriyavan. You will get divine joy. - Hariharananda [C]
To "give extreme love to the breath" may seem like folly to some. But try to pay careful attention to the breathing process instead. Many pranayama methods do that. The gentle and easy ones may help you. There are several of them.
You may learn to and succeed in breathing gently and attentively. Wake up from "extreme love to breath" - from to gentle attentiveness on the breathing process and to the breather. Great joy may come or appear if you are good in such matters. Never overstretch. Thus much can be gained or saved.
Earn good money, breathe calmly and you have a chance to gladden up: This route resonates in the right track. If some gurus define wealth as health, joyfulness within, it is their business. Others understand it otherwise, by key concepts like artha (wealth). It is a good thing to know joy as joy and wealth as wealth, too. By that we risk less oratory confusion around.
Gentle Buddhism
Buddha tells one should avoid dissipating wealth, and that a warm-hearted friend "protects the wealth of the heedless", among other things [Link. Buddhists revere the Buddha Gautama Siddhartha for clearly pointing out a good way on and up, and a Buddhist is free to investigate and see for himself or herself. If lottery winners invest their money carefully and well, they lighten much in their future, and may be more notable too and get better opportunities too. You should go for fair wealth, as fit as can be. Note that wealth, artha, is one of the four main life goals of Hinduism. Think of all the good things you could do with it.
Getting ample wealth for funding and obligations and rainy days and future life and good conditions for meditation is a part of Buddhist living. Be firm for having money, or else some 'they' could take what assets you had to begin with. Wisely used, righteous wealth is good, and may lessen sufferings. [MORE]
Detachment from yogi sayings should help you
The truth is that there is no difference between life and death. - Hariharananda [D]
In the guru's case, one difference is that he does not lecture like that any more, after his passing. I suggest you stick to life as part of your efforts to be on the safe side and not poorly aided. Life and death: Yes, there are differences. If you live, you should be happy to move about in a physical body and gather ennobling lessons and advance the good if you are up to it.
Breath
Breath mastery is . . . deathlessness. - Hariharananda [C] ◊
"Is that so" and "Where is the evidence?" are great questions to base the fare on, to the degree you can. You cannot ask the guru in person, though, for he is gone. So much for his deathlessness at this turn . . .
Breath is breath. It comes naturally, but you are inherently free to modify the breathing. To enter improved and envigorated states of mind thereby may be good. And sound breathing methods may not be drastic. To regulate or control breath thoughtlessly can become dangerous.
The lila of altar images to worship
As God is infinite, the embodied souls (jivas), according to the Hindu scriptures, are (too)—As God is all-pervading, we do not have to establish Divinity in the images. It is already present. [D, E]
The swami says "God is infinite". Where is the evidence? The fact is that what appears infinite is somehing you do not fathom. As long as you have not measured what you call infinite - God and mind - you do not know it really is so. A better yoga teaching to stick to is that God is spaceless and may be felt as the heart.
To the degree that fit and good play, lila, is of the divine side of us, mature yet playful persons may not be the fools others think. Go for sane playfulness; it is not too irreverent.
The last claim, that God is all-pervading, means that God pervades yourself too, and hence there is no need for images to worship and venerate. Not all kriya yogis drop altar pictures and the like, though. That may indicate a problem.
Is God helped by an oak?
Our whole body is God, the whole universe is ...—A Sanskrit maxim says, "Worship God after becoming God". [A, cf C, G]
Some words estrange man. In Hariharananda's tradition the towering god-gracing guru is called Babaji. In one passage he says "we are people who like the shelter of trees." Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 36.
Oak trees of great strength help us to relax in their safe shadows, and feel some relief in the heat of the day. Live, large oaks help preserve long-range vistas that speak of strength put into system, and its boundaries.
Old oaks were inhaling from the day your forefathers were born. They breathe in beneath the soil, and out above the surface.
Bottom line: Regardless if God is your body, the bodies of most humans can hardly survive without much vegetation around. Buddhism teaches sound respect for nature, including grasses and bushes and trees. Cutting them down immaturely mars and estranges.
What comes naturally, often strains as well
"Sahaja Kriyayoga" . . . is the Kriya that comes naturally to man, without putting any artificial strain on the physical machinery. [B, A]
Things that come naturally, may be refined and put to good use. Precise, accurate gentle breathing practice is a skill that may be developed stepwise and by degrees over time.
The soul of kriya yogis
The soul itself is the Eternal. The Always Present One is beyond Time even. - Lahiri Mahasaya
Adjust to that yourself by not forgetting who you are.
The meaning of life is had through coming to bloom and catering to what is really excellent too. Learn to consider well, and learn to lie down and evaluate such as external evidence. The Gentle Middle Way contains data for helping yourself into a meaningful, rewarding living.
There is at least a theoretical danger of being misled when invisible phenomena
are explained. Solid proof is rooted in external evidence, and the critical or scientific
outlook may or may not meet with guru resistance if voiced. It depends on guru calibre,
among other things.
Contempation derives benefits from assistance
By loving your breath, you love the living God within you and attain the truth - Hariharananda [C]
A danger with teachings on "love your breath and so on", is that freak loving gets forced and strained, and hence hardly does you much good after some time. So relax and get attentive. Relaxed attentiveness to breathing forms part of Buddist meditation practices too. What Hariharananda refers to is to be focused and warm awareness on gentle, delicate breathing by his term. He also speaks for "no big words or complicated concepts", or "your practice will be in vain and empty." [Hatha Yoga Pradipika, verse 4:34]
And some things that look overwhelming to the tiny tot, may be easy later in life.
Deep meditation should help sensitivity and balance on and up. To "love love" itself is a yoga way, but it is not much to go for, if you don't want to complicate all right things.
Rather than probing into possible and impossible root causes of this and that in the universe and waste valuable time on speculation, one may function fairly well from day to day and make steady progress too. Buddha tells this attitude and way of life helps. Buddha advises us not to concern ourselves with unproductive speculations. [LINK] [Cf. Mii 183 ff]
To save yourself future embarrassment, think calmly and seek culinary outlooks that fit in, above many other outlooks. Just avail yourself of information and methods that are free, such as this information about how to do basic kriya yoga and deep yogic breathing.
Unfold
It is next to impossible for a householder to follow the strict principles of restraint enunciated in the "Astanga Yoga" [Eight-limbed Yoga] of Patanjali . . . The processes in the Kriyayoga taught by Lahiri (Baba) make us gradually fit to unfold the Divine within ourselves, with much less effort than is usually necessary. [A]
"Better results with far less efforts" sounds good, but can you tell to what degree it is part of hype? Get proper verifications and avoid being duped. Solid research is for commendable end. Hariharananda speaks of Lahiri's kriya. Yogananda also speaks of Lahiri and kriya, but he changed his kriya, unknown to many. Along with the changes he also dreamed that the effects were 144 times better than what his own guru stood for. The orator Yogananda is not known for understatements. To the contrary.
Some gurus who advocate kriya yoga, do demand restraints on you. Yogananda does. Demands for restraint in time greatly frustrate innocent or inexperienced ones.
If those who have deep needs for being controlled and the like became proud enough, they could avoid much trouble. Many adaptations to top-dogs can have a weakening effect.
In real life, the trusting, innocent beginner soon becomes someone who is asked to adjust over and over to guru traditions. One's fit and good ways of living may be endangered or battered thereby. Where you are asked to believe a lot, it may show up in time that rigid beliefs endanger many OK, common adaptations.
And if you want or need to exploit kriya knowledge in freedom, because freedom is an old end goal (moksha in Sanskrit) that hardly anyone should give up in order to get it as a reward after years of repressions of natural desires and things like that, you should seek out such as Satyananda's kriya yoga line, naturally. It may be very wise to take your time to make out of these things before committing foolishly and dupedly.
Here are tips for developing artfulness and character. [LINK] [LINK]
Better than Conform Religious: Individual and Spiritual
A few points
The Shankara teaching is that deep within yourself is the real teacher - the Self.The old, punished criminal doing time shares many essential features with the cave-dwelling yogi. Both live in confinement. Yes, yoga discipline can be tough and alarming.
The superior man secures and consolidates his own good fate first, and then mobilises for good fortune too. "Charity begins at home, but it does not have to end there (American proverb)."
Adherents of questionable karma beliefs often avoid making a point of that karma (cause-effects relations) also are formed in the here and now and modified later on - maybe abolished. As Buddha is credited with saying, "Man should build a lot of good karma." Further, karma may also be caused incidentally, as in a plane crash. Dr. Rudolf Steiner mentions that.
Brilliant solutions may have no similar precedents. Accordingly, karmic cause-effect linking fails more or less as for them. Bright-minds may find some ways out too, regardless of some of their karma.
Bottom line: You should not give in to karma, but work to make plenty of good karma, and avoid letting bad karma sprout in your life. It is a life project.
Lessons
Well-night everyone might have thoughts and things we can learn from. It is written in an old Upanishad that one of the famous gurus of old had lots of teachers: they were birds and the like, and "showed" the observant guy many useful lessons for handling his own life and its conditions. Those who serve to teach us lessons, function as teachers, "gurus". Now, "guru" in religious circles carries more significance too.An ancient tale:
"Vaka Dalbhya [Glava Maitreya] went out to repeat the Veda (in a quiet place). A white (dog) appeared before him, and other dogs gathering round him, said to him:
'Sir, sing and get us food, we are hungry.'
The white dog said to them, 'Come to me tomorrow morning.'
Vaka Dalbhya watched. The dogs came on, holding together, each dog keeping the tail of the preceding dog in his mouth, as the priests do when they are going to sing praises." [Khandogya Upanishad 1.1.12.1-4]
In the same book a Satyakama Gabala is instructed by a bull, the fire, a flamingo, a diver-bird, and also his chosen teacher. All the animals are symbolic of things spiritual, Max Müller presumes. If so, what is the chosen teacher symbolic of? The inner Self. [See Khandogya Upanishad 1.4.5-10]
In an old tale Adi (the first) Shankara was walking on a narrow road when he met an untouchable with a dog. Shankara thought he was too holy to be touched by any of them, but the untouchable would not yield and let him pass on the narrow path. Shankara verbally humiliated the other to make him give way, but it did not help. Instead the man said something like,
"You have not seen God in me and my dog. Thus, your attainments are just bigwig-conformism."
Shankara understood that he lived against his professed creed, as most Hindus tend to in that respect, and was much ashamed, next strengthened. He was helped by an untouchable and his dog.
Did you know that the Vedas are highest authority in Hinduism, that they are called eternal, and that in Vedic times people ate meat?
There are many assertions that Tantra can signify Vedic tact and Vedic goals in life:
Victorious Agni [god of fire], grant us wealth with wisdom, wealth with brave sons, famous and independent,
Which not a foe who deals in magic conquers. [Rikveda, Book 7.1.5]
Moved pages may hopefully be found through the Internet Archive or the search box on this page]:
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Literature
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Hay: Svatmarama, Yoga-swami. Hatha Yoga Pradipika. London: Aquarian Press, 1992. On-line at http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hyp/index.htm and lib.ru/URIKOVA/SANTEM/SVATMARAMA/hyp.txt
Hi: Smith, Carolyn D., ed, et al. Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology. 14th ed. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2003.
Mii: O'Neil, Louis Thomas. Maya in Sankara: Measuring the Immeasurable. Delhi: Banarsidass, 1980.
Rsn: Stangland, R. C. Red Stangland's Norwegian Home Companion. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1993.
Wa: Nikhilananda, swami, tr. The Bhagavad Gita. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1952.
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