Yogananda Explains Kriya Yoga

• Reading Has Many Levels and Proficiencies
• 1. Introduction T
• 2. For Your Own Sake T
• 3. The Process of "Magnetising the Spine and Brain" Is Explained T
• 4. Hindu Interpreters of Reality Vary Widely T
• Great Devotion to the Allround Scientific Method

Yogananda Explains Kriya Yoga

"Is learning how to die good?" A wrinkled, toned photo.

The book which the quotations and gist is from, took off from 1920 lectures by Yogananda, and was later copyrighted in 1953 and so on by Self-Realization Fellowship, California. But all books by Yogananda published before his passing in 1952 are in the public domain (His magazine articles and lessons published before 1943 are in that domain too). SRF has made many changes to the editions published after Yogananda’s death. (Data at page bottom)

Reading Has Many Levels and Proficiencies

Reading critically is good.

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The age of logic is here. You must look in the face of every experience with intelligent discrimination until you understand it . . . in this age of analysis, you must seek that understanding. - Paramahansa Yogananda, The Divine Romance, 1986, p. 75.

1. Introduction

This book discusses Inward Being

This books also aims to point out the universality and unity of religion. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 5]

There is no unity of religions to be found today. Instead of talking about religion, clean spirituality may be the focus that pays.

To realize God is to realize the Self inside, is the teaching

God-Consciousness is of spirituality.

What we conceive of the One, differs

Theoretical inspiration will perhaps flounder, but hardly directly felt gladness welling forth from deep inside.

Ideally, it is not our conceptions that should guide us, but God's voice from inside - a still, small voice -

Where people talk very much of God, they are up to something. Everybody is up to something. But those who have got a "divine mouth-cramp" are perhaps worse off than many who drink beer. What is meant is that the experience of your deep inside is all right, and called God.

Summary of Chapter 1

1. To debate Inward Being is a hoary tradition from the Sanskrit Upanishads and onward.
2. To realize God is to realize the Self inside, is the Atmajnana (know-your-Self) teaching.
3. What we conceive of the One, differs. This is amply recognised in ancient Indian writings too. "Truth is One. Sages call it by different names" is a reminder.

2. For Your Own Sake

Deep Bliss and Consciousness is of One Mind (Essence)

Your insides. Bringing your insides out has its trials also. Better protect yourself in the yoga ways: A hermitage may be good.

Bliss is a consciousness of deep, inner poise and peace. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 36]

Bliss-consciousness is also stressed in Buddhism [Cf. Yogananda, p. 52n.]

The world may be likened to a stage. [Yogananda, p. 55]

The world may be likened to anything, but not all such likenings help. Some serve to tame followers, like the stage simile.

Maybe so, maybe not.

There is an "ego" or "self" which governs mind functions and perceives itself to be the same. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 25]

Either money comes to be earned to meet wants or for its own sake. That may not be how our misery begins. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 32, 33]

Miseries come for many reasons.

Listening certainly is a good thing. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 16]

We all aim at Bliss, or happiness, which we feel inwardly. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 10 opp] (2)

He means that if you lack money in the bank, a cottage by the sea and a few cars, you should seek them inside. Maybe you have to deserve the things you lack too. There are immediate aims, long-range aims and aims in between the immeditate and long-range aims - but at bottom - like the bass in the band - there is a desire for joy (bliss), and it is far more important that the need for love. That is a part of the teachings.

The view of Abraham Maslow is that you have many levels of needs, and that lots of them need to be fulfilled for you to function well. Go ahead and then free your time to delve (meditate, contemplate) as you can afford to. That is Buddhist thinking too.

Intuition is a calm and direct grasp

Transcendent calm is reached in higher Bliss-consciousness. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 53n.] ¤

In this world, reflect God-Bliss if you are up to it

False ideas lure people astray. Some are better at it than others. *

God-Bliss is found in intuitive consciousness, in intuitive, deep Mind. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 47] (6)

Realization of Bliss-consciousness - of our own nature - has its degrees. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 37]

Desire involves 'excitation'. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 27]

In this complex world our lives are nothing but plays. [Yogananda, p. 57]

He did not get rid of that 'play' idea. You should ask how useful it may be, dissolve it before it harms your whole life, and get going.

That is a strange, nay, reductionistic view. Pleasure is the response to fulfilled needs and a life well lived too.

This teaching becomes dangerous as the cult develops. It serves to discredit followers, make leaders all right no matter what they concoct, and there are still more practical dangers as well.

You do not have to agree with us all the way to benefit, but if God is the seeker, you are that too (tat twam asi, you are That), and if you are the God that seeks God, you are quite an idiot. The sham is that of seeking. In good diving (contemplation) you do not seek this and that, but try to rise above concepts, including concepts of Yogananda - in soaring yoga states. Note: help may come from not seeking, but attending to the proven methods given. That is a key to avert dangers of awkward teachings that appear to trap people instead of helping them.

The company we keep makes us feel for different things. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 22]

God and man are one, and the separation is only apparent. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 25] (7)

See a few lines above. If God is one with you, you behave like an idiot if you seek him. Be yourself - but in some prosperity-gaining way or ways.

Who always wishes God must be deeply lacking or infirm and far from the depth God. The more worth inside, the less quest - [Cf. Yogananda, p. 43]

Is there any common, highest necessity for all of us? [Yogananda, p. 9]

To live, to live to make good use of these teachings.

We should not put the cart in front of the horses, though. By learning to contemplate all right, many issues are resolved even without speculation.

When Yogananda teaches that his yoga method, kriya, is for gaining conscious death, it does not teach suicide!

Summary of Chapter 2

1. Deep Bliss and Consciousness is of One Mind (Essence).
2. Intuition is a calm and direct grasp of goings, happenings, facets of things, and so on.
3. In this world, reflect God-Bliss if you are up to it. There are many counter-influences. Take care of yourself too.

3. The Process of "Magnetising the Spine" Is Explained

Teachings drawn from experiences of the very few is not always applicable to all

Do not be tricked. He spoke for "scientific" when it paid, and added "with devotion" later, to avoid to be held responsible for what was - well, false teachings about the scientific effects of kriya yoga. Be alerted to that.

In [a blissful state] we are really conscious of God, or Bliss. [Yogananda, p. 81]

It is a pity that men of great intellectual power . . . think that they will . . . be able to grasp intellectually the highest religious and moral truths. [Yogananda, p. 63]

The brain is the supreme electrical Power-House (highest centre). [Yogananda, p. 76]

St. Paul said: "I die daily" [I Cor 15:31]. By this he meant that . . . [Yogananda, p. 72] (2)

One of the problems with Yogananda is his diarrhoe-looking assertions that this and that (obscure) passage from this and that scripture, talks of kriya yoga or something similar in esoterical manner. It often looks tendentious and at times ridiculous. His cult is infected with foul scripture exegesis. You had better stop and think of where the proofs are. The guru furnishes few or none.

Kriya yoga is not held to work purely scientifically once you get enrolled in the cult. Then devotion is said to be needed too, faithfulness as serves big guys, and so on. This means "scientific" in part is a bait to trap you.
      However, the explanation that kriya (and other deep-going methods) effect the biomagnetic field of the body (biomagnetising the spine and brain) and inducing altered states of awareness by it, is princely.

To return to basic, correct meditation practice shows one really understands what this is about

The effort of the Spiritual self to return to itself . . . is the process of the world. [Yogananda, p. 65]

Self-conscious understanding . . . differentiates us from the lower animals. [Yogananda, p. 64] (4)

Understanding false teachings as false teachings designed for herding folks like lower animals, helps to steer us outside guru farms (sects and the like) and their cherished views.

Kriya practice imparts Great Bliss, says Yogananda. Make sure you do not madden by it

By . . . meditation . . . we can bring upon ourselves a state of conscious sleep. . . . By this the outer or sensory organs are controlled . . . [quite] as in sleep. [Yogananda, p. 70]

Treat 'sleep' as a metaphor, and the passage can work all right.

The Yogananda-favoured method is to control and direct the course of the life-force by the control and regulation of [the breath,] a known and directly connected manifestation of the life-force itself. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 84]

[An] electrical flow from the brain is the life of the organism. [Yogananda, p. 77] (6)

Bliss is felt in an intense degree in the act of practicing this method. [Yogananda, p. 72]

It is true: Some experience it. Others not. The quality or meticulousness of your performance has very much to say.

Bio-magnetism is the fit concept here.

We seldom learn . . . to give rest to . . . internal organs. [Yogananda, p. 71n]

The devotional method . . . presents certain defects and difficulties. [Yogananda, p. 67-68] (7)

That is true. Some of the main problems are not even mentioned by Yogananda in the book, but they are explained on this web site.

The facts are: The original kriya yoga that Yogananda brought to the West, is time-consuming and wearisome. Yogananda simplified the methods and altered main teachings too. So it could be an unsettled question how well his altered methods work - short-term, medium term and long-term effects may be studied. The issue is unresolved, and many conundrums in kriya circles stem from things Yogananda did and changed.

But "one sunny day" it may be "freed" as itself in one day anyway! And that is worth going for cleverly, is the teaching.

In contemplation, the aim is not to free ourselves and transcend this and that, basically. It is doing the methods strictly and well.

Not all rules change as we change. For example, Yogananda's fellowship teaches that you belong to him for life-times and cannot quit the pact if you get inititated. Note that. It is double-play.

His talk of dying by yoga is annoying to some, and not needed. Few kriya yogis seem to be able to dispense with breathing.

Summary of Chapter 3

1. Teachings drawn from experiences of the very few is not always applicable to all.
2. To return to basic, correct meditation practice shows one really understands what Yogananda's book is about.
3. Kriya practice imparts Great Bliss, says Yogananda. Make sure you do not madden by it -

4. Hindu Interpreters of Reality Vary Widely

Let inward buddhi interpret and ascertain true religion for your own good

One thing that stands out for the reader of old yoga texts, is the variety of outlooks. Many contradict one another too. It should pay be alerted to that, instead of developing a naive guru-knows-best attitude.

At times it will pay to interpret interpreters too. Some are fools. Bland mind-analysis and polite enough candour can serve all. Interpretation results depend on the purity and calm

Pure perception is interpreted too. *] (4)

The sphere of intuition comes from Reality, teaches Yogananda. At times he teaches, however, that the world is an illusion, and thus invalidates his other teachings - and his illusion-teachings as well - all!

In meditation there is a gradual tendency to leave the sphere of [dense] thought behind and to [glide] into the sphere of intuition. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 95]

Our senses are, as it were, windows. [Yogananda, p. 88]

A certain University professor was about to depart on his sabbatical and addressed a few parting words to his students.
      "This parting is very melancholy to me. I wish there might be a window in my breast that you might see the innermost recesses of my heart."
      "Professor," called a young man from the class, "would a pane in the stomach do?" [Of]

You may learn to use your mind and intellect to do mantra-yoga. In that way your intellect may be put to great help.

Hopefully. Many "intuitive insights" show up to be faulty, though. So be on your guard.

We exist by intuitive enablement - we know we exist by intuition. * and [Cf. Yogananda, p. 97-98] (7)

To know Reality, the intellect tends to fail. [Cf. Yogananda, p. 94]

Again, it depends on where and how you set it. mantra japa (mantra yoga may work very well.

Intuition may be cultivated; that is one of the teachings of yoga, as shown in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Or perhaps we should say that your being is getting cultivated, and that your cultivation aids powers along the way?

Data may need to be interpreted in the light of normal sense-life too. For it often shows up that what is called intuitive true fails in real life. That reflects a danger of premature "thought cookery".

Summary of Chapter 4

1. Let inward buddhi interpret and ascertain true religion for your own good. True religion does not have to be opposed to rationality and being straightforward. Murky teachings, on the other hand, serve to bind or enslave you some way or other.
2. At times it will pay to interpret interpreters too. Some are fools. Bland mind-analysis and polite enough candour can serve all. Interpretation results depend on the purity and calm
3. The sphere of intuition comes from Reality, teaches Yogananda. At times he teaches, however, that the world is an illusion, and thus invalidates his other teachings - and his illusion-teachings as well - all!

Great Devotion to the Allround Scientific Method

Purely Scientific Is Fit

One's Self is Seldom for Everyone

The friend of all is the friend of none [Proverb]

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