Kriya Yoga
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The Bhagwad Gita and Kriya Yoga
Anup Taneja, Bhagwad Gita, Yogananda And Kriya Yoga, March 6, 2020: The Times of India
The technique of Kriya Yoga is the fastest method of attaining Selfrealisation, according to Paramhansa Yogananda. This yoga consists of a number of pranayama-based techniques that bring about spiritual evolution at a rapid pace through awakening of the dormant Kundalini, with controlled breathing. The Kriya Yoga practitioner endeavours to make pranic energy revolve upward and downward, around the six spinal centres; “one-half minute of revolution of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of man”, says Yogananda, “effects subtle progress in his evolution; that half-minute of kriya equals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment”.
Krishna in the Bhagwad Gita has elaborated upon this technique in Discourses IV and V. In order to bring the restless mind under control, Krishna stresses on the need to neutralise or making even the currents of prana, life-force and apana, the outgoing breath; descending energy in the astral spine.
When the life-current flows outwards through the afferent and efferent nerves as a result of the downward flow of the apana current, seekers get trapped in ephemeral pleasures of the illusory world, and in the process they tend to lose their equanimity and poise. The purpose of Kriya Yoga, therefore, is to direct the life-current into the sushumna, spine, in order that the seeker’s mind gets detached from gross sensory perceptions. Prana and apana currents flowing into the spine become calm and even, enabling the seeker to enter into deep meditation where he begins to soar high in the vast realms of Pure Consciousness.
The technique of Kriya Yoga involves three kinds of prana-sacrifices which are given effect to by yogis through the practice of some special yogic bandhas and mudras. These have been explained in the Gita.
First, casting oblations of apana into the sacrificial fire of prana is done by filling the lungs with air and forcing down the current of apana to the pelvic region with the help of jalandhar bandha. When apana is made stationary through the practice of mool bandha, the two are united and the current is sent up the spinal cord with the help of uddiana bandha, practised simultaneously with the exhalation of breath and emptying of the lungs, slowly. Jalandhar bandha is effected by contraction of throat and pressing down the inhaled air in the lungs; moola bandha is effected by contraction of anus, and uddiyana bandha by drawing in the stomach slowly and gradually as the lungs give up the inhaled air.
In the second form of prana-sacrifice, breathing is gradually slowed down to a stop, and the exhaling prana is sacrificed into the fire of the inhaling apana.
In the third form, prana is sacrificed into the fire of prana itself, through the practices of shambhavi and khechari mudras, when the currents of prana are made to rise up in the region of medulla oblongata and ultimately merge in the sahasrara, cerebrum.
Kriya Yoga makes the yogi proficient in the art of distilling the life-force out of breath, and in controlling prana. When prana is controlled, the mind becomes steady; the senses are also thinned out and get merged in prana. Yogananda says: “With this control, the life-force can be switched off at will from the five sense-channels and turned inward, thus diverting the soul’s attention from the perception of material phenomena to the perception of spirit.” Paramhansa Yogananda entered Mahasamadhi on March 7, 1952.
