Kriya Yoga Meditation

Kriya Yoga meditation derives from an ancient Indian tradition, revived in the nineteenth century by the Indian Yogi Mahavatar Babaji. Despite its huge growth in popularity in the West and the attendant growth in numbers of teachers, many Gurus claim direct student-teacher lineage back to the students of Babaji. Its goals are to achieve inner tranquility and spiritual union with the divine. Its methods are similar to many other yoga systems, using breathing in particular as a means of achieving self-control. This technique of breathing and energy control is known as Pranayama, and has been linked to medical benefits including asthma and stress relief.

Procedure For Doing Kriya Yoga Meditation

1. Pay attention to your surroundings and actions all day, every day as part of your yoga meditation. Live in the present and when you find your thoughts roaming to the past or future, stop and listen to the sounds around you and in the rhythm of music. Take deep breaths and focus on your breathing and walk outside into nature to help if you have trouble.
   
2. Practice a life of giving and kindness. Let go of the circumstances that have harmed you in the past, help others when you can, find forgiveness for those who have hurt you. Find a balance between your self, family, friends and job--an essential part of Kriya yoga.
   
3. Practice meditation on a daily basis. Find a quiet location and sit with your legs crossed and back straight. Slowly breathe in deeply and hold it until you almost cannot hold it anymore. Pay attention to how your body feels, which in turn calms your mind.
   
4. Exhale slowly and completely and notice how your thoughts automatically slow as well. Continue this process for a few more breaths then stretch your right leg in front of you.
   
5. Say "OM" in a slow breath out, inhale and do this again 11 more times. Switch legs and repeat the process then do it again with both legs outstretched.
   
6. Lower your head with your chin on your chest as you say "OM." Inhale then slowly move you head to tilt backwards and say "OM" again. Repeat 25 to 100 times. End your practice with a 15 to 30 minute silent meditation.
   

Benefits of Kriya Yoga Meditation

• Calmness of mind, inner peace and the stilling of the internal 'chatterbox'
  
• A greater sense of life enjoyment and ability to enjoy the present moment
  
• Transformation of negative emotions, release of toxic emotions such as anger, resentment and worry
  
• Improvement of physical health including increased flexibility and tone
  
• Ultimately a movement towards and experience of oneness with God and all life
  

Kriya Yoga Meditation Video

Technique of Kriya Yoga

Kriya Yoga is effective as it works directly on the life force deep in our spines and helps to attain the spiritual growth. All Yoga techniques work with this vital energy, often indirectly. The yoga postures help to open up the spinal channels and balance the energy in the spine. The breathing exercises or Pranayama aids to awaken the energy.

The Kriya Yoga technique is more direct than other Yoga techniques. The practitioner of Kriya Yoga Technique can control the life force by mentally drawing the energy up and down the spine. According to Paramhansa Yogananda one Kriya takes about half minute is equivalent to one year of natural spiritual growth.

Yogananda describes the technique of Kriya Yoga in his 'Autobiography of a Yogi' as "The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers.... 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 Kriya yoga Technique is taught through initiation. It needs the guidance of a guru or teacher as Yogananda said in his autobiography "Because of certain ancient yogic injunctions, I cannot give a full explanation of Kriya Yoga in the pages of a book intended for the general public. The actual technique must be learned from a Kriyaban or Kriya Yogi; here a broad reference must suffice."

Yogananda states that the Kriya Yoga Technique brings the practitioner to the source of inspiration and clears the brain and stimulates it, enhances knowledge and strengthens medulla and open the spiritual eye. The Kriya Yoga technique greatly magnetizes the body. By this method the blood becomes oxygenated that the breath rate becomes slower and slower. Thus student of Kriya Yoga lives more by the word of God or Cosmic energy. When the current is sent through and around the spine the brain can percept the feeling of God. These things can occur through the control of prana exercises of Kriya Yoga Technique, which are not ordinary breathing exercises. A huge number of students have practiced the techniques of Kriya Yoga with the greatest benefit to their spiritual and moral growth.

Source: IndiaNetZone

Kriya Yoga - An Ancient Spiritual Experience

By Ashwini Karthik

Kriya Yoga one of the ancient yoga practice which rapidly accelerate spirituality and helps to achieve a profound state of tranquility with God. It was revived in 19th century by a yogi named Mahavatar Babaji to his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya around the year1816.

Kriya Yoga was taught by Lahiri Mahasaya in traditional Guru-disciple relationship and it is still being continued as their family tradition. It consists of number of Pranayama techniques, asanas and meditation methods which are based on Kundalini yoga. It includes effective 18 postures of asanas, bandahs and mudras, taught in pairs and stages to awaken principal energy centers the 'chakras'.

Kriya Yoga literally means action with integration or awareness, which is one, gets a self-knowledge and the truth of his being. It is said that Kriya yoga frees the one self from past karma. It is taught in five phases, Kriya Hatha Yoga, Kriya Kundalini Pranayama, Kriya Dhyana Yoga, Kriya mantra Yoga and Kriya Bhakti Yoga. The basic objective of Kriya Yoga is deep mental and physical relaxation of the body. To learn Kriya yoga sincerely one should know one's self, and concentrate whole consciousness towards their soul.

According to Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a yogi, he describes a Kriya yogi as one who can mentally directs his life energy to revolve upward and downward, and around six spinal centers, viz. medullar, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses. These six Spinal centers correspond to the twelve zodiac signs of a man. And according to Yogananda a just half a minute of Kriya equals one year of natural spiritual energizer.

Swami Satyananda says, "Kriya sadhana may be thought of as the sadhana of the "practice of being in Atman".

Yogananda states that Kriya-yoga is a very ancient Indian technique, but lost in middle centuries due to secrecy and indifference between men. He also quotes in his book that Krishna refers to Kriya-Yoga in the Bhagavad-Gita as "Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under his control". According to Yogananda, Pathanjali also refers to Kriya-yoga as "Kriya Yoga is made up of mid control, discipline of body and Aum meditation".

Kriya-yoga is a spiritual experience designed to awake one self and makes them realize that they were just dreaming before with their eyes wide open. It leads one self on the path of self-realization and meeting with divine soul.

Natural Treatment For Stress & Anxiety - Yoga

By Ian J Spencer

You would have definitely heard of yoga, which is one of the hot favorites in the USA today. The Western world is gradually looking into the secrets of youth and health that ancient civilization of the East followed. The Indian civilization is one of the oldest and extremely rich in scientific applications not only in medicine but also in engineering, physics, mathematics, astrology and astronomy among others.

Yoga has four branches that cover the journey of any human being who wishes to attain oneness with the Universe and enlightenment. Walking on this path would also ensure that your body stays free of diseases and human weaknesses without any dependency on food and basic life-supporting comforts. Yoga not only diseases-proofs your body but also tunes your mind to find and understand the Eternal Truth.

1. Kriya yoga or karma yoga - this covers the free will of a human being whereby they make their choices in life and the consequences of these choices on his or her life
2. Bhakti yoga - or attaining liberation through prayer and worship of God
3. Gyana yoga - or enlightenment through learning and acquiring of knowledge, and
4. Raja yoga - or achieving enlightenment with the exclusive help of your mind, ignoring the body completely

You do not need to adopt the austerity of yoga in its complete form. The beauty of yoga is that you can use the exercises this science prescribes without worrying about the rest of the doctrine and still profit from it. Two things are extremely important when you learn yoga:

(i) you need to learn yoga from an accredited and recognized guru or yoga practitioner, and
(ii) you need to do it at the dawn, on an empty stomach, or at bedtime daily - if you want it to really work for you

Yoga can help fight any disease whatsoever that plagues human beings, even cancer. It is excellent for controlling and reversing anxiety. It is also exceptionally potent in treating depression. I am not giving you the asanas (postures) that are prescribed for controlling and treating anxiety and depression because I do not want you to try these exercises on your own. Do not be tempted to buy the much-advertised DVDs from the market unless you have learnt the postures from a guru.

The danger of initiating yoga on your own is that a mistake in getting the right posture might not only be useless, but also might harm you. Every asana is meant to touch, massage and coax into optimal functioning some organ or system in the body. No matter how clear is the DVD or instruction given in a book, you would not be able to see yourself performing the asana; nor would you be able to see whether you are doing it correctly or not. This is where a proficient yoga practitioner and teacher would be able to guide you. Once you learn the asanas correctly and you are confident about it, you can practice it at home alone without anyone's help.

Yoga when combined with meditation can be an exceptional tool to defuse anxiety and depression. It is also extremely beneficial for people who suffer from sleep disorders due to anxiety or depression. You can however, go for yoga without the meditations component and you would be profited nonetheless.

Kriya Yoga And The Nature Of The Journey

By Rebecca Prescott

Kriya yoga has found a place in some people who are looking for a deeper, more spiritual relationship with their lives. It is a kundalini oriented yoga and meditation technique, that also teaches certain spiritual and esoteric principles. Unfortunately, like many similar "spiritual" power structures, it teaches you that essentially your power lies outside of yourself - that is, that you need a 'guru', or 'master' to access your own innate spirituality.

Kriya yoga has some aims which sound both appealing and promising. They aim to eliminate "obstructions" and "obstacles" from the mind and body. Point of view is a very interesting thing here, however. Because what is an obstacle or obstruction to one person, may not be to another. This assumes a very interesting light in reference to power structures and belief systems, and highlights why it is important to maintain your own self sovereignty in mind and action.

Kriya yoga was brought to the West by Yogananda in the 1920's. He established the Self-Realization Fellowship as a 'total yoga' system that tried to address spiritual as well as physical aspects of self.

Kriya yoga is derived mainly from three other yoga techniques - karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and Jnana yoga. Karma yoga focuses on the movement of the soul both inside and outside of the mind. Jnana yoga focuses on wisdom, allowing the mind freedom. Bhakti yoga focuses on love, as it allows you to come to terms with everything around you. The aim in combining them was to "purify" the mind and soul, and proponents of kriya yoga believe they can achieve self realization more quickly this way than following the other disciplines.

Kriya Preparation

The first step in Kriya is to 'prepare' your body, and that is done in one of a couple of ways. For many, Hatha yoga is the perfect preparation exercise. For others, though, who may not be as flexible, alternatives are provided.

Next in Kriya, the mind is prepared. General conduct is studied as part of the mental process in this discipline, so ensuring your mind is correctly focused is essential. Additionally, the Kriya yoga technique pushes you to study overall wellness, cleanliness, purity, and even metaphysical principles. Together, though, they help to 'prepare' the mind for later techniques, which use the body's life force currents ostensibly to "refine" the brain and nervous system.

Mantras are taught in kriya yoga techniques. They are believed to deepen the meditative experience. This sound technology undoubtably tunes the body, like a tuning fork, as will any sound that is repeated and focused on. The question is, of course, to what frequency is the body being tuned?

If self realization is a journey, whose journey are we undertaking? Ours, or someone else's? Kriya yoga undoubtably resonates with some people. For myself, I prefer more transparency.