What is Kriya Yoga?
Kriya Yoga is a scientific meditation technique and lifestyle that cultivates the body, mind and soul, leading one ultimately to Self-realisation (enlightenment). It helps to foster a healthy and balanced lifestyle that is conducive to happiness, inner peace, a sense of purpose and all round fulfilment.
Kriya Yoga is non-sectarian and can be practised by people coming from different walks of life and cultural backgrounds. The meditation technique causes no hardship, requires no austerities, and suits householders as well as monks.
Kriya emphasises the relationship between breath and mind. The breath influences the mind and vice-versa. This reciprocal relationship reveals the secret of controlling the mind. Paramahansa Hariharananda taught how the breathless state of Samadhi is the realization of the Absolute:
Breath control is self-control. Breath mastery is self-mastery. Breathlessness is deathlessness
Kriya Yoga has been taught since time immemorial. It was lost during the dark age and revived in recent times by Mahavatar Babaji. When Babaji initiated Lahiri Mahasaya in 1861 he said:
The Kriya Yoga that I am giving to the world through you in this nineteenth century, is a revival of the same science that Krishna gave millenniums ago to Arjuna; and was later known to Patanjali, and to Christ, St. John, St. Paul, and other disciples.
We recommend reading the spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi” as an excellent introduction to Kriya Yoga. The first edition of the book is public domain and can be read online or downloaded here.
