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KriyaYoga (Sanskrit: क्रय यग) is a yoga system which consists of a number of levels of pranayama, mantra, and mudra, intended to rapidly accelerate spiritual development[2] and engender a profound state of tranquility and God-communion.[3] It is described by its practitioners as an ancient yoga system revived in modern times by Lahiri Mahasaya, who claimed to be initiated by a guru, Mahavatar Babaji, circa 1861 in the Himalayas. Kriya Yoga was brought to international awareness by Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi and through Yogananda's introductions of the practice to the West from 1920.

According to Yogananda, "Kriya is an ancient science. Lahiri Mahasaya received it from his great guru, Babaji, who rediscovered and clarified the technique after it had been lost in the Dark Ages. Babaji renamed it, simply, Kriya Yoga."[4] In his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, Yogananda further explains that

Kriya Yoga is described in certain scriptures as Kabali-pranayama, considered to be the greatest of all techniques in controlling prana (life force) by distilling prana from the breath and thus recharging the body cells. In this way exhalations and inhalations become unnecessary; the cells are recharged by the reinforced bodily life-force and the cosmic life; the physical cells therefore neither change nor decay.[5]

A kriya may refer to any kind of practice in the context of yoga, and teachers of psychophysical practices often use the term. Philip Goldberg writes that, as a brand, Kriya Yoga generally refers to the lineage that Yogananda represented. He also cites the following definition found in Yogananda's autobiography.[12] According to Yogananda,

The Sanskrit root of KRIYA is KRI, to do, to act and react; the same root is found in the word KARMA, the natural principle of cause and effect. KRIYA YOGA is thus "union (yoga) with the Infinite through a certain action or rite."[13]

According to Jones and Ryan, kriya Yoga may be literally translated as "yoga of ritual action," noting that it "is contrasted with jnana (learning) yoga and equated with karma (action) yoga in the Trishikhi-Brahmana Upanishad."[14]

Tanya Lynne Brittain further explains that while "Kriya yoga is 'usually understood to mean 'yoga as practice' or practical yoga,' [...][it is] also associated with the vocabulary of initiation and sacrifice." The kriya yoga pranayama practices are a form of kundalini-practice, which culminate in kriya, the "inner fire rite," the internalized Vedic fire sacrifice.[16] Yael Bentor further explains that in the Upanishads this internalized fire ritual is associated with the maintenance of life, through breathing and eating. Where the Brahmin maintains the world order by his sacrifices, for the yogi the breath becomes a perpetual ritual. The internalization of the fire is also associated with tapas, "heat," burning away the defilements, and with pranayama, the control of the breath. These concepts were combined in the yoga of the subtle body.[17]

Kriya Yoga is the real "fire rite" oft extolled in the Gita. The yogi casts his human longings into a monotheistic bonfire consecrated to the unparalleled God. This is indeed the true yogic fire ceremony, in which all past and present desires are fuel consumed by love divine. The Ultimate Flame receives the sacrifice of all human madness, and man is pure of dross.

The origins of the present-day forms of Kriya Yoga can be traced back to Lahiri Mahasaya, who said he received initiation into the yoga techniques from an immortal Himalayan yogi called Mahavatar Babaji.[19][20] The story of Lahiri Mahasaya receiving initiation into Kriya Yoga by Mahavatar Babaji in 1861 is recounted in Autobiography of a Yogi.[21][22] Yogananda wrote that at that meeting, Mahavatar Babaji told Lahiri Mahasaya, "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 Christ, and to St. John, St. Paul, and other disciples."[3] Yogananda also wrote in God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita that the science of Kriya Yoga was given to Manu, the original Adam, and through him to Janaka and other royal sages.[23][24]

Through Lahiri Mahasaya, Kriya Yoga soon spread throughout India.[3] Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples included his two sons (Dukouri Lahiri and Tinkouri Lahiri), Sri Yukteswar Giri, Panchanan Bhattacharya, Swami Pranabananda, Swami Kebalananda, Keshavananda Brahmachari, Bhupendranath Sanyal (Sanyal Mahasaya), and many others.[25]

Kriya Yoga was brought to international awareness by Paramahansa Yogananda, a disciple of Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, with his book Autobiography of a Yogi[2][3] and through Yogananda's introductions of the practice to the West from 1920.[26][27][28]

Kriya Yoga, as taught by Lahiri Mahasaya, is traditionally learned exclusively via the Guru-disciple relationship, and the initiation consists of a secret ceremony.[29][2] He recounted that after his initiation into Kriya Yoga, "Babaji instructed me in the ancient rigid rules which govern the transmission of the yogic art from Guru to disciple."[30] Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi mentions the practice of Kriya Yoga, but it doesn't provide details about how to practice specific techniques. Rizwan Virk writes that "The purpose of the book was to inspire readers to take up the yogic path by opening their minds to spiritual possibilities."[31]

In Yogananda's 6 October 1920 speech at the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, he said that the Kriya Yoga of his lineage "consists of magnetizing the spinal column and the brain, which contain the seven main centers, with the result that the distributed life electricity is drawn back to the original centers", thus liberating the "spiritual Self" from physical and mental distractions. Yogananda used the word centers in place of the term chakras. Philip Goldberg writes that Yogananda described Kriya Yoga in essentially the same way in Autobiography of a Yogi.[32] Yogananda wrote:[3]

The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man. 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 practice of Kriya Yoga involves specific breathing patterns.[14] Yogananda claims that the process of performing Kriya Yoga leads to a certain purification of the blood which frees up the life force to withdraw into the spine:[33]

Kriya Yoga is a simple, psycho-physiological method by which the human blood is decarbonized and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping the accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues; the advanced yogi transmutes his cells into pure energy. Elijah, Jesus, Kabir and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will.

There are many higher kriyas in the kriya yoga tradition. According to the Autobiography of a Yogi, Lahiri Mahasaya divided Kriya Yoga into four parts. The second, third and the fourth Kriya are known as higher Kriyas, Thokar Kriya being one of them.[3][34]

A direct disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri, Sailendra Dasgupta (d. 1984) has written that, "Kriya entails several acts that have evidently been adapted from the Gita, the Yoga Sutras, Tantra shastras and from conceptions on the Yugas."[29]

According to Barbara Miller, Kriya yoga as described in the Yoga Sutras is the "active performance of yoga."[41] It is part of the niyamas, "observances", the second limb of Patanjali's eight limbs.[41][note 4]

Yogananda stated that Patanjali wrote a second time about the Kriya Yoga pranayama technique when he wrote: "Liberation can be attained by that pranayama which is accomplished by disjoining the course of inspiration and expiration" (YS 2.49).[3][4]

According to the Kriya Yoga Institute, their lineage includes Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar Giri, Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahashaya, Paramahansa Yogananda, Satyananda Giri, and Hariharananda Giri.[46] Hariharananda Giri was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri and managed one of Yogananda's ashrams in India until 1959. He began visiting the United States in 1975 and established the Kriya Yoga Institute in Homestead, Florida.[47]

Kriya Yoga is a simple, yet extraordinarily powerful, meditation technique -a quick path to reach higher states of consciousness and change your life by developing mind, body, intellect and awareness of the soul.

The word 'kriya' itself signifies the unity of work and worship of activity and divinity. Continuous awareness of the power of the indwelling soul can transform all of our actions - however mundane into worship, and our whole lives can be made divine. Calmness, peace, joy, love and compassion are the fruits of practice - fruits that are available to all who wish to practice with sincerity and humility.

Based on the science of breath, Kriya Yoga greatly enhances all spiritual practice. The technique emphasizes the relationship between the breath and mind. The breath influences the mind and vice-versa. This reciprocal relationship reveals the secret of controlling the mind: 'Breath control is self-control. Breath mastery is self-mastery.' When the breath is mastered, the face of the divine can be seen.

A sincere spiritual seeker who follows the path of Kriya Yoga with love and devotion and a desire for spiritual growth can attain self-realization or enlightenment -in this very lifetime. This powerful yoga is a manifestation of the many yogas described in the Bhagavad Gita, but primarily it derives from:

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