Friday, November 14, 2008

Kriya Yoga - A Golden Opportunity To Reach Higher States Of Consciousness


The Kriya Yoga technique highlights the relationship between breath and mind. Breath influences mind and vice-versa. Their mutual relationship has revealed the mystery of how to control the mind. Breath control is self-control. Breath mastery is self-mastery. Kriya Yoga is a golden opportunity to reach higher states of consciousness and change your life, gaining all-round development of body, mind and soul. It is a quick and easy path. Kriya Yoga techniques are passed down from guru to disciple, master to aspirant, teacher to student.

There is no written record of when the ancient tradition of Kriya Yoga began. It is a spiritual technique which has been practised by saints, seers and sages from time immemorial. The rishis (seers) of the Upanishads, Shri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, Maharshi Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras, and many other masters of yoga, practised and taught this scientific method through the ages. Kriya Yoga is not a religion; it is a powerful tool to be used by those of all religions inorder to hasten their own spiritual development. Adi Shankara, in the Viveka Chudamani, wrote that three things are very rare in the world: to get a human birth, to have desire for liberation, and have the company of a great soul and realized master.

In modern times, an elusive and mysterious master, Mahavatar Babaji, in 1861 brought the Kriya technique to the public through his able disciple, Shri Shyamacharan Lahiri, a pious householder. Lahiri Mahasaya, as he was popularly known, had many realized disciples. Foremost among them were Swami Shriyukteshwar, who was well-versed in the scriptures of both the East and West,and who attained the highest stage of realization, and Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahasaya, a householder yogi most noted for his metaphorical interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, in the light of Kriya Yoga. Among the many disciples of Shriyukteshwar were Paramahamsa Yogananda, author of the Autobiography of a Yogi, and Swami Satyananda Giri, who until 1971 was thepresident of Karar Ashram founded by Shriyukteshwar in 1903. Paramahamsa Hariharananda, who became the head of the Kriya Yoga Institute, USA, as well as the international organizations, was also a direct disciple of Swami Shriyukteshwar. Both Paramahamsa Yogananda and Paramahamsa Hariharananda were not only self-realized, but became instrumental in spreading the teachings of Kriya Yoga around the world.

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