kerk

A highly credentialed independent teacher has written a Kriya book and started a fine website. He is Keith Lowenstein M.D. of Oregon in the US. Another independent teacher, whom I would also describe as highly credentialed is Don Abrams of New York.

That's a pretty wide spectrum. For Kriya I recommend Forrest Knutson, an ordained kriyaguru in the Panchanon tradition. He has many videos on YouTube in addition to in-person initiation and teaching.

@Nelhael KYIO is in Zagreb, it is Sriyukteswar's Kriya which varies somewhat from Lahiri's. There's lots of bowing. But you may find it right for you.

From what I can tell the books mostly referred to in this discussion are KSR by JC Stevens, which I like, and the books by Gamana which I think suck. You are entitled to your opinion. You are certainly entitled to mine ... By tradition Kriya Yoga was only taught one-on-one, by personal initiation by Kriya Yoga founder Lahiri Mahasaya or by his senior disciples such as Panchanon Bhattacharya and others in his extensive network. There are various reasons for this which I think were covered earlier. Although Lahiri, Panchanon, Sriyukteswar, Hariharananda and many other great ones did write books, for the most part they did not actually teach techniques in the books. For example you can go to the Yoga Niketan website and read English translations of Lahiri's books. They're quite enlightening but they do not give lots of step by step instruction. Nor does Sailen Dasgupta, whose excellent book is on that site and who was the guru of the site owner. Today most KY is taught in-person -- privately or in groups -- in a ceremony which may be elaborate or simple depending on the source concerned. Lahiri did not set up one organization; in fact, he preached against building institutions around KY. The end result since his mahasamadhi (earthly departure) in 1895 is dissemination of KY in different versions, through a wide assortment of characters and organizations. For example, Mr. Kurczak you pointed to is a disciple, and perhaps a successor, to Roy Davis who was authorized to teach KY by Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). That organization teaches a series of spiritual lessons by printed guides and online material. But the Kriya initiation of SRF is provided in person by its monastics, at various events around the world. SRF has gently asserted that persons like Mr. Davis may have been ordained at one time but such permission was not necessarily permanent. JC Stevens and Gamana both argue against organization thinking and teach KY techniques directly without personal visits or ceremonies. I believe the proprietor of this message board takes a similar view. I started with SRF and also with the Stevens book. It became clear that I could use personal instruction and found a marvelous teacher who is firmly associated with the Panchanon tradition. So I took initiation and became a Kriyaban. Others will have similar stories. I meditate every day and try to engage with prana, the energy at the core of being. Here's wishing you find your path.

Hong-Sau or Hamsa or Sohang or So-Ham is one of the mantra meditations. It is practiced different ways depending on who is teaching it.

Seems like everybody and his dog nowadays claims to be disciples of Babaji. I remember one site where it said Babaji materialized to the guy in his car and that's how he became a kriyaguru. There are places to learn Kriya all over the world now, There are different versions with their different requirements and possibly different results. But I don't see why anyone would go with some mysterious web persona. I see that Don Abrams in New York has started teaching Kriya online. He appears to have spun off from KYIO. But he seems to be upfront about his lineage.

By the way I just had lunch with a guy who has been practicing Kriya for 26 years. He chowed down a big Asian dish like anybody else.

The number of levels depends on which school or lineage you are asking about, and how they number and order their techniques. Generally I have seen 4 to 6 levels. I have never heard of 3rd Kriya having anything to do with food. There is a Qigong practice known as bigu where the practitioner depends mostly on Qi instead of taking in food. It wouldn't surprise me if some advanced Kriyabans could abstain from food, but I've never heard of Lahiri or his disciples teaching this. Maybe there is some reference to it in Lahiri's commentaries or diaries. Paramahansa Yogananda does recount a visit with a non-eating yogini, Giri Bala, in Chapter 46 of Autobiography of a Yogi. While his footnotes give a few details, they are not enough to really teach what she was doing.

I have been through the old lessons and to the end of the new ones (18). If a person takes Kriya initiation there are an additional 9 lessons. The new lessons are definitely better than the old ones. Besides the printed lessons there is a lot of material on a member website. Each set of additional material becomes accessible after the printed lesson is sent. So there are videos, audio lectures by Yogananda, study guides and music. There is also an app, but I think the website is much better than the app. The SRF lessons (YSS in India) are God-oriented. It is Yoga and meditation, but the purpose is 100% God. Pray to God, have experience of God in meditation. So a person who believes in God and prayer would find the lessons beneficial. For a person who doesn't believe, pray or think much about God, SRF might not be as good a choice. SRF is in most countries. In USA it is legally a church. The US government requires certain things to qualify as a church: It has to have members, beliefs and religious services. So SRF has all those, with several hundred centers and groups. On signing up for lessons you get a card that identifies you as a church member. Those who go on to Kriya get another card that admits them to sessions for Kriyabans. The old lessons were like a simple newsletter. The new lessons are more like a magazine (30-40 pages) because they are highly detailed explanations of the techniques and principles. SRF has a large cadre of male and female monastics (monks and nuns) who counsel members by phone, mail and in person at the gatherings. The chief of all this is Chidananda, an American. You can see him in action in the video I will link below. This is a talk he gave in India today. It starts with a prayer, then he leads the attendees in Om Japa in the Chakras. That is about the first 7-8 minutes of the program.

Ennio's files contain lots and lots of different kriya techniques from different sources. So does Stevens' book. And Kriya sources typically say theirs is the original, including those who claim to be chosen by Babaji himself (who may not be a physical human alive today). Gamana teaches some techniques that even he concedes are not part of traditional Kriya and should not be performed without extensive Kriya experience. This is why personal instruction by credible sources whose provenance checks out is best in my opinion. Yogiraj Lahiri insisted on secrecy and direct in-person instruction to address each initiate's questions and issues. When everybody and his dog teaches techniques, they are tempted to include their own spins on it and to ignore or even hide what they were originally taught and by whom. This has happened a lot in Kriya. In contrast, for example if you get initiation into Transcendental Meditation (TM), every teacher teaches it the same way, with the same exact verbiage. TM's founder insisted on complete standardization so that the system wouldn't be corrupted and branch out into a million different versions. And he crated an organization that maintains that. Yogiraj was suspicious of organizations and did not want any cults, groups or temples and power struggles around Kriya. He felt that all that outer stuff would become distractions from the main point, which is practicing the meditation. He was an individualist and wanted Kriya taught only by himself or, since he was only one person with limited hours in the day, through an informal network of disciples. So he sent people to Panchanon or to Priyanath and others he had ordained; and eventually his sons also. But because he did not start one organization and one authority, various "kriyas" are all over the place. (Lahiri and Panchanon did start the Aryya Mission Institution but that was only for the purpose of publishing Lahiri's books.) Yogananda lectured to thousands of people when he came to America. It's easy to see that when thousands want to learn Kriya, some sort of organization is probably necessary. While he did deputize several close students to teach Kriya, and they eventually started their own organizations (such as CSA, Ananda and others), Yogananda's legacy is mainly in one large organization which keeps control of the techniques through written agreements, monastic order and secret ceremony. A somewhat similar thing happened with Hariharananda and his large organization.

Find your chakras mentally - what no one teaches for Kriya Yoga

That book is based on the SRF meditation practices. Those are mainly 1. Energization Exercises, 2. Hong-Sau, 3. Aum Technique (sound), 4. Kriya Yoga.

That's really Mukherjee's technique, not Gamana's. It is not typical Kriya but I know he claims it is original Kriya. Consider putting your questions to Mukherjee personally if you really want to do that version of Kriya. He plans to be in UK and US in 2020 so if you could travel to those places you could get initiation from him.

This new video gets deep into the issues of tamasic practice and chanting in the chakras, specifically towards the end of the video.

Hmm. Have you seen his teacher?

@Pernani Khechari Tips video

That is a traditional and probably exaggerated claim made by Yoga. Transcendental Meditation makes a similar claim, though not to newcomers. In some of those beliefs, reincarnation occurs because deep-seated earthly experiences call the soul back to Earth repeatedly. And Yoga is supposed to remove the residue of those experiences. While Yoga is a very deep system of knowledge, I tend to think this type of material on reincarnation is drastically oversimplified and not universally applicable. For clarity on this subject I recommend the books Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls by Michael Newton; Your Soul's Plan by Robert Schwartz, and the Seth books by Jane Roberts -- especially "Seth Speaks".

What works for you? If hunger will distract you during meditation, then eat closer to practice time. If digestion will distract you during meditation, especially during deep inner focus, then don't eat close to practice time. You may or may not need an hour. I usually have a little bit of fruit and drink a few minutes before.

Both Gamana and Nimis present both methods (for example, compare Ennio page 97 and 181). Even Gamana shows them separately on his website. The chanting in the head is Mukherjee's method and he claims that's what Lahiri taught. Nimis' book contains so many techniques, including very advanced kriyas plus lengthy material on Hariharananda's unique system (which is claimed to come from Sriyukteswar), plus SRF, plus Mukherjee - it's easy to get confused. Stevens also contains a lot of techniques, maybe too many, and they are separated out into many different sections. These are good reasons to learn Kriya in person from a competent instructor if you can.

It's a good video and worth following that advice.

Listen to your body and energetic system. "Many people have not been practicing Kriya Yoga long enough to safely practice the Kriya Supreme Fire technique" - Gamana "Kriya Supreme Fire is not a part of traditional Kriya" - Gamana

Mental Kriya is a technique. It's not that different from Om Japa in the Chakras really. Parvastha is a state, usually translated as after-effect-poise or tranquility. What should you do at the end? Enjoy Parvastha. Lahiri said not to do any techniques when in Parvastha. Specifically, from Garland of Letters: "When Tranquility comes, do not disturb that by doing pranayam or any other Kriya."

There's a basic set for first Kriya and then the higher levels add on to that. Different lineages modified these over time. An example would be Hong-Sau, which is practiced by thousands of Kriyabans but was not really taught by Lahiri. But it's one way of doing basic concentration (Shambhavi Mudra) and seeing Kutastha (spiritual eye) which of course he did teach about. There are also variations of gurupronam, mahamudra and navi kriya. Some include bowing and some don't. Also, some practices are performed separately and some at the same time. But a basic set would include: Mahamudra Talabya Kriya / Khechari Mudra Navi Kriya Om Japa Kriya Pranayama Yonimudra or Jyotimudra

Most of the discussion on Kriya Yoga seems to be happening in the Kriya Yoga Mega Thread. As to the question about why it's held secretive ... There are probably several reasons, but here are two of them. Kriya's founder Lahiri Mahasaya was very resistant to organizations and groups forming around Kriya Yoga, and asked his disciples to keep it to themselves. It was said that even next-door neighbors who were longtime Kriyabans did not know that about each other. While Lahiri held group readings and discussions in his home, these were not Kriya instructions which were always given individually, or to married couples. So in keeping with his wishes, that tradition has held -- to some degree -- in the years since his passing in 1895. His chief disciple, Panchanon Bhattacharya, perhaps relaxed it slightly, as he traveled in India to meet groups of Kriya practitioners and apparently these events included some technical discussions or demonstrations. In the main, however, Kriya spread through the network that grew from Lahiri to his disciples and then to their disciples and on to today. You will also find Kriya teachers who baldly claim that they belong not to Lahiri's known lineage, but were taught by "Babaji" himself, the immortal, quasi-mythical guru Lahiri encountered in 1868. When there are thousands of people who want to learn Kriya, some sort of structure and organization would appear necessary. Today, some organizations such as SRF and KYIO teach their versions of Kriya in groups, though these are still nonpublic events and admission is only to those who have agreed to keep the techniques secret. Dozens of other, perhaps less well-known sources, still teach privately. Another reason is simply guided, personal instruction so that the initiate knows what to do, is monitored to see that they are doing OK, and has the opportunity to ask questions. You see on the Kriya mega thread people trying various techniques from books, not all of which are Lahiri's Kriya; some apparently doing them to excess and mixing them with drugs even. I don't think any legitimate Kriya teacher would support that. Some have been frustrated with the culture of secrecy and written at length about it and even reinterpreted it in attempts to expose the teaching to the greater world. There are widely varying opinions about whether their information is authentic or even safe. I hope that helps answer your question.

The word kumbhak is used to describe this breath suspension, but it should not be confused with intentionally holding the breath. When mental activity reduces, so breathing naturally reduces. During Kriya, as your attention gets more interiorized in the spine and the gaps between thoughts get longer, you may notice you are breathing very little, or you may realize that you don't really know whether you are inhaling or exhaling. This phenomenon is not limited to Kriya and can be experienced in other kinds of meditation too. In Kriya, as I understand it, this indicates correct stilling of prana. The important thing is to not worry about it even though the sensation may seem strange at first. Am I not breathing? Is something wrong? Don't panic. If you were really not getting enough air to sustain life your body would let you know big time. You might experience a kind of spinning sensation, but not dizziness or fainting. You might even forget which direction you are facing. In my fairly long experience, the spinning is safe and kind of fun if you let go into it. It has never indicated a hazard. Taking a deep breath at that point can actually rev up the spinning. On another possibly related point: If you are ever in an aircraft that develops a pressurization problem, and the oxygen masks pop out, of course you need to put them on fast (over nose and mouth, not just nose) and the plane will need to descend very quickly to a lower altitude with greater air pressure. The masks are not connected to tanks but to chemical generators. There's only supposed to be as much as 15 minutes of oxygen supplied to those masks; enough to keep everyone alive during the descent. You can reduce your need for oxygen by remaining very still and quiet as you have learned with meditation. Though that may be hard to keep one's composure if the aircraft has a problem and is diving fast.