Kriya Yoga exposed?

[Shanmugam]

I want to introduce you all to a guy that I came across online. He has written a book about Kriya ego in which he tries to bust a lot of myths. After looking at the title and description, I went to his website. There is not much information about him but he has a free pdf. I haven't read the actual book he has published about kriya yoga yet, but what he says in that free book is completely true. It is not about kriya yoga but something that is in general about enlightenment. I can certainly say that what he says in that pdf file is the essence of the whole thing and will give you a clear understanding of what the spiritual path is all about. Since he has done a good job on that, I am letting you know about him. For more info, go here: http://realyoga.info/

If you understand what is said in that free book, that is all there is know about spiritual enlightenment. He has worded everything quite well.

[Shanmugam]

@blazed Ok.. but you can be pretty sure that anything apart from what is written in that pdf is really unnecessary.. That is all there is to understand regarding a spiritual path.

Because, when I read it, I can sense an authenticity in it.. There is nothing unwanted added and there was nothing in it which sounded odd.. Unless I find something odd in the published book (after I read it, Haven't bought it yet), I can say that the author might be a realized one, just going by the purity in his explanation.

[Shanmugam]

@blazed Just by going with the content of that free pdf, I think the published book is really useful. But I can't be sure without actually reading that book. I have sent a message to the author requesting a softcopy to review and told him that I am interested in featuring that book on my blog if I find it useful. Right now, I am not in a position to buy that book to review it. Because in Indian money, it costs about 10% of my monthly income...  

[egoless]

Is kriya yoga the most effective for Enlightenment purpose? I have been long wanted to get started in yoga. But, I am not sure where to start and if possible I would like to practice it myself through online videos. @Shanmugam

[Shanmugam]

@egoless I am not a fan of Kriya yoga as it is practiced in the modern days... The whole school of Yoga essentially originated from Samkhya philosophy. Both are the same apart from some minor differences. The early yoga was more direct and had an effective way towards enlightenment. But the school has been corrupted a lot.

If you listen to authentic Gurus like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti etc, you will see that yoga, as it is practiced today, was not endorsed by them much. They called it as an indirect method, only helps to make you ready. 

It looks like the author of the book I mentioned has bashed the modern kriya yoga as it is taught today by modern gurus. If you read the reviews on Amazon, you will get the idea. After I read his free pdf, I feel that his published book may have some truth to it. But I cannot confirm it before reading.

If you ask me about an effective method, I would say that any method of self-inquiry is more direct than yoga. And the type of self-inquiry that I suggest is witnessing, a technique taught by Osho. I can't say anything else about kriya yoga except that I feel it has potential to distract the seekers instead of helping them...

[egoless]

@Shanmugam Is Osho the only guru you follow? What do you think about this video? 

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by egoless

[Shanmugam]

@egoless I am familiar with Isha kriyas.. Don't bring up the topic of Sadhguru again. I have already told you about him clearly and have given many links to you.. It is not just only Osho that I agree with in many aspects .. I already have mentioned about other gurus like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti who I would strongly recommend.

[egoless]

3 minutes ago, Shanmugam said:

@egoless I am familiar with Isha kriyas.. Don't bring up the topic of Sadhguru again. I have already told you about him clearly and have given many links to you.. It is not just only Osho that I agree with in many aspects .. I already have mentioned about other gurus like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti who I would strongly recommend.

Ok. Can you recommend specific video or source of the most direct method you consider for Enlightenment? With detailed explanation of how to do it?

Edited December 26, 2017 by egoless

[Shanmugam]

@egoless I don't see much use in just mentally repeating I am not the mind and I am not the body, as explained in Isha kriya. It has to be very deep. But this practice is not totally useless.. It certainly has some initial value. But you can't just practice this for life to be enlightened.

[Shanmugam]

@egoless I have told you three times..  .. Go with witnessing meditation by Osho and also try practices suggested by Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and J. Krishnamurti. At least one of them will resonate with you deeply and offer tremendous help towards liberation.

[Shanmugam]

@egoless These are the direct words of Ramana Maharshi:

"‘The self is reached by the search for the origin of the go and by diving into the Heart.  This is the direct method of Self-realisation. One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain centre (sahasrara), the sushmna, the paranadi, the kundalini, pranayama or the six centres (chakras)"

And here is what J.Krishnamurti said:

 

 

[egoless]

@Shanmugam Yes you told, but I want to be sure that I found the exact same videos you are referring to. There is so much information overload on the internet I don't want to get lost in it. I found this about meditation by osho

 

[egoless]

@Shanmugam I found Rupert Spira's explanation the most helpful so far. He is so direct in his explanations. I think I resonate with Rupert the most out of Enlightened teachers. What is your opinion on that?

 

[Shanmugam]

@egoless I will recommend reading the links given in this post rather than watching videos:

Osho's talks had a different style... He has talks that have been published in over 600 books. A lot of times he just gossipped and many of his talks were also critical in nature, which was very useful for people during Osho's time. But since people here in the forum don't need a general introduction to many things he talked about, you can get into the essence right away. The essence of Osho's talks was 'witnessing' meditation. And the links in that post gives you everything you need to understand about witnessing.

J.Krishnamurti's teachings were also centered around 'witnessing' . But he called it as choiceless awareness.

[Shanmugam]

@egolesssure... I don't have a headset attached right now.. Had listened to Isha Kriya video already.. But I will listen to this video of Rupert Spira shortly and leave my comment about it.. Haven't read anything by him or listened to him so far.

[How to be wise]

@egoless if you want to learn Kriya yoga properly, check out this guy:

 

[egoless]

@Shanmugam Rupert is the greatest! 

 

[Shanmugam]

@egoless I went through all the 3 videos, 2 of Rupert and the 1 from Osho. Did you notice that both of them are talking about essentially the same thing? 

Rupert addresses a very basic discrimination required, the first step in the spiritual path. In the first video, he teaches how to clearly discriminate between the ever-changing bundle of thoughts, emotions, memories, and sensations that you call as 'me' and the unchanging pure awareness which is actually you.  This discrimination between the observer and the observed is something that one first have to learn. Rupert talks about the direct method in the second video and teaches you how to remain as awareness instead of getting identified with thoughts.. Osho also talks about the same thing.. Rupert is doing a good job in both videos and really explains it very well. I agree with everything he said.

Osho's method of witnessing actually helps you to stay as awareness.. For me, it was another way to approach self-inquiry. Witnessing cannot be called as practice but is actually a non-doing and remaining as the witness. But if you read and understand those links I gave you, I think it will be more helpful for you.