Ananda Sanga, Somerset West, South Africa, 17 Dec. 2002
Quintessence of Introductory teachings prior to
Kriya Yoga Initiation
It is not a physical fitness program; not a self-hypnotism program; not a healing franchise humbug; not a Tantric, Mantric or Yantric hocus-pocus; not the brainwashing of a cunning and calculated, fantastic and fanatic belief system; not a search for sedation, security and solace through stories, surmises and miracle-mongering; not moral warrants nor stupid sermons; not high-sounding phrases nor ‘holy’ pursuits or paradoxes; not philosophic knowledge, not psychological techniques; not a creed nor a sect or cult, no pretense nor postulate of any sort; not self-worship, self-expansion, self-promotion under the disguise of Self-realization; not encouraging upsurge of conditioned reflexes emanating from upbringing and undertakings; not running away from relationship and responsibility; not special costumes nor hair-do nor titles; not violence, not malice, not addiction, not attachment, it
is not a bundle of pious or beautiful lies; not ambition, not fear, not envy, not dependency in various forms; it is not psychological bribery or blackmail of astrologers, fortune-tellers and psychics.
What is Kriya Yoga:
It is to be in coolness and contentment without continuous thinking which indicates a dull consciousness. In this yoga life, thought appears in discontinuity, as and when required, in adequate response to stimulus or challenge and keeps on falling back to silence (no-thought) from time to time. Life and its survival instincts and its creative intelligence (not limited intellect) runs the body which is therefore no longer under the domination and pre-occupation of the separative consciousness (mind and ego). Body is then available to the decency and decorum of an opposites-free sharp sky-consciousness and not to the distorted, deluded and depressing narrow I-consciousness. Living then is simple and austere, full of charity and compassion, based on sensory perception and not on sensuality; based on just needs, not on greed and gratifications. Life is then regulated by the kriyas of frenulum, by neutralization of inhalation by exhalation, by vibrations of cosmic sound at the navel and by denying sexuality without interfering with the sexual energy, by evacuating inhibitions and obsessions, stresses and suppressions from the body by almost effortless processes and practises. Ending of addictions and conflicts, is then natural. Meditation then happens without the mischievous meditator (mind and ego). Samadhi then is not going into diabetic or fatigue-generated coma, but being available to a tremendous energy of equanimity, to a profound wisdom of non-doership, to pure actions of perception and not to divisive activities arising from conditioning, conclusions, conjectures and conflicts of a shoddy little “I”. In Samadhi, life is a ‘meaningless’ dance of the dissolving energy of Shiva, not the ‘meaningful’ designs of a petty mind giving rise to all kinds of phoney problems. Samadhi is to be in solitude without being solitary, to be alone without being lonely, to be connected with holyness in spite of the humdrum of our mundane existence.
In Swadhyay of kriya yoga, we do not read scriptures; rather we make an attempt to read the book of ‘I-ness’, the script of the ego-self. Humans have built in themselves images and psychological investments as a fence of security and solace which are religious, political and personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas and belief-systems. The burden, bondage, bigotry and battles generated by these images, by the upsurge of our brain-washings, by our stupid upbringings, by our undertakings, unfortunately prevail upon our thinking, relationships and daily life.
The images and impressions are the root causes of our problems for they promote all kinds of divisions and dissentions, corruptions and conflicts. Swadhyay and Tapas of Kriya-Yoga, can bring about a revolution and revelation, a fusion and fullness, an al-chemical change in the body and an altered state of consciousness which is whole and holy. The uniqueness of humans does not lie in the superficial and separative titles and identifications, but in complete freedom from the stranglehold of ‘gunas’ i.e. the psychological network of ego-self. Swadhyay begins from looking without likes and dislikes, without direction and distortion, without fear of punishment or hope of a reward, without any motive whatsoever. Swadhyay examines our relationship with human beings by asking such questions as stated below:
1. Are we co-operators or just clandestine competitors?
2. Are we friends or just subtle foes?
3. Are we colleagues or only co-enemies?
4. Do we love or just long for ego-gratification, dependency, domination, attachment, sentiment,
emotion?
Swadhyay also examines our relationship with ideas, knowledge, books, scriptures, principles, doctrines and all kinds of theocratic thuggery. In Swadhyay, we probe too into our relationship with traditions, nationality, regional attachments, linguistic affinity, affiliations to properties, possessions, positions, particular tastes, status, fame, castes, colour, creed, race, sect, cult, guru, priest, master and all the rest of it. Also, we try to understand, directly by and for ourselves, the contents and constituents of our mind; not through psychologists, hot-selling books, dead concepts, high-sounding phrases, and ‘holy’ men or women.
In the natural state emerging from Kriya practices, mind exists like honey, not like water. Honey, however disturbed, quickly returns to immobility; whereas water goes into turmoil by disturbance. We do not resist thought, but just remain disinterested in perpetuation of thoughts. In natural state, everything appears and disappears in rhythm; we do not meditate, but just do not prevent it from happening.
Kriya-Yoga is not the yoga of getting which only enslaves, but it is the Yoga of giving-up which liberates and fills us with love. Then all peace, protection and prosperity is ours. God of religions is the product of mind, but the God of Kriya-Yoga is the poetry of ‘no-mind’. Living in religions is dragging with ideas and beliefs, but living in Kriya-Yoga is dancing in insight and bliss. In Kriya-Yoga we stop believing what we are and start knowing that we are nothing! In Kriya-Yoga all desires come to an end, even ‘desirelessness’ ceases to be an object for desire! Hindu theory of re-incarnation is just tactics to cover up fear and the desire of the petty ‘me’ to give itself continuity. In Kriya-Yoga, one re-incarnates and is re-born every morning. Life never dies, it is the material body-mind that dies. In Kriya-Yoga, freedom is neither banal expression of arbitrariness nor lack of restraint; it is great humility as there is freedom from ignorance and arrogance, from images and influences. It is man’s foolishness to think that because he can choose, he is free. Choices only bind and cause confusion
and chaos. There is no ‘free-will’, there is only freedom form ‘will’ which is just a comfortable word for ‘ego’.
In Swadhyay we understand what binds and what liberates such as follows:
Swadhyay also reveals the nature of the conceptual Self and Real Self as follows:--
Kriya-Yoga leads to Sat-Chit-Anand. We live like a guest in this world. We are calm and choice-less in awareness. We shun pleasure to be available to joy which is not the cultivated opposite of sorrow.
Historically, Kriya-Yoga is very ancient. It finds mention in Patanjali-Yoga-Sutra. The Bhagawat-Gita is also considered to be pointing towards this profound phenomenon. It is the journey from Duryodhana to Arjuna and then to Krishna. That is, from mindlessness (stupidity), to mind and then to ‘no-mind’ (highest intelligence). Nineteenth century house-holder Saint Lahiri Mahashay (1828 - 1895) revived it following his accidental and wonderful encounter with a mysterious Himalayan Saint, whom he called Babaji. (It is customry in India to call holy men as Babaji and holy women as Mataji). Teachings in this regard have been flowing through a dynastic lineage as also several disciplic lineages. One of the grand-disciples of Lahiri Mahashay who is well known as Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) revealed in his famous book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, an account of Lahiri Mahashay as a stupendous spiritual force which hit this planet as a profound house-holder Yogi living almost incognito and anonymous at Varanasi. Another grand-disciple of Lahiri Mahashay, Paramahansa Hariharananda, passed away just two weeks ago at the age of 96 years. 1939 born Shibendu Lahiri, a great-grandson of Lahiri Mahashay and the current dynastic lineage teacher, travels all over the world at the invitation of his students without any formal organisation or institution. Lahiri Mahashay had discouraged organisation in matters spiritual reiterating that truth degenerates into dead and hypocritic harangues when handled by establishments in which the ego of the hierarchy is subtly nurtured. Dynastic lineage maintains only a private temple without any hierarchy. Kriya-Yoga was discovered by Hindus, but it is not their monopoly. It belongs to the whole of humanity
Let Lahiri Mahashay be the darling of humanity. Jai Sadguru.
Source: http://www.kriyayogalahiri.com/kriyayoga/images/messages/messageuk/message-53.pdf
http://www.kriyayogalahiri.com/
