A Yoga Technique That Opens Doors

Swami Kriyananda

Most efforts to transform oneself involve a laborious struggle to correct an endless array of individual faults like a tendency to gossip, craving for sweets and laziness. We must, of course, fight such battles as they present themselves. But purely psychological efforts at self-transformation are a never-ending task. Even after one has succeeded, finally, in turning a few mental habits in the right direction, there is no guarantee that they’ll remain turned that way once we leave them to work on the next lot. The correlation between spiritual awakening and a directional movement of energy can be observed in ordinary human experience. When a person feels an increase of happiness or inspiration, he will, if he introspects, observe an accompanying upward flow of energy to his brain. He may find himself standing or sitting more erect, holding his head higher, looking upward, turning the corners of his mouth up in a smile. If he feels depressed or discouraged, he will note a corresponding flow of energy,downward, away from the brain. He may even slump a little, look down at the floor, turn the corners of his mouth downward, and actually feel physically a little heavier. Spiritual awakening takes place when all one’s energy is directed upward. But this upward flow is obstructed in most people by countless eddies of desires which, once formed, get distributed along the spine according to their anticipated level of fulfilment. The lower the level, the more materialistic the desire. The higher the level, the more spiritual. These eddies can be dissipated by a flow of energy through the spine strong enough to neutralise their centripetal force. Numerous techniques of yoga have as their main objective the awakening of this energy-flow. Kriya Yoga directs energy lengthwise around the spine, gradually neutralising the eddies of chitta or feeling. At the same time it strengthens the nerves in the spine and brain to receive cosmic currents of energy and consciousness. Kriya Yoga strengthens you in whatever path you choose to follow, whether devotion,discrimination or service. A visitor who once came to his Ranchi school had been practising Bhakti Yoga, the path of singleminded devotion, for 20 years. Though deeply devoted, he had never yet experienced the Lord’s blissful presence. “Kriya Yoga would help you”, the Master suggested to him. But the man was fearful of being disloyal to his own path. “No, Kriya won’t conflict with your present practices”, Master insisted. “It will only deepen you in them”. Still the man was hesitant. “Look here”, Master finally said, “you are like a man who for 20 years has been trying to get out of a room through the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Kriya Yoga will simply show you where the door is. There is no conflict with your own devotional path. To pass through the doorway you must still do so with devotion”. The man relented. Hardly a week passed before he received his first deep experience of God. “I wasn’t sent to the West”, Yogananda often told his audiences, “by Christ and the great masters of India to dogmatise you with a new theology. Jesus himself asked Babaji to send someone here to teach you the science of Kriya Yoga, that people might learn how to commune with God directly. I want to help you to attain actual experience of Him, through your daily practice of Kriya Yoga”.