About Kriya Yoga Initiation

KRIYA YOGA INITIATION

“The one who holds liberation as the sole object of life and therefore frees himself from longing, fears and wrath, controls his senses, mind and intelligence and remover their external contacts by neutralizing the current of prana and apana that manifest inhalation and exhalation in the nostrils. He fixes his gaze at the middle of the two eyebrows (thus converting the dual current of the physical vision into a single current of the omniscient astral eye). Such a one wins complete emancipation”.

The function of prana and apana

There are two main currents in the body. One is the apana current which flows from the point between the eyebrows to the coccyx. This downwardly flowing current distributes itself through the coccyx center to the outer directed sensory and motor nerves and keeps the consciousness of man tied to the body.

The other main current is that of prana, which flows from the coccyx to the point between the eyebrows. This creates an opposite pull from the downward flowing current (apana). Thus, human consciousness is pulled downward or upward by the tug-of-war between these two currents to bind or release the soul and is often the cause of disharmony.

The mind of most people flows outward and attaches itself to the desired sense experiences and their pleasures. This results in believing that the material existence should warrant one’s primary attention in life. Yoga teaches that attaching oneself to the physical realm causes bondage to the limitations inherent in the matter realm. One has to expand one’s consciousness to the realization that there are subtler realms of existence and that eventually even these need to be transcended in order to fulfill one’s full potential through realizing the Self.

The question then arises, how can this be accomplished? It can be done by renouncing one’s attachment to the physical realm and adopting a spiritual path in accordance with one’s temperament.

Kriya Yoga offers such a path for those who hold liberation as a primary purpose in life.

Kriya Yoga teaches the aspirant first to withdraw the mind from sensory objects through self-control. He then disconnect the mind and intelligence (manas and buddhi) from the senses and moves the ego, mind, and intellect through the five astral centers in the spine, to the sixth center (the medulla, which is connected with the spiritual eye in the middle of the forehead), and finally into the seventh center of omniscience.

The Kriya Yogi there attains perception of his Self as soul, and finds his ego, intellect, and mind to be dissolved in soul ecstasy. He then learns how to take his soul from the physical, astral, and causal bodies, to reunite the soul with Spirit.

By the special technique of Kriya Pranayama, the ingoing breath of prana and the outgoing breath of apana are converted into cool and warm currents. The practicing devotee feels the cool prana current going up the spine and the warm apana current going down the spine. Through this process the Yogi finds that the inhaling breath of prana and the exhaling breath of apana are being neutralized and become one. He also realizes in the currents the divine vibratory cosmic light at the spiritual eye.

By this concentrated practice of  Kriya pranayama, offering the inhaling breath into the exhaling breath (prana into apana) and offering the exhaling breath into the inhaling breath (apana into prana). The Yogi gains liberation.