Kriya yoga has always been considered to be a secret sadhana. By saying secret sadhana, it is clear that it is not meant for everyone. Everyone is at a different stage or level of evolution. Even understanding is different in everyone. Even absorbing some idea is different to everyone. Some people do not even listen, they shake their heads. Some people listen, then they forget. Some people listen and make the effort. Everyone is different and therefore, many of the yoga practices are taught individually as transmission between teacher and disciple. Common things are available in the market; hatha yoga and raja yoga are common. Kundalini yoga is not common. People try to commercialize it, but it is not possible. Kriya yoga is definitely not common. There are many other yogas, which are totally uncommon, and kriya yoga is part of that group.
It is expected that those people who practise kriya yoga have some mastery of hatha yoga, especially postures, pranayamas, and from raja yoga, visualizations, awareness and concentration of the mind. As you are learning more of the practices of kriya, you will notice, if you have the awareness, that kriya yoga is the synthesis of other yogas. There are postures, mudras, bandhas, there is breathing. Everything is together, including visualizations and awareness of chakras and mantras. It is a compact practice, and it is definitely a practice which allows you to eventually overcome the barriers or limitations of the mind, the mental nature and mental behaviour.
I am not talking about theory; I am talking about a process.
Theory can say that you can attain realization, but are you capable? Theory can say many things and ideas can state many things, but what is your role in it? Are you able to walk the path? Are you able to sustain your journey? The theory says that kriya yoga can take you beyond the mind, yet you are not able to go beyond mind, as there is no preparation. That preparation is more important than expecting the result. The effort before the result is more important.
You cannot sit here and imagine, ‘Through meditation, I can reach London.’ If that was possible, then all the airlines would be grounded. By closing the eyes and imagining that you have gone beyond the mind is just sheer idiocy. It never happens, for the moment you go beyond the mind, you cease to be yourself. What are you, what is your identity in nothingness, in shoonyata? Can you handle the nothingness, the void? Can you jump over the void? Many books have been written about it. Even Don Juan has written about jumping over the void. It is not that easy, so do not think about what will happen in future. Just focus on the present now.
The present will allow you to prepare yourself, your pranas, your mind, to have that higher experience, and for that, you have to sustain your effort. It is not something that will happen overnight or in a month. All the conditionings accumulated over ages have to be cleared. All the instincts that guide our behaviour have to be known. One has to be aware of all the pitfalls – and avoid them. The focus on the goal has to be maintained at all times and at all costs. One who can maintain it is the sadhaka, the real one, who engages in the practice to experience something higher, and not for self- gratification, thinking, ‘I have done this and I am happy about it.’ Therefore, focus on working through the practices stage by stage, step by step, and at the same time develop the awareness of knowledge, and the application of that knowledge in daily life.
The combination of kriya yoga and jnana yoga is important.
The jnana which dawns after the practice of kriya yoga, has nothing to do with your immediate life. It is a different jnana, one of oneness. At the present moment, you do not experience oneness. That jnana is attainable by Swami Satyananda and by Swami Sivananda, who lived that identity, ideal and idea of oneness with all. We are not able to do that, as we have not gone beyond our boundaries. We are within our own boundaries, wanting to know what is happening on the other side of the wall. Follow the progression and the teachings of kriya yoga systematically, and with jnana yoga you will be able to experience the higher mind.
In jnana yoga, you were given the tool of observing, knowing your own strength, weakness, ambition and need, the SWAN principle. If you are clear about the SWAN principle, you will realize that it is a reflection of your nature, your personality and your mind-set. It is a mirror of your nature. It is a mirror of your mind-set. You have these four categories: your strengths that you can use, cultivate, develop and apply; your shortcomings and weaknesses which are barriers and you are intimidated by them. Can you make the effort to manage one weakness at a time and overcome fear, insecurity, the shortcoming and weakness and convert it into a positive strength; ambition is what you want, and need is your need. These four give a good picture of your own personality.
Then we start the practice of jnana yoga. Shubheccha is the first step or bhumika of jnana yoga, indicating good intention. If you look at your strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and needs, can you identify which ones are with your good intention and will help you, the environment and the people around you? Which are not with good intention, just for personal gratification and happiness, for your own name, fame, comfort and status? A simple car will suffice; I do not have to buy a Mercedes. To have a Mercedes is an ambition. Has anybody ever asked, ‘Do I really need it?’ Has anybody ever asked, ‘Do I really want it?’ Has anybody ever asked, ‘Do I really desire it?’ Due to the idea of a status, ‘If I have a Mercedes, I will move one notch higher in society,’ you take the ambition to be your immediate need. Then that becomes an obsession in life.
If you are able to observe your SWAN with the glasses of shubheccha or good intention, you will discover that more than half can be crossed out from the list. Only those things will remain, which reflect your good intention and your positivity. Make that into part of your nature, behaviour and personality. Focus on those of your strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, needs, which have the good intention, and develop them. As you develop one, many others will flower alongside it. As you develop another, many other qualities will flower alongside with it. You will be the winner all the time.
Then you move into vicharana. Vicharana is to reflect upon.
What do you reflect upon? Is my desire connected with a good intention or with my ambition? And three questions will come up:
People may say, ‘Yes, I desire it.’
People may say, ‘Yes, if I desire it, I want it.’
‘Yes, because it is going to help me’, or ‘No, it is not really my need.’
A final conclusion will come to the desire. That final conclusion will define your awareness. If you are buying a loaf of bread because you are hungry, you cannot say, ‘I do not desire it; I do not want it; or I do not need it.’ If it is something just for the feel good factor, then you can definitely ask. The intention will prove that this is good for me, or I am just playing with it. I do not really need it. Vicharana is clearing the mental patterns which come up and connect you with your self-oriented awareness or with the selfish nature.
The old system of telephones used to have wires which you had to take from the bottom row of holes and stick them on the top holes, connecting different lines. That is vicharana. When the senses connect with the sense objects, vicharana begins. Since we are not aware of that thinking process, we associate it with like, dislike; with want, need, yes, no. As soon as the connection is made, the process of vicharana begins. There are many connections, so you have to see each connection of thought, in relation to your own needs, ambitions and the SWAN principle. Disconnect that socket which is now unnecessary; remove the plug from the socket.
Vicharana is something that is happening continuously.
Now your effort is to remove instead of connecting. Connecting is happening automatically, so remove that which is not really needed and reinforce that which is needed. Through this jnana yoga, you are clearing the mind. You are not accumulating knowledge. If you think that jnana is accumulation of knowledge, it is wrong thinking. Jnana yoga is clearing the rubbish from inside, and putting newer images, newer pictures in the room of your mind. Remove the old pictures and put in new pictures. Old pictures belong to one generation and your attractions are different. It is about what you are putting in the mind now, and not what you have carried with you all the time. It is about how you can live your life in a better manner.
You will discover after some time that kriya yoga and jnana yoga become a powerful combination for deeper inner experiences. In normal times, you are processing the conscious information input. Even now, you are processing the conscious information input. You are totally focused on what I am saying. You are not hearing the sounds which are happening around you. Although the other input is there, your focus is on one sound. If there are a hundred people talking and you see your friend across the room, and he says something to you from across the room, you try to block out every sound, focus and listen to what your friend is saying. There are many things that we do on a daily basis, and which reflect the use and application of our awareness. The application of our wisdom is as important as the application of awareness.
Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do. Wisdom is knowing what is right. It leads to a complete developed experience of the whole life, from the physical level to the psychological to the spiritual. You have discovered who you are. If you follow this process of kriya yoga and jnana yoga, you do not have to ask anyone, ‘Who am I?’ You know yourself.
With respect to the seven bhumikas, people ask if anyone has moved past the third one. People have gone there before you. From their experience, the whole body of knowledge has come. If it was an unknown path, we would not know what would happen. The path is clear and set. So, there have definitely been people who have gone there before.
23 November 2023, Kriya Yoga-Jnana Yoga Training, Ganga Darshan, Munger