KRIYA YOGA EXPLAINED BY ALSIBAR

Alsibar is a researcher who has extensively studied spiritual guides, and regarding the question "What is Kriya Yoga?", he gave the following answer in this video:

 

And here's my translation:

«  The word "kriya" means action, ritual or practice.

According to Yogananda, the instructor who popularized this technique in the West, Kriya Yoga is a scientific method for achieving Divine realization.

This powerful tool was kept secret for a long time, originally passed down personally from guru to disciple. Eventually, Yogananda's organization (Self-Realization Fellowship) began teaching it through correspondence courses. The success was enormous, but so was the disappointment.

The problem is that many people already knew this secret technique by another name, but they didn't realize it. In fact, many people thought, and still think, that Kriya Yoga is simply a breathing, focus, and concentration technique designed to control prana, or vital energy, and that by practicing it diligently, a person would quickly enjoy the benefits of spiritual enlightenment.

But that's where the great disappointment came in because Kriya Yoga is not limited to the method; the techniques themselves, such as energizing techniques, are only one part of Kriya Yoga, which involves, among other things, a correct lifestyle, effort, balance, willpower, mental control, austerity, good deeds, meditation, prayer, mantras, faith, devotion, etc.

In essence, Kriya Yoga involves not only a set of tools for controlling vital energy, but primarily a life rooted in the spiritual heights of Patanjali's Yoga or the Buddha's Eightfold Path.

That is why many people were disappointed to discover that the technique Yogananda promoted as the scientific path to God was nothing more than the ancient principles already taught by other great masters of the past, such as Buddha, Patanjali, Jesus, etc., and that it would not be easy for anyone to follow that path.

But ultimately, is there any technique that leads to God?

Obviously not, because if that were the case, anyone who practiced such techniques would achieve divine perception.

As Krishnamurti said, "Truth is a pathless land," therefore, no path, method, technique, or system can lead you to God.

So why did teachers like Christ, Buddha, and Patanjali point out paths?

The paths indicated by the great Masters do not seek to lead man directly to God; they only prepare and create the conditions for the truth to manifest itself.

Its manifestation depends on two things: action and grace. Action prepares the ground for grace to manifest at the opportune moment; no one knows the time or place, but it will happen when the person is properly prepared—prepared to receive the impact of the energy of cosmic consciousness or divine consciousness.

Kriya Yoga is therefore not a scientific technique that reveals God, because the unknown is not subject to anything or anyone; it can manifest itself at will, to whomever it wants and whenever it wants, regardless of anything.

However, paths such as Kriya Yoga, the Buddha's Eightfold Path, and Patanjali's Yoga help prepare the aspirant's mind and spirit, creating the ideal conditions for the advent of Truth.

But nothing is guaranteed at all; this is not the field of science, but of spirituality, whose laws are completely different.

Knowing and accepting this fact is already a great step towards the long - awaited final goal. »

COMMENTS

Silva: The ego loves technique, and with technique, "having" would continue to overshadow "being." Thank you for the lesson.

Paulo: Technology diminishes life. Our professor is reading your book, Lumina. How amazed I am by this universe of possibilities and peculiarities called the path of enlightenment! How life reveals, in the encounter with truth, its greatest beauty, which is its plural manifestation.

Miguel: I believe technique prepares the ground and grace fertilizes it. But I have a Lahiri Mahasaya pamphlet on Kriya with practices that greatly affect our energy. :( That's the real problem.)

Bruno: Hi Alsibar, the topic of the video is very interesting. In fact, I wanted to ask you something that came to mind while I was listening. Ramana Maharshi said, in other words, that we are already naturally everything we seek spiritually, because the divine is in everything. In the video, it says that the unknown manifests at a certain point in a person's life, depending on the circumstances. So, is there any difference between the unknown and the divine in this context? Could we say that the unknown is, in reality, the clarity that we already are that?

Alsibar:  Hi Bruno, how are you? In fact, we are all already a manifestation of divine consciousness. What we lack is this perception, the understanding of what Krishnamurti called the manifestation of Truth.

When someone experiences this beyond mere intellectual understanding, it produces what people call enlightenment. But it requires direct experience.

Warm greetings and thank you for your participation.

Pablo: Alsibar, from what I've learned in Self Yoga classes, the technique is only taught in person, with initiation by a monk who comes from outside Brazil. Did you learn the technique that way, by mail?

I've also seen different techniques taught by various disciples of Yogananda and Yukteswarji, and in some cases, they're taught as the person develops. It doesn't seem so simple to talk about "the" Kriya technique.

Regarding lifestyle, Yogananda himself repeatedly stated that practicing Kriya could change a person's preferences. He told a disciple who drank that he could continue drinking, for example, but if he dedicated himself to Kriya, it would transform him, and through the practice of the technique, he would find a way to follow a different lifestyle.

Alsibar: Hi Pablo, how are you? I mentioned that some people who started Kriya after many years were disappointed to discover that they already knew the technique by another name. 

And as you said, there are different techniques taught by other disciples of gurus who are not connected to the Self.

What I see is a lot of competition for the "authentic technique" of Kriya Yoga. And many so-called gurus charge a hefty sum for this initiation.

But when we read Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi," we see that Kriya Yoga is not just a technique, but a set of principles that encompasses much more than a simple technique.

Thank you for your participation and until next time.

Facundo: SantataGamana agrees that Kriya yoga only raises kundalini but does not bring enlightenment. Furthermore, he says that the first kriya alone places you in sahaja samadhi, and from there you must maintain that state through practice, which has no other function, as Lahiri Mahayasa taught. Therefore, self-inquiry should be practiced in addition to kriya. Some authors are already combining them.

It seems very similar to what happens in Buddhism, the great battle between Samatha and Vipassana. You have those who want concentration and to develop powers and jhanas, and those who want to internalize. Apparently, to achieve enlightenment, neither jhanas nor powers are necessary, as Mahayana practices experience with Zazen and Mahamudra (which consists of mindfulness meditations simply to establish presence). If the story of the Buddha is correct, then what happened to him was that Samatha meditation didn't bring him enlightenment, but rather self-inquiry (as Ramana Maharishi recommended, saying it's the only means to reach enlightenment).

CID'S OBSERVATIONS

The masters explained that there are paths that lead to God, but it's not something that takes you there immediately, but rather very gradually.

And as Alsibar pointed out, techniques only create the conditions for spiritual enlightenment to occur someday, but it is not guaranteed.

Now, some methods are more efficient than others, but I don't know how efficient Kriya Yoga is.