Kriya Yoga
Nayaswami Devarshi
1h18min00
- Religions et spiritualité
- Youscribe plus
104 pages. Temps de lecture estimé 1h18min.
For Beginning and Experienced Yogis Alike
Both instructive and inspiring, Kriya Yoga: Spiritual Awakening for the New Age can be the spark showing the aspiring devotee both how and why to take up the lifelong practice of Kriya Yoga. Learn the pitfalls to look out for along the way, and how to reach ultimate success on your journey to Self-realization.
Simultaneously, this book is a roadmap for the already practicing Kriya Yogi. Through real-life stories from longtime Kriyabans, learn those attitudes and practices that can help or hinder your progress on the spiritual path.
“I wasn’t sent to the West by Christ and the great masters of India,” Paramhansa Yogananda often told his audiences, “to dogmatize 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 toward the attainment of actual experience of Him, through your daily practice of Kriya Yoga.”
He added, “The time for knowing God has come!”
Nayaswami Devarshi is a longtime Ananda minister and Kriyacharya (authorized Kriya Yoga teacher). He lives in India, leading Ananda’s monastery and serving as the director of Ananda’s global Kriya Yoga Sangha. Devarshi works with those taking Kriya Yoga for the first time, and counsels experienced practitioners. He prepares devotees to receive Kriya Yoga and conducts Kriya Initiations around the world.Excerpt from Kriya Yoga: Spiritual Awakening for the New Age
Foreword
You’re about to read a book that can transform your life. Kriya Yoga is much more than the latest theory for self-improvement, but is based on an ageless tradition of universal truth: the ancient science of yoga and meditation.
Yes, “ancient” because its roots go back in time to a period long before historical records were kept. Stone seals showing people seated in various yoga postures have been found in the Indus Valley of India, and have been dated by archaeologists as far back as 5000 B.C.
And, yes, “a science” because its assumptions have been tested in the laboratory of human life and consciousness over millennia and have proven to be true. In fact, modern researchers in such highly-respected institutions as Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic have been doing extensive studies on the effects of meditation. Their findings show that a regular practice lowers blood pressure, improves the quality of sleep, improves concentration, reduces stress, controls anxiety, and reduces age-related memory loss, to name a few.
But the greatest benefit of Kriya Yoga, which is a technique of meditation, is the positive transformation it brings in our own consciousness. Through Kriya practice, we become aware of an untapped reservoir of subtle energy within us. By learning to direct this energy to higher centers of consciousness in the brain, we begin to experience our own highest potential.
We can say this from personal experience, since we’ve been practicing Kriya for more than fifty years. The clarity and peace of mind, increased capacity to love and understand others, and the ability to deal calmly with challenges are priceless gifts. Perhaps most important is that over time we begin to experience ourself as a part of a greater reality that underlies everything.
Nayaswami Devarshi has presented Kriya Yoga in an easily understandable and engaging way. This book is filled with inspiring, thought-provoking stories from his own life and those of others. Such a presentation of Kriya for the general public has long been needed, and is a great contribution to the understanding of how human consciousness evolves.
Another major theme convincingly presented here is that we are entering a New Age, called by the sages of India, Dwapara Yuga. According to this teaching, our planet is moving from a time in which fixed, separate forms and material thinking were considered the norms. This materialistic approach is still reflected in many entrenched religious, political, and national institutions.
Dwapara Yuga is characterized by fluid, unitive thinking and seeing things not in terms of form, but of energy. This kind of thinking can be seen in many cutting edge developments in science, business, and human relationships. Because Kriya Yoga works by awakening inner energy and the resultant fluidity of thought, it may be said to exemplify the consciousness of this new age.
This book may open doors for you that lead to greater happiness, inner freedom, and Self-awareness. As each of us transforms our own consciousness, we can also help bring about a change in the world around us. As Mahatma Gandhi so eloquently said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Through sincere practice, Kriya Yoga holds the key to personal and global upliftment.
Nayaswami Jyotish
Nayaswami Devi
Introduction
In August 1920, a young Paramhansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, set out on the long ocean voyage from his native India to America, bringing with him the ancient teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga.
When asked, “Is your teaching a new religion?” Yogananda replied, “It is a new expression of truths that are eternal.”
His simple words refer to Sanatan Dharma, the eternal truth which predates all religions.
Yogananda declared, “You are on the eve of a great spiritual awakening, a great change in the churches, where true souls will be drawn to seek the experience of God’s presence.”
Formal religion focuses mainly on outward rituals, dogmas, and rules, and on the false notion that the worshiper can only approach God through the intercession of a priest. Yogananda called such religion — equally common East and West — “Churchianity.”
Yogananda’s teacher, Swami Sri Yukteswar, explained that the planet has entered into a new age. He wrote that we have exited Kali Yuga, an age of materialism and outward form. Only recently has the planet moved into Dwapara Yuga, an age of energy, growing awareness, and fluidity. Modern science has shown that matter is energy.
Every significant invention of the twentieth century is based on the new energy-awareness, from telegraphs, telephones, and radios, to countless electronic technologies and gadgets that have fundamentally changed people’s lives.
A new understanding is similarly growing in spirituality and religion. Many people now question the purpose of outward forms and rituals — they seek instead the direct inner experience of higher truth.
Yogananda dedicated his life to showing how to have that direct personal experience. Essential to his mission was introducing the ancient teachings of Kriya Yoga and writing fresh interpretations of two of the great world scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible.
Kriya Yoga (which I will often refer to as “Kriya”) is more than a technique. Yogananda gave the technique of Kriya to his students as part of a comprehensive way of life, designed to help them individually realize their soul natures — and to bring that realization into their daily lives.
Millions would learn about Kriya Yoga from Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946. I was surprised to read that Kriya, or a similar technique, was taught by Krishna to his disciple Arjuna, by Christ and his disciples, by the Indian sage Patanjali, and by many other enlightened teachers over the centuries.
“The Science of Kriya Yoga,” a central chapter in his autobiography, bridges the divide between science and religion. The yoga science is based upon universal inner realities. Two simple examples: someone sitting upright with a straight spine will feel more energy than someone sitting slumped over; someone whose eyes are gazing upward will feel more uplifted than someone looking down. These responses come regardless of our religious beliefs.
Meditation is also an art. The highest expression of any art, such as painting or music, is much more than demonstration of technique. Great artists work with feeling and intuition. Perfect technique alone never makes an artist’s works great. Nor can spiritual techniques alone, including Kriya Yoga, make someone a saint, one who has realized God.
In Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda recalls his boyhood meeting with a great yogi-saint, Bhaduri Mahasaya, who said to him:
“You go often into the silence, but have you developed anubhava (actual perception of God)?” He was reminding me to love God more than meditation. “Do not mistake the technique for the Goal.”
The saints of all traditions are living canvases demonstrating the highest human art and science.
Paramhansa Yogananda predicted a bright future for humanity: a future with a unitive understanding of the shared reality that connects us all. That understanding will lead to fulfilling Yogananda’s broader mission, to “inspire the nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang-evils of materialism.”
He commissioned a direct disciple, Swami Kriyananda, with showing how his teachings could shed light on every aspect of human existence. The monastic name, Kriyananda, is unusual in the Indian tradition — Kriya means “action” and “ananda” means “divine bliss.” Thus “Kriyananda” means “one who strives to realize the bliss of his nature through right action, including the practices of Kriya Yoga.”
Swami Kriyananda dedicated his life to showing how to apply the teachings of Sanatan Dharma and the practices of Kriya Yoga to every aspect of life. The Ananda communities he founded are living laboratories of this practical science and art. They are proof that a spiritual life can create bonds of harmony and cooperation between souls from all religious, cultural, and national backgrounds.
This book is the fruit of more than forty years of personal experience of the Kriya path and teachings, most of which have been devoted to sharing them with others.
Whether you are already a practitioner of Kriya Yoga or wish to learn more about Kriya, I hope this book will give you a better understanding of its depth and breadth. If you follow another spiritual practice, I believe the universal principles of Kriya can help shed light on your path.
— Nayaswami Devarshi
Humanity during Dwapara Yuga will cease to depend on crystallized political and institutional systems and will seek more fluid definitions of its ideals. In the past three centuries we have seen the wane of organized religion — of “Churchianity,” as Yogananda called it — and an increasing affirmation of the inner spirit of religion. Religion used to be identified with church affiliation and formal statements of belief; now it is becoming identified with inner Self-realization, and with a less structured, more informal fellowship of truth-seekers with one another.
— Swami Kriyananda
Contents
Foreword vii
Introduction x
chapter one riya Yoga: Spiritual Awakening for the New Age 3
chapter two n Age of Energy 15
chapter three hange Your Magnetism 23
chapter Four “Pranayam Be Thy Religion” 31
chapter five ombining Art and Science 39
chapter six eeling: From Human to Divine 47
chapter seven he Fire of Devotion 57
chapter eight ooperating with Grace 67
chapter nine ontrol the Reactive Process 75
chapter ten arma, Kriya, and Action 83
chapter eleven hange Your Destiny 91
chapter twelve he Goal—Self-Realization 97
chapter thirteen ranscending the Ego 107
chapter fourteen he Need for a Guide 115
chapter fifteen he Technological Yogi 125
chapter sixteen nner Communion 133
chapter seventeen he Final Exam 143
Appendix ow to Learn Kriya Yoga 153
References 155
About the Author and Paramhansa Yogananda 157
Further Explorations 160
