Kriya Yoga:

Synthesis of a Personal Experience

Ennio Nimis

2018 Edition

Illustrations by Lorenzo Pentassuglia

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 CONTENTS

PART I: MY SEARCH OF ORIGINAL KRIYA

1 Decision to start the practice of Pranayama p.3
2 From Ujjayi Pranayama to Kriya Yoga p.19
3 Breathlessness p.38
4 The teaching of Swami Hariharananda p.56
5 My last teacher p.63

PART II: METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES OF KRIYA YOGA

6 Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya Yoga – first part p. 86
7 Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya Yoga – second part p.101
8 Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya Yoga – third part p.115
9 Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya Yoga – fourth part p.125
10 Kriya Yoga in the vision of Swami Hariharananda p.139
11 Discussions with students of PY's correspondence course p.158

PART III: ESSENTIAL PRACTICE

12 A good way of experiencing the beauty of Kriya Yoga p.167

PART IV: HOW TO AVOID FAILURE ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH

13 The value of Japa and the Prayer of the heart p.198
14 The Kriya of the cells p.212

FINAL APPENDICES
App.1 Definition of Incremental Routine p.223
App.2 Can the practice of Kriya produce negative moods? p.228
App.3 Some spiritual paths worth studying p.235
App.4 Fictional Kriya p.253
App.5 Wrong attitudes toward the Spiritual path p.256

Glossary p.268

Bibliography p.302

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PART I: MY SEARCH OF ORIGINAL KRIYA

CHAPTER 1
DECISION TO START THE PRACTICE OF PRANAYAMA

My spiritual search began at age 15 after I bought an introductory book on

classical Yoga. I don't remember the title of that first book, but books of
B.K.S. Iyengar followed and then finally the autobiography of an Indian
saint, where I found the term Kriya Yoga. But first things first...

In primary school, unlike my peers I borrowed esoteric books from my

parents' friends and I loved those books. I remember that the first one I
read from end to end was on occultism. Knowing the book was considered
unsuitable for my age, I was proud to be able to read and understand it. I
turned a deaf ear to any persuasive advice to dedicate myself to more
formative readings. I wasted a lot of time on worthless books and stacks of
specialized esoteric magazines with tantalizing titles and idle fancies
designed essentially to impress, and which were impossible to distinguish
in advance between fact and fiction.

I also came into contact with the main themes of occidental esotericism
with short digressions into phenomena like hypnosis and spiritualism. I
continued these readings until I was about 11 years old. In the end, I felt I
had traveled through an indistinct chaos and thought that perhaps the most
precious secrets were hidden in other books which I had not been fortunate
enough to find.

I saw the word "Yoga" for the first time in a postal catalog of esoteric
books among my father's correspondence. I was entranced and inexplicably
spellbound by the person pictured on the cover sitting in the "lotus
position." However, I couldn't persuade my father to buy the book for me.

When I was 15 and in high school, the esoteric flame was rekindled for a
while in a particular way: a friend told me he had a detailed textbook
containing different Pranayama techniques, and added: "These exercises
are used to obtain inner transformation...." I was deeply intrigued by his
words: what internal transformation was he talking about? Surely my

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friend didn't mean the attainment of a particular state of relaxation or
concentration, or how to integrate the oriental vision of existence with our
lifestyle. He must be referring to some intense experience that left a lasting
psychological mark. Pranayama was something I had to learn as soon as
possible. But my friend would not lend me the book.

A few days later at the train station newsstand, I spotted a simple Hatha
Yoga manual and bought it forthwith and read it in its entirety. Although I
thought I was searching for physical and mental control, my spiritual
search had in fact begun.

This book had a long philosophical introduction that did not stir up
anything spiritual. It was neither impressive nor thought provoking (Jiva,
Prakriti, Purusha...). The author’s goal seemed to be solely to give the
reader the impression of serious authority. Even concepts like
Reincarnation, Karma, Dharma, and Maya, the understanding of which in
the future would become so important in my life, remained unfathomable,
hidden in a tangle of Sanskrit terms. Pranayama was only hinted at by
explaining how to do a complete breath – dilating the abdomen,
diaphragm, and upper chest during inhalation and contracting the same in
reverse order for a calm exhalation. That was clearly an introduction,
nothing else.

I was sure that the ancient art of Pranayama was not intended simply to
train the chest muscles, strengthen the diaphragm or create peculiar
conditions of blood oxygenation, but was also meant to act on the energy
present in the psycho-physical system. It was common knowledge that the
inharmonious state of that energy could be related to conflicts and
disharmonies within.

I was frustrated about the lack of in-depth information about Pranayama.

The author concluded by saying that Pranayama should be learned from an
experienced teacher but instead of adding a precise indication (the title of a
book, the name of a school...), he remained vague about exactly how to
find him, maintaining that we find the Teacher when we are ready to learn.

As for Asanas, the book explained the name of each posture (Asana), gave
a brief note on the best mental attitude for practicing it, and explained how
each exercise stimulated certain physiological functions (important
endocrine glands, etc.). It was taken for granted that these positions were
not to be seen as simple "stretching work-outs"; but were a means of
providing a global stimulus to all the physical organs to increase their
vitality. The satisfaction I felt at the end of a session spoke to their

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effectiveness.

I began doing yoga postures (Asanas) in a corner of our school gymnasium

during physical education classes. I wasn't very good in sports anyway
despite being well-conditioned by long walks. Moreover, being able to do
something significant without the inherent risks of popular and common
sports attracted me. After the preliminary group warm-up exercises, when
the teacher gave me permission to work out on my own, I devoted myself
to mastering Yoga positions or moving the abdominal muscles with the
Nauli technique. To my amazement one day the teacher (whom I had
assumed had an opinion of me close to zero) came over and inquired as to
the secret of succeeding in moving the abdominal muscles in such curious
way. I tried to explain how simple it was, provided that you had the
constancy to work daily at it for a couple of weeks.

IMPORTANT TECHNIQUE TO STOP THE THINKING MIND

In that unassuming but appreciable book, there was an entire chapter
devoted to the "Corpse Pose" (Savasana), the last one to be practiced in the
daily Asana routine. The instruction was very clearly given and the author
did not lose his focus in useless philosophical embellishments. He
explained that the purpose of the exercise was to quiet the mental faculties
in order to recharge the whole psycho physical system with fresh energy. I
was attracted by the grandiose promise that by stopping all mental
functions – without falling into a state of sleep – and remaining for some
time in a state of pure awareness, one could obtain within one hour the
equivalent of five hours sleep. I regret not having the book anymore, but I
will describe the exercise based upon what I remember:

► Lie in the supine position with arms extended alongside the body and with
eyes closed, covered with a cloth to keep the light out as much as possible. After
staying still for two or three minutes, mentally repeat – ''I am relaxed, I am calm,
I am not thinking of anything.'' Then, to enter the state of mental void visualize
your thoughts including those with abstract qualities and push them away one by
one as if an internal hand were moving them gently from the center of a mental
screen toward its outer edge. All thoughts, without exception, must be put aside;
even the thought itself of practicing a technique. You should never become
annoyed by continuous new thoughts. Picture them as objects and shift them
aside. In this way, new chains of thought are prevented from coming out. After
pushing a thought away, return your awareness to the small spot between the
eyebrows (Kutastha) which resembles a pond of peace, and relax therein. The
ability to continuously push away thoughts that knock at the door of your
attention will become almost automatic.

When, on some occasions – such as practicing immediately after a strong

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emotional incident – the mechanism does not seem to work, convert your
concentration into a small needle which constantly touches the area between the
eyebrows – just touching, without worrying about shifting thoughts aside. You
will notice that at a certain point there is no more effort, and any remaining
restless emotion subsides. The seeds of new thoughts starting to take shape as
indefinite images quivering at the edge of awareness cannot disturb your mental
rest. Whichever of the two methods you choose, the exercise works perfectly and
after 40 minutes you get up well-rested and recharged with new fresh energy.

In my experience, in spite of the 40 minutes promised by the book, the

final state of relaxation lasted no more than 20 minutes and the exercise
itself never more than 25-30 minutes altogether. The technique inevitably
ends in a peculiar way; the state of deep calmness is interrupted by the
thought that the exercise had not yet begun. The body always reacts with a
wince and a faster heartbeat. After a few seconds, confidence that the
exercise had been perfectly executed appears.

Thanks to this technique, which became a daily habit, I realized once and
for all the difference between "mind" and "awareness". When the mental
process is eased off into perfect silence, pure awareness without content
arises. Like a luminous point duplicating itself an unlimited amount of
times, it remains unchanged for some minutes. You know you exist and
that your existence is indestructible – this happens without thinking. You
have the indisputable experience that thoughts are in essence ephemeral,
and instead of revealing the final truth they cloud it. I think that the
Cartesian deduction: "I think, therefore I am" is indefensible. It would be
more correct to affirm: "Only in the silence of no thought lies the proof and
the intimate certainty of existing."

CONTEMPLATION OF BEAUTY AS A NATURAL RELIGION

Besides the dimension of esoteric oriental meditative practices, I also had a
passion for poetry and literature as well as a habit of daily seeking the
contemplation of Beauty in Nature.

When I was 9 years old, I borrowed a book of poetry from the school
library and copied different short poems with naturalistic themes into a
notebook. By reading them frequently, I soon knew them all by heart. By
recalling them while contemplating the hilly surroundings beyond the
outskirts of my village, I could intensify my emotions. Such event was
sought every day and lived with the sacredness of a religious experience.

Instead, the discovery of the pain of which life is pervaded (including not
only the animal kingdom but also the vegetable one) produced a rebellion
to the concept of God as ''Endless Goodness.'' I was never afraid to express

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my protest. Noticing how many illusions are propagated by religions and
cults, I felt sorry for all those who, in the abyss of their tragedy, were not
able to voice their sharp loud cry to God facing Him in protest but kept on
imploring God (visualized as a omnipotent, supernatural being) not with a
spirit of devotion and surrender, but with such a beseeching attitude as if
they feared even worse calamities.

As my high school years were drawing to a close, I developed a passion for

classical music and Beethoven became my idol. Despite the tragedy of his
deafness at his creative peak, he reacted in a most honorable manner and
carried on creating works he had already composed in his heart. The
Heiligenstadt Testament, where he reveals his critical condition and states
his decision with calm and total resolution, made him almost a hero and a
saint in my eyes.

He wrote to a friend: "I have not a single friend; I must live alone. But well
I know that God is nearer to me than to other artists; I associate with Him
without fear; I have always recognized and understood him and have no
fear for my music – it can meet no evil fate. Those who understand it must
be freed by it from all the miseries which the others drag about with
themselves."

How could I remain indifferent? He was drawing incomparable music out

of the depths of his being, and offering it to humanity. The triumph of this
frail human creature over a nonsensical fate had a tremendous impact on
me. The daily rite of retiring to my room to listen to that music
consolidated my consecration to the Ideal.

Each day for the first three months after high school graduation, when I
experienced a strong romantic crush whose fulfillment seemed impossible,
I listened to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. The more my emotionalism
prompted me to act rashly, which proved to be destructive to my love
affair, the more my desperate heart found refuge in that masterpiece.

During a walk in the country, sitting on a hill contemplating a far landscape

bathed in the warmth of the summer evening, his music rang out again in
my memory. What my heart craved was before me, perfect and
untarnished neither by fears nor by a sense of guilt. That was my first
spiritual experience.

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ACADEMIC STUDIES
I chose to study Math at university. While attending the first classes, I
understood that a happy chapter of my life was concluded and there would
be no time for distractions like enjoying classic literature. All my attention
was focused on finding an effective method of study and a way to avoid
wasting my energies. This meant focusing in a disciplined way both during
study time and during my idle moments. For this purpose, I decided to
utilize the dynamic of the previously described exercise to rest the mind.

A bad habit I had to conquer was a tendency to daydream and jump from
one memory to another to extract moments of pleasure. I had formed the
unshakeable conviction that when thought becomes an uncontrollable vice
– for many it is an utter addiction – it constitutes not only a waste of energy
but is the main cause of almost all failures in our life. The frenzied whirl of
the thought process, accompanied by alternating moods and strong
emotions, creates at times unreasonable fears that hinder the decisive
action that life requires. On other occasions it fosters an optimistic
imagination that unfortunately pushes the person toward inappropriate
actions. I was convinced that disciplined thought was the most valuable
trait I could develop, and would open the doors to fruitful achievements.
My decision filled me with euphoric enthusiasm.

However, after breathing the limpid, sparkling, celestial state of thought

restraint for a few hours I encountered a significant mental resistance. In
the mirror of my introspection, I saw how other habits were wasting my
mental energy. One of these, wrapped and unexpectedly dignified by the
concept of socialization, was that of falling daily into nerve-wracking
discussions with friends. It was time to renounce it. I abruptly avoided their
company. Certainly mine was not an impossible sacrifice – theirs was not
my world.

One day during a short afternoon walk, I saw them from afar sitting lazily
and chatting in the usual bar. My heart gave a lurch. They were my friends
and I loved each of them, yet seeing them together, they appeared to me
like chickens cooped up in a narrow space. Mercilessly I assumed they
were completely governed by the instincts of eating, partying, sex, and
generally overindulging. Whatever tragedy happened to their friend didn't
concern them, they would have kept on sipping the daily pleasure of
dawdling until misfortune hit them personally. I found it very sad and
distressing.

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At that moment I again resolved to concentrate on my studies, and passing
my exams became my sole focus. I perceived that period of my life as a
descent into an unfathomable night but I knew that in order to shape my
future the way I desired, tough sacrifices were necessary. To see the dawn
of a "day of pure joy", I would have to endure momentarily a dark
emptiness: I would savor it without lament and without being tempted to
turn on a light for momentary solace.

INSPIRATION FROM BEETHOVEN AND MAHLER

The incident put me in a gloomy mood, but a sentence from Beethoven's
Heiligenstadt testament came spontaneously to mind and evoked the bliss I
had enjoyed during my high school years:

O Providence - grant me at least but one day of pure joy - it has been so
long since real joy echoed in my heart - O when - O when, O Divine One -
shall I find it again in the temple of nature and of men? - Never? No - O
that would be too hard.

An event illuminated my life: a friend introduced me to Gustav Mahler's

Symphony No.2 "Resurrection" and invited me to a live concert of this
work. I read the information leaflet. Each part of the symphony had a
precise meaning which Mahler himself had explained in a letter to the
conductor, Bruno Walter. It was Mahler's intention to treat death as the
inevitable end to all human enterprise. The music itself conveyed a sense
of desolation which was sweet, as if death meant drifting off into a
peaceful sleep. In a sorrowful voice of endless dignity, the words of the
contralto communicated a childlike innocent vision:

O Röschen roth! O red rose!

Der Mensch liegt in größter Noth! Man lies in direst need!
Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein! Man lies in deepest pain!
Je lieber möcht ich im Himmel sein. Oh, how I would rather be in
heaven.

While listening, I fancied I was in the countryside during a light rain. But it
was spring and a ray of sun pierced the clouds. Amid the vegetation there
was a beautiful red rose. That simple vision brought solace to my heart's
inner ache and warmed me to a high pitch of enthusiasm with the thought
that Beauty would be with me forever, in all the places of my solitary
wanderings. Then the choir sang some verses from Klopstock's hymn:

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Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n Resurrect, yes resurrect,
Wirst du, Mein Staub, Will you, my dust,
Nach kurzer Ruh'! After a brief rest!
Unsterblich Leben! Unsterblich Leben Immortal life! Immortal life
wird der dich rief dir geben! Will He who called you, give you.

Next Mahler's own verses were chanted. These ended with:

Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen, With wings I have gained,
In heißem Liebesstreben, in love's fierce striving,
Werd'ich entschweben I shall soar aloft
Zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug'gedrungen! To the light that has not pierced eye!
Sterben werd'ich, um zu leben! I will die, so I can live!
Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n Resurrect, yes resurrect,
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu! Will you, my heart, in an instant!
Was du geschlagen What you have coveted and fought for,
zu Gott wird es dich tragen! Shall lead you to God!

In the following days, I tried to penetrate the meaning by reading

everything I could on the symphony and listening to it entranced in the
quietude of my own room. After many integral and enthusiastic listening
sessions, the words: "Sterben werde ich, um zu leben!" ("I will die so I can
live!") resounded all day long in my mind like a thread around which my
thoughts crystallized.

Would I ever, now or before infertile old age, be able to die to myself –
namely to die to my small self or my ego? Was it possible to cross the
foggy curtain of thoughts, superficial emotions, sensations and instinct, and
emerge into that pure Dimension for which I had yearned many years and
which I felt was my Highest Good?

There was no doubt I was willing to perfect my self-imposed discipline to

the extreme, but by no means did I want to spend the rest of my life staring
at the wall of my silenced mind and waiting for something to happen. "I
will seize Fate by the throat", said Beethoven: so I too was prepared to act
in a strong and decisive way.

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MY FIRST PRANAYAMA ROUTINE
I purchased B.K.S. Iyengar's The Illustrated Light on Yoga. His description
of Pranayama awakened in me an unshakeable desire to practice it
intensively. In the last part of the book there was a prudent warning:

"Pneumatic tools can cut through the hardest rock. In Pranayama, the yogi
uses his lungs as pneumatic tools. If they are not used properly, they
destroy both the tool and the person using it. Faulty practice puts undue
stress on the lungs and diaphragm. The respiratory system suffers and the
nervous system is adversely affected. The very foundation of a healthy
body and a sound mind is shaken by a faulty practice of Pranayama."

This sentence ignited my immoderate will to experience all its power, to

the point of "dying" in it, figuratively speaking. What would have
frightened others emboldened me. If this discipline would bring about an
authentic psychological earthquake, well, I was on the right track. Of
course, some prudence was necessary; an intensive practice had to be
reached gradually and each session had to be carried out with extreme care.

From now on, I practiced daily the two breathing exercises called Nadi
Sodhana and Ujjayi with Bandhas (muscle contraction) and Kumbhaka
(breath retention.) I sat on the edge of a pillow, in the half-lotus position,
with my back straight. I focused with zeal on applying the instructions
flawlessly but with a creative spirit.

I concentrated keenly on the alternate feelings of coolness and warmth

produced by the air on the fingers and on the palm of the right hand used to
open and close the nostrils. The pressure, the smooth flowing of the
breath... every detail was pleasant. Becoming aware of each peculiarity of
the exercise helped me maintain vigilant attention without becoming
stressed.

GOOD EFFECTS
On different occasions I noticed a change in my mind’s global functioning
– memory, concentration… I could especially observe this during my
exams. Before the test began, a little bit of Pranayama would endow me
with a sudden calm and self-possession, no matter what the examiner’s
attitude was. I would not feel a bit nervous. I was able to maintain the
necessary self-control to master my speech, often succeeding in expressing

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clearly not only what I knew, but also something more, which just then
seemed to become evident for the first time.

Day after day, I could perceive Pranayama's potential acting on my

psyche. I was certain my old school friend had told the truth – "...these
exercises can change a person inside". It had to be true!

Learning Pranayama was like learning to play a musical instrument – the

instrument was always with me. Pranayama appeared to me the most
perfect of all arts, with no intrinsic limits. I couldn't understand how I had
waited so much before taking on this commitment seriously. Now, at least,
the moment had come.

During the day, I found my perception of things had changed. My eyes

searched for the most intense colors, fascinated by them as if they were
close to revealing an unknown reality lying beyond the material.
Sometimes in the first sunny days after winter, when the skies were
crystalline and as blue as they had ever been, I would sit in the open air and
contemplate my surroundings. In a bushy ditch covered with ivy the sun
shed its light upon flowers that a few weeks before were blooming during
the cold and now, heedless of the mildest days, still lingered in their spell-
binding glory. I was deeply inspired. I would close my eyes and rely on an
inner radiance accompanied by a sensation of pressure on my heart.

At that time, my internal life was still split between two interests which I
perceived as two dimensions having nothing in common. On one side were
esoteric matters which had guided my search toward Yoga discipline, which
I conceived to be an efficacious tool for purifying and controlling the mind.

On the other side was the aspiration toward the ideal world of Beauty
which I tried to evoke through the study of literary works, and listening to
classical music. I never imagined that the first interest could lead me to a
most intense way to enjoy the second!

It was reasonable to hope that Pranayama could give me a permanent base

of mental clarity, helping me to not spoil the fragile miracle of an
encounter with Beauty with a jumble of thoughts, but I could never have
imagined that Pranayama had the power of multiplying the experience of
the Sublime or even make it spring up from nothing! I often repeated inside
myself and sometimes quoted to my friends this verse from the Bhagavad
Gita:

(The yogi) knows the eternal joy beyond the pale of the senses which the

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 reason cannot grasp. Dwelling in this reality, he moves not thence. He
has found the treasure above all others. There is nothing higher than this.
Having achieved it, he shall not be moved by the greatest sorrow. This is
the real meaning of Yoga – a deliverance from contact with pain and
sorrow.

While repeating it, I was actually savoring that Joy. On a quiet afternoon
walk among trees just before sunset, I quickly glanced now and then at text
from one of the Upanishads [ancient Sanskrit sacred texts] that I had with
me. One particular sentence awakened an instantaneous realization: "Thou
art That"!

I closed the book and repeated this short sentence as if in a trance. My

rational mind was able to grasp but not fully accept the incommensurable
implication of the statement. It meant that it was I that was the
unbelievably delicate green light filtering through the leaves, bearing
witness to the spring that brought new life.

Back home, I did not even try to put down on paper the numerous
"moments of grace" I experienced from this realization, nor could I have.
My only wish was to delve further and further into this new inner source of
understanding and enlightenment.

Panning my sight around, a landscape would appear amongst the leaves

and a group of distant houses surrounding a bell-tower. Only that sort of
"light" could instill a superhuman poise into my being and give me the
intuition that the traces of the ineffable "primeval cause" of all things was
not to be sought in books, in reasoning but only in the realm of Beauty.

A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
The first glimpse of the Spiritual Reality may manifest as a series of bliss
waves rising through the spine and entering the brain. This experience
usually lasts from few instants to a couple of minutes. Sometimes it is like
having a volcano erupting inside, a ''rocket'' shooting up through the spine!
Other times, it may appear like an intense bliss in the chest region –
suddenly you are inside an immense joy and wake up with tears in your
eyes. You are filled with the euphoria obtained by this short but
unforgettable plunge into Eternity.

Frequently this experience is called ''Kundalini awakening. The concept of

Samadhi (or religious ecstasy) is very akin to "Kundalini awakening".
Kundalini'' is Sanskrit for "coiled". It is conceived as a particular energy
coiled like a serpent in the root Chakra. The representation of being coiled

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like a spring conveys the idea of untapped potential energy having its seat
at the base of the spine. The concept of Kundalini is very useful since it
can be utilized to express what generally happens along the spiritual path.

Some authors foster the idea that this great concentration of energy has its
seat in our entire body, not only at the base of the spine. It sleeps in our
body, underneath the layers of our consciousness, waiting to be aroused by
spiritual discipline.

Yoga teaches to harness this tremendous power through specific techniques

and guide its rising from the Muladhara up through Sushumna, activating
each Chakra. It has been explained that when Kundalini arrives at the
Sahasrara Chakra, it bestows mystical illumination.

Sometimes the experience comes before any Yoga practice is done. It may
spring from the vibratory shock produced by reading a religious text or the
biography of a Saint, when the idea of the vastness of the Spiritual Reality
creates a sort of dizziness. You feel that this idea is capable of sweeping
away all your certitudes.

Some were so elated by their experience that they wrote about it with
perhaps too much grandeur, placing too much emphasis on it, discerning
implications it has not. I remember an article in a specialized magazine in
which the woman who had this experience attributed the event to an
imaginary individual who, purportedly, granted her every intimate detail.
You understand that it is the lady herself to write since it is highly
improbable that another person had communicated her such profusion of
details of the event. Her alleged act of humility was annihilated by the title
she gave to her article: ''Forerunners of a new race." She gave the
impression of not having understood the teaching contained in the
experience. In her description, Kundalini awakening happened in her body
as a privilege obtained by divine intervention. We know it is no privilege at
all. It is a natural event.

After having bought the works of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Gopi

Krishna and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, I finally decided to buy the
autobiography of an Indian saint, whom I will indicate by PY. 1 It was a
1
The reader will understand why I am not mentioning the full name of PY – it is not
difficult however to figure out his identity. There are many schools of Yoga
spreading his teachings according to a ‘specific legitimacy'. One of these, through its
representatives, made me realize that not only won't they tolerate the smallest of the
Copyright violations, but they won't even appreciate their beloved Teacher's name
being mixed into discussions about Kriya on the Internet. The reason is that in the
past some people used His name to mislead a high number of practitioners who were

14
book I had seen some years before but had not bought because it didn't
contain practical instructions. My hope now was that I would be able to
find useful information such as the addresses of some good Yoga schools.

This autobiography enthralled me and created a strong aspiration toward

the mystical path. In certain moments I found myself almost burning from
an internal fever. This provided fertile ground for the coming of an event
which was radically different from any I had experienced before. It was a
kind of "intimate" experience. Nonetheless, since I have listened to similar
descriptions from Yoga practitioners, I have decided to share it.

One night while pausing after reading this book, I felt a shiver similar to
an electric current spreading itself throughout my whole body. A ''shiver''
was insignificant in itself, but it frightened me. My reaction was rather
strange since I had always believed I was immune from fear of all things
related to transcendence.

The thought flashed through my mind that a deeper event was going to
happen soon and that it was going to be strong, very strong and I would not
be able to stop it in any way. It was as if my memory had some
inexplicable familiarity with it and my instinct knew its inescapable power.
I made up my mind to let things happen unimpeded and go ahead with the
reading. Minutes passed and I was not able to continue reading; my
restlessness turned into anxiety. Then it again became fear, an intense fear
of something unknown which was threatening my existence. Certainly, I
had never experienced a similar state. In past moments of danger, I used to
remain paralyzed, unable to think. Now my thoughts were stirring
frantically, picturing the worst results: loss of psychological balance,
encounter with an evil entity, perhaps even death.

I felt the urgency to do something, even though I did not know what. I set
myself in the position for meditation and waited. The anguish increased. A
part of me, maybe the totality of that entity I call "myself", seemed at the
point of melting away. The worst thoughts hung over me without a clear
reason.

I was well aware of what happened to Gopi Krishna, the author of

Kundalini: Path to Higher Consciousness. He described the awakening
experience he had through a daily intense concentration on the seventh

trying to receive His original teachings. Moreover, my desire is to inform the reader
that in the following pages I will only summarily linger upon my understanding of
His legacy, without any pretension of giving an objective account of it. An interested
reader should not renounce the privilege of turning to the original texts!

15
Chakra. Later on – because his body was probably unprepared – he met
serious physical and, as a reflex, psychic problems as well. According to
his description, a very strong energy began to flow inside his spine from
the coccyx region toward the brain.

So strong was the energy that he was bedridden and could not accomplish
normal bodily functions. He literally felt as if he was being burned by an
inner fire which he could not put out. Weeks later, he intuitively discovered
the way to control the phenomenon: the upward flow of energy through the
spine became a persistent experience of internal realization.

I was afraid I too had come to the threshold of that same experience but,
since I did not live in India, perhaps people around me might not
understand. The consequences would have been terrible! I could not be
reassured that my experience would be channeled toward a positive
conclusion.

In those terrible instants, the spiritual world appeared to me to be a

sorrowful and horrible nightmare, able to annihilate and destroy whoever
would imprudently approach it. Ordinary life, on the contrary, seemed the
dearest and healthiest reality. I was afraid I might not be able to get back to
that condition again. I was convinced that through my intense practice of
two simple breathing exercises I had opened a door I was not supposed to
open, therefore I tried to stop the experience.

I stood up and left the room, out to the open air. It was night and there was
nobody to whom I could communicate my panic! At the center of the yard I
was burdened, choked, almost crushed by a feeling of desperation, envying
all those people who had never practiced Yoga.

I suddenly felt guilty and ashamed of the harsh words I had used against a
friend who had been involved in part of my search. Like so many others, he
had shunned any practice and decided instead to ''enjoy life.'' Equipped
with a juvenile boldness, I had addressed him with a tone far from
affectionate, which now started to thunder inside my head. I was sorry I
had thrown unjustified cruelty at him without really knowing what was in
his mind and soul. I would have liked to tell him how sorry I was to have
brutally violated his right to live the way he thought was best. Perhaps he
had preferred to protect his mental health rather than become unstable or
insane through practices he was unsure of.

After returning to my room, I hoped that, because of my great passion for

classical music, listening to it might yield the positive effect of protecting

16
me from anguish and help me get back my usual mood. It was Beethoven's
Concert for Violin and Orchestra, which I listened to in my room with
headphones, that soothed my soul and after half an hour eased my sleep.

The following morning I awoke with the same fear. Strange as it may
seem, the idea that every day in my present life stirs a joyful emotion in my
heart, conveyed at that moment a feeling of horror! I mean the belief that
man can practice a definite discipline in order to attune to the Divine
Intelligence which is the First Cause of everything existing.

Sunlight poured into the room through the gaps in the shutters. I had a
whole day before me. I went out to try and amuse myself by being with
other people. I met some friends and spent the afternoon cracking jokes
and behaving like the people I had always considered lazy and dull. In this
way, I succeeded in hiding my anguish. The first day went by; my mind
was totally worn out. After two days, the fear had diminished and I finally
felt safe. Something felt changed anyway.

One week later I began, calmly and objectively, to ponder the meaning of
what had happened. I understood the nature of my reaction to that episode:
I had cowardly run away from the experience I had pursued for such a long
time! In the depth of my soul my dignity urged me to continue with my
search exactly from the point where I had quit. I was ready to accept all
that was to happen and let things follow their course, even if this process
implied the loss of my wholesomeness. I resumed the practice of
Pranayama again, as intensely as before. A few days went by without
detecting any form of fear. Then I experienced something very beautiful.

It was night. I was lying in a relaxed "corpse pose", when I had a pleasant
sensation, as if an electric wind was perceived over the surface of my skin,
propagating itself quickly and with a wavy motion from my feet up to my
head. My body was so tired I could not move – even if my mind had
ordered it to. My composure was serene. I had no fear. Then the electric
wind was replaced by another feeling, comparable to an enormous power
pouring into the backbone and quickly climbing up to the brain. The
experience was accompanied by an indescribable, and so far unknown,
sense of bliss. The perception of an intense brightness accompanied
everything. My memory of that moment is condensed into a single
expression, "a clear and euphoric certainty of existing, like an unlimited
ocean of awareness and bliss". The strangest thing was that in the very
instant I had it, I found it familiar.

17
In God Exists: I Have Met Him, A. Frossard tries to give an idea of his
spiritual experience. To that end, he creates the concept of an "inverse
avalanche". An avalanche collapses, runs downhill, first slowly then faster
and violently at the same time. Frossard suggests we should imagine an
"upside-down avalanche" which begins strengthening at the foot of the
mountain and climbs up pushed by an increasing power; then suddenly it
leaps up toward the sky. I do not know how long this experience lasted. It
definitely peaked out at only a few seconds. When it ended, I turned on my
side and fell into a calm, uninterrupted sleep.

The following day when I awoke I had forgotten it. It only came up some
hours later, during a walk. Leaning against the trunk of a tree, I remained
immobile for a couple minutes, enthralled by the reverberation of the
memory. I was flooded with great joy. An elated condition stretching out
far past the limits of my awareness – a sort of memory hiding in the
recesses of my subconscious – began to be revealed, as if a new area of my
brain had been stirred to a full awakening. I found myself contemplating a
dreamlike reality, still objectively indisputable; it had arisen in me with the
naturalness of a primordial instinct although it had nothing to do with the
world surrounding me in which I lived.

The meaning of the experience I was going through was sufficiently clear
to me. I had no doubts that the Reality I had contacted was my inner ''Self.''
The practice of Pranayama had provoked it by cleansing the subconscious
part of my psyche. I had no fear since I had trained my consciousness to
live by the contemplation of Beauty. Another thing became adamantly
clear: I would have to choose a profession that would not occupy all my
energy. I had to live a simple life, never betraying the inner Self that was
revealed to me!

18
 CHAPTER 2
FROM UJJAYI TO KRIYA PRANAYAMA

[I]

The enthusiasm for the art of Pranayama was constantly growing.

Undertaking this practice was like planting the seed of a mighty tree in the
feverish season of my youth and contemplating its safe growth at other
times of my life. Pranayama became my safe refuge when the trials of life
conspired to wear away the basic joy which was my inherent nature. To
abide by it was the Decision of my life. I practiced morning and evening in
an "absolute" way, with ferocious concentration, as if there were no
tomorrow.

The ''Kundalini experience'' happened again, several times but never

became a constant. It took place especially when I devoted myself to study
late at night and then lied supine on my bed. Whenever it appeared my
heart bubbled with infinite gratefulness to something higher, beyond my
capabilities of understanding.

In my beginner's zeal, I could not refrain from trying to convince other

people of its benefits. I was convinced that it could help anyone to live in a
better way. I declared that Pranayama would harness their energies
towards a more balanced psyche. My friends were polite while listening,
but did not share my enthusiasm. Rather they reacted affirming that mine
was not at all a state of emotional equilibrium: closing myself in a room to
practice Yoga, abstaining from many aspects of social life, was a road
toward alienation.

I made a blunder by insisting on emphasizing some aspects of their

behavior which I decided needed improvement. In short, I was telling them
that their social life was a farce. This generated a violent reaction. They
replied that my words were deprived of a genuine sense of respect and love
and that I was unable to show sympathy toward others. The essence of
what I had found in Pranayama, which I went on extolling unflinchingly,
appeared to them as the pinnacle of egoism and even a real mental cruelty.

Guilt-ridden, I saw I had provoked only bitterness. I also realized that, for
purposes of my disquisition, I had taken advantage of their past

19
confidential admissions. Only one friend, a "Hippie", understood perfectly
what I was saying and showed me some empathy; to him, the only real
problem was my excessive enthusiasm about the automatic benefits of
Pranayama. He had no doubts that my success in this practice depended
wholly on me. In his opinion, Pranayama was not an art bringing its own
reward, but an "amplifier" of what I had inside, enhancing what I had
already achieved. Pranayama, he said, could not create anything new.

In my opinion Pranayama was an action of ''climbing'' toward a lofty state

of consciousness whereby you achieved something radically new. I felt
disoriented in listening that it was only an "amplifier." I wasn't able to see
that the two visions could coexist – I was young and I categorized
everything as black or white.

KRIYA YOGA
I felt no immediate attraction for Autobiography of a Yogi by PY. I did not
find in those many pages one single practical instruction. Later I
discovered that the author hinted at a particular form of Pranayama (Kriya
Pranayama) that was taught by a famous yogi, Lahiri Mahasaya, who was
depicted as the embodiment of Yoga. When I read that this technique had to
be mastered through four stages, I thought that surely there must have been
something unique in his "way". I loved my technique of Ujjayi
Pranayama, and the idea of improving a Pranayama technique through
different steps sounded wonderful. Considering that the simple breathing
exercises I had already practiced had given me such incomparable results,
it was obvious that the four-level system of Kriya Yoga will produce
greater result!

That technique was secret, it had to be learned by direct initiation from a

Master. Where could I learn that? I was not in the condition to leave for
India. I guessed that Kriya Pranayama had to be a sort of Ujjayi, but more
complicated. Could I guess the technique from books? I went on reading
whatever I could find about Pranayama. My imagination ran wild and my
fervor grew.

I had good reasons to think that Kriya Pranayama consisted of slow and
deep breathing with the awareness focused on the spine. During the Kriya
process, the internal energy had to be ''rotated'' around the Chakras.

20
Since PY wrote that the Kriya technique was quoted in the Bhagavad Gita,
I quickly tried to decipher the precise quote.

"Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the
outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both these
breaths; he thus releases the life force from the heart and brings it under
his control.'' [Bhagavad Gita IV 29]

The Bhagavad Gita explains then that through the repetition of this action a
yogi reaches a marked dying down of the breath. By perfecting this action,
a yogi enters the state of meditation: with a pure heart he remains longer
and longer established in a state of sublime peace.

Steadfast a lamp burns sheltered from the wind;

Such is the likeness of the Yogi’s mind
Shut from sense-storms and burning bright to Heaven...
[Bhagavad Gita VI 19]

I must admit that when I read line [IV 29], I was not able to understand its
meaning. How can one offer ''inhaling breath into the outgoing breath'' and
offer the ''outgoing breath into the inhaling breath?''

Just for the curiosity of the reader I try here to convey the meaning of this
sentence.

► During Kriya Pranayama two opposite forms of energy interpenetrate

continuously. Precisely: during Inhalation you experience a form of energy
entering the body with the air through the nose, coming down into pharynx,
larynx, trachea, lungs …. At the same time another form of energy is coming
up from the base of the spine, moving inside the spine, reaching the higher
Chakras.
The energy going down with the fresh air is called Prana. The energy
coming up from the base of the spine is called Apana. The two movements of
energy happens simultaneously. Prana comes down inside the body, Apana
comes up inside the spine.

21
 During Exhalation the two forces change the role: Apana is in the consumed
air leaving the body, Prana is in the current that from Medulla enters the body
and comes down along the spine.
Apana moves again upwards, Prana moves again downwards. But all is
different – Apana guides the consumed air outside the body. Prana draws the
divine current from Medulla guides it down, piercing each Chakra, reaching
the first Chakra.

So, what happens in Kriya? The sensations experienced during Ujjayi are
''internalized'' [in other words they are experienced as internal phenomenon,
taking place in the spine] and become the secret of Kriya Pranayama. Without
this clarification, one remains blind and thinks that Ujjayi is so rough that
cannot be considered a spiritual tool.

In order to internalize your awareness, you can mentally chant Om in each

Chakra going up (inhalation) and down (exhalation) along the spine. This
mentally chanting of Om is simply an educational tool – an help to make the
described procedure more easy. I mean you simply teach your awareness to be
more disciplined, to patiently obey you by going up and down. What is written
in the Bhagavad Gita happens both without chanting of Om and with chanting.
What is important is that you be aware of what is happening in your spine.

If you practice Ujjayi and internalize it, you are practicing Kriya. It is so
simple.

N.B. The technique of Kriya Pranayama is patiently described in chapter 6. A

good way to discipline your self in practicing it deeply is described in chapter
12.

After this clarification let me return to the concepts that became clear to me
at that time.

PY's emphasized the evolutionary value of Kriya Pranayama. He

explained that if we compare the human spinal column to a ferromagnetic
substance constituted of elementary magnets that turn towards the same
direction when they are overlapped by a magnetic field, as taught by
physics, then the action of Pranayama is akin to the process of
magnetization. By uniformly redirecting all the "subtle" parts of our spinal
cord's physical and astral essence, the Kriya Pranayama burns off the so-
called "bad seeds" of Karma. 2

2
We allude to Karma whenever we stick to the common belief that a person inherits
a baggage of latent tendencies from his previous lives and that, sooner or later, these
tendencies will come out in actual life. Of course Kriya is a practice which one can

22
This is a key idea in the teachings of PY. Is it true? I cannot answer, I have
not the means of answer. What matters to me is go deep in the practice of
Kriya and see that the breath becomes more subtle and disappears.
This happened to me after years of Kriya. But I never saw the ….
elementary magnets. The only effect this words, this concepts had is this:
because of that exciting description I felt imperative to believe that the
technique should be extremely complicated.

SEARCH IN ESOTERIC BOOKS

I discovered in his Autobiography that PY had created an organization that
published a whole set of lessons on Kriya. Those lessons could be received
by correspondence. With great joy, I quickly applied for the course.

When, after four months from my application, I received the first lesson of
this course, I came to know that I would have had to wait for at least one
year before applying for the Kriya Yoga lessons. I felt so desperate.

The written material traveled by ship and the delay times were enormous. I
could not wait so long. 3 I decided to discover the technique of Kriya
Pranayama through another source. My idea was to seek something similar
in the best treatises of Yoga or tracing it through esoteric traditions.

I looked for a technique of Pranayama in which the energy had to be

visualized ''rotating'' somehow around the Chakras. If this was – as stated
by PY – a universal process, I thought having a good chance of finding it.

I vaguely remembered having seen some drawings in a book about

occultism which sketched out different circuits of energy throughout the
human body. The idea came to explore those esoteric books who had
illustrations like those.

I started going to a used books store which was very well stocked, probably
experimentally use without necessarily having to accept any creeds. However, since
the concept of Karma lies at the basis of Indian thought, it is worthwhile to
understand and speak freely of it. According to this belief, Pranayama burns out the
effects of the "bad seeds" just before they manifest in our lives. It is further
explained that those people who are instinctively attracted by methods of spiritual
development such as Kriya, have already practiced something similar in a "precedent
incarnation". This is because such an action is never in vain and in actual life they
get back to it exactly where, in a remote past, they had quit it.
3
I can still consider myself as fortunate. I lived in North East Italy not far from the
border with the former Yugoslavia. Those people and all those who lived beyond the
Iron Curtain could not receive such material.

23
because it had once been the Theosophical Society's reference bookstore. I
turned down those texts which dealt only with philosophical topics, while,
in ecstasy and not concerned by time, I kept on skimming through those
which illustrated practical exercises with clarity. Before purchasing a book
I made sure it hinted at the possibility of channeling the energy along
certain internal passages, thus creating the prerequisite for awakening the
Kundalini. While reading the index of a text which was in three volumes,
introducing the esoteric thought of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, I was
attracted by the entry, ''Breathing exercise for the awakening of Kundalini.''
It was a variation of Nadi Sodhana.

This was definitely not PY's Kriya because, according to several clues,
Kriya was not to be done with alternate-nostril breathing. [This way of
breathing is wonderful but only as a preparation. You cannot go ahead for a
long time moving your hands. You must have the opportunity to remain in
a state of perfect immobility.]

So I went on haunting the bookstore. The owner was very nice and I almost
felt obliged, considering the cheap price and the perfect conditions of those
second-hand books, to buy at least one book per each visit. Often a lot of
space was dedicated to theories alien to concrete life, which tried to
describe what cannot be seen or be experienced – such as the astral worlds
and the subtle coverings of energy wrapping our body.

One day, after browsing, without much enthusiasm, through a tiresome

selection of books, I went to the storekeeper to pay a new purchase. While
deciding the price, he thought of something that might interest me. He led
me to the back of the store and invited me to rummage through a cardboard
box filled with a messy heap of papers. Among a quantity of miscellaneous
material (complete series of the theosophical magazine issues, scattered
notes from old course on hypnosis etc.), I came upon a book written in
German by a certain K. Spiesberger which contained various esoteric
techniques, among them Kundalini-breathing.

I had not much familiarity with the German language, but I immediately
realized the extraordinary importance of that technique. I thought that I
would doubtlessly be able to decipher all of it at home with the help of a
dictionary. 4 The description of this technique still amazes me. During a

4
I cannot help smiling when some half-hearted people insist that they are fond of
Kriya, yet they will not study some crucial texts in English because they are afraid to
misinterpret them. I am convinced that their interests are superficial and rather
emotive. Such was my enthusiasm that I would have studied Sanskrit or Chinese or
any other language, if that had given me the chance to understand an essential text on

24
deep breath, the air is to be imagined flowing inside the spinal column.
While inhaling, the air is rising; when exhaling, the air is flowing down.
There was also the description of two particular sounds created by air
originating in the throat.

In another book written in English there was an exhaustive description of a

breathing exercise called ''Magic breath,'' It consisted in visualizing the
energy flowing around the backbone, not inside it. Through the inhalation,
the energy had to go up behind the spinal column, to the center of the head;
exhaling, it had to go down along a particular channel in the front part of
the body. I completely forgot about the other material. The smirk of
satisfaction I wore before the storekeeper holding the two books, as if I had
found a treasure of unfathomable value, definitely caused an increase in
their price.

Walking home, I could not help skimming through the pages. I was curious
about some rough drawings illustrating techniques which were based on
the movement of energy. I read that the Magic breath was one of the most
valuable secrets of all times, and if practiced constantly, accompanied by
the strength of the visualization, it would ''open'' the spiritual eye. I
convinced myself that this technique had to be Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya
and I add it to my daily routine.

[II]

A letter from the organization informed me about other people living not
far from my area, who were also practicing Kriya Yoga. They had formed a
group in order to practice that discipline together. I was enthusiastic and
quivered with cheerful anticipation to meet them. That night I could hardly
fall asleep.

"Too bright were our heavens, too far away, too frail their ethereal stuff",
wrote Sri Aurobindo. I would never have thought that those words could be
applied to my meeting those people! With a sort of sour irony, I would
dare say that that phase of my life characterized by an extreme enthusiasm
for Pranayama had been too happy for it to last much longer. I now
experienced firsthand the problems, limitations and distortions caused by
the human mind when it has lost the habit of rational thinking. Many times
in the future I would have to experience how life is made of short moments
of inspiration and serenity, alternating with times when all seems lost and
Pranayama!

25
the distortions of the ego reign supreme. While approaching the man in
charge of that group with total sincerity, I could not have imagined what
kind of a hard shock I was about to receive.

He welcomed me with visible enthusiasm, sincerely eager to meet a person

with whom he could share the fire of his passion. Since the very first
moment of our meeting, standing on his doorstep, I told him how
fascinated I was by the practice of Kriya. He asked me right away when I
had been initiated in this practice, taking for granted that I had received the
teaching from the same organization he was a member of.

When he figured out that I had picked out a breathing technique in a book
and convinced myself it was Kriya Pranayama, he was horrified and
showed a bitter smile of disappointment. He thought I considered Kriya
Yoga a child's play and had no idea how serious it was. Visibly confused I
babbled something about currents and sound of the breath, but he didn't
want to hear any more and ushered me to his study.

He emphasized that Kriya cannot be learned through books. He began the

tale – which, later on, I had the opportunity to hear plenty of times – of the
Tibetan yogi Milarepa who, getting no positive results from the painstaking
practice of his fraudulently learned techniques, received the very same
instructions kneeling at the feet of and with the benediction of his Guru –
so that this time the results came out easily.

We all know how the human mind is more conditioned by an anecdote than
by a logical reference! An anecdote, even if it is totally fanciful with
fictional purpose, is endowed with a sort of internal "brightness" that
conditions a person's common sense. Stimulating emotions and feelings, it
is able to cloud people's judgment in order for them to easily accept
conclusions that are absurd. This story left me speechless; I just did not
know what to reply.

There was only one way, according to him, to learn Kriya: be initiated by a
"Minister" authorized by PY's organization! He told me that no other
person was allowed to teach the technique. He, and all the other devotees
of his group, had received the technique, swearing a strict and solemn
promise of secrecy.

"Secrecy!" How odd this word sounded, what a strange appeal, what a
mysterious fascination it exerted upon my being! Until then, I had always
believed it did not matter at all how a certain teaching was received, or
what book had been read or studied in order to learn it. I thought that the

26
only important thing was to practice it correctly, accompanied by the desire
to go deeper and deeper into it. The idea began to enter my mind that it was
in fact okay to protect precious lore from indiscreet eyes. In that occasion I
had nothing to say against the vow of secrecy. Later, over a span of many
years, I changed my opinion because I witnessed an innumerable series of
absurdities originating from this behest; dramatically, I had the evidence
that it brought miserable repercussions into the lives of thousands of
people.

Staring into my eyes, with an enormous emotional impact, he went on to

say that a practice learned from any other source was "worth nothing, it
will not be effective in matters of spiritual purpose", and a possible effect,
only apparently encouraging, might be "a dangerous illusion in which the
ego remains trapped for a long time".

Inflamed by an absolute faith, he launched himself into a wide discourse on

the value of the "Guru" (spiritual Teacher), a puzzling concept to me
because it was attributed to a person that he had not known directly.
Having been initiated into Kriya through the legitimated channels of PY's
organization, PY was, to him, real and present in his life, and ''his'' Guru.
The same thing was true for the other people belonging to that group. Their
Guru was a special aid sent by God Himself, therefore such an event was
"the greatest luck a human being can ever have." The logical consequence
– underlined with overflowing emphasis – was that, abandoning such form
of aid or looking for a different spiritual path amounted to "a hateful
rejection of the Divine hand, stretched out in benediction."

He asked me to demonstrate for him my book-learned Kriya technique. He

expected, I suppose, to verify a well-rooted prejudice that the technique,
received through illegitimate channels, could not – because of a particular
spiritual law – be anything but corrupted. He smiled when he saw me
breathing through the nose. Then he asked me to explain if there was
something upon which I was focusing my attention during my breathing.
According to the books I had read, the energy could be visualized both
flowing inside the spine and around the spine. Since PY wrote that a
kriyaban "mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and
downward, around the six spinal centers", I chose the second of the two
possibilities and this was the version I explained. Having also read in
another book that during Kriya Pranayama the practitioner was supposed
to chant ''Om'' mentally into each Chakra, I added this detail as well. I did
not realize that PY had decided to simplify the instructions taught in the
west, using the other variation with no mental chanting of Om.

27
While telling him these details, I saw an inner satisfaction spreading over
his face. Clearly he didn't identify my practice with the technique of Kriya
Pranayama he had learned. The "secret" he was bound to had not been
broken by the author of my esoteric book! Pretending to feel sorry for my
consequent disappointment, he informed me in an official tone that my
technique had "nothing to do with Kriya Pranayama"!

A really bizarre situation was taking place: I was describing for him a
technique very similar to Kriya Pranayama taught by Lahiri Mahasaya
while this gentlemen was one hundred per cent sure that I was talking
nonsense! However, since my position was totally incompatible with his
basic tenets, he recommended that I send a written account to the
headquarters of PY's organization, describing the details of my
vicissitudes, hoping that they would accept me as a disciple and, in due
time, grant me the sacred Initiation to Kriya Yoga.

I was somewhat stunned by the tone in which our dialog was progressing.
In order to re-establish the initial agreeability of our meeting, I tried to
reassure him about the positive effects I had gained from my practice. My
statement actually had the effect of worsening the whole matter, giving him
the chance to scold me a second time, which was not totally unfair but
undoubtedly out of place. He made it clear I should never look for any
tangible effects in the practice of Kriya much less should I display them,
because in this way I would "lose them." That clever guy had talked
himself straight into an obvious contradiction without even realizing it; he
was saying that the results were too important to risk losing them by telling
others, while a few seconds before he had stressed that they were of no
value whatsoever.

Realizing he had given too much of his time to me, a strange

metamorphosis took place in his demeanor. It was as if all of a sudden he
had been invested with a sacred role: he promised he would pray for me!
On that day, I had lost the "fight." I told him I would follow his advice. As
a matter of fact, from that moment I abandoned Pranayama entirely and
restricted my practice to simply centering my attention between the
eyebrows (Kutastha) – just as he had suggested to me.

GROUP MEDITATION
The group practicing Kriya met twice a week to practice the techniques
together. The room devoted to meditation was bare but pleasant. Each
member paid part of the rental, so that continuance would not depend on
the owner's whims and could be dedicated to an exclusively spiritual use. I
began attending these meetings and I remember it nostalgically – listening

28
to Indian songs translated and harmonized for westerners and, above all,
meditating together was a true joy! Everything seemed heavenly to me,
even though little time was given to the practice of meditation – no more
than 20 minutes, often barely 15 minutes. A particularly inspiring session
of collective practice took place on Christmas Eve, enriched by devotional
songs and lasting many hours.

At the end of each meditation we were required to depart in silence, thus I

began to know my new friends more closely only during the monthly
"social" lunch. It was a beautiful chance to spend some hours talking and
enjoying each other's company.

Since many of us did not have their family’s approval, much less support,
in the practice of Yoga, the only occasion we had to spend time among
people with the same ideas and interests was an experience of serenity and
relaxation. Unfortunately, the pleasantry of our meetings was partly spoiled
because the directors of PY's organization had requested us not to talk
about other spiritual paths or deal with specific details of Kriya Yoga
techniques. Only authorized people could cover such a role; no one in our
group could. During our gatherings, since our conversations were strictly
kept on well-defined tracks, we were not able to find a topic which would
be interesting and at the same time respected the given rules. It was not the
right place for gossip, unsuitable for a spiritual group discussion. So only
one topic was left: the beauty of our spiritual path and our great fortune in
having discovered it!

No wonder that, after some meetings of mutual "exaltation", an almost

frightening boredom started to reign. As a last resort, some risked telling
some jokes. They were not mean or insulting jokes, but a light and
innocent use of humor. Unfortunately this also had to live up to the
devotional attitude kept by many of the members and eventually
succumbed to their cold attitude. When you tried to be agreeable you got a
look and a hint of a smile that left you frozen for the rest of the day. They
seemed to be unable to show a single inch of true joviality. Thinking over,
perhaps they were naturally inclined toward depression. Actually, their
enthusiasm towards Kriya was very moderate, and they gave the
impression they were practicing the few techniques they knew as if they
were accomplishing a sacrifice to atone for their ''sin'' of existing.

What struck me in an extremely unfavorable way in the behavior of some

of them was the belief they were protected by their Guru and therefore
don't mind putting themselves in dangerous situations, abdicating every
prudence. Before the prospect of doing a very dangerous action in which

29
there are fears for their safety, their mind was filled with a sort of hysterical
joyous anticipation. I don't know if there could exist a worse way to belittle
the spiritual teachings. In my opinion this attitude should be avoided like
the plague, being actually a stupid superstition.

As a matter of course, the group underwent a great recycling process; many

members who had joined with enthusiasm quit after a few months and
then, oddly and without deep reasons, scraped the whole experience off
their memory.

My open temperament allowed me to become close to one person and

establish a bond which later became true friendship. It was not so easy to
find what could be called a free spiritual seeker. Many made a display of
emotionally-charged devotion, others, perhaps envisaging the prospect of
expanding our group, seemed to have the sole aim of raising enough funds
to provide our rented room with impressive signs of its sacred
consecration; others seemed only social misfits.

With a barely concealed impatience, I tried on different occasions to

receive some elucidation on the technique of Kriya by discussing what had
been my book-learned practice of it. I hoped that someone, making some
oblique remark about it, would help me discover the exact Kriya
Pranayama technique. No "courting" could extract even a crumb of
information from them. Each one repeated that he was "not authorized to
give out any explanations", and this rule was strictly respected.

While I was continuously receiving unasked-for lessons of devotion,

humility, and loyalty, my interest for Kriya became a real craving, a
burning fever. A kriyaban, making fun of me with unconcealed cruelty, told
me: "They won't give you the Kriya at all; a devotee should not desire a
technique with such intensity. God is to be mostly found through devotion
and surrender."

I tried to behave like a pious disciple but deep down I awaited my initiation
with unimagined eagerness. Even while doing my best to convince myself
that I was among individuals with the same passions, I had to acknowledge
that the reality of it was altogether different!

AN IMPORTANT VISIT IN OUR GROUP

I don't want to complicate my narration by talking about the preliminary
meditation techniques to prepare one for initiation into Kriya Pranayama.
However it is necessary to write a few lines about this theme because it
will give me the opportunity to add some remarks about how to organize a

30
Kriya routine.

Well, according to PY's will, the technique of Kriya Pranayama should be

coupled with two other techniques: Hong Sau and Om. The first one slows
down the breath and the mind; the second one concerns itself with listening
to internal (astral) sounds melting into the Om sound. I didn't receive these
instructions at the same time but with an interval of two months between.
This gave me the splendid opportunity to concentrate on the first technique
for many weeks; only then I could enjoy the combination of the two
techniques. Thus, I could experiment with the meaning and beauty of each.

Our group received the visit of an elderly lady who had personally
corresponded with PY. Thanks to her earnestness, sincerity, and long-time
loyal discipleship she had been authorized to help us with meditation. Her
temperament was very sweet and more inclined to understanding rather
than to censorship. She demonstrated the so-called "Recharging Exercises"
These exercises were similar to isometric stretches and were practiced
while standing; peculiar to them, however, was that the Prana was directed
to all the parts of the body through concentration.

Then she reviewed the Hong-Sau technique. She went on to clarify that the
Hong-Sau technique was not easy at all, in spite of its apparent simplicity;
but encouraging us with a smile, she concluded: "The technique contains
all you need to come into contact with the Divine Essence".

Then she dwelt on the technique for listening to internal sounds (often
called Om technique.) 5 She explained that PY had tried to explain the
teaching of the Trinity in a new way. Om is the "Amen" of the Bible – the
"Holy Ghost", the "witness", a sound; a proof of the vibration of energy
sustaining the universe. The Om technique, discovered by the mystics long
ago, makes it possible to detect this vibration. Thanks to this technique it is
also possible to be guided toward the experience of the "Son" – the Divine
awareness that is present inside the above-mentioned energetic vibration.
At the end of one's spiritual journey, one can reach the highest reality, the
"Father" – the Divine awareness beyond every existing thing in the
universe.

5
This technique does not belong to those included in the original Kriya Yoga, wherein
the internal sound perception happens without closing the ears. It is not an invention
by PY, it had been plainly described in the books of classical Yoga, called Nada Yoga
– "the Yoga of the sound." It is a good preparation for Kriya since instead of putting
the accent on "doing", it teaches the attitude of "perceiving."

31
The lady's explanation was characterized by such a sacred flavor that it
stayed with me for several months, helping me to overcome the beginning
phase of the practice, when it seems unlikely that the sounds will manifest.
Instead, the results obtained were very concrete. Now, while I am trying to
recall my first contact with the sound of Om, I rediscover the memory of
that ardent love for the Divine, that seemed so solid during those days and
that subsequently disappeared for various years when I decided to do a
research on the ''Original Kriya.'' But this will be described later.

In those days I led a cloistered existence. I practiced my meditation in a

slightly illuminated room. The rainy days and early-onset evenings of
Winter helped my seclusion and strengthened my determination to turn on,
through meditation, an internal sun. Some weeks of zealous practice passed
without any result, but one day I became aware of a clear inner sound. It
manifested after ten minutes of calm effort, just upon returning to my state
of full awareness, after having been lost in some sweet reverie. 6

The sound was like the humming of a mosquito. By listening intently to it,
it became the feeble sound of a musical instrument playing far away. Then
it seemed like the tolling of a bell echoing at dusk from the deep green of
woody hills. It reached me faintly from unfathomable distance. Light, soft
as falling petals, it knocked gently on the doors of my heart, giving total
contentment and ease, as if the spiritual path had come to its fulfillment.
Recollections of my infancy were vibrating at the periphery of my
awareness without disturbing my introverted mood.

In times of misfortune, there was always a feeling of protection like a vast,

comforting smile surrounding me. The sound I was listening to, enchanted
and thrilled, brought me now the same sweet feeling of relief. It had in
itself all the Beauty ever experienced. It was the gilded thread around
which the experiences of love, the most involving, the most exalted ones
grew like splendid crystals. The healing of old wounds was attained by real
understanding. An azure, limitless immobility sweetly clasped my heart
with fingers of bliss. What I thought impossible to accomplish, whose
absence was so cruel to accept, materialized real and true before me.

In the following days I became totally absorbed in this new practice. A

never experienced before devotion rose spontaneous, crossed the wall of
the psychological sphere and made life and spiritual experience
indistinguishable. Reality appeared me as transfigured – like in winter,
when a soft mantle made of snow makes any asperity disappear.
6
To be lost in a ''reverie'' state and to return suddenly to the awareness that I was
losing time, happened often.

32
Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that you should never detach yourself
voluntarily from that state of grace. Some months later, during a moment in
my life when I wanted to relax and enjoy life, I decided to interrupt this
contact, as if it were a drawback to being fully sociable. I didn't realize that
this seemingly innocuous and instinctive "betrayal" would make me unable
to tune with the Om sound for a very long time. Incredibly, in a few days I
felt hopelessly cut off from that sweet reality. Among people, I felt like one
who had landed in another continent and had to live in surroundings that
mean nothing to him. I struggled to retrieve the lost deep emotions
originating from listening to internal sounds. This went on for months until
my soul was again reminded of the motivations that had led me to the
spiritual path: change my life forever. Now I saw clearly that my stupid
decision of detaching from the contact with the Om vibration, had been a
monumental mistake.

INITIATION INTO KRIYA YOGA

Eventually, the moment came to file the application form to receive the
Kriya instructions by mail. About four months passed as every day I hoped
to receive the coveted material. Finally, an envelope arrived. I opened it
with heightened expectation, but was deeply disappointed because it
contained nothing but more introductory material. From reading the index
page I understood that the actual technique would be sent after four weeks.
So for another month I would have to study just the usual nursery rhymes I
already knew by heart. In the meantime, two ministers of PY's organization
visited our country and I took part in the initiation ceremony. After waiting
for months, it was high time "to make an eternal pact with the Guru and to
be taught the Kriya techniques in the only legitimate way, and receive his
benediction."

There were about 100 of us who were to be initiated. A beautiful room had
been rented for the ceremony at a very high price and embellished for the
occasion with lots of flowers, such as I have never seen even at the most
extravagant weddings! The introduction to the ceremony was magnificent.
About 30 people wearing somber uniforms entered the room, and lined up
with a solemn attitude and joined their hands in prayer. It was explained to
me that these people belonged to the local group whose leader was a
fashion designer and had choreographed that triumphant entrance. The two
Ministers who had just arrived from abroad walked meekly and bewildered
behind them. Then the ceremony began.

I accepted without objections their demand that I swear everlasting

devotion not only to the Guru PY but also to a six-master chain of whom

33
Lahiri Mahasaya was an intermediary link. PY was the so-called Guru-
preceptor, namely the one who would partially bear the burden of our
Karma.

It would have been strange if no one had had doubts about this. I remember
a lady wondering if PY – definitely unable to give any confirmation, now
being a long-time resident in the astral world – had really accepted her as a
"disciple" and, consequently, to be laden with her Karma. In order to avoid
that with such thoughts she weakened the enjoyment of the enticing
ceremony, I reassured her that she was accepted without fail.

They explained us that Christ was also part of this chain because He had
appeared to Babaji (Lahiri Mahasaya's Guru) asking Him to send
emissaries to the West to spread Kriya. This story caused me no perplexity
at all. Perhaps I had no desire to think about it. To consider the whole
mission of Kriya diffusion as originating from Christ Himself was a
pleasant idea. On the other hand, I was too anxious to hear the explanation
of the technique which was soon to take place to listen to anything else.

The introductory talk went ahead in a suggestive way. The Kriya technique
embodied God's most effective blessing toward His privileged creatures,
humans, which exclusively possessed an inner body with seven Chakras.
The mystic seven-step ladder of the Chakras was the real highway to
salvation, the fastest and safest. My mind was in great expectation for
something I had so strongly desired and for which I had seriously been
preparing for months. It was not what might be called a "sacrament" that I
was submitting to in order to safeguard a family tradition; it was the
crowning of a definitive choice! My heart was immensely happy at the
thought of the inner joy that I would gain through the practice of Kriya.

Finally, after being taught the Kriya Pranayama, I realized I already knew
it! It was the same Kundalini-breathing technique which I had found a long
time ago in my esoteric readings and which prescribes that the energetic
current flows all the way inside the spinal column. [I have explained that I
had not taken that procedure into serious consideration, owing to the fact
that in PY's book it was written that the energy had to be rotated "around
the Chakras, along an elliptical circuit."]

The explanation of the techniques Maha Mudra and Jyoti Mudra (they
never used the more common term Yoni) concluded the technical
instructions. Each technique's detail was explained in such a way that it
would not allow for the smallest variation and, in addition, a specific
routine was warmly recommended. If the least amount of doubt on the

34
correctness of a certain detail had arisen during the practice, nobody was
encouraged – even vaguely – to conduct an experiment and come to a
conclusion by himself. The only "correct" action was to contact the
headquarters of our Kriya organization, tell them the problem, and receive
further guidelines. This, in effect, was what I always did. I learned to
interact only with them. I would instinctively look for their advice as if it
were given by perfect beings that could never be wrong. I believed they
were "channels" through which the blessings of the Guru flowed. Besides,
I was quite confident that – even if they would not admit it out of humility
– they had already reached the highest level of spiritual realization.

[III]

After Kriya initiation, I followed the counsel of my organization to practice

the two techniques Hong So and Om before Kriya Pranayama.
With the first technique the breathing was supposed to become more
relaxed and create a good state of concentration. Then, I was supposed to
listen to the internal sounds. Then there would follow the Maha Mudra.
Eventually, setting back in a still and stiff position to restore the feeling of
sacredness, I was supposed to practice Kriya Pranayama with rigorous
respect to all the instructions. To absorb the results of the whole endeavor,
after Jyoti Mudra, the Kriya routine would be concluded with a full ten-
minute concentration upon Kutastha,
In my experience the two preliminary techniques did not receive the
attention they deserved, and the time devoted to the final concentration was
too short. During the Hong So technique, the thought that I should interrupt
it to start the Om technique brought about a disturbing feeling, hampering
my whole surrender to its beauty. The same happened with the procedure
of the Om technique, interrupting it in order to practice Maha Mudra.

The technique of listening to Om was a complete "universe" in itself and

led to the mystic experience, which is why its interruption was something
worse than a simple disturbance. It was illogical, as if, recognizing a friend
with joyous surprise among a crowd one begins talking with him, then
suddenly goes away hoping to meet, quite by chance, that same friend
again and get back to where the conversation had previously ended.

The sound of Om was the mystic experience itself, the Goal I sought. Why
should I interrupt that sublime attunement to regain it through another
technique? Perhaps because Kriya Pranayama was a higher procedure?
Higher? What on earth does that mean?

35
I forced myself into such absurdity for many months. At that time, the idea
of using my brain and radically changing the routine seemed to me an act
of stupid arrogance. Such was the power of that insanity which in our
group was called "loyalty"! I must acknowledge that unfortunately I had
become like one of those animals that, fed by man, tend to forget how to be
self-sufficient.

When I tried to discuss this problem with other kriyabans, I noticed an

enormous and unreasonable resistance. There were those who were not
satisfied with their practice but planned to try it again in the future, while
others were not able to even understand what I was saying.

Talking with a lady who was a longtime friend of our family, she pretended
to listen attentively, but in the end bluntly declared she already had a Guru
and did not need another. Her remark cut me deeply since my intention was
only to have a rational talk which could be inspiring for us both. Apart
from this, what sort of friendship can exist between two people when one is
so curt?

To encounter such episodes confirmed my idea that, not being encouraged

to trust the validity of self-observation, many friends went on mechanically
performing what had often become an empty ritual simply to appease their
conscience. With the exception of one person (who harbored really strange
ideas about the spiritual path which made me entertain the thought that he
might be mentally unstable), these new kriyaban friends seemed to censor
my questioning of techniques, claiming that devotion was much more
important. Often they referred to concepts I could hardly link to the
practice of Yoga, i.e. the paramount importance was loyalty toward P.Y. and
his organization.

Well, one day I decided to use my brain and changed my routine. This
routine became inspired by Patanjali's theory. I decided that the two
techniques Hong So and Om had to be practiced either at the end of my
Kriya routine or never.

Having, with the practice of Kriya Pranayama, sensitized the spine, I could
practice Hong So in the spine. [This means ''watching'' the breath as if it
moved not in and out the lungs but up and down in the spine. I will return
upon this point in chapter 11.]

36
Remark about Patanjali's teaching
Patanjali was a pioneer in the art of rationally handling the mystical path, aiming
at individualizing a universal, physiological direction of inner events that
explained why a certain phenomenon inherent to the spiritual path should be
preceded and necessarily followed by other ones. His extreme synthesis may be
criticized or, because of its temporal distance, may be hard to understand;
however, his work is of extraordinary importance. There are different ways of
translating the Sanskrit terms summarizing Patanjali's eight steps of Yoga: Yama,
Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi.
Boring and useless from the practical point of view is the definition of
Yama and Niyama. Yama: self-control (non-violence, avoid lies, avoid stealing,
avoid being lustful and seek non-attachment); Niyama: religious observances
(cleanliness, contentment, discipline, study of the Self and surrender to the
Supreme God).
Why useless? A beginner cannot understand what "Study of the Self"
means. In my opinion the moral rules are not to be put as premises to be
respected in order to start the path of Yoga, but are the consequences of a serious
spiritual effort brought ahead for years, nay, for tens of years.
As for Asana (position of the body), Patanjali explains it must be stable
and comfortable. There is no hint of particular exercises of concentration and
meditation after Asana and before Pranayama.
The two interesting and enlightening concepts for those who practice
Kriya are Pranayama and Pratyahara. They refer respectively to the regulation
of the Prana by repetition of particular breathing patterns and to the
internalization process of the awareness which becomes disconnected from the
external reality.
The three further phases, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi, respectively mean:
concentration upon a physical or abstract object, contemplation of the essential
nature of such object, lengthening of such contemplation in a constant flow of
awareness up the point of being lost in it.
A kriyaban understands ''concentration upon an object'' as the
concentration on the breath, the spine, the Chakras; the ''contemplation of the
essential nature of such object'' means to become absorbed in the sweetness
originating from this basic concentration; ''being lost in it'' means the unending
happiness while achieving the final ecstatic state. This is in my opinion the
essence of Patanjali's thought.

I am unable to express the emotion and feeling of sacredness which

characterized henceforth my practice of Kriya. At the end of my practice, I
often repeated to myself the sentence (quoted in AOY) by Lalla Yogiswari:

"What acid of sorrow have I not drunk? Countless my rounds of birth

and death. Lo! naught but nectar in my cup quaffed by the art of breath."

This beautiful sentence intensified my enthusiasm, strengthening my

determination to unceasingly perfect my Kriya path.

37
 CHAPTER 3
BREATHLESSNESS

[I]

A couple of years passed by. I was preparing my self towards receiving the
Higher Kriyas through the correspondence course. At the end, finally they
entered my life. As the reader can guess, the process of learning them
brought some trouble in my life.

Among the kriyabans in the meditation group I didn't saw a great interest
in the Higher Kriyas. A woman who was my friend, had received Kriya
initiation may years before. She had once lived near our school's general
offices. I asked if she had received the Second Kriya. She didn't seem to
understand the question. So I reminded her that Lahiri Mahasaya's disciple,
Swami Pranabananda, had accompanied the moment of his death with the
practice of the Second Kriya. She became visibly nervous, saying that the
quotation clearly referred to the technique of Kriya Pranayama: one
breath, then a second one. This had to be, in her opinion, the "Second
Kriya!" I looked at her with a meek but piercing look; I felt my legs give
way. I had the impression that the idea of a further technique to be added
to the too many already received and practiced daily, upset her. It was as if
she felt she had made so great an effort to form the habit of daily practice
of the First Kriya that she could not muster up even more dedication. I
believe that, up to this day, she has remained fixed in her conviction.

The lessons with the Higher Kriyas were given after completing the basic
correspondence course. Unfortunately, those lessons contained some
ambiguous parts. Just to give an example, PY wrote that in order to awaken
Kundalini it was important to regularly practice Kechari Mudra, but the
instruction on how to perform it were nowhere to be found.

I contacted the elderly lady who was officially invested as a "Meditation

Counselor" the same sweet lady who taught me the Om meditation
technique. She could not help me to clarify my doubts. Just like everyone
else, she had learned them only in written form because, unfortunately,
after PY's Mahasamadhi no direct initiations were ever given.
Acknowledging her uncertainties about their correct execution, she
admitted that she regretted not having had her Higher Kriyas checked by
Ministers who were direct disciples of PY, despite having had plenty of

38
opportunities to do so.

After some time, I had still not recovered from this shock when an
aristocratic-looking lady disclosed to me she had received initiation in the
so-called Higher Kriyas years before. Full of enthusiasm, my eyes opened
wide. She said she had felt so unworthy that she had put them aside and,
after some time, she had forgotten them entirely.

''Forgotten!' I couldn't believe my ears. This last abomination was

inconceivable to me. Her self-satisfied ignorance, passed off as humility
and who knows what kind of overabundant devotion, crossed the bounds of
decency. When I expressed my objection that her behavior seemed an
exhibition of indifference toward the higher teachings taught by her Guru,
she looked at me in bewilderment as if my impertinence had violated an
implicit law: do not impudently enter the intimate arena of her Sadhana.
She replied that what she had was enough, and then briskly cut off any
further discussion.

I wrote to the management of my Kriya school in order to schedule an

appointment with one of its representative Ministers who would soon come
to our country to impart initiation to Kriya Yoga. I asked for this interview
because I really needed it. It is not in my temperament to disturb anyone on
trivialities. I am sure that, in order to answer my questions, it would have
taken the Minister just a couple of minutes. I looked forward to that date
with great anticipation.

A SAD EPISODE
When the Minister arrived, my Meditation Counselor introduced me to
him. He said he would clarify my doubts as soon as possible. In the
following days I became dismayed when I realized that the Minister kept
postponing our meeting without valid reasons. Since I had decided not to
give up, at last we met.

Unfortunately I found this meeting to be truly disturbing. I was convinced

that hypocrisy, bureaucracy, formality, and deception were totally alien to
one who devoted his life to practicing and teaching Kriya, yet the sensation
I had meeting him was akin to meeting a business man who had more
important affairs in mind and who was very irritable. He was emphatic
that we not talk about Kechari Mudra, and with regard to the Third and
Fourth Kriya techniques, he advised me brusquely to restrict my practice to
the First Kriya. He declared I was overexcited and that this was not a good
sign for a kriyaban. I replied I would surely take his advice into
consideration; nevertheless, I wanted to see how to move my head

39
correctly in order to practice those techniques in the future.

Annoyed – taking my remark as insolence – he recommended that I send

my questions to the school's head and stood up to leave as he said this. In
vain I replied that the movements of the head (required for Third and
Fourth Kriya techniques) could not be shown in a letter. I was speaking to
a "wall" and the refusal was absolute.

I had always trusted and respected PY's organization and had studied the
reference literature as if preparing for a university exam. I have asked to
this organization only one thing: that this so much craved jewel of Kriya
was taught in its completeness. Why this reaction from the Minister?

I was in an atrocious mental and emotional state. I wondered what role a

school played that was not doing its very best to clarify each given
teaching. For what purpose were our ministers traveling around the world,
if not to directly show students how to practice what they have learned
through the correspondence course?

Why should I feel guilty and unsuitable for the Kriya path, only because I
had dared to ask (firmly but politely) for a practical demonstration? I was
not able to drop the whole matter and was quite agitated. Those who saw
me immediately after the meeting said I was unrecognizable. Among them,
a lady with a honeyed voice suggested that I had gotten an important lesson
from our Guru – in her opinion, I had a too self-assured attitude and should
learn to accept unquestioningly the word of a Minister. Strange as it might
seem, a part of me was relishing the whole situation. I knew for certain that
this destructive experience would somehow be turned into something
positive, crucial for my path. I was too much in love with the Kriya path to
be daunted by any difficulty.

This made me more calm and cheerful. However, there are often childish
thoughts that emerge when we are in an uncertain situation. I was afraid
that this man, communicating back to the headquarters of PY's
organization, might speak unfavorably of me, saying something that might
have reduced the probability of my obtaining that coveted information in
the future. I feared that my idyllic relationship with my Kriya organization
– a bond that for so many years had represented my horizon – could be
deteriorated.

CONFRONTATION WITH THE MEDITATION COUNSELOR

The lady Meditation Counselor, who was not present on that occasion but
had met the Minister in another town, blamed me for having disturbed the

40
Minister's peace of mind. I wrote her a bitter letter, insulting her indirectly.
She replied very firmly, implying that my letter ended our friendship. Later
she toned down her attitude and invited me to her house to talk about the
event.

First of all I expressed to her my unyielding determination to explore all

possible sources in order to clarify my questions. I mentioned my idea of
leaving for India, and she mumbled something about India not necessarily
being any guarantee of authenticity. She told me that recently some
kriyabans had found (in a well-known Ashram strictly tied to PY’s life
story) a Swami who gave them "pseudo Kriya" techniques that were, in her
opinion, some meaningless, others dangerous. She said that there were
many unauthorized teachers introducing themselves as loyal disciples of
PY. With a vivid imagination, she compared them to spiders using the
honey of the Guru's love to attract devotees who then became their prey.

She spoke about one disciple of PY who had formerly been one of the
directors of the organization but then had branched out on his own, opening
another Kriya school. This man was a "traitor" in her opinion.

This woman had enough material to go on with her stories indefinitely, but
it was then that a very forceful sentence slipped out of my mouth which
surprised me and froze her: "Should I receive Kriya teaching from the
worst criminal in the world, I would still be able to turn it into gold. If it
were polluted, I would have the intuition to reconstruct it to its original
integrity!"

She replied with a sigh that I was moving dangerously close to losing the
grace of my Guru-disciple relationship. In order to make me understand the
value of receiving the instructions from a true Guru, she told me what
happened when one kriyaban decided to leave the Ashram of his Guru, PY,
and seek another teacher. The Guru, aware of this, got in the disciple's way
to stop him when he heard an inner voice – "the voice of God", she
specified – ordering him not to interfere with the disciple's freedom. PY
obeyed and in a flash of intuition foresaw all the disciple's future
incarnations, those in which he would be lost, in which he would keep on
seeking – amid innumerable sufferings, jumping from one error to another
– the path he was then relinquishing. Then, in the end, the disciple would
return to the same path. The lady said that PY had been quite specific as to
the number of incarnations that whole discouraging trip would take – about
thirty!

41
The moral of this story was clear, something from which one could not
escape: I had to avoid looking elsewhere or I would lose myself in a
labyrinth of enormous sufferings and who knows when I would be able to
get back on the correct path. I shifted my attention to her photograph of
PY, taken on the day of his death. It was nicely framed, and some flowers
and packets of incense were before it. In those moments of silence I had
the sensation that tears were going to form in his blissful eyes (it was not a
bizarre feeling; other people told me they had had the same experience.) I
related my impression to her, in response to which she became very serious
and, with her eyes pointed far off toward an indefinite spot, soberly
uttered: "You have to consider it a warning: the Guru is not content with
you"! There was not the least doubt that she was not joking at all.

In that moment, I realized how much PY was a "presence" in her life,

although she had never met him! I let my gaze rest on the bouquet of May
lilies which we had purchased at the train station immediately after my
arrival in town graciously arranged in a small vase before the photo of PY.
She had then explained that she never skimped on fresh flowers for her
"Guru." I realized how full of sweet comfort must be her life! I knew that if
I wanted to feel devotion with such intensity I had a lot of work to do,
namely develop stable internal tranquility, bow to my favorite form of the
Divine, and repeat this action of surrender with total sincerity every day of
my life.

Although she admired the earnestness with which I was making progress –
unlike so many other tepid and halfhearted people who would go to her
only to be reignited with the motivation they could not find in themselves –
she was dismayed that her devotion toward the Guru was totally alien to
me. She could not relieve my immense thirst for knowledge of the art of
Kriya. Looking into her beautiful eyes, I had the clear impression that she
was permanently expecting me to act in a somewhat "disloyal" way either
toward the Guru or toward the organization.

The Minister of my organization was at least right about one point: I was
not calm at all. My search for technical explanations had made me as tense
as a coiled spring. Although remaining faithful to my Kriya organization, I
didn't accept vetoes and therefore I didn't take her advice. I was determined
to know Kriya inside out and no one could stop me with any argument.

42
After some time, the feeling of having witnessed the senseless whims of a
man in power yielded to a different consideration. Very probably that
Minister had given me the same discipline he received during his postulant
years. A lady who had known him at that time depicted him as a very
curious kriyaban who usually put many technical questions to elder
Ministers. Knowing the rules of monastic discipline, I was sure that his
queries weren't always answered promptly.

FIRST REACTION: READ EVERYTHING I COULD FIND

The will to have a deeper understanding of PY's written words about Kriya
Yoga took a particular route. I knew three names of direct disciples of PY
who had had a clash with the school's board of directors and set out on
their own. I hoped to find clues in their writings which could help me clear
my doubts. I purchased all their published material, taped lectures and all. I
was expecting that in order to prove their high level of Self realization,
they had elaborated PY's thought through direct experience of the different
phases of Kriya and were willing to prepare a more accurate didactic
material for those devotees who would turn to them, neglecting the main
source.
Well then, the first disciple seemed to be an expert in remembering
even the most insignificant episodes of the life of his Guru while in the
educational material he spread there was no hint of the Higher Kriyas; the
second one was undoubtedly more professional, pedagogically gifted, but
out of the material he gave, almost nothing new emerged. In the literature
of the third disciple – surprising and valuable since, having suffered the
tragedy of mental illness, he recounted it exhaustively – I found only an
illumining sentence upon the role of Kechari Mudra: all the rest was a
devastating banality. The secrets, if these three disciples had any, were well
guarded!

Months later, the lady ''Meditation Counselor'' found out that I had read the
"forbidden books.'' Not only that, I had made a present of one of those
books to a couple of friends! A friend of mine showed me a letter in which
that lady referred to me as "a man who stabs his Guru's back, handing out
daggers to other people as well, so they can do the same"! She concluded
by writing that ''intelligence is a double-edged weapon: it can be used to
eliminate the swelling of ignorance and also to abruptly cut off the
lifeblood that sustains the spiritual path!''

Her reaction was so exaggerated that I wasn't hurt at all. Her actions were
obviously driven by waves of unabashed emotion. Decades of steadfast

43
conditioning had irretrievably affected her common sense. I felt a sort of
tenderness toward her and I smiled, picturing the moment in which she had
written that letter. Seeing her own expectations regarding my behavior
coming true, I am sure that her countenance was first serious and then, at
last, tranquil and serene as if tasting a delicious, intimate satisfaction. She
could well say she had predicted my ... ''betrayal.''

Overcoming certain reluctance, I began reading some books written by

Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples rather than those of PY. These few books
disappointed me. 7 They were nothing but bland meaningless words
endlessly repeated, together with continuous changes in topic, which I
considered unbearable. The practical notes, presented as essential, were
only scattered bits copied from classical books on Yoga. The lack of care in
their presentation made me suppose that the author had not bothered
checking the original texts he had quoted but had most likely taken those
quotations from other books which were also quoting from other reference
books, continuing a chain wherein each author would add a little something
just to mark his personal contribution.

STUDY THE LESSONS AGAIN

I decided to study again all the material furnished by my organization and
try to delve deeper into it. I would meet some kriyaban friends on Sundays,
and together read crucial passages from the correspondence course and
discuss them during a walk. Our main interest was to find inspiration there
that could help us to perfect our practice of Kriya. Our attempt was vain –
like trying to draw blood from a stone.

The correspondence course contained esoteric teachings that could not be

considered an integral part of Kriya Yoga but could help students to
develop their intuition of the subtle laws governing human lives.
At that time I was especially interested in mastering two skills in
particular: how to recognize friends from previous lives and how to project
energy for pranic healing. The teachings were clearly given with all the
necessary cautionary remarks, but my approach was devoid of caution and
discrimination. I acted as if I were supported from "above", imagining that
the benedictions and the strength of the Guru were with me. I paid
attention to only some aspects of the teachings, choosing those particular
patterns of behavior that appealed to my emotions.
Then my illusory dream began to disintegrate, slowly but inexorably.
Failure came, and I felt desolate. At first I could not accept it. I refused to
believe I had acted wrongly. I believed that mine was only an apparent
7
The very interesting book Puran Purush by Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee was not yet
published.

44
failure, but as time went by, all evidence suggested that I had neither cured
nor helped any person in any way.

This was the greatest blow to me because I had made a fool of myself and,
furthermore I had disturbed the peace and privacy of other people.
As for ''previous lives'', I acknowledge that in this unprovable
territory everything is possible; however at that time it seemed so self-
evident and sensible to me that instead of using my meditation-born
intuition (which the received instruction aimed at developing) I simply
took figments of my imagination to create various mind films, convincing
myself I had lived them in a far distant past. In fact these day-dreams were
actually wish fulfillment and easy-to-read indicators of my likings and
preferences.
Slipping into a state wherein I doubted even the metaphysical basis
upon which the edifice of Kriya Yoga is built, for months I was unable to
think a single coherent thought.

[II]

THE IDEA OF JAPA ENTERS MY LIFE

With a desperate need of peace and tranquility, I chose to stick to the
simplest routine of Kriya and to live in a more introverted way. I
stubbornly grabbed the well-known instruction to maintain resolutely,
during the day, a smooth attitude toward both pleasant and unpleasant
events, while sincerely feeling like a detached "witness". Sustained by the
enthusiasm for this new "trick", described in such an alluring way in
almost all the books dealing with oriental meditative practices, I succeeded
in attaining an almost ideal state but, after some days, I felt under stress as
if all was a pretense, an illusion.

It was at this time that I came across a book about the life and experiences
of Swami Ramdas (1884-1963), the Indian saint who moved far and wide
all over India unceasingly repeating the Mantra Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai
Ram Om. Discovering the simplicity of his life and the greatness of his
experience was very inspiring; his photo and the childlike simplicity of his
smile kindled my devotion and inspired me.

He lived a normal life and experienced the typical difficulties of a

householder's life. Often his toughs dwelt on the meaning of life and felt
the desire to pursue the spiritual path. His father initiated him into the Ram
Mantra, assuring him that by repeating it unceasingly he would, in due
time, achieve the perfect peace he desired. It was then that Ramdas

45
renounced the householder life and went forth in quest of God as a
mendicant Sadhu. The Mantra "Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram" was
ever on his lips. Besides the practice of Japa, he adopted the discipline of
looking upon all other people as forms of Ram (God), and of accepting
every happening as coming from the will of God. In a short time the
Mantra disappeared from his lips and entered his heart. He perceived
clearly the ''Spiritual eye'' in the middle point between his eyebrows. A
stage was soon reached when this dwelling in the Light of the Spirit
became a permanent experience. Swami Ramdas attained Mahasamadhi in
1963.

His teaching was extremely simple:

''Repeat the one name ‘Ram’ at all times of the day and at nights when
you are awake. You may be sure that you will not feel lonely or miserable
as long as you are uttering that glorious name. Where this name is
sounded, or meditated upon, there resides no sorrow, no anxiety – nay, not
even death.''

''Utter Rama's name any time, amid all of life's distractions, whenever
there is a momentary return of your consciousness to Self-awareness.
When this happens, feel the ensuing joy and concentrate on it as long as
possible. Perfect your surrender to God, when facing every event. At
night, when free from worldly duties, devote yourself to intense practice
of Japa.

Almost at the same time I read the masterpiece of the spiritual movement
Hesychasm. This is a Christian orthodox movement considering inner
peace a basic necessity for pursuing the spiritual path.

In the Gospel of Matthew it is said: "Go into your closet to pray."

Hesychasts take very seriously this injunction act and make daily a very
strong effort to still their body, mind and heart in order be fully open to the
presence of the Divine. Their way of praying helps them to reject any
useless thought.

The reflection about the art of Japa (Devotional Prayer) caught my

attention. Mount Athos is the place where some Hesychasts developed the
art of continuous Prayer for achieving inner peace. They utilized the ''Jesus
Prayer'': (Kyrie Iesou Christe, Yie tou Theou, Eleison me ton amartalon –
"Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner". They repeat it

46
unceasingly during the day, guiding it into the space of the heart and recite
it in synchrony with the heart beats. 8

Why could I not utilize the same methods, crossing the same well-defined,
universal stages of internalization?

Some Hesychasts use only "Kyrie Eleison". Eleison can be translated as:
"be your embrace upon me, turn yourself to me.'' We can appreciate how
the sound Eleison seems to melt with the sound of the Om. What is
important to understand is that the chosen Prayer should be able to
stimulate your devotion, to unify all your being around the practice.

In that book The Way of a Pilgrim I found this sentence:

''Like a person enjoying the beauty of a chilly winter near the fireside,
contemplating either the sad or the joyous spectacle of life, such is a
devotee having found the infinity of the skies residing in their heart! The
Continuous Prayer is truly a marvelous gem whose glitter warms up life.
Its magic spreads into each facet of life, like walking out of a dark room
into fresh air and sunlight.''

This phrase stirred my enthusiasm. It painted clearly the state I wanted to

achieve.

I tried to imitate Swami Ramdas' behavior adding the counsels given in the
book: '' The Way of a Pilgrim.'' I spent three beautiful days. I remember
moments of ecstasy that filled me with delight, tears came down while I
was sitting on a bench in a public park whispering my Prayer. Yet I stopped
because the effort was really too great. Having aimed too high (continue
steadfastly in Prayer) I ran the risk of developing an aversion to this
practice, losing it for a long time. It was necessary to use some wisdom and
recharge myself with inspiration. The writings of Mère (The Mother) and
Satprem came in my life at the proper time.

8
Strange as it may seem, for many the first exposure to the Prayer of the Heart came
from Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger: "... if you keep saying that prayer over and
over again, you only have to just do it with your lips at first - then eventually what
happens, the prayer becomes self-active. Something happens after a while. I don't
know what but something happens, the words get synchronized with the person's
heart-beats, and then you're actually praying without ceasing."

47
 [III]

INSPIRATION FROM THE WORKS OF THE MOTHER AND SATPREM

The Mother was a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and, after his death in 1951
continued his research. From 1958 until her death in 1973, the Mother
recounted her extraordinary exploration to her disciple Satprem. Their talks
are written out in Mother's Agenda (6000 pages in 13 volumes). I studied
not only her Agenda but also Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of
Consciousness; Mother or the Divine Materialism both written by Satprem.
It was a revelation!

Let me share my experience with the Mother. I want to communicate how

it happened that the Mother aroused my enthusiasm helping me to make
Japa a constant reality in my life. I will also try to communicate how
Mother exercised an action in my life like the one that in India is called
''Initiation.''

Her thought had nothing to do with philosophy: it was new, something

never heard before. It was, I would say, ''debunking.'' The Mother reasoned
like a westerner and treated the themes of India's spirituality with a western
language which was both lyrical and rational, and at the highest degree of
excellence. The Mother gave voice to my own innermost convictions in an
euphorically vivid way. Sometimes I had the impression to discover in her
writings a sort of revolution, a reversal of values.

The most appealing concepts that created a real positive shock in me were
two. They save me from a stalemate.

[First] What impressed me at first glance was her comment to Sri

Aurobindo's aphorism No. 70: "Examine thyself without pity, then thou
wilt be more charitable and pitying to others." Annotating it, she wrote:

The need to be virtuous is the great obstacle to true self-giving. This is the
origin of Falsehood and even more the very source of hypocrisy -- the
refusal to accept to take upon oneself one's own share of the burden of
difficulties.

Do not try to appear virtuous. See how much you are united, one with
everything, that is anti-divine. Take your share of the burden, accept
yourselves to be impure and false and in that way you will be able to take
up the Shadow and offer it. And in so far as you are capable of taking it
and offering it, then things will change. Do not try to be among the pure.

48
 Accept to be with those who are in darkness and give it all with total love.

Naturally, by daring to say that: "Morality is the great obstacle on the

spiritual path", she simple stressed the value of not trying at any cost to
appear pure in other people's eyes, but instead behaving according to the
truth of one's being. She believed that each person should acknowledge
their dark side, accept the fact that in the depths of their being there stirs
the same substance that in some had developed into a way of living
shunned by society.

[Second] I was very impressed with how she dealt with the theme of Japa.
To start the repetition of a Mantra was for her the most simple and natural
spiritual action: first of all let us remark that there was no solemn initiation
into it. She recounted how during the screening of a film in Sri
Aurobindo's Ashram she heard a devotional chant: Om Namo Bhagavateh
Narayanaya. She was attracted only by the first part: Om Namo
Bhagavateh and she wondered what would happen if she repeated that
Mantra during her daily meditation. She did and the result was
extraordinary. She reported that:

"It (the Mantra) coagulates something: all the cellular life becomes one
solid, compact mass, in a tremendous concentration – with a single
vibration. At the place of all the usual vibrations of the body, there is now
only one single vibration. It becomes as hard as a diamond, a single
massive concentration, as if all the cells of the body had ... I became stiff
from it. I was so stiff that I was one single mass." [This quotation is drawn
from Mother's Agenda.]

During the day the Mantra became a sweet presence:

"On the days when I have no special preoccupations or difficulties (days I

could call normal, when I am normal), everything I do, all the movements
of this body, all, all the words I utter, all the gestures I make, are
accompanied and upheld by or lined, as it were, with this Mantra: Om
Namo Bhagavateh... Om Namo Bhagavateh... , all the time, all the time,
all the time."

In many passages of Mother's Agenda, Satprem and Mère discuss how the
Mantra calms the persons in surrounding areas by creating an atmosphere
of such an intensity that disharmonies cease to exist:

"Mantra has a great action: it can prevent an accident. It simply springs

forth in a flash, all of a sudden: "It has to spring up without thinking,

49
 without calling: it should issue forth from the being spontaneously, like a
reflex, exactly like a reflex."

The Mother was able to notice the difference between those who have a
Mantra and those who don't.

"With those who have no Mantra, even if they have a strong habit of
meditation or concentration, something around them remains hazy and
vague, whereas Japa imparts to those who practice it with a kind of
precision, a kind of solidity: an armature. They become galvanized, as it
were".

[IV]

One day I received as a gift a Catholic Rosary from a colleague who had
just returned from a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. I took it with me during a
walk in the countryside and decided to utilize it; obviously the Mantra I
choose to repeat was Ramdas': Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram Om.

I practiced it aloud for about 108 repetitions, utilizing the rosary twice [A
Catholic Rosary is made of 60 grains; later I acquired a Mala with 108
grains.]

The sound of the Mantra, which I had already listened to in a spiritual

songs recording, was very pleasant. Since the choice of my Mantra was
born from an indubitable predilection, I loved to caress its vibration,
prolong it on my lips, make it vibrate in my chest and invest it with my
heart’s aspiration. My attitude was not that of a supplicating and sobbing
devotee, but that of a man one step away from his goal. Even if sometimes
I felt a bit dazed, I maintained the determination to complete my 108
repetitions in a low voice.

Nothing in particular was done during the rest of the day: no spiritual
readings, no Bhajans... At evening I retired in my room to practice my
Kriya session. I felt a great calmness in me and around me but nothing
adumbrated the eventuality that in a short time I would experience
something capable of changing my life.

During mental Pranayama, while mentally moving up and down along the
spine, I distinctly perceived that the life of my cells were sustained by fresh
energy which didn't originated from the inhaled air. The sensation was
calmly enjoyable and I went ahead undisturbed in my practice. My
awareness paused on each Chakra like a bee drawn to the nectar in flowers,
hovering upon each in great delight. The more I relaxed, the more I became

50
simultaneously aware both of the Chakras and of the body as a whole. A
clear perception of an inner lightness and utter mental transparency was the
mark that a new state of awareness was settling.

The breath, which in the meantime had became very very short, eventually
came to immobility, like a pendulum gently reaching the equilibrium point.
My mind settled down completely. I entered a perfect immobility and, at a
certain moment, I discovered I was completely without breath. This
condition lasted various minutes, without any feeling of uneasiness: there
was neither the least quiver of surprise, or the thought: "Finally I have it!"

A calm euphoria could be perceived out the border of the mind: the
certainty of finally having found something stable and immutable within
the evanescent flux of existence – which sometimes seems to have the
consistency of an infinite sequence of reflexes upon the water.

A memory emerged. Time ago I had red the experience of Mère when she
met Sri Aurobindo. I closed my eyes and visualized the situation. Mère
recounted that she sat close to Sri Aurobindo (on the floor.) Suddenly she
felt a great Force made of massive Peace and Silence. It came descending
from the high, cleaning the mind, clearing away all its contents and
stopping at the chest. Mère remained while Sri Aurobindo was talking with
another person, the silently, without disturbing, stood up and left. She
didn't have a single thought in her mind. She could do only one action:
give thanks to the Divine and to Sri Aurobindo.

Something similar had now happened in my life.

I was astonished that one of the simplest techniques in the world, such as
Japa, had produced such a valuable result! Where my best intentions had
failed, Japa had produced the miracle!

In the following days the same event happened again – always during
mental Pranayama, after my daily number of Kriya breaths (I never
exceeded 36 repetitions.) I verified the perfect association between the
practice of Japa and the attainment of this state. Compared to the results
obtained through Japa, my past experiences of calming the mind seemed
elusive, vanishing, superficial, illusory.

This event happened every day, but only when I respected three conditions:
[1] the Japa should be practiced aloud not mentally for at least one Mala
(108 times).
[2] it should be practiced not immediately before the Kriya session: a
couple of hours before was the idea timing.

51
[3] from the moment the 108 repetitions aloud are done, Japa should go
ahead mentally, effortlessly, without caring if the mind is concentrated or
not.

During the following Summer, Japa was practiced in the morning and
Kriya at noon in the open countryside. When I reached the breathless state,
I used to open my eyes, keeping the gaze steady. With an incomparable
sense of inner freedom the breathless state became instantaneously deeper.
The resistance of my Ego disappeared and I was seized by the real
experience of the Divine.

I think that with eyes open the realization that my body was living by inner
energy was more sharp. Very probably it was the contemplation of Beauty
in nature the decisive factor. The essence of this Beauty was the Divine
itself.

The Mother said that the contemplation of Beauty in nature and in some
forms of art was not to be considered a fleeting emotion but had to be lived
with an indomitable striving toward a divinization of life.

Spellbound, I contemplated the shimmering splendor of a full manifestation

of the Divine in the atoms of inert matter. There was a purity in this never-
before-elaborated idea. It excited and moved me. There were moments in
which my head felt hot as if I were feverish.

My reaction was intense love for the Mother. The Beauty in nature was the
Divine and the Divine was The Mother. The more I felt love for Her, the
more the Divine was in front of me. Now she was no more in this physical
dimension, I could not meet her but I started, each night, dreaming Her.

Often I went around with eyes full of tears. These tears accompanied my
love for Her. This love brought a great blessing in my life.

Ishta Devata means one's favorite form of conceiving the Divine essence.
Now, I think that my Ishta Devata is the Beauty in Nature and, at the same
time is The Mother. When, practicing Kriya in the open countryside, I
opened my eyes, I had the impression of being implacably crushed by the
vibration of The Mother.

Winter came; in my warm room, during meditation, I used to retrieve the

memory of that landscape – an image fixed in a transparent purity – and
my breath disappeared in less than a second. Winter was the proper time to
understand what happened in my life.

52
 [V]

INITIATION
All say that the spiritual path of Kriya starts with Initiation. I believed that.
Now I think that initiation is not a ceremony in which you learn a technique
and your teacher touches the point between the eyebrows. I think that
initiation is a happy coincidence. You have a burning desire to walk the
spiritual path while, at the same time, a divine soul becomes a real presence
near you. Somehow this soul accepts to help you and your transformation
starts to take place immediately. Your heart radiates love. The affection that
you give changes you forever. Through this love, something that is beyond
the human life flows into you.

You don't choose your Guru, maybe he is from a previous life: perhaps
he has already left the body. Now you have only one duty: to practice,
even from a book. You will realize who is your Guru when you will reach
the breathless state. Non only that: when you will be full with a burning
love for a particular saint who will reveal himself of herself to you in a
mysterious way for example through a dream or (rarely) in a vision. So
go ahead with your practice and forget everything else!

I was not expecting that Mother was my Guru, it was impossible for me to
think that. But the reality was that Mother acted toward me as a Guru.

In Her life she did not behave like a traditional Guru. She was able to
extract from the persons going to her all the hidden potentialities. She said
that one becomes a true individual only when, in constant pursuit of a
greater beauty, harmony and knowledge, these potentialities become
perfectly and compactly integrated with their divine center. Yes, this
happened in my life.

Sri Ramana Maharshi wrote:

''Hearken! It stands as an insentient hill. Its action is mysterious, past

human understanding. From the age of innocence it had shone in my mind
that Arunachala was something of surpassing grandeur, but even when I
came to know through another that it was the same as Tiruvannamalai I
did not realize its meaning. When it drew me up to it, stilling the mind,
and I came close I saw IT STAND UNMOVING.''

By finding PY's organization, I started my preparation. There is no doubt

53
that it was useful for me. Finding the Mother, I found another teaching,
other levels of subtlety, and I woke up.

It happened that I gradually began to examine with limpid eyes my way of

practicing Kriya Yoga and realized the complexity of my self-deception.
My approach and attitude towards the spiritual path was improper.
Unfortunately, entering a Kriya founded organization had not meant
finding new means to perfect my preexisting practice of Pranayama.

Inside the organization, by trying to behave like a ''good'' disciple, I had

unconsciously betrayed the values my culture instilled in me. I deviated
from the common way of reasoning and feeling, embracing as final truth a
set of speculative ideas wholly unsupported by facts. My judgment was
impaired and practically non-existent. Obviously, responsibility was mine
alone. As a matter of fact, I have known so many people in the organization
that, differently from me, had nourished in such dimension the best tracts
of their personality, having grown in rationality and sensibility.

Instead of focusing upon the joy of perfecting the art of Pranayama, I

relaxed my effort lulled into the false sense that finding Kriya had been a
struck of luck. This idea, coupled with the childish idea that each Kriya
breath produced "the equivalent of a solar year of spiritual evolution" and
that through a million of these breaths I would infallibly reach the Cosmic
Consciousness, made my Kriya routine become an habit lived with a lazy
mind. Actually, I tried to perform the greatest possible number of
Pranayama and I felt no shame nor remorse for the way I was practicing.

My first efforts in exploring my book-learned Pranayama were

accompanied by constant striving for perfection. My intuition was alive,
constantly stimulated; while practicing, I anticipated its inevitable
progression and was quietly excited during each moment of it. I constantly
felt myself as one who is pursuing his ideal of perfection, nay his ideal of
Beauty. Afterward, having received Kriya, the idea of practicing "the
fastest technique in the field of spiritual evolution" made the intensity of
my effort lose its edge.

I was not able to perceive that my iron-willed discipline was softened by

the hypnotic promise of the "Guru's Blessings". "Aren't you glad to have
found a true Guru?" For years I heard this refrain from my Kriya
organization, "Aren't you enthusiastic that He has been chosen for you by
God Himself?" "Oh yes we are happy" we replied with tears of joy, with
an exhibition of excessive enthusiasm. This idea, more than any other
factor, had lethal effects on me; it was the cradle in which my ego was fed

54
and strengthened.

My basic mistake was that I had let that Kriya (reinforced by egotistic
motivations) happened in a mind too much active. The teaching of The
Mother was that I should first create the state of Mental Silence wiping out
all the ego-born ideas, plans and distractions. Through Mental Silence the
Divine would descend into my life, cross all the layers that protect the Ego:
thoughts, emotions, sensations.... Only then could my intuition guide me.

Note: rational way of explaining why Japa works

In my opinion the peculiarity of Japa is to annihilate the ''background noise'' of
the mind. This ''noise'' becomes perceptible only when you sit for meditation.
There are some thoughts which you can visualize, identify and, in case, block,
but a diffuse, persistent hard-to-rid-of background noise nullifies all your effort
at concentration.

Being no hermits, when we take refuge in our room to practice Kriya, we cannot
reach the ideal conditions of relaxation in barely twenty, thirty minutes. More
time is needed to calm completely one’s mind. Therefore, even if the Kriya
process is carried through with the maximum care, the force of the background
noise becomes an insurmountable obstacle. The only possible way to annul it is
not through technical tricks, but through the Japa. This tool is unique, it can
produce "miracles!"

When we practice Japa during the day (not immediately before starting our
meditation routine) then, in the last part of our Kriya routine, we discover that
the background noise of the mind has given place to immobility and
transparency: the experience is fantastic, unexpected. We enjoy a state of
calmness where almost all the activities of the mind have subsided.

Many books introducing the practice of Japa do not explain this precious
concept but insist only upon a heap of banalities. Many books about Japa are
useless essays deprived of any intelligence or passion. For example when I read
that the mala should be made of this or of that material, or that it should not be
seen by others, or that the Sumeru bead (where the mala begins and ends) should
never be passed [they say that if you want to practice the mala twice, you must
turn it and make the last bead become the first bead of the second round] I know
that these are first-class idiocies. Likewise when I read that the power of the
Prayer lies not in your effort but in a ''Grace'' that comes only when you use a
particular formula canonized by a traditional pattern of worship, I know that this
is another falsehood.

55
 CHAPTER 4
THE TEACHING OF SWAMI HARIHARANANDA

The thirst for Original Kriya was ignited again by a book found in Wien. It
was written by the Indian Yogi Swami Hariharananda, claiming he was
teaching the Original Kriya and PY's was mentioned as a slightly modified
version of it.

Devoured by the suspicion that PY had taught a simplified form of Kriya in

order to meet the constraints of his westerner disciples, I studied that book
hoping to unearth the Original Kriya Pranayama.

In the meantime my daily application of Japa decreased. Less time was

devoted to deepen the breathless state, while more time was devoted to
experimenting with variations of Pranayama.

Months before I had formulated the thought, "I must never lose the
enjoyment of the breathless state, even for a single minute. It is the most
real thing I have ever experienced!" But my frenzied search for the
Original Kriya made me go crazy. I had opened a door that couldn't be
closed easily. The most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction came from
reading and rereading Swami Hariharananda's book, finely underlining
some sentences.

This book, like innumerable others I later read, was only bait to create
interest in the Kriya school founded by the author, therefore it did not
include practical explanations.

I was excited about reading that Pranayama should be considered

inaccurate and wrong if, during its practice, the practitioner had not heard
the internal sound of Om without closing the ears. That sentence wouldn't
let me sleep. It left dangerous doubts that an unimaginably deep and rich
technique of spiritual realization had been taken away from me and all
westerners only because PY had found it difficult to teach to his first
American disciples.

56
MEETING SWAMI HARIHARANANDA
Before undergoing surgery in the United States, Swamiji was stopping over
in Europe. I worked very hard to meet him and receive his Initiation on that
occasion.

To me, his introductory conference was of great emotional impact. He had

a majestic and noble bearing. He was "handsomely" wrapped in his ocher
clothes; his old age, and long hair and beard marked the features of the
typical sage. I caught glimpses of him while he spoke, hidden by the front
rows; I felt he was talking from direct experience.

The theoretical concepts he introduced were absolutely new to me and

created a beautiful consistent framework for a Kriya practice based on a
unique progressive process of tuning with the Omkar Reality.

Like a thread passing through all the pearls of a necklace, Omkar was
coursing through all the different phases of Kriya. Furthermore, the Omkar
Reality had to be perceived not only in the aspects of sound and light but
also as a "swinging sensation" or ''internal pressure.''

His stupendous, appealing words were for me a revelation, but at certain

moments my focus on technical detail made me unable to give due
attention to what he was saying. My obsession was: "What kind of throat
sound is to be produced in this Original Kriya; up to which center does the
energy rise in the spine?" Instead, almost nothing was said about breath.
Breath should be always subtle, short and on the verge to disappear.

To make more clear to the public the proper swinging aspect of Omkar, he
touched some of the students (their head and chest) making his hand
vibrate, trying to transmit this quivering to their body. He was leading the
auditorium into a wondrous dimension, giving himself completely to us so
that we could picture and feel in our body the core essence of the Omkar
experience.

Putting aside the problem of the simplifications of the Kriya Yoga by PY,
my mind was full of cheerful anticipation about the improvements that I
would bring to each technique that I was daily practicing.

Since I missed the Kriya that I had practiced for a few years, which gave
me the breathless state, I merged the teaching that I was receiving with

57
what I knew well. I practiced his wonderful ''Forward bendings'' and his
particular Maha Mudra (both are explained in detail in chapter 10) and
then my classic Kriya Pranayama, through the nose, adding a continuous
willingness to listen to the inner sounds.

The sounds produced in the throat (similar to those of Ujjayi Pranayama)

disappeared or were very feeble. I tried to make them subtler and subtler.
The exhalation arising in the nasal pharynx produced a fine sound like a
faint whistle. Subtracting force to the breath was positive and lead to a
great mental relaxation. This sound seemed to originate from the upper part
of the nasal pharynx.

The basic idea presiding over his form of Kriya Pranayama was that of
visualizing the spine as a well. You moved down and up the well, utilizing
a ladder whose ''steps'' were the Chakras. The first breath helped your
awareness to reach Ajna starting from Fontanelle, the second breath helped
you to reach the fifth Chakra ...and so on... reaching all the remaining
Chakras … (see chapter 10.) The concentration on listening to the internal
sounds was continuous. After a few complete rounds you were almost lost
in a bliss state.

EFFECTS
Recalling the period when I had practiced the "Om technique" (received
from my school) I knew perfectly that any effort toward listening to the
internal sounds was very well rewarded. The increase of devotion toward
the Divine, the blissful rapture in a spiritual passion arising from my heart,
experienced in that period had not been surpassed by any other event. The
idea of living it again through the practice of a richer form of Kriya
Pranayama charmed me.

After returning home, the ancient well known sweetness again entered my
life and I gratefully welcomed it with open heart. I can't remember how
many Kriya breaths I practiced each day, surely never more than 48-60.
The daily contact with the Om vibration was my Heaven on earth for many
weeks. I can't imagine anything being able to make a person feel so
blissful.

I had a clear perception that a state of inconceivable sweetness was mine,

that I could taste it every day, during the practice and in every moment
when I rested, free from work. To preserve such experience became the
sole focus of my Kriya practices.

In winter of that year, I lived an unforgettable experience. I had a three

58
week vacation. I spent every morning wrapped in the warmth of my home,
practicing the new form of Kriya Pranayama. It was so sweet. I also spent
some days in a beautiful location equipped for winter sport, where I could
wander aimlessly around the snow-white countryside. While I was lazily
roaming about, the sun set early, painting the landscape with breathtaking
colors; the small village, sunk in the snow, started to radiate in a few
seconds of glory all the colors of the spectrum of light. My memory will
always hold it as the splendid symbol of this wonderful period in my life.

After one year, I received Swami Hariharananda's particular form of

Second Kriya. I was entranced by assisting to the initiation into the Second
Kriya: the explanations were given live and not through written material as
happened in the past with my first organization. I was so happy!

The purpose of the Second Kriya is to have deep experience of the six
Chakras and then transcend their reality. Prana is intensified and
distributed equally among all the Chakras. After many repetitions of the
whole procedure (contemplating also particular movements of the head)
you feel that your awareness is separated from the physical body – like a
cloud floating in a sky of peace. They say that the Second Kriya ends in
''cracking the coconut.'' The coconut is a symbol of the human head, whose
upper part is becomes full of calm Prana.

After receiving initiation, while I was walking in the city that hosted
Swamiji, all seemed more beautiful than ever. It was a sunny day and the
bells were ringing out in the splendor of noon. I lived in heaven. I
experienced a total contentment and ease, as if my Kriya path had come to
its fulfillment.

After returning home, I practiced intensively. One day while still at work, I
was in a room from which I could see the distant mountains through a
window pane, contemplating the pure celestial sky above them. That
distant sky was the mirror of my future years, wholly dedicated to Kriya
Yoga. For the first time the prospect of retiring and living on a minimal
income, maintaining this state for the rest of my days, started to take real
shape.

MY MIND CANNOT FIND DEFINITIVE SATISFACTION

After all these beautiful happening, a question came. Swami
Hariharananda's First Kriya is wonderful and not greatly different from
Lahiri's. There is practically nothing to speculate about it. On the contrary,
Swami Hariharananda's Second Kriya is indubitable different from Lahiri's.
Now, is it possible that Swami Hariharananda with his Second Kriya

59
started a great deviation from Lahiri Mahasaya's method?

Is it possible that Swami Hariharananda's Second Kriya is different from

Lahiri Mahasaya's because its origin is the Radhasoami movement? This is
what I heard. I am sure that PY and Sri Yukteswar were part of this
movement. Lahiri Mahasaya's method envisages a great action upon the
heart Chakra through the method of Thokar.

Later, a representative of Hariharananda's school expressed to me his

opinion in clear words:

''Thokar is not necessary and may be even disturbing. The repetition of a Mantra
upon a Chakra is enough to awaken it. You can contract and relax the muscles
near the location of a Chakra: this also is good. Then stop with physical
movements. Generally speaking, a physical movement like Thokar disturbs very
much, instead the repetition of a Mantra helps the mind to come to complete
rest. Repeating internally a Mantra in the spine and enjoy the pure Omkar helps
one to raise the consciousness of the Self to higher regions. One sits still, eyes
closed, mentally repeating the Mantra, gazing into the middle of the darkness
lying in front of him in order to perceive the inner light. Breathing is natural and
free flowing. A long Kumbhaka is stressful.''

Before taking leave from me he emphasized again that there are no other
means of spiritual liberation, except through the Omkar experience.

DISAPPOINTMENT
Unfortunately the following year I received a great disappointment. I asked
to Swamiji a private interview. A few days later I was in his room. My
purpose was to get information about that part of the Second Kriya I knew
existed but of which nothing there had been said during my initiation. In
that part all the syllables of the Sanskrit alphabet were used. 9 He said that
nothing of this was to be practiced by me. Instead he took the strong
initiative to guide me in the practice of the ''Forward bendings.'' This was a
true benediction! He gave everything of himself to repeat all the main
concepts of his teaching as if he wanted to engrave them even more in my
mind.

While talking about Kriya, he said that its original spirit had been lost in
this epoch. He told me that he wanted me to perceive and live in that spirit.
To have that it was essential that I utilized only what I had received and no
more. He asked me to place a bulky folder of his on the bed next to us. He
opened it and let me see some drawings related to different phases of
Kriya. He smiled as he skimmed through them. I got the feeling that he
9
I got this information some years later. You can read every detail in chapter 11.

60
wanted to show me that he knew everything about Kriya and that he
guaranteed that what I had learned was enough for my life, now and in the
future. My quest of knowing other techniques implied my lack of
engagement in the essential techniques. With that our meeting came to an
end. The same evening I meditated with other devotees an his feet.

I was inspired to be there but the decision of the Swamiji instead of

confirming me in the practice of the First and the Second Kriya brought me
out of my peace and well-being: how and where could I learn the Higher
Kriyas from this school?

He told this to every person coming to his feet. His disciples knew this.
Only the few chosen disciples following him around the world could
receive higher teachings. The awareness of this situation fizzled out the
enthusiasm of many and contributed to his isolation.

He did not take into consideration the insatiable curiosity of the majority of
kriyabans who accepted no interference in their quest. His unfortunate
decision triggered an automatic reflex which pushed away the people most
indispensable to him. Consumed by a thirst for the complete teachings,
they began to search for other teachers.

Disappointed by their defection, he stubbornly focused even more

pointedly on his decision. Those who tried to get this absurdity across to
him and thereby prevent it found themselves facing a stone wall.

The soil he plowed and was cultivating started to become sterile. He had all
the tools necessary to attract the western world. The book he had written
had been a smart strategic move which made him popular in the West,
saving for himself a place of crucial importance in the domain of Kriya.
Moreover, his Indian-sage figure impressed people. Hundreds of scholars
were ready to back his mission and treat him as a "divinity", and were
willing to show the same respect to possible collaborators and successors.

It is true that a lot of people were content with his Kriya, but they would
never organize a seminar for their teacher. Frankly speaking, the
faithfulness of the many was not enough to avoid the worst. His
commendable effort, all the marvelous subtleties by which he had enriched
our Kriya and made this practice far more beautiful, was not enough to
prevent a shipwreck of his mission – at least here in Europe. 10

10
Something remains indeed, but very scanty compared to what he could have realized
if only he had been more conciliatory!

61
Using the same fliers and changing only the Master's name and photo,
many of the people who formerly organized his seminars invited another
teacher from India because they knew he was well-disposed to explain
Kriya in its complete form. Those who had already met him in India knew
his own spiritual realization was almost non-existent. This invitation was
perhaps made more out of desperation than of conviction. Because of visa
problems, it took two years before he finally landed in Europe, and when
he arrived practically all the before-described teacher's disciples were
ready to welcome this new guru as their God-sent messenger.

This new teacher did in fact give us the very craved key to achieve Kechari
Mudra, the Navi Kriya and others.

62
 CHAPTER 5
THE DECISION TO WRITE THE BOOK

You remember the episode when I sought a clarification about the Higher
Kriyas received through the correspondence course – the Minister refused
to give me any clarification. Instead he recommended that I send my
questions to the school's head quarters. Nine years had elapsed.

I felt quite distant from my Kriya organization, but I still respected it and
when two female Ministers of the same organization visited my country, I
took part in a review class of Kriya. During an interval between two review
classes, something wonderful (and sweet for my heart) happened. What I
had hoped for so ardently in the past and yet was negated in such a brutal
way, materialized easily. I had a private talk with one of the two Ministers
wherein all my doubts were clarified.

That Minister was kind and talked from direct experience. Regarding
Kechari Mudra, she said that it comes with time, especially by persisting in
touching the uvula with the tip of the tongue. I also inquired about one of
PY's remarks: "The Chakras can be awakened by psycho-physical blows
given at their different locations." She clarified its meaning by explaining it
referred to the use of a Mantra coupled with strong concentration and a
short pause of the breath. No other hypothetical technique other than what
is fully described in the written material was being hinted at. She explained
that if a syllable is mentally chanted in a Chakra's location with real
intensity, it creates a "psycho-physical blow".

This clarification inspired my practice. Returning home, I had the

impression of living again the best time of my life. I discovered a way
of perfecting the final part of my Kriya routine. While projecting in
each Chakra the mental chant of the Mantra, I realized I had the
power to touch the core of each one with an almost physical intensity.
A great sweetness sprang from this procedure; my body seemed to
become stiff like a statue and the breathless state made my mind
transparent as crystal. I was willing to put an end to my search of the
Original Kriya and take my present Kriya routine as definitive. My
routine was a wonderful blend of what my organization and what
Swami Hariharananda had taught, but the eagerness to get new
information about Kriya had already caused devastation and poured a
mortal poison in my soul.

63
MY LAST TEACHER
When the moment came to meet him, I was not in the best of moods.
Certain clues had warned me I would have to reckon with a radically new
approach. I was afraid this could upset the simple and adequately profitable
routine into which I had settled. The magical realm of Omkar dimension,
into which my first teacher Swami Hariharananda had immersed me in a
passionate way, could be neither left aside nor forgotten. I approached my
new teacher with the idea of rejecting him if, somehow, he appeared to
dissuade me from such a reality. I accepted the idea to meet him for one
single reason, to have what Swami Hariharananda decided not to give me.

I met this teacher in a Yoga center. The essence of his introductory speech
was that Kriya was not intended to inflate the mind and the ego but was a
journey beyond the mind. I realized that the core of Krishnamurti's
teaching was the source from which this teacher drew his ideas.

I indulgently observed some inadequacies in his behavior which shocked

other students. He was hot-tempered. When it came to teaching simple and
banal things that even kindergarten children could understand, he flaunted
a great profusion of words, and concepts were repeated ad nauseam. When
anyone in public politely but determinedly asked for a precise explanation
of some difficult practical detail, he came out of his hypnotic state and,
visibly vexed, tried to humiliate and silence the unfortunate listener.
Sometimes he exploded with rage whenever he sensed that underneath
legitimate questions there was a veiled opposition or an intention to
challenge his authority.

I focused all my attention on learning his form of Kriya, ignoring his

obvious faults. He clearly communicated to us that the reason for his tour
to the West was to reestablish the original teachings, and this was enough
to overcome my initial wariness.

In the following initiation seminar the technical explanation was

reasonably clear, even if in some parts were unusually synthetic. For
instance, his instructions on Kriya Pranayama – formally correct – could
be understood only by those who had already been practicing Kriya Yoga
for a long time. However I realized that my exhaustive search for the
original Kriya was going in a valid direction. I followed this teacher for six
years. Hereafter I summarize the reasons of my enthusiasm and why I later
broke off with him.

64
KECHARI MUDRA
Returning home after the Initiation seminar, I achieved Kechari Mudra.
Only three months of a simple exercise were necessary. 11 For a couple of
weeks the effects of Kechari were a feeling of "dizziness." My mental
faculties seemed to be fogged up, but when all that ceased, I learned to live
in a state of constant happiness.

Some days I was so happy that when I went out for a walk, if I met
someone and stopped to listen to him, no matter what he said, a sudden joy
would expand in my chest to the point that I could barely hold back my
tears. Looking at the distant mountains or at other details of the landscape,
I would try to direct my feeling toward them in order to turn my paralyzing
joy into aesthetic rapture; only this could keep back the joy clutching my
being, only this could hide it. Inspired by this new condition, comparing it
to that of the mystics, I realized how difficult was to live without being
paralyzed by such bliss!

In order to explain the definitive crack in our relationship, it is necessary to

refer again to the haste and shallowness with which my third Master
explained the Kriya techniques. The introductory lecture to Kriya (which
was usually held the evening before initiation) and a big part of the seminar
of initiation was devoted to pure philosophical talk which didn't touch the
basis of Kriya Yoga but was a summing up of Krishnamurti's strong points,
mainly the theme of no-mind, which he improperly called Swadhyaya.
There was no part of it that could be criticized, all he said was correct, but
many students, being uncomfortable sitting on the floor, with aching back
and knees, waited only for the explanation of the techniques, enduring this
long talk as a giant bummer.

The traditional offerings (he also required a coconut, which was very
difficult to find, forcing the students to desperately look in store after store)
lay in disarray before a scruffy altar. Since he usually arrived very late,
those who came from other cities pictured all their plans for the return
journey falling through and were very anxious. Despite it being late, people
being tired, and some already leaving to catch their train, he loved to linger
on Patanjali's Yama and Niyama, taking all the necessary time to ask the
audience to take a solemn vow that, from now on, the male students would
look at women (except their wife) as mothers and, correspondingly, women
would look at men (except their husband) as fathers. The public listened to
his vain words with a sigh of ill-concealed nuisance. Everyone gave an
11
I believe it is legitimate to ask why do Kriya organizations not teach such a simple
technique as Talabya Kriya that helps us to reach Kechari Mudra.

65
 12
assent with a nod, just to stop his ravings.

Only then did he switch to a hurried explanation of the basic techniques.

One day I decided to time him; the explanation of the fundamental
technique of Pranayama was offered in no more than two minutes! He
demonstrated Kriya Pranayama by means of an excessively loud vibratory
sound. He knew this sound was not correct, but he continued using it so
that the last rows of students could hear it, sparing himself the annoyance
of getting up and walking among them as Kriya teachers usually do. In any
case, he did not bother to say the sound had to be smooth rather than
vibrating. I know that many of the students believed this was the "secret"
he had brought from India and tried to reproduce the same noise. He
carried on that way for years, in spite of his close collaborators' polite
complaints.

By this time I accepted everything and I would never have dreamed of

complaining. Nevertheless one day I had a visit from the couple who
organized the master's tours in Germany. I had become acquainted with
those kind friends during the seminars of my first teacher Swami
Hariharananda. While talking together, they emphasized the necessity of
making a particular proposal to our teacher: to organize, at the end of his
Kriya initiation seminars, a guided group practice which served as a review
both for the new initiates and for those who were already practicing. I
occupied myself with having this proposal reach the teacher through a
friend who went to India. I gave him a letter to deliver to the teacher with
my regards and a warm embrace.

I forgot the whole matter. Master's reaction was inexplicable. He

interpreted my letter as an oblique criticism. As a response, he crossed me
off his list of those who organized his European tours. His decision was
transmitted to the Italian coordinator, who did not even inform me. Some

12
I respect of course Yama-Niyama (the what-is-correct and the what-is-not-correct)
but, in my opinion, requiring people who are anxious for learning Kriya Yoga
techniques to take an oath to obey them is only a farce and a waste of time. My
teacher's request in particular was impossible, an oath that no one would ever
respect. Why not put confidence in the transforming power of Kriya? Why think that
without oaths, a kriyaban's life would be licentious? The necessity of adopting
specific ways of behavior is something that appears spontaneously after having
tasted the honey of the spiritual experience. Perhaps in the beginning the best thing
is not to cry shame because of a problematic student's behavior. To put it simply, it
has been seen that people living a morally questionable life who were successful in
Kriya spontaneously came to the so-called virtuous life, while a lot of conformists
failed.

66
months went by.

My experience with that teacher probably would have ended that way, had
I not gone to welcome him back to Europe. We exchanged hugs as if
nothing had happened. He apparently interpreted my presence as a move of
repentance. Some hours later when he was resting, his collaborator, with a
slight indecipherable hint of embarrassment, explained to me what had
happened behind the scenes. I was appalled and disoriented. My first
impulse was to abandon everything and sever any connection with him.

In order not to disturb the peace of all the persons who were my friends
and who had followed me in this adventure, I decided to pretend nothing
had happened, keep on collaborating with him and drop the theme of my
letter. If I had gone I would have disturbed next day's initiation into the
Higher Kriyas. That was a beautiful moment in which Lahiri Mahasaya's
Kriya revealed (to those who had the sensibility to perceive it) all its
hidden beauty. My role was to serve as translator. I knew well how to
perform such a function, reporting every last detail, while the man who
would have replaced me was filled with old knowledge and out of habit
would have neglected to translate 80% of the talk.

During that initiation, Master demonstrated Thokar in a way visibly

different from the previous year. When one of the listeners asked him about
the reason for the changes, he replied he had not changed anything and
argued that in the past seminars a problem of translation might have
occurred. His lie was obvious. The questioning kriyaban remembered well
the head movements he had previously been shown.

Confronted with other minor changes from one year to the next, I had the
impression I was cooperating with an archaeologist who was deliberately
altering certain findings to justify them to the public within the theoretical
framework to which he was accustomed.

Months later during another tour, when we were alone and he was
searching for something in a room, I found the courage to drop a hint about
a technical issue which had set one Kriya school against another. He
suddenly turned toward me with hate in his eyes, shouting that my practice
was not his business. This, according to what I'm able to remember, was
the sole technical "discourse" I had with him in the entire course of my six
years with him.

From that moment onward all was changed. I deliberately began to control
myself and made the resolution to always agree with him. I acted so well

67
that one day he asked me to teach Kriya to those who were interested and
who couldn't meet him on his tours. I rejoiced at the opportunity because I
dreamed I could finally explain Kriya in a complete and comprehensive
way. I wanted none of my students to ever feel the pain of seeing a
legitimate question go unconsidered.

A year passed by, and I sensed I was doing virtually useless work. I gave
Kriya initiation following a mandatory fixed protocol. When I took leave
of the students I knew that most would practice for few days and then leave
Kriya to pursue other esoteric interests. Usually one or two among the most
tenacious students made up questions and called me just to carry on the
pretense of continuing, from a distance, our relationship.

When Master came to our country I invited all the new initiates to the
seminar where he was present. Unfortunately, many didn't "survive" such a
meeting. Accustomed by me to put forth any question, receiving always
precise answer, they tried to do the same with the teacher. Good heavens!
He censured most of the questions, implying that they were the sign of a
insane way of thinking. Often exploded with rage. Many entered a deep
crisis after observing his almost total lack of human understanding while
simultaneously being kicked around by him.

Too many things were not going in the right direction. I felt that this man,
whose every small whim I tried to satisfy as if carrying out a sacred deed,
did not love Kriya. Instead, he used it only to create a more beautiful life
for himself in the West compared to the wretched one in India he had often
described to me.

Another year went by. On a request from friends abroad, I went to teach
Kriya Yoga to their group. There I met a very serious student who was
already familiar with my teacher's behavior and was taking part in the
initiation seminar only as a refresher. He asked me a lot of pertinent
questions and I gave him accurate answers. At that point he asked: "From
whom have you learned all these details?" He well knew that my teacher
was a total disaster from a didactic point of view. He perceived that I had
learned many details from other sources. How could I give Kriya initiation
using knowledge that did not originate from my teacher? He understood
my predicament and was surprised that since I was authorized to teach
Kriya, I had never had the chance to talk freely with my teacher about
Kriya details! It was logical and fitting for me to settle the matter as soon
as possible.

Knowing the irascible disposition of my teacher, I hesitated a long time but

68
there was no way out. Through a friend, I sent him a fax mentioning the
matter at hand and prayed him to adjust his schedule so we could discuss it
after his arrival during his next tour. He was in Australia, but within one
week at the latest I would have received an answer. My subconscious was
ready for a disaster, anticipating an event I intuitively knew would come.
The most probable situation was that he would become very angry and fly
into a rage. If the whole situation slipped out of my hands and, as a result
of our break, he stopped coming to our group, those who loved him would
suffer. Few people, in fact, would be able to comprehend the reason for my
action. I would be the one who had disturbed a comfortable, though
imperfect, situation. My friends liked him; his annual visit was a powerful
stimulus to their effort and motivated them to practice Kriya intensely.

A harsh reply came a few days later. In a disdainful way, he did not address
it directly to me but pretended to answer the 'persona' that had materially
sent my letter via fax. He wrote that my excessive attachment to the
techniques would never let me out of the fences of my mind – I was like St.
Thomas, too desirous to touch with my hand and verify the goodness of his
teachings. He added that if he satisfied my request, it would only be to
gratify my ego.

Reading the term "gratification," I knew he had understood nothing. We

should have talked to each other long before it came to this! I wondered
why he had never allowed me to express my concerns. I didn't want to
contest him, I didn't want to destroy him; the necessity that brought me to
write him was to establish once and for all what I was supposed to
communicate and what not to communicate to the kriyabans during
initiation. Why had he always evaded me?

I decided to behave candidly, as if I had not perceived his tone. I wanted to

see what he was capable of. I neither apologized nor answered in a
resentful tone. I wrote that I taught Kriya on his behalf and therefore a
mutual discussion about certain Kriya details was necessary. I added that at
such an event the other three people in Europe authorized by him to impart
Kriya initiation could also be present. I thus made him understand that he
would not have wasted his time and breath for me only. I never received an
answer, neither then nor ever. A few weeks later I saw on his Internet site
that the name of my town had been taken off the list for his visit to Italy.
My second letter had brought about a definitive split. The nightmare was
over!

I took a one-day vacation and went for a long walk; I roamed a lot, tensely,
imagining a hypothetical discussion with him. All of a sudden, I found

69
myself crying with joy. It was too beautiful – I was free. I had been with
him too many years, and now all that had really ended!

The question that I would ask myself in the years to come was why I had
followed him for so long. Surely I had not sacrificed my dignity for the
sake of receiving Kriya information! Actually, all of his techniques had
been revealed to me by a friend who was disciple of one of his father's
disciples. The reason for my behavior was concern for the diffusion of
Kriya here in Europe. I appreciated the fact that he traveled extensively
throughout USA and Europe to spread his Kriya without charging a penny
for his Initiations (save for a free donation and a fair share of the expense
for renting the seminar room). I covered all the necessary expenses to
permanently fit out a room in my house where Kriya Initiations seminars
could be held during my teacher's visits. My willingness to cooperate with
him was always constant in order that he could carry out his task.

When I saw that he continued to teach in his rushed, superficial manner,

taking advantage of us as if we were complete idiots, my subconscious
began to rebel. I vividly remember a dream in which I was swimming in
manure. I must admit that behind my mask of fake delight hid a dry agony.
There had been moments in which, thinking of my meek beginning in the
practice of Yoga, my heart felt an indefinite nostalgia for the peace of that
initial period, a peace which was waiting for nothing more than consistency
and honesty on my part to rise again and blossom unimpeded. On more
than one occasion I had the impulse to abandon everything and sever any
connection with him, but I didn't want to disturb the peace of all the people
who were my friends and who had followed me in this adventure. Only
when I received his rude and improper answer to my legitimate request for
clarification and realized that my internal truth was at stake, I said to
myself – Now or never!

At that time I could not tolerate the least deformation of truth. I zeroed my
diplomatic mask and provoked the breaking-off with my third teacher. This
bewildered my kriyaban friends who were naturally affectionate toward
him. In time they understood the deep-seated reasons for my decision and
showed their solidarity.

Like a domino effect, other coordinators in Europe who barely tolerated his
bad manners took advantage of that episode to break contact with him.
They were fed up with the dullness of his philosophical discourses
followed by scanty technical explanations which didn't quench their desire
for a good understanding of Kriya.

70
WHAT FOLLOWED AFTER OUR PARTING
The following months were lived in a peaceful and relaxed mood, nothing
to compare with the restlessness of my previously described years. Having
dismissed that mean individual from my life, an enervating situation ended.
I no longer had to go here and there to organize Kriya seminars for him; I
had been relieved of the constraint of wearing a mask of hypocrisy while
responding to those who called me to get information about him.

I had not even a faint idea of the destiny of the recently formed Kriya
groups, up until then regularly visited by him. There were reasons to
celebrate but the sense of all the time wasted, of all the silly things which
had been carried out thoughtlessly, was weighing me down.

Puran Purush
A couple of months marked by calmness and introspection followed: the
only noteworthy event was the issue of the book Puran Purush – surely the
most beautiful biography of Lahiri Mahasaya. It was written by the
renowned Kriya master Dr. Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee who consulted Lahiri
Mahasaya's diaries and benefited from the personal assistance of Sri Satya
Charan Lahiri (1905 - 1987), one of Lahiri Mahasaya's grandsons, who had
access to those diaries. The book came out in Bengali (then in French and
English.) It contains a selection of the most important entries in Lahiri
Mahasaya diaries.

Although this text does not seem to respect a logical order in the topics and
contains an endless number of repetitions and rhetorical sentences, it helps
us to understand Lahiri Mahasaya's personality – thus, the core of Kriya
may be reached as fast as an arrow. During summer I had this book with
me in the countryside; many times, after reading a part of it, I would raise
my eyes to the distant mountain tops and repeat internally "At long
last…!". I looked at the photograph of Lahiri Mahasaya on the front cover;
who knows what a state of bliss he was in while being photographed! I saw
some horizontal lines on his forehead, his eyebrows raised like in the
Shambhavi Mudra, where awareness is set upon the head; a slight tension
of his chin seemed to reveal he was practicing Kechari Mudra. During
those days, his figure, with that blissful smile, was a radiant sun in my
heart; he was the symbol of the perfection I yearned after.

It strikes his skill in communicating complicated abstract concepts when he

affirms that the whole course of Kriya is a great adventure beginning with a
dynamic Prana and ending with a static Prana. One feels a thrill of delight
by reading sentences which have light in themselves: "Kutastha is God, he

71
is the supreme Brahma". Remarkable is the great importance given to
Pranayama, Thokar and Yoni Mudra. Lahiri Mahasaya refused to be
worshiped as a God. This is a point that some of his followers seem to have
forgotten. Actually he said: "I am not the Guru, I don't maintain a barrier
between the true Guru (the Divine) and the disciple".

He added he wanted to be considered as "a mirror." In other words, each

kriyaban should see him not as an unreachable ideal but as the
personification of all the wisdom and spiritual realization which, in due
time, the Kriya practice will produce. When kriyabans realize that their
Guru is the personification of what resides potentially inside themselves, of
what one day they will become, then that mirror must be "thrown away."

Whether one likes it or not, that is exactly what He wrote: thrown away.
People who have been raised with the usual dogmas about the Guru-
disciple relationship are prevented from fully understanding the impact of
these words, otherwise they would face a strong conflict within themselves.
To face the truth, it takes courage and an intelligent, discriminating
approach to abandon one's own illusions, especially those that are nice and
gratifying. Besides courage, it takes also a good brain capable of
overcoming the tendency to be easily swayed.

Few noteworthy things happened.

● A friend remained for some days at an Ashram in India in the hope he

might receive initiation into Kriya Yoga. The leader of the Ashram was
away, and my friend received the initiation from one of his disciples. At the
conclusion he acquired a large volume summarizing the techniques, and at
the end of his trip, visibly content, he showed me the book. The techniques
did not differ much from those I already knew, but there were many more
details.

There was nothing in that book, however, that could remove all my
questions; not a single hint about how to obtain Kechari Mudra, nothing on
Thokar either. On the contrary, I can remember a very complicated
technique based on the visualization of the Chakras as they are described
in Tantric texts. Each technique was preceded by a theoretic introduction
with quotations from ancient books and an illustration which eliminated
any possible doubt. In the last part of the book a precise gradual routine
was given. Of course, there was a note guaranteeing that all the mentioned
techniques constituted Kriya Yoga as taught by Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya's
mythical Guru.

72
The material was very interesting, and I would have liked to yield to the
illusion that my quest had finally ended since those notes contained what I
was searching for. I simply had to convince myself that Babaji had made a
synthesis of the innumerable spiritual practices of Tantrism to create His
Kriya Yoga. It was impudent to think that Thokar could be considered no
more than a variation of the Jalandhara Bandha! If the instructions for
Kechari Mudra were not there, never mind, it probably just meant that …
Kechari was not really so important! With a bit of good will and
application, I could have closed the circle.

Chance made me listen to the recording of a conference with the author

Swami S.S. He discussed how he had found those techniques in some
tantric texts which he had translated; he then made an accurate selection
from them to form a coherent system of Kriya. How was it possible, then,
to have a note saying that those teachings came directly from Babaji?

Simple – as is the case with the majority of Indian masters, he had his
disciples write the book; they had the brilliant idea of making it more
interesting by hinting that the techniques were derived from the mythical
Babaji. The teacher, exhibiting another classic Indian habit, never checked
the material and was taken aback later on when he became aware of those
"supplementary notes". He then tried to defend his disciples' work stating
that after all … "Babaji's Kriya had Tantric origins."

● Some friends returning from India expressed their excitement over such
an extraordinary land. But at the end of their tales, disappointment in all
the things they had not been able to learn emerged. Often they would meet
a boaster who assured them he knew original Kriya Yoga and could initiate
them all as long as they kept it a total secret without establishing any
contact with other teachers. In this way the boaster could ensure the
disciples would not recognize that it was not Kriya Yoga they were being
taught. I realized this only when, overcoming their hesitation, I convinced
them to confidentially give me a rough description of that technique.

It was nothing more than the mere repetition of a Mantra! What made me
feel sad was not so much the great advantage gained by those braggers (the
Gurudakshina [donation] they received meant a real fortune at my friends'
expense) but that my friends missed the opportunity of learning Kriya from
other sources in other places.

● Something different happened to a friend who met Sri Banamali Lahiri,

one of the master's great-grandsons, a man with a great academic
background and with a direct experience of Kriya. Various testimonies

73
described him as a saint that wore the suit of the humility.

My friend was not able to learn anything from him, returned rather to me
very confused. I tell only shortly such experience to show that when we are
very desirous to find techniques we are not able of to listen to a saint that
could see in us what doesn't go in the right direction and correct it. We
could receive therefore the greatest possible help.

I was taken aback when he told me that in Benares, and probably

throughout rest of India, Kriya Yoga was not practiced any longer. I kept
enough control not to interrupt or challenge him, but then by posing
apparently incidental questions, I tried to understand what had happened.
My friend had, as he usually did, began the discussion with trivialities like
asking some information on Indian habits and about an Ashram's address
where he planned to go. Then almost at the end of the interview – he must
have suddenly remembered he was in Lahiri Mahasaya's house – he asked
if any of the disciples of Lahiri were still practicing Kriya, and received a
sarcastically sour, negative response of, more or less, "Definitely not; it is
not practiced any longer. I dare say it is not practiced throughout the whole
Indian peninsula. Rather, you surely must be the only one still practicing
it!"

At the end of his narration, my friend was looking at me questioningly. I

am still not sure whether he was hoping to convince me or whether he was
just absorbed in bitter frustration. I did not pry. In my opinion, he did not
realize how foolish his discussion had been with that noble person. A
certain blow came for him one month later. He heard that a man from his
same town had recently been initiated into Kriya Yoga from the very
personage he had met in Benares! He was so irritated, he planned to go
back to India to raise a protest to that noble man. Unfortunately, he did not
have that chance – a serious disease killed him. In spite of our huge
character differences, I will always be grateful for all the things he shared
with me concerning the path of Yoga.

THE DECISION TO WRITE THE BOOK

It was winter. One day I went skiing in the nearby mountains with a couple
of friends. All went magnificently. During a break in the afternoon, I
managed to find time alone. I found myself looking at the mountains that
marked the boundaries of the distant horizon in all directions. In less than
half an hour the sun would paint them pink – with an intense hue on their
eastern side and tinged with blue on the western side. I imagined India to
be right behind them, the Himalayas being their continuation. My thought

74
went to all the Kriya enthusiasts who found, as I did, insurmountable
obstacles to the understanding of that beloved discipline. All those
obstacles seemed to me an absurdity that wore the clothes of a nightmare –
I felt an infinite rebellion.

I visualized a book on Kriya explaining every technique in great detail.

How often had I wondered what would have happened if Lahiri Mahasaya
or one of his disciples had written it! I didn't dare think that Lahiri
Mahasaya had made a mistake by not writing his techniques, yet I felt that
this decision had brought so much suffering and endless losses of time and
energies.

As for my dream of an ideal book about Kriya, my imagination led me to

fantasize about its cover, to skim its few pages – sober, yet rich in content.
If this book existed, we would have a reliable manual of Kriya that
restrained the many small or large variations made up by various teachers.
Perhaps some annotator would try to force its meaning into his own
theories. Nay, I was positive that some pseudo-guru would say that the
techniques described in it were for beginners only, while there were much
more complicated techniques that could only be passed on by an authorized
teacher to chosen disciples. Some would swallow the bait, contact the
author, and pay good money to be introduced to rubbish that he had
assembled either through fancy or borrowed from some esoteric book...
This happens; it’s part of our human nature. However, sincere researchers
would surely be able to recognize the strength and self-sufficient intrinsic
evidence of the original text. 13

It is a misfortune that no one had written that book! For the first time I
dared to let my thoughts stray toward what could happen if I wrote it. The
purpose of the book was to summarize the totality of my knowledge of
Kriya welding together techniques and theories through a clean, rational
vision. I would not describe the set of the modified Kriya techniques
received by my first Kriya school.

13
Such a book will be useful to review what was explained during Initiation. There is
in fact a frenzy that accompanies a traditional Kriya initiation where all the practical
instructions are transmitted hastily in one single lesson! This is what happens with
mass initiations. Within a few days, almost all details are forgotten and one goes
through a crisis. The teacher is no longer there and the other fellow kriyabans
dismiss their fraternal duties by stating they are not authorized to give counsels.

75
I had a model in my mind: T. Bernard's Hatha Yoga: The Report of a
Personal Experience 14 The intention was definitely not to lay the
foundations for yet another new school of Kriya. There would be no
rhetorical claims of legitimacy and riddle-like sentences to seduce the
reader and arouse curiosity in their mind! 15

Such a book as I imagined would not be a threat to any honest Kriya

Acharya's activity. Good teachers will always be needed in any field where
a skill is to be transmitted. But how could one highlight this to them,
without being at odds with the deeply-rooted conditioning of their
"cerebral chemistry"? Of course, some teachers of Kriya – those who live
from donations for rituals of initiation and who exert power over people
thanks to the pledge of secrecy – would consider my book a real threat.
Maybe what was virtually eternal for them (living like a lord, surrounded
by people who have to meet all their needs with the hope of getting the
crumbs of their "secrets") might change, and they would be fearful of that.

They would try to destroy its credibility by means of pitiless censorship. I

anticipated their scornful comments, uttered while skimming its pages, "It
contains only stories that have nothing to do with Babaji's and Lahiri
Mahasaya's teachings. It spreads a false teaching!" Other people might not
like the book, either because they are taken aback by the barrenness of
descriptions of techniques deprived of frills, which doesn't match their
expectations, or because they do not manage to get ''good vibrations'' from
it.

It was necessary to write in a way that readers could feel my story as their
own story, therefore I tried so many times to rethink my approach. I would
write for people like myself: disillusioned by organizations and traveling
Gurus. They would feel an enormous relief in finding that book in an
esoteric library. I was already sensing their happiness. Thanks to them, the
book would continue to circulate, and who knows how many times it
14
This extraordinary handbook, better than all the others, clarifies the teachings
contained in the three fundamental texts of Tantrism: Hatha Yoga Pradipika,
Gheranda Samhita and Shiva Samhita. Despite having been published many years
ago and several texts of Hatha Yoga appearing recently, that book is still one of the
best. Old, 'dusty' techniques once again became relevant, feasible, comprehensible in
front of the eyes of our intuition.
15
Some authors give only a hint to some procedures (either part of authentic Kriya or
often concocted through imagination) and let the reader unsatisfied, compelled to go
to the author in order to receive the secret let only glimpse.

76
would echo back to the teacher who had decreed its unforgivable flaws. He
would have to pretend not to notice that a student was browsing through its
pages during his seminars, thus missing a part of the conference…

By staring into the blue of the sky above the gilded mountain brims, I saw
that bizarre situation as poignantly real. Each part of my dream had
developed in the space of a few seconds, and invaded my consciousness as
a swollen torrent, as if every part of it had already been rehearsed and
cherished innumerable times.

A STRONG CONDITIONING HAD TO BE OVERCOME

The experience that I had in the following months, revealed a great
conditioning present in my subconscious and received from my first Kriya
school. Violating the dogma of the secretiveness was unthinkable. Perhaps
the reader cannot understand the reasons for my strong resistance: today
you can find online many sources where you can read various technical
Kriya details. At that time this did not exist and the secrecy was respected
rigorously.

It was evident that the organization's justifications for the request of

secrecy could not stand any rational analysis. They claimed that secrecy
helps "to maintain the purity of the teachings." Since they gave some
alterations in the practice of Kriya as originally taught by Lahiri Mahasaya,
it would be better to affirm, "to maintain the purity of the modifications.''

However, my heart was torn apart. How could I coarsely challenge the
sacredness of the Guru-disciple relationship as the only way to be
instructed in Kriya?

I tried to summon up my courage thinking that such dogma had some tracts
of cruelty. I recalled what happened when some friends of mine who didn't
understand English asked to receive initiation into the Higher Kriyas (such
instruction was given only in written form to those who had completed the
study of the complete set of lessons which existed only in English, German
and Spanish); the answer was always an inflexible NO. I had always
perceived this as a cruel form of discrimination.

I remembered some cases in which the rigid injunction had been broken by
common sense. People who were otherwise faithful to the organization
had, under exceptional conditions, broken that rule. For example, a
Catholic priest sincerely desired to learn Kriya but could not receive it
from the right channels because of an issue of conscience regarding the act

77
of signing the application form of the lessons; he found a kriyaban who
explained the technique to him and shared with him his lessons (an action
he was strictly forbidden to do). 16

My thoughts about secrecy arrived just to that point and there they stopped
– for months. It was very difficult to put all the crucial points into a logical
order. I tried to think sequentially but either mental and physical fatigue
was impairing my reasoning ability or conditioning carved into my brain
acted as an entity which had a life of its own. Each time I tried to organize
my vision into a well-integrated and coherent whole, for one reason or
another it appeared to me as a monstrosity.

I resumed the practice of the so called ''Incremental Routines.'' 17 I stopped

particularly on those techniques that deal with to loosen the knot of the
heart. Such knot is also called Vishnu Granthi. The Divinity Vishnu is the
Lord of the maintenance: the knot of the heart sustains the desire to put to
put our own trust in the traditions and in religious authorities, especially
when their teachings and dogmas are introduced in the suggestive frame of
a solemn ceremony. An incremental routine that strongly acts on the knot
of the heart makes you discover your internal dignity and nobody deceives
you any more. It acts as a gigantic injection of courage, it recovers you
from an evil that it stops us fragile human beings when we decide to risk us
in the paths of the Spirit. Your thinking process becomes compact, of a
solidity that the other people's suggestions were not capable to undermine
and to contaminate. It was the effect of these routines that helped me to put
more clarity in my thoughts.

One evening, after thinking it over about the Guru-disciple relationship, I

remembered the episode of Swami Vivekananda's "investiture" by his
Guru Ramakrishna. I read that one day toward the end of his life
Ramakrishna entered Samadhi while his disciple Vivekananda was near
him. Vivekananda started to feel a strong current before fainting. Having
returned to consciousness, his Guru cried and whispered: "O my Naren
(Vivekananda), everything I had I gave to you, today. I have become a poor
fakir, I do not have anything; with these powers you will do the world an
immense good." Later, Ramakrishna explained that the powers he passed
16
I am not advocating breaking a vow made to an organization that is sustained by the
proceeds of the sales of didactic material. To those persons who can become
students, let them pay the little money required and receive their set of lessons.
17
Incremental routine means to utilize one Kriya technique at a time, increasing
gradually the number of its repetitions up to reach a great amount of them – I will
clarify this concept in Chapter 8.

78
onto him could not be used for his own spiritual fulfillment – one had to
get to that by himself; on the contrary, they would help him in his mission
as a spiritual teacher.

With this image my subconscious mind revealed itself to admonish me not

to surrender to the temptation of throwing away something valid and
precious. The concept of Guru-disciple relationship was not to be
challenged.

I read again the memorable impressive discourse by Dostoevsky about the

role of elders in Russian monasteries in his The Brothers Karamazov:

What was such an elder? An elder was one who took your soul, your will,
into his soul and his will. When you choose an elder, you renounce your
own will and yield it to him in complete submission, complete self-
abnegation. This novitiate, this terrible school of abnegation, is
undertaken voluntarily, in the hope of self-conquest, of self-mastery, in
order, after a life of obedience, to attain perfect freedom, that is, from self;
to escape the lot of those who have lived their whole life without finding
their true selves in themselves." (Translated by Constance Garnett)

Great, very great! However this did not happen in my life. My first Kriya
organization had made me believe I had a Guru – whereas in fact, I was
light years away from having one. While the great examples of Guru-
disciple relationship were based on a real physical meeting between two
souls, my relationship was purely ideal. I was surrounded by persons who
said they humbly followed their Guru, yet they had never met him
physically. They imagined to have a Guru. To me they were as children of
kindergarten that loved to ideally believe in something comforting.

They were required to swear their everlasting devotion not only to this
person called Guru-preceptor but also to a chain of Masters, no one
directly accessible to them. They receive this affirmation: ''It is the Guru-
preceptor that introduces you to God. There is no other way to achieve
salvation.'' Once the students are initiated into Kriya by the Ministers or
the organization, the departed Guru becomes a real presence in their life.
They are taught that their Guru-preceptor is a special aid chosen by God
Himself even before they began to seek the spiritual path: he will somehow
burn a part of their Karma and protect them evermore. This was a
wonderful vision, obviously. But it was a fairly tale!

79
To many persons of my organization God and Guru are one and the same
reality. A representative of my organization instructed me: "Have you not
realized that Guruji is the Divine Mother Herself?" From the belief that
Guru and God are one and the same reality comes the idea that the
organization founded by the Guru be not just an institution devoted to
spreading his teachings but be the sole intermediary between God and
those who want to progress spiritually through Kriya Yoga. Since Kriya
learned outside the organization has no value, the dogma of secrecy ensues
obviously. The myth of secrecy allows the myth of the irreplaceable role of
the organization to be kept alive.

My organization was, really not formally, similar to a church. The teaching

of PY was religious par excellence. In any religion there is discretion not
secretiveness. The discretion comes spontaneous to the intelligent and
sensitive people. Secretiveness is irrational, unnatural, and therefore it asks
for a solemn vote. The threat of possible calamities that would happen to
whoever infringes the dogma of secrecy clashes with everything we read in
the biographies of the saints. If fits perfectly with the magic dimension of
certain esoteric confraternities – secrecy is indispensable to their existence.
The oath of secrecy has nothing to do with the spiritual dimension. I might
be wrong, but I feel that the unique benefit of secrecy to an individual is to
feel the pleasure of possessing something exclusive.

One evening, while I was practicing Kriya Pranayama, with the tongue in
Kechari Mudra, I had the inner vision of three beautiful mountains. The
central mountain, the highest, was black; its form reminded me of the point
of an arrow made of obsidian. My heart exulted, I was madly enamored of
that image; I found myself crying for joy. I remained as calm as possible
while I felt a particular pressure (like a grip of beatitude) that was
intensifying in the chest region. The image was strong, tremendously vivid
before me. There could be nothing more beautiful; it made me mad with
love. I had the impression of having cast a glance at the source from which
my current trend of life originated. It was as if an internal thread tied all of
my actions passed to that image receiving sense and meaning from it.

That mountain was to me the symbol of the universal spiritual path. It

talked to my intuition: ''A Teacher who gives initiation might be very
important to your spiritual development, but your personal effort when you
remain alone is far more important. In any Guru-disciple relationship there
comes a moment when you remain alone. You awaken to the realization
that your path is a solitary flight between you and your indwelling Self.

80
The Guru-disciple relationship is an illusion – useful and comfortable –
appearing real until you are overcome by what surpasses your mind.

I visualized a net: each individual was a junction from which a lot of

threads fanned out, like the network of our brain's neurons. When a soul
toils to go beyond the common way of living, the state of their
consciousness reverberates along the surrounding threads of the net. That
soul will be helped by others' positive response and, of course, will be
slowed down by others' indolence and apathy. In my opinion those who
follow the spiritual path carry other people's evolution ahead with them.
This net connecting every one of us is the Collective Unconscious. 18

For example, Beethoven's life and works gave a direction to my quest of a

meaning in life. Yes, I was alone, but not totally alone. What Beethoven
did, his life, his music, influenced my existence and dragged it ahead,
toward the endless one.

One evening after a long walk, subdued by a sudden tiredness I dragged

myself back home. Worn out by thoughts, the problem of the Guru-disciple
relationship emerged, obscurely, more as a wound than as a theory
unfolding its myths. In my room I set the record player on "repeat", playing
Beethoven's second movement of the Emperor Concerto... Did anyone,
after having haunted all the possible ceremonies of Initiation given by the
"legitimate" channels, and being stuffed with all the possible Guru's
blessings, ever practice Kriya with the same dignity and courage with
which Beethoven challenged his fate?

I turned down the lights and watched the sun set behind the trees on the top
of a hill. The shape of a cypress covered a part of that great, blood-red
circle. That was the eternal beauty! That was the model by which I would
be inspired. I closed my eyes to have a dispassionate, unemotional
assessment of the situation.

18
To Freud the Unconscious was similar to a depot full of old "removed" things that
we cannot recall to consciousness - refused by a nearly automatic act of the will.
Jung discovered a deeper level of it: the Collective Unconscious which links all
human beings by the deepest layers of their psyche. The Collective Unconscious is
"inherited with our cerebral structure" and consists of "the human systems of
reacting" to the most intense events that can happen in one's lifetime: the birth of a
child, marriage, death of a loved one, serious illness, family crisis, true love, natural
disasters, war...

81
THE FINAL PUSH TOWARDS WRITING A BOOK
Three facts gave me the final push
a) The arrogance of certain persons
b) Their mental cruelty
c) The practical impossibility of realizing certain requests

a) The arrogance of certain persons

Between-times I consulted a few Forums for devotees of Kriya Yoga. My
desire was to see if other kriyabans had similar problems. Many were
seeking information about Kechari Mudra and, more in general, about
unmodified Kriya. If I had had their email addresses, I would have
immediately sent them the instructions.

I was struck by the pedantic and conceited tone of some Forum users that
abused genuine and honest curiosity. With facetious tenderness betraying
their low form of concern, they labeled the seekers' desire to deepen their
Kriya practice as a "dangerous mania." They had the audacity to hush the
humble student by counseling him to stay with what they had and not to
seek more. They spoke in the same tone used by my old "Ministers".

Although I felt myself aeons distant from that world, objectively speaking
the period of my life when I would have never addressed to any other
person to ask a counsel, was not so far. Actually it was my yesterday's
world. I wondered how those Forum users dared to enter (uninvited) a
person's life and personal space, about whom they knew nothing, treating
them as incompetent and superficial beginners! Was it so difficult to simply
answer truthfully: "I don't have that information"?

b) Their mental cruelty

I stumbled upon an extremely unpleasant discussion (in the same Forum),
the thought of it turns my stomach. One personage claimed he had access
to the Original Kriya. He was very secretive and exclusive. He said there
were a number of true Kriya teachers around but was unwilling to share
any names or addresses. I found this stupid. I imagined that the petty idea
of possessing this secret knowledge and not conveying it to others was the
only thing keeping the pieces of his scattered childish mind together,
avoiding him the sadness of realizing the nothingness he was. Why should
the key of Original Kriya belong only to him?

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c) The practical impossibility of realizing certain requests
At last, an event that caused an uproar in my soul happened. I came to
know that there was the possibility of inviting a new Kriya teacher to
Europe. Since he was well qualified in his role, I was on the verge of
cooperating in this project and bearing part of its cost. A dear friend went
to India to meet him for a private interview. After about one month he
returned home and called me. Some hours later, we were sitting together.
He had had a private interview with him and had good news. I was all
ears. He was enthusiastic. They had talked about the deplorable situation of
the diffusion of Kriya in the West; the teacher was sorry for that and
manifested his willingness to help us. At the end of that meeting, my friend
had his Kriya Pranayama checked by that expert.

Much to my surprise this friend asked me to practice Kriya Pranayama in

front of him, and then remarked that there was a fault in my practice. I
asked him what it was and his reply literally froze me: he could not tell me,
since he had promised the teacher he would not reveal anything. 19 He
clarified that in relation to our group, he had indeed asked for his teacher's
permission to correct eventual mistakes in our practice but the answer had
been negative and the teacher swore him to secrecy. Was this teacher – who
had manifested the intention to help us – concerned that we would not find
any need to invite him to Europe, or visit him, after our mistake had been
corrected? Was he really so petty and unkind? I did not put pressure on my
friend to disclose other details about his talk with the teacher. I could not
and would not enter the privacy of his experience, but how could he just let
me and our group go on with an incorrect practice?

The shattering part was to see a friend with whom I had shared everything
along my spiritual path, accompanying me in my ventures with all my
previous teachers and suffering the same woes, satisfied only with having
noticed my mistake. It was as if this justified his trip to India, the cost, and
the time he spent on this venture. I didn't start quarreling, but I reacted very
badly. I got up and left, leaving the friend alone.

Some days later, contacted by the teacher's secretary, I was further

disgusted by how she handled the financial side of the tour. I declined the
offer. Actually I was not in the mood to undertake the enormous work of
19
Considering the episode later, I realized what this incorrect detail was: I had not
made an abdominal breath in a particularly visible way. I am sure of this fact because
it was the only thing my friend was able to see – we did not talk about inner details
of the practice.

83
organizing. As for the idea of visiting him, nothing could be farther from
my mind. I was certain that he would have required of me the customary
oath of secrecy. Once returned to my friends, what would I have had to tell
them? ''Dear friends, I can tell nothing, you too must go to India.'' We had
reached an absurd situation: if the friends in my group wanted one more
crumb of information regarding the Kriya practice, they would have to be
put on a plane and packed off to India. Otherwise, they would have to live
without this information.

If the events would take place in this way, each year an innumerable series
of charter flights would transport all those interested in Kriya – no matter if
old or ill – to a remote Indian village, like a pilgrimage to Lourdes or
Fatima! The farce was not even worthy of being considered. Here I sensed
the grip of desperation.

In the following days I cleaned up the compilation of my notes about

different Kriya techniques jotted down during different seminars, and
passed them on to friends who had already received initiation but not to all
levels of Kriya. I purchased a computer and, like a voluntary prisoner, I
reduced my social life to an absolute minimum in order to give my all to
writing the book. It was not easy to extract the essential core of Kriya
Yoga from the huge piles of notes collected during seminars with different
teachers. There was the feeling of working on a difficult puzzle, without a
preview of what was to be obtained in the end.

In the first part of the book I summarized the story of my spiritual search
while I devoted the second part to share what I knew about the theory and
practice of Kriya Yoga. The third part is devoted to consider a good plan of
teaching Kriya. The fourth part is devoted to consider how a kriyaban
should coordinate and harness their efforts in withstanding the corrosion of
time. We know that many kriyabans fail in keeping their enthusiasm alive
standing the test of time. My answer deals with the Devotional Prayer – or
Japa.

The time employed in this activity had been much longer than expected.
Friends said I would never finish it. I had not felt any urgency, I enjoyed
that quiet moment of my life, experiencing the calmness and contentedness
that comes to those who devote all their efforts to a single purpose. At long
last, the book was ready and was posted on the Web. After a couple of
months there was a reaction from my former third teacher. During a
seminar he explained my actions as those of one who wants to make a

84
business of Kriya. He defined me an "intellectual prostitute." My reaction
was strange: that night I could not sleep – I was intimately satisfied. Finally
there was a Kriya book readily accessible to everyone.

Was entstanden ist, das muß What was created, must perish!
vergehen! What perished, revive!
Was vergangen, auferstehen! Cease from trembling!
Hör auf zu beben! Prepare yourself to live!
Bereite dich zu leben!
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

A LAST NOTE

Some years after posting the book, I received from a reader a new
Kriya technique that, at first glance, seemed very powerful. He said
that it completed the Thokar techniques – Second and Third Kriya.

This technique had a name, ''Third Cobra breath'', that did not
revealed its Tibetan origin. The real name (I needed years to discover
this detail) was ''Tummo.'' Since its effects were fantastic I put this
technique together with two other techniques (the ''9 breaths''
technique plus the ''vase breathing technique'') as a firm point in my
daily routine. I discuss these three techniques in the last part of
Chapter 12.

Another important discovery came later. I contacted the Kriya teacher Sri
Rangin Mukherjee. [He is an active teacher now.] The Kriya Pranayama as
taught by him is very important from the didactic point of view. Sri
Mukherjee is a nice person, a very likeable and open-hearted yogi. He told
me a thing that nobody had ever told: ''I don't want to leave this body
allowing that this original Kriya dies with me.'' He really wants to do
something practical in this direction. I will describe his method in Chapter
12

85
PART II: METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES OF KRIYA YOGA

Disclaimer
The techniques described herein are exposed for study purposes only and should
serve as a comparison with the works of other researchers. The author hopes this
work will inspire intelligent feedback. Any remarks, criticism, corrections,
and/or additions are welcome. Before you begin posing all kinds of questions to
yourself, read through Part II and Part III of this book so you have a thorough
understanding of the matter. You'll find that as you go through it many questions
will be answered.
In my opinion, certain delicate techniques e.g. Maha Mudra, Kriya
Pranayama, Thokar, and Yoni Mudra require the help of an expert to check their
execution. Each person is different so it is not possible to predict what effects an
intensive practice might have on a particular individual.
The author disclaims any responsibility in case of negative results,
especially if the techniques are practiced without first having their execution
checked by an expert. Those who intend to carry on this practice should do so
with a due sense of sacredness and awareness of the wealth it can bring to their
life. Although you should have the right and the duty to control your own
destiny, securing expert counsel or guidance is indispensable.

When you go to an expert, please advise them of physical problems, such as high
blood pressure, lung problems, or signs of hyperventilation …. If you have a
particular physical problem or handicap, an expert can lead you through a very
mild form of Kriya Pranayama and the corresponding Mudras – and if necessary,
may recommend that you practice them only mentally. 1

1
To check if refinements have been added to the description of the techniques, visit
www.kriyayogainfo.net at least once a year.

86
 CHAPTER 6
LAHIRI MAHASAYA'S KRIYA YOGA – FIRST PART

INTRODUCTION
The techniques of Kriya Yoga are explained in the second and in the third
part of this book. Other interesting subjects like the value of the Devotional
Prayer or the Kriya of the cells are dealt with in the fourth part of the book.

The second part of the book is addressed to the persons who are curious
about the details of the original Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya and about that
form of Kriya taught by Swami Hariharananda.

First we discuss Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya. It's a Kriya that in my opinion

originates from Tantric Hatha Yoga and from particular discoveries made
by Lahiri Mahasaya himself. Sufi mystics with their Dhikr give a huge
contribution. This Kriya is a set of very effective methods. If you want a
practical guide to metabolize them, utilize chapter 12.

In chapter 6 the basic technique of Kriya Pranayama is introduced. In

chapter 7 you find the description of all the techniques which are
traditionally part of First Kriya. In chapter 8 we introduce the Second,
Third and Fourth Kriyas. This is altogether the art of Thokar. In chapter 9
we introduce the Fifth and the Sixth Kriyas. This is the art of
Tribhangamurari movement.

In chapter 10 we discuss Swami Hariharananda's Kriya. This Kriya is

influenced by the Radhasoami movement. Entering the Omkar dimension
plays a predominant role.

The persons already initiated into the Kriya taught by the organizations
inspired by PY's teachings will find food for thought in chapter 11 –
chapter 11 completes the second part. They can try to understand the reason
why PY decided to make some modifications in the Kriya techniques. PY's
Kriya path has an unprecedented simplifying power. If the mind of the
reader is open, a very important understanding will happen.

Chapter 12
This is the third part of the book. It contains what I judge essential. In my
opinion, a novice self-taught man may start his Kriya practice from here.
This part envisages 8 essential routines to be mastered in a pair of years.
Such a beginner will first face the technique of Kriya Pranayama as it was

87
taught by Sri's Mukherjee. This technique is not difficult to learn. Coupled
with 4 techniques that do not belong to classic Kriya Yoga and that are
taught in chapter 12, guarantees a fantastic result. In writing this chapter I
utilized my personal experience to envisage a good plan of practice.

Note about the different levels of Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya

First Level
The first level of this Kriya is grounded on the technique of Kriya
Pranayama. Normally each session opens with a short preparation and
ends with a phase that many call ''Meditation'' but it would be more correct
to call ''Pratyahara'' that means ''withdrawal of the senses.'' After this
transition phase, a kriyaban is open to a dimension that is beyond the mind.

In the first level we achieve the melting together of the energies Prana and
Apana. A particular state happens in our consciousness. Lahiri Mahasaya
calls it Equilibrium; it is situated half road between the awareness of the
external reality and the awareness of the internal state of peace.

Before starting the practice of Kriya Pranayama, the Nadis Ida and
Pingala are partially blocked and the Prana has difficulty to flow.
Through this condition of Equilibrium the state of Prana in the body
changes. It becomes possible guiding our Prana in the subtle channel of
Sushumna.

A good signal that the breath has become "subtle" is given by a particular
realization: during the exhalation we feel that our breath doesn't go out of
the body through the nostrils but travels within, filling with fresh energy
the cells of the body.

In the first level, the obtainment of Kechari Mudra is undoubtedly of great

value since it creates perfection in Kriya Pranayama and calms
enormously the functions of the mind. Other events can happen during the
months or the years when you one is busy with the first level. Other
procedures come in handy, even if they are not, because of inexperience,
used in every aspect of their power.

Second Level
In this level we consider a very subtle work upon the Chakras and a strong
work upon the heart Chakra. The Chakras are not an obstacle, we do not
want to entertain here any negative concept of them. But we know that our

88
duty is not only to awake them but go beyond them. This is the real
meaning of the Second Level. We shall utilize the power of Thokar which
is directed toward the heart Chakra – this will happen also in the Third
level of Kriya, in greater dimensions.
In the Second Level, the mental pressure of Prana upon each Chakra
becomes stronger. A positive transformation is noticed in the practice of
Kriya Pranayama which becomes more solid.

Third Level
The Third level of Kriya is devoted to the practice of Thokar using a long
Kumbhaka (holding of the breath.) Here a kriyaban exerts a very great
action on the Chakra of the heart. Knowing that the heart is the place in the
body where the traditions says that the immortal Self resides, some schools
of Kriya consider this as the last level of Kriya. They don't know other
levels of Kriya.
There is no doubt that through a great, long, work with this Third
Level of Kriya no other technique is necessary. There is a strong
connection between the heart Chakra and Kutastha. The bright point
(Bindu) that appears in the heart Chakra during the practice of the Third
level of the Kriya is the same reality that appears as a white star in the
center of Kutastha. Entering the star of Kutastha crossing the so-called
''tunnel of eternity '' or entering a deep state of ecstasy that is expressed as
the ''contemplation of the uncreated light in the heart'' (typical expressions
of the Hesychasts) embody the same event.

Fourth Level
Do you want to improve at the maximum the practice of the Kriya
Pranayama, while the attainments regarding the Chakra of the heart
remain unaltered? Then you must practice the Fourth Level of Kriya where
Thokar is applied on all the Chakras.
It has been said that if you create a great impact on the Muladhara
Chakra, Kundalini comes up and crosses the center of the heart bringing its
potentialities to the maximum expansion. In that state our breath is totally
internalized, therefore Kriya Pranayama is practiced in a state very similar
to the breathless state. This must be kept present when we face the
mysterious reality of the Macro movement Tribhangamurari

Another way of living the Fourth level

Part I: Macro Tribhangamurari
At this level, those who accept the teaching of Satya Charan Lahiri (one of
the grandsons of Lahiri Mahasaya) focus their attention on a descending
energetic flow moving towards Muladhara, but remaining outside the
spine. What happens by perceiving such current is difficult to express

89
because we have no words to describe a reality which is beyond mind. This
level is a prosecution of the previous level but seems to belong to another
word.

Part II: Micro Tribhangamurari

The door of the spine is opened. Now we can meet the subtle transcendent
Omkar reality in the aspect of micro movement sensation. I do not venture
to indulge in rhetoric quotations of ancient holy writings. I can only say
that through this procedure we become able to leave the dimension of time
and space and reach the highest Asamprajnata Samadhi which leads to
Kaivalya state.

Note about Swami Hariharananda's Kriya vision

First Level
Practically speaking, this is the stage in which, mainly through simple
procedures (among which a great place is given to Forward Bendings and
Maha Mudra), a kriyaban succeeds in perceiving the astral sounds, light
and a moving sensation inside each Chakra, while the perceptions of the
external world diminish in power. Through the daily repetition of this form
of meditation, kriyabans enters the channel of Sushumna deepening their
contact with the Omkar reality.

Second Level
This level is more mysterious, because in it we dissolve the obstacles
represented by the Tattwas (five elements.) By referring to the well known
theory of the five elements, we understand that our duty is to dissolve the
deceptive reality that is at their basis. We must reach the realization that
every aspect of the physical reality is made of one only substance: the
Spiritual Light. The five Tattwas (earth, water, fire, air, ether) are an
illusion.
Working with this ideal in mind, a kriyaban drives the Prana from
the body toward the spine and inside the spine. Through the help of
concentration, utilizing also a particular tool like the repetition of the
letters of the Sanskrit alphabet on the ''petals'' of the Chakras and on
different parts of the body, the Prana gets sucked in the upper part of the
head. A kriyaban enjoys an ecstatic state and is ready for the last work that
happens in a new dimension having its seat in the upper part of the brain
and over it.

Third Level
In this level a work is started to pacify the Prana in the crown of the head.
Some movement of the head are still necessary.

90
Fourth Level
In this level, immobility in the whole body, head included, is established. A
deep concentration, that gradually becomes effortless, happens in the five
parts of our head: frontal, left, back, right and under Fontanelle. 2 Then the
mind is lost and the estatic state ensues.

Fifth Level
A simple instruction is given to reach the perfect breathless state. The
awareness of a kriyaban is not only on the calm Prana in the body but also
over the body. A new center over Sahasrara is revealed. The mind is lost
in the divine Light, over Sahasrara and gradually comes down in
Cerebellum.

Sixth Level
There are two ways of describing this level. One is to say that we reach the
Brahma Randra which is the subtlest aspect of Bindu – a place beyond
time and space. Another way is to say that we reach the abode of the
spiritual Light of God which is in the pineal gland.

Conclusion

In Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya we work to bring the Light of the Spirit in all
the parts of our being. Each Chakra is awakened, each Chakra is
considered spiritual.

In Swami Hariharananda's Kriya we find a tendency to escape from what

in Lahiri's Kriya is considered a duty: to face our human nature and live
more in the heart and less in the brain. In Swami Hariharananda's Kriya
we don't find that huge work upon the region of the heart. There is the
tendency to move the center of our awareness in the higher regions of the
astral dimension.

In both paths we have wonderful procedures to reach the region situated in

the highest part of the brain where we can experience the dimension of
great, deep peace. Our heart is full of inexpressible joy. But this joy
becomes alienation if is not supported by a work upon the heart and,
finally, upon the basic Chakra Muladhara.

It is inspiring to read the words that Lahiri Mahasaya has left in his diaries.
2
To locate such point, raise the chin, focus your attention where the divine Light
seems to originate.

91
''The breath is normally externally oriented. If, through the practice of
Pranayama it is made internally oriented, then it is possible, through the
technique of Thokar, to open the door of the internal temple. With a
forceful impact upon the Anahata Chakra the door opens. A deep
engrossment occurs and this state becomes stable for a prolonged period.
By achieving this state the mind becomes saddened by seeing the suffering
in others.'' (Lahiri Mahasaya)

This sentence is the summary of Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya with its different
phases. After obtaining the perfection in Pranayama it is possible to obtain
the fruit of Thokar. The door finally opens and... ''the mind becomes
saddened by seeing the suffering in others.'' The promise of Lahiri
Mahasaya is to become one with humanity [you cannot become one if you
do not feel the suffering in other human beings.]

Identifying the Sahasrara Chakra with our supreme goal means to follow a
refined illusion. Reaching the Brahma Randra, o the pineal gland... does
not mean having achieved our final goal but only an intermediary phase.
The true destination is the "Uncreated Light" (so said the Hesychasts) in
the region of the heart. The obsession about always holding the mind in the
Sahasrara region has produced people full of Ego that have lost contact
with the reality of the life and have become fix in behaviors and theories
that are the caricature of the spiritual path.

In my life I made the choice of refusing living in Sahasrara. I said a total

yes to Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya.

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SPIRITUAL ANATOMY

● Location of the Chakras

The Chakras are subtle astral (ethereal) organs inside the spinal cord; ideal
steps on a mystic ladder guiding one safely to the deepest ecstatic
experience. In Kriya Yoga it is not as much important to visualize a Chakra
with petals, with a Bija Mantra in its center, with a Yantra... and with all
you can find in New Age books, as to perceive approximately its location.
The practice of Kriya Yoga refines this perception.

When certain particular conditions are established – mental silence,

relaxation, an intense aspiration of the soul – the practice of Kriya
Pranayama takes, so to say, the "inward route" and the Spiritual Reality
manifests. You will then perceive, in the astral dimension, the reality of the
Chakras. You will be able to listen to their astral vibration as well as hues
of light pouring forth from their locations. The practice of Kechari Mudra
(explained in chapter 7) fosters this experience, especially when the "wind"
of the breath subsides.

The nature of each Chakra reveals two aspects, one internal and one
external. The internal aspect of a Chakra, its essence, is a vibration of
"light" attracting your awareness upward, toward the Spirit. The external
aspect of a Chakra, its physical side, is a diffuse "light" enlivening and
sustaining the life of the physical body.

Now, while climbing the ladder of the spine during Kriya Pranayama, you
can conceive the Chakras as tiny "twinkling lights" illuminating a hollow
tube which is the spinal cord. Then, when the awareness is brought down,
the Chakras are internally perceived as organs distributing energy (coming
from the Infinity above) into the body, enlivening the part of the body
which is in front of them.

The first Chakra, Muladhara, is at the base of the spinal column just above
the coccyx (tailbone) region. The second Chakra, Swadhisthana, is in the
sacral region, halfway between Muladhara and Manipura. The third
Chakra, Manipura, is in the lumbar region, at the same level as the navel.

The fourth Chakra, Anahata, (more simply called heart Chakra) is in the
dorsal region; its location can be felt by bringing the shoulder blades closer
and concentrating on the tense muscles in the area between them or just
below them. The fifth Chakra, Vishuddha, is located where the neck joins

93
the shoulders. Its location can be detected by swaying the head from side to
side, keeping the upper chest immobile, and concentrating on the point
where you perceive a "cracking" sound.

The sixth Chakra is called Ajna. Medulla oblongata and Bhrumadhya (the
point between the eyebrows) are strictly related to Ajna and can not be
considered as separated entities. Medulla is considered the physical
counter part of Ajna Chakra. What matters is that by finding stability of
concentration in any of the three points, the spiritual eye (Kutastha), a
luminous point in the middle of an infinite spherical radiance, appears at
the interior vision. This experience is the royal entrance to the spiritual
dimension. Sometimes the term Kutastha is utilized at the place of
Bhrumadhya.
In order to locate Medulla, at the top of the spine, raise your chin
and tense the muscles of the neck at the base of the occipital bone; then
concentrate on the small hollow under that bone. Medulla is just anterior to
that hollow.
Moving from the seat of Medulla toward the point between the
eyebrows, it is not difficult to locate the seat of Ajna: swing slowly your
head sideways (a few centimeters left and right) having the sensation of
something connecting the two temples. The seat of Ajna Chakra is the
intersecting point of two lines: the line connecting the seat of Medulla
with the point between the eyebrows and the line connecting the two
temples.

The energy flowing through the tip of the tongue during Kechari Mudra
stimulates the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an
endocrine gland about the size of a pea. It forms a protrusion at the bottom
of the brain hypothalamus. It is worthwhile clarifying this because a
famous Kriya school counsels to focus on this gland in order to obtain the
experience of the spiritual eye.

The same school emphasizes the role of the pineal gland. This is another
small endocrine gland in the brain. It is shaped like a tiny pine cone
(symbolically, many spiritual organizations, have used the pine cone as an
icon). It is located behind the pituitary gland, at the back of the third
ventricle of the brain. Having full experience of the white spiritual Light
after long concentration upon the pineal gland it is considered the last
action that you do to perfect you meditation before being lost in Samadhi.

94
 Fig.1 Location of the Chakras

In the commentary on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Pranabananda Giri

there is a hint to two further spiritual centers in the brain: Roudri and
Bama. Roudri is located on the left side of the brain above the left ear,
while Bama is located on the right side of the brain above the right ear. We
shall have the opportunity to utilize them during the practice of those
Higher Kriyas that happen in the upper part of the brain.

Bindu is located in the occipital region and is not considered a Chakra in

itself. However it is a very important spiritual center because it works as a
door leading the awareness to Sahasrara – the seventh Chakra located at
the top of the head. Bindu is located where the hairline twists in a kind of
vortex (This is the Sikha point where the Hindus leave a lock of hair after
having shaved their head.)

In order to become aware of Sahasrara some schools counsel to focus on

Fontanelle [the anterior fontanelle more properly called ''Bregma''.]

The eighth Chakra is the highest center we are going to consider. It is

located at about 30 centimeters above Fontanelle.

95
● Position for Meditation
One should sit facing east. According to Patanjali, the yogi's posture
(Asana) must be steady and pleasant.

Half-lotus: Most kriyabans are relaxed in this sitting position, which has
been used since time immemorial for meditation, because it’s comfortable
and easily managed. The key is to maintain an erect spine by sitting on the
edge of a thick cushion so the buttocks are slightly raised. Sit cross-legged
with the knees resting on the floor. Bring the left foot toward the body so
its sole is resting against the inside of the right thigh. Draw the heel of the
left foot in toward the groin as much as possible. The right leg is bent at the
knee and the right foot is comfortably placed over the left thigh or calf or
both. Let the right knee drop as far as possible toward the floor. The
shoulders are in a natural position. The head, neck, chest, and spine are in a
straight line as if they were linked. When the legs get tired, reverse them to
prolong the position. The best hand position is with fingers interlocked as
in the well-known photo of Lahiri Mahasaya. This balances the energy
from the right hand to the left and vice versa. The hand position for
meditation and for Pranayama is the same because you move from
Pranayama to meditation without interruption. Usually you don't even
realize it. For certain health or physical conditions, it may be beneficial to
practice the half lotus on an armless chair provided it is large enough. In
this way, one leg at a time can be lowered and the knee joint relaxed!

Siddhasana: (Perfect Pose) is of medium difficulty. The sole of the left

foot is placed against the right thigh while the heel presses on the
perineum. The right heel is against the pubic bone. This leg position
combined with Kechari Mudra closes the pranic circuit and makes Kriya
Pranayama easy and beneficial. It is said the position helps one to become
aware of the movement of Prana.

Padmasana: (lotus position) a difficult, uncomfortable position; the right

foot is placed on the left thigh and the left foot on the right thigh with the
soles of the feet turned up. It is explained that when this Asana is combined
with Kechari and Shambhavi Mudra, it results in an energetic condition
that produces the experience of the internal light coming from each
Chakra. It helps keep the body from bending or falling over as it tends to
do when deep Pratyahara is practiced. Padmasana is uncomfortable for a
beginner because the knees and the ankles become extremely painful. I
would not advise anyone to perform this difficult posture; some yogis have
had to have knee cartilage removed after years of forcing themselves into
the Padmasana.

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KRIYA PRANAYAMA

[I] Deep breathing with throat sound

Start the practice of Kriya Pranayama. Assume your favorite meditation
position. Sit facing East. From now onwards you can utilize the trick
described previously sitting on the edge of a thick cushion so the buttocks
are slightly raised. The chin is little down, near the chest (your neck
muscles maintain an even slight tension.) Your fingers are interlocked like
in the well-known photo of Lahiri Mahasaya. Mouth and eyes are closed.
Feel that the center of your awareness is located at Medulla while the inner
gaze converge effortlessly on Kutastha.

Inhale deeply through the nose producing an unvoiced sound in the throat
(like in Ujjayi Pranayama). 3 To make certain the sound is correct,
concentrate only on increasing the friction of the air flowing through your
throat. A muffled sound will originate. Increase its frequency. If the
surroundings are perfectly still, a person could hear it within a 4-5 meter
radius – by no means outside it.

Kriya Pranayama is to be practiced with a deep abdominal breathing. This

means that, during inhalation the upper part of the thorax remains almost
immobile while the abdomen expands. Shoulders are not raised. During
exhalation, the abdomen comes inside. Count the number of breaths
utilizing a Mala [rosary beads]or the fingers. To start, you will practice 24
breaths. In time you will increase by 12.

[II] Mentally chant Om in each Chakra. Enjoy the breathing process.

During inhalation, Om is mentally chanted (or, more simply, "mentally
placed") in each one of the six Chakras from Muladhara to Medulla.
During exhalation, Om is mentally chanted in the Medulla and in all the
other Chakras coming down to Muladhara.

Don't lose the focus of your inner gaze on Kutastha. It is clear that going
up and down the spine producing the throat sound and at the same time
placing Om in each Chakra is difficult. However, Lahiri Mahasaya wrote
3
The sound of inhalation is similar to the amplified background noise of a
loudspeaker – a quiet schhhh… /ʃ/. There is only a slight hiss during exhalation. The
perfection of the sound will be reached through Kechari Mudra proper. The sound of
inhalation will be very subtle, while the exhaling sound will be flute-like: Sheee
Sheee [ʃiː].

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that going ahead without chanting Om in each Chakra, your Kriya
becomes "tamasic" [of negative nature] and many kinds of useless thoughts
arise. Therefore try to calm yourself and get this result.

Have a deep breath, then another: don't worry about the length of
inhalation and of exhalation. (After some breaths you discover that your
breath lengthens naturally.) Enjoy the beautiful feeling of fresh air that
seems to come up through the spine and pierce each Chakra, enjoy the
warm exhaled air permeating each zone of the body from top to bottom.
You actually perceive this. This is not a figment of your imagination!
Merge your awareness with the beauty of this deep breathing. 4

A short pause between inhalation and exhalation and between exhalation

and inhalation comes naturally. The pause do no last more than 2-3
seconds. Each pause is a moment of comfortable peace.

[III] Perceive the energy moving through the spine

After some days or weeks of regular practice, during inhalation, you will
perceive a cold current coming up through the spine – or simply a diffused
fresh sensation. During exhalation you will perceive a lukewarm sensation
in the spine. Exhalation could be longer than inhalation. During the last
part of the exhalation, there is a clear perception of the navel moving in
toward the spine. By refining this experience – being more aware of the
navel moving inward and of the action of the diaphragm muscles – you
will feel an ecstatic sensation.

[IV] Listening to the sound like a ''flute'' of the breath

Make the sound of the breath subtler and subtler. The exhalation arising in
the nasal pharynx has a fine sound like a faint whistle. Symbolically
speaking they say it is the "flute of Krishna". Lahiri Mahasaya described it
"similar to blowing air through a keyhole". He explained that this sound
has the power to cut out any external distracting factor including thoughts,
Therefore he says it is: "a razor which cuts off everything related to the
mind".

In order to have an idea of it, take a whistle, blow, diminish, diminish ….

until it is barely audible. Consider an empty perfume sample, without cap.
Close one nostril. Put the opening of the sample under the open nostril and
have a long but subtle exhalation. Move up and down the sample
4
Reference literature says that perfect Kriya Pranayama is 80 breaths per hour –
about 45 seconds per breath. A beginner is far away from reaching such rhythm. For
a beginner if each breath lasts 20 seconds, this means that the practice is very good.

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experiencing all the variations of the produced whistle sound. At a certain
point you will obtain a fantastic whistle and say: ''This is it''

This sound is produced in the upper part of the nasal pharynx. If you feel it
you have only one duty more, letting that this sound absorbs your mind
completely.

[V] When you cross the number of 48 repetitions of Kriya Pranayama,

move the focus of your awareness from Kutastha to Fontanelle

If you decide to face this situation, you can, from now onwards, after about
4x12 repetitions of Kriya Pranayama, move the center of your awareness
into the upper part of your head. Kriya Pranayama is to be practiced by
adopting a specific Mudra which is an evolution of the classical
Shambhavi Mudra. Let us learn it.

Shambhavi Mudra is the act of concentrating on the space between the

eyebrows, bringing the two eyebrows toward the center with a slight
wrinkling of the forehead. Now, there is a higher form of Shambhavi that
requires closed or half-closed eyelids. (Lahiri Mahasaya in his well-known
portrait is showing this Mudra.) The eyes look upward as much as possible
as if looking at the ceiling but without any head movement. The light
tension perceived in the muscles of the eyeballs gradually disappears and
the position can be maintained rather easily. A bystander would observe the
sclera (white of the eye) under the iris because very often the inferior
eyelids relax. Through this Mudra, all one's Prana collects at the top of the
head.

The practice seems to have a life of its own. You will eventually have the
impression of crossing a mental state, which is like falling asleep, then
suddenly returning to full awareness and realizing you are basking in a
spiritual light. It's like a plane emerging from clouds into a clear
transparent sky.

Remark
This practice is a real jewel, it embodies the quintessence of Beauty. Time
goes by without much notice and what could seem to be an exhausting task
turns out to be as easy as a moment of rest. However we must remember
that to practice of Kriya Pranayama with a strong concentration on the
upper part of your head is not appropriate for a beginning or medium level
students. Developing a strong magnet in Sahasrara is the most powerful
way of stimulating the Kundalini awakening. This implies acting on our

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Subconscious Mind bringing to the sphere of consciousness some contents
that we are not able to assimilate. The person who experience this,
especially if she/he is far from emotional maturity, might experience an
entire range of negative moods.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Are various descriptions of the central technique of Kriya Pranayama

really different one from another?

Is there one description which can be called the original one, while others
are unappropriated modifications?

Is it correct to say that the technique of Kriya Pranayama explained in

chapters 6 and 7 is the one taught by Lahiri Mahasaya and therefore the
only correct one?

The truth is that even the version you are going to study in chapters 6 and 7
(so close to Lahiri Mahasaya's words) is still only a PREPARATION for
deep, deep Kriya Yoga.

In this book we are going to describe some procedures that will guide you
to reach an exalted way of practicing Kriya Pranayama. This Pranayama
happens with an almost non-existent breath and is in itself an ecstatic
experience, beyond the concept of practice, procedure, method. Some call
this the ''Kriya state '' and this name is very appropriate.

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 CHAPTER 7
LAHIRI MAHASAYA'S KRIYA YOGA – SECOND PART
(Completion of the explanation of First Kriya routine)

The practice described in the preceding chapter is unique, you won't find
another similar with regard to beauty and sweetness. Now, to add
something (Maha Mudra, Navi Kriya and Yoni Mudra) has in itself a slight
probability to damage this idyll. You know, traditional teaching of the First
Kriya includes these three practices. Usually Maha Mudra and Navi Kriya
are a good preparation to the practice of Kriya Pranayama and Yoni Mudra
is practiced at the end of your routine. Other arrangements are not only
possible [everything is possible: life is yours] but are rational, logic and
surely useful.

Not only that, you can decide to practice other techniques – for example
the traditional Pranayamas like Nadi Sodhana Pranayama, Kapalabhati,
Bhastrika.... and you can tell me that they are fare more useful than what is
given by the tradition of Kriya Yoga.

There are many things to consider when experimenting. In chapter 12 we

shall discuss this theme. Now let us learn these three pillars of Kriya Yoga
initiation.

MAHA MUDRA
Use a carpet placed on the pavement to practice the following procedure.

Fig.2 Maha Mudra

Bend the left leg under the body so the left heel is as near as possible to the
perineum; the right leg is fully extended in front. Inhale deeply, feel the
energy coming up in the head. Hold the breath, stretch forward (in a
relaxed way) so that you can grasp the toes of your right foot with both
hands and gently pull them backwards. In this outstretched position, the
chin is pressed naturally against the chest. Continue holding the breath and

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mentally chant Om in the region between the eyebrows 6-12 times.

You can contract the anal and the abdominal muscles and draw the
abdominal muscles in slightly so the navel moves inward toward the
lumbar center. While holding the breath, return to the starting position and
with a long exhalation, visualize sending the warm energy down to the
base of the spinal column.

Repeat the procedure with the leg positions reversed and finally repeat the
procedure with both legs outstretched. This is one Maha Mudra; it requires
about 60-80 seconds. Maha Mudra is to be practiced three times.

Note 1
This Mudra must be comfortable and it must not hurt! Initially, most
kriyabans will not be able to do the forward stretch without risking back or
knee injury. To avoid pain or injury, you can keep the outstretched leg bent
at the knee until the position feels comfortable!

Note 2
The most serious schools of Kriya recommend that for every 12 Kriya
Pranayama, one should perform one Maha Mudra – three remains the
minimum number. (To make it clear, those who practice 60 Kriya
Pranayamas should perform Maha Mudra five times, while those who
practice 12 or 24 Pranayamas should perform it three times.)
Unfortunately, having listened to different kriyabans, I dare say it would be
a miracle if kriyabans regularly practiced even the three required
repetitions. Others believe they are practicing Kriya correctly without ever
practicing one single Maha Mudra! There is no doubt that if you regularly
skip this technique and lead a sedentary life, the spinal column will lose its
elasticity. One's physical condition deteriorates over the years and it
becomes almost impossible to maintain the correct meditation position for
more than a few minutes – that is why Maha Mudra is so important for
kriyabans.

Effects
Maha Mudra incorporates all the three Bandhas. When applied
simultaneously with the body bent forward and without excessive
contraction, it helps one to be aware of both ends of Sushumna and
produces the feeling of an energetic current moving up the spine. In due
course, one will be able to perceive the whole Sushumna as a radiant
channel. There are reports of yogis having achieved fantastic experiences
using only this technique. According to their accounts, the perception of
Sushumna has increased tremendously. There are kriyabans who have set

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aside all the other Kriya techniques and practiced 144 Maha Mudra in two
sessions daily. They consider Maha Mudra the most useful among all
Kriya Yoga techniques.

Insignificant details
I have noticed that some schools insist on uninfluential details. For
example they insist that when you extend the right leg in front, you must
bend the left leg under the body so the left heel is as near as possible to the
perineum. Then the left heel exerts pressure on the perineum. This pressure
is of course a means of stimulating one's awareness of the Muladhara
Chakra in the coccyx region at the root of the spine. [Of course when you
extend the left leg, it is the right heel to create pressure.]

Another example is when some schools suggest drawing the knee (or both
knees, before the third movement) against the body so the thigh is as close
to the chest as possible during inhalation. They recommend that the
interlocked fingers are placed around the knee to exert pressure on it. The
say that this helps to keep the back straight and make the inner sound of the
Anahata Chakra audible.

Another detail is this. As we have seen, in the outstretched position, the big
toe is grasped with firmness. Some schools insist on this detail: the toenail
of the right (left) big toe is squeezed with the thumb of the right (left) hand;
the index and middle fingers are behind it. The left (right) hand cups the
sole of the foot. When the procedure is repeated with both legs
outstretched, both toes are grasped with the interlocked hands.

NAVI KRIYA ( three variations)

For a lot of people this technique is boring and they jump it. In effects it is
not strictly necessary. It will be when a particular teaching will be faced in
the so-called Higher Kriyas, precisely: the Advanced Form of Thokar. I
have found three variations of Navi Kriya and I deem it useful to introduce
them so that the reader has a possibility of choice.

Navi Kriya. First variation – the most common

Forget the breath, let it be natural.
Rest the chin on the throat cavity. Om is chanted 100 – aloud or mentally –
times in the navel region. The chin is then raised as much as possible and
Om is chanted approximately 25 times in the third Chakra Manipura. This
is one Navi Kriya. Practice four Navi Kriyas.

In this exercise, if you like, the hands can be involved. With the fingers

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interlocked, palms face downward, pads of both thumbs touching, the
thumbs lightly press the navel for each Om. When the chin is then raised
the hands are kept behind the back and joined by interlocking the fingers
with the palms facing upward. For every Om, the thumbs apply a light
pressure to the lumbar vertebrae. This technique is repeated four times.

Navi Kriya. Second variation – the most beautiful and useful

This variation envisages a remarkable work upon Dantian. The Dantian
can be visualized as a ball about one and one-half inches in diameter. Its
center is located about one and one-half inches below the belly button and
about two and one-half inches inside. Focusing the awareness inside the
Dantian is something fantastic. This variation of Navi Kriya rivets the
attention in a way that no other variation is able to produce. Its smooth
shifting of energy along the circumference of the head has an effect
without parallel.

How to practice.
Start with the chin down (Jalandhara Bandha.) Have a short but deep
inhalation; the chin comes up; you feel an elementary sensation of energy
that comes up.

Now you are ready to start a very long exhalation during which the energy
is felt descending from the frontal part of the brain, along a path outside the
body to the navel, reaching through it the Dantian region. During this long
exhalation, Om is chanted mentally, rapidly, 10-15 times, accompanying
the descent of energy throughout the path. The chin also comes down
accompanying the succession of these Oms.

After a short pause in the Dantian, a short but deep inhalation draws the
energy into the head again. Simultaneously the chin comes up.

Now we have another descent of the energy but through a different path.
The head bends but not in the front: it bends toward the left shoulder,
without turning the face. A long exhalation (with the same chanting of Om,
Om, Om…) accompanies the downward movement of energy which starts
from the brain's left side and moves along a path outside the body at its left
side (as if shoulder and arm would not exist). The energy comes down to
the waist, cross it and moves toward the Dantian.

After a short pause in the Dantian, a short but deep inhalation draws the
energy into the head again. Simultaneously the head moves back into its
normal position.

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Now the head bends backwards. A long exhalation (with the same chanting
of Om, Om, Om…) accompanies the downward movement of energy which
starts from the occipital region and moves (outside the body) down to the
waist where it bends, pierces the third Chakra Manipura and moves toward
the inside of the abdominal region (Dantian). After a short pause in the
Dantian, a short but deep inhalation draws the energy into the head again.
Simultaneously the head moves back into its normal position.

The procedure is repeated likewise on the right side.

Fig.3 The energy enters the Dantian along four directions

The last exhalation concludes a mini cycle of four exhalations

accompanied by four descents of energy towards the waist and, crossing it,
towards the region of the Dantian. This mini cycle is repeated 9 times. In
conclusion we have had 4x9 = 36 descents of energy. What we have
described lasts 8-10 minutes and is equivalent to 4 repetitions of the basic
form of Navi Kriya.

Navi Kriya. Third variation – nice

Visualize a tiny cord that comes out from the point between the eyebrows
bends slightly and goes down to the navel.

The procedure consists in mentally chanting the Om Mantra in alternation

between the point between the eyebrows and the navel. Precisely, when it

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comes natural to have an inhalation, inhale, visualize the movement of air
rising, through the visualized duct, from the navel to the point between the
eyebrows, pause an instant there just chant Om mentally. When it comes
natural to exhale, exhale, visualizing the movement of air going down into
the navel, pause and chant Om mentally in the navel. By repeating this, you
will markedly feel that your breath begins to subside and disappear.

Fig.4 Simple form of Navi Kriya

When Om is chanted about 100 times, bend your head backwards and
repeat a similar procedure by chanting Om in alternation between the
Bindu and the third Chakra. Visualize another cord that connects (outside
your body) the Bindu to the third Chakra. Let your breath – if there is still
a trace of breath – flow freely through that cord. When Om is chanted
about 25 times, resume the chin's normal position. This is one Navi Kriya.
The optimum is to have 4 cycles of Navi Kriya.

YONI MUDRA
After a deep Kriya inhalation, having drawn the energy up to the central
part of the head, close the ears with the thumbs, the eyelids with the index
fingers, the nostrils with the middle fingers, the lips with the ring and the
little fingers. Hold your breath while mentally repeating Om several times
and observe any light in the point between the eyebrows. Hold the breath
as long as is comfortable. Both elbows are parallel to the floor and pointing
out to the side. Do not let them drop, prop them up somehow, if necessary.

During this special light-witnessing act, the index fingers must not put any
pressure on the eyes – this would be harmful and serve no purpose! You
can draw the eyelids down with the index fingers and apply pressure on the
upper cheekbones at the corners of the eyes. When you feel that you need

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to breathe, exhale and bring the awareness down along the spine. Yoni
Mudra is usually performed only once.

After Yoni Mudra, remain concentrated as long as possible at the point

between the eyebrows trying to perceive the light in Kutastha. Then open
your eyes and stare at what is before you but do not observe anything in
particular. Watch without watching. After a while you will become aware
of a subtle line of white Light, softened, as a fog, around all objects. The
Light will become progressively white and greater. Avoid thinking. Keep
the gaze fix. After 5 minutes close your eyes and rest for awhile before
standing.

Fig.5 Yoni Mudra

The fundamental instruction is to increase the number of repetitions of Om

repetitions (while holding the breath) by one per day up to a maximum of
200. It is recommended to avoid forcing. But how it is possible to achieve
these results without forcing? In my opinion this ability can be achieved
only in time, especially after a confrontation with the Thokar procedure.
For the present moment I share a simple remedy that can reduce the
discomfort of a long Kumbhaka.

At the end of a moderate inhalation (not a typical Kriya Pranayama one

but a shorter one), a kriyaban fully plugs all the head openings except the
nostrils, exhales a very small quantity of air, then immediately closes the
nostrils. The thoracic muscles are to be relaxed as if one intended to begin
a new inhalation: this will give the sensation that the breath has become
quiet in the area between the throat and the point between the eyebrows. In

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this situation, the repetition of Om several times while concentrating on the
point between the eyebrows can be enjoyed to its fullest.

Remark
You have read that this technique is to be practiced only at night, at the end
of your routine. You can actually practice it anytime! However the
technique is best done in the deep calmness of the night, when silence is all
around and one is totally and perfectly relaxed. Yoni Mudra generates such
a concentration of energy at the point between the eyebrows that the
quality of the ensuing sleep changes for the better. In other words, after
crossing the subconscious layers, your awareness may succeed in reaching
the so-called "super conscious" state.

MENTAL PRANAYAMA
This is the most pleasing part of the routine. Chakras are like knots that
can be untied if "touched" by one's concentration. One feels vast and free
as the sky and knows the formless joy. A Kriya routine that does not end
with the enjoyment of such sweetness is like an orchestra going on stage,
unpacking the instruments, tuning them and then leaving at once!

After three deep breaths, let your breath be natural and forget it. Move
your awareness up and down the spine pausing in each spinal center for
about 10-20 seconds. Start with the first, pause there, move to the second,
pause....and so on. After ascending to the Medulla, start the descent,
pausing in the fifth Chakra, fourth Chakra, and so on. One complete round
lasts about 2-4 minutes.

Try to catch the sweetness emanating from each Chakra. It does not suffice
to keep on exerting a mental and even physical pressure on each Chakra,
unable to relax. Do not complicate the teaching with various details
(which could be useful in other techniques but not in the present one –
contracting the muscles near each Chakra, utilize intense visualizations and
bija mantras.... You risk all the sweetness is dispelled. Even … mentally
chanted Om in each Chakra may be disturbing.

The secret lies in maintaining the awareness in each of them until a

sensation of sweetness is felt, as if the Chakra were "melting". It is
important you assume a passive attitude and patient as well, with total
reliance on what will be revealed by the practice itself.

So remember: mental Pranayama must be brought ahead with great

seriousness until a deep silence settles in the consciousness. While going
ahead with the Kriya path, you will discover that the mental Pranayama

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will turn first into the Second Kriya and finally will become the supreme
form of Kriya Pranayama, the one that Lahiri Mahasaya called Uttam
Pranayama (Excellent Pranayama.)

DIFFERENT WAYS TO PLAN YOU DAILY KRIYA ROUTINE

Now, having all these techniques, how can you conceive a good Kriya
routine? There are different possibilities. I bring here only three examples.

Example 1: Example 2: Example 3:

Maha Mudra Maha Mudra K. Pranayama (only 12)
K. Pranayama Yoni Mudra Maha Mudra
Navi Kriya Navi Kriya Navi Kriya
Yoni Mudra K. Pranayama Yoni Mudra
Mental Pranayama Mental Pranayama K. Pranayama again
Mental Pranayama

You will learn to utilize your meditation born intuition for effective
handling any issue that arises from life. Inside the perfect transparency of
an inner order, all problems are solved. I think that one is ''born'' to Kriya
(understand the greatness of what they are doing) while perceiving the
effects of such sweet practice: its beauty overflows our lives.

"... it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world.
Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart
fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax,
and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and
I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid
little life. (From the movie American Beauty; 1999) "

DIGRESSION ABOUT KECHARI MUDRA

Kechari Mudra means inserting the tongue in the hollow of the nasal
pharynx. Kriya Pranayama should be practiced with the tongue in that
position. I say ''should'' because very few people are able to practice in that
way. [In the next Chapter we shall introduce a method (Talabya Kriya) to
achieve Kechari Mudra.]

The ancient yogis discovered the importance of connecting the tip of our
tongue with the seat of the calm Prana in the brain. Usually our tongue is
normally unable to touch the uvula and, consequently, enter the nasal
pharynx. Because of this, we are limited in our connection with the great

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reservoir of energy existing in the Sahasrara region.

The practice of Kriya Pranayama with Kechari Mudra represents an

enchanting experience, one of the best moments in the life of a kriyaban.
However many must be contented by keeping their tongue in the ''baby
Kechari'' position. What does this mean? It means that with the tip of your
tongue you touch the upper palate at the point where the hard palate
becomes soft. This easy-to-achieve position of the tongue is enough to
make the mind very still.

● Talabya Kriya
Start with the tongue in a relaxed position with the tip lightly touching the
back of the upper teeth. Press the body of the tongue against the upper
palate to create a suction cup effect. DON'T TURN YOUR TONGUE
BACKWARDS!

When you have created the suction-cup effect, lower the bottom jaw until
you clearly feel the stretch in the lingual frenulum (the small fold of tissue
under the tongue that attaches it to the base of the mouth.) Release the
tongue with a clicking sound then stick it out of the mouth and point it
toward the chin. At the beginning, do not exceed 10 repetitions a day to
avoid straining the frenulum. Eventually, you will do 50 repetitions in
about 2 minutes (110-120 seconds.)

Fig.6 Key part of Talabya Kriya

Some do not understand immediately how to make their tongue adhere to

the upper palate before opening the mouth and stretching the frenulum.
Sometimes, even when they are shown in person, they are still not able to

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do it correctly. Many practice Talabya Kriya incorrectly by instinctively
turning their tongue backwards. The main mistake is concentrating too
much on where to place the tip of the tongue. The suction effect is obtained
with the whole body of the tongue: the tip of the tongue should be relaxed.

Note
The technique of the Talabya Kriya can be enriched by massaging both the
muscles of the tongue and the frenulum with one's own fingers. Lahiri
Mahasaya was absolutely against cutting the frenulum to obtain faster and
easier results. In Hatha Yoga books there are different suggestions for
lengthening the frenulum. One which is well known one is wrapping a
piece of cloth around the tongue and, with the help of the hands, gently
pulling (relaxing and repeating different times) the cloth both horizontally
and also up, toward the tip of the nose.

I hope that it is clear that Talabya Kriya and Kechari Mudra are completely
different! Open your mouth in front of a mirror during the first part of
Talabya Kriya to see the hollow parts on each side of the frenulum which
appear isolated from the body of the tongue; during Kechari Mudra, it is
the uvula that comes forward and only the root of the tongue is visible!

Talabya Kriya is a technique that besides its utility to achieve Kechari

Mudra, creates a perceivable relaxing effect on the thinking process.
Therefore Talabya Kriya should not be considered a simple lingual
frenulum stretching process. When the tongue sticks to the palate and the
mouth is opened, in that instant the energetic split between our body and
the reserve of static Prana located in the upper part of our head is
momentarily healed. This introduces you, in the best of the ways, into the
meditation state. Even after mastering Kechari Mudra, Talabya Kriya
should continue to be practiced because it creates a perceivable relaxing
effect on the thinking process. It is not known why stretching the frenulum
reduces thought production, however, anyone practicing the technique can
readily verify this.

Oddly enough, Talabya Kriya doesn't require concentrating on anything, it

is purely physical. Just as an attempt to justify this, we can say that merely
pressing the tongue against the upper palate and maintaining the suction
effect on the palate for 10-15 seconds, can, in and of itself, generate
sensitivity in the Medulla area in a very short time. The detail of extending
the tongue plays an important part too. When the tongue is fully extended,
it pulls on some cranial bones and leads to decompression of the whole
area.

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● Check if you are near to Kechari Mudra
After several months of regular practice of Talabya Kriya, it is counseled to
check how much you are near to Kechari Mudra. The test is whether the tip
of the tongue can touch the uvula, utilizing the fingers to push the base of
the tongue inward. If the tip of the tongue touches the uvula, then for some
minutes a day, try to push with more force the basis of the tongue inward
until the tip goes beyond the uvula and touches the pharynx behind it.

One day, the tip of the tongue will enter a centimeter or so into the nasal
pharynx but slip out when the fingers are removed. But, after some more
days, on removing the fingers, the tip of the tongue will remain "trapped"
in that position.

This is the turning point. The soft palate (the part from which the uvula
hangs) acts like an elastic band and creates a hook. This prevents the
tongue from slipping out. By striving each day to practice at least 6-12
Kriya Pranayama with the tongue in this position – despite some
discomfort such as an increase in salivation and occasional swallowing –
the practice of Kechari Mudra becomes easy and comfortable. After about
three weeks of practicing in this way, you should be able to reach the same
position without using the fingers. The tongue will be able to insert itself
into the nasal-pharynx cavity. There will still be enough space left in the
cavity to inhale and exhale through the nose.

Fig.7 Position of the tongue when you enter the nasal-pharynx

Kriya literature affirms that the tongue can be pushed even farther up. Any
good anatomy book will reveal that the tongue cannot extend any farther
when it fills up the nasal pharynx. That assertion should therefore be

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understood as a hint to what a normal person thinks is happening. Actually,
by extending the tongue to its limit, it is possible to experience a great
attraction toward the region between the eyebrows along with the sensation
of having reached, with the tip of the tongue, a higher position.

● First effects of Kechari Mudra

During the first three weeks of Kechari Mudra, you experience "dizziness"
and fogged up mental faculties. Be prepared for this eventuality and
consider abstaining from driving and any work involving a significant
proportion of risk during this time.

Kechari Mudra has a remarkable effect upon upon the state of our mind.
When you become stable in this Mudra, you will notice a quieting of all
useless, unwanted thoughts. The internal chatter ceases; silence and
transparency become the features of one’s consciousness. The mind works
in a more restrained way and enjoys an essential rest; each thought
becomes more concrete and precise.

After several months of tireless practice, your tongue will reach the
junction of the nasal passage inside the hole in the palate. The soft tissue
above the holes in the internal part of the nostrils is alluded to in Kriya
literature as the "uvula above the uvula". The tip of the tongue reaches this
small area and remains "stuck" there comfortably.

● About the necessity of Kechari Mudra to practice the higher Kriyas

Kriya literature affirms that Kechari Mudra is decisive to receive initiation
into the Higher Kriyas. There is nothing unusual that a Kriya teacher wants
the student's mouth opened in front of them and see the tongue disappear
into the nasal pharynx.

However great the effect of Kechari Mudra, I firmly believe it is important

but not indispensable. The affirmation that I have often heard – Until one is
established in Kechari Mudra, one cannot achieve the state of Eternal
Tranquility" – is FALSE!

We cannot conceive that the achievement of Kechari creates a sharp

division among people. Confined to a lower class are those poor little
fellows who will never get the Higher Kriyas just because they don't
succeed in realizing something physical that doesn't depend on their efforts
but on their constitution. They will never succeed in speeding up their
spiritual path like those kriyabans that nature has endowed with a longer
bridle or with a nasal pharynx more accessible to the tip of the tongue... the
whole idea is absurd.

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 P.Y.'s decision to allow initiation into the Higher Kriyas to those
unable to practice Kechari Mudra should have our full praise. Considering
Lahiri Mahasaya's attitude to partake of our imperfection and suffering, I
believe he too behave similarly.

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 CHAPTER 8
LAHIRI MAHASAYA'S KRIYA YOGA – THIRD PART
( Higher Kriyas (II, III, IV) – The art of Thokar)

Thokar is the art of forcing (pushing) energy from the body (precisely from
the head or lungs) somewhere in the spine to unlock a knot, an inner
obstacle.

Thokar in its variants represents the perfection of Kriya Pranayama.

The ancient texts of Hatha Yoga say that Pranayama without the three
Bandhas (Jalandhara, Mula and Uddiyana) is useless. They say also that
the Bandhas are useless without Maha Veda. Well, all the Bandhas are
contained in Thokar; Maha Veda is that form of Thokar that we call Fourth
Kriya.

The practice of Thokar is always preceded by the practice of Kriya

Pranayama and, if possible, by the practice of Navi Kriya.

Second Kriya You focus your concentration on the two upper parts of the
[Elementary form of lungs (first the right, then the left), guiding the energy from
Thokar] the left lung into the heart Chakra. This happens in a sharp
way. This way is called Thokar.
Third Kriya [Advanced You do the same action as in Second Kriya but you repeat it
form of Thokar] many, many times while holding your breath.
Fourth Kriya After hitting the heart Chakra, the energy does not stop there.
From the heart is guided to the Muladhara Chakra location.
There you apply the procedure of Maha Veda or Tadan.

SECOND KRIYA

(Inhalation)
Moderately contract the muscles at the base of the spine. Your chin is
lowered. Inhale and at the same time rise the awareness along the spinal
column. Interlaced hands are placed over the navel to create a mental
pressure over the first three Chakras. This pressure is perfected by adding
the practice of Uddiyana Bandha. During the inhalation, lift the chin
following the inner movement of the Prana; mentally chant Om in each
Chakra. Or you can mentally chant the syllables of the Vasudeva Mantra
(Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.) Om is chanted in the first Chakra, Na

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in the second, Mo in the third, Bha in the fourth, Ga in the fifth and Ba in
Bindu. Hold your breath.

(Holding the breath)

Move your head a few millimeters to the left, then return to the center with
your chin slightly up. Without stopping turn your face to the right. The chin
goes down a bit to get closer to the front of the right shoulder. There should
be no stress in this movement.

Fig.8 Second Kriya

The person is seen from behind

Mentally chant ''Teee'' at the top of the right lung. Then slowly move your
head to the symmetrical position by mentally placing ''Va'' at the top of the
left lung. The syllable Su is vibrated in the center of the heart Chakra.
The singing of the syllable ''Su'' involves a precise stimulus in the
heart Chakra; this is the simple Thokar that appears in the Second Kriya.
While you hit this Chakra, intensify the practice of the Mula Bandha.

(Exhalation)
While exhaling go ahead intensifying the energy of the heart. Repeat very
slowly De, Va, Ya in the heart Chakra. Repeat the procedure at least 12

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times. Close your practice with Mental Pranayama

THIRD KRIYA [ADVANCED FORM OF THOKAR]

Initial inhalation which is the same of the previous technique. After
inhalation hold your breath.

Move your head a few millimeters to the left, then return to the center with
your chin slightly up. Without stopping turn your face to the right. The chin
goes down a bit to get closer to the front of the right shoulder.
Mentally chant ''Teee'' at the top of the right lung. Then slowly move
your head to the symmetrical position by mentally placing ''Va'' at the top
of the left lung. The syllable Su is vibrated in the center of the heart
Chakra while directing the chin near the center of your chest with a rapid
movement. This produces a hit (Thokar) upon the heart Chakra.
Do not exhale, repeat the ''Te Va Su'' procedure. ''Repeat'' means:
raise your chin and focus for an instant your awareness to Bindu where you
vibrated the sixth syllable Ba, move your head a few millimeters to the left,
then return to the center with your chin slightly up. Without stopping turn
your face to the right... vibrate Teee at the top of the right lung. Then move
your head to the symmetrical position by mentally placing Va at the top of
the left lung, then practice again Thokar on the heart by vibrating Su in it.

...repeat and repeat... : ''Te Va Su'' ''Te Va Su'' ''Te Va Su''...

Feel the irradiation of Light increasing. Hold the breath until you feel that
it is correct toexhale.

To give an idea of the speed of the movements, the entire process from
inhalation to exhalation with 12 repetitions of the rotation of the head (each
rotation concluding with the movement of the chin toward the chest) lasts
around 80 seconds.

This technique is to be practiced once a day.

A first counsel to increase comfortably the number of rotations

Traditionally, one begins with 12 cycles of the head movements
unhurriedly during one single breath and increases by one every day up to
200 repetitions. This Kriya is considered mastered when one reaches 200

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rotations without interrupting the Kumbhaka state. It is imperative not to
feel uneasiness! ''Do not force'' is the pressing recommendation!

Now, how is it possible to achieve the goal of 200 rotations, without

interrupting the Kumbhaka state, comfortably? Satisfying this request
appears very difficult – almost impossible. Almost all kriyabans are
jammed after 30-40 repetitions, while gasping for breath.

Does the solution lie in going ahead rotating your head much more
quickly? No, this would be silly. Please consider what I am explaining
now.

When you feel you have neared your limit holding your breath, while
keeping the chest expanded and the abdominal muscles and diaphragm
contracted and immobile, let a minimal (almost imperceptible) sip of air go
out whenever the chin is lowered toward the chest and let an imperceptible
sip of air enter whenever the chin is brought up. Do not do any specific act
of inhaling or exhaling: relax and allow this phenomenon happen of its
own accord. The sensation will always be of not breathing at all.

In other words, if you want to go ahead comfortably with this practice, you
must give up the idea of keeping a perfect Kumbhaka while trying to reach
the 200 rotations goal.

The counsel to renounce a perfect Kumbhaka is strange, but if you go

ahead with this and repeat it a sufficient number of times (usually it's a
matter of a couple of months), one day you will make a beautiful
discovery: this strategy is no more necessary! Thanks to the effect of this
practice upon the ganglia exerting an influence on the central cardio
respiratory mechanisms, the practice happens in better and better
conditions, until one day you will be able to complete the 200 rotations
without breathing and without hurry. You will experience a state of
consciousness characterized by heightened feeling of freedom from
physical laws. It is a matter of inner realization – an instinct which is
discovered in time.

FOURTH KRIYA [COMPLETE FORM OF THOKAR]

Inhale as you have done for Second and Third Kriya. Hold your breath.

First part
Do the practice ''Te Va Su'' one time hitting the heart Chakra. Go ahead
holding your breath. Hit the third Chakra with the syllable De – the
movement of the head starts from the upper part of the left lung. In the

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same way hit the second Chakra with the syllable Va. In the same way hit
the first Chakra with the syllable Ya. Exhale. Repeat the procedure at least
12 times.

Fig.9 Fourth Kriya

Second part

Now intensify the practice of hitting the Muladhara Chakra producing a

particular effect in the spine.

When you come down with Thokar in Muladhara, lift your body with the
help of the hands (just few millimeters) and then let the butts touch the seat
with a mild jolt. Have at least three jolts. Be sure that you are holding your
breath during them! Exhale, slowly and deeply. Relax any tension, perceive
an ecstatic feeling. This detail is very important: it is a signal that the
Prana has entered the spine and Kundalini starts its travel upwards. The
mental energy (not just the physical action) that you put in this exercise is a
decisive factor. Repeat this Kriya for 6 to 12 times. Wait months before
increasing.

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Now, after exhaling, don't pause but inhale very, very slowly, feeling that
you are really entering the spine. Come up as far as possible, crossing each
Chakra while trying to reach your head. Proceed with great delicacy and
sensitivity.

You will discover that you can, very easily, guide the movement of the
energy up the spine. But it is possible that you feel that you have not
completed the spinal path. Don't worry. Let your task unaccomplished and
start another round of Fourth Kriya.

After that round, try again your experience the Internal Breath. Whatever
happens, whatever you perceive (a very delicate current moving up the
spine) is precious.

At a certain moment you will experience with renewed joy that you are
really inside the spine and your Pranayama has become more subtle than
you ever thought possible. You will feel the beauty and the strength of this
process: for some days you will not desire to do any other thing.

FINAL REMARKS ABOUT THOKAR

There are some points that I desire to touch here before going to Chapter
10.

A kriyaban should resume the practice of Kriya Pranayama after the

practice of Thokar. This is necessary because all the restlessness due to the
physical movements done during the Thokar should be appeased as much
as possible. Kriya Pranayama is a very good tool to obtain this.

The second point is to force the energy of the body into Kutastha at the end
of the routine. For that purpose I recommend the practice of Gayatri Kriya.
This technique existed before Lahiri Mahasaya begun his mission of
spreading Kriya. Its structure is well known in India and is considered the
subtlest way of using the Gayatri Mantra.

GAYATRI KRIYA
The Gayatri Mantra is considered to be a supreme vehicle for gaining
spiritual enlightenment. The purest form of Gayatri Mantra is Tat Savitur
Varenyam Bhargho Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat. (Oh,
great Spiritual Light who has created the Universe, we meditate upon Your
glory. You are the embodiment of Knowledge. You are the remover of all

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Ignorance. May You enlighten our Intellect and awaken our Intuition.)

This Mantra is prefaced with either a short or a long invocation. The short
invocation is: Om Bhur, Om Bhuvah, Om Swaha. The terms Bhur, Bhuvah,
Swaha are invocations to honor the three planes of existence (physical,
astral, and causal respectively) and to address their presiding deities. The
long invocation is: Om Bhur, Om Bhuvah, Om Swaha, Om Mahah, Om
Janah, Om Tapah, Om Satyam. This invocation is more complete since it
recognizes that there are more planes of existence: the seven Lokas.
Mahah is the mental world, the plane of spiritual balance; Janah is the
world of pure knowledge; Tapah is the world of intuition; Satyam is the
world of Absolute, Ultimate Truth. We can be satisfied with the
explanation that these sounds are used to activate the Chakras and connect
them to the seven spiritual realms of existence. In our procedure, we use
only the opening long invocation in its complete form and not all the parts
of the Gayatri Mantra. The Kriya tradition we are following here links
Manipura with Om Mahah and Anahata with Om Swaha. The reason is
that the world of thinking, evoked by Om Mahah, is more appropriate to
the nature of the third Chakra, while the causal world of pure ideas, evoked
by Om Swaha, is related to Anahata Chakra.

Practical instruction
Become aware of the Muladhara Chakra. Contract the muscles near its
physical location: the contraction can be repeated two-three times. Through
a deep inhalation (not necessarily as long as in Kriya Pranayama) visualize
the Muladhara Chakra coming up into the point between the eyebrows,
where you perceive it as a full moon. You don't come up ''touching'' the
other Chakras. Now they don't exist. Hold the breath and focus on the
"inner space" between the eyebrows. This comes out easily with Kechari
Mudra. 5 On the screen between the eyebrows, a particular color
experience happens – this color is different for each Chakra. Mentally
chant at least three times the specific Mantra for the Muladhara Chakra:
Om Bhur. Then, through a long exhalation, ideally lower this Chakra from
the point between the eyebrows to its proper location in the spine. Now you
know what to do with each other Chakra.

The Mantras to be utilized are:

5
"Ke-chari" is literally translated as "the state of those who fly in the sky, in the
ether". A particular "space" is created in the region between the tip of the tongue and
the point between the eyebrows and is perceived as a "vacuum", although it is not a
physical void. By merging into this empty space, it is easier for a kriyaban to
perceive the rhythms of each Chakra and distinguish them one from another.

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Om Bhur for Muladhara;
Om Bhuvah for Swadhisthana;
Om Mahah for Manipura;
Om Swaha for Anahata;
Om Janah for Vishuddha;
Om Tapah for Medulla

Add a particularly intense concentration at the point between the eyebrows.

Hold your breath; raise your eyebrows, become aware of the light. Repeat
Om Satyam.

Now complete the "round" by lifting Chakras 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, always using the

contraction, the chanting of the Mantra, being aware of any particular
Light experience in Kutastha. If possible repeat the procedure 6 to 12
rounds.

In Kriya tradition, the Chakras are related to the five Tattwas: earth, water,
fire, air, and ether. Offering each Tattwa individually to the light of the
"spiritual eye" gathering and intensifying in the region between the
eyebrows is the highest action ever conceived to dispel the last shell of
illusion. The experience of the changing colors in the spiritual eye means to
perceive the particular vibration and light frequency of each Chakra. By
familiarizing with these frequencies leads you to the realization that all the
universe exists in Kutastha.

Advanced practice
In time it will be possible for you to mentally repeat ''Om Bhur" 36 times
holding your breath. This gives you the power to tune with earth-Tattwa
experiencing the peculiar ''vibration'' of the Muladhara Chakra.
At the same time, by repeating the Mantra ''Om Bhuvah'' 36 times it
will be possible to tune with water-Tattwa having its seat in the second
Chakra.... then comes the turn of the fire-Tattwa...

Digression about the effects of an intensive practice of Thokar

I have tried to retrace the theme ''emotions'' in some oriental books and
have found so much rhetoric, too many words without practical meaning.
They distinguish between positive (affection, happiness, contentment...)
and negative (envy, aggressiveness, illusion ...) emotions, but at the end of
boring discussions you still have not grasped the essential fact: untamed
emotions can create disaster in one's life. We are governed by superficial
emotions and instincts that include our religious conditioning, our weak
points, our fears, our doubts and our pessimism. It is important to have the

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ability to keep emotions at bay, going our way even when we suffer
inwardly of an excruciating conflict.

We all know how frantic and hysterical emotions often rise unexpectedly
from one's inner self, then disappear after a while. They actually express a
reality devoid of authentic depth but their propulsive action inevitably
results in hurried acts accompanied by a sort of cerebral fever, nourished
by a narrow, visceral pleasure. When passion inflames one's whole being, it
is not possible to be guided by common sense; the consequence is that our
deeper and most earnest choices sometimes withdraw to an irrevocable
halt.

Just as during the summer hail stones are molded, condensed and enlarged
in the air before falling down to the earth and cause disasters, fatal
decisions take shape in advance in one's imagination. During daily,
frequent daydreams, the perspective of renouncing something positive
which requires a great commitment throws a false light upon our
immediate future, so that what in the past would appear as an act of
cowardice, now seems to glitter at the horizon of our life, like a dull, flat,
somber sky that suddenly lights up, serene, in luminous azure blue. When
we listen to such alluring emotions, we pave the way for our doom. A
wrong decision may become our crucifixion, our covenant with
unhappiness, with a state of inner misery that will last a lifetime.

And lo, some put aside Kriya Yoga forever, while others interrupt a course
of studies and throw away a profession they had been dreaming for years
for which they had fought and suffered. They do the same with a beloved,
with friends, with their family itself. Nothing can stop them: the wise
words of people near them have no power anymore. An indomitable
internal strength wants to produce sheer calamity in their life. Sometimes
we have the idea that a person wants only one thing: to affirm with
stubbornness his "right to pain and suffering" – the last is an expression of
the Mother, main disciple and companion of Sri Aurobindo.

The destructive effects of yielding to this force remind those of an asteroid

falling through the atmosphere on its way to fire and destruction. So, there
is a reasonable hope that the completion of the Incremental Routines save
one from being a victim of this havoc, having built an almost automatic
reflex of not being influenced or guided by frantic emotions.

Many kriyabans break some important human relationships because they

assume that their religious choices are criticized. Sometimes a breakup of a
relationship is unavoidable, other times it is a great loss especially if it is

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the product of the orgasm of pride. Many times people are annoyed by
sincere and constructive criticism as if it was a useless display of cruelty.

They believe the other counterpart provokes sadistically enervating

discussions with inappropriate topics.

Sometimes kriyabans are too prideful to accept other "uninitiated" people's

commons sense. On the contrary, it is necessary to listen to other people's
opinion, especially if it comes from our family or from all people who love
us. Those who have become prey of destructive cults, have not listened
anyone's opinion. The more the criticism has sound basis, the more one
feels as if they were swallowing a black, sharp-edged rock.

A kriyaban who believes they are following their heart but who is actually
just venting their most violent frustrations, can, on this occasion, reject any
discussion and break off a relationship lasting a lifetime with an action of
such "radiant" free will as to overwhelm all bystanders. Several days go by
and their heart feels heavy; the subtle deception of the mind creates the
firm belief that any saint, any true mystic would have acted in the same
way. They want to believe that beneath their action there was an almost
sacred motive, linked with destiny and karma.

If the risk of retracing one's steps appears, pride will prevail, driving the
presently exciting pleasure of freedom to the top. This emotion -- which is
perhaps a sadistic satisfaction in disguise -- makes existence to be as
beautiful as ever, just like being reborn after a long and painful malady.
Wisdom has no chance of prevailing. A strange frenzy fills the mind of our
kriyaban, making even the most trivial activity enjoyed with uninterrupted
voluptuousness, surrounded by flashes of blue. Yet a pain in their heart
remains, despite the rosiest projects. A good crumb of their spiritual
aspiration is trapped in a past that can no longer be reached due to their
unwillingness to endure the full impact of a truthful and honest
reminiscence. Wounded pride is an emotion that suffocates.

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 CHAPTER 9
LAHIRI MAHASAYA'S KRIYA YOGA – FOURTH PART
( Higher Kriyas (V, VI) – The Tribhangamurari experience)

In this school the Fifth Kriya happens in three steps called: Amantrak,
Samantrak and Thokar (this Thokar is different from what was described in
the preceding chapter.) A new concept – the Macro movement
Tribhangamurari – is introduced.

The Sixth Kriya will then be introduced by discovering that the movement
Tribhangamurari exists also inside each Chakra. It will be called Micro
movement Tribhangamurari.

The Macro movement Tribhangamurari is perceived first by simply

moving one's breath and awareness along a prescribed path, then this
perception happens in the state of tranquil breath and is accompanied by
the Vasudeva Mantra. At the end this perception is reinforced through the
help of the movements of the head. By repeating this procedure, going up
from Muladhara to the head and coming down following the three-curved
path (Tri-banga-murari = form with three curves) each Chakra is
stimulated and partially pierced.

FIFTH KRIYA

Amantrak
Start a deep, very long inhalation. Your tongue is stable in Kechari Mudra
or at least in baby Kechari. Very slowly raise Prana and awareness through
the spinal channel, from Muladhara to the Sikha point (Bindu) – half a
minute is required.

Then start a deep exhalation. Let Prana and awareness come slowly
downwards along the Tribhangamurari path and reach Muladhara.
Another half minute is required.

The Tribhangamurari path starts from Bindu, goes up to the left of a very
short length, then descends toward the right side of the body. Once a
particular point in the back (5-6 centimeters above the right nipple) is
reached, it curves and moves leftwards to cross the heart knot. After

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reaching a point in the back that is 5-6 centimeters under the left nipple, it
changes its direction again and points toward Muladhara.

The 3 procedures Amantrak, Samantrak and Tribhangamurari Thokar are

not intended to be tested simultaneously. If, to spare time, you will do that,
the only effect could be the imprinting on your mind a wrong way of
conceiving the practice.

Fig.10 Tribhangamurari path as seen from the back

We call this technique Amantrak, which means ''without the use of a

Mantra.'' This teaching is addressed to expert kriyabans who can make
their breath subtle and long, very long. It is possible to make a round of
Amantrak last one minute. If you experience it in a shorter time, let us say
40 seconds, it does not mean that your practice is wrong. However, resolve
to do your best to lengthen your breath.

Let us clarify the most important aspect of this procedure. Its essence it
consists in the constant intensification of the mental pressure along the
whole circuit. Consider the action of squeezing an almost empty tube of
toothpaste to get the last bit out. This gives you an idea of the quantity of
mental pressure you have to apply during this procedure. If you utilize a
great strength of concentration and will, there is no limit to the increase of
the internal energetic flow along the Tribhangamurari path.

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As for the routine, some teachers gave this counsel: ''For two weeks, repeat
this technique 25 times, once a day. Then for another two weeks repeat it
50 times once a day; then for another two weeks 75 times .... and so on up
to 200 times each day for two weeks. Only at this point you are supposed
to practice the following Samantrak instruction.''

We must clarify that those teachers did not give the initiations in Second,
Third, Fourth Kriya. They gave initiation only into First Kriya, then
required a particular preparation for this Amantrak: to practice Kriya
Pranayama 200 a day for two – three months.

For those who have practiced conscientiously all the previous steps, a good
prescription is this: ''For a couple of months repeat this technique 36 times,
once a day, then start to practice the following technique Samantrak.''

Samantrak
Samantrak means: ''with the use of a Mantra.'' Now the breath is free,
forget it wholly.

Fig.11 Tribhangamurari path, enriched with the syllables of the Mantra

The syllables Om, Na, Mo, Bha, Ga, are vibrated into the first five
Chakras, Ba in Bindu. Teee (with prolonged eee …) is chanted in the center
in left part of the brain. The syllables Va, Su, De, Va are put in the four new
centers outside the spine; Ya is vibrated in Muladhara.

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These five new centers are five "vortexes" inside the main flow of the
current – they are not a new set of Chakras. Each syllable when vibrated is
like a mental Thokar (hit): since the technique is performed slowly, there is
plenty of time to make this stimulation very effective.

We have now described one round of Samantrak, which lasts one minute.
If you realize it is shorter, let us say 45/50 seconds, make a resolution to
reach the exact timing.

Remember what we have recommended while introducing Amantrak. Now,

the essence of this particular procedure consists in utilizing the vibration of
the 12 syllables to encourage a more keen intensification of the mental
pressure along the whole circuit.

The prescription for starting the following practice are the same we have
described for Amantrak. However, read carefully the following:

Don't be in a hurry!
Amantrak and Samantrak create in your body the perception of a particular
internal movement. The Thokar Tribhangamurari procedure should be
applied only when this energetic flow is well printed in your
consciousness.

This technique, correctly applied, has the power to create a permanent

transformation in your attitude towards Kriya. You will become acquainted
with a mostly unknown ecstatic state while fully living the experience of
life.

The Mantra's syllables, which are put with care like seeds in each center
will change your mood. It is like turning on various lights along the three-
curved path. It is like as if the rays of a sun in a clear sky finally entered
your practice.

Some students try to relish right away the power of Tribhangamurari

Thokar by a desultory, system-less experimentation of Amantrak and
Samantrak, far from abiding by the given rules.

What could be the real impact of the Tribhangamurari Thokar technique

remains unknown and not even vaguely foreshadowed.

Let us reflect: why did Satya Charan Lahiri gave up teaching various Kriya
techniques and spread only the traditional teachings of the First Kriya and

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completed them with the Tribhangamurari teachings? I think the reason is
simple: he decided to eliminated teachings (for example extreme forms of
Thokar that include a very long Kumbhaka) that were too much
problematic for most people. The Tribhangamurari teachings do not create
problems. If practiced in large numbers and added to the techniques of
First Kriya, they are very effective.

Some say that the Macro movement Tribhangamurari is a universal event

that appears spontaneously when a person practices Kriya Pranayama in
large numbers (for example 200 or 300 during a single session.) In my
opinion, however, that movement does not appear spontaneously at all. It
appears after many attempts, acting patiently.

Thokar Tribhangamurari
Forget the breath or start with a very subtle breath. The hands (with
interlocked fingers) are placed on the navel area so as to push the
abdominal region upward, thus creating a physical pressure on the first
three Chakras. Starting with the chin on the chest, move the energy and
awareness very slowly along the spinal column from Muladhara to Bindu.
Your chin comes slowly up following the inner movement. ''Touch''
internally each Chakra with the syllables of the Mantra (Om is placed in
the first Chakra, Na in the second ...). When energy and awareness are at
Bindu, the chin is parallel to the ground.

Now the descent of the energy begins. The movement of the head follows
millimeter by millimeter its downward energetic flow along the
Tribhangamurari path, crossing the heart Chakra. All this happens in a
fluid way and within 30 seconds or less. The following description of the
movements of the head may seem complicated at first but with a minimum
of patience, the right movement of the head will be learned: you need only
to understand that it is conceived in the most logical and effective way of
intensifying a particular snakelike downward flow of the energy. Let us
now begin to describe the movements of the head. 6

Without turning the face, bend your head sideways a couple of centimeters
to the left. Return to the middle raising the chin. Remain only an instant in
this position, with the chin raised and slowly turn the face to the right and
as far as possible. Only the face moves, not the torso. During this SLOW
movement the inner flow of energy moves from Bindu to the point in the
back of the right side of the body. Realize how this simple movement
accompanies perfectly the descent of energy.
6
What is essential is: do not be influenced by the dynamics of the technique of
classic Thokar learned in Chapter 9!

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Here the first of five psycho-physical blows happens: the chin touches the
right shoulder for an instant and the syllable Va is vibrated in the eighth
center. The shoulder also makes a small upward motion to make contact
with the chin easier. But be careful: if you feel you're forcing it, STOP!
Those who are not able to have this contact with the right shoulder, should
content themselves with coming as close to the shoulder as possible and
stimulate the eighth center with sheer mental strength.

Then the face turns very slowly to the left, accompanying, millimeter by
millimeter, the internal flow of energy from the eighth to the ninth center,
and crossing the fourth Chakra. If possible, place the chin over the left
shoulder. The second blow takes place when the syllable Su is vibrated in
the ninth center and the chin for an instant touches the left shoulder, which
makes a small motion upward to make contact with the chin easier.

Fig.12 Thokar Tribhangamurari as seen from the front

Two more blows happen when the syllables De and Va are put in the tenth
and eleventh centers. The procedure is the following: the chin slowly
moves toward the middle of the chest while grazing the left collarbone.
During this movement, two light blows are given to the left collarbone in
intermediate positions. The blows are given of course in the moment in

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which the syllables of the Mantra are vibrated. Finally, a last blow is given
on the chest (central position) when the syllable Ya is vibrated in
Muladhara.

Fig.13 The same movements (only the descent) as seen from the back

I hope it is clear that the essence of this particular procedure consists in

utilizing the movements of the head (with the five strokes) to encourage a
further intensification of the mental pressure along the whole circuit.

Repeat the procedure 36 times. After completing the programmed number

of rounds, calm the system with a minimal practice of Samantrak, then
relax by practicing a simple mental Pranayama.

The supervision of an expert helps to avoid any problems – I am referring

to stress and pain in the cervical vertebrae and in the muscles of the neck.
Abrupt movements should be avoided; instead use a deep intensity of
mental concentration. For the first couple of weeks do not practice every
day but every two or three days.

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Remark
Through this procedure, the Tribhangamurari flow is intensified by
specific movements of the head. The problem is that many kriyabans focus
all the attention on giving the strokes and don't understand the value of
creating mental pressure along each millimeter of the path.

We have started bu perceiving the movement sensation coming up along

the spine and coming down along a three curved path. Then with
Samantrak procedure we have reinforced the perception of the 12 centers.
Now it is necessary to feel that the movements of the head accompany
perfectly, millimeter after millimeter, the flow of the internal current. Now
we can try to intensify the perception of the internal flow by creating a
mental pressure along each part of it. We utilize the movements of our head
to "touch with pressure" each millimeter of the path, up and down. The
chin is to be moved slowly as we are striving to win a strong resistance. We
have suggested the idea: ''like squeezing with a pencil an almost empty
tube of toothpaste to get the last little bit out. ''

Incremental Routine of the macro movement Tribhangamurari

As soon as possible, begin the incremental routine of this procedure by
practicing: 36x2, 36x3,….. 36x35, 36x36. Be careful to allow always one
week to elapse between one stage and the next. I recommend this routine as
a very important feat. A minimum of 8-10 months is required to complete
it.

While Amantrak and Samantrak are practiced every day, the Incremental
sessions of Thokar Tribhangamurari are practiced once a week (the other
days one can, however, practice up to 36 repetitions.) A kriyaban must
have had all the time necessary to metabolize the subconscious material
that the strong action exerted upon Muladhara brings to the surface.

One begins with 36 rounds; a week later one practices 36x2, then 36x3 ...
and finally 36x36 repetitions. This means 1296 rounds! Can you imagine
the powerful effects of this action? 1296 means that you begin in the
morning and end in the night, doing again and again the same action. There
is no doubt that you'll succeed in opening the door of Sushumna! Of course
you have prepared this experience by practicing 36x35, and before that
36x34.... And don't forget that you have practiced Amantrak and
Samantrak for months!

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What to do at the end of this long process (Amantrak, Samantrak and
Thokar.)

Pranayama with Thokar Tribhangamurari

Inhale placing the syllables Om Na Mo Bha Ga Ba in the relative Chakras.
The chin is raised accompanying the current inside the spine.

Then hold your breath and, maintaining the Kumbhaka state, descend along
the three-curved Tribhangamurari path, making the head movements
typical of Thokar Tribhangamurari, placing the five mental syllables Tee
Va Su De Va in the centers outside the spine. The syllable Yaaa is placed in
Muladhara.

Usually the three final blows (De Va Yaaa) produce a sense of ecstasy. The
last movement, that is, the blow on Muladhara, is enjoyable in a special
way: the energy is pushed upwards towards the heart Chakra.

After singing Yaaa ..., the exhalation begins. During this exhalation create
a subtle '' eeee ... '' sound in the throat and feel that a white light is entering
the earth Chakra.

The practice is so beautiful that you often enter an ecstatic state during the
practice itself. It is a drunkenness of joy.
Repeat this 36 times.

SIXTH KRIYA: MICRO MOVEMENT TRIBHANGAMURARI

This procedure reminds the teaching of Swami Hariharananda. He taught
us to contact the Omkar reality in its manifestations of sound, light and
movement or swinging sensation. The swinging sensation of the Omkar
reality had a central place in his teaching. 7

The books of Yoga explain the importance of feeling the energy moving
throughout the body, for example rising from the Muladhara along the
spine or, as Sri Aurobindo explained, coming down from the high and

7
I remember that during his meeting with devotees he touched the head and the chest
of some of them, vibrating his hand, trying to transmit a feeling as of a ''oscillation.''

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infused in the body. Swami Hariharananda on the contrary hinted at a
movement sensation or oscillation within each Chakra.

Perceiving an oscillation inside each Chakra is not exactly like perceiving

the Tribhangamurari form in small dimensions, however the effects are,
more or less, the same. The state of ''absorption'' created by having this
particular perception in each Chakra has no comparison. Only few Kriya
schools have disclosed the nature of this micro-movement and revealed its
importance. Unfortunately, many people seek frantically impossible
surrogates for it!

Practical instruction
After a minimum of 12 rounds of Thokar Tribhangamurari, you learn now
to experience the movement Tribhangamurari in smaller dimensions inside
the 12 centers of the Macro Tribhangamurari path.

Through a short inhalation, raise the Prana from the Muladhara Chakra
into the spiritual eye between your eyebrows. Gently lower your chin, hold
your breath and look "down" at the Muladhara Chakra. Visualize it as a
horizontal disk, having a diameter of approximately one inch. On that disk
perceive the Tribhangamurari movement in reduced dimensions.

Don't worry about the required time: it may be short, it may be long …. it
doesn't matter. Exert a moderate but continuous pressure on the disk as if
you had a pen and were drawing a clear continuous mark. Repeat two more
times. Your breath is held effortlessly; the Prana remains totally in Ajna
Chakra. After three perceptions of the Micro movement, you can relax and
let Prana come down. A subtle exhalation happens but you may not be
aware of it.

Move to the second Chakra and repeat the same procedure. Repeat it for
Chakras 3, 4, 5, then for Bindu, then for the five new centers and finally
for Muladhara.

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 Fig.14 Tribhangamurari micro movement in each of the 12 centers

This is round 1: practice two more rounds. Be faithful to this practice for at
least three months before starting to increase the mental pressure upon each
center employing the syllables of the Vasudeva Mantra.

Micro movement Tribhangamurari utilizing the Mantra

In my opinion, this technique is the highest procedure contained in this
second part of the book. It contains a mystery of Unworldly Beauty.
Among the debris of past illusions, such experience open the doors of the
spiritual realization. This internal movement embodies the deeper aspect of
the Omkar reality. Perceiving it means to annihilate any form of duality
present in the Chakras and therefore, in your awareness. It is as if the
center between the eyebrows become one with each lower Chakra, fusing
them in a unique reality. This will lead you out of time and space. A
burning aspiration towards the Divine is born from this.

Practice Kechari Mudra. Through a short inhalation, raise the Prana from
the Muladhara Chakra into the spiritual eye between your eyebrows.
Forget the breath and look "down" at the Muladhara Chakra. Mentally
utter the syllables "Om-Na-Mo-Bha-Ga-Ba-Te-Va-Su-De-Va-Ya". Do this
Japa without hurry. Perceive the micro-movement Tribhangamurari and

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realize how the mental chant of the 12 syllables add a greater "pressure" to
it.

Remain immobile with no movement at all of the spinal column or of the

head. Here all the power of pressure has to be obtained with the sheer
repetition of the syllables of the Mantra. These syllables are like mini
"thrusts" or "pulsations".

The duration of one round is determined by the speed of the chanting of the
Mantra. For many people, the chanting of the Mantra and consequently,
the micro-movement lasts about 10-12 seconds. Remember that Lahiri
Mahasaya's recommendation was "Don't be in a hurry!" Observe the
difference between going slowly and with speed. If you go slowly, you will
perceive a tremendous power.

Repeat the Vasudeva Mantra three times. Prana remains totally in the
head. After three perceptions of the micro-movement, repeat the same
procedure in Chakras 2, 3, 4, 5, then in Bindu, then in the five centers
outside the spine, and finally in Muladhara. This is one round: practice 3-
12 rounds. At the end of this practice, remain with the awareness centered
in the light that you will perceive in the upper part of your head. If you
have proceeded without hurry you will get a state that can defined ''beyond
time.''

If, after the completion of the practice, you find the time to lie down supine
(Savasana) you will get a particular state of physical and mental
immobility where the Kundalini energy can climb up to the Chakra of the
heart while the Kutastha will reveal itself.

Incremental Routine of the micro movement Tribhangamurari, to be

completed in the last part of life
When I received this instruction I was told that, analogously to the Yoni
Mudra which is practiced every night at the moment a kriyaban prepares to
withdraw his awareness from the body and from the physical world and
gets ready for sleep – which is a "small death" – the Micro movement
Tribhangamurari Incremental Routine is like a peaceful return to the origin
– a preparation to "die forever" – meaning to become forever free in Spirit.
It was explained to me that this last Incremental Routine, besides being the
best preparation for the conscious exit out of the body at death
(Mahasamadhi), burned forever the necessity of reincarnating. 8
8
As for what happens during the process of Mahasamadhi, we have heard many
stories about possible ''Kriya ways'' of leaving the physical shell; obviously we
cannot vouch for their authenticity. Some assert that the typical practice is Thokar,

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In Micro-movement Incremental Routine we have 36 sessions of practice.
What's new is that the major part of this session requires more than one
day.

On the first day you perceive 36 Micro-movements in each of the 12

centers. The second session requires that you perceive 36x2 Micro
movements in each center. [You experience one single long round: 72
Micro movements in the first Chakra without interruption, then 72 in the
second Chakra, and so on....] After some days, you face the third session
with 36x3 Micro movements in each center. Then other days pass by. Then
you have your 36x4 session which will fill up your whole day.

The next steps: 36x5, 36x6, 36x7, 36x8, will not only fill up a whole day
but also part of the next day. Therefore you must divide your effort into
two parts. What was heretofore never allowed now happens: you can sleep
a whole night between the two parts which are considered one session.
What is important is that you start more or less immediately on the
morning of the next day. Therefore, you are not allowed to go to work and
it is also recommended that you keep silent, avoiding any opportunity for
conversation. (However, the use of common sense should always prevail; if
addressed, a polite reply is always imperative.)
You can now understand that the following sessions require more
days; the last session requires about 12 days! Let me describe what
happens during the last session: you perceive 36x36 micro movements in
each center! This means: 1296 micro movements in Muladhara, 1296 in
Swadhistan.... and so on, ending after some days in Muladhara with 1296
movements.

Let me emphasize that one should never skip over a stage. Don't think,
''On my next Summer holidays I'm going to find a dozen days to practice
36x36.'' No! It does not work in this way. Before perceiving the Micro
movement 36x36 times in each center you must have perceived it 36x35
times. And before this, you should have perceived it 36x34 times, and so
on....

others hint at procedures happening entirely in Kutastha. We can reasonably assume

that it is not always possible to perform the physical movement of Thokar. To focus
one's awareness in the spine or at the point between the eyebrows may be the only
thing possible. The most interesting thing I've heard is that some kriyabans, during
the last weeks or months before leaving the body, practice only one technique:
perceiving the Micro-movement Tribhangamurari nel Kutastha. At the moment of
death, they merge with the Infinite through the same procedure.

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Completing this Incremental Routine is really a giant achievement. Many
splendid experiences will happen and the last internal obstacles will be
cleared one after another. When you have completed your practice, you
discover that you cannot describe it because the bliss experienced has
totally effaced from your memory the modalities of your experience.

A kriyaban should make every effort to create the opportunity to grant

himself the joy and the privilege of completing the recommended number
of repetitions without every yielding to the temptation of hurried practices.

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 CHAPTER 10
KRIYA YOGA IN THE VISION OF SWAMI HARIHARANANDA

This particular form of Kriya, at a certain point, seems to transcend the

spine with its Chakras and take refuge at the top, at the upper part of the
head. Coupling these instructions, with some intelligent choice, with
Lahiri's Kriya – it can guide you in a dimension of unspeakable Beauty. I
am thankful for what I have learned at the feet of this Teacher. Thank also
to a pair of his disciples who helped me to utilize my faculty or reasoning.

In the following techniques the tongue is in the position of ''baby

Kechari Mudra.''

FIRST KRIYA

First Kriya routine

Maha Mudra in two parts (Forward bendings and Maha Mudra proper)
Kriya Pranayama
Jyoti Mudra
Paravastha

Maha Mudra in two parts (Forward bendings and Maha Mudra

proper)
In this school Maha Mudra is given with unsurpassed care, making Omkar
realization almost tangible even to a beginner. This Maha Mudra is divided
into two parts: the Forward Bendings and Maha Mudra proper.

Forward bendings
Sit on the pavement in the half-lotus position or on the heels. Exhale.
Concentrate on Ajna in the center of your head. Through a deep inhalation
(not too long) visualize the breath coming from the physical location of
Muladhara up the spine until you complete the breath at Ajna. Hold your
breath. Bend at the waist and preferably touch the floor with your head.
(The head is placed in the region between the knees. Use your hands freely
in order to achieve this position comfortably.)

Gently breathe out and let the breath free. After touching the forehead to
the floor, twist first to the right, nearing the right earlobe to the right knee.
The head comes near the right knee, the face is turned toward the left knee

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so that it is possible to perceive a pressure on the right side of the head; a
sensation of space is perceived inside the left side of the brain. Remain in
this position for 3 to 30 seconds. Move head back to center until forehead
touches ground. Then repeat the same exercise with the other side of your
body, reversing the perceptions. Move your head until your left ear is
directly over the left knee. Try to experience internal pressure in the left-
side of your head; a sensation of space is perceived inside the right side of
the brain. Remain in this position for 3 to 30 seconds. Then the head is
placed in the region between the knees again, the face turned downward. A
pressure is felt on the forehead. A sensation of space is perceived inside the
occipital region.

Fig.15 Forward bending. First position

[Sitting on heels is also OK!]

During this delicate process you are breathing normally and your
awareness is mainly at Ajna while your eyes are focused on Kutastha. Then
sit up straight, inhaling deeply. Through a long exhalation let the energy
go down from Ajna to Muladhara. Through a deep inhalation visualize the
breath coming from the physical location of Swadhisthana up the spine
until you complete the breath at Ajna. Repeat all the previous process just
as we have done for Muladhara. At the end through a long exhalation you
guide the energy from Ajna to Swadhisthana. Then repeat the same process
for Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Medulla. In this way you will enjoy
six bows.

Note
To increase the power of this procedure, you can hold your breath when
you are down. You will get a very strong sensation of energy rising up and
intensifying in the point between your eyebrows. Breath retention is a
powerful Kundalini stimulator. If you are not ready for the power generated
by this procedure, if you feel like "spaced out" after your meditation or if

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you feel too much irritable, don't hold your breath.

When you bend your body left, your right nostril will open. When you
bend your body right, your left nostril will open. When you bend your body
in the front, you get equal pressure of flow of breath inside your nostrils.
You get balance of the mind and calmness in your body. Your spinal chord
passage will open.

The lunar channel of Ida is situated at the left side of the spine; the solar
channel of Pingala is situated at the right side of the spine. Both chords
cling to each other. By repeating the previous procedure, they are separated
and, as a consequence, an hollow passage is opened between the two. The
opening of the spiritual passage within the spine (Sushumna) is the starting
point of the practice of meditation.

Maha Mudra
Bend the left leg under the body so the left heel is near to the perineum.
Draw the right knee against the body so the thigh is as close to the chest as
possible. The interlocked fingers are placed just below knee applying
pressure to your internal organs. Take 5 to 6 very deep breaths with
moderate pressure applied to knee. Then inhale deep and hold, extend the
right leg, bow down, breath normally and massage the right leg from the
foot to the thigh and hip.

Fig.16 Here the face is turned to the left

Then grasp the right foot in this way: the right hand grabs the right toes
while the left hand grabs the inner side of the middle part of the right foot
(the arch of the foot). The face is turned to the left. You perceive a
sensation like an inner pressure on the right side of the head. It contrasts
with the free space sensation in the left side of the brain. Chant Om six
times in the point between your eyebrows. Then inhale and hold, sit back
up onto your left foot with right knee folded into your chest, then exhale
into normal conscious breathing.

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Practice the whole procedure by reversing the perceptions and the position
of the legs. I won't repeat everything – don't forget the chant of Om six
times in the point between your eyebrows.
Now, draw both knees against your body. Extend both legs, bow down,
breath normally and massage both legs from feet to thighs and hips. Then
grasp both feet: right hand to right toes, left hand to left toes. Breathe
normally, flex feet 4 or 5 times then relax with the head down as near to
knees as possible. Experience internal pressure on the front part of the
head. A sensation of space is perceived inside the occipital region. Chant
Om six times in the point between your eyebrows. Then inhale, sit up and
hold. Massage briefly toes, fold legs back to chest and exhale. As usual,
this exercise is repeated three times.

Kriya Pranayama
With eyes closed, deeply inhale into Fontanelle. Then exhale into Ajna.
Hold breath for few seconds (3-4) then inhale up to Fontanelle. Hold your
breath for few seconds. Then exhale to Vishuddha, hold for a few seconds
then inhale to Fontanelle. Hold your breath for few seconds. Then exhale
to Anahata ... and so on. At a certain point you have reached the
Muladhara. Hold your breath for few seconds. Then inhale to Fontanelle.

Now repeat in reverser order. Exhale down from Fontanelle to Muladhara.

Hold your breath for few seconds. Then inhale to Fontanelle, hold your
breath. Then exhale down to Swadhisthana Chakra ...pause... inhale... and
so on until you exhale down from Fontanelle to Ajna. This is one cycle (12
breaths). You can repeat the whole cycle for a couple of times.

During the pause between inhalation and exhalation (the awareness is in

Fontanelle) the breath should be held 2 to 3 seconds, but after several
weeks of Pranayama, the time of each pause can be gradually increased up
to 30 seconds. This detail is very important to create a deeper calmness.

Now then, this flute sound is one thing and the astral sounds is another
thing. However, a long concentration upon the flute-like sound is the best
action to listen to the internal astral sounds. These sounds come from the
activity of the Chakras. A great experience is hearing a distant sound of a
long-sustaining bell (the sound of Anahata.) The experience of the ''bell''
changes into the sound of ''many waters.'' This is the real sound of Om that
guides the soul to travel through the spine, contacting the Divine Light in
the upper part of the head. Lahiri Mahasaya described it as a sound
"produced by a lot of people continually striking the disk of a bell and as
continuous as oil flowing out of a container". Surely, when you hear the

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sound of running waters or of waves breaking over cliffs, you can be sure
you are on the right track.

Modesty is always welcome but when this result is achieved, the positive
euphoria is so overwhelming that it cannot be contained (like finding
Aladdin’s magic lamp.) In Kriya literature, it is said that those who realize
a perfect Pranayama, can achieve everything through it. Well, if we dream
of a faultless Kriya Pranayama, then what we have described matches the
ideal of perfection.

A very important fact to understand is that the event of perceiving these

sounds is not produced by the intensity of a unique moment of deep
concentration but by the accumulation of effort manifested during daily
sessions of Kriya (effort is the meticulous attention to any internal sound,
no matter how faint). What is essential is to bring ahead a continuous will
to listen internally. Each chanting of the syllable Om should be
accompanied by an unswerving will to track down the echo of this
vibration until you become aware of the astral sounds. Your listening skills
will improve.

Those who are not able to hear any internal sound should not conclude
something is wrong. Maybe they have done an enormous effort whose
fruits will be enjoyed during the next day's practice or some day in the
future. A sign one is heading in the right direction is a sense of mild
pressure, like a sensation of liquid peace above or around the head often
accompanied by a certain humming in the entire occipital region.

Jyoti Mudra
Close your ears with your thumbs while with the index fingers press lightly
at the corners of the eyes or covering your eyes with a small pressure.
Focus on Kutastha. Allow that part of your attention goes down in the
Muladhara. Then ideally lift this Chakra through an inhalation to the point
between the eyebrows. Hold the breath for as long as you feel comfortable
(about 10 -15 sec) while trying to perceive the particular light of
Muladhara in Kutastha. Exhale and ideally place Muladhara Chakra back
down to its original position. Part of the attention moves now on the
second Chakra. Then do exactly what you have done with the Muladhara
Chakra. Then thanks to a short exhalation, this Chakra is ideally brought
back into its seat...

The same happens to the Chakras 3, 4, 5 and Medulla. Always try to see
the light at the point between the eyebrows. Feel that you are offering each
center to the light of the spiritual eye. To end the procedure, put the palms

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of your hands over the eyelids and remain there seeing a white Light for 2-
3 min. When the Light disappears, lower your hands.

Paravastha
Paravastha is the state ensuing a good practice of Kriya. Remain longer in
meditation listening to divine Sound, feeling the vibration and enjoying the
divine Light. Perceive the focus of your concentration slowly rising from
Kutastha to Fontanelle and above Fontanelle outside of the body. Remain
without thoughts perceiving this inner sky which starts from the upper part
of your head. When you come to the end of your meditation routine, open
your eyes. Stare at what is before you but do not observe anything in
particular. Watch without watching. Keep 99% of your attention to
Fontanelle. After a while you will become aware of a subtle line of white
Light, softened, as a fog, around all objects. The Light will become
progressively white and greater. Avoid thinking. Keep the gaze fix. After 5
minutes close your eyes and rest for awhile before standing.

SECOND KRIYA

Second Kriya formal part

The hands, with fingers intertwined, rest on the abdomen. Inhalation and
exhalation are fragmented into 6 + 6 parts. Starting with your chin on the
chest, inhale, moving your awareness upwards along the spinal column.
Simultaneously, slowly raise the chin as if to accompany the energy and
push the energy up. The syllables of the Vasudeva Mantra (Om Namo
Bhagavate Vasudevaya) are mentally placed in each Chakra location, while
making a short pause in each. During the first "sip" of inhalation, the
concentration is on the Muladhara, where the syllable Om is ideally ''put'';
during the second "sip", the concentration is on the second Chakra, where
the syllable Na is ideally put … Mo in the third, Bha in the fourth, Ga in
the fifth and Ba in Bindu (medulla is not ideally hit.) Now the inhalation is
completed and the chin is horizontal.

Hold the breath and practice Kechari Mudra as best as you can. The head
bends forward towards the throat cavity: the divine Light flows down from
above into the occipital region of the brain (therefore in the part of your
head that is turned towards the ceiling.) After feeling this for a second or
more, resume the normal position and immediately bend the head slightly
toward the left shoulder, without turning the face. The previous experience
of the divine Light infusion happens again in the right part of the head.
Resume the normal position and bend the head slightly backwards:
the experience of divine Light happens in the frontal part of the head. Then

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bend your head toward the right shoulder... the experience of divine Light
happens in the left part of the head. Close the round by repeating the first
movement.

After concluding one rotation of the head, exhalation starts. The exhaling
breath is divided into six punctuated parts or pulses. While lowering the
chin at a slow pace, the awareness comes down along the spinal column.
The syllable Te (usually is the final ''e'' is lengthened: Teeee) is placed in
Medulla, Va in the fifth Chakra… and so on … Su… De… Va, until Ya
(lengthened: Yaaaa) is mentally chanted in the Muladhara. If this is
comfortable make a short pause after exhalation. During it, the awareness
makes a complete, counter-clockwise turn around the Muladhara Chakra.

What I have described is called by me Omkar Pranayama – in order to

avoid saying: ''Second Kriya formal part.''

The timing of one Omkar Pranayama depends on the individual: usually it

is approximately 45-50 seconds but from a certain point onwards, the
speed of each repetition of Omkar Pranayama slows down. The breath is
"sucked in" and seems to be dissolved. From that moment onwards, all the
physical details are only hinted.

You have probably read that in a deep Pranayama, the energy crosses the
Chakras just like the thread of a necklace passes through the pearls. It may
also happen that the ''thread'' of energy envelops each ''pearl''. The counter
clockwise rotation of awareness around the crown (induced by the
experience of Light coming down from above) can be also perceived in
small dimensions winding around the Medulla.
When exhalation begins and you mentally chant Teeee, you can use
the starting instants of exhalation to intensify the psychic pressure around
the Medulla. This internal action is extended in a natural way to the other
Chakras. The path of descent becomes a ''helix'' that surrounds and creates
pressure around each Chakra. Go slowly and do not be in a hurry and let
the process proceed at its own pace.

Second Kriya informal part

The breath is natural (as in mental Pranayama.) In each Chakra we shall
mentally repeat its associated syllable many, many times. In Muladhara
repeat Om, Om, Om, Om, Om... about 36 times. (Do not use Mala to count
– remain immobile.) The speed at which you chant the syllables is about
two per second. Visualize that Chakra as a horizontal disk, having a
diameter of approximately one inch. Visualize these syllables moving on

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the surface of the disk in counterclockwise direction, near the
circumference.
Then focus on the second Chakra where you will do exactly the
same action, utilizing the second syllable of the Mantra, namely: Na, Na,
Na, Na, Na... about 36 times. Then focus on the third, repeating Mo, Mo,
Mo, Mo, Mo.... about 36 times. Then focus on the fourth, repeating Bha,
Bha, Bha, Bha, Bha ... then on the fifth (Ga, Ga, Ga, Ga, Ga ....), then on
Bindu (Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba ....).

Now practice the five bents of the head but in a slower way.
The chin bends forward, towards the throat cavity: the divine Light flows
down from above the head (seat of the Eternal Tranquility) into the
occipital region of the brain. After feeling this for about 10-20 seconds,
resume the normal position and bend the head slightly toward the left
shoulder, without turning the face. The previous experience of the divine
Light infusion happens. Divine Light flows down from above the head into
the right part of the brain. Remain in this position for about 10-20 seconds,
then resume the normal position. Now the head bends backwards: the same
experience happens and divine Light flows down into the frontal part of the
brain. Remain in this position for about 10-20 seconds, then resume the
normal position.
Now the head bends slightly toward the right shoulder, without
turning the face. The same experience happens and divine Light flows
down into the left part of the brain, then the spine and the body....
To close the round, the chin bends forward, towards the throat cavity: the
same experience happens ...... The head then resumes its normal position.
You have perceived Light and divine blessings in each of the four
parts of your brain. In this way, the spiritual Light will gradually pervade
each atom of the upper part of your head.

Then focus on Medulla repeating many times Te, Te, Te, Te, Te … The
absorption state is really strong. Then you will focus on the fifth Chakra
utilizing Va, Va, Va ….
...then fourth.... third …. second …. Muladhara.

Going up this way from Muladhara to Bindu and coming down repeating
the same procedure is one round: the time required is approximately 4-6
minutes. Repeat 3-4 times and then be lost in the meditative state.

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Key points

[1] Moving from one Chakra to the next, a kriyaban begins to notice the
change of the light vibration in the region between the eyebrows. Later,
you will have the experience that a specific sound comes from each center.
Being absorbed in listening to astral sound creates inner bliss, putting aside
– at least momentarily – our Ego consciousness. This is the moment when
the Omkar reality is revealed.

[2] After completing this procedure, the upper part of the brain will remain
ideally in the space, separated from the physical body. Swami
Hariharananda said that this procedure ends in ''cracking the coconut.'' The
coconut is the head, whose upper part will be detached from the lower part.
You must actively cooperate to reach this result. You must ''invite'' the
divine energy to pervade the frontal, lateral and back part of your head.

During the day remain in this state as much as you can. Whenever you can
withdraw for a short meditation, tune yourself with the Sound, Light,
formless power of the Divine rotating inside the cranium.

Employment of the 50 letter-sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet

Swami Hariharananda took the decision of teaching a practice typical of
the Tantric Hatha Yoga. It was taught for a certain number of years, later he
put it aside. In my opinion it is interesting to give just a hint to it. This
procedure is meant to help the seeker to perceive the Divine Energy in the
Chakras and in the different parts of the body

In each Chakra
The 50 letter-sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet will be chanted visualizing
the petals of each Chakra. There is no breath control.
Start with Hang Kshang in Ajna Chakra: Hang in the left hemisphere of the
brain and Kshang in the right. Then place the 16 vowels in the cervical
Chakra (Ang Aang Ing Iing Ung Uung Ring Rring Lring Llring Eng Aing
Ong Oung Aung Ah) – you chant each letter only once, the same for all the
following Chakras. In this practice you visualize each Chakra as a vertical
disk radiating Divine Light through its petals. Visualize the number of
petals assigned by yogic tradition in clockwise direction. Then place the
first 12 consonants in heart Chakra (Kong Khong Gong Ghong Wong
Chong Chhong Jong Jhong Neong Tong Thong), chant the following 10 in
Manipura (Dong Dhong Nong Tong Thong Dong Dhong Noing Pong

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Phong), then the following 6 in Swadhistan (Bong Bhong Mong Jong Rong
Long) and finally the last 4 in Muladhara (Vong Shhong Shong Song). In
each Chakra, you start from upper left go down left and come up from the
right part. Three cycles are recommended. Close repeating the two letters
Hang Kshang in Ajna.

In the crown of the head

The 50 letter-sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet are spiraled around the
cranium, activating the Omkar sound which is perceived in the center of
the brain – in the so called ''Cave of Brahma'', the seat of the pituitary and
of the pineal gland. You start from the back of the crown, begin with the
vowels, then the consonants. Make all the tour counterclockwise, then
repeat clockwise. Twelve couple of rotations (6+6) are recommended
The good effects of this procedure are easily to be perceived and therefore
this procedure is perceived as ''heaven sent.''

In different parts of the body

The 50 letter-sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet are placed in the 50 parts in
which the human body [according to the tantric tradition] can be divided.
No breath control. Put your hand on the different parts of your body that
we shall describe, uttering distinctly at the same time the appropriate letter
for that part.

1 ANG Forehead 2 AANG Mouth 3 ING Left eye 4 IING Right

eye
5 UNG Left ear 6 UUNG Right ear 7 RING Left nostril 8 RRING
Right nostril 9 LRING Left cheek 10 LLRING Right cheek 11
ENG Inner mouth (without touching) 12 AING Chin 13 ONG Upper
lip and set of teeth
14 OUNG Lower lip and set of teeth 15 AUNG Forehead & top of head
16 AH Whole face (touching with both hands) 17 KONG Left
shoulder
18 KHONG Left elbow 19 GONG Left wrist 20 GHONG Left
knuckle 21 WONG Left finger joints 22 CHONG Right shoulder 23
CHHONG Right elbow 24 JONG Right wrist 25 JHONG Right
knuckle 26 NEONG Right finger joints 27 TONG Left thigh joint
28 THONG Left knee 29 DONG Left ankle 30 DHONG Ball of the
left foot 31 NONG Left toes 32 TONG Right thigh joint 33
THONG Right knee 34 DONG Right ankle 35 DHONG Ball of the
right foot 36 NOING Right toes 37 PONG Left ribs 38 PHONG
Right ribs 39 BONG Whole back (touch up and down) 40 BHONG
Lower abdomen 41 MONG Upper abdomen 42 JONG Heart center
43 RONG Left shoulder 44 LONG Back of neck 45 VONG Right

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shoulder 46 SHHONG From left shoulder to right hand 47 SHONG
From right shoulder to left hand 48 SONG From left shoulder to right
foot 49 HAM From right shoulder to left foot 50 AKSHAM Moving
down the front of the body

Jyoti Mudra Second Kriya

During this practice you contract (and then relax) the muscles near the
physical location of each Chakra. The position of the hands and fingers for
this Jyoti Mudra is the same as in First Kriya: you stick your thumbs in
your ears with the index fingers covering your eyes.

Become aware of the Muladhara Chakra. Contract the muscles near

Muladhara: the back part of the perineum. Then lift this Chakra through an
inhalation to Kutastha. Hold the breath for as long as you feel comfortable
(about 10 -15 sec) while trying to perceive the particular Light of
Muladhara in Kutastha. Relax the tension and exhale .

Then make a ''leap of awareness'' to the second Chakra Swadhisthana and

contract the muscles of the sex organ and the sacrum. You can practice
Vairoli Mudra (contract and relax both the urethral sphincter and the
muscles of the back near the sacral center.) Then do exactly what you have
done with the Muladhara Chakra...

When Swadhisthana is again in its initial position, place the focus of your
awareness on the third Chakra Manipura. Tighten the muscles of the
abdomen at the level of the navel: quickly contract and relax the navel, the
abdominal muscles and the lumbar are of the spine. Then do exactly what
you have done with the previous two Chakras...

Repeat the same scheme for Anahata Chakra. Expand the chest. Bring the
shoulder blades together and concentrate on the spine near the heart. Feel
the contraction of the muscles near the dorsal center. Then lift this Chakra
through an inhalation to the point between the eyebrows. Hold .... etc.

Focus on the fifth Chakra Vishuddha. Move your head quickly from side to
side (without turning your face) a couple of times, perceiving a grinding
sound in the cervical vertebrae. This is only to localize the cervical center.
Now contract the muscles of the back of the neck near the cervical
vertebrae. To astrally locate Vishuddha Chakra we need a different
procedure. Inhale from the cervical center without particular muscle
concentration to Kutastha. Now, holding your breath, practice the five
inclinations of the head:
a) turn the head to the left (the hands follow; the slight pressure upon ears

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and eyes does not change) the right elbow comes near the right breast,
b) turn the head to the right, the left elbow comes near the left breast,
c) return to the central position and bow the head forward;
d) bow the head back
e) then again in the front. Return to the normal position
Exhale from Kutastha to the Vishuddha Chakra.

For Medulla we have the following procedure. Inhale very slowly from the
base of the spine. During this inhalation, contract the muscles at the base of
the spine, then the muscles near the sex organ, then the muscles near the
navel and near the Manipura Chakra, then contract the muscles near the
dorsal center, near the region of the throat and, finally, clench your teeth
and put wrinkles in the forehead. see the light at the point between the
eyebrows. Feel that you are offering your sixth center to God. Exhale and
release the contraction.
For Sahasrara Chakra we have the following procedure. Inhale,
contract all centers like we have done for Ajna Chakra then with teeth
clenched, push the portion of your head which is above the eyebrows
(cranium) up into the high heavens, offer it to God. Exhale, and release the
contraction.

To end the procedure, put the palms of your hands over the eyelids and
remain there seeing a milky white Light for 2-3 min. When the Light
disappears, lower your hands and bow in the front and pray to the form of
God you prefer. Open your eyes but remain concentrated inside, in the
pituitary gland and see the divine Light in all things. Then enjoy
Paravastha as in the First Kriya.

THIRD KRIYA
Here starts the meditation without action that happens in the upper part of
the brain where the dimension of static Prana reigns. Obviously, there is
always a minimum of action: only in the final state of Samadhi there is no
action.

Brain orbit forgetting breath. With physical movement

The breath is natural, not controlled. Practice Kechari Mudra to the best of
your ability. Bend your head forward. Feel the energy present in the frontal
region of your head and mentally vibrate Bha there. Without raising your
chin to normal position, guide slowly your head in the position in which
the head is bent toward the left shoulder – as if you try touching the left
shoulder with your left ear. Feel the energy present in the left side of the
brain (over your left ear) and mentally vibrate Ga there. From this position,

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guide slowly both your head and the flow of energy backwards in the
occipital region of the brain. Mentally vibrate Ba there. Slowly guide your
head in the position in which the head is bent toward the right shoulder –
as if you try touching the right shoulder with the right ear. Mentally chant
Teee on the right side of the brain (over your right ear.) Always feel the
flow of energy moving to each position.

Slowly return to initial position with the head bent forward. Mentally
vibrate Ba there. Now, slowly straighten your head and return with chin
parallel to the ground while your attention moves toward the central part of
your brain under Fontanelle. Mentally vibrate Su there. This completes the
first round. Repeat this practice 12 times.

Fig.17 Circulation of calm Prana in the upper part of the brain

This rotation of energy is, by some teachers, called Thokar Kriya. The
reason is that during this practice the energy moves with pressure through
the brain substance. Reflect: Thokar has not the unique meaning of ''blow''
but also that of ''touching with pressure.'' This internal pressure, this
friction, creates the Divine Light manifestation.

FOURTH KRIYA

Brain orbit – immobility

After having completed the required number of rotations, it is not difficult
to move to this last part in which the energetic movement happens in
immobility.

Breath naturally. Repeat mentally, without hurry and without moving your
head, the syllables Bha, Ga, Ba, Te, Ba, Su trying to perceive the same

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energetic movement you have previously induced. A ball of Light is
turning inside your brain. After each round, this Light comes internally
under Fontanelle. Practice about 36 rounds during each Kriya routine.

Note
These two last practices create a very strong effect. In a merciless way you
become aware of the ego's subtle tricks that drive human actions. The
reason for many wrong decisions appears with a definitive clarity, free of
all covering veils. The ego is a very complicated mental structure: it is not
possible to destroy it, but it can be made transparent. There is a price to
pay: there might appear (hours after the practice) inexplicable waves of
fear, the sensation of not knowing where you are and where you are
directed to. This is a natural reaction coming from some subtle layers of
the brain you have touched.

If you feel unfocused or spacey – as if you were under the influence of

drugs, experiencing a state of too much detachment from the world and
from worldly things – then it is wise to complete the practice with some
repetitions of Second Kriya, both the formal part of it (6 repetitions) and
the informal part (3 repetitions.)

Brain orbit – comprehensive practice

This practice is the happy crowning of the effort done with the two
previous techniques. It makes the cosmic sound of Om to naturally rise and
be perceived by your enchanted awareness. You will listen only to this.
Therefore the mental chanting of Bha Ga Ba Te Va Su is of no utility. The
same will happen with the following three last procedures. You will focus
only upon Omkar sound and won’t need any Mantra chanting.

Focus on Muladhara. Inhale deeply and ideally lift this Chakra in the
central part of the brain, under Fontanelle, over Ajna Chakra. Visualize that
Chakra as a disk, large as the circulation of energy that you have
previously created.

Feel that the air is squeezed from the abdomen and stored in the upper part
of the lungs. Hold your breath and start to put into motion the rotation of
the energy in the head just as you have learned to do previously. The
rotation of the energy happens in the head but, at the same time, it happens
also around the real location of the Muladhara Chakra at the base of the
spine. Hence, two rotations of energy happen at the same time: it seems
difficult but it will become natural. [Remember also that at the end of each
circle, the flow of energy is directed inside toward its center.]

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 Fig.18 Here we are acting upon the heart Chakra

The ideal number of rotations associated with each Chakra is 36 but a

beginner is contented with a smaller number. Usually the need to breathe
will disappear. Exhale when you need to exhale and guide the Muladhara
Chakra back to its location at the base of the spine.
Fig.18 This is the moment in which the Fourth Chakra is lifted. You see the
circulation of energy in the upper part of the head and, at the same time, around
the heart Chakra

Inhale raising the second Chakra and repeat the procedure. Repeat the
procedure for each Chakra up to Ajna. Repeat it again for Ajna and then for
all the other Chakras down to Muladhara. The practice ends by breathing
freely, putting all the attention in the Fontanelle. Peace, internal joy,
breathless state, listening to internal sounds, perceiving the spiritual Light...
this is what you will experience. Your practice of Kriya will become a love
story with Beauty itself. Be sure, be confident: after a certain period of
time, a remarkable experience of Kundalini awakening will happen. It will
overcome you when you rest in the supine position. Without experiencing
any start of surprise, you will find yourself ferried from a sweet dream to
an authentic heaven; you will return to daily life with tears in your eyes –
tears born of endless devotion.

153
When you master this procedure – when effortless Kumbhaka stabilizes
and you are able to experience 36 (complete) rotations of Prana in your
brain for each Chakra, namely 432 rotations of energy during 12
Kumbhaka – then you will perceive the entire universe filled with the
effulgence of Divine Light. The effect is that during the day, a state of
never before experienced clarity of mind will surprise you. The foundation
of your consciousness will be perceived as a continuous joy, having no
reason whatsoever.

Note
It is perfectly natural to approach this practice by slightly rotating your
head (and also by mentally chanting the six syllables of the Mantra.)
Although this is not required, this might be useful for beginners. If this
happens, try to move gradually toward physical immobility and toward
listening to actual Omkar Sound.

FIFTH KRIYA

Dissolve the breath in Brahmaloka

The 8th Chakra is the door that puts you in contact with your astral body.
Its opening involves the cleansing of what holds you to the cycle of death
and rebirth, namely worn-out psychological patterns. It is the center of
spiritual compassion and spiritual selflessness. A kriyaban who realizes the
essence of this Chakra becomes completely selfless and lives with
compassion rather than judgment.
Some Kriya or Kundalini Yoga teachers explain that this Chakra is
located 5-6 cm. over Fontanelle. Other locations are given: 8 cm., 30 cm.,
60 cm. .... We must trust our perception. Let us sweetly swing our trunk
and head from side to side with the focus of attention over our head until
we feel this Chakra. That is the right location!

Inhale, slowly drawing Prana from Muladhara to the 8th Chakra. During
this procedure, don’t focus on any other Chakra in the spine. Move up
feeling distinctly that the energy crosses the Fontanelle and reaches the 8th
Chakra. Concentrate there and enjoy the equilibrium state between
inhalation and exhalation. Exhale sweetly, letting Prana descend from the
8th Chakra to Muladhara. (Feel distinctly that the energy, coming down,
crosses the Fontanelle.) When you feel the need to inhale repeat the
procedure. Repeat again and again until the state of your consciousness is
totally changed and your breath is very subtle, almost non-existent.

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Fig.19 The breath moves between Bhuloka and Brahmaloka and then dissolves

Now inhale sweetly from Muladhara to the 8th Chakra, raising breath and
Prana. Exhale sweetly from the 8th Chakra down the spine, but do not
come down intentionally to the Muladhara Chakra. You will see that the
exhaling current reaches spontaneously a certain point in the spine. This
point is not necessarily one of the different Chakras. Wherever this point
is, it is fundamental to feel it clearly inside the spine. This point becomes
the starting point of the next inhalation. Inhale then from this new starting
point into the 8th Chakra. The current comes up through the spine: now the
length of the path is obviously shorter. Pause there. Exhale sweetly down
the spine: probably the exhaling current makes a shorter path, shorter than
the previous. This is the new starting point. Inhale from this new position
upwards...

By repeating this procedure, you will reach a particular mental and

physical condition in which you will remain breathless, with total focus on

155
the 8th Chakra. If, after a long pause, the breath appears again, repeat the
process from the beginning (inhaling from Muladhara). Go ahead
patiently, unperturbed. The point is to make the breath cease, entering a
dimension where it is no longer necessary.

SIXTH KRIYA

Meditation upon the light in Cerebellum

Fig.20 The Light moves from the 8th Chakra to Cerebellum

Rotate your awareness around the 8th Chakra. Perceive a ball of Light that
makes a circulation around your 8th Chakra and then touches the center of
this Chakra. Repeat many times this perception without any mental
chanting of Mantra. Let the ball of Light do not come inward after tracing
one circle but come down, piercing the Fontanelle at an angle.

While the ray is coming down raise your chin and feel the ray of Light
reaching your Cerebellum. Remain immobile for a few seconds, wholly
immersed in the intensity of the dazzling white Light shining from there to
the whole brain. Lower your chin without losing the concentration upon
the Light. Rest a moment there, and then repeat the procedure. Gradually
during the next days repeat the experience more and more times. The
Divine Light becomes stable at the Cerebellum.

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Meditation upon the light shining in the Pineal Gland
Perceiving constantly the Divine Light in Cerebellum is a very high state,
but you must learn how to go beyond it. Our goal is to learn to locate your
Pineal Gland and enter it.
In order to achieve this goal, intuitively condense all the Light in
Cerebellum and direct it toward your Pineal Gland. This gland is located
very near the Cerebellum, but slightly forward and above it, along a line
forming a 60° angle (with the pavement.) A substantial help comes by
doing a movement like the one utilized to obtain the coming down of Light
and focusing it in the Cerebellum, but more slow and almost imperceptible.
The movement should be only hinted, with no muscular tension at all. The
last immersion in the Light happens after this slight movement, when you
are almost immobile: there is a sort of internal tension that guides you
intuitively toward the Pineal Gland.

Fig.21 The Light moves from the Cerebellum to the Pineal gland

Repeat and repeat your attempt until you succeed in entering the Pineal
Gland. Here the union with the Divine takes place. The state of TAT
TVAM ASI manifests. During this time of divine oneness, one is devoid of
body consciousness and unaware of one’s surroundings.

After the Omkar sound ceases to exist

the Effulgent Form appears.
Nothing exists except the Sun of the Soul.
9
I, Shama Churn, am that Sun. (Lahiri Mahasaya)

9
Lahiri Mahasaya is Shama Churn – Shyama Charan. This sentence is contained in
Lahiri Mahasaya's diaries. Many sentences from the diaries are to be found in the
book Purana Purusha by Dr. Ashok Kumar Chatterjee

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 CHAPTER 11
DISCUSSIONS WITH STUDENTS OF PY'S CORRESPONDENCE COURSE

This appendix is devoted to those students who are serious about going
ahead on the Kriya path utilizing only the techniques that can be obtained
by the organizations that spread PY's teachings. 10 Apart from the technique
of Kechari Mudra, often quoted in PY's writings and surely practiced by
him, they don't feel the necessity of mixing PY's techniques with other
spiritual procedures. They feel they are PY's disciples and believe that by
adopting other teachings is equivalent to betray him.

When I followed PY's teachings, our ''Meditation counselor'' explained that

the worst evil was disloyalty toward Guru and his organization. With the
term ''disloyalty'' she meant even just reading what other persons who left
the organization had written about Kriya Yoga.

After posting my book online, I had an intense email exchange with

various researchers faithful to PY. After having clarified that they did not
approve my decision to write in such explicit way Lahiri Mahasaya's Kriya
techniques, they asked me how I can be sure that PY had simplified or
modified some details of the Kriya procedures. Trying to perceive what
was stirring in their heart and mind, I felt that their worry consisted in the
possibility they had missed something important, for example techniques
not contained in the correspondence course, that PY could have shared
only with some intimate disciples.

Those kriyabans were very serious, honest, deeply motivated. No nonsense

would ever slip out of their mouths. I learned to listen to them respectfully
and silently whenever they corrected some of my fancy interpretations of
Kriya Yoga. Many, without being exhibitionist, were able to quote by heart
many passages from the works of PY. They had studied all the Kriya
material written or dictated by PY and often remembered verbatim key
quotations from that material. They had read and re-read through those
texts several times trying to decode them.
10
Many kriyabans do not consider these techniques exactly equal to those of Lahiri
Mahasaya. They are not here described in detail, but freely commented according to
my personal experience – for what its worth. I give it for granted that the reader
knows them. In order to avoid confusion, I will denote them in the following way:
PY's First Kriya, PY's Second Kriya.....

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They always struck me with their extraordinary commitment to a regular
practice of Kriya. Although unsatisfied with their understanding of the
subtle mechanism underlying the Kriya procedures and tormented by many
doubts, they never dismissed the practice. It was clear that they were
following the Kriya path not for esoteric curiosities, not to find an
alternative cure to anxiety, depression …. but for one reason only: to follow
and realize the spiritual path so fascinatingly delineated in PY's
autobiography.

The greatest part of our discussions concerned the Higher Kriyas. This is
perfectly explainable. To many kriyabans the crisis with their Kriya
organization began when their request of having a seminar on the Higher
Kriyas received an incomprehensible, anachronistic ''NO''.

The meetings organized to review the basic teachings (Kriya proper plus
Hong So and Om techniques) were always a source of inspiration. The
disappointment of not getting this opportunity also in the field of the
Higher Kriyas was unbearably bitter. 11

Every student wanted at least to see how such techniques were performed.
Each technique included some physical movements: if you study them only
from a written text, you are never sure about your correct performance.

We had inspiring conversations. The purpose of this Chapter is to refer in

synthesis the main points of those conversations. I am confident they
contain interesting information.

This summary is divided into three parts:

[I] A rational approach to First Kriya routine
[II] Adding PY's Third Kriya in an intelligent way
[III] Work with PY's Second Kriya till the last days of our life

11
We know that recently a couple of the organizations based upon PY's legacy proved
they had understood that it doesn't pay to behave in such a way and are giving
regular initiation into the Higher Kriyas.

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[I] A RATIONAL APPROACH TO FIRST KRIYA ROUTINE

Let us consider a Kriya routine where the well known techniques of Hong
So and Om are practiced at the end.

It is wise to start with Maha Mudra followed by Kriya proper. This can be
practiced with open, semi closed or closed mouth: are all good. The logic
order is: first mouth open then closed. The hypothesis that only open
mouth Pranayama causes the energy to flow through the Sushumna
channel – implying that the lateral currents of Ida and Pingala had no role
– is baseless. Breath and energy move in Sushumna only when the breath is
subtle, internalized and this happens after a great effort of concentration
and relaxation.

As for Kechari Mudra, a good number of kriyabans has achieve it. 12 One
of my kriyaban friends had a strange opinion: he stated that Pranayama
with Kechari was too ''weak'', being deprived of the strong sensations in
the spine that you feel with mouth Pranayama. It was clear that this friend
had tormented himself for a long time before taking his decision to give up
Kechari Mudra.

Reviewing that episode, I think that the problem was the beauty of the
sounds of the breath obtained with the open or semi closed mouth. The fact
is that with the mouth closed and the tongue in Kechari Mudra (even baby
Kechari) the sound is destined to become clean and fine like that of a flute.
This flute-like sound is experienced only after a committed practice, when
the spine is ''clean'' like an empty tube.

An important information about the Kriya practice is this:

there are two versions of the Kriya proper, one taught in 1930 and one
more recent. In my opinion a serious kriyaban should have experience of
both versions. The first one matches perfectly the description of Kriya
given in AOY: ''The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve,
upward and downward, around the six spinal centers.... '' This does not
match with the technique that is given nowadays.
12
PY in his writings and in his talks gave the definition of Kechari Mudra without
introducing any practical exercises to be performed over a certain period of time in
order to achieve it.

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A good practice to be done after Kriya proper (and also after Jyoti Mudra)
is Hong So technique
After Kriya proper you can utilize the Hong So technique, practicing it in
the spine.

a) While you are watching your breath, never establish a rhythm in the
mental chanting of Hong So! If by mentally chanting this Mantra you
follow a rhythm, this rhythm will never settle down. Your mind will not
guide you to the state of calm breath. Don't permit that the implacable
rhythm of the litany: ''Hong So, Hong So, Hong So, Hong So...'' marches
onward like the clackerty clack of the wheels of a train.

If your body can physiologically stay off-breath for some instants or for
long moments, the rhythm should not cause the breathing process continue
implacably. If you don't let the pauses exist, then you will never realize
you are in the condition of living the emancipating experience of the
breathless state.

Be always very attentive to each pause. Respect it, have care of it, merge
with it. Enjoy the beauty of this pause, no matter if it lasts just an instant!

b) The pause after inhalation is different from the pause after exhalation. In
normal, not controlled, breathing there is the tendency to exhale
immediately after inhalation. Inhaling, the rib cage expands and gets into
an elastic tension. If there is no control, this elastic force, even if it is
minimal, is released immediately after inhalation. If you want to practice
the Hong So technique in the best of the ways, after inhalation wait calmly
and without any forcing the stimulus to exhale. Accept that the rib cage
remains expanded and therefore in slight tension for some instants. When,
after this pause, the stimulus to exhale appears, exhale.

c) Visualize your breath going up and down the spine with Hoooong
and Soooo. No control – your breath is free. You can go ahead in this way
for some minutes, then, when the breath is so short that the procedure is on
the verge of evaporating into nothing, try to feel this short breath
happening in each Chakra. One short, almost invisible, but complete breath
happens in Muladhara and is blended with the soothing chant of Hong and
So. This breath is like a peaceful vibration in a silent mind. Then place
your concentration on the second Chakra: another breath happens there,
then another breath happens in the third Chakra ... and so on... up and
down along the spine... until there is no more breath.

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If you practice in this way, a "virtuous circle" between this growing
calmness and the reduced necessity of oxygen will start. This leads to an
extraordinarily result even for those who deem they are only clumsy
beginners. You are flying along the spinal tunnel towards a state of
paradisiac tranquility. In time you will realize the truth contained in the
words of a great disciple of PY: ''I have learned to live by inner joy.''
(J.J.Lynn)

A note about the Om meditation technique

Contrarily to what some students think, this technique works. But it works
only if you practice as it is taught: in the recommended position, with arm
rest, closing one's ears with your hands (no ear plugs) while mental
chanting Om innumerable times, with total commitment to internal
listening without ever discouraging.

Often your hands seem paralyzed. You won't sense them anymore: this is
the moment to keep on, undeterred. Usually you do not notice the exact
instant when you start listening to the internal sounds: at a certain point
you notice you are already listening to them since some time. The internal
sounds don't appear when the mind is active thinking, but only when it is
perfectly void, even void of the I consciousness, void of the thought you
are doing a certain practice. When you reach a total void (to some this state
seems having entered the sleep state), when the repetition of the Mantra
has created a transformation of you state of consciousness, you will be
surprised by a certain indefinite internal sound. You will sweetly become
aware of them.

Great experiences ensue from this meditation technique. But it is necessary

to devote to this technique the necessary time it requires. After the Om
technique no other procedure should follow.
[II] ADDING GRADUALLY PY's THIRD KRIYA

Preliminary practice
The practice of the above described Kriya routine coupling the procedure
of Kriya proper with the procedure of Hong So routine is the best
preparation for Third Kriya. Through that routine you learn the art of
producing a breath which is long and deep but at the same time
SPONTANEOUS.

What I am writing seems illogical. Let me express this concept in another

way: the lesson of Kriya proper and the lesson of Hong So join together. In

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the Third Kriya you need to utilize a breath in which there is no trace of
violence. No trace of forcing this event because Third Kriya is really an
event, it is not something that you make, that you produce with you ability.
Third Kriya happens in Sushumna. ''Happens'' .. this is the point! Only a
similar breath in which you respect the natural pause after each inhalation
has the power to guide your awareness into Kutastha.

Utilize a natural breath through the nose. Now, in this first preliminary to
Kriya routine, avoid the practice of Thokar (movements of the head.) This
first practice should happen in immobility. Your aim is to let you awareness
move along the spinal tunnel. The ability you have achieved after months
or years of Kriya proper is utilized in guiding awareness and Prana in the
first Chakra, then into the second Chakra... and so on …. Chakra after
Chakra, up to Kutastha, the point between the eyebrows, and then
returning back to Muladhara. This must happen in a state of absolute
immobility, mentally repeating the 12 syllables of the Mantra typical of
Lahiri Mahasaya's Higher Kriyas. The breath is calm, imperceptible. A
micro pause happens in each Chakra. During each micro pause you realize
that there is a force born in the abdominal region that allows you to move
the Prana. During that practice, you are in a state of great peace. If the
breath becomes ''too much calm, imperceptible'', this is not a clue that you
way you practice is wrong. No, it is a hint that your practice is correct.

You can gradually increase of the number of the repetitions.

Try to respect the following plan: you start with the practice of 25
repetitions once a day, for two weeks. Then 50 repetitions a day for two
other weeks. Then 75 repetitions a day for two other weeks... then 100...
and so on, increasing of 25 in 25 until you practice 200 repetitions a day
for two weeks. And then? Then you are ready for the real procedure of
Third Kriya. I mean that in the dimension I have just tried to describe you
utilize the Thokar procedure.

Second incremental routine

Now you are ready to draw the best from the complete technique –
''Complete'' means: as per written lessons. As promise I do not describe the
procedure of Thokar. I am writing (in this chapter) for person who have
already received initiation. During this following subtle effort you start
with Kriya proper and then your meditation born intuition will guide you
to let the correct Third Kriya happen in your life.

Start again with 25 repetitions of the complete procedure. Your breath is

very, very subtle. You will witness how the current in the spine starts to
move spontaneously. Be concentrated but do not force the process of

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raising the energy during inhalation and let it move smoothly down during
exhalation.

The incremental plan is the same: 25 repetitions of the technique every day,
once a day, for two weeks. Then 50 repetitions a day for two other weeks....
75 …. 100... 125…...150 ...175 ….200 for two weeks! The power that this
plan can put into motion is indescribable.

Unfortunately if one has not the courage to overcome the 12 prescribed

repetitions of the Third Kriya, will never realize the power contained in this
technique! Increase therefore the number of repetitions, increase without
fear and end your routine by trying further to calm the breath and reach the
breathless state. Do the movements of the head in a very delicate way
avoiding to stress the cervical vertebrae!

What can we say about Fourth Kriya?

As you know the technique is the same as Third Kriya. There is only this
long process of holding the breath and repeat the head movements.
Unfortunately, many in our group after receiving PY's Third and Fourth
Kriya, were not able to resist the temptation of trying Fourth Kriya on the
spot – "if it leads to Samadhi, why not try it now"? After about 15 - 20
rotations, Kumbhaka became stressful. Instead of giving up, we repeated a
couple of times the same attempt, while discomfort increased while a
feeling of nausea or dizziness goes on launching its alarm signals.
Eventually we stopped, defeated. The gain was zero, less than zero! Not
only we had not obtained the slightest trace of Samadhi, but we had lost the
initial tranquil state.

Now, after all the work done, you will experience the procedure of Fourth
Kriya in a more comfortable way ... Here I can share only a common
consideration that all the kriyabans with which I have spoken agree upon.

In a routine in which you experience this Fourth Kriya, immediately after

the practice, enjoy some rounds of Third Kriya and some rounds of the
simple Kriya proper. Practice until you feel calmness, then concentrate, for
a long time, on the heart Chakra.
kkk

[III] WORK WITH PY'S SECOND KRIYA TILL THE LAST DAYS
OF OUR LIFE

Now we have become familiar with PY's First, Third, and Fourth Kriya.

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The tendency is to renounce the use of the breathing process and work
only with pure awareness. Our breath has become almost evanescent. The
work we are going to do happens apparently in the spine, actually it
happens in Kutastha. Kutastha has different layers, like an onion. We start
by becoming aware of its outer layer which is ... the Chakra Muladhara!

We will certainly continue to do what we have done for a long time,

namely moving within the spinal tunnel. Yet now our intuition will fall into
line with a new way of conceiving the reality of the spine.

We shall focus on the Muladhara and discover that we are in Kutastha,

then focus on Swadhisthana and realize we are in Kutastha but in a subtler
dimension, the same will happen with Manipura ... at some point we shall
be in front of the white star in Kutastha..

While shifting the focus of concentration from Chakra to Chakra, we will

refine our attunement to subtler vibrations.

Through the instruments of the Third and the Fourth Kriya we have
unfastened most part of the subtle obstacle of the heart Chakra (Hridaya
Granti Ved.)

PY's Second Kriya is the conclusion of the long phase of our path where
Pranayama is enriched with the Bandhas and with the great stimulation
that happens through the procedure of Thokar.

In PY's Second Kriya we force our concentration upon each Chakra until
the essence of each of them is revealed. To say that we will meet the
essence of the Chakras means that we shall also meet the essence of the
Tattwas (the five elements.) Indeed the first five Chakras preside over the 5
elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether. One may think that this is part of
Indian philosophy. Well, what will happen in our experience is touching,
feeling, realizing these five elements.

In Kriya, subtle experiences take place, and what will happen is described
very well by PY in his correspondence course. He explains very clearly the
physical changes that occur in our bodies depending on the predominance
in our consciousness of one Tattwa. He describes particular patterns of the
flow of breath through the nostrils, different flavors that we perceive in our
mouth....

Of course, it is difficult to perceive the essence of the five elements; it is a

procedure that even in the esoteric literature is rarely and cautiously

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mentioned.

PY's Second Kriya helps to internally listen to the sound of the Chakra
during the practice of Kriya Proper. Some ''strong'' experiences happen in
the spine, especially if one stretches out immediately after the practice.
Each ''experience'' gives such an intensity of devotion that one is surprised
to discover it in his own life.

The First and the Second Kriya tend to merge together.

Being in tune with the Om vibration, a sense of vastness pervades our

consciousness. The Om vibration will take on a slightly different tone in
each Chakra. Kriya Pranayama then gives the feeling of flying through
different regions of an inner sky.

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 PART III: ESSENTIAL PRACTICE

CHAPTER 12
A GOOD WAY OF EXPERIENCING THE BEAUTY OF KRIYA YOGA

In the second part of my book I have tried to give the reader the
opportunity to familiarize with various procedures of Kriya Yoga. I have
tried to describe in detail different techniques, perhaps too many
techniques.

Probably the reader has made some experiments with different procedures
and has noticed that some of them are more effective than others. Surely
with few techniques the whole spiritual path of Kriya Yoga can be
mastered.

Now, if I had the intention of teaching Kriya to a beginner, which

techniques would I choose to teach? My desire is obviously to see good
and solid results.

I would like that a person, through the practice of Kriya will be born to
the spiritual life.

What does it mean to undertake the path of the Spirit? In addition to study,
work, creating a family, rest, enjoy the beauty of nature, and experience
the wonder of creation , in addition to thinking with their own head
creating a philosophical view on the meaning of life, there is something
that goes beyond all this: in other words that goes beyond emotional and
mental life. I mean discovering a perfect, inexplicable joy that goes
beyond everything and explodes peacefully in your life, often awe-
inciting.

Those who are born to mental life only, cannot understand what the birth
to the spiritual life is. This birth rarely happens and when it happens it
doesn’t consist in the decision to live in a different way, adopting certain
rituals and professing a certain faith. The spiritual life doesn't start through
a mental effort. A human being must first have a contact with the joy that
is in the center of her/his heart.

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Now, what is necessary to teach in order that a person may have a contact
with that joy? I have a clear answer in my mind: to teach Pranayama, the
art of working with the breath.

LESSON I: Technique of Kriya Pranayama as explained by Sri Mukherjee

LESSON II: Introduction of THREE procedures to be practiced before

Kriya Pranayama plus a further procedure that can be practiced any time
during one's daily routine

PREP. 1: Forward bendings

PREP. 2: Pranayama with Japa rotating in Kutastha
PREP. 3: Nadi Sodhana with focus on Muladhara + Tadan Kriya
TECHNIQUE 4: Guiding Kundalini

LESSON III: Combine these four aforedescribed exercises with the

practice of Kriya Pranayama. This lesson contains Routine 1.1 and 1.2

LESSON IV: Introduction of Thokar. This lesson contains Routine 2.1 and
2.2 The goal of reaching the breathless state becomes at hand especially if
you add the practice of Japa.

LESSON V: Three routines (A, B and C) that prepare a person to face in

the correct way the great technique of Tummo. This technique completes
the process of freeing the spine from any internal obstacle.

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LESSON I: Technique of Kriya Pranayama as explained by Sri

Mukherjee

Preliminary remark
The technique of Kriya Pranayama is practiced to enter Sushumna. In
order to enter it, you need to make the breath extremely subtle. Actually,
you can enter Sushumna only by behaving with extreme delicacy. This
happens when, during Kriya Pranayama, your inner gaze and all your
attention are fixed in the central point of the spiritual eye between your
eyebrows and not in any other place! This point is Kutastha. Therefore, put

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your whole attention there. Be mindful of avoiding any strain on the eyes.
Everything should stays natural.

Many try to raise the energy in Sushumna with force, in a coarse way. In
this situation, Kundalini does not move upwards but is dispersed and
burned in the body; this may create diseases because initially the Nadis are
partially blocked. Your Kriya Pranayama will produce only stress. Many
endeavor to produce the sound in the throat since the beginning and create
a strong visualization of the energy that comes up and down: this is not
correct. Therefore, I repeat, we must start in an extremely simple way and
proceed without expecting striking results. But then, at a certain point,
something profound and meaningful will happen. As for Kechari Mudra,
the baby Kechari is enough for now – baby Kechari is to hold the tip of the
tongue up, touching the soft part of the palate.

Main instruction
By keeping both the shoulders in a natural position, by expanding the chest
a little bit, by bringing the back in a straight position, by lowering gently
the chin, by mentally gazing between the two eyebrows, the position
becomes steady effortlessly. Do not cross the eyes, simply set yourself in
the point between the eyebrows as if this were a cave where you take
shelter.

Have a deep, natural breath. 1 Chant mentally Om six times in Kutastha

during inhalation and six times during exhalation.

Unlike other forms of Kriya, during this initial part you don't put Om in the
physical seat of each Chakra. Rather you don't feel the body at all. You
breath doesn't require effort – therefore you don't make any sound in the
throat. Perhaps this will seem to you not a correct way of practicing Kriya,
but please practice this way, this is what Lahiri Mahasaya and Swami
Pranabananda Giri instructed.

If your breath is very short, accept this situation without trying, with
uneasiness, to lengthen your breath. A longer breath will appear
spontaneously in time. What matters is to stay focused at Kutastha with the
mental chant of Om. So, while you are inhaling or exhaling you ''knock'' at
the door of Kutastha by chanting 6 + 6 Oms.

The recommended number of breaths is 108 and therefore (if you don't fall
1
In this situation ''deep breath'' means: ''Deep as much as you can easily mentally
chant six + six Oms.

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asleep, if are not disturbed by external events) at the end you shall have
mentally chanted the syllable Om 12x108=1296 times.

Knocking with Om at Kutastha will give you the power to mentally touch
the central point of each Chakra – this event happens spontaneously, so
don't try to anticipate it through complicated visualizations. This event
happens because the the sixth Chakra Ajna governs everything: it gives
you an alignment with all the Chakras.

When, while inhaling and exhaling, you mentally chant Om the prescribed
number or times in the central point of Kutastha and this subtle action
happens also in each Chakra, automatically – even if you are not aware of
this fact.

There is only a sphere of Light in Kutastha and all happens there. You,
your body, your spine, everything is there. By going ahead, the exercise
becomes more and more pleasant.

In time [if it doesn't happen today, it will happen tomorrow: it needs to

have patience and to encourage the right attitude] you will feel that the
spine exists, that it is possible to perceive it in all its length. There is
nothing in particular you do. Don't try to obtain this by moving your
awareness down in the body. Everything happens automatically.

Meanwhile you notice that the breath is slower and also the mental chant
of the various Oms is more calm and pleasant. At a certain point you will
feel that the six Chakras exist. What will appear through internal vision is
not necessarily the traditional form of the spinal column with the six
Chakras. The Chakras can be perceived in many different ways.

At a certain point you will realize that the mental chants of Oms in
Kutastha are happening in the center of each Chakra too. But remember
that your attention is always at the central point of the spiritual eye. If your
focus is diverted from Kutastha, all the magic of this process is lost.

At a certain moment you will notice that the breath is accompanied by a

delicate sound in the throat. It is the sound of the friction of the air in the
throat. In this way the breath becomes slow and subtle. In time the sound
of the exhalation reminds the sound produced by a small flute through
which a small amount of air passes. Now don't worry how this sound
should be.

If everything goes as expected, if you still maintain calmness, your breath

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crosses the Chakras from the first to the sixth and from the sixth to the first
and in each Chakra the syllable Om is vibrated. This is a delicious
situation. Usually this happens toward the end of the 108 breaths. All your
being is settled in a bright sphere located between Kutastha and the center
of your head. What you see doesn't matter, what matters is that you are
perfectly comfortable, absorbed in the beauty of the procedure. While you
are approaching the end of the 108 Kriya breaths, you might have the
experience of the light in Kutastha. This will be intensified by Yoni Mudra.
After Yoni Mudra and Maha Mudra you will sit again placing yourself in
Kutastha without doing nothing. In other words without chanting Om, and
without paying attention to the breath.

Important remark!
I have just written that '' ... it will seem that the breath '' crosses '' the
Chakras from the first to the sixth and from the sixth to the first. '' Well, the
opposite could happen: the breath apparently comes down within the spine
during the inhalation. (and this would be very natural to happen) and
apparently comes up during exhalation.

For the moment we do not try to explain this: we simply let things happen:
we do not force anything.

Questions and answers

Some kriyabans find it difficult to learn how to practice this form of Kriya
Pranayama because they do no accept the fact that this method is
completely different from what they had been practiced before. For
example they feel it strange that in the instruction there is no mention of
the spinal path. There are many unexpected questions.

Are the breaths uncontrolled like in the Hong So technique?

During the Hong So technique we observe the spontaneous process of
breathing without paying attention to whether the inhalations and
exhalations are long or short.

By going ahead with this technique the breathing must be natural but we
must pay attention so that it is gradually prolonged. How can the ''Hong So
breathing'' sustain the procedure of Kriya Yoga that gradually leads to a
slowing down of upward and downward movement of the current along
the spine?

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In Lahiri Mahasaya's teaching (and we are trying to abide by that tradition)
it is stated that in the long run you become able to practice a very sublime
form of Pranayama: inhalation and exhalation prolonged up to 22 + 22
seconds.

In other words: in Sri M.'s Kriya Pranayama we utilize a NATURAL

breath. But this breathing must be slow so that you can chant Om mentally
six times during inhalation and six times during exhalation. We must have
a breath that can support this mental action. Our breath must go ahead
effortlessly but must exist! If we would practice like in the Hong So
technique, it will be impossible to have it. The breath must be natural but
we must care that it gradually lengthens.

If you have a very short breath and therefore you are not able to mentally
pronounce that many Oms, chant the Oms more quickly. Your breathing
will be prolonged after a small number of repetitions.

I would like to know little more about the process of ''knocking'' with
Om in Kutastha. If we mentally chant Om, then at that time we are not
having Kutastha in mind.
The point is not: ''having Kutastha in mind'' but being there, inside
Kutastha. The mind is still, the process of thought is not stressed with the
idea ''I must have Kutastha in mind otherwise my practice is wrong'' No.
Nothing of that. You are occupied with two activities, [1] breathing and [2]
putting Om repeatedly in the central point of Kutastha. That's all. If you do
this for some minutes, you enter a paradise. With patience you achieve
your divine state of contemplation.

Some persons speculate about the duration of each Om, if after each Om
there is a short pause. They want to know how many micro seconds it
lasts... They are free to sophisticate and come to their failure. Kriya
sometimes might seem a chemical receipt but its nature is that of an art
based upon intuition, intelligence, commonsense.

What is the best routine?

108 Kriya breaths [Time required: from 40 to 50 minutes] After that,
practice Yoni Mudra (only once in 24 hours), 3 Maha Mudra and then
remain calm, focused on Kutastha. In this final part you simply enjoy the
peace and the bliss originating from the practice of Kriya.

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Sri Mukherjee explains clearly that even a beginner can start right away
doing the full 108 repetitions. There is no lower number to begin with ,
there is no recommended progression. Of course if one is ill, he does not
practice at all. And if one, due to circumstances beyond their control, can
practice only an inferior number, well, this may happen but it should not
become the rule. About other numbers found in the letters written by Lahiri
to his disciples, we must understand that those letters represent very
personal instructions. Here we are considering a general counsel given to
serious kriyabans in a good condition of health.

As for Maha Mudra there is a variation recommended by Sri Mukherjee

for those who find Maha Mudra too difficult. ''Lie down on the back.
Inhale. Raise the legs maintaining the pelvis on the floor. Join the hands
under the knees. Keep your equilibrium on the inferior bones of the pelvis
and keep the forehead near the knees. Exhale. Return to the initial
position.''

Alternative practice to conclude your practice of Kriya Pranayama.

When the breath is internalized inside Sushumna, keep attention at
Kutastha. With natural breathing pull one inhalation into Sushumna with
only one mental chant of Om and exhale with another Om. Practices like
this until you forget yourself and reach the stage of Samadhi.

In the correspondence of Lahiri with his disciples, Medulla is often

quoted. Has Medulla a role?
What I now describe is a ''subtlety'' that is discovered in time.
Practice as I describe: keep the chin some millimeters down and inside in a
way that Kutastha and Medulla are at the same level. It is not difficult to
realize that the center of your awareness is in the Medulla while the faculty
of visualization is located in the point between the eyebrows. Now you
will discover that every manifestation (not visualization), every luminous
revelation of the Chakras happens about four centimeters inward from the
point between the eyebrows: the seat of Ajna. What I say seems
perhaps complicated to you but, believe me, while you are practicing,
breath after breath everything becomes clearer.

How can I know when comes the right moment to produce the sounds
in the throat?
It is typical of Kriya schools to teach you how to produce strong sounds in
the throat since the beginning of the practice. They explain that strong
sounds in the beginning are ok because they produce cold an warm
sensations in the spine. Sri Mukherjee explains that these sensation happen
but they are produced by the Ida and Pingala currents. These currents have

173
nothing to do with being in Sushumna. If you, since the starting of your
Pranayama, insist too much upon them, you may cause some problems
and lose the magic of the procedure.

Let that throat sounds come later. They will be more enjoyable, will
''mesmerize'' your concentration and help the procedure. The sounds
appear spontaneously when the breath is sufficiently long. Only meditation
born intuition can help you to understand when it is good you try to
increase the force of your breath and produce the sounds.

Why Sri Mukherjee has written: ''After entering Sushumna you have
to use force on Pranayama.''
This is a hint to the Second Kriya stage. It may happen that before ending
108 Kriyas breaths you are in Sushumna. It might happen that at a certain
moment you will feel that the veil of darkness fades away and you witness
the brilliance of the Divine Light in the center of which lies the entry point
of Sushumna. In that wonderful situation you might perceived the color of
each Chakra.

This is the realm of Second Kriya that we will examine later. In this
situation it is not necessary to abide by the injunction ''Don't overstep the
prescribed number: 108.'' In this case you can go ahead until you enter an
ecstatic state and are lost there. Lahiri Mahasaya has said that in this state
there is no other instruction to be practiced.

If Kriya Pranayama as taught by Sri Mukherjee works so well, what is

the utility of Kriya Pranayama as described in Chapter 6 and 7?
Chapter 6 and 7 will, in time, foster the improvement of your practice.
The same will happen with the so called Higher Kriyas.

Here ends the explanation of Kriya Pranayama as I have heard it from

Sri Mukherjee.

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LESSON II: Explanation of THREE procedures to be practiced
before Kriya Pranayama plus a further procedure that can be
practiced at any time during one's daily routine

PREP. 1: Forward bendings

PREP. 2: Pranayama with Japa rotating in Kutastha
PREP. 3: Nadi Sodhana with focus on Muladhara + Tadan Kriya
TECHNIQUE 4: Guiding Kundalini

Before describing four important preliminary-to-Kriya procedures, let me

remind that one cannot start a Kriya routine by simply sitting in the correct
position with erected spine after sitting for hours to do a mental work. It is
important to practice some exercises to awaken the Prana in the body. At
least have a brisk walking for 30 minutes.

As soon as you get up in the morning practice a bit of Japa. Then have a
small breakfast and some simple activities. Having done this, if you find
40 minutes free do your routine. If you're a beginner you need only 20
minutes.

If you can't practice in the morning, try, when everyone has lunch, to find a
hiding place to practice without anyone seeing you. If you can not have a
lunch, practice before dinner. If before dinner it is not possible, practice
late at night after taking a tea.

PREP. 1: Forward bendings (see also the related explanation in

chapter 10)
Through a deep inhalation visualize the breath coming from the physical
location of Muladhara up the spine until you complete the breath at Ajna.
Hold your breath. Bend at the waist and touch the floor with your head.
During the forward bendings you should utilize the legs and also the hands
in the way which is more comfortable for you.

Move your head near the right knee – the face is turned toward the left
knee so that it is possible to perceive a pressure on the right side of the
head; a sensation of space is perceived inside the left side of the brain.
Remain in this position for 3 to 12 seconds.

Then repeat the same exercise with the other side of your body, reversing

175
the perceptions. Then the head is placed in the region between the knees
again, the face turned downward. A pressure is felt on the forehead. A
sensation of space is perceived inside the occipital region.

Then sit up straight, inhaling deeply. Through a long exhalation let the
energy go down from Ajna Chakra to Muladhara. Practice six of these
forward bendings.

● The forward bendings are useful not only as a preparation to Kriya but
also for ameliorating your standing position, correcting wrong positions.
For many old persons the forward bendings can replace the Maha Mudra.

PREP. 2: Kriya Pranayama with Japa rotating in Kutastha

We know how important is the practice of Japa, especially when practiced
a couple of hours before starting the Kriya routine. It creates a condition
very favorable to an entranced contemplation of the Spiritual Reality.

If you want to practice the Kriya Pranayama you must know how to make
your awareness stable in Kutastha.

Inhale as in Kriya Pranayama, then create a pause after inhalation. During

this pause mentally chant your favored Mantra (the one you utilize for
Japa.) Perceive that this Mantra is something that rotates in the sphere of
Kutastha.

What does ''something that rotates'' mean? You have surely seen those
acrobats that ride a motorbike inside a sphere made of solid steel armor.
They cross the inside part of the sphere along all the directions winning the
strength of gravity. Well you make pretense that your Kutastha is a sphere
in whose internal part you make your Mantra rotate. (More slowly of
course.) Do this until you feel a sensation of strong presence in the center
between you eyebrows. A very good choice is to do 12 of these breaths
while keeping the pause after inhalation for the same length of the
inhalation.

PREP. 3: Nadi Sodhana with focus on Muladhara + Tadan Kriya

These two techniques have a decisive power to foster the free movement
of Prana through Sushumna. A kriyaban will find great benefit by
practicing every day these two exercises with inflexible determination.

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Nadi Sodhana
Focus on the Muladhara Chakra. Close the right nostril and inhale through
the left nostril while mentally chanting Om 3 times. Visualize that you are
attracting the energy contained in the inhaled air and bring this energy
down around your Muladhara. Close both nostrils and mentally chant Om
6 times while holding your breath. At the same time apply Maha Bandha.
(Or Aswini Mudra six times.) Then exhale through the right nostril
mentally chanting Om 6 times.

Maha Bandha means to apply the three basic Bandhas. The three
Bandhas are:
Mula Bandha: contract the muscles at the base of the spine
Uddiyana Bandha: draw inside the abdominal muscles by contracting
them
Jalandhara Bandha: lower the chin on the chest

Repeat the procedure inhaling through the right nostril, pause with
Bandhas and exhale from the left nostril. These two breaths count as one
unity. Practice only three unities. In the future you can increase such
number. During this procedure the concentration on the Muladhara
Chakra is the most important detail. This exercise finds its natural
completion in Tadan Kriya.

Tadan
Inhale deeply through both nostrils feeling the breath coming down to
Muladhara. Hold your breath and practice the three Bandhas. Lift your
body, with the help of the hands, of few millimeters and then let the
buttocks touch the seat with a mild jolt. Have three jolts – be sure that you
are holding your breath during them! Then exhale, slowly and deeply,
releasing the three Bandhas, perceiving an ecstatic feeling. This detail is
very important: it is a signal that the Prana has entered the spine and
Kundalini starts its travel upwards. The mental energy (not just the
physical action) that you put in this exercise is a decisive factor. The action
of Tadan Kriya is called Maha Veda Mudra "Mudra of the great
perforation." Repeat the practice of Tadan two more times for a total of 9
jolts.

TECHNIQUE: Guiding Kundalini

This preparation is very important. In this procedure, the breath is utilized
to guide Kundalini along an internal path known, in Internal Alchemy, as
''Small Heavenly Orbit''. Complete the procedure three times. However
even one practice produces a fantastic result.

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While Nadi Sodhana and Tadan are always practiced together, this
exercise can be practiced independently. You will surely love it and will
practice it, in different moments of your Kriya routine, every time you will
feel the need to center in the internal state of calmness. When you
experience the effect of this procedure you won't ask why this techniques
should be practiced but why you have not practiced it before.

Note. Do not complicate this exercise, the procedure should always remain
natural and likeable.

From now onwards it is fine (unless the instruction is to keep the mouth
open) you keep your tongue in baby Kechari position. Of course practice
Kechari proper if you are able to assume this position of the tongue.

First part: coming up of the energy

Take a deep, strong inhalation, marked by the particular sound of Ujjayi.
[Of course when I say Ujjayi, the mouth is closed.] The length is about 4
seconds. Attract, through it, the energy from your body into the first
Chakra. Feel Kundalini in the first Chakra and exhale rapidly with mouth
open ''huh.'' 2 The length of the exhalation is about half second. During
this exhalation Kundalini remains in the first Chakra.

Now take a deep, strong Ujjayi inhalation – the length is about 3-4
seconds. Feel that the energy comes upward from the first Chakra to the
second. After feeling Kundalini in the second Chakra exhale rapidly with
mouth open ''huh.'' The length of the exhalation is about half second.
During this exhalation Kundalini remains in the second Chakra.

The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the base of the spine to
the third Chakra. [It is not necessary to perceive Kundalini crossing
distinctly the second Chakra. ]

The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the base of the spine to
the fourth Chakra. [It is not necessary to perceive Kundalini crossing
distinctly the second and the third Chakras. ]

The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the base of the spine to
the fifth Chakra. [It is not necessary ... ]

2
The sound is the same you produce with your mouth when you want to fog up a
glass.

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The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the base of the spine to
Ajna Chakra. [It is not necessary ... ]

Going down of the energy

Take a rapid inhalation through the nose. This is not Ujjayi. The length is
about 1 second. Feel that Kundalini is present in the seventh Chakra – the
''Thousand petal lotus.'' Now have a deep, strong Ujjayi exhalation – the
length is about 4 seconds. [This exhalation happens through the nose.] Feel
that the energy of Kundalini comes down from the seventh Chakra to the
spiritual eye in the space between the eyebrows.

Take a rapid inhalation through the nose – as in the previous breath. The
length is about 1 second. Feel that Kundalini is present in the seventh
Chakra. Now with a deep Ujjayi exhalation (the length is about 4 seconds)
feel that the Kundalini energy comes down from the seventh Chakra to the
frontal part of the fifth Chakra: the Adam's apple.

The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the seventh Chakra to

the frontal part of the fourth Chakra – the central part of the breast bone.
The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the seventh Chakra to
the frontal part of the third Chakra – the navel. The procedure is repeated
guiding Kundalini from the seventh Chakra to the frontal part of the
second Chakra. The procedure is repeated guiding Kundalini from the
seventh Chakra to the base of the spine – the seat of Muladhara.

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LESSON III: Coupling these four exercises with the practice of Kriya
Pranayama as taught by Sri Mukherjee

ROUTINE R1.1
This routine starts with an excellent preparatory phase that aims at
opening the spinal passage located in the Muladhara. When this passage
is opened even only partially, the practice of Kriya Pranayama becomes
a real delight. As for its effects, this routine has no comparison.

• Prep. 1, 2, 3
• 36 Kriya Pranayama
• Technique: ''Guiding Kundalini''
• 72 Kriya Pranayama perceiving the light of the Chakras

Explanation
In this routine we break the Kriya Pranayama into two parts (36+72).
After Prep. 1, 2, 3 we practice 36 Kriya breaths. Then we practice
Technique: ''Guiding Kundalini.'' You will be stunned how easy is to
perceive the location of the Chakras and the breath. Therefore the
following 72 Kriya breaths will happen in the best conditions.

This interruption is also useful to avoid the particular problem that is

called ''Plateau Effect.''

The Plateau Effect is this: an exercise up to a certain moment seems

effective, from a moment onwards seems not to work anymore. Our
concentration faculties don't succeed in answering to the procedure that
we are following and you can falsely think that there is no possible
improvement in store for you or that we ourselves are a total failure. This
effect is potentially destructive.

Now, during these 72 breaths you will have a great surprise. Kriya
Pranayama will happen in an extraordinary way. If don't have your mind
destroyed by a chaotic life, you will experience a real heaven.

You will succeed in ''seeing'' the Chakras. You will perceive that all the
parts of your being are ideally focused in a region situated between
Kutastha and Ajna. In this sphere you will perceive the lights [these lights

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seem weak but they bring great internal realization] of the different
Chakras. This will be a stupendous moment of the practice.

Note 1
If you find Routine R1.1 boring and unpleasant, decrease the number of
breaths. For example, instead of practicing 36+72 you can practice 12+24.
In the days that you feel strongly negative avoid doing violence to your
being. Simply rest! Enjoy this routine at least for one month before facing
the next Routine R1.2.

Note 2
The Maha Mudra does it who wants it
Many people at the beginning of their path practice the Maha Mudra very
precisely, I would say obsession. Then nothing. I know these things I
recommend something that is very comfortable and that puts your back in
place. This is why folding is important. You do not have to move, you do
not have to go and pull out a mat, do we understand each other? That's
why I do not waste time talking a lot here. In this routine and also in the
whole chapter 12 I put only the important, essential things.

Note 3
I refuse to practice Yoni Mudra. I've practiced it for decades and it has
never given me anything. I also saw the same thing in many other people.
This is why I do not want to deceive anyone. I can not say '' you also do
the Yoni Mudra '' myself that I do not practice it and that I do not believe
it. Maybe I've never practiced the real technique, maybe I've never even
learned it correctly. Instead I love doing the technique: Sushumna
Pranayama (R 2.2)

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ROUTINE R1.2
During the practice of Kriya Pranayama you can move the attention
from Kutastha to Fontanelle and to the heart Chakra. This is very wise:
your routine will fill you with joy during all the day.

• Prep. 1, 2, 3 + Tec. Guiding Kundalini

• Kriya Pranayama in three parts moving the focus of attention.

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Explanation
After having practiced the 4 techniques given in Lesson 2, divide the
breaths of Kriya Pranayama in three parts.

[I] In the first part the concentration is on Kutastha. – just the way we have
done up to now

[II] In the second part the concentration is on Fontanelle. In Chapter 6 we

have explained how to do this. You need only to guide your awareness and
energy at the summit of your head and remain stable there. Therefore, the
chant of Om 6+6 happens only in the Fontanelle. Very useful it is to also
add a continuous Aswini Mudra.

We know that the practice of Aswini Mudra is insuperable in its power to

make you touch with the awareness the spinal cord. Therefore, when you
feel yourself ready, try to introduce a continuous Aswini Mudra during
Kriya Pranayama. ''Continuous'' means: during the inhalation and during
the exhalation. Always, continuously.

There are different definitions of Aswini Mudra. The standard definition is

to repeatedly contract the muscles at the base of the spine (anal sphincter)
with the rhythm of around two contractions a second. While learning the
technique, you contract the buttock muscles, perineum or even the entire
pelvic region also; with time, the contraction involves only the sphincter
muscles.

This Mudra is a direct way of obtaining a perceptive contact with the

energy at the base of the spine. This energy is pushed up within the spine.
Little by little, Aswini Mudra will become more and more subtle – namely
it will become just a mental pressure along the whole spine. You start to
clearly perceive the totality of Sushumna like something cool and bright as
a silver thread.

The exercise is very gratifying. You will perceive a white light, diffused, in
the upper part of your head. A beautiful sensation of fresh air that comes
up crossing each Chakras will make you feel filled with energy. A sweet
warm that goes down permeating every zone of the body from top to
bottom will infuse a great feeling of comfort. The practice seems to have a
life of its own.

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Sometimes you will have the impression you are crossing a mental state,
that is similar to falling asleep and suddenly returning to full awareness,
realizing that you are basking in the spiritual light. It's like a plane
emerging from clouds into a clear transparent sky.

[III] During the last 36 Kriya breaths, the Oms (6+6) are mentally chanted
in the Anahata Chakra. That's all. Forget the Aswini Mudra or make it so
subtle that it cannot disturb. The routine ends with the awareness become
stable in the heart Chakra.

Note
Many persons write me thanking for the previous two routines. They say
that the results is extraordinary. Let me emphasize the secret of the success
of these routines.

The secret lies in the utilization of strong tools during the preparatory
phase. Nadi Sodhana with inverted breath, Tadan Kriya and Shakti
Chalana ( ''Guiding Kundalini'') are very strong tools.

Never recoil from giving the right stimulation to the Muladhara Chakra
when you want to experience a complete form of Pranayama!

In other Kriya schools, we see an excessive prudence in teaching effective

tools that point at awakening the Muladhara Chakra. All the other
Chakras are seriously taken into account.

I believe that there are no serious reasons to cultivate such fear. Let us
avoid thinking that Muladhara and Kundalini can be a source of troubles!!
Kundalini is the vital energy present in the body. It is true that when it
enters Sushumna it has an overwhelming effect that recalls the image of a
snake that hisses and spits when disturbed, but there is no reason to fear
the Kundalini energy that is the very essence of the spiritual experiences.

A very good strategy is to complete the stimulus on the Muladhara

Chakra by guiding the awakened Kundalini energy up and down along the
spine. Remember also that this possibility is always achieved after having
created a condition of energetic balance between Ida and Pingala.
Focusing on this task will help a kriyaban to familiarize with a peaceful
dimension that can even appear as austere, while in reality is made of true
Beauty.

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LESSON IV: Introduction of Thokar

ROUTINE R 2.1
• Prep. 1, 2, 3
• Kriya Pranayama (24)
• Second Kriya (24)
• % Kriya Pranayama (24)
• Technique: ''Guiding Kundalini''

Explanation

Prep. 1, 2, 3 + Kriya Pranayama (24) ...

Second Kriya
Moderately contract the muscles at the base of the spine. Inhale and at the
same time lift the awareness along the spinal column. Interlaced hands are
placed over the navel to create a mental pressure over the first three
Chakras. This pressure is perfected by adding the practice of Uddiyana
Bandha. During the inhalation, lift the chin following the inner movement
of the Prana; mentally chant the syllables of the Vasudeva Mantra (Om
Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.) Om is chanted in the first Chakra, Na in
the second, Mo in the third, Bha in the fourth, Ga in the fifth and Ba in
Bindu. Hold your breath.

After the just described inhalation,while holding your breath, bend the
head to the left (without turning you face to the left), guide your awareness
within the right hemisphere of the head. Mentally chant Te in such region.
Then, always holding your breath, bend your head to the right intensifying
the concentration on the left part of the left hemisphere and mentally chant
Va in that region.

Practice Thokar on the heart Chakra and reinforce this Thokar with Maha
Bandha. Thokar means: lower the chin on the chest while focusing all your
attention on the heart Chakra, where you mentally chant the syllable ''Su''.

Maha Bandha means: practice the three Bandha together. The three
Bandhas are: Mula Bandha: contract the muscles at the base of the spine;
Uddiyana Bandha: draw internally the abdominal muscles by contracting

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 them; Jalandhara Bandha: keep the chin on the chest.

Stop some seconds with your concentration on the heart Chakra. After
perceiving an intensification of energy in that region, raise your chin as
much as possible and perceive Light.

Now keep your chin perfectly horizontal. Start a sweet, slow, tranquil
exhalation. This exhalation injects the Light in Sushumna through
Medulla. Let the Light come down millimeter after millimeter towards the
base of the spine. This Light ''pierces'' each Chakra. The mental chant of
Om or of Te, Va, Su, De, Va, Ya, helps you to feel more clearly this
''piercing'' procedure. Repeat this powerful Kriya Pranayama 24 times.

Inhalation: Om Na Mo Bha Ga Ba coming up inside the Chakras

Holding the breath and doing Thokar: Te, Va, Su [*]
Exhalation: Te, Va, Su, De, Va, Ya, coming down inside the Chakras
Let us keep total immobility. No Thokar, No Mula Bandha

[*] As you see these three syllables are repeated

Kriya Pranayama again

After Second Kriya, if you practice again a moderate number of Kriya
breaths, you will feel a great transformation. That Kriya proper will be of a
higher nature.

You will remain centered in Kutastha and, as you move up and down the
spine you will pierce each Chakra. I know it may seem difficult, but of
course it can be done!

Technique: ''Guiding Kundalini'' ...

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ROUTINE R2.2
[Let us move towards the breathless state]

• Prep. 1, 2, 3
• Kriya Pranayama (12)
• Second Kriya (24)
• Perfecting Kriya Pranayama (24)
• Technique: ''Guiding Kundalini'' (at least once)
• Sushumna Pranayama

185
Explanation
Here you make a further effort. You add Sushumna Pranayama to the
previous techniques – this is a very subtle procedure and it is the only new
procedure that we propose in Routine 2.2. All the other parts were already
discussed.

Sushumna Pranayama
Sushumna Pranayama is the Pranayama that happens inside the Sushumna
and therefore in the state of breathlessness. We shall reach this state by a
succession of short breaths between Muladhara and each Chakra.

Fig.22 One cycle is made of 9 short breaths

Start with three deep breaths. Then focus the attention on the Muladhara.
When it comes natural to inhale, inhale without forcing the breath and
pause an instant in the second Chakra. Try to have a good perception of
this Chakra. Exhale when it comes natural to exhale and focus again on
Muladhara. Make a short pause. When it comes natural to inhale, inhale
without forcing the breath and pause an instant in the Third Chakra. Try to
have a good perception of this Chakra. Exhale when it comes natural to
exhale and focus again on the Muladhara.

Repeat the procedure between the Muladhara and the fourth Chakra;
Muladhara and the fifth Chakra; Muladhara and Medulla; Muladhara
and fifth Chakra; Muladhara - fourth Chakra; Muladhara - third Chakra;
Muladhara – Second Chakra.

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These 9 calm breaths are one cycle. If at this point your breath has not
drastically calmed down, you practice one or two cycles more.

After 4-6 cycles you will notice that the breath is almost disappeared,
while the spine has become like a steel bar. I cannot guarantee that you will
also succeed in listening to the internal sounds coming from the Chakras,
but you will certainly perceive a particular internal pressure in the head
which is an aspect of the Omkar dimension.

Once completed 4-6 cycles, if you are not in the breathless state forget the
Chakras and make the procedure more ''subtle''. Feel Muladhara and a
small piece of the spine, then Muladhara and another piece of the spine,
then another .... The mechanism is the same but instead of reaching the
perception of the whole spine in 5 steps you reach it in a greater number of
steps.

You intuitively discover the power of conquering the spine millimeter after
millimeter. What does it mean ''conquering''? It means to perceive, to be
intensely conscious.... It means that you do not breathe anymore and you
are inside the Sushumna.

One day your intuition will suggest to focus on the totality of your body
and perceive there a fresh energy. Go ahead until you realize that your
body is sustained by internal energy. Go ahead not only feeling the
Chakras but also the whole body. One day your breath will stop
completely: it will be like a miracle.

"No me pidáis que lo explique. Tengo el fuego en las manos" 3

(Garcia Lorca)

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3
''Don't ask me that I explain it. I have the fire in the hands

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LESSON V: In this last part we explore two themes:

[1] Changing the direction of energy flow in Kriya Pranayama

[2] Introduction of two Tibetan techniques which will help
tremendously in the practice of Kriya.

These routines will change your life.

ROUTINE A
• Forward bendings (variation)
• Technique of the nine breaths
• New form of Kriya Pranayama

Explanation
[1] Forward bendings (variation)
Take a deep breath. Visualize the breath entering from the nose and
descend to the Muladhara physical location. Hold your breath. Fold at the
belt. Make use of the hands to reach this position and to make it
comfortable.

Move your head close to your left knee – the face is facing the right knee.
Feel the stretch on the right part of the spine and a pressure on the left side
of the head. Stay in this position for at least 3 seconds.

Holding your breath, repeat the same exercise by moving the head to the
other side and reversing the perceptions. Then the head is placed back in
the region between the knees, the face facing down.

Return to the starting position and exhale slowly feeling the energy rising
in the spine. Practice six of these bendings.

[2] Technique of the nine breaths

In the typical position of meditation, visualize your body, as if it were
made of crystal. The Sushumna channel is like a tube with a diameter of
about two centimeters. Attention: it starts from a point that is four
centimeters below the navel (this is the point which we already know and
which we call Dantian) and reaches the top of the head.

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To the left and right of the central channel, it displays two thinner channels
that start from the nostrils and descend, parallel to the central channel and
arrive as far as the Dantian. In fact, to be precise, they come down parallel
the Sushumna and then, at the Dantian, curve towards the center like two
umbrella handles reaching the Dantian. In this way they join the central
channel

Description of the exercise

Close the left nostril with a right hand finger. Inhale through the right
nostril, feel the energy coming down to the Dantian. Hold the breath for a
few seconds, stop the right nostril, expel the air making it rise through the
left channel and exit through the left nostril.

Figure 23. Nine breaths technique

Performing this operation, imagine that through the right nostril enter a
clean and fresh energy that descends along the right channel and arrives,
curving towards the center in the Dantian point. After a pause, during the

189
exhalation, imagine to throw out impurities through the current that rises
along the left channel and exits through the left nostril.

Repeat this exercise three times, then repeat three times the previous steps
by reversing the role of the nostrils. Obviously I do not repeat: just change
right with left and vice versa.

Finally, place your hands on your lap, imagine breathing-in, from both
nostrils, light and energy. Light and energy descend as you inhale and
merge into the Dantian. Hold the air for a few seconds. A new energetic
current manifests.

Exhale: trough the Dantian a spiritual light enters the central channel of
the spine and begins to rise. The exhalation is calm and long. You feel that
the energy rises and you feel the moment when it crosses the heart area. It
rises up to the head and comes out at the top, radiating in the infinite
space. Repeat this last step 3 times.

Plan
We have practiced 3+3+3 breaths. After one month we shall practice
6+6+6 breaths, after another month we shall practice 9+9+9 breaths. The
effect will be enormous. Be careful: you'll feel strange and could have a
feeling of unease. Go ahead anyway. One day you will get only pure joy.

[3] New form of Kriya Pranayama

Read again how the 9 breath technique ends. Practice now a Pranayama
containing the same principle. This is not the canonical Kriya Pranayama.

Inhale. It is not necessary to visualize that you are inhaling from both
nostrils. Focus on the fresh air entering you lungs and comes down. Your
breath is natural, not lengthened through the power of will. Enter a passive
attitude, I mean the attitude of a person who wants to avoid any effort.
Enjoy the sensations of fresh and warmth that are perceived inhaling and
exhaling. Do not force yourself to perceive the location of the Chakras.

During the exhalation the air is warm and moves upwards. When this flow
of energy crosses the heart area, perceive intensely this moment.

If you inhale and exhale with a half-closed mouth, the two sensations of
cold and warm are perceived more intensely. Half-closed mouth means
that the lips touch each other in the central part. While they are kept in this
position, the air goes in and out through the lateral parts of the mouth.

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Do not impose a rhythm to inhalation and exhalation. After inhalation
there could be a natural pause. The exhalation should happen
spontaneously and not when you induce it in order to follow certain
injunction about the length of each breath.

If and only if you do this, then Kundalini will start to manifest; if you do
not follow this instructions and impose a rhythm like in Kriya Pranayama,
then the breathing process will be made of a series of mechanical
movements, boring you.

Practice at least 36 breaths.

ROUTINE B
• Japa in the body (protection)
• Forward bendings
• Technique of the nine breaths
• Simple form of Tummo (with vase breathing)
• Variation of ''Sushumna Pranayama''

Explanation

[1] Japa in the body (protection)

These three routines are very powerful. They may give problems of
balancing the spiritual interest with the innumerable duties of material life.

Now, increasing the awareness of the cells of the body is a great

protection. From an esoteric tradition, whose name is unknown to me, I
have learned how to ''apply'' the vowels on the skin of the body. The
essence of this teaching is that the vibration of a pure vowel sound, if
repeated with immutable concentration in the body, can reach its cells.
''The whole body will be activated with new life and it will be reborn": so
say the mystics from whom I'm drawing inspiration. You will be surprised
of how you will feel during the day!

We use the vowels in the following order: U- O - A - E - I.

Inhale guiding your consciousness in each part of the body. Start
whispering the vowel U: U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U...... come up from the feet to
the head, repeating this vocal a hundred times. The same process will then
be repeated with the second vowel and so on. Make each vocal vibrate in
your feet, calves, legs, abdomen, etc. until you will have vibrated all the
vowels in your whole body. Complete the hundred repetitions of the last

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vowel ''I'' in a low voice. The exercise ends here. There are no tortuous
complications to add.

[2]Forward bendings
[Already explained]

[3] Technique of the nine breaths

[Already explained]

[4] Simple form of Tummo (with vase breathing)

After having practiced the 9 breaths technique, the breathing runs equally
in both nostrils: this is the best moment to practice Vase breathing.

Place your hands over your lower belly. Inhale, allow the lower belly to
expand outward into your hands. Imagine that your abdomen and your
entire torso is like a ''vase'', visualize that the inhaled air is like fresh, clear
water that you’re pouring into the vase. Feel that the inhalation fills the
bottom of the vase first, and then continues to fill upward to the brim of
the vase: up to your collarbones. For each inhalation utilize this
visualization.

Exhalation follows. Allow your abdomen to relax but not completely:

maintain this slight rounded vase-like shape of the lower belly. Our
intention is to generate physical heat. Let us learn how to generate it.

Inhale deeply. Feel that the air comes down entering into the Right and
Left Channel, filling them up. When both channels, Right and Left, are
full, swallow a little saliva, tense your diaphragm, and press firmly the
energy descending down over Dantian. At the same time practice Mula
Bandha and raise the lower energy up to Dantian. Hold your breath,
visualize the flame of a candle in the center of your ''Vase''. Hold the breath
as long as you can as if holding the air in a vase to its fullness. A sensation
of heat is felt in the central channel.

All the air enters into the Central Channel and fills it. The air in the Right
and Left Channel is dissolved or emptied.

When the breath can be held no longer, you should rapidly release it. When
you exhale the air, you should visualize it arising through the Central
Channel freely, like gas through a pipe. This is one cycle. Repeat different
times. A sense of heat and bliss grows. Generate a deep but restrained inner
heat. Concentrate with penetrative awareness on the visualized flame. All
that exists is blissful awareness of the flame.

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This way of practicing is to be patiently perfected.

[5] Variation of ''Sushumna Pranayama''

Sushumna Pranayama is the Pranayama that happens inside the
Sushumna and therefore in thebreathless state. We shall reach this state by
a succession of short breaths between Medulla and each Chakra.

Start with three deep breaths. Then focus the attention on the Medulla.
When you feel natural to inhale, inhale guiding the energy in the fifth
Chakra. Pause in the fifth Chakra until it is comfortable. Try to have a
good perception of this Chakra. Exhale up to Medulla when it comes
natural to exhale. Focus upon the location of Medulla. Make a pause there.
When it comes natural to inhale, inhale guiding the energy in the fourth
Chakra. Pause there until it is comfortable. Try to have a good perception
of this Chakra. Exhale when it comes natural to exhale coming up into the
seat of Medulla.

Repeat the procedure between the Medulla and the third Chakra; Medulla
and the second Chakra; Medulla and Muladhara. Then Medulla and
second Chakra; Medulla and third Chakra; Medulla and fourth Chakra;
Muladhara and fifth Chakra. This is one cycle.

After 3-6 cycles you will notice that the breath is almost disappeared,
while the spine has become like a steel bar.

One day your intuition will suggest to focus on the totality of your body
and perceive there a fresh energy. While going with the cycles of breaths
you will realize that your body is sustained by fresh internal energy. One
day your breath will stop completely: it will be like a miracle.

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ROUTINE C
• Japa in the body
• Forward bendings
• Bhastrika
• Thokar (variation with hissing sound)
• Tummo

[1] Japa in the body

[Already explained]

[2] Forward bendings

[Already explained]

[3] Bhastrika
Inhale and exhale different times with the intention of creating a
''brushing'' effect upon the location of heart Chakra. From above that
location come down under it – this during inhalation. From under that
location come up over it – this during exhalation.
After 12 deep breaths, inhale, hold and remain with a fixed concentration
on the heart Chakra. Repeat the procedure.

[4] Thokar (variation with hissing sound)

What we describe now is a variation of the Advanced form of Thokar that
we have described in Chapter 8. It is a variation that will make you ready
for the practice of Tummo. You will perceive an intensification of energy in
the region of the fourth Chakra.

Inhale sweetly; move the head to the left and guide a short exhalation in
Medulla. Move the head to the right and guide a short exhalation in the
fifth Chakra. Lower the chin on the chest and guide a short exhalation in
the heart Chakra. Through these three exhalations all the air is out.
Inhale and repeat the procedure, repeat it many times.

Note
It is necessary to clarify what it means ''guiding a short exhalation in the
three upper Chakras.'' The secret is this: each short exhalation (1/3 of a
complete exhalation) is accompanied by the hissing sound ssssss...
produced blowing gently through the lips.
In this way, the exhalation can guide the energy in any part of the body you
visualize. In our situation we have these three parts sssssss... ssssss... and
sssssst...

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Energy will be injected in Medulla, in the Fifth Chakra and in the Fourth
Chakra. These exhalations are special: there is a sssssss... on Medulla, a
sssssss... on the fifth Chakra and sssssst... on the heart Chakra. I write
sssssst... and not sssssss... only to give the idea of a dynamism, like a short
blow, when you send energy to the heart Chakra.

In conclusion this Thokar is based upon an inspiration through the nose

followed by the three described movements of the head accompanied by
three short exhalations through the semi closed mouth.

By going ahead in this way, you will feel more and more energy
increasing in these three centers and in particular warmth or heat in the
heart Chakra.

Repeat many times (for example ten minutes) feeling a hot sensation
growing in the heart Chakra, you become ready for the Tummo technique.

[5] Tummo

► Initial practice (very simple)

Inhale through both nose and mouth in three parts. The mouth is semi
closed.

First part of the inhalation: draw the Prana (visualize a golden light) from
the ether. Visualize it enters through Kutastha and accumulates in the fifth
Chakra. The length of this first part is about 3 seconds. Exhale a minimal
quantity of air, rapidly with mouth open ''huh.'' 4 The length of this partial
exhalation is about half second. During this exhalation the Prana remains
in the fifth Chakra. Practice a slight Mula Bandha.

Second part of the inhalation: draw the Prana from the fifth Chakra into
the fourth Chakra. A short exhalation follows - just we have done after the
first part. Increase the intensity of Mula Bandha.

Third part of the inhalation: draw the Prana from fourth Chakra into third
Chakra. There is no exhalation here. Hold your breath. Bring the intensity
of Mula Bandha to the maximum degree and add Jalandhara Bandha.

4
The sound is the same you produce with your mouth when you want to fog up a
glass.

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Contract your diaphragm and firmly compress the Prana brought down
from above. The Prana is completely locked in, compressed both from
above and below. Go ahead holding your breath. Feel warmth increasing
and brimming over into the surrounding abdominal region. Focus all your
concentration capability at the base of the spine.

Now start a long exhalation (either trough the nose or with semi-closed
mouth) feeling the Prana coming upwards from the inferior abdomen
moving towards the center of the head or towards fontanelle. It moves
through the frontal part of the spine, ideally through an empty tube placed
in the central part of the body. During the exhalation feel the warm
sensation increasing in all the spine. In time, the warm will become heat.
Relax Mula Bandha.

This is one Tummo breath. Do 24 repetitions and maintain this amount of

Tummo breaths for a couple of months. Then try to increase this number.
36 repetitions is a very good achievement.

► Advanced practice

By performing ten breathing cycles (as described), one is able to perceive

the warm of the flame of a candle in the navel. With the next ten breathing
cycles, the navel and its surrounding area are filled with heat. The
subsequent ten breathing cycles cause the lower body to experience heat
all over. Another ten breathing cycles move the heat it further upwards to
the heart region. With these 40 Tummo breaths the heart knot (Granti) is
unfastened.

Ten more breaths and the flame is moved upwards to the throat Chakra.
The next ten breathing cycles raise the flame towards the Ajna Chakra.
The last ten breathing cycles lead it to the crown Chakra.

40+30 breaths is a great achievement. The Rudra Granti knot (the last
knot) is unfastened. There is no more practice with breath. The Paravastha
state (the real Paravastha) totally absorbs the awareness of the person who
has ascended to this lofty state.

GUIDE FOR THE FUTURE PRACTICE

Since many years I am reflecting upon the two parts in which Kriya Yoga
can be divided. Kriya without physical movement and Kriya with

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movement. Despite all my efforts to amalgamate them, they remain
divided.

In my opinion, from now onwards, you can alternate routine B (or the
simpler routine A) with routine C without trying to mix them.

# Routines like routine B are the routines conceived to reach the

Paravastha state only by entering the breathless state. Forget the Thokar
and start your routine with the technique of the nine breaths. Then there is
the new way of conceiving Pranayama as we have explained in routine B.
Increase the time you devote to it and you will reach your goal.

# Routines like routine C are the routines that give great space to Thokar
and to Tummo. You merge with the inner light perceived in the heart
Chakra. By simple further steps you reach a contemplation state and are
reborn in the Paravastha state.

# During the day do not forget Devotional Prayer. Chapter 13 is devoted to

this. Remember what St. Theresa of Avila said: You can do nothing without
Prayer and you can do miracles with it.

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 PART IV: HOW TO AVOID FAILURE ON THE SPIRITUAL
PATH

CHAPTER 13

THE VALUE OF JAPA (DEVOTIONAL PRAYER)

Devotional Prayer [Japa, Internal Oration] especially if it becomes

continuous and is sustained by the practice of the ''Presence of the Divine''
is a complete-in-itself path. This form of Prayer is not a plea to God with
the purpose of obtaining something necessary to the material existence or
peace, happiness... A mystic utilizes Prayer to declare their intention of
worship and complete surrender to the Divine.

I don't enter in intellectual discourses to state dogmatically that Kriya is a

quicker path. I am interested only in one thing: while following the path of
Kriya Yoga, it is very wise to accept the help of the Devotional Prayer.

I have already introduced Japa in the first part of the book [chapter 3].
Here I am setting out to take back that theme in a systematic way. The
first part of this chapter deals with the Japa that you can practice during the
daily chores, the second part of it is devoted to a meditative practice called
''Prayer of the heart.'' The third part is biographical and tells some personal
experiences.

There are many reason for practicing Japa. Since the first moments of my
practice of Pranayama I had one fixed idea: to practice my Kriya routine
inside a particular mental state that could be reached through the practice
of Japa. The idea to renounce to the pleasures of uncontrolled thought
during the day was a sacrifice that would generate a new mind. If my idea
was correct, Japa could help me looking at Pranayama not as a mere
breathing exercise aiming at the modification of the state of some energetic
currents in my body but as a continuous merging, a co-habitation with a
continuous state of bliss.

Readings
In chapter 3 I tell about my finding the book by Swami Ramdas ''In search
of God.'' This book inspired my decision to practice Japa utilizing his
Mantra. This is true, but it is also true that I had already read the works of
Teresa of Avila and also the book (whose author remains anonymous) ''The
way of a pilgrim.''

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Teresa of Avila
In the search of inspiring literature about Omkar, I found the writings of
John of the Cross and of Teresa of Avila. The first gives a splendid
description of his meeting with the "silent music", the "sounding solitude",
the second drew my attention about the importance of "Internal Oration"
(Devotional Prayer.) I treasured the words of Teresa of Avila. 1

Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, all things are passing, God
is unchanging. Patience gains all; nothing is lacking to those who have
God: God alone is sufficient.

According to her, Prayer is all in all in the mystical path. She wrote:

The body becomes insensitive and the will is totally captivated by

irresistible devotion. The other faculties, such as memory, reason, and
imagination, are progressively captivated and occupied with God. Both
intellect and will are absorbed in God. Distractions are not possible and
the external bodily senses are made prisoners.

In her opinion, the soul that doesn't create the habit of Prayer won't reach
the mystical goal. Strange as it may seem, I firmly believe in this statement.
There is no other exercise upon which she insists so much in all of her
writings and to which she grants such importance.

You can do nothing without Prayer and you can do miracles with it.

Her words could sometimes appear obscure to people. We kriyabans can

easily understand them:

The soul is wounded with love for the Divine. Body and Spirit are in the
throes of a sweet, happy pain, alternating between a fearful fiery glow, a
complete impotence, unconsciousness, and a feeling of suffocation,
sometimes intermixed with such an ecstatic flight that the body is literally
lifted into space. There are moments in which you feel like an arrow has
deeply penetrated your heart. One laments with such a vivid and intense
pain, but at the same time the experience is so delicious you never want it
to end.

She is explaining what happens when Kundalini comes up to the heart.

1
Saint Teresa of Ávila (March 28, 1515 – October 4, 1582) was a Carmelite nun.
Her teaching flows from her own experience and not from books. She saw that with
a simple Prayer, to be repeated without cease, a soul can cross all the different levels
of the spiritual path up to the union with God.

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I bow to this description because it is true, deeply true. When you
experience Kundalini rising, no other reaction is possible except a giant
wave of love towards the Divine. The strength of this Love intensifies
around the fourth Chakra, as if a mighty hand is squeezing the region of
your heart. When you return to normal state of consciousness, you cannot
stop your tears of devotion.

Before adding other remarks about Japa. Let me remind an important point
discussed in chapter 3.

There are three important conditions to be followed in order to obtain the

breathless state:
[1] the Japa is to be practiced aloud (not mentally) for at least one Mala
(108 times)
[2] it should be practiced not immediately before the Kriya session but at
least a couple of hours before it.
[3] from the moment the 108 repetitions aloud are done, Japa should go
ahead mentally, effortlessly, without caring if the mind is concentrated or
not.

This is what we have already explained. Now let us start the first part of
this chapter

FIRST PART: OTHER REMARKS ABOUT JAPA

How to find your Mantra

Choose a Mantra (Prayer) that appeals to you. Don't feel obliged to use
Lahiri Mahasaya's favored Vasudeva Mantra ("Om Namo Bhagavate
Vasudevaya".) It is true that among different favorite prayers, you could
prefer one that has (by adding, if necessary, Om or Amen at the beginning
or at the end) twelve syllables. Twelve is a perfect number because you can
utilize it during Kriya Pranayama, placing each of its syllables in a
different Chakra. Various beautiful twelve-syllables Mantras can be taken
out of Bhajans or poems. As an example, from the well-known Adi
Shankara's chant you can select the beautiful 12-syllable verse: Chi-da-
nan-da-ru-pah-shi-vo-ham-shi-vo-ham [That Form which is pure
consciousness and bliss, I am that supreme Being!]

One thing should be stated objectively: YOUR Mantra should express or

evoke exactly what YOU want to achieve and embody the attitude you
want to express. For example, the attitude of surrender is expressed by
Mantras beginning with Om Namo ... other Mantras might express the

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absolute non-dual realization, and so on. Sometimes, the meaning is not as
important as having in one’s heart the example of a dear saint who used it.
Generally speaking, a good choice is that of a Mantra having both a
strong and a soft tone. Be sensitive to the vibration that your Mantra
arouses in the body and heart.

In literature you will see how beautiful Mantras have been built. Here you
have the Krishna Mantra: Om Klim Krishnaya Govindaya Gopi-jana
Vallabhaya Swaha. Here you have the Durga (Divine Mother) Mantra: Om
Hrim Dhum Durgaye Namaha....

If you study the concept of Bija Mantra, you can forge for yourself a
wonderful Mantra. To a pre existent Mantra, after the initial Om, your
teacher can add some "Bija" (seed) Mantras like: Aim, Dúm, Gam, Glamu,
Glom, Haum, Hoom, Hreem, Hrom, Kleem, Kreem, Shreem, Streem,
Vang, …

These sounds were chosen by ancient yogis, who felt their beauty and liked
their vibration. They were not given by a divinity, they are a human
discovery. These seed Mantras have no meaning but can enrich a Mantra
who has a meaning. Don't choose a Mantra only because certain literature
extolls the power of this or of that Bija Mantra. Read your mood, feel your
emotions after an intense practice of a Mantra.

Some make an unfortunate choice, through which they seem to punish

themselves. The sentence they have chosen to repeat could have negative
tones and emphasize unequivocally their limits and unworthiness. When
this happens it is clear that after a short time, their practice of Japa falls
apart – they find themselves repeating that Mantra once or twice during
the day, like a sigh of dejection.

How to practice your Mantra

Even though the oriental traditions recommend to do Japa mentally, I am
confident that it should be done aloud – at least for an initial set of a
hundred repetitions. Resolve to complete daily at least one Mala (a rosary
of 108 beads) of it aloud. Pronounce its syllables with serene attitude.
Learn to resonate it in your mouth, chest and head areas. When you have
completed the 108 repetitions, close your mouth and let Japa go ahead
mentally, effortlessly, in the background of your awareness. When it is
possible, take back the vocal practice of Japa in the next hours. 2
2
A teacher was adamant about the fact that a Mantra should be pronounced only
mentally. I tried to follow his counsel and it didn't work. After various months I was
fed up with my useless attempt: I dared to chant it vocally on my Mala. Before

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While you practice, feel the protective shell of tangible peace surrounding
you. I am not recommending to do an exercise of visualization but only to
become aware of a subtle substance in which you are immersed. The same
substance is also perceived by those who come in contact with you.

Observe, while doing Japa, an irresistible impulse to put everything in

order. The Mantra works in a similar way to clean your mental stuff and to
put your "psychological furniture" in order. The practice is like a
pneumatic hammer tearing asunder the concrete of the mind's conditioning,
allowing you to cross, unharmed, its swamps and reach the dimension of
pure awareness.

A very strong way of practicing

I tried to pass on this experience to other persons. I am reminded of a
friend who practiced Kriya without getting any result. I talked to him and
suggested Japa but I was not able to explain myself clearly. One day he
showed me how he had interpreted my explications and I was witness to a
lifeless practice, a tired plea for God's mercy. I had the impression that he
took Japa as an emotive outpouring. His chosen Mantra was nothing more
than a sigh of self-pity. It was not surprising when, after some time, he
entirely abandoned the practice.
All changed later when he took part in a group pilgrimage. Someone
began to recite the so-called rosary (a set number of repetitions of the same
prayer), and all the pilgrims joined in. Even if tired and almost gasping for
breath, my friend did not withdraw himself from this pious activity. While
walking and praying softly, murmuring under his breath, he began to taste
a state of unknown calmness. He looked with different eyes at the show of
continuously changing landscape and had the impression of living in a
heavenly situation. He went on repeating the Prayer unremittingly for the
entire walk (which surpassed the 20 miles), completely forgetting he was
tired and sleepy. When the group paused to rest, he luckily was left alone
undisturbed. He slipped into an introspective state and was pervaded by
something vibrating in his heart which he definitely identified with the
Spiritual dimension. His ecstatic state became solid as a rock, becoming
almost unbearable, overwhelming him.
It is interesting to tell how my friend summarized the correct way of
practicing Japa. He said that the secret was to not only reach the state of
"exhaustion" but also to go beyond it. After some days he chose to repeat
the same Mantra I had chosen and, thanks to it, he reached the breathless

completing my 108 repetitions, a spring of happiness and mirth gushed from my

heart.

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state.

Well, perhaps it is not necessary to go beyond the frontier of exhaustion.

Usually one has very good effects by completing daily one Mala (a rosary
of 108 beads) aloud then letting the repetition of one's Mantra go ahead
mentally and automatically. However the ''law of exhaustion'' is a valuable
resource for breaking some possible internal resistance and experience thus
the breathless state for the first time.

Consider Lahiri Mahasaya's motto "Banat, Banat, ban jay!" (doing and
doing, one day it is done!) At first this sentence will give you the idea of
one who, without ever losing heart, goes all out to reach his/her goal. Your
only care is to remove the obstacles created by the mind. Practice Japa,
then the spiritual dimension would manifest naturally, almost without
further effort on your part.

In books we seek God, in Prayer we find him. Prayer is the key which
opens God's heart. (Padre Pio of Pietrelcina)

Dogmatic kriyabans and Japa

My conviction was challenged by some kriyabans. They say that the Kriya
techniques are both necessary and sufficient to bring about the awakening
of Kundalini and therefore we don't need any other practice. They add:
"Neither Guruji, nor Lahiri Mahasaya taught it – kriyabans do not need it.''
They seem even annoyed by the thought that the practice of Japa could
pollute the purity of their spiritual path.
I had been the witness of the failure of different kriyaban friends
who did not care of the state of their mind during the day, while I saw the
eyes shining of joy and sincere surrender to the Divine, of those kriyabans
who added – during their busy day, when they could remain alone even for
few minutes – the practice of Japa.
I have good reasons to believe that those who went to Lahiri
Mahasaya were not only familiar with the practice of Japa, but undertook
the path of Kriya Yoga not to start something totally new but to deepen and
intensify the practice of the Continuous Prayer, in which they had already
poured their soul. Very probably to some of them, receiving the procedure
of Thokar was the definitive practical instruction to crown their efforts to
achieve the lofty state of the Prayer of the heart. There must be a reason
why Continuous Prayer ("Inner Prayer", "Heart Prayer", Dhikr) was and is
the basic technique used by a lot of mystics.

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Encouragement to the reader
After the practice of Kriya techniques, make room for a long phase of
internalization where the senses can become dead to the external reality
and become totally open to the internal reality.
Perfect physical and mental immobility should never be lost. If you
have decided to practice the Higher Kriyas (with physical movement) then
start your routine with 24 Kriya breaths. Practice a short session of the
Higher Kriya that you prefer and then take back the practice of the Kriya
breathing until you enter a very peaceful state of mind. Only in the
dimension of peace something good can come to make you again alive
along your Spiritual Path. If you have the experience of the breathless state,
do not forget this experience ever; do all you can to have the same
experience every day of your life.

Decide to ''touch'' this celestial dimension every day by being faithful to

your practice of Japa. The magic of your bright, dazzling Mantra will
spread in each facet of your life. It is like walking out of a dark stuffy room
into sunlight and fresh air. The breathless state is very near to the innocent
and pure skies of your childhood.

If a delusion arouses from your subconscious – for example the fallacy that
Japa might be a mind-numbing activity, that by repeating a Mantra
mechanically all day long like a parrot, you are doing a mind-numbing
activity.... if you think that your mind is getting lazy and that it is better to
cooperate with the spiritual evolution using more powerful and effective
methods... then turn your Mantra into a pneumatic hammer and tear
asunder the concrete of the self created prison. Summon your moral
strength and turn your doubts into a calm euphoria. Reinforce your will.
Crumble the wall of impossibility that life has put in front of you.
Whatever is the abyss of mental confusion and spiritual aridity in which
you could be, Practice Japa, repeat your Mantra with superhuman
calmness and determination!

SECOND PART: THE PRAYER OF THE HEART

[I] Japa in the spine

Repeat your Mantra aloud. Pronounce its syllables with serene attitude.
Learn to resonate it in your mouth, chest and head areas.

Now repeat your Mantra mentally in the spine. Chant mentally half
Mantra during the inhalation, and half during the exhalation. Or chant all
your Mantra during the inhalation and all again during exhalation. Realize

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that you willingly affirming with each breath your surrender to the Divine.
Feel the meaning of the chosen Mantra. Make a special effort to go ahead
with intensity.

After 12 breaths, follow the syllables of the Mantra slowly moving your
chin up and down. Increase your aspiration. The movement of the Prayer
in the spine warms your passion. When you exhale and the Prayer reaches
the Chakra of the heart, your chin touches your breast. Remain immobile
there with eyes closed for some instants perceiving the emptying of the
content of your mind. It is impossible to think a single thought: the state of
Mental Silence, appears very strong. A subtle bliss pervades your soul.

[II] ''Cross-Shaped Prayer''

Practice some breaths in the following way. When you inhale, feel a
movement of energy that goes from the left part of the body toward the
right part. During exhalation feel a movement of energy from the right part
of the body toward the left part. To this breath, another breath follows
creating a cross. It is not long from Muladhara to sixth Chakra like in
Kriya Pranayama. The energy, perceived in the dorsal region, moves
upwards during inhalation and downwards during exhalation.
Go ahead alternating the two ways of breathing. Feel how naturally
the concentration on the heart Chakra intensifies. You need only 6 couples
of breaths to make this breathing automatic and effortless.

Since this practice is very important let me give you an example. Let us
utilize the Mantra: Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Perceive a horizontal movement of energy that from a point at the
left (about 6 centimeters) of the heart Chakra moves toward a symmetrical
point on the right. You touch the heart Chakra from the back. During this
movement, mentally chant Om in the first point, Na in Anahata, Mo in the
point at the right; then Bha again in the point at the right, Ga in Anahata,
Ba in the point at the left.

A very light inhalation accompanies the canting of Om Na Mo. A very light

exhalation accompanies the mental chanting of Bha Ga Ba.

Then perceive a vertical movement of energy that from a point under

Anahata (about 4 centimeters) comes up to a symmetrical point over
Anahata, touching Anahata from the back. During this movement,
mentally chant Tee in the point under Anahata, Va in Anahata, Su in the
point over Anahata.

A very light inhalation accompanies the canting of Te Va Su. A very light

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exhalation accompanies the mental chanting of De Va Ya. [Yaaa.. long]
These four energetic movements that draw a cross, cutting in two different
directions the heart Chakra, make one cycle. It comes natural to make
inhalation and exhalation last about 3 seconds each. You will be struck by
the efficacy of this procedure.108 cycles without hurry do not require more
than 30 minutes. At the end you won't desire to do more. Actually stop here
for different times.

It embodies the most direct way to ''straighten up'' our personality and
consequently our spiritual path, that is to channel toward the right direction
whatever effort we are doing in the spiritual field. Its effectiveness resides
in the fact that it touches, trying to dissolve them, the dualities that prevent
your tuning with the cardiac plexus. The dualities which I refer to are: Ida
and Pingala (they flow sideways the backbone); Prana and Apana ( they
have their seat above and under Anahata.)

I think that this way of praying could be a decisive, heaven-sent aid for a
person who experiences a split between the sphere of the mind and that of
the heart.

In the book The Way of a Pilgrim there is the description of how one day
the pilgrim finds eventually the Prayer at his lips and in his mind every
waking hour, as spontaneous and effortless as breath itself. In this
wonderful condition he comes to experience the effulgence of the divine
light, the innermost "secret of the heart".

Like a person enjoying the beauty of a chilly winter near the fireside,
contemplating either the sad or the joyous spectacle of life, such is a
devotee having found the infinity of the skies residing in their heart! The
Continuous Prayer is truly a marvelous gem whose glitter warms up life.
Its magic spreads into each facet of life, like walking out of a dark room
into fresh air and sunlight. (The Way of a Pilgrim)

[IV] Prayer of the heart proper

After many days of practicing the ''Cross-Shaped Prayer'' you are ready to
practice the Prayer of the Heart proper. You need at least 20 minutes free.

You are in the meditation position, your chin is slightly down, the gaze is
turned toward the location of your heart. With great calmness perceive the
pulse of your heart. It is not easy but if you persist you will succeed. Then
make each pulsation coincide with a word or with a syllable of the Prayer.

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With this new criterion, constantly applied, you reach the stadium in which
the breath first and the pulsing of the heart then, tend to slow down and
disappear. When you come near to this state, you will understand what it
means ''praying with the heart and not with the mind.''

Wait before increasing the length of your practice.

When the Prayer of the heart is practiced seriously, the Prayer becomes
continuous. In every possible moment of silence you are aware of the
Prayer that sweetly and comfortably goes ahead as a music in the
background of your consciousness. Sometimes silence is not possible but
you can preserve silence in your heart. You will feel an ardent brazier
located in the region of the breast. Or simply a warm sensation originating
from the heart region. This sensation, first mild, may turn into a sensation
of solidification of the heart which is felt like a point surrounded by an
endless pressure. 3 In this way you live, always having God in your
remembrance. This harmony is not lost during sleep.

I sleep, but my heart waketh

(Song of Solomon 5:2)

The soul is conscious of a deep satisfaction. Something that has the taste of
eternal life invades your being. The soul feels to be in contact with an
Endless Goodness. The intensity of this state grows and grows. You realize
that you are not in the condition of resisting this all-consuming emotion:
you realize that behind it there is the Divine. From the corners of the eyes
tears of inexpressible delight slowly go down. An unlimited, all consuming
internal desire to cry exerts a pressure upon your heart. When you enjoy
this, you have the drastic realization that ''what you have lived till now had
been NOTHING.''

Unheard of Light is born from this ineffably,

And thence, beyond all telling, the heart’s illumination.
Last comes – a step that has no limit
Though compassed in a single line –
Perfection that is endless…
(Monk Theophanis, the Hesychast ascetic of the 8th century)

3
St Theresa also explains the same concept: ''From this pressure comes a strange
experience of pain. We perceive the Divine, the endless Light and we burn of love.
We realize the moment has not yet come to become one with that endless Light and
Bliss: hence tears of intense longing.

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THIRD PART: SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH PRAYER

It's a pity that the Kriya schools do not give officially the teaching of
Devotional Prayer (Japa.) Perhaps the pride and arrogance of some
kriyabans had contributed to spread the idea that Japa is a too simple
practice fit for simpletons – those that understand nothing about Prana,
spine, Chakras. [I have appreciated that the organization founded by PY
leak out the information that great disciples of PY practiced Japa. ]

Actually, you will never be able to find anything like Japa to ameliorate
your Kriya. Japa acts on the subconscious mind. You cannot practice
Kriya by the sheer strength of your will alone, you have to relax. Here you
will find something about my personal experience.

After many years since my first experiences with Japa, I decide to make
some intense experiences with Japa. The first idea was to have a ''Japa
week''. Starting with Monday, I decided to practice only Japa in my routine
until Saturday where I decided to take part in a pilgrimage, praying
''unceasingly.'' Here I describe what happened.

[I] As I have said I went in the open country not to practice my Kriya
routine but just to focus on pure Japa. It was a near perfect day where I
could enjoy the blue sky in which a small cluster of clouds floated in the
golden light. The session was longer than I had planned. I was sustained by
a calm euphoria. I sat and started to repeat my Prayer.

After ten minutes I started to chant my Prayer mentally. I observed that the
Prayer was being repeated in the spine in synchrony with the breath. This
was irresistible, impossible to do differently. I mentally chanted half
Prayer during the inhalation, and half during the exhalation.

It came spontaneous to move my chin up and down following the

movement of the Prayer in the spine. The passion that was warming my
heart was intensified when I came down with the Prayer and crossed the
Chakra of the heart. There came the tendency to prolonging the exhalation.
At the end of exhalation I remained with the chin down and with eyes
closed for some instants perceiving the annihilation of my mind. It was
impossible to think a single thought: the state of Mental Silence, appeared
stronger than ever. My eyes were full of tears. Bliss, pure bliss!

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I returned many times in that place and tried to live the experience again. I
increased the length of my practice. Summer came and I remember long
sunsets, with evenings that seemed to have no end. That moment of my
life was really a magic one. I have an endless nostalgia for it. Living those
long sessions sitting in the open countryside, in total freedom and in a state
of mystical ''intoxication'' was an unforgettable event. The devotion that I
experienced at that time was not the classical feeling that we define Bhakti.
It was the sense of being crushed, destroyed by something that in my
diaries I called ''Unbearable Beauty''. At that time, I was open to remember
the meditative experience that St Teresa of Avila called ''Infused
Recollection''

A glorious delirium, a celestial folly, a state of unspeakable delights.

It is an inebriation of love in which the soul doesn't know what to do,
whether to speak or to keep silent, whether to cry or to laugh. The
soul is conscious of a deep satisfaction. The soul feels invaded by
something that has the taste of eternal life and feels as if coming into
contact with an Endless Goodness. Hence comes the feeling that
there is nothing on the earth worthy of your desire or attention. (S.
Therese)

As I have stated beforehand, Saturday was the day of pilgrimage. The

program was to walk a full night in order to reach a beautiful sanctuary the
following morning. While I walked, I had the sweet intuition that my
mates' lives were wrapped up in love. I moved around as if my heart bore a
brazier within. The center of what I call ''me'' was not in the brain, but in
my heart. And in my heart I perceived a sort of tension of tenderness. The
vision increased in power. My mates could not by instinct avoid loving or
taking care of somebody – their own children for example. Each one of
them had the power for great and incredible actions. As a consequence, no
one had the certitude of being protected by painful experiences. Their life,
being merged in love, was also merged in pain and tragedy. This duality is
involved in earthly existence, interwoven with our being. The sentiment of
this inescapable reality was experienced as a painful grip tearing my chest
apart.
While I was merged in these thoughts, the sun rose over our path
and the sanctuary appeared over a hill, something thawed in my depths and
there came such an intensity of love that the same experience turned into a
"blissful" pain.

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[II] A moment came in my life in which I decided to complete the
incremental routine of Micro Tribhangamurari movement utilizing the
Prayer given by Lahiri Mahasaya: Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
I did as requested [see chapter 9.] The problem was that you remain too
much on a Chakra before moving to the next one.

Often an invincible drowsiness overpowered all my best efforts. On the

inner screen of my awareness a lot of images were displayed like dreamlike
visions. No help came from changing the position of the legs, practicing
Maha Mudra several times, or interrupting the practice for a short pause.
After some rest, I found out, however, that it did not solve my problem –
sleepiness came back as soon as I resumed the practice. There was no way
(coffee, a lot of rest…) to find some relief from it; there was nothing to do
but to accept the situation and become accustomed to practice while never
coming out of a drowsy state.

All changed when I decided to repeat the Mantra only three times in each
Chakra, going up and down. [Down along the Tribhangamurari path. There
are some centers out of the spine. Again please read chapter 9]

I decided that each syllable of the Mantra had to be lived as pure joy.
One day I practicing at the seaside, amid people that did not disturbed me
but that were walking peacefully in the nearby. When I perceive they were
looking at me, I pretended I was reading a book that I always kept open
over my knees. The beatitude was awful.

At dusk I leaned my back against a rock and practiced keeping my eyes

open. The sky was an indestructible crystal of infinite transparency and the
waves were continually changing their color. Behind the black lenses of
my sunglasses my eyes were full of tears. I cannot describe what I felt
except in poetic form.

There is an Indian song (in the final part of the movie Mahabharata)
whose lyrics are taken from the Svetasvatara Upanishad - "I have met this
Great Spirit, as radiant as the sun, transcending any material conception of
obscurity. Only the one who knows Him can transcend the limits of birth
and death. There is no other way to reach liberation but meeting this Great
Spirit." When I listen to the beautiful voice of the Indian singer repeating
"There is no other way", my heart knows that nothing has the power to
keep me away from this state and this terrifically beautiful practice, which
I will enjoy for the rest of my life.

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[III] I know that some do not like to practice the quoted procedure in the
centers outside the spine. Well, I can say that you can successfully practice
the procedure in the centers of the ''Small Heavenly Orbit [Inner Alchemy]''
On that occasion It came spontaneous to repeat the Mantra not three but
twelve times in each center and practice only one round.

To make it simple, I practiced 12 Mantras (each one with perception of

micro Tribhangamurari movement) in these centers: Kutastha – Adam's
apple – central part of the breast bone – navel – pubic region – perineum
– Chakra 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the spine, then Medulla.

The experience went ahead in a deep way. I felt I had the power to ''touch''
internally the essence of each center. I had only to visualize the syllables of
my Mantra moving sweetly like the flow of a liquid substance inside each
center.

While nearing Medulla, the muscles of my lower jaw gradually relaxed to

the point that my mouth opened and I remained there with the mouth open,
the chin slightly up, sweetly locked in that position for a very long time. An
approximate calculation from my part, revealed that I remained in that
position for about half an hour. I know that the experience was surely
pleasant but I do not remember anything. Something very subtle,
indefinite, happened inside Medulla. What happen in the Medulla while
going up, what happened in me... I don' know.

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 CHAPTER 14
THE KRIYA OF THE CELLS

Let us consider the experience that Lahiri Mahasaya refers in his diaries
when, a couple of years after his initiation in the Himalayas, wrote:
"Following an excellent Pranayama, the breath is wholly internally
oriented. After a long period, today the purpose of my descent (on earth)
has been fulfilled!" What does it mean ''wholly internally oriented''?
I think that he means that the breath has been transformed into an internal
reality: it has become a mental substance.

PY describes the same event foretelling what a skillful kriyaban will

experience "...the current will then automatically move by itself and the joy
experienced will be indescribable." He is referring to a higher form of
Pranayama where the energy moves by itself, without our action of
guiding it through our Kriya breathing.

Let us try to conceive what is this Kriya Pranayama with Internal Breath. I
will explain why I call it ''Kriya of the cells''.

I think that the Taoist Internal Alchemy could come in our aid. We have
considered the three main energies in the human body: Jing (sexual
energy), Qi (love energy) e Shen (spiritual energy.) We have seen how,
through the Microcosmic orbit, sexual energy is transformed in pure love
and this in spiritual aspiration. This Alchemy happens gradually in the three
places: in the abdomen, in the heart region and in Kutastha. Then a
spontaneous phenomenon of circulation of energy in the body happens.
This circulation is called Macrocosmic orbit.

This envisages a great infusion of energy coming down as a golden liquid

outside and inside the body, in all its cells. Years of Kriya Pranayama
prepare this great event. If you have experienced in your body after Kriya
practice the state of calm Prana, you are in the right mental and physical
state to perfect the practice of Kriya Pranayama. What you have sown is
ready to flower.

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[I] How to direct our efforts toward this supreme achievement

1 Lengthen the exhalation and let a new kind of energy appear in the
abdominal region
What you have learned about the role of the navel during Kriya
Pranayama should be intensified more than usual. During inhalation
expand the abdomen by pushing out the navel; during exhalation
concentrate intensely on the navel as it moves toward the spine. Focus your
attention on the increase of energy in the abdominal region. [This detail is
intensified at maximum in the Tibetan practice of Vase breathing and
Tummo. See chapter 12 routine C.]

Now make exhalation last a lot more than inhalation. Go ahead breathing,
increasing the length of the exhalation: you will have the impression that it
can be lengthened indefinitely. At a certain point you will find yourself
becoming crazy with joy – sometimes with the chin slightly lowered,
directed toward the navel as if it were a magnet. The pleasurable sensation
will become orgasmic. The body will remind you the necessity of inhaling,
interrupting the progressive increase of this joy. At this point, few breaths
separates you from the, coveted state where all effort ceases. Very useful,
but not indispensable, to cross this veil, is to make use of a fragmented
exhalation.

Consider dividing your exhalation into about 20-30 fragments or even

more. With a half-closed mouth during the exhalation produce the sound
of s-s-s-s-s-s-s... creating a feeling of warmth between the lips. Transfer
continually this heat to the spine. Obviously, to produce this sound s-s-s-s-
s-s-s..., the exhalation is fragmented into many small pieces. Try and you
will discover that this instruction is not difficult to understand.

The effect is pleasurable, especially when each fragment tends to become

microscopic. When you succeed, make this process more and more subtle.
The exhalation becomes endless while a particular radiation of joy raises
from the abdomen to the chest and to the head! The diaphragm with micro
upward pushes helps to raise this energy. Go ahead until the fragments of
breath seem to have practically dissolved! When you feel the need, inhale
feeling energy rising from Muladhara in the spine. Repeat the process
again and again, you will never exhaust the beauty of this procedure.

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 When this technique is applied, you will feel that you can push the energy
wherever you want, not only in the spine but also in the body. Ability of
visualization combined with a normal faculty of concentration is all you
need.

One day you will bless this detail. You will notice how, in a moment, it
lifts your spirits. Inhale with half-closed mouth (without fragmentation of
the breath), wait until you feel the desire of exhaling. Exhale with half-
closed mouth, fragmenting the breath. Perceive a sensation of freshness
while inhaling and a sensation of warm while exhaling.

Remember that, as we have already said, you are not practicing the classic
Kriya Pranayama. You are not guiding the energy up while inhaling and
down while exhaling.

When the cool / warm sensations appear, they will become gradually more
intense. Always concentrate on the heat that is felt on the sides of the half-
open mouth. Remember to mentally transfer this heat to the lower part of
your spine. You will feel that the heat rises and pervades the body.

2 Fill with a higher form of Prana the cells of your body

During inhalation visualize a powerful vibration departing from the sexual
zone, absorbing the energy there and guiding it into the head. Increase the
intensity of the sound in the throat. Before starting the exhalation
strengthen the intention of finding (or opening) an internal way to reach the
cells of your body. During exhalation create a strong pressure of the
awareness on the whole body. No one iota of vitality in the air should leave
your nose; all the vitality should be directed into the body. Perceive that the
descending flow of energy permeates all the parts of the body, muscles,
internal organs, skin, cells as if countless hypodermic needle injected
energy and light in the cells of your body. The Sheee sound of exhalation
helps to infuse energy in the cells of your body. Be inspired by thinking
that the Sheee sound be like "the cry that breaks the hardest rock" – thus
Sri Aurobindo was referring to the power of Bija Mantra, the "sacred
sound of the Rishi" – revealing:

...the treasure of heaven

hidden in the secret cavern
like the young of a bird,
within the infinite rock
(Rig-Veda, I.130.3)

If you are not able of producing perfectly the Sheee sound described by
Lahiri Mahasaya, try all your best to create it in your mind, in other words
try to mentally ''produce'' it.

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3 Pass through the barrier of breath
Forget the breath and try to make the whole process go ahead through your
will power. Visualize that the Prana comes up with Haaa...and goes down
with Sheee... The mental repetition of these two syllables helps the
circulation of the Prana even without breath. With the breath practically
nonexistent energy streams out of the Muladhara rapidly going to the head
and then slowly spreading through the body. The ascent is a very short act.
So short that is almost not noticeable. You have the impression that only
exhalation exists.

This sublime experience is like breathing in all atoms. The great barrier has
been crossed: the breath as a physical fact does not exist, there is no air
coming out your nose. There is an inner source of fresh energy making you
lighter and filling you with strength. The sensation is reminiscent of a brisk
walk in the wind. This can not merely be called a joyous state: it is a
feeling of infinite safety surrounded by a crystalline state of immobility.

Open your eyes and consider not only your body but every thing before
and around you as your body. You will perceive a continuous sound of Om.
This state is very different from what we call a cyclic phenomenon. This
process seem to involve a different energy from the one we move in Kriya
Pranayama. It does not flow from one point to another. It is timeless, it
transcends time. It is a static Prana. It has no current flow direction. It's an
energy field without a flow; it just is there.

Remarks
A great source of inspiration is meditating outdoors with eyes open and with the
adamant will of becoming one with a mountain, a lake, or a tree in front of us.
Open your eyes and consider everything surrounding you as your body. During
Sheee, visualize the light that enters not only the cells of your body but, at the
same time, the atoms of everything. You will perceive a continuous sound of
Om. This is the confirmation that you are heading in the right direction. You can
avoid the practice of Kechari Mudra: sometimes it might give the paradoxical
impression of hindering your efforts. Kechari isolates you from the surrounding
environment, while here we should feel one with it.

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[II] First effects immediately after the practice
This practice has an immediate effect upon our mood. To say it shortly,
even a rainy day of November will seem to evoke the mood of the clearest
days of Spring. The simple fact of adding awareness to the exhalation
phase of your Kriya breath, visualizing it going toward each cell of the
body has surprising effects. The beauty of living, like wine from a full cup,
seems to overflow from every atom and fills the heart. You perceive it as if
you had vainly hoped for years that the Divine would be part of your daily
life, without ever seeing any result.... then suddenly you discover that the
Divine has always been there.

Heaven's fire is lit in the breast of the earth

and the undying suns here burn.
(Sri Aurobindo, ''A God's labor'')

The sense of beauty and satisfaction is great, as if an impressionist painter

had finally succeeded in actualizing their visionary conception conveying
the idea that the painted inert substance of matter is composed of
multicolored particles of light, like innumerable suns radiating in a brilliant
transparency.

This Pranayama is a basically healthy process. It seems to destroy any

mental prison created by you. Your psychological problems, especially
those connected with intricate and thwarted plans for the future, appear as
an illusion out of which you have emerged definitively. The life which up
until that point had been full of asperities, now seems to stretch out evenly
toward the future where you do no perceive insuperable obstacles.

[III] What happens after the initial euphoria

In the following days unexpected consequences could be observed. The
image of an anthill that's been disturbed comes to mind: countless ants
move at a frenetic pace. In a similar way, our environment appears more
agitated, at times aggressive toward us. We feel as if "not having a skin
anymore." For instance, after a long absence some acquaintances return
with demanding challenges that require radical changes of attitude on our
part. We are in trouble facing intricate, unsolved issues that in the past we
cleverly succeeded in avoiding.

If we go ahead undeterred with our practice of Kriya, we shall be stunned

by a very peculiar event. We are under the impression that we are
perceiving – not only through our awareness but, in a strange way, also
through our body – what is passing in another person's consciousness. We
are not talking about telepathy. We experience a mood which is not our

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own, which has no reason to exist and we vainly search for reasons in order
to justify it. When, after a couple of days, it vanishes, only then we realize
that all was a kind of subtle deception: the strange mood came from
another person's consciousness; indeed we made new acquaintances and
talked with them being sincerely touched by their narration.

If this is true, we must deduce that our practice of Pranayama with internal
breath has an effect on the surrounding world! It seems impossible, a
dream. Even after many similar episodes, you cannot know whether this is
simply an impression or a real fact. Why by guiding breath and awareness
into the cells of our body, do we obtain such important results having so
tangible effects upon the material, emotive and psychological planes?

Can we accept the fact that our spiritual practices have an influence on the
surrounding reality by making things happen that would not otherwise
happen (or that would have happened anyway, but in a different way.) Such
event has all the appearance of a figment of our imagination. The principle
of causality implies that the world ignores what happens inside our
consciousness. It is well known how good our mind is when it comes to
clutching at straws; but when a similar episode is observed with due
detachment and, as the days and the months go by, it repeats with
mathematical precision, then the evidence of this phenomenon cannot be
denied. I know that what I am writing evokes the most bold of New Age
manias. It is only after listening to similar effects by other researchers and
on account of my commitment to total sincerity, that I have made up my
mind to write about this particular experience.

[IV] Ascending and Descending phase of each spiritual path

In my opinion, each authentic spiritual path has an ''ascending'' and a
''descending'' phase. The ''ascending'' phase is what is commonly intended
with ''mystic path.'' The ''descending'' phase usually happens automatically
and it is the phase where the mystic acts for the good of other persons.
Usually we never take time to describe and understand the descent phase.

It is not easy to realize factually that a single person's spiritual realization

has an effect not only upon those who are in tune with that person, but also
upon those who are simply physically in the nearby? The spiritual efforts
of an individual influence those who are around. Moving toward Spirit
means acting in inconceivable ways to reason. We have the intention of living
peacefully, always attuned to divine joy. Often we affirm to love mankind as
''our greatest Self'' and we have learned to send ''good vibrations'' and
''pious intentions'' to humanity. But these are just words.

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By studying the biographies of mystics, we often find examples of how
they accepted to take upon themselves the suffering of other persons. They
did not refuse to receive, to make it disappear through Prayer, part of the
obscurity in which humanity lives. I remember how St. Pio of Pietrelcina
(Padre Pio) had many times all the pains of death by being metaphysically
united to some wounded soldiers who were dying on the field of battle, far
away from home.

Lahiri Mahasaya himself suffered. Think of the famous episode when he

''drowned'' in the body of people who were shipwrecked in a far away sea.
He had not endeavored to attract that experience to him. But he fully
accepted it and we don't know, but we can guess, what supreme solace he
was able to bring to those poor souls.

[V] Has our destiny in store for us a similar suffering?

Lahiri Mahasaya and other saints are a mirror for all kriyabans. What
happened in their body may one day happen in our body. Surely we are far
away from Lahiri Mahasaya sublime state of consciousness: we have not
the spiritual realization, devotion and surrender of the saints, but we can
patiently turn our heart toward this new dimension of the spiritual path. If
we constantly and inexorably exclude any difficult achievement from our
dreams and goals, our spiritual venture risks falling apart.

What we can do now is to perfect endlessly our Kriya Pranayama knowing

that it will lead us on a higher plan of spiritual realization. In particular,
each effort to come near to the practice of Pranayama with Internal Breath
will guide our awareness to touch the Collective Unconscious. Through this
practice we do not move toward a spiritual dimension wholly cut off from
the physical plane but toward the deeper and most real dimension of the
Divine inside the matter, inside the consciousness of all mankind. The cells
of the body are like doors that lead exactly to that dimension. All this will
become part of our lives not as an object of theoretical speculation but as a
practical discovery.

Lahiri Mahasaya said: ''The whole universe is in the body; the whole
universe is the final Self.'' It is now time to realize what he meant by such
statement!

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[VI] The alternative
Sri Aurobindo wrote:

Seeking heaven's rest or the spirit's wordless peace,

Or in bodies motionless like statues, fixed
In tranced cessations of their sleepless thought
Sat sleeping souls, and this too was a dream.
(Sri Aurobindo, Savitri; Book X - Canto IV)

What does it mean: ''... and this too was a dream'' ? We cannot live with a
mind always focused upon enjoying elated emotions or spiritual pleasures,
with a heart fictitiously open to universal love but in reality hard and
resistant like a stone. In this situation our meditative state instead of a
reality of enlightenment risks to resemble a chronic state of drowsiness.
Those who want to live only in an heavenly dimension without any
disturbance, want to live in illusion – a golden illusion, but in any case
illusion.

By virtue of a universal law, the very last phase of our spiritual path may
contemplate a hard experience: that we share part of other's suffering. This
event might imply a momentary loss of our spiritual realization. Indeed
this is a difficult test, that only true love can justify; such test must be
overcome. But let us don't be desperate.

There is a sentence attributed to the mythical Babaji (quoting Bhagavad

Gita): "Even a little bit of the practice of this (inward) religion will save
you from dire fears and colossal sufferings." In my opinion ''dire fears and
colossal sufferings'' originates from the contact with the quagmires of
Collective Unconscious. Well, the achievement of Pranayama with
internal breath will surely mitigate that suffering.

Shall we be able to cross with untamed serenity the various layers of

obscurity that are in us and in the mind of our brothers? The alternative is
to wait that life itself exert upon us a sharp tug downward and force us to
focus the attention on the body.

Some spiritually minded people have forgotten the world and are lost in
their dream. How can you explain their negative moods and depression?
Some times they know the blackest desperation. St. John of the Cross
named that state: "The dark night of the soul." He explained that those
souls feel as if God had suddenly abandoned them; they doubt the validity
of their own spiritual path. Although their conscience is totally turned to
God, they keep on believing they are sinners, without any possibility of

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salvation. In a lengthy and profound absence of light and hope, even if they
have the drive to go ahead with outward expressions of faith, they reach
the stage where they doubt the existence of God. Therefore they feel
irremediably impure, lost for eternity.

It is also true (but less frequent) that there were souls who had not
forgotten the world, rather they had no other goal than to diminish the
suffering of their fellow creatures, and yet they have known the ''Dark
night of the soul.''

Well, I believe that such sufferings could be mitigated or even skipped by

learning to guide their awareness into the cells of their body. Our body is
our greatest protection. When it seems impossible to go back to that deep
inspiration which time ago guided our steps toward the spiritual path, when
the innocence seems lost and we see only a dark wall blocking definitively
any effort of ours to consecrate our life to the Divine, that is the moment to
go down with the method we feel more congenial, towards the cells of our
body to meet the dimension, known to few, that the Mother evoked
describing the: "abysses of truth and the oceans of smile that are behind the
august picks of truth." 4

By perfecting our Pranayama with internal breath we come near a

incomparable experience of perfect Beauty: the Divine immanent in matter.
I believe that Sri Aurobindo was relating to this possibility when he wrote:

Now the wasteland, now the silence;

A blank dark wall, and behind it heaven.
(Sri Aurobindo, from: ''Journey's End'')

Final note: the concept of Collective Unconscious

The Collective Unconscious represents a part of our Unconscious common to
mankind as a whole. Jung 5 introduced terminology which permits us to probe
4
You can also utilize Japa, thinking its syllables in the body.
5
I believe that Jung's discoveries are precious for the understanding of the mystical
path – perhaps more than many other concepts formulated during the 20 th century.
Even though his statements never lacked the necessary prudence, the scientific
community never forgave him for dealing with matters that were not considered a
part of Psychiatry – such as Alchemy (deemed an absurdity), the realm of myths
(considered the result of a senseless imagination) and, more than any other thing, the
great value he attributed to the religious dimension; which he considered something
universal and fundamentally sane, instead of a pathology. Presently the enthusiasm
for his writings remains, especially among those who study topics of a spiritual and
esoteric nature.

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an aspect of the mystical path which would otherwise risk being totally
extraneous, not only to our capability of expression but also to our
comprehension. Jung discovered that the human psyche is made up of layers or
strata, parts of it shared by all humanity and called the Collective Unconscious.

To Freud the Unconscious was similar to a depot full of old "removed" things
that we cannot recall to consciousness - refused by a nearly automatic act of the
will. Jung discovered a deeper level of it: the Collective Unconscious which links
all human beings by the deepest layers of their psyche. The contents of the
Collective Unconscious have never been part of our immediate conscious
perception, and when an infinitesimal part of it bursts forth into our psyche, we
are momentarily dismayed.

However the influence that the Collective Unconscious has upon our life, is, in
some occasions, vital! When we feel helpless as we deal with difficult problems,
this deeper layer of our unconscious mind put us in touch with the totality of
human experience, a vast store of objective wisdom and perfect solutions. This
can save us!

A typical outcome of contacting the Collective Unconscious is to witness a

countless series of ''Meaningful Coincidences.'' They happen in so many ways
that we cannot even adumbrate. Jung put a basis for the rational study of this
subject in his book Synchronicity: An a-causal Connecting Principle.

To explain with simple terms what this is all about, we say that in addition to
causality – that which acts in a linear direction of progression of time and puts in
connection two phenomena that happen in the same space at different times – we
hypothesize the existence of a principle (a causal) that puts in connection two
phenomena that happen at the same time but in different spaces. The key point to
emphasize is that they have a meaning that ties them together and it is this fact
that arouses deep emotion in the observer.

Now, if two events happen simultaneously but in different spaces, it is clear that
causality (cause-effect chain: one has caused the other or vice versa) is
impossible. There would be nothing strange in these events of themselves, save
one fact: the observer considers them as a meaningful coincidence – like a
miracle, something that the universe wants to communicate to him. The observer
is intimately touched by what is perceived as a manifestation of the mysterious
dimension of life.

An example will help us to better understand this concept. A youth moves a plant
in a vase, which falls, breaks into peaces and the young man looks at the
wounded plant. He thinks with intensity about the moment when his girlfriend
gave the vase to him as a present. There is emotion and pain in him, the event is
feared as an omen. At the same time his girlfriend (this will obviously come to
be know subsequently) is writing him a letter to leave him and therefore to break

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their relationship.

Here the characteristics of the Jungian Synchronicity are observed. The two
events happens simultaneously and are connected, concerning the meaning (a
vase breaks and a relationship is broken), but one is not the cause of the other.
When, later, our youth discovers the contemporaneity of the two events, he is
stunned. This is not telepathy or clairvoyance; in telepathy a cause could be
hypothesized, for example the existence of cerebral waves transmitted from one
person to another. In this case, no cause exists whatsoever. Jung explains that we
are not able to realize what happens: we are too limited, we cannot see that in
this situation there is only one event in a multi dimensional reality.

The two events are actually only one event, merely seen from two different
points of view.6

When this happens, it is as if the world would talk to you. If it happens, and you
notice it has happened, I only hope that you don't lose your wits and come to
believe you are endowed with extraordinary powers. It doesn't deal with
telepathy, clairvoyance.... it is something very deep. You are opening your eyes
on the wonders of the subtle laws of this universe.

6
In the esoteric literature we find the concept of Siddhis (powers). We are very
perplex about it. Those who write books on Yoga are not able to resist the temptation
of copying some lines from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. It's typical to find the ridiculous
warning of the danger coming from the abuse of the Siddhis. Quoting Patanjali
(IV:1), they recount that Siddhis are the spiritual powers (psychic abilities) that may
occur through rigorous austerities; they explain that they vary from relatively simple
forms of clairvoyance, telepathy, to being able to levitate, to be present at various
places at once, to become as small as an atom, to materialize objects and more. They
recommend to their readers not to ever indulge in these powers since "they are a
great hindrance to spiritual progress". Indulge - what a beautiful word! If you did see
someone practicing Pranayama and 'indulging' in a little bilocation for fun, could
you tell?! Perhaps they don't think enough about what they are writing because they
let themselves be seduced by the dreams of possessing those powers. Perhaps they
already visualize all the fuss which will come with it: interviews, taking part in talk
shows etc. However, here, I repeat with emphasis, we are discussing quite another
phenomenon!

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 FINAL APPENDICES

APPENDIX N.1
DEFINITION OF INCREMENTAL ROUTINE

An unvarying schedule which consists of a daily practice of the same set of

Kriya techniques, changing neither their order of practice nor the number
of their repetitions, seems the best way of starting on the Kriya path. For
the first three months, there is no valid substitute for that. But, if after a
couple of years of patient application of the same routine, you would
discover that your efforts had been totally ineffective and the initial
enthusiasm got lost, you have the opportunity to be reborn to the spiritual
path by utilizing your time in a different way.

I know full well that if you address to a dogmatic kriyaban you would
receive the standard reprimand: ''You depend too much on results. Even if
you deem that Kriya does not work, be loyal to it and go ahead undeterred
as you have done up to now.'' Perhaps he will tell you the story of that loyal
kriyaban who had his first spiritual experience a day before dying!

I never had doubts that one should continue the practice of Kriya through
seemingly unproductive phases. Yet a lot of kriyabans drop everything
because they reach a standstill where further progress appears impossible.
The idea of practicing Kriya daily during their entire life because of a
promise made at the moment of initiation can become a nightmare, a cage
from which one wants to escape.

Definition
An Incremental Routine consists in utilizing mainly one single technique,
whose number of repetitions is gradually increased up to reach a large
number of repetitions whose amount has been handed down from Kriya
tradition. Each step of this demanding practice is lived only once in a week.

Let us consider what happens in athletics. I know that Kriya is not a sport,
but in the beginning stages of Kriya, while applying its different psycho-
physical techniques, it has many points in common with the essence of
athletics. Both shun the employment of brute force, and both require goals
and the diligent channeling of one's strength to achieve them. Both also
require analyzing and evaluating one's performance to learn from the
experience.

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 Now, what happens in athletics gives us a good example of how to
progress. Athletes who wish to achieve excellent performance must
somehow increase the intensity and the quality of their practice. Only
through intensive training sessions where athletes push their physical and
mental endurance beyond their normal levels, will they succeed in
accomplishing otherwise unachievable levels of performance. This is a
"law" no one escapes. It is clear that each session should be followed by
some days of rest in order to have a full recovery.

Let us consider two examples

INCREMENTAL ROUTINE OF NAVI KRIYA
On Saturdays – or on any free day – after a short practice of Maha Mudra
and of Kriya Pranayama, practice the double number of your usual
practice of Navi Kriya. It is wise to choose the most beautiful variation of
Navi Kriya, the one whose process begins with 36 descents to the Dantian.
This variation (you find the description of it in chapter 7) will be utilized
for our first example of Incremental Routine.
You start practicing 36 x 2 = 72 descents. The next steps will be: 36
x 3, 36 x 4...., 36 x 19, 36 x 20. There is no need to go beyond 36 x 20
repetitions. You will do these fundamental steps once per week. What
would you do during the other days of each week? The answer will
astonish you: ''Do nothing or have a very short practice of Kriya.
The increase of this delicate technique should be gradual. If you try
to outsmart the process and perform too many repetitions all at once,
nothing will come of it because the inner channels close up. Our inner
obstacles cannot be removed in one day; our inner force is not strong
enough to dissolve them. This internal power is initially weak and must be
enhanced week after week. Furthermore, this process should be
incorporated within a regular active life.
If you always practice in your room, arrange to have a tranquil walk
in the evening. Everything will proceed harmoniously and the benediction
of blissful silence will unfailingly visit you. The following day, grant
yourself a day of rest from all Kriya practices and grant yourself the balm
of a long tranquil Japa.
It is up to you to make your practice days as pleasant as possible. It
is advisable to break these long sessions into two parts – to be completed
before going to bed. You can conclude each part by lying on your back
(Savasana: the corpse pose) on a mat for a couple of minutes. You may
complete the first part unhurriedly in the morning, carefully respecting
every detail. In the afternoon, after a light meal and a little nap, it is fine to
go out, find a pleasant place to sit, and then reserve some time to

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contemplate nature. Then you can complete the remaining prearranged
number of repetitions, absorbed in your practice and perfectly at ease. You
will see how the effects increase as daylight approaches twilight.

Effects of this practice

A good effect of this practice is a striking increase in mental clarity,
probably due to the strong action on the third Chakra which governs the
thinking process. A more calibrated, precise and clear logical process rises
from a more efficient synergy between thoughts and emotions. Intuition
flows unimpeded when important decisions are to be made.
Unfortunately, traits of hardness might appear sometimes in your
temperament. You will find yourself uttering statements that others find
offensive and cutting but that for you, in that moment, are the expression of
sincerity. Although sustained by a luminous internal intuition, you might
hurt friends through your words and only hours later, being alone and
detached, notice how those words were inappropriate.
To understand the reason for this problem, let us look into the
meaning of ''crossing'' the knot of the navel. (Navi Kriya is done primarily
for this reason and secondarily to unite Prana and Apana and attract them
into the spine.) It is explained that the cutting of the umbilical cord at birth
splits a unique reality into two parts: the spiritual and the material. The
spiritual, which manifests as joy and calmness, establishes itself in the
higher Chakras and in the head; the material establishes itself in the lower
Chakras. This split between ''matter'' and ''spirit'' inside each human being
is a permanent source of excruciating conflicts. The healing of this fracture
happens through this Incremental Routine. Although the healing is
harmonious, visible manifestations can be interpreted negatively by others.
The personality of a kriyaban is destined to be ideally collected
around a central point and all inner conflicts healed. The effects are
observed clearly in one's practical life. One feels an inward order settling;
each action seems as if it were surrounded by a halo of calmness and
headed straight for the goal. It reminds me of Ahab in "Moby Dick" by
Herman Melville:

Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, … The path to my fixed purpose is laid
with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. … Naught's an
obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way! (Herman Melville)

When you practice more than 36x4 Navi Kriyas, the movements of the
head become less marked. The head movements tend to be hardly
noticeable. In other words, the forward, backward, and sideways
movement of the chin is reduced to a couple of millimeters! This happens
spontaneous because the practice is internalized.

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At the same time what happens to your breath is remarkable! This practice
will transform the quality of it. At the very moment the order to exhale has
been imparted by the mind, it feels as if the lungs cannot move. Some
instants later comes the awareness of something subtle descending into the
body. A new kind of exhalation is enjoyed, like an internal all-pervading
pressure. It brings about a peculiar feeling of well-being, harmony, and
freedom. One has the impression one could remain like that forever. Logic
implies that breath is coming out of the nose, yet you would swear it
doesn't. This may be considered the first experience of Pranayama with
internal breath (also called Kriya of the cells) that we discussed in chapter
14.

INCREMENTAL ROUTINE OF KRIYA PRANAYAMA

Let us first reply to an obvious question: ''Why should one practice the
Incremental Routine of Navi Kriya before that of Kriya Pranayama?'' The
reason is that Navi Kriya creates that solidity that permits to face such a
challenging procedure such as the Incremental Routine of Kriya
Pranayama.
36x1, 36 x 2, 36 x 3, up to 36 x 20 Kriya Pranayama breaths is the
best plan. 24x1, 24 x 2, 24 x 3,…..24 x 24 is a lighter plan, however very
good also.
In Chapter 6 we have shown different aspects of Kriya Pranayama,
let them all be present. Start with the simplest details and after some time,
introduce the others. When the practice is broken into two or three parts –
for example between morning and afternoon – you always restart
reconsidering the simplest aspects.

Move forward prudently. Respect the rhythm of the breath suited to your
constitution. If you feel that your breath is too short, don't worry about it!
However, during each stage of the process it is important to keep a slender
thread of breath up to the completion of the prescribed number. In other
words, the process should never become purely mental. If you like it, make
use of the 12 letter Mantra "Om Namo Bhagabate Vasudevaya" (Om Na
Mo Bha Ga Ba coming up and Te Va Su De Va Ya coming down.) This
helps you to keep the breath not too much short.

Note 1

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During this very delicate period, you can practice Nadi Sodhana Pranayama
both during your week and especially the same day of the Incremental Routine.
You can take advantage of this useful technique although it is not part of Kriya
Yoga. As I have already pointed out, Nadi Sodhana Pranayama is far more
important than expert kriyabans are willing to admit. Its practice should always
be coupled with the basic techniques of Kriya Yoga. Thanks to it, a beginner
receives a dramatic transformation – many important patterns of energy
imbalance disappear. Without this balancing action it is not easy to achieve a
watchful but peaceful alertness, which is the basis itself of the Kriya meditative
state. It is a common experience that after a long practice of Nadi Sodhana
without adding any other technique you enter a natural meditative state.

Note 2
Don't be upset if on some occasions this routine becomes an extraordinary
journey in your memory. It happens indeed that by focusing your attention on the
Chakras you obtain a particular effect: the inner screen of your awareness begins
to display a lot of images. This is a physiological fact and we have reasons to
suspect that those who affirm they are exempt from such phenomenon, it is
because they do not have enough lucidity to notice it. The Chakras are like jewel
boxes containing the memory of our whole life and they give rise to the full
splendor of lost reminiscences. The essence of past events (the beauty contained
in them and never fully appreciated) is lived again in the quiet pleasure of
contemplation while, sometimes, your heart is pervaded by a restrained cry. It is a
revelation: the light of the Spirit seems to twinkle in what seemed to be trite
moments of your life.

OTHER INCREMENTAL ROUTINES

We can conceive different Incremental Routines. Each technique practiced
in intensive way, will arouse specific effects – perceived in particular the
day following the practice. Some effects can rouse concern. [A kriyaban
should have familiarity with the laws of the human psyche.]

If you want to practice an Incremental routine of whatever technique and

you have not an expert by you to help you in planning the number of
repetitions, remember this criterion:
the first step should take 15-20 minutes, then, week by week, go ahead
increasing the number of repetitions until you practice for about six hours.

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APPENDIX N.2
CAN THE PRACTICE OF KRIYA PRODUCE NEGATIVE MOODS?
While browsing through the Web pages you will find some warning against
the dangers of Yoga, especially the danger of a "premature awakening of
Kundalini".The list of the problems that it would cause is limitless. There
are also a few web sites that warn against any form of meditation, hinting
at the possibility of a break with reality with unusual or extreme
strengthening of emotions, in particular agitation and anxiety, long-term
disorientation where one has become unable to focus long enough to work.

We read also that: "... an aspirant can develop occult, psychic powers.
These powers can be used for constructive or destructive purposes, but
quite often they are misused. For example the ability to read someone else's
mind can create problems and is likely to be ... resented by those who it is
used on." This is comic! When we find such amenities we wonder who on
earth has written such nonsense and with what purpose. Unfortunately
there is a tendency in the Web to duplicate pages from site to site without
changing a comma. Make an impossible story up, for example that one
yogi died of spontaneous combustion during the practice of Pranayama,
post it on a spiritually orientated web site and verify that, after a couple of
months, this story appears on many web sites.

We read that Yogis, sooner or later, are inclined to ... fall into sorcery and
black magic because they evoke, unaware, negative entities. An author
claimed that: "When you repeat that Mantra Om, Om... you are actually
invoking a demon spirit to come and possess your mind.'' He added his
testimony: "During a meditation session, I began to levitate. Ever since that
second I haven't slept as a human, I lost my sleep! Whenever I closed my
eyes, I saw the flames of Hell, I didn't dare to close my eyes, I couldn't! I
became a psychiatric case, and 26 times I've been hospitalized." Of course
there is no need to comment on.

My personal experience, limited to Kriya Yoga, of listening to similar

complaints, had not been without conflict. I had a hard time meeting people
who claimed that Kriya was responsible of all their psychological (perhaps
they meant psychiatric) problems and of some physical troubles too.
Hence, I would have to believe that by breathing fresh air, focusing the
mind on the spine and on particular centers in the head, they had developed
all kinds of mental and physical ailments. From a benediction as it seemed
at the very beginning, Kriya turned out to be a curse, a misfortune. The
same practices that I had experimented so many times, with so much love,
drawing the purest delight, had been for them a doom. My reaction was:

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''How, with what attitude, with what expectation, had you approached
Kriya? You say that Kriya made you crazy ... well, if the germs of madness
are inside me, they will come into bloom both if I practice Kriya and if I do
not practice it. Yet, considering the glorious moments experienced, I will
walk the Kriya path without an ounce of fear, had I to burn in it."

What can we reply when such charges come from persons who say nothing
about the different drugs they have taken for years! A person impressed me
by telling that after practicing some simple meditation techniques
(something very mild like awareness of the breath or concentration on the
Chakras) he had lost his mental equilibrium and had experienced the most
intense attacks of anguish and terror. This person made a big fuss about it,
posting on Yoga forums. I could not abstain from a strong suspicion. For
what reason did he go to India each year, for a long series of years, without
ever showing interest for Yoga or for the Indian spirituality? Perhaps he
went there to get different types of drugs at a low price? Later through
common friends I came to know that he took not only opiates but also
acids, any kind of amphetamines and (emulous of Carlos Castaneda) didn't
disdain the use of psychotropic plants. It was obvious that by complaining
before me, he tried to exorcize the rather frightening thought that he had
seriously damaged his brain and, perhaps, of being in a condition of
permanent, fatal psychic disorder. He removed the very idea that his past
unwary choices could be put in causal relation with his present mental
situation.

Often I think how shocking would be having a magic mirror in which

people could see their past actions and realize how inconsiderate and cruel
they had been toward their body! I understand that in some cases a
preexisting mental disturbance can push a person to be after drugs as a
remedy. Well, in such case I don't believe that the use of the techniques of
Yoga can aggravate the condition of their alienation.

Many have heard about the story of Gopi Krishna

Worthwhile reading is Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man by
Gopi Krishna – currently available under the title Living With Kundalini.

A routine which is totally based on a strong concentration on the

Sahasrara is not appropriate for those students who have not crossed the
spiritual eye. To obtain this, years are necessary not months. Building a
strong magnet in Sahasrara is the most powerful way to stimulate the
rising of Kundalini. You might experience moments of panic or in which
you feel unrelated with the reality. If you are a beginner, forget the

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techniques in which you concentrate on Fontanelle or over it. We are
deeply thankful to the site AYP which explains clearly the reasons of this.

Through intense concentration on Sahasrara only, Gopi Krishna got into

trouble. His life was both blessed by ecstatic bliss and tormented by
physical and mental discomfort. In 1967 he wrote his excellent testimony.
His book gives a clear and concise autobiographic account of the
phenomenon of the awakening of Kundalini.

He experienced this ''awakening'' in 1937 although he had not a spiritual

teacher and was not initiated into any spiritual lineage. He practiced
concentration for a number of years. His main technique consisted in
visualizing "an imaginary Lotus in full bloom, radiating light" at the crown
of the head. As he sat meditating – exactly as he had for the three hours
before dawn each day for seventeen years – he became aware of a
powerful, pleasurable sensation at the base of his spine. He continued to
meditate; the sensation began to spread and extend upwards. It continued to
expand until he heard, quite without warning, a roar like that of a waterfall
and felt a stream of liquid light enter his brain.

Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light
entering my brain through the spinal cord. Entirely unprepared for such a
development, I was completely taken by surprise; but regaining self-
control instantaneously, I remained sitting in the same posture, keeping
my mind on the point of concentration. The illumination grew brighter and
brighter, the roaring louder, I experienced a rocking sensation and then felt
myself slipping out of my body, entirely enveloped in a halo of light.
(Gopi Krishna Living With Kundalini).

This experience changed radically the scheme of his life. He experienced a

continuous "luminous glow" around his head and began having a variety of
psychological and physiological problems. At times he thought he was
going mad. He adopted a very strict diet and for years refused to do any
other concentration exercise.

The keen desire to sit and meditate, which had always been present during
the preceding days, disappeared suddenly and was replaced by a feeling of
horror of the supernatural. I wanted to fly from even the thought of it. At
the same time I felt a sudden distaste for work and conversation, with the
inevitable result that being left with nothing to keep myself engaged, time
hung heavily on me, adding to the already distraught condition of my
mind. [...] Each morning heralded for me a new kind of terror, a fresh
complication in the already disordered system, a deeper fit of melancholy
or more irritable condition of the mind which I had to restrain, to prevent

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 it from completely overwhelming me, by keeping myself alert, usually
after a completely sleepless night; and after withstanding patiently the
tortures of the day, I had to prepare myself for even worse torment of the
night.

Let us consider now how he emerged from this negative experience into a
wonderful state of awakening that blessed him to the end of his life. He
discovered that the esoteric teachings contained a number of practices that
might help him to bring the energy back into balance. His main cure
reminds a lot the practice of Kriya Pranayama.

.... a fearful idea struck me. Could it be that I had aroused Kundalini
through pingala or the solar nerve which regulates the flow of heat in the
body and is located on the right side of Sushumna'? If so, I was doomed, I
thought desperately and as if by divine dispensation the idea flashed across
my brain to make a last-minute attempt to rouse Ida, or the lunar nerve on
the left side, to activity, thus neutralizing the dreadful burning effect of the
devouring fire within. With my mind reeling and senses deadened with
pain, but with all the will-power left at my command, I brought my
attention to bear on the left side of the seat of Kundalini, and tried to force
an imaginary cold current upward through the middle of the spinal cord. In
that extraordinarily extended, agonized, and exhausted state of
consciousness, I distinctly felt the location of the nerve and strained hard
mentally to divert its flow into the central channel. Then, as if waiting for
the destined moment, a miracle happened. There was a sound like a nerve
thread snapping and instantaneously a silvery streak passed zigzag through
the spinal cord, exactly like the sinuous movement of a white serpent in
rapid flight, pouring an effulgent, cascading shower of brilliant vital
energy into my brain, filling my head with a blissful lustre in place of the
flame that had been tormenting me for the last three hours. Completely
taken by surprise at this sudden transformation of the fiery current, darting
across the entire network of my nerves only a moment before, and
overjoyed at the cessation of pain, I remained absolutely quiet and
motionless for some time, tasting the bliss of relief with a mind flooded
with emotion, unable to believe I was really free of the horror. Tortured
and exhausted almost to the point of collapse by the agony I had suffered
during the terrible interval. I immediately fell asleep, bathed in light and
for the first time after weeks of anguish felt the sweet embrace of restful
sleep.

Very interesting is the modality through which Gopi Krishna started a

process of recovery. Convinced he had aroused Kundalini through Pingala,
he made a last desperate attempt to bring in activity Ida, thus neutralizing
the internal fire that was devouring him. There is an action he did, which,
patiently repeated, helped him out of his predicament. He mentally created

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a cold current coming up within the central channel of the spine. This was
enough to save him!

From then onwards, Gopi Krishna believed that this experience originated
a healing process. He wrote about the mystical experience and the
evolution of consciousness from a scientific point of view. He theorized
that there existed a biological mechanism in the human body, known from
ancient times in India as Kundalini, which was responsible for creativity,
genius, psychic ability, religious and mystical experience. In his opinion,
Kundalini was the true cause of evolution. He understood that only a
balanced method could put in motion a healthy process of Kundalini
awakening.

Another interesting testimony about Kundalini awakening is that of B. S.

Goel's (1935- 1998) described in his: Psycho-Analysis and Meditation. He
was a very rare individual. His experience of Kundalini awakening
happened when he was 28 and was quite dramatic. Kundalini got awakened
on its own. During this long process, his friends thought he was "losing his
mind". He went up and down India looking for someone who could
explain what was happening to him. He found many people that had
theories. However they did not know. His uniqueness lies in his experience
of classical psychoanalysis along with meditation, which he advocated.
When he was 35, his Guru appeared in his dream, and told him that
Psycho-analysis and Marxism, both of which he had embraced, were false
ways to happiness. He told him the only path to inner peace and joy was
through God. In 1982, he opened an ashram in the Himalayas to help and
guide other aspirants who had Kundalini experiences.

What is interesting for us is that Dr. Goel talks about the different degrees
of suffering he went through as his ego was destroyed and rebuild. He was
the first, apart late Swami Satyananda Saraswati, who studied the role of
Bindu point, in the occipital region. He explained that "when the
consciousness marches toward Bindu (which he calls Brahma-randhra) the
ego-formations will get exposed before the consciousness in free-
associations, in free writings, in dreams, and above all, in meditation itself.

In the last part of his book, while discussing "signals toward the final
goal", among a lot of signals he had the courage to quote one in particular
whom is not usually treated in book but in those book who want of mimic
all the gurudom matter. He quotes "the great desire for being pierced and
penetrated." About "pierced", he exemplifies it with the "desire of putting a
nail at the mid-point between the two eyebrows. About "penetrated", he
clarifies that the desire of penetration at Bindu may, out of ego-ignorance

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"turn into the desire of passive anal-penetration." He clarifies that an
ordinary sexual act cannot satisfy the person who need really penetrated at
the Bindu to get final spiritual bliss. He adds that: "as long as he does not
reach that stage, he may often indulge in compulsive homo-sexuality. It is
very probable that many saints of all ages might have remained great
homosexuals if they had stopped their spiritual effort in their pre-sainthood
period."

Let us try to conceive a wise and safe behavior to be promptly adopted

when, after our practice of Kriya, we face disagreeable or negative or
worrying moods

Kriya is a spiritual path, nothing else, but its procedures can touch the
subconscious sphere. Even if one practices in the best of the ways, he/she
could experience negative moods like depression, unmotivated fear,
anxiety etc. Close to glorious experiences, a kriyaban could feel
overwhelmed by an unknown power and experience a panic attack. What is
then the best behavior in order to retrieve the lost tranquility?

1. Avoid long concentration on the Sahasrara

Apart from Anahata and Kutastha, don't utilize techniques that work on a
single Chakra. If you want to unlock an energetic, psychic knot, remember
that a knot (Granti) is not as we usually visualize it, namely like an
ordinary rope-knot. It has a kind of mutual dependence with all the other
knots, they are subtly inter-twined, one inside the other. If you concentrate
for long time upon one single knot, you risk to lose your mental peace.
Don't be like a surgeon who wants to remove a gallstone embedded in a
organ, without taking all the care not to destroy the organ and kill the
patient. After an understandable momentarily drop of your practice of
Kriya during depressive moods, when you resume your Kriya, give the
same concentration to all the Chakras and always end by concentrating
either on the heart Chakra or on the point between the eyebrows. If the
result of your practice is a state of greyish mind, it you have the impression
that your soul is scratched, this is a sign that you practice is not well
balanced.

2. Nadi Sodhana followed by Sitali

You surely know the basic technique of Nadi Sodhana. 7 Practice it every
day, even different times a day. This technique is always all right but, for
the problems we are dealing with, add Sitali Pranayama. (Creating a
cooling sensation coming up through the spine was exactly what Gopi
Krishna did to get out of his awful situation. )
7
It is explained in the first chapter of this book.

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To practice Sitali, sit with erected spine and concentrate all your mental
strength in the point between the eyebrows. Use all your imagination to
raise a fresh current up the spine. This can be done by inhaling through the
mouth while keeping the tongue in a particular position. Curl comfortably
your tongue and protrude it slightly past the lips to form a tube. Inhale
deeply and smoothly through the tongue and mouth – a cooling sensation is
felt over the tongue and into the throat. Exhale through the nose, ideally
directing the breath to all the parts of your body. Repeat at least 12 times.

3. Practice intensely Mula Bandha for 108 repetitions

Forget the breath, try to attune to calmness in the point between the
eyebrows. Practice slowly, but intensely, 108 Mula Bandha. Contract the
muscles at the base of the spine, maintain the contraction for a couple of
seconds and relax. Repeat... Don't be in a hurry: each hold and relax
should last at least four seconds. You can have more than one session in
order to complete 108 repetitions. The benefit of this practice is almost
immediate.

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APPENDIX N.3
SPIRITUAL PATHS WORTH STUDYING
[Radhasoami – Hesychasm - Sufi - Internal Alchemy (Nei Dan)]

Usually, when we start the Kriya path, we are naïve. We would like to find
a book that explains Kriya techniques in detail, with beautiful pictures and
clear diagrams helpful and supportive of our efforts. We purchase what we
find on the market. Often, skimming through those books, we are likely to
be disappointed. We won't find what we look for: there are no practical
information. The first reaction is to throw the book in the wastebasket.
Unfortunately most books on Kriya contain tedious rhetoric and
innumerable repetitions, all drenched in useless references to abstruse
philosophical theories such that, apart from one or two interesting lines, all
the rest is be discarded.
I don't dissuade anyone from reading a book: students must gain
first-hand experience. For example, like thousand of persons, I also read
avidly the commentaries, attributed to Lahiri Mahasaya, of some sacred
writings. Lahiri Mahasaya's great disciple P. Bhattacharya, printed these
interpretations. These books were little known for a long time, as they were
written in Bengali. Recently they were translated into English. I studied
these books with enthusiasm, hoping to find some key useful to my
understanding of Kriya. I was disappointed. Their value, from an exegetic
point of view, is almost null. It seems almost impossible to me that they
really come from Lahiri Mahasaya: I am not able to find the same practical
wisdom and tremendous realization expressed in his diaries and letters. I
find rather a mind with an almost maniacal tendency to interpret each thing
in the light of Kriya, as if centuries ago, the authors of those spiritual works
knew exactly one by one all the Kriya techniques.
I think that Lahiri Mahasaya explained orally the meaning of some
Indian sacred books. Perhaps, reading the verses of those texts, Lahiri
Mahasaya was transported from the force of his insight, forgot completely
the starting point and, entranced, talked extensively and freely about the
subtleties of Kriya Yoga. Very probably what he said on that occasion could
have been taken as a specific comment to that text. Furthermore, it is
possible that, in order to publish those hard-to-understand notes, the editor
had them completed with parts of his own comprehension.
What I would suggest is to study Kriya in the light of other mystical
traditions. I will bring here precise examples. They can inspire us, fostering
an unexpected deepening of our understanding of our spiritual discipline.
We do not know what did Lahiri Mahasaya exactly teach, what
suggestions he gave to his disciples. It is not correct to live in the fixation
that it is possible to reconstruct them. Let us be inspired by what is found

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in the nucleus of the great mystical paths.

[I] RADHASOAMI
Why should kriyabans give their time to study the Radhasoami cult?
Because it has so many similarities with the Kriya path. It teaches
procedures that are very similar to the techniques Hong Sau, Om, Kriya
Pranayama and the technique that PY calls Second Kriya. Sri Yukteswar
and P. Y. were part of this movement.
A kriyaban who feels a strong tie with PY's teachings will surely
read with shivers of surprise what comes out from Radhasoami literature. It
is reasonable to infer that some disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya belonged to a
Radhasoami group and perhaps, without even being fully aware of this,
added to Kriya some elements of theory and practice which belonged to
this movement.

Radhasoami is a monotheistic religion that has the Omkar Reality as

''Single God.'' Well, the Kriya path is a process of refinement, in
progressive stadiums, of the tuning with the Omkar vibration. Omkar is the
final destination of Kriya, the unique essence that permeates every of its
phases. This is what you will find in this path.... that's saying a lot.

Practical teachings
The following procedures in their entirety are called Surat Shabda Yoga
(Surat means "soul," Shabda means "word". The "word" is the "Sound
Current", the "Audible Life Stream" or the "Essence of the Absolute
Supreme Being".

Meditation happens in the quiet of the early morning (before breakfast),

and before sleep. Meditation begins with first relaxing the body and
making it still. The position is comfortable either sitting in a chair or in a
cross-legged position with spine erect, keeping spine, head and neck
aligned naturally. It is important to gradually develop the ability of sitting
relaxed and without any bodily tension.

The teacher gives the disciple a Mantra: its repetition helps the mind to
come to complete rest. Repeating internally the Mantra in Kutastha helps
one to raise the consciousness of the Self to higher regions. This is the key
that helps transcending thought (time and space) and opens the door of the
inner being. Disciples are invited to use the "5 Names of God": 1. Jot
Nirinjan 2. Ongkar 3. Rarankar 4. Sohang 5. Sat Nam
One sits still, eyes closed, mentally repeating the Mantra, gazing into
the middle of the darkness lying in front of him. If one perceives the inner
light, the concentration is on it. Breathing is natural and free flowing. This

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process automatically draws the spirit-currents, normally dissipated all over
the body, toward the spiritual center.

They explain that the seat of the Spirit is at the point between the two
eyebrows. It is on this point that the devotee having closed his eyes must
focus his attention. The instruction is to repeat there your Mantra.

I have not found in Radhasoami the exercise of Talabya Kriya but only the
following instruction. ''Curl your tongue up to the roof of your mouth. Get
the tip to touch the uvula make contact with Amrita (the divine nectar) that
is constantly flowing through your body. Go further and enter the nasal
passage. Usually you will experience the nectar only after much practice.''
It is claimed that this nectar is the ''living water'', the ''bread of life'' of
which Jesus spoke.

Listen to internal sounds

Radhasoami teaches a spiritual path that is intentionally easier than those
described in the ancient scriptures as it requires nothing more than sitting
quietly and looking and listening within.'' They teach that there are no other
means of spiritual liberation, except through the Omkar experience.
Without actual, conscious, participation in the internally audible Life
Stream, no one can ever escape the net of Karma and reincarnation, or ever
become free and happy. They explain that no other system leads so easily to
the highest regions of mystical experience.

In order to begin the upward journey, a devotee must learn to "go within."
The procedure involves concentrating on the primordial vibration that
activates the Universe, the so-called ''Music of the Spheres.'' In order to
hear the ''divine sound'', novices are asked to block their ears with the
thumbs so they cannot hear any external sounds. This technique is
practiced using an arm prop.

One can hear the inner sounds – the same described in Kriya literature. One
listens to the internal sounds coming at first from the right side and
ultimately from the top of the head. To some devotees this sounds like a
bell. At a certain moment, it begins to fairly enchant you and to pull you
up with increasing attraction and power. You will find yourself listening to
it with rapt attention and deep delight, completely absorbed in it. You will
never wish to leave it. This experience is deepened by perceiving the light
in Kutastha.

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Utilizing the breath to increase the Omkar experience.
There are plenty of variations of that procedure adopted by the different
Radhasoami groups. Here I hint to one variation which represent, in my
opinion, the most effective and efficient way to merge into the Omkar
dimension.

Inhale slowly, deeply, through your nose, and then slowly exhale, but
before all the air is out you start breathing in again, and you just keep
going, never quite letting all the air out. Perceive two currents in the right
and in the left lobe of the brain, respectively. The inhaling current moves
upward, the exhaling current moves downward. You can actually hear the
sound of the in and out breath as ''so-hung'' (soham): ''so'' on the in-breath,
''hung'' on the out-breath. The Divine Word is the sound your breath makes.
This technique, in the classic Yoga literature, is referred to as Kewali
Kumbhak because if you are constantly aware of the breath and of Soham
you achieve the breathless state. This perception, if it is repeated for a long
time, will help you to perceive the astral sounds in the internal part of each
ear. You will hear internal sound inside the right ear, then inside the left ear
also.

Through a long practice of this breathing exercise, you will hear a ringing
about an inch above the right ear. You will hear a ringing about an inch
above the left ear. It may take you about five minutes to hear both tones at
the same time. Each breath should give momentum to this circular
movement. Perceive inside the central part of the brain a counterclockwise
movement (when looked from behind.) When the energy in the two is
balanced, a circular force field is formed. Follow both tonal vibrations
from the ears into the center of the cranium, where they will meet and
blend into a slightly different sound. At the apex of this procedure you
will have the revelation of the spiritual eye. When the breath disappears,
the movement goes ahead through the sheer power of concentration. The
white spiritual light appears in the central part of your head. Go ahead,
relentlessly absorbed in it. A deep Bell sound will lead you in the Samadhi
state. This is the culmination of this particular practice.

The Radhasoami movement believes that besides the 6 Chakras in the

physical body, there are 6 Chakras in the gray matter of the brain, and 6 in
the white matter. The 6 spinal Chakras are materialistic in nature, therefore
they are not to be stimulated (you don't use specific bija Mantras to
activate them as you do in Kundalini Yoga) but they are simply astrally
located. Strange as it may sound, long meditation upon the Chakras is not

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the right action to be done in order to achieve ''Mukti'' (liberation.) But by
astrally locating them we acquire the ability to leave the human body at
will – a practice sometimes referred to as "dying while living". The
technique consists in assuming Kechari Mudra, focusing the internal gaze
in Kutastha, while part of the attention locates the seat of a Chakra until its
particular luminous vibration begins to appear. When this happens you
don't dwell upon that Chakra; you focus on the physical location of the
next each Chakra and so on. In other words, the pause upon a Chakra lasts
only for the necessary time to have that subtle perception of it.

The location of the other 12 Chakras in the brain is gradually revealed by

moving the Prana in a circular way inside the brain. A very slight breath
can be used just at the very beginning of this procedure, then breath is
forgotten and you use only the pure strength of your will.

After completing a great number of rounds, the soul has sufficient force to
penetrate the 18th portal. Radhasoami teaches that is the most elevated
Chakra; its seat is in the white part of the brain. This portal opens on the
true, indestructible ocean of the Spirit. This is the ultimate goal to be
achieved via meditation practices.

Kabir and Guru Nanak inspired the Radhasoami movement

Kabir
The writings of Kabir (1398 Benares - 1448/1494 Maghar), have deep
similarities with the Radhasoami teaching. Kabir’s concept of Shabda,
which can be translated as "Word" (the word of the Master), can be related
to the Omkar teaching. According to Kabir this Shabda-Om dispels all
doubts and difficulties: is vital to keep it constantly in our consciousness as
a living presence.

The literature about Kabir and Guru Nanak (1469 Nankana Sahib - 1539
Kartarpur) is very inspiring. Their teachings overlapped perfectly. Kabir, an
illiterate Muslim weaver, was a great mystic, open to the vedantic and
yogic influence, and an extraordinary singer of the Divine, conceived
beyond name and form. The poems and sentences ascribed to him are
expressed in a particularly effective language that remains permanently
emblazoned in the reader's memory.

In the last century, Rabindranath Tagore, the great mystic poet of Calcutta,
rediscovered the reliability of his teachings and the power of his poetry,
and made beautiful translations of his songs into English. Kabir conceived
Islam and Hinduism to be two roads converging toward a unique goal. He

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was convinced of the possibility of overcoming the barriers that separate
these two great religions. He did not seem to base his teaching upon the
authority of the holy writings; he shunned the religious rituals. Kabir taught
not to renounce to life and become a hermit, not to cultivate any extreme
approach to the spiritual discipline, because it weakens the body and
increases pride. God has to be recognized inside of one's own soul - like a
fire fed by continuous care, burning all the resistances, dogmas and
ignorance. This is beautifully stated in Kabir's: "One day my mind flew as
a bird in the sky, and entered the heavens. When I arrived, I saw that there
was no God, since He resided in the Saints!"

Hinduism gave Kabir the concept of reincarnation and the law of Karma;
Islam gave him the absolute monotheism - the strength of fighting all the
forms of idolatry and the caste system. I found the full meaning of the
yogic practice in him. He says that there is a garden full of flowers in our
body, the Chakras, and an endless beauty can be contemplated if the
awareness is established in the ''thousand-petal Lotus''.

Who is there playing upon a flute in the middle of the sky? The flute is
being played in trikuti (eyebrows center), the confluence of the Ganga and
Jamuna. The sound emanates from the north! Cowherd girl, hear the sound
of the flute and lo, they are all hypnotized by the nada." "It is a music
without strings which plays in the body. It penetrates the inner and the
outer and leads you away from illusion." (Kabir).

Guru Nanak
Beloved Guru Nanak gave the same teaching. He disapproved of ascetic
practices and taught instead to remain inwardly detached whilst living as a
householder. "Asceticism doesn't consist in ascetic robes, or in having a
walking staff, nor in visiting burial places. Asceticism is not mere words;
asceticism is to remain pure amidst impurities!" Traditionally, release from
the bondage of the world was sought as the goal, therefore the
householder's life was considered an impediment and an entanglement. In
contrast, in Guru Nanak's teaching, the whole world became the arena of
spiritual endeavor. He was bewitched by the beauty of creation and
considered the panorama of nature as the loveliest place for worship of the
Divine. He expressed his teachings in Punjabi, the spoken language of
northern India. His disregard for Sanskrit suggested that his message was
without reference to the existent Holy Scriptures. He made a deliberate
attempt to completely cut off his disciples from all the ritualistic practices,
orthodox modes of worship, and from the priestly class.

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His teaching demanded an entirely new approach. While a full
understanding of God is beyond human beings, he described God as not
wholly unknowable. God must be seen through "the inward eye", sought in
the "heart". He emphasized that the revelation of this is to be achieved
through meditation. In his teachings there are hints as to the possibility of
listening to an ineffable internal melody (Omkar) and to taste the nectar
(Amrit).

"The Sound is inside us. It is invisible. Wherever I look I find it."

(Guru Nanak).

In conclusion, the Radhasoami path deserves our respect: there are

teachings in it that complement wonderfully Lahiri's legacy. Let us say in
general that the literary material produced by this movement is very
inspiring for all those who are seeking to be in tune with the Omkar Realty.

[II] HESYCHASM
As we have said, an easy way to come closer to the Hesychast teaching is
to read The way of the Pilgrim. This is a novel written by ''Anonymous'' in
the mid-nineteenth century and translated into English in 1930.
As for the story contained in that book, no one knows for certain if it
is a true story about a particular pilgrim or a spiritual fiction created to
propagate the mystical aspect of the Orthodox Christian faith. Some, on the
basis of other witnesses, identify the author as the Russian Orthodox monk
Archimandrite Mikhail Kozlov. Whatever the historical truth, this pilgrim
is the ideal representative of a vast category of people who spent their life
visiting sanctuaries, churches, monasteries, the Athos Mountain, the Holy
Land seeking God through the Continuous Prayer.

The story is about a pilgrim returning from the Holy Sepulcher who
stopped at Mount Athos. One is immediately struck by the opening words:
"By the grace of God, I am a Christian, by my actions, a great sinner, and
by calling, a homeless wanderer of the humblest birth roaming from place
to place. My worldly goods are a knapsack with some dried bread in it, and
in my breast pocket a Bible. And that is all". Then we learn how the pilgrim
at the start of his path was resolute about covering an infinite distance
across the steppes, if he had to, in order to find a spiritual guide that would
reveal to him the secret of Continuous Prayer. The novel is therefore a tale
of the pilgrim's lifelong search for the teaching on how "to pray
continually" – the way Saint Paul had recommended.

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One day, the pilgrim's ardor was awarded when a spiritual teacher accepted
him as a disciple, clarifying every detail of the practice. It is interesting to
read how the Pilgrim was instructed to repeat the Jesus Prayer 3,000 times
a day, then 6,000, then 12,000. By following this counsel, one day the
pilgrim discovered that the Prayer had reached the mysterious secret zone
in the heart. It happened spontaneously that the syllables of the Prayer
were pronounced in synchronous with the pulse. From then on, whatever
happened, it could not separate the pilgrim from God.

The spiritual practice starts by murmuring the Prayer just audibly enough
that you can hear yourself. Then you skip to mental repetition. Then you
can make a few prostrations (bows from the waist, while the rest is
immobile.) Twelve prostrations will suffice in the beginning. Hesychasts
explain that the prostrations warm up the body and strengthen fervor in
Prayer.

You sit comfortably and try to lengthen the rhythm of your breath. You
breathe through the nostrils in a way that the breath produces a noise in the
throat. 8 When the breath reaches a stable and regular rhythm, combine the
Prayer with the ingoing and outgoing breath. Go ahead with this for a
minimum of 15 minutes; after a couple of weeks practice for 30 minutes.
Very useful is to count the number of repetitions on rosary beads. Then
move on to pure mental repetition.

Very interesting is the instruction of this unknown author that many call
Pseudo-Symeon:

Then sit down in a quite cell, in corner by yourself, and do what I tell you.
Close the door, and withdraw your intellect from everything worthless and
transient. Rest your beard on your chest, and focus your physical gaze,
together with the whole of your intellect, upon the center of your belly or
your navel. Restrain the drawing-in of breath through your nostrils, so as
not to breathe easily, and search inside yourself with your intellect so as to
find the place of the heart, where all the powers of the soul reside. To start
with you will find there darkness and an impenetrable density. Later, when
you persist and practice this task day and night, you will find, as though
miraculously, an unceasing joy. For as soon as the intellect attains the
place of the heart, at once it sees things of which it previously knew
nothing. It sees the open space within the heart and it beholds itself
entirely luminous and full of discrimination.

8
This is what Hesychasm teaches and everyone acknowledges this is pure Yoga.

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Hesychasts explain that the region between the eyebrows is not fit for all
the phases of meditation. If the energy of your thought comes down to the
level of the throat – as it normally happens while reciting the Prayer – it
acquires an evocative power recharged with emotional values. As a
consequence there is the tendency to become lost in mental associations. If
you move the center of your awareness towards the heart center, the
attention reaches complete cohesion. It is sustained by a higher intensity
and nothing extraneous can disturb it.

Interesting is to see how the Hesychasm introduce a procedure very similar

to our Navi Kriya. The instruction is to sit (comfortably and without strain)
with your head bowed and your eyes directed toward the abdomen. You
pray with concentrated focus on the navel. You try to enter it, as if the
navel were only a ''door''. Esicasmo explain that you will find a joyless and
dull obscurity but with persistence, a limitless happiness will be reached.
You will see the open space within the heart and contemplate the
"Uncreated Light". Your heart will be filled with the most loving bliss!
After achieving this state you will have a drastic realization that ''what you
have lived till now had been nothing.''

All this is wisely and masterfully explained in the book The Way of a
Pilgrim. As you understand, the main reason for the work's attraction is the
presentation of a pilgrim's life as the model pattern of life for those who
truly wish to lead a spiritual life.
Surely, we kriyabans are ''pilgrims'', worn-out and exasperated,
moving from a pseudo guru to another – each one woefully ignorant, slave
of their own fixed idea: that we westerners are pushovers enjoying to be
fooled.
Thanks to the inspiration coming from The Way of a Pilgrim we
decide to test the practice of Japa, to murmur mentally our chosen Prayer
for a couple of hours a day. Instead of just hanging around doing nothing
of fantasizing about how to guess the original techniques of Kriya Yoga, we
taste the divine honey of the Contemplative Prayer. This leads us to a
sincere act of opening our heart to God. We shall gradually discover that
the goal that the Russian Pilgrim had set for himself – achieving the state
of Continuous Prayer, a real heaven on this heart, a state of unparalleled
Beauty – is not a myth, it is feasible in our life.

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[III] SUFI
Soul stirring ardent feelings and sincerity are to be found in Sufi literature:
the celebration of the Creator of the universe shines with a strength and
amplitude beyond comparison. Sufis tell us of their love for earthly Beauty,
letting you guess how they are carried away by their ardent form of Prayer,
from the contemplation of that Beauty to the direct experience of the
Divine.

Consider how great is the inspiration that we receive from these lines by
Rumi:

I died as a mineral and became a plant; I died as plant and rose to animal; I died
as animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet
once more I shall die as Man, to soar with angels blessed; but even from
angelhood I must pass on: all except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my
angel-soul, I shall become what no mind e'er conceived. (Rumi,Translated
by A.J. Arberry)

Many Sufi practice a private and silent Adoration. Their belief is that when
you open your heart to Allah and utter words in His praise, Allah fills you
with strength and inner peace:

When praying, the individual bows as a human person and gets up as God.
(Al-Junayd)

The word Dhikr [which is the Thokar procedure we learn in Kriya] is

commonly translated as "remembrance". Essentially, the practice of Dhikr
is a form of Prayer in which the Muslim expresses their remembrance of
God. Through Dhikr the seed of remembrance is planted in the heart and
nourished daily, until the tree of Dhikr becomes deeply rooted and bears its
fruit. Dhikr is something of tremendous importance. Sufi teach that the
purpose of Dhikr is to purify hearts and souls in order to move toward the
Light of the Divine without being deflected by anything.

Interesting is to study how they begin the practice of Dhikr by uttering the
Mantra aloud (Dhikr of the tongue) until a state of great absorption makes
it impossible to go on in this way (aloud.) At this point the mental practice
commences. By persevering assiduously in this way, the syllables chanted
mentally are gradually effaced from our awareness and only the meaning of
the Prayer remains. The mind becomes so calm that it is unable to think,
while the deepest sentiments are awakened – the touch of Divine
Recollection drives the mind crazy and the most intoxicating of joys begins
to expand within.

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"Heavens and earth contain Me not, but the heart of My faithful servant
containeth Me."
(Prophet Muhammad conveying the words of God, Hadith Kudsi.)

If you want to follow the Sufi path and at the same time utilize the Kriya
techniques, you will encounter no difficulties whatsoever. Of course, you
should be endowed with a strong self-teaching spirit. At the first place put
those procedures in which the chanting of the ''Lâ Ilâha Illâ Allâh'' is
accompanied by the movements of the head. Lahiri Mahasaya gave the
Islamic mantra ''Lâ Ilâha Illâ Allâh'' to his Muslim disciples. 9

We don't have the exact details of that procedure but it seems reasonable
that the head was lifted (with or without the help of the breath) from under
the navel up to the brain; after reaching the brain, it moved from the brain
to the one shoulder, then to the other shoulder and then it hit the heart.

Some Sufi order explains that he who wants to guide his Prayer into his
heart, first of all must keep the tongue pressed against the roof of his
mouth, his lips and teeth firmly shut, and hold his breath. Then starting
with the word "Lâ" , he makes it ascend from the navel to the brain.

After "Lâ" is placed in the head, he puts "ilâha" in the right shoulder (and
upper part of the chest under the right shoulder) with head bending to the
right; "illâal" is put in the left shoulder (and upper part of the chest under
the left shoulder) with head bending to the left. Then "lâh" is driven
forcefully into the heart with the head bending down. From this position,
"Lâ" is again brought into the head, while raising the chin.

At the end of the chosen number of repetitions, the phrase ''Muhammad

rasul Allah'' is made to incline from the left to the right side, and then one
says, ''My God, Thou art my goal and satisfying Thee is my aim.''

When the number of repetitions of the technique increases in intensity, a

deep intoxication is felt in the heart. One may abide by the number of
repetitions given in Kriya schools (related with the practice of the basic
form of Thokar) or can go beyond them in a completely different
dimension. I know that the Sufis reach a number of repetitions that is
inconceivable to a kriyaban.

9
If you prefer to utilize a 12 syllable Mantra you can consider: Allahu la ilaha illa
huwal hayyul qayyum (Allah—there is no god except He—is the Living One, the
All-sustainer.) A good division into 12 parts is: 1- AL 2- LA 3-HU 4-LA 5-ILAHA 6-
ILLA 7- HU 8-WAL 9-HAY 10-YUL 11-QAY 12-YUM

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For a good practice of Thokar I recommend the correct attitude which is
not to prepare to experience something tremendously powerful but that to
lose oneself in the beauty of the prayer, of the Mantra -- as the Sufis do.
The simplest way is the best.

"When a servant of Allah utters the words ''Lâ Ilâha Illâ Allâh'' (There is none
worthy of worship except Allah) sincerely, the doors of heaven open up for these
words until they reach the Throne of Allah."

[IV] INTERNAL ALCHEMY (NEI DAN)

The Taoist Internal Alchemy is a spiritual discipline, the esoteric core of
Taoism, the mystical tradition of ancient China. My first reference book
was Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality by Charles Luk & Lu Kuan.
My attention was considerably stirred up; I photocopied many pages, cut
out the most important pieces, put them in order and glued them onto four
sheets of paper, highlighting the four phases of Taoist Internal Alchemy.

When I read the description of the basic procedure (Microcosmic Orbit) of

this ancient discipline, I saw it was very similar to Kriya Pranayama – but
not exactly equal! However, studying deeply the former helps us to
penetrate the mysteries of the hidden laws of the latter. Various metaphors
used to explain its mechanism of the Micro Orbit (bagpipe turned upside-
down, flute with no holes...) brought back to my mind, with surprising
similarity, some weird explanation about Kriya Pranayama which I had
once received from an eminent source.

The difference between Microcosmic Orbit and Kriya Pranayama is that in

the first the energy goes down in the body touching not the Chakras but the
points on the surface of the body which are connected with the Chakras:
Adam's apple, the central region of the sternum, the navel, the pubic region
and the Perineum. By going ahead with the practice, the difference
between the two procedures fades away, as the result produced upon the
body’s energy is the same.

I was surprised: perhaps Kriya Yoga was the Taoist Internal Alchemy,
taught within an Indian context, with clear use of both purely Indian
techniques and procedures (like Navi Kriya) that were Indian only in
appearance? Actually, Kriya Yoga is a discipline which could be described
through the symbols of two different cultures. Surely Kriya Yoga is
definitely deeper and richer than Tantric Kundalini Yoga.

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I thought that it was not a weird idea that the mythical Babaji was/is one of
the "immortals" of the Taoist tradition. My enthusiastic response derived
from the intuition that the study of the Internal Alchemy would prove to be
absolutely profitable.

[I] Small Heavenly Orbit (Lesser Celestial Circuit)

The first stage is the basis of the whole internal alchemical process, it
consists in activating the Small Heavenly Orbit.

Let your breath free. Raise your eyebrows, become sensitive to the internal
light. Try now to intuitively perceive this light in the ''frontal component"
of each Chakra. "Frontal" means that its location is on the anterior part of
the body. After Kutastha, the awareness goes down, through the tongue, in
the superior frontal part of the throat (this is the frontal component of the
fifth Chakra.) The perception of the internal light in that point happens for
few second. Then the awareness goes down in the central region of the
sternum... you perceive internal light... then in the navel... then in the pubic
region and finally in the perineum. Then the concentration moves upwards
behind the vertebral column and the same perception of light happens in
the second Chakra; then in the third one... and so up to the Medulla, the
occipital region, the Fontanelle, ending again in the Kutastha where you
stop for a longer time. Do this only mentally for weeks, then utilize the
deep breathing (just as we do in Kriya Pranayama.)

Awareness and energy (Qi) are then raised during inhalation along the
Governor channel at the back of the spine and let flow down along the
Functional channel during exhalation. The purpose of this action is "to
bring Three to Two, Two to One". What does it mean this last riddle?

''Three'' are the three energies: Jing=sexual energy, Qi= love energy and
Shen=spiritual energy .

The sexual energy is not only what this name implies but also the agent
that makes us rejoice in the sensory perceptions, and that which gives us
the strength and the determination to fight the battle of life and to achieve
all the things we need (unfortunately, another reason we fight is to achieve
superfluous things but this is another problem...).

Love Energy is a deep feeling toward another person, living creatures, life
in general and also the joy felt beholding a work of art. It is the fuel of
fair-minded actions born out of inner, noble instincts and ethical laws.

The Spiritual Energy vibrates during the highest peaks of aesthetic

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contemplation, where the vast prophetic visions may manifest.

It has been explained that these three energies derive from one unique
realty, their division originated at our birth and reinforced by education
and social living. Now, the Small Heavenly Orbit [our Kriya Pranayama
works exactly in the same way] redress this primeval harmony. Breath
after breath, the sexual thoughts (which seem to be reinforced) will turn
into love thoughts. The energy of love acquires strength, the determination
not to succumb to any obstacle; it is then raised into the head where it
mixes with the energy of the Spirit. In this way any split in our personality
disappears: our many-sided life begins to flow naturally, unimpeded
toward Spirit. We understand that the Small Heavenly Orbit [and therefore
our Kriya Pranayama as well] bring about a permanent healing action
upon our personality.

While through Kundalini Yoga one is just trying to climb up to the crown
of their head to experience there divine ecstasy, in the Taoist Internal
Alchemy one utilizes that state to reach the body, nurture and transform it.
It is well-known that Kriya Yoga is substantially a path of "ascent". This
means that it is incomplete and has to be balanced by a movement
downward, until one settles in a still point of balance and harmony. Many
religious paths teach to maintain, rather to cultivate as a virtue, the division
between matter and spirit, and sexuality is repressed as unholy. This point
is the main cause of nerve-wracking conflicts in spiritually minded people.
10

No tradition respects the whole mystery of human nature as deeply as the

Taoist Internal Alchemy. One who wants to follow the spiritual path should
listen to the practical wisdom that this path embodies. Thus could avoid a
wide range of problems. Only commonsense, love for natural laws and

10
Some kriyabans develop sexual thoughts and become sexually aroused during the
initial deep breaths of their Kriya Pranayama. We will never get tired of repeating:
this is perfectly normal! Those who assume Kechari Mudra, either proper or a
simplified form of it, and concentrate, during exhalation, on the flow of Prana in the
body (it is very beneficial to visualize it passing through the tip of the tongue into the
throat and into the body, each part of the body, as a beatific, healing rain restoring
life in each cell) will immediately experience how sexual thoughts disappear and
become pure love. This great energy of love will gradually turn into pure aspiration
for the spiritual goal.

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meditation-born intuition promotes the true self-inquiry which leads to Self
Realization. One should consider the teaching received by the tradition,
feel heavy conditioning, see all their limits and dangers and take the
courage to rectify them.

[II] Guiding the energy to the lower Dantian

We know that the Dantian (here is is indicated as the ''Lower Dantian'') has
the dimensions of a ball whose diameter is about two-and-a-half inches
long. In order to localize its position, one has to concentrate on the belly
button, to come about one and a half inches behind and below to the same
extent.

After a normal deep inhalation (which increases the energetic sensation in

the brain) a long exhalation guides the energy in the Dantian. This action is
repeated many many times – visualization helps to compress this energy to
the size of a pearl in the center of Dantian. Internal heat increases.

This description of the second phase of the Taoist Internal Alchemy

completes our understanding of the First Kriya level because it shows the
necessity of practicing Navi Kriya. Here we understand that through the
simple Navi Kriya [the same happens through the advanced technique of
Navi Kundalini] the energy stored in the head (as a result of the Kriya
Pranayama), should be conveyed into the Dantian.

We kriyabans say that after the mixing of Prana and Apana through Kriya
Pranayama, the Samana current enters into play. Internal Alchemy has
much more inspiring expressions like: "Coming back to the center"; "The
union of heaven and earth"; "The birth of the golden flower"; "The creation
of the dazzling gem"; "The creation of the elixir of immortality."

What we need to understand is that becoming stable in this unfathomable

deep region of Dantian means to be born to the spiritual life. [This is the
same event described in the teachings of Hesychasm.]

[III/FIRST PART] Pushing the energy up to Middle Dantian

The Third Internal Alchemy phase is conceived to reach the ''Middle
Dantian'' which is the heart region.

It is difficult to understand which procedures are prescribed in this phase

because in the relating literature, some hints about this topic are
abnormally embellished with a lot of evocative terms, metaphors which
make almost impossible to have a clear idea of what they mean in practice.

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What I have understood is this: you simply focus on the vibration produced
in the Lower Dantian. That vibration ascends spontaneously into the heart
region and illuminates the ''Space of the heart.'' [The space of the heart is
the Middle Dantian.] The contemplation of the Light shining there brings
the manifestation of the "true serenity." This reveals one's fundamental
nature. The spiritual experience happens without mental pollution. The
devotion knows no limits.

Some schools (near to the Tibetan teachings) add a small detail about the
way to breathe. Precisely the inspiration that was normal at the beginning
of the process becomes typical of the Reversed Breath. In practice you
inhale deeply drawing inward the abdomen contracting and holding the
anal region. The breath becomes more and more subtle. The energy that is
found in the abdomen condenses more and more and is invited to come up
in the region of the heart.

[III/SECOND PART] Pushing the energy up to Higher Dantian

The thrusting channel runs like a tube from the Perineum to the Fontanelle
through the center of the body in front of the spine. We increase the Prana
inside it. This is not a new phase of our work but the completion of the
third phase. The purpose is to prepare the momentum necessary to set in
motion the Macrocosmic Orbit.

In Tibetan Yoga we reach the same result through the practice of Tummo.

[IV] Greater Celestial Circuit

The Fourth Stage is a great event which happens when the time is ripe
through the full mastery of the Third Stage.
When the energy increased in the thrusting channel reaches the Upper
Dantian (Kutastha: the region between the eyebrows) a spontaneous
phenomenon of circulation of energy in the body, (the Macrocosmic Orbit)
which has vast implications, happens.

The three energies (sexual, love and spiritual) are mixed harmoniously,
they have created the elixir of immortality. It trickles down into the body
and feeds every cell. This happens in a state called "prenatal breathing"
which is a movement of internal energy that gives perceptions similar to
those obtained through the Microcosmic Orbit but is now experienced in
the breathless state (Kevala Kumbhaka). This refined experience makes the
spiritual path complete: the Divine is infused into our body. The spiritual
path does not end with a flight out of the body toward the rarefied
dimensions of the Spirit. The Macrocosmic Orbit discloses undreamed of

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scenarios. It appears as an experience of perfect Beauty.

From a certain moment onwards, descending movement turns into an

indefinite pressure on all the cells of the body. This event widens – in an
unexpected way – the boundaries of the awareness. Experiencing this
means to have entered at the full the last part of the spiritual path.

We have all the reasons to believe that this is the same experience called in
Kriya Yoga: Pranayama with Internal breathing. This is a peculiar
phenomenon of circulation of energy in the body. The breath is absent, the
body is loaded with static Prana. The obstruction at the base of the spine is
perfectly removed. One perceives the circulation of the energy as an
''internal breath.'' A person enters spontaneously a state of well being and
perceives a great infusion of energy coming down as a golden liquid
outside and inside the body, in all its cells. We say that the breath is totally
internalized.

Final remark to Appendix 3

There are many important spiritual figures that were not part of a religious
movement. A study of their works (conferences, talks included) is a valuable
activity. Let me add here two words about J. Krishnamurti.

It was my last Kriya teacher that counseled me to start studying Krishnamurti.

The strange thing is that thanks to this study I found the crucial and conclusive
boost that would assist me, after many years of controversial but loyal
discipleship, to break my dependence on him.

Krishnamurti said what was then difficult to fully agree with: What is the need of
a Guru? [...] You have to walk by yourself, you have to take the journey alone,
and on that journey you have to be your own teacher and pupil. While I was
reading these lines I felt undoubtedly that they expressed a deep truth, but my
logic suggested peremptorily, "This is a sophism; even Krishnamurti acted as a
Guru and acts upon me now just through his writings." I could not actualize his
wise warning; fear and conditioning held me back. How many mistakes would I
still have to make, how many slaps would I still have to take before I could
affirm my freedom from gurus!

I studied many books of this author but nobody has the beauty of The only
revolution. It is not easy to understand immediately its meaning. It is necessary
to read only one chapter at a time and read it again in the following months.

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Only repeated exposure to sunlight can lead to tanning; it is similarly necessary
to expose our mind many times to this teaching before realizing its meaning.
Bring with you this small book during your walks until you understand why this
teaching is so important for our life!

The only revolution is a perfect synthesis of poetry and wisdom. "Life begins
where thought ends,'' writes Krishnamurti. Do you want to realize this teaching?
Take the whole necessary time. The practice of your Kriya will inexplicably turn
out to be deepened.

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APPENDIX N.4
FICTIONAL KRIYA
At that epoch of my life, I received a couple of initiations by other ''minor''
teachers that had once been the right-hand man of one or another illustrious
Guru but then became independent because the Guru disowned them. We
agreed our teachers were mostly mediocre, sometimes impolite and
unethical. Some trifling episodes confirmed our first impressions of mental
instability. They knew little about Kriya Yoga and they taught it in a
superficial way, but we believed they taught the ''Original Kriya'' and this
blinded us. Just for this reason we treated them with a deferential and
tolerant attitude, forgiving them when they betrayed our trust.

We accepted the farce of the initiations as an inevitable drawback to

success in acquiring the information we were searching for with so much
passion. Generally speaking after attending many different rituals, the
explanations were always quick and shallow; a destructive criticism was
often raised against information coming from other sources.

I would finish every initiation thinking I had found the keys of Original
Kriya. Often a vague sense of well-being perceived while practicing a
certain technique for the first time was the proof of the excellence of the
technique itself. I did not realize that, in this way, I had made my ego the
compass needle of my spiritual journey. I could not realize that my past
achievements – listening to the Om vibration, breathless state... – were no
more with me, were forgotten. It was like I had been hypnotized.

I ignored any awareness that the new initiation had only added something
insignificant to what I already knew and I was confining myself to a "cage"
from which I would sooner or later break loose.

To many among us those initiations were a true vice. We stocked up on

techniques like food for a famine. Just to give an example, at almost all
initiation seminars a solemn pledge of secrecy was the password to be
accepted. Every one took this pledge but as soon as the meeting was over,
some shared the coveted news with other students by cell-phone who, in
turn, would take part in other initiations and reciprocate the favor.

The mindset I developed in following these teachers led me to meet one

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particular school where Kriya Yoga was dramatically deprived from the
classic Higher Kriyas and filled with fragments of ''Classic Yoga.'' For
some of my friends who followed me in this trip, it turned to be the scene
of bitter disappointments and marked the definitive abandonment of the
spiritual pursuit.

Therefore let me describe the most disappointing meeting of my life. I

came in contact with a Kriya school very far from Lahiri Mahasaya's
teachings. I just want to drop a quick note on this school (I don't want to
even mention its name) where I touched the lowest point of my spiritual
path.

The Kriya Yoga they taught was based upon the teachings of an Indian
personage who claimed he was a direct disciple of Babaji. The school
offered three levels of Kriya, easy to obtain in about three years if you
showed enough commitment. The idea of having found a source from
which I could learn everything about Kriya excited me tremendously.

The introductory book to this school was very strange: its illustrations gave
the impression of a fairytale. In this book there was no mention of
techniques like Talabya Kriya, Kechari Mudra, Navi Kriya, Omkar
Pranayama, Thokar.... The main technique was called Kriya Kundalini
Pranayama. It was coupled with many other teachings grouped under four
main headings: Hatha Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, Mantra Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.

The first instructions I received didn't disappoint me, but did leave me a bit
perplexed. The teacher was obsessed with the precept of not holding one's
breath, therefore the technique of Yoni Mudra, which is fundamental for
Lahiri Mahasaya, was considered dangerous and thus banned. Their Kriya
Kundalini Pranayama was indeed beautiful. The most annoying thing was
that once you had completed the prescribed number of breaths, the process
you had put into motion had to suddenly be relinquished and switched to
Dhyana Kriya, a meditation which had nothing to do with spine, Chakras
etc.

There is a principle that is always valid in any form of Kriya Pranayama:

what you have done, or tried to do, utilizing your breath, you must bring it
ahead by utilizing a subtler breath and finally only through mental effort.
Another point is this: if during Kriya Pranayama, you create a particular
throat sound, you must train yourself to make it become mental substance,
pure astral vibration without physical component. Thus your effort will
have a tremendous effect. This activity requires time, at least 10-20
minutes after the main exercise requiring the utilization of deep breath. It is

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clear then how stupid is to avoid this marvel and practice an exercise trying
to realize quite another thing with our imagination.

Before receiving instruction from this school, I had mixed what I had
learned from PY's organization with Swami Hariharananda's teaching and
had created a very pleasant routine whose final part (concentration on the
Chakras) was pure delight. Seriously practicing this new routine, there
grew within me a marked longing for what I had relinquished. [I had the
heavy sensation of gaining nothing substantial. ]

The central core of the Second Level was initiation into Indian Mantras.
This subject was more appealing to me. The day of initiation into a Mantra
was proceeded by a day of silence; entranced we listened a splendid lesson
upon the utility of practicing Japa. There were other teachings that left me
perplexed. Since I had placed much hope on the upcoming third level, I
endured it all.

The third final level was an atrocious delusion. There were no proper
Higher Kriyas but instead classic Yoga techniques, suitable for a
preparatory course to Kriya. The six Samadhi techniques, given at the
conclusion of that enervating and boring course, were: a variation of the
Hong Sau technique, three fairly common techniques of visualization, the
classic instruction of continuous awareness during the day and, at the end,
a variation of the same Om meditation technique I had received from my
first Kriya organization. The variations of the Hong Sau technique, as well
as of the Om technique, seemed devised by a lazy mind whose only
purpose in modifying them was to avoid the accusation of having copied
from PY's organization, with no concern as to whether the resulting
techniques were devoid of their power. For example, in the first technique,
the ''Hong Sau'' Mantra was replaced by "Om Babaji" forgetting that Hong
Sau is a universal Mantra whose syllables were specifically chosen for
their power of calming the breath, with which they have a vibratory
connection. The three techniques of visualization were of a genre one
could find in any book on concentration and meditation. For many of us
who had yearlong experience with the preliminary-to-Kriya techniques
offered by PY's organization, being re-taught those techniques, disguised
and passed off as Samadhi techniques, was actually like a cold shower.

Some of us dared to ask to the teacher his opinion about Lahiri Mahasaya's
Kriya. At first he was reticent and did not seem glad about our interest, then
he shared his views. He believed that Lahiri Mahasaya had not practiced
with total commitment the teachings he received from Babaji, therefore
he ... died. Astounded, we realized that since Lahiri Mahasaya had not

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obtained immortality (as should happen to those who give their all to
applying Kriya integrally), he was dismissive of him.

APPENDIX N.5
GOOD OR INCORRECT ATTITUDE ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH

Introduction
The problem of considering different wrong attitudes towards the spiritual
path is much more serious than what is commonly perceived.

Do we really think that those kriyabans who stick faithfully to a schedule

of regular practice are free from insane and totally irrational expectations
that contradict the very foundation of the mystical path?

The psychological fragility of many spiritual researchers is really glaring.

Unfortunately, the mind, so acute in science and technology, when
approaching the mystical path is ready to take the most absurd expectations
as possible.

A ''clean mystical path'' is a path directed one pointedly towards the total
surrender to God and not a path polluted by the fantasies and deformations
of the mind. One's spiritual path of Kriya should be ''clean'' otherwise
failure with colossal loss of time will happen.

The attitude one would expect from those who practice Kriya Yoga is that
of a man who has a certain amount of control over the mind, an adequate
power of concentration and a minimum capacity for visualization. No
other ''powers'' are necessary.

Working with these tools, a kriyaban enters the ecstatic state where one is
totally absorbed in the Divine essence. Intense joy is the first effect which
produces love for the Divine. This love is deep, passionate, overwhelming,
hitting the limit of the ability to endure its intensity. This is Kriya. No other
quality, effort, knowledge is necessary.

Now I am going to give some examples of what a ''clean path'' is and how
easily we pollute it – often while acting in what we consider an intelligent,
acute way.

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Examples of incorrect attitudes

[1] First illusion: only in a monastery my practice of Kriya will become

perfect.
There are people who wish to live a life of self-denial by withdrawing from
active life and entering a convent. They often ask to their spiritual director
about God's plan for their lives. “Is God's plan that I live in the world,
creating a family, or does God expect from me the decision to become a
monk?”

Generally speaking, people living in a convent discover that this sudden

jump in a condition so ardently desired does not satisfy their desire.
Everlasting peace combined with a burning mystic inspiration seems to
elude them.

Often, imposing certain changes in the way of living does not reveal to be a
wise choice. The initial feeling of total freedom from worldly commitments
will soon disappear. Then a drastic decrease in the sharpness of one's
concentration can appear. Moreover it could happen that the free time
gained, instead of being dedicated to a deep, passionate practice of the
highest form of meditation, will be depleted in superficial, useless
occupations.

[2] Second illusion: belief that it is necessary to "grow" on the

psychological plan.
There are people convinced that they have to help their practice of Kriya by
working hardly to grow on the psychological plan. They don't wan to relax
and rely on the automatic transformation that Kriya creates. Too often they
judge themselves with excessive severity and cultivate feelings of guilt. In
other words they want to become ''good devotees'' before practicing Kriya.
In this way they will never start Kriya because they will never feel ready
for it.

Accept what you are. Don't think that by working hard through self-
discipline and renunciations, it would be possible to destroy in your
consciousness the roots of iniquity and selfishness.

Kriya Pranayama technique does not need to be coupled with

psychological work (tormenting your psychological structure.) By mental

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work only you will not gain ''redemption'' from your human nature. Enjoy
Pranayama by living in the simplicity of Lahiri's promise "Banat, banat,
ban jay!" '' Doing and doing, one day: done! ''

[3] Third illusion: belief that it is necessary to eradicate the sexual drive.
Many ask if celibacy is important. If you want to practice Kriya, try to
forget this pseudo problem, because it is not a problem. Perfect Kriya and
trust the laws of nature.

Do not desire to behave like a saint. Do not believe impossible and

unnatural precepts. Do not believe in genuine absurdities; do not nurture
harrowing conflicts even coming to the denial of love.

Lahiri Mahasaya in his diaries admitted that at times his sexual desire was
really strong. One day a disciple put him a direct question: "How can one
be definitively free from sexuality?" He replied in a way that let struck
dumb the disciple: "I will be free from sexuality only when my body will
lie on the funeral pyre." God bless his sincerity! (I knew a kriyaban who
was so bound to his illusions that he took the aforementioned episode as a
sign that ... Lahiri Mahasaya was not spiritually realized! )

[4] Fourth illusion: belief in mixing Kriya with ''New Age'' therapies
Coming across a New Age group of kriyabans, was like meeting a family a
little bit more vast and varied than my first Kriya group who strictly
followed PY's teachings. I am reminded of those days whenever I listen to
the tape recordings of devotional chants which I obtained at that time.
Usually I fell in love with an Indian Bhajan and sang it within myself all
through the day. For me it had the same nature of food; I really had the
impression of eating that music.

That group added to their Kriya practice some ''cathartic'' [causing

purification] processes. They wanted to produce a cleaning effect on their
psyche by unearthing any kind of unconsciously repressed material. They
explained – and this idea is not absurd – that by removing the internal
blocks, the evolutionary process of Kriya would be more quick.

While their effort in practicing the Kriya techniques was not remarkable,
they tried by external means (readings, devotional chanting,
convocations...) to extract from the depths of their psyche any trace of
religious attitude, any scrap of spiritual aspiration.

I wonder what their opinion was about my impatient attitude in contrast to

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their passiveness. Basking in my state of elation, sometimes I was not able
to understand their clumsy attempt to abide by the rules of an oriental
lifestyle.

They particularly loved a way of behaving characterized by innocent

frenzies. I was struck by their tendency of spending lots of money on
training workshops focused on strange therapeutic methods like
aromatherapy, crystal therapy, color therapy… When I dared question the
validity of the whole thing, they felt almost annoyed.

They said there was no reason to be perplexed about their practices,

without having tried them. They would comment: "Our Karma is giving us
the best of all the opportunities to grow in all planes". "We are expected to
answer in a positive way. We don't have to stay jammed against this
beneficial current, otherwise …. we could have to die and to live another
life just to fully utilize those tools!" "Our Kriya technique will receive a
great benefit because Kriya is practiced with the energy present in our body
and is recharged by the flow of the Universal Energy. Kriya is also
practiced in the astral world; finding a guide in that dimension is
important...''
In other words they gave me the idea that the benefit of all their
search, of all their expensive activities was that their spiritual path became
more and more easy, like a stroll.

Research on alternative medicines, group therapies directed by eccentric

individuals devoid of academic formation, were expensive distractions to
be added to Kriya. These harmless distractions aroused great enthusiasm,
seemed to intensify their experience of Kriya. They were very effective for
some time, afterwords they were forsaken.

Once I attended a group therapy session. We were in a room, filled with

multicolored posters and cushions, decorations, crystals and other objects.
The persons felt perfectly satisfied by the beautiful atmosphere.

The session was guided by a cunning fellow who assumed the role of the
psychotherapist. With a pendulum in his hand, he was able to diagnose
everything, from the slightest indispositions to the most serious illnesses,
as well as to suggest remedies. His methods to clean away their internal
conflicts gave great importance to revealing one's childhood traumas in
group discussions. Sitting on the ground in a circle, they formed work
groups and, overcoming inner resistances, shared, sometimes with acute
suffering, experiences we had never told anyone before.

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During advanced seminaries, they would be guided to find, through
hypnotic regression, their past lives in order to revive, and therefore
understand, their deeper traumas. From a legal point of view, this
alternative psychotherapy had to be camouflaged as a cultural or religious
activity.

Many years have passed, some friends are still there, to obtain ... the full
cleaning of their subconscious mind. Their effort with Kriya is totally
forgotten, reduced to nothing.

What I want to say is that my relationship with those researchers was based
on real affection and it never came to disagreement, bitterness or formality.
They were always generous toward me and respectful of my personality.
While passionately sharing everything they had learned, no matter if it cost
much money, they never tried to force something on me.

I learned to relate to each one of them the way an explorer deals with
unknown animals. Sometimes I could not abstain from reacting to their
oddness sarcastically: theirs was a colossal loss of time but I had not the
guts to affirm this. Too much insistence on the cleaning process was like
preparing one's house for a distinguished guest; endlessly polishing and
decorating it, delighted by entranced awareness of the different comforts
our house allows – meanwhile, after having repeatedly rung the bell, the
guest is standing neglected on the doormat…

[5] This is not only an illusion but a real tragedy. Practice Kriya with the
hope of getting rid of psychological disorders.
It happens to meet people who have some mental disturbances and intend
to practice Kriya hoping to be healed. We asks whether there is genuine
spiritual interest in them. The answer is often negative.

Well, in my opinion, embarking on the Kriya path with the hope of getting
free from depression or other common forms of neuroses leads nowhere.
False publicity has guided many to believe that it is possible to work out
their psychological problems, and perhaps physical problems too, with a
regular practice of Kriya. But on the spiritual path there cannot be
guaranteed results, everything depends on the the sincere involvement that
one puts in it.

If you have a sick mind and after having experimented with alternative
remedies, if you follow the counsel of a too much enthusiastic friend and
try the Kriya path too, you will obtain nothing, except for a headache. Not
only that: if, through this process something good in your psycho-physical

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system happens, you will not be able to recognize it and get only anguish.
In this situation there is no love for Kriya. There is fear to be disappointed
and you will.

We must understand that in this situation there is no love and respect for
Kriya. And Kriya does not give automatic results. PY, I would like to
remind you, did not say that Kriya is like mathematics, it can not fail. No,
he said that Kriya combined with devotion is like mathematics .... Well, I
have observed that if a person finds himself immersed in a situation of
neurosis, he will not be able to experience genuine devotion. Kriya can
work even if you are not a "religious" person, but Kriya should be the
object of your enthusiasm and aspiration.

Kriya works when there is love for the Divine and great respect for this
tradition. One can not look at Kriya with suspicion: "Does it really work"?
No human being can ever touch the supreme Good of Kriya unless he
places it, with sincere, human trust, in the ideal area of the sacred. One can
not awkwardly hide doubts, skepticism, sometimes the despair that his sick
mind suggests.

[6] Let us come back to illusions: expand the potential of the mind
I personally experienced and suffered from this craze. At some point of my
life I have been invited by a local cultural institution to give lessons on the
history of the main Western esoteric organizations.

This study helped me to become free from different esoteric-magical

conditioning. This happened because in order to prepare those lessons I had
to go through the whole history of western esoteric movements.

This was an unclouded period of my life: I was very gratified to have time
and opportunity to read the best available essays and textbooks – I mean
books written by academics who didn't belong (or were so smart as to hide
their membership or affiliation) to any particular mystical school and
manifested a detached attitude toward the whole matter.

I also appreciated those texts that were capable of presenting the essence of
those mystic movements that flourished freely around the great religions.

Sometimes I didn't feel enjoyment but sorrow and a sense of

discouragement in front of dazzling falsehoods and deceptive reasoning.
It was necessary to reflect where the boundary line between the genuine
mystical quest and the cultivation of magic ambitions lay. But the real field
of study was the human psyche and its suggestibility and vulnerability

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especially when it deals with approaching the spiritual path.

Since the first lesson, I tried to communicate what is being expressed

clearly with the word ''mystic.'' I repeated that even if in some context the
word mystic evokes a relationship with the mystery, with the concept of
initiation (from the Greek μυστικός [mustikos], an initiate) into secret
religious rituals (also this from the Greek μύω, to conceal), a mystic is one
who tries sincerely (adopting any form of mental and or bodily discipline)
to surrender themselves to something which is the quintessence of supreme
comfort, something existing beyond the territories of the mind –
unattainable by the acrobatics of a never satisfied mind.
The problem was that this ''something beyond mind'' was
unintelligible and had no appeal for most part of my listeners.

I talked privately with some students and they revealed to cultivate the
most striking illusions. I was aghast at discovering that most of them came
to my lessons in order to receive support and fuel for those illusions.
Despite all my explanations they had not understood what a mystical path
really is, and above all, what amount of joy could come by working to
clean their spiritual understanding.

One day, after talking with some of them, feeling lost and gasping in order
to ''find my Self again'', I felt the need to walk in the open air. The feeling
of alienation seemed to stretch out as far as the horizon and touch the rim
of the sky. I had a thought, luminous and warm: even if the people I mix
with, are not attracted by the teachings of the great saints of the past, and
nurture instead the instinct of devastating any sacred and liberating
teaching, I would stand fast anyway in my path, not because I have faith in
obtaining one day the coveted good effects from it, but because Kriya has
already given me something incomparable. I don't need a recharge of
motivation: it is the radiance of my memory that saves me each time, every
day.

I had a friend always looking for a technique of spiritual evolution that, in

his opinion, had to be superior to Kriya. He was sure that this technique
was once taught only to the most advanced people, people who are no
longer present on this planet.

He had studied some of the so-called ''masterpieces'' of esoteric literature. I

accepted to read the one he enthusiastically lend to me. I entered an almost
hypnotic state and didn't immediately realize that each chain of ideas
therein contained had no basis at all, but was only offspring of the
unbridled imagination of the author. Through an intoxication profusion of

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words, the author dared to develop free from the relationship with reality
and from the rules of logic. Actually, the whole thing was only a mental
pastime. Reading a fantasy novel was surely more profitable.

One day he met a self-named expert in occult matters who purported to

know the secrets of an almost extinct esoteric path and, in particular, a
spiritual technique far more advanced than those known today, which was
practiced centuries or millennia ago, by a few very evolved beings. This
"expert" guided him sweetly but with the surety of a mature professional,
towards a situation in which his economic base, essential to his living, was
at risk of being swept away, completely reduced to shambles.
He easily bewitched him. "Now that humanity is different from
before, such teachings are not revealed to just anyone" he started off, then
after a pause and with a sigh, finally concluded: "Today's students would
not know how to appreciate them and, in their hands, they could be
dangerous."
The expert created the impression of being a dreamer, but was not so naïve
as it seemed; he used an enchanting terminology similar to that of the
Kabbalah and talked effortlessly about original Christianity also, whose
texts (canonical and apocryphal) he was able to interpret in a non-
conventional way.
My friend tried to captivate the teacher in order to present himself as
a true adept. Confiding that he was willing to accept whatever toll and
deprivation, consenting to whatever behest, provided that this extraordinary
secret will be revealed to him, he actually fell into the trap. After having
expressed some reservations, our smart teacher at long last capitulated,
murmuring: "Only for you, only because I feel I am guided to make an
exception". My friend, a poor victim quivering with emotion, lived the
best moment of his life, convinced that the meeting with the expert had
been decided in the higher spheres. The requested donation to be given
during Initiation – united to the promise of keeping absolute secrecy – was
conspicuous, since in that way he would confirm the great value attributed
to that event. The teacher said that the donation would be transferred to a
monk who was helping an orphanage. (It is a real classic! ... there is always
an orphanage in these stories.)
While my friend, completely satisfied, was preparing to receive such
an incomparable gift (he received the explanation that it was a gift and that
nothing could adequately compensate the benedictions that such an
initiation would bring to his life) the scoundrel distractedly decided what
kind of trash-stuff he was going to demonstrate with glaring solemnity. My
friend received with indescribable emotion, the new technique and spent
two days in sheer fervor.

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Later, imprisoned in his chimera, he witnessed the rekindling of his passion
and the comedy repeated. He heard about other incomparable valuable
"revelations". This illusion is, in effect, indomitable. After having received
his "drug", he continued his inexorable run toward the abyss. I cannot
predict if, one day, he will realize that the techniques for which he paid a
fortune had been taken from some books and altered, so he would not to
guess their origin.

Some time ago, I came to know that he poses as the spiritual guide of a
small group of persons. I can't imagine what he is teaching to them since he
never talked with me about this activity. What I never understood of him
was that now and then he assists to the liturgical practices of a Catholic
church since, in his opinion, this may work as a ... bland form of exorcism!

[7] Baraka
The belief that the power (Baraka) of the great Teachers of the past, is still
present in their descendants, as a non-stop chain is common enough. A
kriyaban whom I had only a phone contact was convinced that the spiritual
progress cannot happen except through receiving this "power". In his life
he tried to receive multiple Kriya Initiations from those who claimed to
have a valid lineage although their teachings didn't add nothing to what he
already knew. He was spellbound by the idea of "transmission of power."
He believed that the power received through initiation had in itself the
power of redemption.
He gave not so much importance to the practice of the Kriya
techniques – he said they were just to purify oneself before receiving the
real ''initiation'' which for him meant ''power.'' He was convinced that the
''line of descent'' was the most important thing to care while approaching a
spiritual teacher.

He talked very much about the importance of following the moral rules
[Patanjali's Yama and Niyama.] The phases of Pranayama and Pratyahara
which were for me my alpha and omega, were for him nothing without
Yama and Niyama. He behaved toward me in a very cordial way but, when
he talked about the absolute place to be given to the ethic rules listed by
Patanjali, he was able to make me feel like a worm. He criticized my
obsession to perfect the practice of Kriya. He explained that the very desire
to master a meditation technique meant cultivating desire and this was
against Buddhist principles.

However, I saw that his way of following the moral rules were a farce, with
no level of deepness and understanding of human nature.

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[8] Illusion of being enlightened
If you want to do nothing, if you want to avoid discipline and live of
illusions, the mind is very good in nurture the illusion I am going to
describe.

There is a vast group of people who once practiced Kriya and then, with a
mechanism similar to self hypnosis, had convinced themselves that they
are already free from Maya, ''enlightened'' like Ramana Maharshi

Consider a person lying on an air mattress floating over a pond of manure.

The miasma of the fetid substance sustaining the mattress sends out a
revolting smell. But the person looks the sky and dreams to be immersed in
a pure dimension of air and light. It suffice to hold one's nose to ignore the
stink.

When they say: ''We are already free from Maya'' they are neither naïve nor
dishonest. They know that potentially we are Divine, but they also know
that when they openly affirm that, in that precise moment they are lying.

In their philosophical perspective, we have been duped and lie in a state of

illusion. We love work hard and struggle. They say that it is of no use to
discipline oneself by controlling the breath. It is sufficient to believe that
we are free and we are actually free.

Sometimes I felt myself inclined to discuss with them, to the point of

exhaustion, completely forgetting the time. I saw how their mind is able to
destroy, impoverish, everything that I treasured. I was trying to tune with
their reasoning but their wrong attitude and way of thinking succeeded in
bringing me to a state of alienation. I remember one who tried to show me
the state of Samadhi. Staring at me with eyes wide open he took the
likeness of a mad.

[9] The illusion in which a dear friend of mine lived

I became acquainted with an elderly kriyaban, worthy of maximum respect
and admiration, who had begun the Kriya path many years before. We met
each other in the last years of his life. He was totally alone and I felt very
bad when I could not see him for months; for various reasons this was
inevitable. We always met for short and fleeting afternoons, walking and
speaking quietly. I was witness of an inexorable process that brought him to
believe that the spiritual goal was for him the friendship with a ''divine
being'' that he felt was the epitome of perfection.

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When he was a young man he met the woman who was the head of the
Kriya organization founded by PY. Well, he said that success in the Kriya
path meant for him to receive a loving benignity from that person! I tried to
convince him that to deify this inspiring figure could constitute the end of
his spiritual adventure.

I write these lines, with a pang in my heart because I have never met a
person kind and altruistic like him.

He was discouraged because he saw God in that person, but didn't have the
courage to see God in himself. He was discouraged, and I told him: you
don't see the Divine in you because you don't allow Him to manifest! My
words were of no use at all.
The problem was that this fixed mindset had already corrupted the
innocence of his spiritual disposition. He expressed something that years
before he would not have even dared to think: the presumed spiritual
evolution of the individual through Kriya was real, but it was so slow to be
practically negligible. The Kriya technique was for him like a religious
ritual which had to be performed scrupulously just to give proof of loyalty.
He had given his full approval to the idea that on this planet there were on
the one end special people, Self realized people, forever free from Maya
whereas, on the other end, there were irreparably common ones who had to
wait many incarnations in order to receive a spark of enlightenment.
Unfortunately, this view was the framework upon which he had been
interweaving his thought.
One day he vented all of his gloom. Looking at how superficially –
so he said – he had practiced the techniques of meditation, he had no
doubts that in this life he had certainly missed the "target". He was already
dreaming of future incarnations in which he could practice inside an
ashram near a Self Realized Master. To this situation he already had his
heart set on.
I felt a giant wave of inexplicable nostalgia which was ready to
overwhelm me, but it remained curbed, as if suspended around us. Now
that he is no longer alive, I wonder if the idea of the transforming power of
Kriya that eased and sustained the first years of his path, was gradually
erased from his mind by the human tendency to emphasize (and sustain
through a constant barrage of anecdotes) the greatness of certain persons
who were "impudently" saintly, perfect, majestic. My friend had made the
unfortunate mistake of believing that the eternal spiritual Source in the

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center of his being would wither if he was condemned to live far from a
divine being, similar to the one toward whom he had directed the warm
aspirations of his heart.

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 GLOSSARY

This glossary has been added for those who already know the meaning of the
most common terms used in Kriya but do not wish to retain uncertainties about
the way they are utilized in this book.

Alchemy [taoist internal -- Nei Dan] The Taoist Internal Alchemy is the
mystical tradition of ancient China. It reminds us of the techniques of First Kriya
with such precision that we have all the reasons to assume that it consists of the
same process.

Apana Apana is one of the five forms of energy in the body. Associated with
the lower abdominal region, it is responsible for all the bodily functions
(elimination for example) that take place there. Kriya Pranayama, in its initial
phase, is essentially the movement of Prana (the particular form of energy
present in the upper part of the trunk – lungs and heart) into Apana and the
movement of Apana into Prana. When we inhale, the energy from outside the
body is brought within and meets Apana in the lower abdomen; during
exhalation, the Apana moves from its seat up and mingles with Prana. The
continuous repetition of this event generates an increase of heat in the navel
region: this calms the breath and kindles the light of the Spiritual Eye.

Asana Physical postures fit for meditation. According to Patanjali, the yogi's
posture must be steady and pleasant. The most part of the kriyabans are
comfortable with the so-called Half-lotus [see]: this, indeed, avoids some
physical problems. For the average kriyaban, Siddhasana [see] is considered
superior to any other Asana. If we take finally into account those kriyabans who
are expert of Hatha-Yoga, who have become very flexible, the perfect position is
undoubtedly Padmasana [see].

Aswini (Ashwini) Mudra "Ashwa" means "horse"; "Aswini Mudra" means

"Mudra of the female horse" because the anal contraction resembles the
movement a horse makes with its sphincter immediately after evacuation of the
bowels. There may be slightly different definitions of it and, sometimes, it is
confused with Mula Bandha [see]. The basic definition is to repeatedly contract
the muscles at the base of the spine (sphincter) with the rhythm of about two
contractions per second. This Mudra is a direct way of getting in touch with the
locked and stagnant energy at the base of the spine and to pump it up.

Bandha [See Jalandhara Bandha, Uddiyana Bandha and Mula Bandha]

Bandhas are like valves, locks concerning the energetic system of the body. They
prevent the Prana from being dissipated and redirect it inside the spine. No
practice of Pranayama is considered complete and correct without the Bandhas.

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In the very beginning of the Kriya path, a yogi has only an approximate
understanding of the Bandhas, later one will come to a complete command and
will be able to use them, with slight adaptations, in most of the Kriya techniques.
The three Bandhas, applied simultaneously, create an almost ecstatic inner
shiver, a feeling of energy current moving up the spine. Sushumna Awakening is
thus favored.

Bindu A spiritual center located in the occipital region where the hairline twists
into a kind of vortex. (This is the Sikha point where the Hindus leave a lock of
hair after having shaved their head.) It is not considered a Chakra in itself.
However it is an important spiritual center because it works as a door leading the
awareness to Sahasrara – the seventh Chakra located at the top of the head. Until
the energy, scattered in the body, reaches the Bindu, a sort of shroud prevents the
yogi from contemplating the Spiritual Eye. Bringing all one's force there, in that
tiny place, is not an easy task because the deeper roots of the Ego are to be found
right there; they must be faced and eradicated.

Breathless state It is experienced after years of Kriya practice. It has nothing

to do with holding the breath forcefully. It does not simply mean that the breath
becomes more and more quiet. It is the state where the breath is entirely non-
existent, with the subsequent dissolution of the mind. Many kriyabans are not
able to conceive such a state. There is a halo of mystery that surrounds its
description; people think it is impossible and that any affirmation about its
occurrence is false. Nevertheless, it is possible, even if it is experienced only
after years of Kriya practice. When it manifests, a kriyaban does not feel the
need to take in any breath at all or one takes in a very short breath but doesn't
feel the need to exhale for a very long time. (Longer than the time which medical
science considers possible.) The breath becomes so calm that the practitioner has
the factual perception that one is not breathing at all; one feels a fresh energy in
the body, sustaining its life from inside, without the necessity of oxygen.
According to the Kriya theory, this state is the result of having entered with the
awareness (therefore with Prana) the Sushumna channel inside the spine.
See also the entry: Kumbhaka

Bhrumadhya The space between the eyebrows, linked with Ajna Chakra and
with the vision of the third eye (Kutastha).

Chakra The word Chakra comes from the Sanskrit cakra meaning "wheel" or
"circle". The Chakras are the "wheels" of our spiritual life; they are described in
the tantric texts as emanations from the Spirit, whose essence gradually has
expanded in more and more gross levels of manifestation, reaching eventually
the dimension of the base Chakra, the Muladhara, embodying the physical world.
The descended energy-consciousness lies coiled and sleeping at the base of the
spine and is called Kundalini – she who is coiled. We human beings consider
only the physical world as real: it is only when our Kundalini awakens that we

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regain the full memory of the reality of the subtle dimension of the Universe.
No author has ever "proven" the existence of the Chakras – as no man has
ever proven the existence of the soul. It is difficult to describe them: we cannot
bring them onto a table in a laboratory. In any Yoga book we find descriptions
which rest on a translation of two Indian texts, the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana, and the
Padaka-Pancaka, by Sir John Woodroffe, alias Arthur Avalon, in a book entitled
The Serpent Power. The matter depicted there seems to be unnaturally
complicated, almost impossible to be utilized.
These concepts had been further polluted by theosophy and similar
esoteric literature. The controversial C. W. Leadbeater book "The Chakras," is in
large part the result of the mental elaboration of his own experiences.
Through the practice of Kriya, we can have an experience of the Chakras.
Located over the anus at the very base of the spinal column, in the lower part of
the coccyx, we encounter the root Chakra - named Muladhara in Sanskrit, a
center which distributes energy to the legs, to the lowest part of the pelvis,
irradiating especially the Gonads (testes in men, ovaries in women). Muladhara
symbolizes the objective consciousness, the awareness of the physical universe.
It is related to instinct, security, to our ability to ground ourselves in the physical
world, to the desire for material goods and also the building of a good self-
image. If this Chakra is in a harmonious state, we are centered and have a strong
will to live.
The second, or sacral Chakra - Swadhisthan - is placed inside the spine
between the last lumbar vertebrae and the beginning of the sacrum. It is said that
its energetic projection is the area of the sexual organs - in part it intersects the
region of Muladhara's influence. Since it is related to base emotion, sexuality
vitality, creativity, and to the deepest part of the subconscious realms, a deep
stimulus of it produces deep involving dreams; its action may be perceived as a
feeling of living a fable, whose nature is sweet and alluring.
The Manipura - navel center or solar plexus - is placed in the spine at the
level of the navel, near the end of the dorsal vertebrae and the beginning of the
lumbar vertabrae. It is said to influence the pancreas and the adrenal glands on
top of the kidneys. This connection gives fuel to the idea that this Chakra has the
same role played by those glands: higher emotion and energy - just like the role
played by adrenalin. It is said that it fosters a sense of personal power, secure
feeling of "I Am.". Grounded and comfortable with our place in the universe, we
are able to affirm with determination the purpose of our life.
The Anahata - heart center, located in the spine at the height of the
middle part of the dorsal vertebrae - is said to influence the thymus, which is part
of the immune system. There is a universal agreement that it is related to higher
emotion, compassion, love and intuitiveness. When a person concentrates on it,
feelings of profound tenderness and compassion will start to develop. A healthy
and fully open heart Chakra means to be able to see the inner beauty in others –
in spite of their apparent faults. One is able to love everyone, even the strangers
we meet on the street. There is a progression from the instinctual "gut emotions"
of the lower Chakras to the higher emotions and feelings of the heart Chakra.
What is of great interest for us, is that opening this center means to see life in a

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more neutral manner and see what others cannot see. It ends the predisposition to
being influenced by other people, by churches and by organizations in general.
Vishuddha - throat center, exactly amid the last cervical vertebrae and the
first dorsal vertebrae - is said to influence thyroid and parathyroid. Since it
controls the activity of the vocal cords as well, it is said that it has something to
do with the capacity to express our ideas in the world. It seems to be related with
the capacity for communication and with taking personal responsibility for our
actions. The person with a healthy throat Chakra no longer thinks to blame others
for his or her problems and can carry on with life with full responsibility. Many
authors state it awakens artistic inspiration, the ability to develop superior
aesthetic perception.
Ajna - the third eye Chakra, located in the central part of the brain -
influences the pituitary gland [hypophysis] and the small brain. The hypophysis
has a vital role in organism, in the sense that together with the hypothalamus it
acts as a command system of all other endocrine glands. In Sanskrit, "Ajna"
translates to "command," which means it has the command or control of our
lives: through controlled action, it brings to reality the fruit of our desires.
Consequently, it is said that Ajna Chakra has a vital role in the spiritual
awakening of a person. It is the seat of the intuition.
The supreme Chakra is the Sahasrara - crown Chakra - right above the
top of the head. It is said that it influences, or is bound with, the pineal gland. It
allows detachment from illusion and is related to one's overall expansion of
awareness and degree of attunement with the Divine Reality. It is a superior
reality and we can experience it only in the state of breathlessness. It is possible
to "tune" into it by utilizing the Bindu as a doorway.

Teachings pertaining to the "Frontal Chakras" are to be found by some

kriyabans coming from Sri Yukteswar's disciple lineage. The perineum is the first
one, the genitals region is the second one, the navel is the third, the central part
of the sternum region is the fourth, the Adam's apple is the fifth and the point
between the eyebrows may be considered as the sixth. The core of the Kriya
teaching regarding them, is that when these points are touched with
concentration, the energy around the correspondent Chakra in the spine is
revived.

Dharana According to Patanjali, Dharana is the concentration on a physical or

abstract object. In Kriya, Dharana consist in directing the focus of our attention
toward the revelation of Spirit: Omkar's inner sound, light, and movement
sensation. This happens just after having calmed the breath.

Dhyana According to Patanjali, Dhyana ensues from contemplating the

essential nature of the chosen object as a steady, uninterrupted flow of
consciousness. In Kriya, the awareness, dwelling upon the Omkar reality, is soon
lost in Samadhi.

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Flute sound (during Kriya Pranayama) During the exhalation of Kriya
Pranayama, a slight hiss is produced in the throat; when a kriyaban succeeds in
assuming the position of Kechari Mudra, then the quality of that sound increases.
It has been likened to the "flute of Krishna". Lahiri Mahasaya describes it: "as if
someone blew through a keyhole". This highly enjoyable sound cuts to pieces
any distraction, increases mental calmness and transparency and helps to prolong
effortlessly the practice of Kriya Pranayama. One day the flute sound turns into
the Om sound. In other words, it gives rise to the Om sound, whose vibration
will be so strong as to overwhelm the flute sound. During this event, a strong
movement of energy climbs up the spine.

Granthi [see knot]

Guru The importance of finding a Guru (teacher) who supervises the spiritual
training of the disciple is one of the tenets of many spiritual paths. A Guru is a
teacher, a guide and much more. The scriptures declare that the Guru is God and
God is the Guru. We are accustomed to explaining the term "Guru" on a
metaphorical interplay between darkness and light, in which the Guru is seen as
the dispeller of darkness: "Gu" stands for darkness and "Ru" for one who
removes it. Some scholars dismiss that etymology; according to them "Gu"
stands for "beyond the qualities" and "Ru" for "devoid of form". In order to gain
all the benefits from the contact with the Guru, a disciple has to be humble,
sincere, pure in body and mind and ready to surrender to his Guru's will and
instructions. Usually, during initiation (Diksha) Gurus bestow the esoteric
knowledge upon their disciples, through which they will progress along the path
to Self realization. The internal phenomenon of Shaktipat happens: the dormant
spiritual realization within the disciple is awakened.
Kriya organizations don't insist upon the concept of Shaktipat but accept
all the rest, rather they are founded upon the afore summarized tenets. On the
contrary, Lahiri Mahasaya's ideas seem to go in a significantly different
direction. Once he said: "I am not the Guru, I don't maintain a barrier between
the true Guru (the Divine) and the disciple". He added that he wanted to be
considered a "mirror". In other words, each kriyaban should look at him not as an
unreachable ideal, but as the personification of all the wisdom and spiritual
realization which, in due time, the Kriya practice will be able to produce.
Now the question is: do the Kriya techniques work outside the Guru-
disciple relationship? There is of course no scientifically proven answer. In this
matter we can use either faith or reason. Many kriyabans are confident they are
able to transform the no-matter-how-received instruction into "gold". They think:
"Beyond either reasonable or improbable expectations of finding a Kriya expert
at my disposal, let me roll my sleeves up and move on!"

Half-lotus This asana has been used for meditation since time immemorial

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because it provides a comfortable, very easily obtained, sitting position. The left
leg is bent at the knee, brought toward the body and the sole of the left foot is
made to rest against the inside of the right thigh. The heel of the left foot should
is drawn in as far as possible. The right leg is bent at the knee and the right foot
is placed over the fold of the left leg where the thigh meets to hip. The right knee
is dropped as far as possible toward the floor. The hands rest on the knees. The
secret is to maintain an erect spine: this can be obtained only by sitting on a
cushion, thick enough, with the buttocks toward the front half of the cushion. In
this way the buttocks are slightly raised, while the knees are resting on the floor.
When the legs grow tired, the position is prolonged by reversing the legs. In
certain delicate situations, it may be providential to do it on a chair, provided it
has no arms and is large enough. In this way, one leg at a time can be lowered
and the knee articulation relaxed! Some Yoga teachers explain that the pressure
of a tennis ball (or of a folded towel) on the perineum can give the benefits of the
Siddhasana position.

Hesychasm The word Hesychasm derives from the Greek word "hesychia"
meaning inner quietness, tranquility and stillness. Outside this condition,
meditation is not possible. It is a discipline integrating the continual repetition of
the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner").
It was already used by the early Church Fathers in the 4th and 5th centuries) with
the practice of asceticism.
There were hermits dwelling in the desert, seeking inner peace and
spiritual insight, while practicing contemplation and self-discipline: they had no
doubts about the fact that knowledge of God could be obtained only by purity of
soul and prayer and not by study or mental amusements in the field of
philosophy. Later, their method of asceticism came to the fore as a concrete set of
psycho physical techniques: this is properly the core of Hesychasm. It was
Simeon, "the new theologian" (1025-1092), who developed the quietist theory
which such detail that he may be called the father of this movement. The
practice, which involved specific body postures and deliberate breathing
patterns, was intended to perceive the Uncreated Light of God. The monks of
Athos might have kept on contemplating peacefully this Uncreated Light (they
considered it to be the highest goal of earthy life) had not their methods been
denounced as superstitious and absurd. The objection was mainly based on a
vigorous denial of the possibility that this Uncreated Light was God's essence. In
approximately the year 1337, Hesychasm attracted the attention of a learned
member of the Orthodox Church, Barlaam of Seminara, a Calabrian monk who
held the office of abbot in a Monastery of Constantinople and who visited Mount
Athos. There he encountered the Hesychasts and heard the descriptions of their
practices. Barlaam, trained in Western Scholastic theology, was scandalized and
began to combat it both orally and in his writings. He called the Hesychasts
"omphalopsychoi" - people having their souls in their navels (owing to the long
time they spent concentrating on the navel region). Barlaam propounded a more
intellectual approach to the knowledge of God than the one taught by the
Hesychasts: he asserted that the spiritual knowledge could be only a work of

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inquiry, brought ahead by one's mind and translated in discrimination between
truth and untruth. He held that no part of God, whatsoever, could be viewed by
humans. The practice of the Hesychasts was defended by St. Gregory Palamas.
He was well educated in Greek philosophy and defended Hesychasm in the 1340
at three different synods in Constantinople, and he also wrote a number of works
in its defense. He used a distinction, already articulated in the 4th Century in the
works of the Cappadocian Fathers, between the energies or operations of God
and the essence of God: while the essence of God can never be known by his
creatures, His energies or operations can be known both in this life and in the
next; they convey to the Hesychast the truest spiritual knowledge of God.
In Palamite theology, it is the uncreated energy of God which illuminates
the Hesychast who has been vouchsafed an experience of the Uncreated Light. In
1341 the dispute was settled: Barlaam was condemned and returned to Calabria,
afterwards becoming bishop in the Roman Catholic Church. Later, Hesychast
doctrine was established as the doctrine of the Orthodox Church. Up to this day,
the Roman Catholic Church has never fully accepted Hesychasm: the essence of
God can be known, but only in the next life; there can be no distinction between
the energies and the essence of God.
Today Mount Athos is the well-known center of the practice of
Hesychasm.

Ida [see Nadi]

Jalandhara Bandha In Jalandhara Bandha the neck and the throat are slightly
contracted, while the chin is pressed against the breast.

Japa [See prayer]

Kechari Mudra This Mudra is carried in one of the two following ways:
1. By placing the tongue in contact with the uvula at the back of the soft palate.
2. By slipping the tongue into the nasal pharynx touching, if possible, the nasal
septum.
According to Lahiri Mahasaya a kriyaban should achieve it not by cutting
the tongue Frenulum but by means of Talabya Kriya [see]. Kechari is literally
translated as "the state of those who fly in the sky", in the "inner space". Kechari
is compared to an electrical bypass of the mind's energetic system. It changes the
path of Prana flow causing the life force to be withdrawn from the thinking
process. Instead of allowing the thoughts to jump like frogs here and there, it
causes the mind to be quiet and allows focusing it on the goal of meditation. We
do not realize the quantity of energy we squander away when we get lost in our
thoughts, in our plans. Kechari turns this pernicious way of exhausting all of our
vitality into its opposite. The mind begins to lose its despotic role: the "inner
activity" happens no more by the thinking process but by the effortless
development of the intuition. Coupled with Kriya it is a substantial aid in clarify
one's complicated psychological structures. A more elusive claim is the
experience of the elixir of life, "Amrita," the "Nectar." This is a fluid with sweet

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taste perceived by the kriyaban when the tip of his tongue touches either the
uvula or the bone protrusion in the roof of the palate under the hypophysis. The
Yoga tradition explains that there is a Nadi going through the center of the
tongue; energy radiates through its tip and when it touches that bone protrusion,
this radiation reaches and stimulates the Ajna Chakra in the center of the brain.

Kevala Kumbhaka [see Breathless state]

Knot The traditional definition of the Granthis identifies three knots: the
Brahma Granthi at the Muladhara Chakra; the Vishnu Granthi at the heart Chakra
and the Shiva or Rudra Granti at the point between the eyebrows. Those are the
places where Ida, Pingala and Sushumna Nadi meet.
Brahma Granthi is related to our physical body: it preserves the
ignorance of our infinite nature and is the first obstacle in the spiritual search,
since it obstructs the Kundalini's path as she begins to move toward the higher
centers. The world of names and forms creates restlessness and prevents the
mind from becoming one pointed. Ambitions and desires trap the mind. Until one
unties this knot, one cannot meditate effectively.
Vishnu Granthi is related to the astral body and to the world of emotions.
Lord Vishnu is the lord of preservation. This knot creates the desire to preserve
ancient knowledge, traditions, institutions... It produces "compassion", a keen
desire to help suffering humanity. Discriminating knowledge combined with
Yoga effort can unfasten the Knot of Vishnu and obtain deliverance from the
traditional bonds, deeply rooted in our genetic code.
Rudra Granthi is related to the causal body and to the world of ideas,
visions, and intuitions. After piercing the Rudra knot, the time bound
consciousness dissolves – the yogi establishes himself in the supreme Atman
whose seat is Sahasrara Chakra. Perfect emancipation is achieved.
Lahiri Mahasaya underlines the importance of overcoming two other
obstacles: tongue and navel which are unfastened by Kechari Mudra and by Navi
Kriya, respectively. The knot of the tongue, cuts us off from the reservoir of
energy in the Sahasrara region. The knot of the navel originates from the trauma
of cutting the umbilical cord.

Kriya Yoga If we want to understand the essence of Kriya Yoga it is necessary

to put aside some definitions found on the web. "Kriya Yoga is the science of
controlling life energy [Prana]." "Kriya Yoga is a technique that activates the
astral cerebrospinal centers." "Kriya Yoga hastens the practitioner's spiritual
development and helps to bring about a profound state of tranquility and God-
communion." "Kriya Yoga brings about the stilling of sensory input."
I don't want to contest them, but I think that Kriya is broader than what is
implied. There are definitions which say nothing: they make a misleading
synthesis of its methods and list its effects in the same way one would describe
Hatha Yoga or Raja Yoga practice. Patanjali refers once to Kriya Yoga: "Kriya
consists of body discipline, mental control, and meditating on Iswara." [Yoga
sutras II:1] This is definitely correct, but by following the further evolution of his

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thought, we are led astray. Although he states that by constantly remembering the
inner sound of Om we can achieve the removal of all the obstacles that block our
spiritual evolution, he does not develop this method. He is far from describing
the same spiritual discipline taught by Lahiri Mahasaya.

Kriya Yoga is a "mystic path" utilizing the best tools used by the mystics of all
religions. It consists of control of breath [Pranayama], prayer [Japa] and pure
effort of attuning with the Omkar Reality. The soothing process of calming the
breath, followed by the Thokar procedure, guides the bodily energy into the heart
Chakra, holding thus, as in a grip of calmness, the unceasing reflex originating
the breath. When a perfect stillness is established, when all the inner and outer
movements cease, the kriyaban perceives a radiation of fresh energy sustaining
each cell from inside; then the breathless state settles in. When the physical
breath is totally transcended and a circulation of energy happens in the body –
the breath is said to have become "Internal" – a feeling of infinite safety, solidity
and reliance originates. It is like having crossed a barrier and moved into a
measureless space: Kriya yoga is a miracle of beauty.

Kumbhaka Kumbhaka means holding the breath. It is such an important phase

in Pranayama that some Yoga teachers doubt whether a modified way of
breathing which does not include any Kumbhaka can be called Pranayama at all.
It is observed that when we are about to do something which requires our total
attention, our breath is automatically held. We are not deliberately doing
Pranayama, but our breath is suspended of its own accord; this demonstrates how
natural this fact is. In Pranayama the inhalation is called Puraka, which literally
means "the act of filling"; the exhalation is called Rechaka, meaning "the act of
emptying". Retention of breath is called Kumbhaka, meaning "holding". Kumbha
is a pot: just as a water pot holds water when it is filled with it, so in Kumbhaka
the breath and the Prana is held in the body. In the classic Yoga literature there
are described four types of Kumbhaka.
I. We breathe out deeply and hold the breath for a few seconds. This is known as
"Bahir Kumbhaka" (External Kumbhaka).
II. The second, " Antar Kumbhaka" (Internal Kumbhaka), is holding the breath
after a deep inhalation. Usually this kind of Kumbhaka is accompanied by the
use of the Bandhas.
III. The third type is that practiced by alternate breathing – breathing in deeply
through the left nostril, then holding the breath and then exhaling through the
right… It is considered the easiest form of Kumbhaka.
IV. The fourth type is the most important of all, the peak of Pranayama. It is
called Kevala Kumbhaka or automatic suspension of breath: it is the breathless
state where there is no inhalation or exhalation, and not even the slightest desire
to breathe.
In the Kriya praxis, the underlying principle of I. is present in all those
procedures involving a series of very long and calm exhalations which seem to
end in a sweet nothing.
Internal Kumbhaka II. happens in different Kriya techniques; particularly

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in Yoni Mudra, Maha Mudra and Thokar.
Maha Mudra, with its balancing action on the right and on the left side of
the spine, contains also – in a broader sense - the principles of III.: alternating
breathing.
A turning point in Kriya is the achievement of IV. Kevala Kumbhaka.

In Kriya we distinguish between "Bahir" (external) and "Antar" (internal) Kevala

Kumbhaka. "Bahir (external) Kevala Kumbhaka" (the development and climax
of I.) appears during mental Pranayama after having relaxed and thus emptied
the rib cage.

"Antar (internal) Kevala Kumbhaka" (the development and climax of II.) appears
during the highest refining of Yoni Mudra, Maha Mudra and the Advanced form
of Thokar after having completed a long inhalation, with the rib cage moderately
full of air-Prana.

Kundalini The concept of Kundalini and, particularly, of its awakening,

provides a framework which is convenient for expressing what is happening
along the spiritual path. Most of the spiritual traditions have some awareness of
Kundalini; not all are equally open in exposing the practical details of the
process. Kundalini is Sanskrit for "coiled": it is conceived as a particular energy
coiled like a serpent in the root Chakra (Muladhara). The representation of being
coiled like a spring conveys the idea of untapped potential energy. It sleeps in our
body and underneath the layers of our consciousness, waiting to be aroused
either by spiritual discipline or by other means - like particular experiences of
life. It is depicted as rising from the Muladhara up through the Sushumna,
activating each Chakra; when it arrives at the crown Chakra (Sahasrara), it
bestows infinite bliss, mystical illumination etc. It is only through repeatedly
raising of the Kundalini, that the yogi succeeds in obtaining Self realization. Its
rising is not a mild sense of energy flowing inside the spine. Its movement is like
having a ''volcano erupting'' inside, a ''rocket missile'' shot through the spine! Its
nature is beneficial; there is an evident resistance in trusting the reports of
Kundalini awakening accompanied by troubles such as patently disturbed
breathing patterns, distortion of thought processes, unusual or extreme
strengthening of emotions… We are rather inclined to think that a dormant
malady, brought to open manifestation by thoughtless practice of violent
exercises or drugs is the cause of those phenomena. Insomnia, hypersensitivity to
environment may indeed follow the authentic experience. In a ''true awakening,''
the force of Kundalini eclipses the ego altogether and the individual feels
disoriented for some time. All is absorbed in a short time, without problems.
Alas, the search for a repetition of the episode may lead to disorderly and
careless practice of strange techniques, without ever establishing a minimal
foundation of mental silence. Each book warns against the risk of a premature
awakening of Kundalini and asserts that the body must be prepared for the event.
Almost any yogi thinks he or she is capable of sustaining this premature
awakening and the warning excites them more than ever: the problem is that

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many do not have (or have lost) a genuine spiritual approach and nourish a fairly
egotistical condition.

In the theoretical framework of Kriya Yoga we consider Kundalini to be the same

energy that exists throughout the body and not specifically residing in the
Muladhara Chakra. We seldom use the term "Kundalini awakening" and try to
avoid what could give the impression that such an experience has an alien nature:
Kundalini is our own energy; it is the purest layer of our consciousness.

Kutastha Kutastha, the "third eye" or "spiritual eye" is the organ of inner
vision (the unified astral counterpart of the two physical eyes), the place in our
body where the spiritual Light manifests. By concentrating between the
eyebrows, a formless darkness is first perceived, then a small crepuscular light,
then other lights; eventually there is the experience of a golden ring surrounding
a dark stain with a blazing tiny white point inside.
There is a connection between Kutastha and Muladhara: what we are
observing in the space between the eyebrows is nothing but the opening of the
spinal door, which is located at the root Chakra. Some Kriya teachers affirm that
the condition for entering the last and the highest Kriya stage is that the vision of
the spiritual eye has become constant; others identify it with the condition in
which the energy is perfectly calm at the base of the spine. Therefore both
affirmations are one and the same.

Maha Mudra Maha Mudra is a particular stretching position of the body. The
importance of this technique becomes clear as soon as we observe how it
incorporates the three main Bandhas of Hatha Yoga. There are indeed a thousand
and one reasons to practice Maha Mudra with firmness. There is a ratio between
the number of its repetitions and the number of the breaths: it is recommended
that for each 12 Kriya Pranayama, one should perform one Maha Mudra.

Mahasamadhi [see Second Kriya]

Mantra [See prayer]

Mental Pranayama In mental Pranayama a kriyaban controls the energy in his

body by forgetting the breathing process and focusing only upon Prana in the
Chakras and in the body. His awareness dwells on both the inner and the external
component of each Chakra until he feels a radiation of fresh energy vitalizing
each part of the body and sustaining it from inside. This action is marked by the
end of all the physical movements, by a perfect physical and mental stillness. At
times, the breath becomes so calm that the practitioner has the absolute
perception they are not breathing at all.

Mula Bandha In Mula Bandha the perinea muscles – between the anus and the
genital organs – are slightly contracted while a mental pressure is exerted on the
lower part of the spine. (Differently from Aswini Mudra, one does not simply

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tighten the sphincter muscles; in Mula Bandha the perineum seems to fold
upward as the pelvic diaphragm is drawn upward through the motion of the
pubic bone.) By contracting this muscle group, the current of Apana which
normally gravitates downward is pulled upwards, gradually uniting with Prana at
the navel. Mula Bandha has thus the effect of causing Prana to flow into
Sushumna channel, rather than along Ida and Pingala.

Nada Yoga Nada Yoga is the path of union with the Divine through listening to
inner sounds. Surat-Shabda-Yoga is another name for Nada Yoga. Nada Yoga is
an experiential meditation. It has its basis in the fact that one who follows the
mystical path infallibly meets this manifestation of Spirit – whatever may be
their preparation and their convictions. It is a highly enjoyable form of
meditation; anyone can be involved in this even without having fully understood
it.
You may use a particular position of the body – a squatting position with
the elbows resting on the knees, just to give an example – o plug both the ears.
Remaining quietly seated, you simply focus all your attention on subtle sounds
that come from within, rather than the audible sounds from outside. It is
recommended to repeat mentally, unremittingly, your favorite Mantra. Awareness
of inner sound must happen, sooner or later; your listening skills will improve
and you will become more sensitive. There are different levels of development in
the experience of inner sounds: you will hear a bumblebee, the drum, the lute,
the flute, the harp, the clapping of thunder or a hum like an electrical transformer.
Some of these sounds are actually just the sounds of your body, especially the
blood pumping. Other sounds are actually the "sounds behind the audible sound".
It is into this deeper realm that, while over time gently easing the mind into
relaxed concentration, your awareness is drawn. After some weeks of dedicated
practice you will tune in with a sound deeper than all the above-quoted astral
sounds. This is the cosmic sound of Om. The sound is perceived in different
variations; Lahiri Mahasaya describes it as "produced by a lot of people who
keep on striking the disk of a bell". It is continuous "as the oil that flows out of a
container".

Nadi Subtle channels through which life energy flows throughout the body.
The most important are Ida, which flows vertically along the left side of the
spinal column (it is said to be of female nature), and Pingala (of masculine
nature) which flows parallel to Ida on the right side; Sushumna flows in the
middle and represents the experience that is beyond duality.

Nadi Sodhana Alternate nostril breathing exercise, it is not a part of Kriya

Yoga proper. Yet, because its effects of appeasing and cheering up the mind
(especially if it is practiced in the morning) are unmatched, some kriyabans make
it a regular part of their routine.

Navi Kriya The essence of this technique is to dissolve inhalation and

exhalation at the state of equilibrium in the navel, the seat of the Samana current.

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It is coupled in various ways with the practice of Kriya Pranayama. Some
schools which do not specifically teach it provide some substitutes for it.

New Age The New Age sensibility is marked by the perception of something
"planetary" at work. Since distinguished men of science have contributed to the
New Age sensibility, there is no need to dwell on the affirmation, irrelevant for
our understanding, according to which such a progress coincided with the entry
of the solar system in the sign of Aquarius – from this belief it derived the term
"Age of Aquarius" or "New Age". The essential thing is that people realized that
the discoveries of Physics, of Alternative Medicine, the developments of the
Depth Psychology, all converged toward one and the same understanding: the
substantial interdependence among the universe, body, psyche and spiritual
dimension of human beings. The esoteric-initiation societies, overcoming for a
long time the differences of culture and religious vision, had already recognized
this truth, which now, has become common heritage. During the twentieth
century, human thought has made a strong step forward in a healthy direction.
There are many grounds to believe that, in the future, such an epoch will
be studied with the same respect with which nowadays Humanism, Renaissance
and Enlightenment ages are studied. The New Age thought deserves a deep
respect for many reasons. If I hint at some "frenzies" I refer to the excessive use
of alternative remedies for any type of real or imaginary troubles and to even
more dangerous theories borrowed with a lot of superficiality from various
esoteric currents, rather than to a depth progress in the understanding, in the
expansion of the awareness out of the narrow fences of the small ego tied up
obsessively to the maintenance of its petty conveniences.

Nirbikalpa Samadhi [see Paravastha]

Omkar Omkar is Om, the Divine Reality sustaining the universe, whose nature
is vibration with specific aspects of sound, light and inner movement. The term
"Omkar" or "Omkar Kriya" is also utilized to indicate any procedure fostering
the Omkar experience.

Padmasana In this asana the right foot is placed on the left thigh and the left
foot on the right thigh with the soles of the feet turned up. The name means the
"posture in which the lotuses (the Chakras) are seen." It is explained that,
combined with Kechari and Shambhavi Mudra, this Asana creates an energetic
condition in the body, suitable to producing the experience of the internal light
coming from each Chakra.
There are yogis who had to have cartilage removed from their knees after
years of forcing themselves into Padmasana. In Kriya Yoga, at least for those
living in the west and not used to assuming it since infancy, it is much wiser,
healthier and comfortable to practice either the Half lotus or the Siddhasana
posture.

Paravastha This concept is linked with that of "Sthir Tattwa (Tranquility)".

Named by Lahiri Mahasaya, Paravastha designates the state that comes by

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holding onto the after-effect of Kriya. It is not just joy and peace but something
deeper, vital for us as a healing. From our initial efforts directed at mastering the
techniques, we perceive moments of deep peace and harmony with the rest of the
world, which extend during the day. Paravastha comes after years of discipline,
when the breathless state is familiar: the tranquility state lasts forever, it is no
longer to be sought with care. Flashes of the ending state of freedom comfort the
mind while coping with life's battles.

Pingala [see Nadi]

Prana The energy inside our psychophysical system. Prana is divided into
Prana, Apana, Samana, Udana and Vijana, which have their location respectively
in the chest, in the low abdomen, in the region of the belt, in the head and in the
remaining part of the body - arms and legs. That the term Prana is interpreted in
two ways should not create confusion – provided that one considers the context
in which the word is used. In the initial phases of Kriya Pranayama we are
mainly interested in Prana, Apana and Samana. When we use Shambhavi Mudra
and during mental Pranayama we contact Udana. Through many techniques (like
Maha Mudra) and by the experience of Kriya Pranayama with Internal Breath we
experience the fresh vitalizing nature of Vijana.

Pranayama The word Pranayama is comprised of two roots: Prana is the first;
Ayama (expansion) or Yama (control) is the second. Thus, the word Pranayama
can be understood either as the "Expansion of Prana" or as the "Control of
Prana". I would prefer the first but I think that the correct one is the second. In
other words, Pranayama is the control of the energy in the whole psycho-physical
system by using the breathing process with the purpose to receive a beneficial
effect or to prepare the experience of meditation. The common Pranayama
exercises – although they may not involve the perception of any energetic current
– can create a remarkable experience of energy rising in the spine. This is not
negligible since this experience causes to the skeptical practitioner the discovery
of the spiritual dimension and pushes him or her to seek something deeper.
In Kriya Pranayama the breathing process is coordinated with the
attention of the mind up and down along the spinal column. While the breathing
is deep and slow, with the tongue either flat or turned back, the awareness
accompanies the movement of the energy around the six Chakras. By deepening
the process, the current flows in the deepest channel in the spine: Sushumna.
When by a long practice a subtle form of energy circulates (in a clearly
perceivable way) inside the body while the physical breath is totally settled
down, the kriyaban has an experience of unthinkable beauty.

Prayer [Japa] Prayer is an invocation that allows a person to make a reverent

plead or to offer praise to the Divine. The sequence of words used in a prayer
may either be a set formula or a spontaneous expression in the praying person's
own words. Whatever be the appeal to God, this act presupposes a belief in the
Divine Will to interfere in our life. "Ask, and ye shall receive" (Matt. 7:7, 8;

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21:22). Prayer is a subject of wide range and scope; here I will restrict it to the
repetitive prayer. In India, the repetition of the Name of the Divine is known as
Japa. This word Japa is derived from the root Jap - meaning: "to utter in a low
voice, repeat internally". Japa is also the repetition of any Mantra, which is a
broader term than prayer. Mantra can be a name of the Divine but also a pure
sound without a meaning. A certain number of sounds were chosen by ancient
yogis who sensed their power and used them extensively. (Some believe that the
repetition of a Mantra has the mysterious power of bringing about the
manifestation of the Divinity "just as the splitting of an atom manifests the
tremendous forces latent in it"). The term Mantra derives from the words
"Manas" (mind) and "Tra" (protection): we protect our mind by repeating
unrelentingly the same healthy vibration.
Usually a Mantra is repeated verbally for some time, then in a whisper and
then mentally for some time. In most forms of Japa, the repetitions are counted
using a string of beads known as a (Japa) Mala. The number of beads is generally
108 or 100. The Mala is used so that the devotee is free to enjoy the practice
without being preoccupied with counting the repetitions. It may be performed
whilst sitting in a meditation posture or while performing other activities, such as
walking.

Radhasoami The spiritual organization Radhasoami (Radha Swami) was

formally founded in 19th century India is also referred to as Sant Mat (Path of the
Saints). It is considered a derivation of Sikhism. Actually, the tradition is much
more ancient and it relates to the teaching of Kabir and then Guru Nanak. There
were also a group of teachers that assumed prominence in the northern part of the
Indian sub-continent from about the 13th century. Their teachings are
distinguished theologically by inward devotion to a divine principle, and socially
by an egalitarianism opposed to the qualitative distinctions of the Hindu caste
hierarchy and to the religious differences between Hindu and Muslim. In the
modern times the first name to signal is that of Param Sant Shiv Dayal Singh ji
who created the Radha Soami movement in January 1861 (the same year in
which Lahiri Mahasaya is reported to have received initiation into Kriya Yoga).
The founder Param Sant Shiv Dayal Singh ji died on 1878 in Agra, India. He did
not appoint a successor, resulting in a succession crisis upon his death. Several
disciples eventually came to be regarded as successors, which led to splits within
the group. These splits led to the propagation of Radhasoami teachings to a wider
audience although with slightly varied interpretations.

Sahasrara The seventh Chakra extends from the crown of the head up to the
Fontanelle and over it. It cannot be considered of the same nature as the other
Chakras, but a superior reality, which can be experienced only in the breathless
state. It is not easy therefore to concentrate upon it as we do with the other
Chakras. Only after a deep practice of Kriya Pranayama, when the breath is very
calm, is the attunement with it possible.

Samadhi According to Patanjali's Ashtanga (eight steps) Yoga, Samadhi is the

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state of deep contemplation in which the object of meditation becomes
inseparable from the meditator himself: it results naturally from Dharana and
Dhyana. In my opinion, Samadhi does not mean "union with God." We take so
many things for granted. Our language is strongly hampered: magniloquent
words risk meaning nothing. To become one and the same thing with God is
different from to awaken to the realization that we are a part of That One! Words
deceive our comprehension and kindle egoist expectations. One is thrilled by
words such as: absolute, eternal, infinite, supreme, everlasting, celestial,
divine….
I have half a mind to suggest a sober definition of Samadhi, which may
stimulate a reflection upon the meaning of the spiritual path. Let me therefore
define Samadhi as independent from any accident, beatific, near death
experience (NDE). The descriptions of Samadhi and of NDE follow the same
pattern: actually the nature of the phenomenon which takes place in the body is
almost the same. This opinion may disappoint those who smell a restrictive and
limiting shade of meaning in it; however I prefer to think in this way and ….
discover much more during the actual Samadhi experience than to thrive in
rhetoric. Even if Samadhi were no more than a NDE experience, however it
would have a superlative value. In both the experiences, the awareness can
provide a glimpse of the Eternity beyond mind; then (this happens to the trained
yogi) that lofty awareness blends, integrates with the customary life, which is
totally transformed for the better. To those who wonder if it is fair to diminish the
worth of the Kriya ecstatic state by reducing it to a process of contacting for
some time the after life dimension, we could reply that this genuine experience is
unmatched in fostering in a clean way the Kriya Yoga ideals of a balanced
spiritual life.

Second Kriya It has been reported that by using the Second Kriya technique,
Swami Pranabananda, an eminent disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, left his body
consciously (this feat is called Mahasamadhi – the conscious exit out of the body,
at death). There was no violence to the body; the feat happened only at the most
proper moment - according to a Karmic point of view when the moment was
right. Now the debate is: what procedure did he make use of?

a… Many claim it was the technique of Thokar. It is possible that he arrested the
movement of the heart and therefore left his body. He might have done one
single Thokar and stopped his heart; this means he put so much mental strength
in this act as to block the energy which kept his heart throbbing.
b… Some believe that this supreme calming of the heart was achieved only by a
mental action of immersion in the point between the eyebrows, entering the light
of Kutastha. The reports say that those who were around him did not notice any
head movement. Similarly when other great ones left their body there was no
movement.
c… In my opinion, Mahasamadhi is not a "shrewd esoteric trick" to master the
mechanics of a painless suicide. Surely each great master relies upon his already
built ability to enter Samadhi. By creating a total peace in his being, the soul's

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natural desire to regain union with the Infinite Source puts in action a natural
mechanism of appeasing the cardiac plexus.

Shambhavi Mudra A Mudra in which the ocular bulbs and the eyebrows are
upturned as much as possible; often the inferior eyelids relax and a bystander can
observe the white of the cornea under the iris. All the visual force of the ocular
nerves is gathered on the top of the head. Lahiri Mahasaya in his well known
portrait is showing this Mudra.

Siddhasana The Sanskrit name means "Perfect Pose". In this Asana, the sole
of the left foot is placed against the right thigh so that the heel presses on the
perineum. The right heel is placed against the pubic bone. This position of the
legs, combined with Kechari Mudra, closes the pranic circuit and makes Kriya
Pranayama easy and profitable.

Sikhism The Sikh religion is founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak and nine
successive Gurus; it is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world. It is
interesting that the key distinctive feature of Sikhism is a non-anthropomorphic
concept of God, to the extent that one can interpret God as the Universe itself.

Sushumna [see Nadi]

Talabya Kriya It is a stretching exercise of the muscles of the tongue, and

particularly of the Frenulum. The purpose is to attain Kechari Mudra [see]. This
practice creates a distinct calming effect on the thoughts and, for this reason, it is
never put aside, even after Kechari Mudra is achieved.

Thokar A Kriya technique based on directing the Prana toward the location of
one Chakra by a particular movement of the head. Studying the practices of the
Sufis, we discover that Lahiri Mahasaya's Thokar is one among the many
variations of the Sufi's Dhikr.

Tribhangamurari Some Kriya Acharya teaches the practice of Thokar in a

very particular way. The central teaching is guiding your awareness along a
three-curved path called Tribhangamurari (Tri-bhanga-murari = three-bend-
form). These teachers explain that in the last part of His life, Lahiri Mahasaya
drew with extreme precision the three-bends form which is perceived by
deepening the after-Kriya-Pranayama meditation. This path starts from Bindu,
goes up to the left of a very short length, then descends toward the right
side of the body. Once a particular point in the back is reached, it curves
and moves leftwards cutting the Vishnu knot whose seat is in the heart Chakra .
After reaching a point in the left part of the bacl, it changes its direction
again pointing toward the seat of the Brahma knot in the coccyx region.

Uddiyana Bandha Abdominal lock: it is usually practiced with breath out but
in Kriya it is also utilized with breath in especially during the practice of the

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main Kriya Mudras: Maha Mudra, Navi Kriya and Yoni Mudra.
To practice it with breath out, utilize, at least partly, Jalandhara Bandha.
Take a false inhalation (perform the same action of an inhalation without actually
pulling any air into the body.) Draw the belly up as much as possible. Hold your
breath out. To practice it with breath in, contract slightly the abdominal muscles
until you intensify the perception of the energy in the spinal column in the region
of Manipura Chakra.

Yama – Niyama Yama is Self-control: non-violence, avoiding lies, avoiding

stealing, avoiding being lustful, and non-attachment. Niyama is religious
observances: cleanliness, contentment, discipline, study of the Self and surrender
to the Supreme God (Brahman). While in most Kriya schools these rules are put
as premises to be respected in order to receive initiation, a discriminating
researcher understands that they are to be considered really as the consequences
of a correct Yoga practice. A beginner cannot to much depth understand what
"Study of the Self" means. Some teacher repeats, parrot fashion, the necessity of
observing those rules and, after having given absurd clarifications of some of the
above points (in particular which mental trick to utilize in order to … avoid
being lustful), passes on to explain the techniques. Why utter empty words?
Whom is he trying to fool? The mystic path, when followed honestly, cannot
compromise itself with any rhetoric. When an affirmation is made, it is that.
Yama and Niyama are a good topic to study, an ideal to bear in mind, but not a
vow. Only through practice is it possible to understand their real meaning and,
consequently, see them flourish in one's life.

Yoga Sutra (by Patanjali) The Yoga Sutras are an extremely influential text
on Yoga philosophy and practice: over fifty different English translations are the
testimony of its importance. Although we are not sure of the exact time when
their author Patanjali lived, we can set it between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. The
Yoga Sutras are made up by a collection of 195 aphorisms dealing with the
philosophical aspects of mind and awareness, thus establishing a sound
theoretical basis of Raja Yoga - the Yoga of self discipline and meditation. Yoga
is described as an eight stage (Ashtanga) path which are Yama, Niyama, Asana,
Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. The first five steps
build the psycho-physical foundation for having a true spiritual experience; the
last three are concerned with disciplining the mind up to its dissolution in the
ecstatic experience. The Sutras define also some esoteric concepts, common to
all the traditions of the Indian thought, such as Karma. Although, at times,
Patanjali is called "the father of Yoga", his work is actually a compendium of
pre-existing oral Yoga traditions, an inhomogeneous whole of practices betraying
an indistinct and contradictory theoretical background. However, the importance
of Patanjali's work is beyond discussion: he clarified what others had taught;
what was abstract he made practical! He was a genial thinker, not just a compiler
of rules. His equilibrium between theism and atheism is very appreciable. We do
not find the least suggestion of worshiping idols, deities, gurus, or sacred books -
at the same time we do not find any atheistic doctrine either. We know that

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"Yoga," besides being a rigorous system of meditation practice, implies devotion
to the Eternal Intelligence or Self. Patanjali affirms the importance of directing
our heart's aspiration toward Om.

Yoni Mudra The potential of this technique includes, in all effects, the final
realization of the Kriya path. Kutastha - between the eyebrows - is the place
where the individual soul had its origin: the delusive Ego needs to be dissolved
there. The core component of this Mudra is to bring all the energy into the point
between the eyebrows and hinder its scattering by closing the head openings –
the breath is quieted in the region from throat to the point between the eyebrows.
If a deep relaxation state is established in the body, this practice succeeds in
generating a very intense ecstatic state, which spreads throughout one's being.
About its practical implementation, there are minor differences among the
schools: some give a greater importance to the vision of the Light and less to the
dissolution of breath and mind. Among the first, there are those who teach, while
keeping more or less the same position of the fingers, to focus upon each Chakra
and to perceive their different colors. One satisfactory remark, found in the
traditional Yoga literature, is that this technique gets its name "Yoni", meaning
"uterus", because like the baby in the uterus, the practitioner has no contact with
the external world, and therefore, no externalization of consciousness.

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