“You can be in a room twenty years, trying to get out through the walls, the ceiling, the floor. It is when you finally discover the door that you find your way out. That’s how it is with the soul. The average devotee may struggle his whole life trying to escape the bodily limitations by unscientific means, and by the paths only of devotion or discrimination. Kriya Yoga takes one to God by the universal highway: the spine.”
– Paramhansa Yogananda, from Conversations with Yogananda
Lahiri Mahasaya reawakened Kriya in this age
The Technique of Kriya Yoga
Kriya Yoga is so effective because it works directly with the source of spiritual growth – the energy pathways of the spine.
All yoga techniques work with this energy, usually indirectly. Yoga postures, for example, can help open up the spinal channels, and balance the energy in the spine. Yoga breathing exercises can help to awaken that energy.
The Kriya technique is much more direct. It helps the practitioner to control the life force by mentally drawing it up and down the spine, with awareness and will. According to Yogananda, one Kriya, which takes about a half-minute, is equivalent to one year of natural spiritual growth.
