How Kriya Yoga Works (2)

Dr. M.W. Lewis

How Kriya Yoga Works

Now I'll give you a little table. It just will take a minute or two, about how Kriya works. As I have told you, it takes about a half a minute to do one Kriya. If you do the three parts of Kriya Yoga, which I am not at liberty to tell you what they are – but you can, you can have those things, if you really want them. It takes to do the three parts, it takes five minutes, about. And in that five minutes, you attain 12 years of evolution. Think of it. Twelve years of evolution. Imagine, 12 years ago, from then until now, you attain in five minutes by the practice of Kriya Yoga.

Now by simply multiplying those things, which I have written down here, if you practice an hour a day, an hour a day doing Kriya Yoga, that's not much; half an hour in the morning, half an hour at night. What do you get — 144 years of evolution. Now you're getting interested, which you should.

Now listen a little more. If you do that, one hour a day for one year – and how much time goes by, and we never realize the year's gone by – what do you get? Over 50,000 year's evolution. Now these are facts. But I must add you have to do the Kriya correctly. You cannot be doing it, and thinking about a million things all around. It won't work. But if you do it, really wanting the Presence of God, and to please Him, it will work. And in that year, that year, giving an hour a day, that's all, through the practice of Kriya Yoga, you'll attain 50,000 years evolution. Now let's carry it on. If for 20 years, in one hour a day, 20 years, one hour a day, one million years evolution. Think of it. This ego, which gives us so much trouble, causes us so much trouble; by giving an hour a day, for not the whole of our lives even, but for 20 years. You can be free from this tyrant, ego consciousness, and your Soul Consciousness will have very little difficulty in merging in the Presence of God. That's what Kriya Yoga will do.

Now going on just a little bit further, so that we take up not too much time; I wanna just at this time give you one of Master's references, so that I can assure you. You can read it in the Autobiography, if you'd like; "Kriya Yoga is an instrument through which human evolution can be quickened," which we find on page 246.

"The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of Cosmic Consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery."

I have told you how: controlling the carbon in the blood. Do not eat too much carbonized food, or heavily filled with carbon. A vegetable diet, with dairy products, is wonderful for the practice of Kriya. And then the heart slows down, and, reciprocally, the breath slows down, with the end result that your Soul Consciousness, none other than the Presence of God within you, is released from attachment, and you can send it, or place it, in the Pathway to God, the spine, and in the Supreme Center in the brain.

The techniques are not difficult, but they have to be done under the right conditions with the carbon eliminated from the blood. It's very important, because you cannot get out of body attachment as long as the breath is keeping you, your Soul, attached to the body. God created us, and he breathed into us the breath of life, and we came, be became a living Soul. That breath of life has to be free from this bodily vehicle.

Master has also this to say. "This is India's unique and deathless contribution to the world's treasury of knowledge. The Life Force which is ordinarily absorbed in maintaining the heart pump, must be freed for higher activities by a method of calming and stilling the ceaseless demands of the breath."

The breath cannot help but flow as long as there's carbon in your blood. We cannot help work. You've got to breathe to get rid of it. So the yogis, being so wise, they said, let us eliminate by the practice of yoga the presence of so much carbon in the blood that we can free our Soul from attachment, and know more about the Presence of God within us. That's saying it in a few common words.

And finally,

"The law of Kriya Yoga is eternal.
It is like mathematics. Like the simple rules of addition and subtraction.
The law of Kriya Yoga
can never be destroyed."

That's the Path back to God. That's why it's in the Bhagavad Gita.

History of Kriya Yoga

That's why when Babaji came back in Krishna's time, he gave it freely. Babaji gave these things, and he has given them down through the ages. Through the dark ages they were kept pretty well undercover, so to speak. But in our time they have been brought to us through the agency of Self-Realization Fellowship.

The great Babaji gave it to Lahiri Mahasaya in 1861, if my memory is correct. 1861. This is the same Kriya which was given millenniums ago to Arjuna by Lord Krishna. It was given also to Lord Shankara. It was given to Patanjali, the Father of Yoga. It was given to Kabir, the great medieval saint. And it was given, it was known by Christ, St. Paul, St. John.

What do you think St. Paul meant, when he said, "Behold, I rejoice, I die daily." By the practice of Kriya, he was able to supersede this ego consciousness and merge in the Presence of God within him as the Christ Consciousness. "I declare by the rejoicing I have in Christ, I die daily." How did he die? He eliminated the ego consciousness within him. And eliminating that, he enjoyed the Christ Consciousness, of which we have spoken this morning.

And so, down to, in our time, Lahiri Mahasaya in 1861, gave it, received it from Babaji. And he gave it to our Master's preceptor in 1893. And Master brought it to America, and established Self-Realization Fellowship here in 1920. Same Kriya; same Kriya known ages ago; same Kriya available to you and to me, in an easy way, so to speak, through the techniques of Self-Realization Fellowship.

We cannot afford, those of you who do not know Kriya, to follow the method and attain Kriya, that you once more regain your birthright, which is union with the Presence of God. Oneness with Cosmic Consciousness, and that's our home.

The Eternal Father has made this great creation here from His Own Consciousness. He makes it seem so real, so tangible. We, by the practice of yoga, and especially Kriya Yoga, can break that Dream, and realize we are not this body, we are not this Dream. This Dream is like our own dream. What are we? God alone. There's only one God – One Consciousness. And that's His Consciousness. And we can prove that. We can realize it, by the practice of yoga, especially Kriya Yoga.

You learn things theoretically first. Then, if you're wise, you practice the techniques. And finally, you realize those things to be true. You cannot just read about Kriya Yoga, or read about Hindu philosophy. You have to practice techniques given by those who did practice them, and have proved these things. And finally, through the practice of those techniques you will realize God alone. That's the great lesson of Kriya Yoga.

Kriya Yoga in the West

And so finally, when Babaji appeared to our Master in 1920, he said these words. This shows that these things are not chance occurrences. Everything is ordained, everything. We are ordained to do certain things, because God is the Doer. We're not the doer at all. We think so. So when our Master saw Babaji in 1920, these are the words he said. "You are the one I have chosen to spread the message of Kriya in the West." Through, I might add, Self-Realization Fellowship.

And I'll close by reading the words of the great Lahiri Mahasaya, who was the one who received it in our time, received the Kriya Yoga from the great Babaji. Lahiri Mahasaya, the householder with wife, two children, working in the world, but silently doing what? Practicing Kriya Yoga – silently. They didn't even know he was doing it – practicing Kriya Yoga. And look what he attained. When his wife remonstrated with him for neglecting the family, he looked at her, and she heard such a roaring of the Cosmic Sound she didn't know what to do. And then he touched her in the Spiritual Eye and she saw the vision of the other side. Then she realized what a husband she had. She remained that way, faithful to yoga, Kriya Yoga, to until the end.

Now this is what Lahiri Mahasaya has said.

"The Master never counseled slavish belief.
Words are only shells he said.
Win conviction of God's Presence through
your own joyous contact in meditation.
No matter what the disciple's problem, the Guru advised
Kriya Yoga for its solution.
The yogic key will not lose its sufficiency when I am no longer present in the body to guide you.
Continue ceaselessly on your path to liberation through
Kriya Yoga whose power lies in practice."

Practice Kriya Yoga!