Oh divine Kundalini so sublime,

Unleash thy magic in my spine,

Breaking the shackles limited by body-mind,

So I may partake of the ambrosia of the immortal divine,

Bestowing wisdom & stillness beyond space & time

Raising my consciousness to realms refined

Alakh Niranjan!

To be in the “image of God” we need to know the secrets of the gods.

Reading the scriptures about Shiva, chanting mantras to his names & practicing bodily postures are all progressive steps in the direction known in the texts as Gyan Yog, Bhakti yog & Asanas respectively. However, the fast track method given by Shiva himself & passed down a lineage of “Nath yogis”, as these self realised masters are referred to, is known as Kriya Yoga.

Described in various texts and taught by various adepts, this technique is a sure shot way to speeding up “the evolutionary process” & cutting the bonds of ignorance asunder. While the other techniques mentioned above, are all used by large masses of people & can be used without any assistance, Kriya yoga, can only be commenced after receiving divine grace & initiation from a satguru or a self realised adept , who has the power to awaken the disciple’s Kundalini.  How the actual process works   to evolve the individual’s consciousness, after initiation, is explained in the following lines.

Kriya Yoga is a type of Pranayama. To begin with then it is important to understand that Pranayama refers to “Prana” (Life force) & “Ayam” meaning control. So it is essentially life force control & not breath control. Prana thus is the universal life force energy expressed in various modes through Prakriti or nature. So plants, animals & humans, all have Prana. It is an “intelligent force” but does not possess “consciousness”. The “conscious unit” is the “soul” & “Prana” is the basis. Prana takes guidance from the soul to activate the body, through the consciousness which expresses itself through the mind. So we say “Jahan Chitta Vahan Prana” or the Prana or life force energy, flows to where the mind is.

Now, the Kriya yoga pranayam enables the disciple to disentangle the soul from the body which is like a cage. The soul is able to fly to expanded states of awareness & experience divine bliss. This is how the individual realises, that he is not a body subject to decay but an immortal soul whose body is like a dress, which is changed in each life. To get to this state of realisation, where one no longer identifies with the body & experiences his “divine indweller” in the stillness within requires a mixture of divine grace or “Kripa” & willful effort of channelizing the prana in the spine to realise god.

The Kriya technique per say, involves the alternating flow of two life currents in the spinal cord or “Sushumna Nadi” channel in it. One of these current called “Prana” as it were, flows from the coccyx to the midpoint between the eyebrows (third-eye). This soothing, upward, cool current focuses the disciple’s attention inward & leads to spiritual growth. The other warm current, called Apana, flows downwards from the third eye to the coccyx, in the spine. It keeps human consciousness engaged in the delusion of maya. This is a “restless” current which involves man in sensory experiences.

So by ceaseless effort, the disciple uses the Kriya technique of moving these dual currents in the Sushumna channel of the spinal cord. This process leads to the gradual awakening of the Kundalini or electro-magnetic energy which is essentially “intensified spiritual prana.” What really happens is that the prana, breath, vital fluid & mind become one as we practise the movement in the spinal cord & they form the “evolutionary Kundalini energy.

This Kundalini energy enables the disciple to experience the out of body state & enables the shift in our awareness from the gross physical body to the subtle spirit of pure consciousness. Such repeated states, as the disciple evolves lead to the experience of “Samadhi” or ecstatic state of expanded consciousness. The disciple & the Kriya then, become one, in a state of holy communion. The breath stops & one experiences infinite bliss & silence. With the energy thus generated in the spine, the burden on the heart is decreased as the blood cleansing functions have lesser work to do. This state enables the disciple to arrest bodily disease & decay & develop a body of light, immortal like that of the gods.

So dear reader, ‘waste not precious pearls of time”, stop identifying with the body, find a realised master, learn the yogic Kriya technique & find your road to Shiva & liberation or Moksha.

Om Namah Shivay!