TALK 37 by Prabhuji
MAY 10, 11.29
Let us contemplate on Kriya Yoga. Kriya means action. What is this action about? We have four aspects of our being – Head, Heart, Hands and Energy. Head represents intellect; heart represent emotions, hands represent action and these are all powered by energy. Yoga is union of individual Consciousness with higher Consciousness utilising one or many of these aspects. If you use intellect it is called Buddhi yoga or Jnana yoga, if you use the heart or emotions it is called bhakti yoga or devotion, if you use the hands it is called actions or karma yoga and if you use the energy system it is called Kriya Yoga. For everybody all these yoga are required. All four yogas are required to make a balanced personality and for an overall spiritual development. Imagine a person who has a big head and small body, or strong arms and weak body. So like that if you over emphasise on one system the other aspects may not develop. So in general all the four yoga are important for Self-realisation.
Let us look at Kriya yoga.
Our body has five layers, Annamaya kosha (Physical body), Pranamaya Kosha (Energy body), Manomaya Kosha (Mental body), Vijnanamaya Kosha (Intellectual body), Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss body). The pranic body controls the physical body, the manomaya kosha controls Pranamaya kosha, the intellectual body controls the manomaya kosha and the Anandamaya Kosha controls the Intellectual Body.
In Kriya yoga the focus is on energy bosy which is the Pranamaya kosha. The cosmic energy stepped down into human body and gets distributed throughout our body. This stepping down require transformers whichare called as chakras or energy centers which are located from the top of the head to bottom of the spine. You can visualize them as kind of energy transformers. They are energy transformers, for example electricity gets generated at some place which is of very high voltage, it gets distributed from that place to city level, street level and house level transformers which will transform that high voltage electricity and distribute it to the house
Similarly there are transformers that transform the energy and the energy gets distributed easily through these energy centres and the body organs are controlled by the chakras. The mind being the driver of the body, controls the body through these chakra systems. For example, I want to lift my body, my mind says lift and the energy has to flow to the hands and the hand is lifted and this way the mind controls the energy flow and through that it controls the body. But the human mind is a complex phenomenon, people can go through various states of mind, like depression, elation, anger.. etc. When these states are there the energy system in the body also gets affected. It gets blocked. Through the process of Kriya yoga we release these blockages, both mental and energy level blockages, and then it becomes free. That is the purpose of Kriya Yoga.
How energy and mind are related?
Mind and energy are related like a blind man and a lame man. A Lame man cannot walk and a blind man cannot see. A lame man here means nothing but the mind, the blind man is nothing but prana. But together they can go anywhere, the lame man sits on blind man and according to the lame man (who can see) leads the blind man (with legs). Mind and prana act together. If one of them is switched off the other will also be switched off. If prana stops mind stops, and vice versa.
So the human body has seventy two thousand energy channels distributing energy throughout the body through the chakras. These 72000 energy channels take the prana and connect every part of the body for energizong every part of the body. Out of these 72000 nadis three are important channels, they go through the spinal cord of human being, these energy channels are called Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. Ida means moon, pingala means sun, and Sushumna is the higher Consciousness. Ida takes the mind inwards, pingala takes the mind outwards, Sushumna takes the mind beyond the Consciousness. The Purpose of Kriya yoga sadhana is to balance your energy system, to purify your chakras, purify your energy channels, remove your mental blocks and help energy rise in the spinal cord in the sushumna channel. This is the purpose of Kriya yoga. It is done with a set of breathing practices or postures.
Transcription by Atmajyothi Satyavathi
Light of The Self Foundation 