r/kriyayoga

I performed 1200 Talabya Kriya, 1200 Front Nabhi Kriya, 300 Back Nabhi Kriya, 144 Kriya Pranayama, 108 Second Kriya Pranayama, and 4 Mahamudras. I’m currently recovering from back pain, so I kept the Mahamudra count low because I didn’t want to put unnecessary strain on my body. During Yoni Mudra, I initially perceived a bright white light in my inner vision, which gradually appeared to turn blue. Then, within the blue field, a black, hole-like center appeared, and inside that black center I saw a small star-like point. The star-like point remained visible for approximately 10 seconds before the experience changed/disappeared. I stayed calm and simply observed it without trying to force anything. after this my mind achieved a blisfull peace and its incredible

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I was reading an old Bengali spiritual text discussing pranayama, breath retention (kumbhaka), and meditation, and one part really caught my attention.

The text makes an important distinction: breath regulation and kumbhaka may be useful during spiritual practice, but not everyone should practice them in the same way.

It specifically warns against forcing the breath.

Instead, it describes gradually making the ordinary breath more controlled and steady, without strain or agitation. It also describes brief periods of stillness around inhalation and exhalation as forms of kumbhaka.

This made me rethink what “breath retention” actually means in traditional yoga.

Modern interpretations often turn pranayama into:

«“How long can you hold your breath?”»

But that may completely miss the point.

Perhaps the deeper practice isn't about defeating the body's urge to breathe.

Perhaps it is about becoming so calm and attentive that the breath naturally becomes slower, subtler and quieter.

And then there is an even deeper question.

Traditional yoga often connects prana and mind very closely.

When the breath becomes calm, the mind may become calm.

But which one comes first?

Does controlling the breath quiet the mind?

Or:

Does a genuinely quiet mind naturally make the breath quiet?

Maybe it works in both directions.

There is also an important safety issue here. Breath retention isn't something I think should be approached as a challenge or pushed to extreme durations. Excessive breath-holding can cause dangerous changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, dizziness, fainting, and other complications.

So perhaps the real meaning of kumbhaka isn't simply “holding the breath.”

Maybe it points toward something subtler:

Not forcing the breath to stop, but discovering what happens when the impulse to control the breath becomes quiet.

What do people who practice pranayama or meditation think?

Is the deepest form of breath control actually the absence of control?

or spiritual energy through other online means? cuz me practicing alone for quite some time is getting me confused, and not "kindling" my energy.

I would appreciate if a guru could talk me through on a video call.

Thanks! ✌️

This evening, I practiced 400 Talabya Kriya, 400 Front Nabhi Kriya, 100 Back Nabhi Kriya, 48 Kriya Pranayamas, and 4 Mahamudras.

During Yoni Mudra, I experienced a beautiful and peaceful phenomenon. With my attention at the Ajna Chakra, I began seeing a bright white light. After some time, I also experienced what appeared to be tiny stars sparkling within the field of light.

After completing Yoni Mudra, the experience continued for around two minutes. My inner field around the Ajna Chakra seemed to remain illuminated with a soft combination of white and blue light.

It was a very peaceful and deeply absorbing experience. I am sharing it here simply as a personal meditation experience, without trying to interpret or claim anything extraordinary about it. 🙏🕉️

I studied SRF lessons and practiced that daily. This practice was focussed between the eyebrows. I then got initiated into the Hariharananda lineage of Kriya, which is focussed on the fontanel. I value both practices and find that doing Kriya to the fontanel is very powerful, and I don’t have criticisms about the techniques that I was taught. I recognise that this difference makes our lineage unique, and I’m okay with that. I just have the question of why…

From my understanding, Lahiri Baba, Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda, Sanyal Mahasaya, Swami Satyananda Giri all taught Kriya pranayama up to the Ajna chakra and did paravastha in Ajna. But maybe I’m mistaken. I believe even Hariharananda taught Kriya with Ajna focus for most of his life. And the Bhagavad Gita teaches between the eyebrows, not the top of the head.

These are doubts that went away after initiation- because I have the experience of feeling a sense of serenity and bliss and wisdom from fontanel focussed Kriya, and I feel the light and hear the sound maybe more intensely than between the eyebrows. It’s improved my life and I believe in this technique- but I still feel that I have the intellectual curiosity as to what the reasons were for this change, why it changed, and what role the Ajna actually plays in our Kriya practice.

Why was this decision made to change the primary focus of Kriya? I read a story that he met a nameless monk (not Babaji) who didnt do Kriya but taught Hariharananda another technique, and Hariharananda made alterations based on this monks teaching- however this was decades before Hariharananda eventually altered the focus the the fontanel.

It feels like a big change to make. And i now don’t really spend any time in Ajna, other than passing through it in Kriya Pranayama- and even that is attention to the inner chakra and not between the eyebrows

KYI people - what is the Ajna chakra to you?
How is that chakra different to you than the others?
Are the fontanel and Ajna both kutastha?
Is the light and sound the same, and from the same source?
Do you ever gaze between your eyebrows?
How do you come to terms with the fact that Lahiri Baba warned to not breathe through the brain to the fontanel during pranayama, and said it was tamasic?
Any recommendations on how to spend more time in Ajna chakra and how to integrate it into our Kriya techniques? We were never taught how to gaze there in our initiation.

Thank you! 🙏

I know Sadhguru says bow down looking at the sky 3 times during the day but being indoors most of the time, I have started doing this every 30 mins where a bell rings on my phone every 30 mins and I just bow down mentally to the nothingness around me. Day after day this is just becoming so impactful that my body starts to shake when I am doing it. Has Sadhguru said anything about this? This has especially increased after my silence sadhana and I'm feeling super blissful When I do it.

This post is for the students of Kriya yoga who encounter doubts and have a strong intelectual identification. Is meant as a help and not as conclusion.

Usually, when we begin a spiritual path, we begin with the mind and intellect.

Why?

Because as human beings, we first want to understand. We analyze, compare, discern, ask questions, and try to determine what is true and what is false.

When the desire arises to know, Where do I come from? Who am I? Where am I going?, the mind initially becomes a servant of that search.

But there is an important distinction:

You do not simply “have” a Soul. You are the Soul. And the Soul is using a mind. The Soul is not the mind, so you are not the mind.

From this perspective, the personality, body, intellect, and mind are instruments through which the Soul experiences this life. They are not the Soul itself.

When our search brings us to Kriya Yoga, doubts and questions naturally arise. The mind wants to understand what it is doing before it trusts the process.

But should the mind be our highest authority?

No.

At the beginning, it is necessary to differentiate between what is what. Later, not at all, because the mind is not Self-knowing.

As I see it, the mind works mainly with four kinds of information:

1. Ancestral memory
Memories, impressions, conditioning, habits, and associations from this and past lives. Sometimes something simply feels familiar. But familiarity is not necessarily truth.

2. Direct experience
What we have actually experienced ourselves. There is an enormous difference between “I believe this is true” and “I have experienced this directly.”

3. Second-hand information
What we learn from schools, books, teachers, scriptures, videos, conversations, and other people. Some may be true, some incomplete or false. Until we experience something ourselves, much of it remains belief rather than knowledge.

4. Imagination and mental construction
The mind fills in missing pieces. It compares, interprets, judges, and creates connections. Sometimes they are correct; sometimes they become expectations, projections, fantasies, and mistaken conclusions.

So what does this have to do with Kriya Yoga?

The problem begins when we expect the same mind that analyzes all this information to give us Self-realization.

It cannot.

Realization is Being. The mind is thinking. These are two different things. In Samadhi, the mind is left behind.

The mind can study Kriya, remember instructions, compare teachings, and help maintain discipline. The intellect can help us discern.

These are valuable functions.

But thinking about Self-realization is not Self-realization.

Reading about prana is not experiencing prana.

Reading about chakras is not experiencing them.

Reading about meditation is not entering deep meditation.

Reading somebody else's description of the Self is not knowing the Self.

The menu is not the meal, would say one business man.

The trap begins when the mind continuously combines:

A: memories and conditioning
B: direct experience
C: second-hand information and beliefs
D: imagination and expectations

A + B + C + D = a mess...

Then we start comparing our meditation with everything we have accumulated:

“Someone said I should see this.”
“A book says I should feel that.”
“Why haven't I experienced what someone else experienced?”
“Maybe I'm doing it wrong.”

Instead of practicing Kriya, we are thinking about practicing Kriya.

Instead of observing what is actually happening, we compare our experience with what we think should be happening.

So, use the mind, but don't become its servant.

This doesn't mean throwing away reason, intellect, or healthy discernment. The mind is an extraordinary instrument.

Use it to learn the techniques.
Use the intellect to understand the instructions.
Use discernment when choosing a path or teacher.
Use memory to practice correctly.

But when it is time to practice, practice.

Don't demand that meditation conform to your expectations. Don't constantly compare your experiences with someone else's. And don't expect intellectual understanding to produce a realization that must, by its very nature, be directly experienced.

As practice deepens, constant mental interpretation naturally begins to fade.

Then you no longer need to believe someone else's description.

You know what you have experienced.

To me, this is one of the essential differences between philosophy about spiritual realization and realization itself.

The intellect can point toward the path.

The mind can help us walk it.

But neither can substitute for walking.

And there is another aspect that may appear to come from the mind but, from my perspective, comes from the Soul:

INTUITION.

Intuition is the voice of the Soul and is Knowledge. It is not mind stuff, although it must be translated through the mind.

And sometimes we only understand later why that inner knowing was right.

Spiritual teachings can give us the map.

But eventually, we have to make the journey ourselves.

So when the mind endlessly asks, “But what if? How? When? Why haven't I experienced this yet?”, sometimes the most useful answer is very simple:

Practice. Observe. Experience. Have faith. Be patient.

Don't bother the mind unnecessarily, and don't feed every doubt. Doubts arise from a mind that does not yet know.

And that is okay.

Keep practicing and be well.

After four straight months of the Kriya realm and sincere practice I was thrown off balance by a wave of lust. The path without a guru, isn’t easy…

Will power is everything!

I have read on this sub multiple times that lord Rama and Lord Krishna used to practice Kriya yoga. What is the source of this? How can I verify this?

1. How is kundalini awakened, like necessary actions, intentions etc?

2. Minimum or Maximum time it can take?

3. Which things are responsible for complete failure?

4. Which things are proved to be boosting the process?

5. What are in general do's and don'ts for it?

6. How does it feel, when it awakens?

7. After awakening, how to keep it sustained successfully.

\*\*\* Thanks in Advance\*\*\* 🎉

So I was recently going through YSS website and wanted to take a diksha in kriya yoga, they have advised to first take a membership and so self practice along with study then they provide, has anyone taken it?

Is it helpful?

So I’m getting these headaches and head pressures after going into deep states during my meditation practices.

The energy gets really intense all over the body during these meditations but it’s especially intense in the head and third eye during these meditations during the meditations the feeling is very pleasant ecstasy like quite intense fiery and cooling sensations are felt.

The headaches and head pressure will subside after I stop my meditation or kriya practice for the most part. However it will tend to get worse in the evenings. Or throughout the day. I do a lot of meditation laying down for health reasons and find when I lay down my head will also feel the pressure especially if I’m in the position I was previously meditating in.

The headache itself feels like pressure and like my head is full of liquid pressure on sinuses. Unlike any normal headache feels distinctly energetic.

Grounding and a different type of meditation helps ground the energy. However I find myself going in circles having very energetically intense meditations energy getting stuck in head causing issues and having to spend time doing a different meditation style.

Is this supposed to keep getting stuck in my head like this should I stop all practice except grounding meditations if so how long. Even those meditations where I’m visualising my head gets very energetic.

I’ve been a kriyaban for sometime and have been practicing regularly in the first 2 years after receiving kriya, then something happened in my life that derailed me from daily practice for 2.5 years and then I was back again for the last 4 years. - practicing 1-2 times a day.

However I have been out currently quite infrequent with my practice. I never used to have a gap of over a day, and recently my gap days are over 2 weeks.

Not sure how to set a routine as something comes in the way. It’s an excuse and I am married with no kids so I think I can make time if I really was focused.

Can you all share some tips on how to set a routine? How do I start small again and build a solid routine that’s consistent and unshakable.

My biggest issue is that my timing is inconsistent - a few days I practice at 10 am others at 1 pm or at 6 pm or at night at 9-9.30 pm. Depending on when I get time.

any help will be appreciated.

Olá meus caros amigos, por favor não me apedrejem. O que venho desabafar parte de um lugar puramente honesto e sentimental, portanto ausente de qualquer intenção ou julgamento em relação à kriya e ao yoga.
Dito de maneira simples, em alguns slokas da Gita Krishna se comunica como de buscasse devotos através de um culto.
Isso fere a minha compreensão (dedutiva e puramente intelectual, nunca "experimentei" um vislumbre da realidade última) de que Deus é infinitamente misericordioso e, de maneira inefável, ontologicamente imparcial. Acho que não preciso me estender muito a fim de explicar porque um deus que sugere ser cultuado anda no sentido contrário de uma existência primeva sem forma, ausente de desejos e que é a beatitude suprema, o Absoluto da qual todas as coisas cogniscíveis se depreendem.
Li a Gita comentada por Kriyananda — não a direta do Yogananda, a que foi evocada pelo próprio Kriyananda e talvez eu tenha errado aí, rs — mas se somo os slokas com a quantidade massiva de comentários que ele faz sobre sacrificar o eu egóico ao fogo purificador do Espírito Supremo, a coisa toda começa a me soar extremamente angustiante e desagradavel...
Eu não sinto, particularmente, nenhum sentimento ruim em relação a ideia primordial de termos que "ceder a constituição da personalidade frágil" ao divino (famosa metáfora da gota que é o oceano), sequer a dissolução do ego no infinito. Essa parte, que costuma angustiar as pessoas a primeira instância, me faz bastante sentido. Mas quando paro pra me perguntar que oceano é esse, começo a me sentir angustiada.
De tudo que já estudei, me parece que esse planeta tem alguns deuses criadores (na falta de um termo melhor, rs). E nem todos são bons. A título de exemplo, penso em Yahweh, o deus do antigo testamento. Eu piamente acredito que ele existe e é como um deus menor. Nesse sentido, quem me garante que na kriya estamos fazendo o movimento de ceder a personalidade para o deus maior, o substrato que rege todas as coisas? Todo esse vocabulário sacrificial e essa corrida de restituir a personalidade frágil ao destino me soa questionável. A forma que Krishna fala com Arjuna, em alguns slokas, também me soa questionável. Meu problema não é medo de me entregar a Deus... é não saber que Deus é esse.
Até porque, se EU fosse uma entidade interdimensional e metatemporal no encargo de um planeta ou galáxia, e me fosse proveitoso, de alguma forma, que os seres que o habitam fizessem o sacrifício de se auto-realizarem em mim ou se doassem para mim, eu criaria exatamente esse tipo de mecanismo. Sabe? Sei que estou falando de um lugar maluco. Essas coisas me doem também. Envio isso porque quero erradicar todas as dúvidas que tenho sobre a kriya, também.
Mas sabe, se você perguntar pra um cristão ou judeu acerca do deus do antigo testamento, ele também vai falar que Yahweh é o criador supremo da qual toda a realidade é emanada... então quem nos garante que na kriya estamos de fato cedendo nossos atributos ao divino supremo...?
Acho que sinto falta de clareza no caminho. Sinto no meu coração amor de Deus e por Deus (dessa forma mais sentimental) mas eu queria que algo confirmasse a minha fé antes que me movesse mais alguns passos. Só me sensibilizar com a natureza não basta. As coisas me assustam, as vezes me pergunto até se os monges e mestres ascensionados não podem só ter cedido a personalidade pra um deus menor, ciumento, maléfico e possessivo. Eu não sei. Não deve ser difícil pra um deus incutir esse sentimento de amor maníaco em seus devotos, a fim de fingir que isso é a bem-aventurança extrema.
Enfim, não me apedrejem, estou apenas triste e revisitando questionamentos.
Boa tarde a todos.

Although the talk was delivered in Bengali, we have translated it into English to make its message accessible to a wider audience. The new edition of Anweshan Magazine was also released on the occasion of Guru Purnima. The link to access the magazine has been shared at the end of this article. https://rykym.org/blog/guru-purnima-2026-address-gurudev-dr-sudhin-ray-part-1-grace-dubey-baba

in morning i performed 1200 talbaya ,1200 front nabhi,300 back nabhi .144 pranayama . saw devine light and kutushta in yoni mudra , but didn't perform mahamudra because back pain..... Bless me

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this community, so please excuse any errors.

I had a mental breakdown about 1.5 months ago. While it was terrible, it did reignite my passion for spiritual pursuits, and I've since been dedicated to meditating. I've been reading Yogananda's materials, especially the Second Coming of Christ, which really resonates with me. I'm also fortunate to have a temple near me that I've been attending.

My breakdown was mystical. Maybe Dark Night of the Soul is the right word for it. But there were certainly mystical aspects to it.

After my recovery, I feel a need to find a teacher to help me on the path. I signed up for the beginner material, but a monk called me and told me they couldn't provide me with the material right now due to my recent breakdown. I understand, and appreciate their being careful.

But I truly feel called to find a teacher. I don't know how to go about it without becoming initiated. I'm in the Orange County, CA area.

Thanks

Edit: this was my second mystical/mental health breakdown, within 3 years. It feels like God is calling me to follow this path. I consider Christ my spiritual teacher, due to my Christian upbringing. I've been searching for a spiritual path for my whole life, reading many books, but I feel God has slapped me in the face to basically tell me, wake up and take it seriously. Be dedicated and consistent. Meditate and practice yoga.

Speaking about freeze response from being raised by abusive demonic narcissist and im still financialy dependant on them, constant freeze is hell, how to deal with that? Yoga=supercosmic bliss and supercosmic health