Kriya Yoga: the New Covenant; the Second Coming

 [This article was inspired by a talk I gave at a Kriya initiation at the Blue Lotus Temple in Bothell, WA]

 

In anticipation of the consciousness of the third millennia A.D., the rishis of modern India have explained the path to enlightenment in rational, scientific terms. For the lingua franca of our times is, in fact, science. In former times, however, deeper spiritual truths were conveyed in parables, metaphors or allegories and were understood intuitively rather than intellectually.

Long ago in the highest or golden age, highly advanced spiritual beings possessed the intuition, the inner sight, by which they cognized subtle realms, astral beings, higher truths and the Divine presence. Indeed, it is said in the ancient texts that the first humans were so enlightened that after observing the natural wonders of creation they sat in lotus pose and merged back into God. These souls had no interest in playing the game of hide and seek with God. So, God decided to raise the stakes and make the creation more attractive so that these beings would want to stay and play with Him. In the Bible version of this story, Adam and Eve fell to the temptation to be "like” God and enter into the drama of duality, experiencing good and evil and all the opposites which attract or repulse.

Well, it's just a story though it seems that God has played an unfair trick on us. While contemplating the whole sad affair, it occurred to me that maybe there’s another way to explain what happened to us. (No explanation, however, can satisfy our heart's yearnings.) It might be related to the explanation of the cycles of time as revealed by Swami Sri Yukteswar in the introduction to his only book, “The Holy Science.”

In that book, Sri Yukteswar stated that the twelve thousand years ending on or about 500 A.D. constitute a long period of decline from the highest age of virtue and wisdom to the nadir of the larger twenty-four thousand year cycle. Biblical scholars place the Garden of Eden somewhere just after 5,000 B.C. Maybe what really happened was that the gradual loss of God consciousness and the concomitant rise of ego consciousness was the real “fall” described in these stories.

Then somewhere after 2,000 B.C. we find that humanity’s oldest scriptures, the Vedas and the scriptures that followed, came to be written down perhaps because the oral tradition could no longer be relied upon as human understanding and virtue declined.

Nonetheless, what remained would have become dry parchment were it not for the repeated appearance of great souls’ generation after generation all the way to the modern age, including the lineage of the Self-realization masters. Saints are the true custodians of faith and the avatars are the prime movers who offer wisdom in the midst of the ebb and flow of human consciousness.

Whatever the facts that led us here, here we are. Faced with our own modern troubles, let us admit that neither world peace nor a cure for cancer will bestow upon humanity the pearl of great price of true and lasting happiness. As some of the lyrics in Swami Kriyananda’s happy but instructive song, “Secret of Laughter” puts it: "You can win the world but still be poor, win peace and live like a king." No matter how great are the blessings of science, the yogi’s cliché is still true: "The only way out is IN."

God, knowing our present needs, has sent to humanity a great gift in the form of Kriya Yoga. Though an ancient science, it was lost in the dark ages but for us now it has been resurrected by the deathless prophet, Mahavatar Babaji. Kriya is a priceless gem, a chintamani, offered to those who sincerely seek help in their journey towards Self-realization.[1] Kriya is more than a meditation technique that uses the breath; it is more than a series of core techniques; it is a way of life, indeed, a new dispensation bestowing knowledge and grace that can propel us quickly over the ocean of delusion. Kriya is a relationship with God through the agency of the divine gurus. Initiation into kriya establishes and affirms the connection between disciple and guru. The technique acts as an instrument of transmission of the guru’s guidance and grace.

Swamiji states in his booklet, “A New Dispensation,” that Yogananda wrote in his commentaries on the “Bhagavad Gita” that sometimes in history a sea of calm appears in the midst of the storm of maya.[2] Perhaps when a world savior descends like a comet into this world of darkness taking on human form, he does so through a vortex, a wormhole that lingers to and from eternity. Those who are drawn to this eye of calm in the middle of the storm of duality find rapid spiritual progress just as the apostles of Christ were transformed in those three brief years. 

I think of the Day of Pentecost described in the Acts of the Apostles.[3] That day, the Holy Ghost descended upon them in the form of tongues of fire and as a wind. The apostles spoke in diverse languages and some three thousand people were converted to the new covenant in Christ. 

Yogananda said his coming to the West was the “second coming” of Christ. He said that those who were ready to receive him would be baptized by the Holy Spirit through Kriya Yoga. A new covenant, a new dispensation has arrived he said. “The time for knowing God has come!” Yogananda declared.

Just as those apostles blessed by the Holy Spirit were destined to change the course of history, so too is Kriya is destined to uplift humanity in this age of Dwapara Yuga.[4] Kriya opens the door that we may commune with the Holy Spirit as the Aum vibration, and on its wings ascend like a dove into superconsciousness.[5]

So, what, then is this technique, this “kriya?”

In Yogananda’s now famous story, “Autobiography of a Yogi,” he wrote that "The ancient yogis discovered that the secret of cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. 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."[6]

As we come into the body with our first breath and leave the body by our last breath, so breath links us with the subtle (astral) world from which we have come and to which we return. We incarnate again and again on the basis of the unfinished business of our likes, dislikes and our past actions. Once incarnate, the world of duality begins with the duality of inhalation and exhalation. Our breath is the foundation and prerequisite for our life in the human body. The cycle of the breath is also the foundation for the reactive, emotional process of like and dislike. Indeed, Patanjali in stanza 2 of the renowned Yoga Sutras defines our soul freedom by the cessation of that process. It is really and truly that simple.

We can't just hold our breath, however! If we tried, we'd pass out and the nervous system would re-start the breathing process. Moreover, the breath is, itself, only the necessary starting point for how we can explore the far subtler causes for our reincarnation: desire! Like those first humans, or like our first foray into creation, we WANT; we LIKE; we DESIRE this and FEAR that!

Made in the image of God, we want to be like God and manifest the great play of creation, experiencing good and evil. But unlike the Spirit beyond by creation and unlike the son of God hiding silently at the heart of every atom of creation, we forget “Who am I?” We become identified with the play like a bad actor who forgets he’s only an actor. You could even say that it is not “I” who reincarnates but it is my desires--likes and dislikes and the unfinished business of past actions--that reincarnate into the great cycle of inhalation and exhalation to find resolution and release. Our thoughts and actions are our offspring and after countless lives we have an entire nation of subjects, indeed slaves, yearning for satisfaction and, knowingly or unknowingly, to be free. 

As Christ the redeemer taught his disciples to commemorate his living presence through the Eucharistic form of communion, so Paramhansa Yogananda (and his lineage which includes Christ) has brought to us inner communion through Kriya Yoga. As Jesus gave the ritual of communion, so Babaji gives us the inner fire rite of kriya.

In his first book, “Science of Religion,” Yogananda explained the science of inner communion. It is based on the cessation of breath and the reactive process through a time-tested and safe method of breath and life control. Yogananda called Kriya “the airplane route” to God because it works on the source of our delusion rather than upon its effects.

As the storm of breath is quieted, we begin to "see." We become "seers." Just as when we see attractive objects of the senses we are drawn outside of ourselves, so too when we begin to “see” the far more attractive world of divine magnetism and the higher realms we are drawn inward. Our life current is drawn away from the body and into the subtle, astral body and then upwards towards the higher realms. It's like a cosmic game of "Musical Chairs." When the music of creation stops, the one without a chair (of attachment) rises. The song of creation is built atop the dance of breath and when breath ceases, creation vanishes and our spirit rises. This, then, is the shortcut to freedom. This is what happens at death and when meditation takes us into breathlessness, it is the little death. It is thus a preparation for the final exam.

It would be a mistake to suppose we reject God’s creation as evil. It is our identification with it that we seek to cauterize. It was God’s original intention that we enjoy the creation with God. How could God, bliss itself, bliss eternal, not wish to share that bliss? But the drama of creation could not sustain itself if there were no drama. There can be no drama without free choice and no free choice without good and evil to choose from. Drama is the métier of the play.

For the purpose of dissolving our identification with the play, Kriya seeks to dissolve our commitment to playing in it. The force and power of that commitment is a force that is called kundalini. Kundalini represents and in fact IS the deeply magnetic commitment we have made to our separateness from God. By dissolving this commitment, we unleash the power to reunite our life force with soul force. Again: we have been given a shortcut. Cauterize the “I” or ego principle and the rest falls away from lack of interest in playing, that is to say, in reacting!

This commitment to our “mortal delusion” anchors our consciousness in the body at the base of the spine. Every positive and kind thought releases some of its power upward toward the brain wherein resides the soul. But kriya practice is far more powerful than random thoughts of kindness and acts of virtue. By daily practice of kriya yoga, we ascend upward through the lights of the tree of life along the spiral staircase of wakefulness. Along this path lie the subtle energy centers of the astral spine known as the chakras. The chakras are both doorways out into the body (and into the world beyond it), and, when the life force is restrained and coaxed inward, they are doorways into the subtle spine where we experience true baptism into eternal life. In Chapter 6, verse 46 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna praises the yogi and yoga-meditation as the greatest and fastest path to Self-realization. 

When by daily kriya practice we begin to neutralize the ceaseless work of the breath, we find that our reactions to the world within and without begin also to become pacified. It's not just in meditation that we become more aware but also in activity. Nor is this process merely the result of self-control. We discover that being calm and centered in the Self is increasingly natural; less and less must we use our will to restrain our impulses. We begin to live in cooperation with grace.

As the inevitable karmic bombs of life explode, we remain centered; we live ever more fully by faith in God. "What comes of itself," Master would say, "let it come." The stale cheese of sense delights yields to the refined cheese of life-sustaining, eternal life (prana). This is what is meant by Jesus and other saviors when it is said that we achieve "eternal life." By living more by life force, living more AS energy centered within, we gradually slough off the snake-like skin of body-attachment. We become an angel of light and energy. Ultimately, we will pass through the portals of life and death with the same awakened consciousness. This is what is meant by the promise of our immortality: unbroken awareness and ever-new joy in that awareness.

In kriya we begin with the physical breath. This is like a door handle to the doors of the inner sanctum. The doors are the chakras and the inner sanctum is the astral spine, called the sushumna. The practice of kriya constitutes the true "fire rite" mentioned in ancient texts such as the Bhagavad Gita. With each "kriya" we offer the "inhalation into the exhalation" as Krishna describes in the Gita until they neutralize each other in the vision of God as prana, life energy.[7]

During the practice of kriya, the movement of life force around the sushumna acts like a magnet rotating around a wire and generates an increasingly powerful electro-magnetic force that loosens and dissolves countless vortices (“vrittis”) of commitment and attachment. But enough of words, “The time for practicing kriya has come.”

Blessings to you!

Swami Hrimananda

PS: See Chapter 26, "Kriya Yoga," of Yogananda's now famous book, "Autobiography of a Yogi." Ananda centers worldwide offer training and preparation for kriya initiation.

---

[1] Chintamani is a wish-fulfilling jewel in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

[2] Maya  refers to the material world of duality, emotions and thoughts which obscure the essential divine nature of all things.

[3] New Testament, “Acts of the Apostles,” Chapter 2

[4] “Dwa” means “second” and “yuga” means “age” or “epoch.” The second age in the ascending arc of 12,000 years began in approximately A.D. 1900 according to Swami Sri Yukteswar in his book “The Holy Science.” See also the profound treatise on the Yuga cycles: “The Yugas,” Joseph Selbie and David Steinmetz, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

[5] “In the beginning was the Word….” John Chapter 1. The “word” is the holy vibration of Spirit called by different names such as “Amen,” “Aum,” and so on.

[6] Chapter 26

[7] Bhagavad Gita, Chapter IV:29

Kundalini: Existential Ecstasy or Dark Depression?

(I tried to serialize this into 5 posts but Blogspot is somewhat inflexible, so, out of some frustration, I simply post now all five parts into one, too long, single post. Sigh!)

Part 1 - Demons and Angels

In spiritual literature and tradition, the concept of the "dark night of the soul" has the feel of a good dramatic story. Tales come to mind of demons threatening or attacking, or of violent convulsions of pain or fear overtaking the monk or nun who is innocently but determinedly focused on his or her devotions and life of service and humility. It conjures up medieval images of ghouls and just about everything that modern Catholicism and protestantism before that rejected with an embarrassment born of the scientific method. 

But, like or not, struggles with demonic forces are well established in the Christian tradition in the lives of such luminaries as Teresa of Avila, Padre Pio, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis. In the eastern traditions, the list is endless and the tales even more bizarre, indeed, fanciful. In both east and west, angels and devils figure prominently (and with a studied naturalness) in the lives of the greatest saints. No less than Buddha himself was subjected to a final temptation by Mara (the devil) just as was Jesus Christ. So often in fact do such entities appear, whether benevolent or malevolent, that to dismiss them seems folly to anyone sincerely walking the spiritual path. 

Paramhansa Yogananda explained that there was a period in his life when his legs were paralyzed due to taking on the karma of disciples. He said that astral entities (shaped like corkscrews and saws!) were attacking his astral legs. Yet, when he needed to appear in public and walk to the podium for a lecture, he could suddenly stand and walk, later to slump helplessly into a chair.

Books have been written in modern times on the terrors, trevails and prescriptions for those caught in the throes of "kundalini rising." Kundalini refers to that elemental and existential life force that is otherwise hidden, silent and sleeping in most humans. Oft depicted as a feminine goddess, she might first appear as a temptress to test the purity of heart of one who dares to summon her. If one passes her test she morphs into the goddess ready to lead the warrior to the promised land. But until that time, she is coiled around and guards a great treasure at the base of the astral spine of the human body: the secret of eternal life. 

For centuries, the quest to slay her and capture her treasure of immortality has inspired yogis of varying degrees of purity and clarity (kriya yogis, tantra yogis and many others) to give their all. 

By modern accounts of Kundalini's awakening power, you'd think that just about anyone who dares to practice certain esoteric yoga techniques or who engages in a life of intense spiritual practices runs the risk that Kundalini, part demon, part angel, will appear and wreak havoc upon one's body and one's life. 

Well, "no such luck!" Reports of her appearance are greatly exaggerated. Devotees and yogis have plenty of inner demons consisting of personal desires, fears, ambitions, and neuroses to wrestle with such that it will be a long time before the "real" ones come to dissuade us from the intensity of our devotions. Similarly, it will be a long time before Kundalini herself is stirred enough to cause an earthquake in the mountain of our inner spiritual life. 

In fact, it is sometimes said that we encounter such beings only in the final stages before our ascent into final union with God. I wouldn't flatly accept that statement without condition, but that is "what I've been told." Individual karma is so complex that, well, "you just NEVER know." (If a person had spent a prior lifetime(s) toying with summoning spirits through seances and the like, who knows what exacting boomerang effect might be called down.)

While this article isn't about the phenomenon known as possession (by astral entities), this, too, is a well attested to spiritual reality. In cases of possession, however, we are NOT talking about spiritually advanced souls; possession occurs to those with minds weakened by drugs or other debilitating conditions and habits. Fortunately it is extremely rare and nothing for most to be concerned about. While not provable either way, possession seems a more likely explanation for multiple personality cases than any other merely psychological or organic reason. 

Part 2 - What is Kundalini?

Returning now to our main subject -- Kundalini -- I have found the most practical and profound description of kundalini is one given to us by the founder of the worldwide network of Ananda communities (based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda), Swami Kriyananda, in his (now) classic text, "Art and Science of Raja Yoga." In that book, Step 12, Philosophy section, he writes, "Kundalini represents the entrenched vitality of our mortal delusion." Yet, as he continues, it is also the single greatest key to enlightenment! "Only by arousing this force from its ancient resistance to divine truth can the soul hope to reunite itself with the Spirit." Need I say: WOW?

With the above understanding, we can confidently state that there is no separate yoga called "kundalini yoga" because in the sense given above, the entire spiritual path consists of raising the Kundalini from her ancient sleep. The words and images may be specific to India but the reality of the spiritual path is universal. The soul's path to God consists of overcoming the hypnosis of our separateness from God (i.e., our commitment to ego) to reclaim our true, soul nature as a spark of God's infinite bliss.

The only distinction to be made between yoga precepts and other spiritual terminology is that the yogis define the steps of awakening in somewhat clinical terms. The masters of yoga describe reversing the normally outward flow of life force to the senses, tissues and organs back through the doorways of the energy centers (chakras) and into the spine wherein the increased energy summons forth from below the Kundalini from her sleeping state; thus roused and reunited with the energy in the spinal centers, the increased energy of the "river of life" begins its upward ascent through the astral spine to the brain. 

The saints of Christianity did not have the benefit of an unbroken tradition of the science of soul-awakening but they accomplished the raising of kundalini through devotion, self-mortification (ego-transcendence), selfless action and, of course, the all-powerful descent of grace: God's response to the sincere efforts of the soul. Not unlike the simple fact that the chemistry of a medical drug can function without the conscious will of the patient, so too will Kundalini respond to the sincere efforts of the devotee and to the summons of the resulting descending divine grace regardless of that devotee's knowledge of the clinical details or methods. Suffice to say, however, such knowledge is a great aid to one's efforts! [But just as placebo testing and faith healing demonstrate, belief, awareness and understanding of medicines can make a big difference in their efficacy. So, too, then with kundalini.)

As kundalini rises and touches upon each chakra, beginning at the lowest center, the coccyx (earth or "muladhara"), new insights are received (both personal and universal) just as in climbing a mountain you see farther and farther in the distance as you rise even as you gain climbing experience as you ascend.

Some awakening occurs long before Kundalini actually rises. Yogananda taught that even kind thoughts cause Kundalini to stir in her sleep, relaxing her coils even a tiny bit to send shafts of light upward toward the brain. The opposite occurs with selfish thoughts. Various yogic techniques, moreover, stimulate the chakras so as to magnetize them and help draw Kundalini upwards.

Certain techniques, found especially in hatha yoga, attempt to force kundalini to rise by focusing will power at or around the base of the spine and spinal centers. These have their place but the danger is with the delusion that will power alone can force her energy to stir and rise. Impure ego motivation will counter the pure energy which is Kundalini's rising nature.

In stories like the "Never Ending Story" (never-ending, because it is the story of each soul), it is a child (representing innocence) who must free the kingdom from the Nothingness. Or, in a story such as St. George and the dragon, or Theseus and the Minotaur, it takes a warrior with a pure heart to successfully slay the dragon of ego.

Part 3 - Frontier of Consciousness

Is, then, the image of Kundalini as a temptress or goddess simply a metaphor or is this "real?" Our western and left brain dominated minds are more likely to experience and describe that experience in terms of "energy." But maybe that's because we have a scientific view of quantum realities, that is, of "energies" that are not in organic form. 

I think it is safest to say that when one reaches the frontier of consciousness itself and it is no longer a question of one's own imagination and subconscious mind, and the realm of matter and the senses has been transcended, all bets are off. I think the question is actually a non-starter and not relevant to the realm in which the phenomenon actually occurs. 

Put another way, the fundamental matrix of reality IS consciousness, so the question has no ready-made answer. Patanjali describes the psychic power attributable to realization of the consciousness of "austerity" (one of the niyamas of the Eight-Fold Path) as the ability to commune with higher beings. As indicated above, there really cannot be a question regarding the existence of higher beings: whether "good guys" or "bad guys."

It is a typical pattern in the soul's evolution that we approach God through good works, prayer and meditation. Our efforts are rewarded with various and sundry inspirations and feelings of joy, peace, love and so on. We encounter, therefore, the more impersonal or abstract experiences of higher consciousness. Even the meditative experiences tend to be of a phenomenal nature (light, sound, energy, etc.)

As we progress, the impersonal begins to be personal. God may come to us in visions, in the form of our chosen deity (godhead), savior, guru etc. This distinction is not in cement and depends both on one's karma and, what is basically the same as karma, our basic temperament: whether devotional, mental (intellectual), or active (energetic). But the basic pattern is somewhat recognizable in the bigger picture of the lives of devotees. 

Part 2 - The Battle

The soul may have many of its own demons in the forms of innumerable material addictions: fame, name, romance, sex, security, wealth, health and the various forms of the seven deadly sins. These, however common, are almost trite in relation to the existential battle of which we speak here. It may indeed take more than one lifetime to overcome, say, alcoholism, but the means to do so lay largely, if not entirely, within the domain of the ego (though reaching for divine succor is recommended because spiritually elevating).

Think of the image of the cross: a vertical bar crossed by a horizontal one. The horizontal represents our relationship to the body, the senses, personality and the world around us. We can "get our act together" by self-effort (as I said above) reasonably well. Human virtue, though a necessity and a victory, is largely still of human making. The sense of personal doership remains upper most. It is "I" who conquers and controls my palate; my tongue; etc.

A wiser soul seeks divine guidance in all matters but even an atheist can work towards health, happiness and a balanced life of integrity.

The vertical bar however is the battle of the soul's ascent back to God. At the bottom lies Kundalini: the entrenched vitality of our mortal delusion. Built over incalculable lifetimes, our commitment to ego and separateness, personal likes and dislikes, protection and affirmation is deeply rooted. 

At the top of the head is the soul! Eternal, perfect, unchanging and blissful but otherwise unaffected by and not involved with ego's play and unending karma (so called "good" and "bad"). The vertical ascent up what is sometimes called the spiral staircase to heaven is the existential challenge, climbing Mt Carmel (Christianity) or Mt. Meru (Hindu). 

Ordinary, clinical depression is bad enough. It can lead in some cases to suicide: ego's worst "crime." But its roots are in the unending play of pleasure and pain, desire and fear, and limitless ups and downs of karma. 

Existential depression, on the other hand, is the discouragement we feel (albeit in ego consciousness) in the seemingly insurmountable task of achieving enlightenment. This, in various forms, is, more or less, what is meant by the "dark night of the soul." At one end of the darkness spectrum is the darkness that immediately precedes the moment of enlightenment. This is the "classic" form. How literal it is, I do not know. It certainly makes for good poetry or drama. 

Paramhansa Yogananda's most advanced disciple, James J. Lynn (Rajasi Janakananda) spoke of having his inner world of meditation disappear into total darkness. Used to, as he was, the bliss of meditation and recurring visions of various saints and masters, this sudden experience of the void, of "pure" emptiness, was upsetting; presumably frightening; and, perhaps if but for a moment, a challenge to his faith (he didn't give the details; he was a man of very few words). Then, all of a sudden, a small point of light was seen. It steadily came towards him (or got larger) until an ocean of bliss broke upon him as entered cosmic consciousness ("samadhi"). I don't recall if that was his first experience of samadhi or simply "an experience." 

More common forms of the dark night are periods in an advanced soul's life when the accustomed divine consolation (whether in the impersonal feeling form of peace, or light, or divine love or in the personal form of one's guru, e.g., Jesus Christ appearing in vision) has gone. It can be a time when the gentle touch of divine inspiration has fled in favor of suffering (mental, certainly but also physical, likely). It can take place during periods of persecution or illness; or, even a loss of one's faith, being tested like Job in the Old Testament. And, as mentioned earlier, it can be in the form of testing by dis-incarnate, evil entities mocking one's faith. Many great saints attest to periods of "darkness" when the light of spiritual consolation disappears to test their faith in God, guru, and the spiritual life and goal.

We ordinary devotees may face diluted versions of the above: loss (temporary or permanent) of one's spiritual vocation; humiliation or embarrassment by a fall from grace; loss of spiritual support from our spiritual colleagues; grief, or other loss; major illnesses and so on. All to the effect of robbing from our hearts our spiritual inspiration, our practices and perhaps everything spiritually with which we identified even for most of our life!

Part 4 - The Ascent

All of these echo the same challenges that all people face on the horizontal plane of their desires and fears. The difference is that on the vertical plane we are dealing with absolute (i.e. existential) realities, not fleeting realities born of the flux of duality. The soul's evolution through countless lifetimes seems never ending, but the soul's struggle to emerge from ego-constricted darkness is absolute and final (unless, for a time, we give up).

There is another cycle of the spiritual path worth mentioning even if it is somewhat off topic: that is when our spiritual "efforts end in ease." This is a phase in our spiritual growth when much of the hard work of overcoming ego and subconscious habits (the horizontal plane) has paid off and our focus on the vertical plane (eyes on the prize, as it were) is propelling us steadily upward. Is there any soul for whom the "ride" is steadily upward, with no dark night of the soul--even at the end? I simply don't know but I'm am willing to bet the salvation of your soul (joke) that there's no free ride.

The dark night, at least classically, comes nearest the end. As the last chakra before enlightenment is that which is the seat of ego, it is, at last, any and all sense of our separateness that must be offered up into the divine, infinite light. This is why I believe that the darkness must be faced by every soul. 

The ego, like Moses, who, though he led the children of Israel through the desert of purification, was not allowed into the Promised Land, must be "killed." Or, must BELIEVE he must be killed. The darkness must come, in other words. In God, in Infinity, and in the "end," nothing is lost and everything is gained. But the ego must not believe this; or put more correctly, the ego CANNOT believe this and must therefore face the prospect of its own extinction. This it simply cannot do without a combination of a supreme act of will and the faith born of divine grace.

Yogananda assures us, however, that nothing is lost. The basic survival instinct was not given us to be simply violated. God is, as the great Adi Shankyacharya of India declared: ever-existing (immortal), ever-conscious (omniscient), (ever-new) bliss. Nonetheless we must pass through the fires of seeming extinction that we be purified of the dross of ego. 

Once we have achieved true enlightenment (the experience of nirbikalpa samadhi), the rishis say the soul cannot fall again. BUT: much remains in past karma to unravel the knot of doership. In infinite consciousness, the soul can play as long or as short with this process, for time no longer has a bearing. Sometimes, Swami Kriyananda has told us, a soul remains in the play to aid disciples toward freedom. Patanjali even suggests that a freed soul ("jivan mukta") can inhabit or incarnate into multiple bodies to work out the past karma more quickly. Egads, eh?


Part 5 - So, Where's the Problem?

So now at last we come to the question of problems associated with the rising of the Kundalini energy. At the base of the human astral spine (and human body), we are relatively unconscious. Our consciousness is normally in our head! Our bowels and internal organs "down there" operate wholly without our conscious control and awareness. Kundalini, in any case, in her coiled state at the base of the astral spine, is described as asleep. 

Thus it cannot be a big surprise that when she stirs and even begins to rise, perhaps only haltingly, the effect can seem to be independent of--even at variance with--our conscious will and assent. And this is where the oft-reported problems may arise.

Many a great saint has had a sudden, and often rude, spiritual awakening. Even people who are far less than great saints, have moments of sudden awakening (known as "satori" in the Zen tradition). Illness, grief or other shock to one's ordinary life patterns can also shake kundalini from her sleep-like trance below. 

The resulting spiritual vision or experience(s) are not unlike hallucinating or being on an LSD (drug-like) "trip." Physical symptoms, psychic insights, loss of physical feeling in one's limbs, loss of appetite and on and on and on..............profoundingly disturbing and yet, alternating, with ecstatic insights and feelings.

All one's normal living (perhaps in marriage, family, business and community) is suddenly turned upside down. (Just as it is, in a way, if you have a tragic accident, say an auto accident or a stroke, and you are hospitalized. Your entire day-to-day life vanishes!)

Much has been made in spiritual literature about these intense spiritual experiences. I do not downplay or minimize any of them. But I do offer not a few caveats regarding them.

1. In my experience of the path of kriya yoga as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, encounters with disturbing kundalini like symptoms are infrequent, if not rare. This suggests to me the truth of what my teacher (and direct disciple of Yogananda), Swami Kriyananda, taught us: that the aid of a true guru combined with proven yoga techniques will minimize imbalances in the awakening and life transforming energy of kundalini.
2. In my experience with those who have come to the Ananda center here in the Seattle area, referred to us on account of their psychic disturbances which they have labelled kundalini symptoms, I have found that such persons typically have a smorgasbord of personal issues and imbalances, both psychic and organic.
3. Those true devotees who encounter wake-up spiritual experiences, even those which can shatter their normal day to day world, are generally equipped to process them in a positive way. 
4. Here is a list of imbalances that I have observed in practically all of the nearly one dozen cases (never among our own kriyaban members) that have come to our center for counsel:
1. Far too talkative (always about themselves), as if on uppers.
2. Far too enamored of their own spiritual stature
3. Zero devotion (except to ego) or humility
4. Far too enamored of psychic phenomenon
5. Often paranoid
6. Seemingly bi-polar, alternating between self-aggrandizement and self-loathing.
7. Likely to have engaged in extreme practices of various sorts: from binge eating; to intense fasting; to drug and alcohol abuse; poor diet; poor sleep habits; little exercise (or perhaps too much); underweight; nervous; 
8. Incapable of listening to or, in any case, accepting and implementing any common sense advice. Have answers for everything: "Oh, I tried that."
9. Generally have been prescribed medications for mental issues but too often have rejected their use.
10. Generally incapable of holding a job, having a committed relationship, or supporting a family.
11. Though they say they've come for help, it would seem they want someone (in some established spiritual role) to simply validate their spirituality.
5. In the cases above, the admixture of physical, mental and spiritual symptoms is so confused that, while I try to be open to their spiritual needs, what they really need most is to reinvent themselves from the ground up. Diet, exercise, serving others, prayer, devotion....in short, the basics (yamas and niyamas). For some, they shouldn't even attempt to meditate! For all, they need professional help: medical and psychological. Again, this is not an outright denial of their spiritual needs but almost always they are re-defining their physical and mental imbalances solely in spiritual terms, as if to avoid the work they should really be doing. In any case, as it relates to my own personal dharma, I can't help them anyway for the simple reason they don't listen. So it's not really a choice that I have to make (thankfully).

In conclusion, then, a person who can function in this world and carry his (her) responsibilities and who comes to a true (which is to say, balanced) spiritual path (for them being the right teacher, technique, and teaching), is very, very unlikely to find that his (her) spiritual growth and inner experiences are debilitating, confusing, or painful. 

Such a one may benefit from time to time by meeting with someone a little further along in order to share and discuss their progress and experiences. For the inner path can seem lonely and at times almost surreal (or, more likely, one's outer life will begin to seem surreal compared to the inner life!). It's helpful to have someone to share this process of stripping away the superficial self-identities and interests in favor of the deeper, more satisfying insights and consciousness of the awakening soul.

The spiritual path is nothing short than a wholesale revolution of values and reality but it isn't generally so shocking that one can no longer function. Swami Sri Yukteswar taught that the spiritual path is not an excuse to be irresponsible or dysfunctional.

An extreme psychic experience is most likely to come to one who lives at the extreme end of life's psychic spectrum. A person of extraordinary energy (especially mental or emotional energy) may trigger such an experience but if Patanjali (author of the famous "Yoga Sutras" -- the bible of meditative experience) is correct: our gain in inner, spiritual experience and consciousness comes specifically as the result of our increasing lack of reactiveness to life's circumstances. (Stanza 2, Book 1: Yogas chitta vritti nirodha: yoga is the neutralization of the reactive process.)

A true yogi has nothing to fear from the practice of yoga. Not, at least, if one uses common sense, proven methods, and seeks the guidance of a true path and true teacher.

Blessings to all on the Path of Ascension up the Tree of Life!

Swami Hrimananda

Joy or Sorrow? Cup half full, or, half empty? Eeyore or Tigger?

This evening we celebrate the Harvest (both moon and equinox) at Ananda in Bothell, WA. It's a popular and celebratory event led, this year, by the staff of Ananda Farms on Camano Island.

Tomorrow's Sunday Service theme revolves around intellect vs intuition. It has often been said that "There are two kinds of people in this world...." For those of us with a bent toward "eastern philosophy" and its doctrine of duality, we find this common dichotomy fairly useful, even if sometimes humorous and generally superficial. Such, then is the "half empty or half full cup" of life.

There are the Eeyore's of the world (the somewhat melancholy and doubtful donkey from the tales of Winnie the Pooh) and there are the Tiggers (the unfailingly bouncy, optimistic "tiger" in the same series).

We are often asked which are we? Which do we aspire to be? (One does imagine there are some other choices, but, well, never mind!)

But life, like you and I, are unendingly a mixed bag: both within our moods and consciousness, and, in the circumstances that befall us. We can no more banish sorrow than we can manufacture happiness by affirmation alone. Rather, the question becomes at what latitude do we normally live: at the frozen poles, the temperate zone, or the equator?

The great sage Patanjali, author of the "Yoga Sutras," the "bible" of meditation and higher consciousness, defined the state of yoga (unbroken joyful contentment and God-realization) as the result of a permanent state of being which is unaffected by the flux of nature and the flow of opposites (whether sensory or mental).

In medieval times, the cup was half-empty. The emphasis toward this state (whether in eastern or western philosophy) was on endurance; fortitude; forbearance; self-discipline; and faith. These were the means to overcome the exigencies of the flux of nature and life.

I have long been deeply inspired by a 20th century mystic who embodied the "path of the cross" so beautifully: Padre Pio. (A friend gave me a book on his life, though I have many times studied Padre Pio's life.) Having been raised a devout Catholic during the '50's, this "path" is familiar to me and not entirely off-putting. The cross of suffering that he accepted, he accepted with calm acceptance and joy. His sense of humor was delightful. His guru, Jesus Christ, enabled and epitomized this stoic path of even-mindedness amidst pain and suffering long ago for the benefit of the West. While Jesus is depicted historically as a "man of sorrows" how could he have attracted hundreds if not with what we all want: joy? Nonetheless, the path of the cross is a true path. 

"For us now the payment has been exchanged for calm acceptance and joy." These words from the Festival of Light ceremony which we conduct every Sunday,  in turn, reveal the new dispensation of truth that has dawned upon humanity at the beginning of a new age of awareness. The Festival of Light continues saying, "Thus may we understand that pain is the fruit of self-love, whereas joy is the fruit of love for God."

It is the ego that experiences physical pain, or the pangs of self-mortification and discipline. "The ego hates to meditate; the soul loves to meditate," taught Paramhansa Yogananda (author of "Autobiography of a Yogi"). Yogananda taught that Jesus' suffering on the cross, for example, was not for himself but for the ignorance and suffering of those who rejected him. That he experienced a moment of the "dark night of the soul" when divine consciousness fled from him on the cross shows not his spiritual weakness but the final exam each soul must face before the resurrection of his soul's realization that "I and my Father are One." He demonstrated this test for those who would follow him and take up their cross.

Yogananda stated that he came to proclaim this new dispensation of greater understanding. No longer does endurance and rock-like faith alone characterize spirituality in this age; no longer does that "way" inspire true devotees. Instead, the joy of seeking Him and sharing Him is the "way" for our times.

We Americans and the West are "tiggers:" optimistic; upbeat; eager to overcome obstacles that a better way of life might be found. "Eventually, eventually? Why not NOW?" This was how Yogananda delightfully described the American culture which he so admired.

But both "ways" are valid and true; each must be balanced and embraced. In the life of Swami Kriyananda, we see the joy of his soul overcoming tremendous obstacles such as physical pain and suffering, persecution, misunderstanding, financial hurdles and restrictions, and the obstinacy, ignorance and unwillingness of some who professed to support his public work and serve with him. Despite enormous challenges, Swamiji's productivity spiritually and creativity would have been the work of four Swami Kriyanandas in most people. Spiritually he helped inspire and uplift countless souls; creatively he authored many books, a new genre of music, and a worldwide network of intentional communities.

He explained to us that although Yogananda was known publicly as charming, magnetic, loving and a charistmatic spiritual teacher, to his close disciples he emphasized both attunement and the necessity to "carry one's cross." He himself took onto his body physical suffering for the sake of his disciples' karma saying that "astral entities" (Padre Pio might say, "devils" or "demons") were attacking him. He pointed out that the agony of the cross lasted three hours but that his own (and others') suffering lasted much longer.

Swami Kriyananda, thus, too carried many crosses throughout his lifetime. Yet, the grace of divine attunement to God and gurus manifested as light and joy, even-mindedness and energy, that outshone the darkness of challenges. To give birth to Ananda worldwide, he performed years of "tapasya": the redemptive and creative power of accepting suffering with faith and equanimity.

My "zen" way of putting this goes like this: "You can't get out alive!" Meaning: to achieve Self-realization, the ego must die. What seems like "death" to the ego is nothing more than the alchemy of transformation. In God, nothing really dies or is lost. (How can infinity exclude anything?) But we are made to believe that by the hypnotic power of the delusion of separateness (one of the definitions of "kundalini") we will "die." This is the final test: the dark night of the soul.

Infinity is BOTH-AND. We must untie the knots of past, bad karma AND find the joy of the soul as the guiding light of action.

Now: raise your cup and drink it to the lees and beyond!

Joy to you,

Swami Hrimananda!