Have you ever heard the story where Indra, king of the Gods, gets turned into a pig? If you haven’t, let me quickly brief it for you. Basically, Indra got turned into a pig for his bad karma, and he was sent to earth in his swine form. He was expected to be frustrated and beg for the curse to be reversed, as any god would consider such a curse to be disrespectful.
However, the sage who had cursed him and the other gods were shocked to find him happy as a flower on earth. The angels begged him to come back, but happy with his new pig family, he just said, “No, I’m good.” He only rediscovered his godliness when the other gods tore up his pig family one by one, and then he laughed at his stupidity earlier.
Sound familiar? The Purusa, the Self, is the same. This “Self” is none other than you, me, your family, and your friends. We’ve forgotten our divine nature and are caught in materialism, better known as Maya. And how can we be godly again? We need Kriya Yoga to learn this. But what is Kriya Yoga? The Yoga Sutras say it’s surrendering the self to God by giving up human desires. Let’s learn more about it.
Why Kriya Yoga?
The Sadhana Pada warns you of the obstacles in the journey of spiritual growth and how to overcome them (hint: it involves kriya yoga meditation). The obstacles are as follows:
- Avidya (ignorance) – When the king of the gods forgets about Heaven and only thinks about his life as a temporary pig. When you ignore your nature as a pure being and live a life of materialism.
- Asmita (egoism) – The moment you start seeing yourself as a part of the material world. You forget your existence beyond it and are caught in Maya.
- Raga (attachment) – Becoming attached to your organs, your body, and your mind and finding pleasure through them. When you find yourself doing this, that means you’re lacking inner happiness.
- Dvesha (hatred) – The opposite of Raga, when you start detaching yourself from painful situations and running away from your problems.
- Abhinivesha (clinging to life/fear of death) – By far, the strongest of all; we’ve got a built-in reflex for self-preservation. Anything that poses a harm to our life, we run away from. We forget that there’s life beyond this one, too. And you don’t have to go all out and run in front of bulls like Imraan from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to let go of this fear—kriya yoga is a much safer option!
Yoga kriya teaches us how to control the mind and fight off these negative emotions. By constantly practising yoga kriya, we can also overcome the core struggles of humanity. When you practice kriya yoga daily, it will become second nature for you, and you won’t feel so stressed all the time. Let’s understand the basis of Kriya Yoga.
The Pillars of Kriya Yoga Meditation
Your inner energy is like a spoiled child, chaotically running around. Kriya yoga helps you calm this child and make him sit quietly. It’s a method of concentration that helps you master your uncontrollable inner energy.
Remember the pillars of Kriya yoga we talked about earlier? It’s time to learn more about them and see how we can include them in our daily routine!
1. Tapasya, Self-Discipline
This is the first kriya step: learn how to control your deYoga Kriya study isn’t about literature or academics; it’s studying to free the mind and free yourself. Books that teach you the path of moksha. With these books, we learn introspection and how to find our purpose. Eventually, our earthly purpose is the same as Indra’s pig form; balancing out our karmic records.sires and urges before they can control you. You know how the car drives where the driver guides it; the driver doesn’t release the steering wheel while driving. In the Purusa car, the mind is your steering wheel, and the body is the engine. The moment you let go of your mind, you’re likely to crash on the road!
When your mind tells you to keep scrolling through your phone late into the night, you tell it, “No, we have to sleep on time. Put it away.” Your mind tells you, “I don’t want to do pranayama; it’s boring,” and you tell it, “No, it’s a healthy practice, and it’s good for the body. We are doing pranayama.” And you do pranayama. That is tapasya. Your mind tells you it doesn’t want to exercise, but you tell it, “No, we are joining Habuild’s 14-day free yoga class online.” Sounds a lot like Tapasya!
2. Svadhyaya, Self-Study
Yoga Kriya study isn’t about literature or academics; it’s studying to free the mind and free yourself. Books that teach you the path of moksha. With these books, we learn introspection and how to find our purpose. Eventually, our earthly purpose is the same as Indra’s pig form; balancing out our karmic records.
You know how a Raja Hans only drinks the milk, filtering it even after it’s been mixed with water? You’re the Raja Hans looking for valuable knowledge and meaningful lessons to get to your pure state. Knowledge teaches you to stay calm in arguments; arguments only muddy your mind with unnecessary thoughts which makes you lose sight of the true Self.
3. Ishvara Pranidhana, Devotion to God
Simply, devotion to a higher authority, whether it is God, the Universe or just Nature. Devote yourself to whatever superior being seems right to you. Another thing that gives the stamp of approval to your kriya yoga practice is a guru’s blessing. A guru is simply a guide showing you the path on an unknown road. Their approval enhances the validity of your yoga kriya practice and assures your destined path.
Kriya Yoga for Cleansing
We’ve learnt a lot about kriya yoga, but we’ve still not understood how it cleanses our mind so that we can return to our pure state. Let’s understand with visualisation:
Imagine a lake; when there’s agitation, or a stone is thrown into the lake, there are ripples and muddiness. Your mind is also like a lake: every new emotion and feeling emerges as a wave or a ripple in your mind: waves of love, anger, hatred, joy, jealousy and so on.
Because of the ripples and muddiness, you can’t see the bottom of the lake. Your true self lies at the bottom, and you forget this when you’re bothered by something. The main focus of Kriya Yoga is to fight off these negative waves with positive emotions.
Sudden waves of feelings, like anger at your husband or frustration with the heat in cause, ripple in your mind’s lake. Every emotion brings a new wave of feeling in your mind, so too many emotions at once can make your mind foggy. When you practice discipline and devotion regularly, your mind will learn to automatically create positive waves in reaction to negative feelings. This brings you mental clarity and stability.
How do positive waves work? If your washing machine breaks down on laundry day, you’ll be very angry. But if your child walks in at that moment with a smile on their face (not linked to any shaitaani, of course), you instantly smile and forget about the machine.
This was an example of unintentional kriya yoga. If you start using the waves on purpose and bring up love and joy in times of distress, you can keep in touch with your true self and face negative emotions like a boss.
The Homebound Inward Journey
With all you’ve learned in this article, take another step on your spiritual journey. It’s not just renewal; it’s a revival of the Purusa. It goes beyond this life and helps your journey in the next one too. Begin self-discipline, and you’ll find yourself introspecting.
When you reflect on your life, you’ll feel gratitude, and you can direct it towards a higher deity. Under such devotion, you’ll become even more disciplined, and that’s how the Kriya Yoga cycle continues.
Kriya yoga meditation is a very rewarding journey that helps you connect your soul to your body. It takes away your stress and brings you unmatched peace of mind. And you know that constantly nagging Maya that keeps you trapped in physical things? You won’t have to worry about it anymore! When you join Habuild’s 14-day Free Yoga Classes Online, you get a level of discipline that will remind you of your school days—but in a fun and healthy way, no scolding!
