by Beth
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| Footsteps by Kenzo Okada* |
I. K. Taimni in The Science of Yoga defines Kriya Yoga as the last three of the five elements of Niyama (Tapas, Svadhyaya and Isvara-pranidhana) and states the purpose is “to eliminate or master all mental emotional disturbances that characterize the lives of ordinary human beings before entering the deeper aspects of the yogic path.”
This sounds like hard work and it is, but when described in a contemporary tone the process can feel more achievable. In The Secret Heart of Yoga Nichala Joy Devi offers a softer, heart-centered view:
“Kriya Yoga, or yoga in action, seamlessly weaves the teachings of yoga into our everyday world, becoming a template for our hands, heads and hearts to follow. When mixed in the correct proportions, action, thought and feelings harmonize completely, allowing our inner spirit and outer worlds to unite.”
This contemporary view is not so much a change in purpose but more a shift in tone towards encouragement to practice. As someone with both feet firmly planted in terra firma, the contemporary view feels do-able. After all, who among us doesn’t have responsibilities for partners, parents, children, pets, jobs, or our personal home environment? Embracing the contemporary view of Kriya Yoga provides a solid structure on which to build a lifelong practice in the midst of our lives as householders.
How can we do that? First, we get clear on the meaning and purpose of Kriya Yoga, and then we practice in ways that move us toward self-awareness, integrity, balance, moderation, and responsibility. We understand that these Niyama work in conjunction with each other at all levels all the time, but we can look at them one by one to better our understanding of the purpose of each.
Tapas
Taimni provides us with a traditional definition of Tapas as, “a class of various practices the object of which is to purify and discipline the lower nature under the control of an iron will.” I know that my “lower nature” does not respond well towards what it perceives as authoritarian dictates. To me they sound more like “you should nots,” as in you should not eat chocolate, watch television, or sleep in on the weekends. And quite frankly, I am pretty tired of “should-ing” on myself.
In The Heart of Yoga, Desikachar says, “Tapas does not mean penance or castigation, but is something we do to keep us physically and mentally healthy.” I do respond wholly to suggestions that are encouraging, empowering, and inspiring in tone. For me, Tapas means being regular and steady about my yoga practice, hitting the gym twice a week, and finding time to write. With regards to chocolate, television and sleeping in, the key is to understand how, when, and why I do these things, and then do them in moderation. Chocolate needs to be at least 72% cacao, and television choices are carefully selected comedies, food and travel shows. As for sleeping in on the weekends, I’ve chosen Sundays.
Here is a key question to contemplate: what would you need to change in order to apply self-discipline and self-care to your healing journey?
Here are a few specifics:
- Do you make New Year’s resolutions?
- If so, do you keep them or not?
- Do you exercise regularly?
- If so, what do you do and why? If not, what keeps you from doing so?
The key suggestions for practicing Tapas are asana and pranayama. If you are looking for some specific ideas, check these posts by Baxter and Nina (Video of the Week: Dynamic Downward-Facing Dog Pose and Friday Q&A: Recommended Pranayama Practices)
Svadhyaya
According to Taimni Svadhyaya refers to the study of yogic scriptures followed by a deep process of reflection and contemplation of their meaning to prepare the mind for knowledge from within. While I appreciate that view, I am more drawn to Desikachar who describes Svadhyaya as “the process of gradually finding out, where we are, who we are, what we are and so forth.” That I can take in down to my cellular level!
Some questions for contemplating Svadhyaya might be:
- How do you know what you know about yourself?
- What are your main methods for understanding your current stage of life and how you are moving through it?
- Where are you in the process of gradually finding out, where you are, who you are and what you are?
Yoga tradition holds that there are four stages of life: the student, the householder, the forest dweller, and the renunciate. I am in the Forest Dweller (vana-prasthya) stage of life, which the yoga tradition defines as ritual seclusion to prepare for spiritual realization. I’m an empty nester and “free-tired,” but ritual seclusion is not on my radar screen. I look down the trajectory of my life and see a lot of change, growth, and acceptance of what is, and I choose to use this stage of life to follow my passions of yoga and writing. If I can do that with self- awareness, integrity, balance, moderation, and responsibility, that will be enough spiritual realization for me.
Suggestions for practicing svadhyaya are Savasana and Yoga Nidra. Both practices encourage and expand a deep state of relaxation, which can lead to knowledge of the self on all levels: physical, breath/energetic, mind/emotions, bliss, and beyond. (See Working with the Witness.)
Isvara-Pranidhana
Taimni says Isvara-pranidhana is achieved when “the Reality within us is free from the fundamental illusion which is responsible for the limitations and miseries of our lives.” Desikachar offers us a contemporary view:
“The meaning of isvara pranidhana in the context of kriya yoga relates much more to a kind of attention to action: we place a value on the quality of action, not on the fruits that can develop out of it.”
We are encouraged to put our focus on actions done well and thoughtfully with self-awareness, integrity, balance, moderation, and responsibility, and then release from the outcome. This reminds me of the wonderful words I heard directly from the mouth of Sri Swami Pratyagbodhananda who said that any action we take has only four outcomes:
- What you expected
- Less than you expected
- More than you expected
- The unexpected
The question for contemplation he suggests is: which of these outcomes do you have control over?
A recommended practice is meditation. I’ve tried several meditation techniques but I always come back to Ajapa japa stage 1, part 1, which I found in the book A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Technique of Yoga and Kriya by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Here are simplified instructions:
- Sit with your spine comfortably aligned.
- Soften your chest and shoulders.
- Close your eyes or keep them slightly open with your gaze toward the floor.
- Start deep, rhythmic breathing with full awareness of the ingoing and outgoing breath.
- Begin visualizing your incoming breath moving downward from the throat to the navel and the outgoing breath moving upward from the navel to the throat.
- When the mind wanders bring it back to awareness of the breath and your visualization.
- Practice for as long as you are comfortable.
The contemporary view of Kriya Yoga, with its change in tone, remains firmly rooted in the yoga tradition with the same purpose: to allow our inner and outer worlds to unite.
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I really appreciate this explanation of Kriya Yoga. What I have been exposed to about Kriya, lead me to understand that the technique needed to be taught and passed on by a Master. As I do don't have a guru/master, I figured I was left out of this form of yoga. This article has given me a new understanding. Thank you.
You are more than welcome – I am delighted that you found this post helpful :-) Namaste!
While I appreciate your desire to create a more ‘mellow” approach to the yogic path through your post, I fear you will not achieve the ‘kaivalya” state that is the final goal of our yogic practices. Yoga is about far more than just ‘healthy aging”’, admirable as that is.
Taimni’s interpretation certainly is for an advanced student who wants to ‘cut the cord’ of bondage in this lifetime. If you give due consideration to the seriousness of five kleshas (that come later in the Sadhana Pada and how they bind us to identification with the ego, you see more clearly the need for a more exacting effort when you have had enough of physical incarnation.
Of course, we all have to start with where we are at and do the best we can, and I agree that Desikachar is more householder friendly and may initially feel more approachable. But if you’re attached to needing dark chocolate and weekly gym workouts and social engagements, you’re tying your consciousness to manifestation and preclude yourself from the self-surrender that Ishvara-pranidhana ultimately requires.
Thank you for your response. At the moment I am a karma yogi and part and parcel of this 5 sense material world while at the same time recognizing at my core that this is a 'relative reality.' If and when my environment, choices and actions need to be released or disappear due to illness or a changed condition or to aging, I will be the same realized being that I am with them around me at this moment.
this article is over-simplifying the sutra and this interpretation seems confusing. Besides, the yoga sutras are timeless, precise, logical and there is no role for contemporary or traditional views. We need to have a clear and practical understanding and how it can be applied to modern daily living. Householders can follow this path. There is no contemporary view in that. The meaning of a word is based on the subject and context. They can be viparyaya (illusion is false knowledge formed of a thing as other than what it is) or vikalpa (verbal understanding in regard to a thing which does not exist) A practical clarification from the yoga sutras sadhana pada, verse 2:1 by hariharananda aranya's commentary on Vyasa's briefing is tapas is giving up the pleasures of the senses meaning to not give into actions that produce momentary pleasures and bearing with the hardship that comes with taking that action is tapas. As A.G. Mohan explains, " tapas is to give up pleasure, to put up with the discomfort that arises in developing the opposing cycle of thoughts. For example, reducing food intake and controlling it, fasting, maintaining silence." Krishnamacharya , his teacher emphasized that asana practice is not of much use if you cannot control one's food habits. "Tapas is internal and without it there is no yoga because when we want to bring about change there will always be resistance and tapas is to cut this root and the path will not have any mental disturbance- It is not dealing with pain/discomfort of asana and involving extremes. The greatest tapas is pranayama. Svadhyaya is defined as mantra japa in the Sutras. Repetition of pranava or Om. The divine is represented through Om. It is direct means to change the cycle of behavior and thoughts through mantra japa. Japa is a way to cut off compulsive thinking.The other one is studying of scriptures leading to freedom. In Ishvarapranidhana, Mohan explains that the root cause is expectations and can be done with or without ishvara. It is the means to maintain mental steadiness and it can be done before the action itself is done. We can't escape the fruit of our actions nor does ishvara want this for us to give it up. The only way to find out is whether we have really done ishvara pranidhana is to observe the mind and the see whether we remain less disturbed/ undisturbed by the results of it. So the benefits of kriya yoga in daily living will help reduce hyperactivity (rajas) and inertia(tamas) of the mind. A preponderance of lightness of body and brightness of mind (sattva) can be worked upon, weakening and dissolving the kleshas and leading to kaivalya as the above person had mentioned.
So to start this whole process, an example of putting up with the discomfort of not having chocolate with the the help of japa and giving up the expectations of pleasure arising out of having your chocolate at 72% cacao could be a self awareness practice. The same would go for television shows, sleeping etc., clearly, bottom line is : what are you doing and why?
Thank you for adding your comments to this post.
Thank you for your comments. And the bottom line you offer: "what are you doing and why?" is a key point to base any and all action and/or choices on for all of us.
I must admit that facing my self-indulgence, self-preoccupation, and egotism was a major step toward peace, balance, and love. What, after all, is the deepest intention of my soul?
Very interesting and informative article about Kriya yoga
…..Keep sharing the articles and thank you for sharing the info.Kriya yoga