Kriya Yoga, the Path to Liberation

Word Meaning

• tapaḥ — penance, austerity, purifying activities, asceticism, meditation through breath control;
• svādhyāya — study, the study of scriptures, self-study;
• īśvara-praṇidhānāni — surrender, love, resignation to God;
• kriyā-yogaḥ — philosophy and practice of Kriya Yoga;

Translation

Meditation, self-study, and surrender to God, together, constitute Kriya Yoga.

Commentary by Shri Lahiri Mahashaya

Now, it has been instructed how to practice the discipline of yoga. But in reality, one must learn it from the guru preceptor.

Tapah [self-discipline], svadhyaya [self-study], and ishwara pranidhana [surrender to God, the Lord] is Kriya Yoga. Listening to pranava or omkara [the om sound] spontaneously or naturally, chanting it, becoming established in the true nature of God, and offering all activities to God — such an attitude and experience that everything is being done by Him — is Kriya Yoga.

Metaphorical Explanation

After clearly describing the goal of yoga in the Samadhi Pada, Sage Patanjali instructs how to reach this goal in the Sadhana Pada — the steps of practice. Practice brings perfection. In brief, the sage emphatically explains that Kriya Yoga is the path to perfection, realization, and liberation.

What Is Kriya Yoga?

Sage Patanjali gives the most precise and practical definition of Kriya Yoga. In the entire text of the Yoga Sutra, there is no mention of any other system of yoga except Kriya Yoga. My guru preceptor emphasized repeatedly that Kriya Yoga is the yoga that God revealed to humankind through creation. It is the yoga that is described in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 4:1), the yoga that the Lord taught to Vivasvan.

Sage Patanjali defines the vast subject of Kriya Yoga with only three words: tapas, svadhyaya, and ishwara pranidhana. The integration of these three practices is Kriya Yoga.

The human mind and memory are complex, restless, conflicting, and infested with strong likes and dislikes. The path of Kriya Yoga acts to filter, polish, and discipline the impure mind, and ultimately, to make it an effective tool for realization.

Tapas

We will explain tapas from various different perspectives. Tapas is derived from the root verb tap, which means “to shine,” “to blaze,” “to be hot,” “to suffer,” “to mortify the body,” or “to burn.” In other words, tapas is the process through which one can burn all impurities and make the mind shine with purity, knowledge, and love.

As a horse trainer disciplines the horse to be useful in riding, a yogi trains the body, mind, senses, and breath through different processes known collectively as tapas. Tapas also makes the mind free from agitation while passing through the dualities of life, such as heat and cold, hunger and thirst, success and failure, happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain, honor and dishonor. When a person is blessed with a healthy body as well as a pacified and purified mind, intellect, and ego, one can attain the state of union.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 17, “Yoga of Classification of the Three-fold Faith” (verses 14–19), there is an elaborate description of tapas (penance) that describes penance of the body, speech, and mind. Any method the yogi uses to discipline these three divine gifts is under the domain of tapas. Let this body be kept healthy and active. Let it be used for one’s own evolution and to serve God’s creation.

Tapas also indicates the generation of an inner fire to burn the ego and the seeds of karma. In both the body and the universe, there are seven planes of existence: bhuh, bhuvah, svah, maha, jana, tapah, and satya. These seven planes correspond to the seven chakras. Tapah is the ajna chakra. When one introverts the restless mind, focuses on this sixth chakra, and becomes absorbed in soul consciousness, one performs tapas.

Tapas is not penance or austerity in the ordinary sense; it is the breath by which body heat is maintained. Tapas means temperature. Through every breath, the body temperature is preserved. The breath is inhaled and exhaled by God’s living presence. This is karma (action). Through this karma, specifically pranakarma, jnana (divine knowledge) comes. Tapas is the penance and austerity that brings strict discipline into one’s life.

Svadhyaya

Svadhyaya has multiple meanings. It means the study of the Vedic scriptures and chanting mantras, such as the Gayatri Mantra, in a prescribed manner. Another definition is the study of oneself. The term svadhyaya is defined as sva, which means “self,” and adhyaya, which means “study” — self-study. One should study one’s own life through self-analysis and self-introspection.

People read spiritual books, but in fact, this is not spiritual study; spiritual study is to study one’s own self. To do this, one must sit silently and perceive the presence of God in the crown of the head.

Tapas and svadhyaya are very closely connected. In the Bhagavad Gita (17:15), while describing vocal tapas (austerity in speech), the Lord spoke of svadhyaya-abhyasanam, the practice of svadhyaya, as an essential limb of vocal tapas.

How does one practice svadhyaya? In tapa loka, in the plane of the ajna chakra, in soul consciousness, one should practice svadhyaya. The effort to know oneself is the real study; otherwise scriptural studies are only theoretical understanding. Remaining in tapa loka and having self-inquiry is real svadhyaya.

Ishwara Pranidhana

Among all the six branches of Indian philosophy discussed in the Introduction, the philosophy of yoga is where Ishwara is first introduced into spiritual and philosophical life. Ishwara is the Supreme Lord with sovereign authority to rule and control.

Pranidhana means “surrender,” “taking refuge,” or “bowing down.” Ishwara pranidhana is dynamic surrender to God: offering gratitude in every breath. Pranidhana is defined as pra, “full or complete”; ni, “under”; dhana, “placing or placement.” Therefore, pranidhana is the spiritual art of subordination to God and freedom from ego and pride.

Kriya Yoga integrates these three practices simultaneously: tapas, the path of action; svadhyaya, the path of knowledge; and ishwara pranidhana, the path of devotion and love. Thus, Kriya Yoga is the synthesis of karma, jnana, and bhakti — action, knowledge, and devotion.

In each human being there are three principal organs: the hands, the heart, and the head. Hands represent activity, the heart represents emotion, and the head represents the intellect. A pragmatic integration of these three H’s — hands, heart, and head — is the art of living a successful life of perfection, which is achieved through the practice of Kriya Yoga.

In the Yoga Sutra, ishwara pranidhana — surrender to God — has been emphasized more than “yoga” itself. (See sutras 1:23; 2:32; 2:45.)

This is Kriya Yoga, the path of soul culture for your own evolution and emancipation.

Text: The Yoga Sutra of Sage Patanjali — with commentary by Shri Lahiri Mahashaya and metaphorical explanations by Paramahamsa Prajnanananda.