Ask Ananda’s Experts
Questions and answers about meditation, yoga, the spiritual life, and more

Nayaswami Savitri

Ananda Village

Answer

Dear Aasheesh,

You are confusing the PHYSICAL spine (vertebrae, spinal cord, etc) with the ASTRAL (energy) spine, where the chakras are located. They are different and located in different places and dimensions!

The Astral Spine is the place through which you should be "running" prana (life-force) when you are practicing Kriya Yoga. It can be imagined as a hollow tube, about an inch and a half in diameter, running very straight up from the base of the spine (Muladhara or 1st chakra area) going through the middle (central core) of the body (which places it mostly in front of the S-curve of the physical spine).

Tyagini Dharmadevi

Ananda Los Angeles

Answer

Dear Cyril,

Thank you for your question! Paramhansa Yogananda tells us that Jesus did practice and teach his disciples a form of Kriya Yoga. What the differences are (if any), I do not know.

We read in the Bible about how the disciples were purified and blessed sometime soon after Jesus' crucifixion, when the Holy Ghost comes to them. This purification was a direct blessing from the Guru to his disciples.

Nayaswami Pranaba

Ananda Village

Answer

Dear Cyril,

The important emphasis here is that we need to practice Kriya with devotion. Paramhansa Yogananda once told a disciple, “Kriya plus devotion works like mathematics. It cannot fail.”

Swami Kriyananda offers this suggestion: “Try to bring your practice of Kriya as quickly as possible to that point where the technique itself is only a vehicle for this sense of offering your whole energy and being to the divine, where it becomes a devotional and joyous practice.”

Chanting is also a powerful tool to awaken deepening devotion. Try to tune into a few chants from Paramhansa Yogananda or Swami Kriyananda, taking them deeper and deeper until you are drawn into supercosnsciousness, or at least uplifted in your awareness. In this way your heart will be purified.

In divine friendship,
Nayaswami Pranaba

Nayaswami Asha

Ananda Palo Alto

Answer

Dear Carina:

The only meditation I have studied and practiced is Kriya Yoga as taught at Ananda. Kriya to me includes not just the technique learned through initiation after a year or so of preparation, but also the whole approach to spiritual life brought to the West by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Puru (Joseph) Selbie

Ananda Village

Answer

Dhivakar,

Your question is really two questions in one. One question is: Should I practice the teachings of sahaj Marg or of Yogananda?

The second question is: What is the difference between Raja Yoga and Kriya Yoga?

The answer to your first question is found on a very personal and individual basis. Different teachings, even though similar, even though originating from the same general tradition (yoga), feel different or — as one hears — have a different, subtle vibration. You need to spend time with each teaching, and ideally, with the teacher or diciples of the teacher, in order to decide which teachings feel best to you.

Nayaswami Devarshi

Ananda Village

Answer

Indeed, that is one of the most wonderful benefits of Kriya. According to our line of Kriya masters, the practice of Kriya burns up many seeds of past karma, often before they even have the chance to make an appearance in our lives. Those 'seeds' are actually vrittis, or vortices of energy in the astral spine, which are borne of past actions, desires, thoughts, etc.

Nayaswami Devarshi

Ananda Village

Answer

Dear Friend,

There isn’t a formal connection between the two teachings, but of course they are related, in two significant ways.

The first is that Paramhansa Yogananda and Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa were both from Kolkata. Even though they never met, Yogananda had a deep love and fondness for Ramakrishna, often visiting the temple at Dakshineswar, and meditating there for many hours at a time.

Nayaswami Jaya

Ananda India

Answer

I think most kriyabans experience a tug-of-war between the outward pull of responsibilities and an inner call to maintain attunement and a regular sadhana. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Try to keep God and Gurus in your consciousness during your outward service. Serve them through whatever it is you are called to do. Include them and ask for their guidance in your outer duties. Let them work with you and through you as your partner during the day. In other words, don’t make too rigid a separation between your inner and outer life.