Swami Kriyananda meditating with a group of monks.

Swami Kriyananda meditating with a group of monks.

In his booklet Secrets of Meditation, Swami Kriyananda offers as his second secret a vital key to our success in meditation: correct posture. Even though it is the very first thing a beginning meditator learns, alas, often it turns out that even after years of regular practice this important foundation of our “house of meditation” still requires some additional “cement,” or some “repair”. For only with that strong foundation – correct posture – will our “house of meditation” stand solidly, rising with higher and higher stories toward the sky.

Is your own posture truly solid? Or might it need some “repair”, too? I say “too” because some time back, after years of practice, I happened to see a photo of myself meditating… it was a humbling experience. My spine was bent, revealing nothing of Swami Kriyananda’s important secret:


The Secret of Meditation is….
sitting upright with a straight spine; feeling that your strength emanates
from your spine rather than from the muscles of your body.


Paramhansa Yogananda gives us further instruction for a correct posture, for both the Hong Sau and Kriya Yoga techniques. So let us check, point for point, if we really apply what he tells us to do.

  • Face east, sitting on a woolen or silk blanket
  • spine straight
  • chest out
  • abdomen in
  • shoulder blades together
  • chin parallel to the ground
  • upturned, cup-shaped palms rest at the junction of abdomen and thighs
  • eyes closed or half-closed, looking up, without crossing them

Applying all these instructions, you will feel that your body, though relaxed, definitely expresses energy, even power. Especially your spine (the center of our body)… observe how radiant it feels! At that point you may clearly perceive what Swami Kriyananda meant with, “Your strength emanates from your spine rather than from the muscles of your body.”

Now, still in meditation posture, just for fun, try for a moment not to apply Paramhansa Yogananda’s instructions. Slump a little. Observe how your “meditative house” immediately crumbles. That bent posture, unfortunately, is quite tempting and comfortable, more so than the straight spine which requires some effort. But ask yourself with a smile: “Could I ever rise to superconsciousness like that?” And: “Could I affirm in that posture, “I am divinely inspired”?

Let’s see, then, what techniques we can apply to check up on the foundation of our “house of meditation:” our posture.

Three Techniques

Set a watch or computer

Set a watch or computer, making it beep every 5 minutes. Each time you hear it, check your posture, asking yourself: Is my spine still straight? Is my abdomen in? My chest out? My shoulder blades together? My eyes uplifted? Do you feel the secret “that your strength emanates from your spine”?

It is hard to break the habit of a bent spine, once it has settled in (I speak from experience!). In that case you would actually do well to take a step backward in your meditation: humbly concentrate not on the subtle inner realms, but on establishing a correct posture. It might even be advisable to meditate less, because during longer meditations we easily slip back into our old pattern, the bent spine.

Here is a happy promise: changing that obnoxious habit will bless you with a new meditative life, just as happened with me. It has truly been a new meditative birth.

Film yourself

Film yourself as you meditate (your smartphone will do that). When you watch it later, you may receive a happy confirmation that your spine is indeed straight; or you may be surprised to see that you only thought it was. In that case, don’t despair. Just roll up your sleeves and let the necessary “foundation-work” begin. You may find encouragement and inspire with these words of Paramhansa Yogananda (Praecepta Lessons):

A bent spine is the enemy of Self-realization. Your mind is on the bent spine; you will be muscle-bound, and your electric currents will be busy with the muscles and flesh, and you cannot concentrate upon God. Practice this discipline over the body and your mind will be free to lift your consciousness from the body to the Infinite.

Meditate on various photos of Yogananda

Meditate on various photos of Yogananda seated in meditation, concentrating on the great inner strength each expresses. Emulate that strength in your own meditation, in your own posture. As you meditate, try to feel Yogananda’s power in your spine.

Yoga postures

The asanas can be a great blessing: they develop necessary back strength, as well as important spinal awareness. Both help our “asana” of meditation. Swami Kriyananda writes, in his book The Art and Science of Raja Yoga:

The hatha yogi should train himself to be deeply aware of the spine. The majority of the yoga postures relate in some way or another to the development of this spinal awareness, either by stretching and irrigating the spine, or by inducing a more centered consciousness.

For our purpose of developing the secret of “feeling that your strength emanates from your spine,” you may especially practice backward bends, such as Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana, or Salabhasana. Feel that it is the spinal energy, not the muscles, taking you into the pose and into the affirmation.

Daily Life

Practice keeping your spine straight all day long: at the table, at the office, while walking, standing, even in the car. Create a new and noble habit. Be a yogi throughout the day. Follow this advice of Swami Kriyananda, again from Raja Yoga:

Right posture is vitally important to the yogi. A bent spine impairs the flow of energy. It also cramps the breath, making it almost impossible to breathe deeply. Right posture, however, from a standpoint of yoga, is by no means the rigid stance of a soldier on parade. One must be relaxed even while standing straight. Indeed, until one can learn to keep his spine straight he will never know how to relax perfectly. Stand in such a way that you feel yourself centered in the spine, with the rest of your body suspended from the spine in much the same way as branches are suspended from the trunk of a tree. The chest should be somewhat (but not too much) out, the shoulders a little bit back, the head neither hanging forward nor drawn back too rigidly. If you stand perfectly straight, you will find that it takes very little strength to remain standing—only enough strength to maintain your balance.

In divine friendship,
Jayadev

16 Comments

  1. This is a wonderful article. Thank you Jayadev and Village web folks for putting it up. I immediately extracted the salient points and have little cue sheets for every place I will see them and can correct the posture. Swami Kriyananda only gave me one comment of unsolicited advice. He came up to me in the music studio where I was working at the time and said, “I’d like to see you stand up straight.” As the years passed, I’ve come to learn just how very important posture is for self-realization!

  2. one small adjustment I have found very helpful to good chest posture while meditating is to point elbows straight backwards. It automatically keeps chest up and spine straight. PVH

  3. I like to do meditation. By watching breath at my nostril. I try it half an hour in the morning and half an hour before going to sleep. I am not sure that my technique is right though. But I tend to lose interest in social activities and I am becoming forgetful. Could this have any connection? I like to learn correct technique for meditation. Will highly appreciate your help. Namaste.

  4. One physical impediment to keeping a spine straight can be lymphatic congestion, as I have noticed in myself recently. Apparently this condition of systemic toxic buildup is quite common, although better understood in Ayurvedic and other holistic traditions than in modern medicine. Because can create tightness and discomfort in the neck and shoulders–sometimes extreme–holding oneself erect in this state can, within seconds, become a painful, tiring exertion. Luckily, there are numerous fairly simple holistic measures one can take to prevent and/or address this condition–in addition, of course, to the Energization Exercises. I found this article and video very informative: http://lifespa.com/the-miracle-of-lymph/

  5. Thank you for this article. I meditate about 9 years and after three years of meditation I went back to my posture! Then me and my husband Pavel did AYTT at Village to learn more and to improve the posture. Since then I continue to learn more. Stress and pressure in big cities do awful things with people’s backs… And the article is very good to remind to people how it is important to sit up right for meditation. I know it on my own experience. There is no meditation if there is no posture… The advises are very valuable. I will translate the article an share it with my Russian Gurubais!

  6. Thanks very much for this great article. May God and Gurus bless you!

  7. I have found this extremely helpful indeed. Thank you very much
    I had been wondering if doing yoga postures may be unhelpful on this particular path.
    I have found this information encouraging.

  8. Thankyou for this article it was very informative as I have just started yoga it will help me tremendously

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