Dear Sir,
Can the process of Kriya-pranayama be described as decompressing of compressed energy? Since we cannot decompress it during just one time, we are decompressing it slowly, slowly by doing Kriya-pranayama?
Can we reach liberation within one lifetime with Kriya Yoga?
Regards.
—Aasheesh , India
DearAasheesh,
Yes, Yogananda emphasized that through Kriya Yoga you can reach liberation in this lifetime.
Your question is an interesting way of looking at the process of Kriya Yoga. Our inner energy is compressed, so to speak, by countless small vortices in the spine, which block the free and powerful flow of energy to rise. When energy rises fully from the base of the spine to the spiritual eye, enlightenment is the result.
The energy in the spine will indeed gradually get bigger and bigger until it expresses cosmic energy. A normal human being, Yogananda explained, is like a 50-watt lightbulb, while Kriya Yoga produces, finally, billions of watts in the spine.
He writes in his Autobiography of a Yogi: “The body of the average man is like a fifty-watt lamp, which cannot accommodate the billion watts of power roused by an excessive practice of Kriya.”
So yes, you can describe the process of Kriya Yoga as decompressing our inner energy.
It also “decompresses” our soul, which for now is cramped into a tiny little body. Your soul will expand into the cosmos, just like in the fairy tales, where a spirit is caught in a bottle, but when it is opened, the spirit is free again.
All the best on your journey,
Jayadev
