Often I tell Kriya Yogis, particularly those who are math-challenged, that there are only two ‘mathematical equations’ one needs to memorize in order to achieve success on the path of Kriya.
“Twenty-five percent of spiritual success comes by the devotee’s effort.
“Twenty-five percent comes by the Guru’s effort on his behalf.
“And fifty percent comes by the grace of God.”
—Paramhansa Yogananda
Whenever I see myself or others bogging down spiritually, this formula will invariably help me get back on track.
Keep in mind that the devotee’s 25% part means 100% of his or her effort. How we apply that effort will determine results we get from Kriya Yoga, or from any spiritual practice.
I had a very interesting experience several years ago that served as an analogy for Yogananda’s formula for spiritual success. I was on pilgrimage in India with a good friend.
One morning we went to a remote bank of the Ganges to practice Kriya Yoga. We had a wonderful meditation in a quiet setting. There wasn’t another soul around – very unusual in India!
After meditating, I slowly walked into the Ganges to bathe, remembering that it is a very sacred river with the power to wash away one’s sins.
(I also remembered Yogananda’s wry comment that, for many people, their sins are awaiting when they come out of the river, much like their clothes hanging in the trees on the river’s bank!)
I had gone about twenty feet into the water, which was flowing very calmly at that place, when suddenly I stepped into quicksand.
The reason I’m not using an exclamation point here is because these types of nature experiences seem to happen all too often to me. I’ve been rescued by helicopter from a mountain-climbing accident, caught in a tornado, struck by lightning, etc., etc. In fact, this was the second time in my life that I’ve dealt with quicksand.
Because of that, my experience-based reaction was simply, “So, Divine Mother, what fun are you going to have with me today?”
As it often happens with quicksand, my feet struck solid ground after sinking about thigh deep. The water was up to my chest, lapping gently. I was in no immediate danger, but anyone with a quicksand experience would know that I was very, very stuck.
No matter how hard I tried to move, my legs and feet refused to budge.
It’s a very good analogy as to what brings most people onto the spiritual path.
People will sometimes face impossible long-term obstacles, only to be moved to utter despair, when at the end they fail in spite of their very best efforts. Often that is what turns them toward seeking God and the help of a Guru.
Fortunately, I had a ‘guru’ in the form of my dear friend Vidura, who was standing safely on the solid bank, free from the ‘delusion’ in which I was completely stuck.
I called him over, showed him a safe spot to stand, and asked him to reach over and help me.
Even with Vidura pulling on my hand with all his might, it still took my best effort and cooperation with my ‘guru’ to get me out.
If I had casually laid out my hand for Vidura and said lazily, “I’m ready, guruji (to continue the analogy), you can now save me,” or if I had struggled merely on my own, I would still be stuck in that quicksand.
It is the very same for success on any spiritual path, but especially the path of Kriya Yoga.
It takes our very best effort, and the help of a Guru who is on safe ground and on very good terms with God. And also, importantly, it takes our willing cooperation with the Guru’s efforts to get out of our delusions.
This cooperation takes the form of following the discipline and practices the Guru gives us, and doing them just as he teaches.
It also means attunement and devotion to the Guru, which make us receptive to his grace, love, and help.
And it takes our deep devotion and self-offering to God.
Any time you feel yourself bogging down spiritually, practice introspection and apply Yogananda’s mathematical equation for spiritual success.
Ask yourself:
“Am I making enough effort to get out of my trouble? Is it the right kind of effort?
“Am I following the teachings of my Guru to the best of my ability, and am I cooperating with his efforts on my behalf?
“Am I depending too much on my own efforts, and not opening myself enough to the grace of God and the help of the Guru?”
Then remember Yogananda’s other important ‘equation:’
“Kriya Yoga plus devotion works like mathematics. It cannot fail.”
Then ask yourself again:
“Am I doing everything in my life with a sense of devotion and self-offering to God?”
When you remember to apply Yogananda’s two simple equations, you will inevitably find the ultimate success: Self-realization and freedom in God.
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On another subject: We are trying to help one of our Ananda members from Mexico City to visit Ananda this summer. He’s a very fine man who teaches music at a school in Mexico City, and isn’t able to afford the air fare to California. If anyone would like to donate their frequent flyer miles to help bring Allejandro to Ananda Village this summer, please contact me by clicking on the “Email Devarshi” link at the top right of this page. Thank you!
This article covers a technique, Khechari Mudra, that is one of the most unusual in yoga and therefore a bit too strange for some people. I’m posting it here because there is quite a lot of confusion around this technique, and what Paramhansa Yogananda taught about it.
Khechari Mudra (also spelled Khecari or Kechari) is an ancient yoga technique that is used in the practice of Kriya Yoga as taught by Yogananda and his lineage of Kriya gurus. It has also been practiced by yogis and meditators for perhaps thousands of years, due to its wonderful benefits.
Yogananda privately recommended Khechari Mudra to some of his disciples, but only occasionally mentioned it publicly. He explained that he was teaching in a country where yoga was already strange enough — without also telling people about a yoga technique where the tongue is turned upward and placed into the nasal cavity, above the soft palate!
It’s important to remember that techniques alone can’t give one enlightenment or liberation. Yogananda said about Kriya Yoga:
Kriya plus devotion works like mathematics. It cannot fail.
Right attitude, devotion, and attunement to the Guru are more important than an over-reliance on exotic techniques such as Khechari Mudra. However, Khechari can be an aid to deeper meditation when done with the right attitude.
Yogananda didn’t fully describe the technique in his writings and lectures — it is explained in The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, by Swami Kriyananda.
In the ninety years since Yogananda began teaching in the West, unusual yoga practices, such as Khechari Mudra, have become more well known. Many people are confused about whether Yogananda even recommended Khechari. In fact, Yogananda both wrote and spoke about Khechari Mudra.
Yogananda wrote about Khechari in an early version of his home study course, published in 1926. The “little tongue” that he mentions below is the uvula, the soft tissue that hangs from the roof of the mouth, at the back of the throat:
This Kundalini moving brainwards, and helped by the union of nerves in the tip of the tongue and the “little tongue,” and certain centers in the nasal cavity, brings about the secretion of a fluid with union of the Life Energy and Cosmic Energy.
This secretion of nectar and union of energies do not involve any loss, but mean immense spiritual realization.
He also gave a similar explanation once to Swami Kriyananda:
Sex seems pleasant to you now, but when you discover the joy of real inner union, you will see how much more wonderful that is.
This union can be achieved physically also, by what is known in yoga as kechari mudra—touching the tip of the tongue to nerves in the nasal passage, or to the uvula at the back of the mouth.
—Conversations with Yogananda by Swami Kriyananda
In an early article Yogananda described one of the benefits of practicing Khechari Mudra:
It draws energy from the cerebrum and medulla by connecting the tip of the big tongue with the little tongue (uvula).
He gave a more esoteric explanation in a lecture in India during his visit there in 1935-6:
While practicing Kriya… a divine nectar-like current flows from the sahasrara (chakra, or spinal center, at the top of the head).
Through the performance of Kechari Mudra, touching the tip of the tongue to the uvula, or “little tongue,” (or placing it in the nasal cavity behind the uvula), that divine life-current draws the prana from the senses into the spine and draws it up through the chakras to Vaishnavara (Universal Spirit), uniting the consciousness with spirit.
The entire body is thereby spiritualized and energized. As a result, a perceptible glow may emanate from the body. —Mejda: The Family and the Early Life of Paramahansa Yogananda by Sananda Lal Ghosh, pp. 279-28
As you can see in Yogananda’s lectures and writings, he described the different stages of Khechari: first touching the tongue to the uvula, or “little tongue” at the back of the mouth, and then placing the tongue into the nasal cavity above the soft palate.
In The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, Swami Kriyananda gives a more complete explanation of Khechari:
Kechari Mudra, “the tongue-swallowing” technique that I taught in Step Five, creates a cycle of energy in the head that generates enough magnetism to draw great amounts of energy from the universe around you.
This energy is actually experienced in the mouth as a slightly sweet, and very pleasant, taste that has been described (accurately, in my experience) as resembling a mixture of ghee (clarified butter) and honey.
This is what is known in various mystical writings as “the nectar of the gods.”
Kriyananda goes on to explain:
The positive and negative energies in the tongue and nasal passages (or uvula), when joined together, create a cycle of energy in the head which, instead of allowing the energy to flow outward to the body, generates a magnetic field that draws energy upward from the body and from the base of the spine to the brain.
It is said that the tongue turns back of itself in samadhi. The assumption of this mudra helps to hasten the advent of deep spiritual states of consciousness.
The difficulty for most people is that the frenulum, the membrane under the tongue, isn’t flexible enough to allow the tongue to reach so far back and up. Over time the frenulum can be gently stretched to enable one to practice Khechari Mudra.
Yogananda was extremely vocal with his disciples that under no circumstance should one try to cut the frenulum, as some unscientific and ill-advised “teachers” recommended.
It is possibly out of such concern that certain teachers in Yogananda’s lineage are afraid of discussing Khechari Mudra. But there are some very simple exercises which enable one to gently stretch the frenulum and tongue enough to practice Khechari.
How did Yogananda recommend adding the practice of Khechari to one’s meditation and Kriya practice? Gradually, as Swami Kriyananda has explained:
He (Yogananda) didn’t talk about (kechari) much, but when he found somebody who could do it, he was very glad and urged them to do it.
One time he said to Dr. Lewis, “You’re not doing Kriya right.”
And doctor said, “What do you mean, sir?”
And Master said, “You should be doing kechari mudra.”
After Doctor told me, I asked Master, “Should I be doing kechari while practicing Kriya?” And he said, “Not yet.”
He didn’t emphasize this a lot. I think it was because he was teaching thousands and thousands of people in America who weren’t ready for this kind of thing. All Master did was bring people into the technique step-by-step rather than giving them everything all at once.
Khechari Mudra clearly isn’t for everyone — but it is extremely helpful for all meditation practices, including Kriya Yoga. And again, right attitude, devotion, and attunement to the Guru are more important than technique alone.
I’ve been practicing Kriya and meditation with Khechari for about thirty years. Because of the wonderful benefits it has for meditation, I would suggest that all Kriya Yogis, and any serious meditator, at least consider learning Khechari Mudra.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to Mexico and Venezuela to lead Kriya Yoga initiations. Even though it’s a struggle to communicate due to my lack of Spanish (fortunately, I had a very good translator!), there is a lingua franca (common language) shared by sincere Kriya Yogis — the language of divine joy.
When we live for God, and regularly practice meditation and Kriya Yoga, we naturally grow into what the yogis describe as our true nature: “Satchitananda,” ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever new bliss.
In Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, we stayed at the brand “new” Ananda ashram begun by our dear friend Medardo (see his blog post about the ashram, Building Ananda in Mexico). It is an extraordinary testimony to the creativity and will of the devotees there, that they made a beautiful ashram out of a ruined and abandoned building — one which had graffiti on all the walls inside and out, and a foot of waste on all the floors!
Ananda Ashram in Mexico
We were given a wonderful opportunity to experience divine cooperation and joy. There were about twenty of us staying there as part of our Kriya retreat. We shared two bathrooms that didn’t have doors yet. The flimsy curtains covering the doorways were frequently blown aside with the breeze, sometimes at very inconvenient moments!
There was no dimming of anyone’s joy — it only increased throughout the retreat. A group of us were talking on the last day, and one of the new Kriyabans received a phone call, which reduced him to tears. At first concerned that there was a tragedy in his family, we eventually learned he had just found out that he won a money lottery at the factory where he worked.
He had prayed to Babaji for help in winning it, with the intention of paying for bathroom doors for the new ashram! Praying for winning a lottery is typically not recommended, but we were all utterly charmed by the man’s simple devotion and sincerity. Our joy turned to laughter when someone suggested that Babaji must have earnestly wanted those bathroom doors installed in the ashram! It’s obvious that the Ananda Ashram will grow into a beautiful home for the Kriya Yogis in Lazaro Cardenas.
Anaashani, Blanca, and Devarshi
In Venezuela we had a delightful and inspiring meeting with Blanca, a 95-year old Kriya Yogi who received Kriya over fifty years ago from Senor Cuaron, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda.
Blanca has continued her Kriya practice and devotion to Yogananda all these years, with very little support from other disciples. The divine joy in her eyes and overall demeanor were a powerful testimonial to the benefits of Kriya, and steadfast discipleship to Yogananda.
Blanca’s parents were also Kriya Yogis, as well as Blanca’s daughter Nancy, who recounted a very interesting story about the birth of her own child.
Kriya Initiates in Venezuela
A friend of Nancy’s was visiting India while Nancy was expecting a child. Her friend met a Swami there who, in so many words said, “You have a friend back home who is about to have a child. This child is the soul of my former disciple Ganesh. Your friend’s child will be a boy, and will be born on such-and-such date and hour. Ganesh and I won’t be together in this lifetime, but we will see each other next lifetime.”
When Nancy heard this, she had difficulty believing it because the birth date given by the Swami would mean a a premature birth by many weeks. But, sure enough, a boy was born on the very date and hour predicted by the Swami, and Nancy named her son Ganesh.
When he was six years old, Ganesh wrote to the Swami in India. The letter was returned, with a note that the Swami had just passed away. Certainly a strange story! And a beautiful confirmation of reincarnation and the eternal nature of the Guru-Disciple relationship.
During our trip we not only had the opportunity to meet Ganesh, now an adult, but to perform a baptism for his young son. Now five generations of that one family in Venezuela are blessed by the teachings of India and Kriya Yoga!
I would like to thank everyone who donates so generously to help spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga throughout the world. There are many, many souls who are receiving the blessings of Kriya, and the divine friendship and support that we could not otherwise share.
Finally, I would like to share a wonderful practice suggested by Paramhansa Yogananda. He once told some disciples, “Memorize my poem ‘Samadhi,’ and repeat it daily. It will help to awaken within you that lost memory of what you are in reality: sons of Infinity.”
During a weekly three-hour men’s Kriya meditation at Ananda Village, we listen to a recording of Swami Kriyananda reading the poem.
If you can’t memorize or read the entire poem every day, you can learn one line that Yogananda repeats over and over in a talk he gave one Christmas day. It describes and helps us affirm our own true nature. Try repeating the following line in your meditation, as you go to sleep, and during other times:
A tiny bubble of laughter,
I am become the Sea of Mirth Itself!
A tiny bubble of laughter,
I am become the Sea of Mirth Itself!
A tiny bubble of laughter,
I am become the Sea of Mirth Itself!
Listen to Swami Kriyananda reading the poem “Samadhi”:
One of the most fantastic and beautiful stories in Paramhansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi tells of Lahiri Mahasaya’s initiation into Kriya Yoga by his Guru, Mahavatar Babaji.
To this day, the Kriya ceremony at Ananda is performed just the way Yogananda did it, and is patterned after the way Lahiri Mahasaya received, and gave, initiation into Kriya.
Kriya Yoga, in order to be wholly effective, must be received not only intellectually (in written or spoken form), but vibrationally, in the form of initiation.
People who are interested in Kriya Yoga often miss the importance of the Guru-Disciple relationship, which forms an essential part of the path of Kriya. In fact, a close reading of Autobiography of a Yogi reveals the thread of the Guru-Disciple relationship running through the entire book, from the very first sentence to the very last (read those two sentences and see!).
The spiritual “highlight” of the book—the fulfilment of Yogananda’s lifelong search for divine union, or Samadhi —is finally reached only with the help of his Guru, Sri Yukteswar (as told in the chapter An Experience in Cosmic Consciousness, linked below).
After many years of Kriya practice, and observing hundreds of other Kriya yogis, I have seen that attunement to the Guru makes the difference between receiving extraordinary benefits from your practice, vs. merely ordinary results, or no results at all. I’ve seen firsthand the truth of this statement by Swami Kriyananda:
It isn’t enough merely to receive good teachings and good techniques, or take Kriya Yoga initiation and then, as many people have done, figure that they can safely leave the line of gurus.
Those who merely practice a meditation technique receive some benefit, but not nearly as much as what is possible through attunement to a guru.
I’ve even seen people who were highly advanced become bogged down through rejecting the higher of these realities. That is, they chose techniques over attunement with the guru.
Marble statue of the Yogi Christ, Hansa Mandir, Ananda Village, Christmas 2008
That attunement comes in many ways, but an important and obvious one is keeping a strong connection with other long-time disciples of Yogananda and our line of Kriya Gurus.
In that regard, I have seen that people who keep that connection alive gain the most—specifically those who visit Ananda centers, or stay in touch via phone or email, or the many talks and offerings on the Ananda website. I’m quite sure that the same holds true for all other Kriya lineages and paths.
Swami Kriyananda has written, in regard to Kriya: “Guidance from the guru is not only helpful: It is essential.”
Recently I heard him say that attunement to the Guru is most important, and Kriya (as a technique) only secondary. Of course, Kriya yogis also gain that attunement through deep Kriya practice. Lahiri Mahasaya once said that practicing the techniques of Kriya, as taught by the Guru, draws the grace and help of the Guru.
So, if you are interested in receiving Kriya Yoga, or getting the most from your Kriya practice, understand that the greatest progress is made when it is combined with discipleship and attunement to the Guru. Here is one way that it can be done, as offered by Yogananda in The Essence of Self-Realization:
“To tune in to the guru’s consciousness, visualize him in the spiritual eye.Mentally call to him there. Imagine his eyes, especially, gazing at you. Invite his consciousness to inspire your own. Then, after calling to him for some time, try to feel his response in your heart.
The heart is the center of intuition in the body. It is your ‘radio-receiver.’ Your ‘broadcasting station’ is situated in the Christ center between the eyebrows. It is from this center that your will broadcasts into the universe your thoughts and ideas. Once you feel an answer in the heart, call to the guru deeply, ‘Introduce me to God.’
Audience at 2008 International Kriya Yoga Retreat in India
Ananda recently held its second International Kriya Yoga Retreat in Gurgaon, India. You can watch and listen to all the talks here. I would like to expand on something I mentioned in one of my classes there.
There is a great deal of talk in modern times about investing wisely for a hoped-for future retirement. Most people invest their most valuable resources—money, time, and energy—into feeding, clothing, and sheltering the body, stimulating the senses, and feeling comfortable. What people don’t understand is that they are investing everything in a “rapidly depreciating asset”—since the human body is guaranteed to decrease in value until it is “pushing up daisies” in the end.
On the other hand, when we put our time and energy into feeding the soul, spiritually changing ourselves, and dedicating to a practice such as Kriya Yoga, we are putting our resources into an asset that will continue to appreciate over time—even over many lifetimes.
What if you don’t believe in reincarnation? You can compare the end of life of a worldly person who has lived selfishly, to the lives of saints. Saints’ bodies have ‘depreciated’ just like everyone else’s, but they are living in a state of divine joy, and are able to share that joy with others.
I have seen this truth proven in the lives of many Kriya Yogis, even those who may not have yet reached the most exalted spiritual states. Compared to people who have lived selfish or worldly lives, I can say unequivocally that dedication to spiritual practices is the best investment of time and energy one can possibly make.
People sometimes think, “It’s too late. I should have begun practicing Kriya Yoga when I was young. Now my worldly life is all I have, so I guess I’ll just keep living like this.” This is called “throwing good money after the bad.” It is similar to a homeowner who keeps throwing more and more of his hard-earned money to put a new roof on a house with a completely rotten foundation.
It is never too late! Paramhansa Yogananda told the story of a woman who took up his teachings late in life:
I once met a lady in the state of Washington. She was 80 years old, and all her life she’d been an atheist. By God’s grace, at our meeting she became converted to this path. Thereafter she sought God intensely. For the better part of every day, whenever she wasn’t meditating, she would play a recording of my poem “God! God! God!” She lived only a few years longer, but in that short time she attained liberation.
It is never too soon or too late to dedicate yourself to living a spiritual life. It is the greatest investment we can make for our future, and in the end, it is the only thing we can take with us when we leave this world.
One of the great joys of my work with Kriya Yogis is the frequent emails I receive from them, describing the positive effects of Kriya practice. These testimonials come from long-time Kriyabans, and from people who have been practicing Kriya less than a year.
Many times the practice of Kriya brings what I call ‘unintended consequences’ — all of them positive! A recent email from a new Kriyaban described how they had stopped eating meat, were eating half as much as they used to (good in their case, apparently!) – all of this even though they weren’t trying to make these particular changes in their life.
Because Kriya changes one deeply from the inside, the changes can and do manifest outwardly in many ways. In a sense, the Kriya Yogi changes himself from the inside out, rather than in the typical modern approach of changing one’s looks, clothing, or personality.
Here are some of the comments I’ve received from Kriya Yogis:
“My heartfelt thanks to you for giving me the Kriya Technique earlier in the year. It was the greatest gift I have ever received. Words cannot describe the taste of the daily ‘kriya nectar.’”
“I found intense joy, happiness and peace in my life. Kriya and devotion light up my life, and best of all I have daily guidance from the Masters. Since I started my daily practice I became a vegetarian and celibate and living a quiet life, looking at the external world as an expression of God, with compassion and love. I am very happy to be spiritually awakening.”
“My inner and outer life have changed in ways I never thought possible.”
“Kriya is truly a sacred art that has a profound and life changing effect on one’s thought pattern, and a feeling of great joy and bliss.”
How can the practice of Kriya cause so many positive changes? In his Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda promised:
“One-half minute of revolution of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of man effects subtle progress in his evolution; that half-minute of Kriya equals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment.”
Yogananda went even further in a discussion with Swami Kriyananda, which he recounts in his book The Essence of Self-Realization:
“I can take a few young men of the most restless sort, and let them practice Kriya for two hours every day in the way I tell them, and, without question, in four or five years I can make saints out of them.
“I won’t preach a single sermon to them. I will simply tell them to practice Kriya for two hours a day, and they will see the difference in their lives. That is a good challenge.
“Of course, they must practice in the way that I tell them. That won’t be easy. But it is surely worth the effort.”
People often make resolutions to change their lives - typically at the start of the new year. Often, these resolutions have little effect, perhaps a little lost weight or a few better habits. Imagine making just one change that will have benefits for every aspect of your life!
Yogananda did not say that his “young men of the most restless sort” would have to change this bad habit or that. He didn’t say that they would have go to church every Sunday. All they would need to do is “practice Kriya for two hours every day in the way I tell them,” and they would become saints in 4 or 5 years.
I can honestly say, based on my own 30-year experience of daily Kriya practice, and on my interactions with hundreds of other Kriya Yogis, that Kriya effectively changes people’s lives out of all proportion to the self-effort required.
If you are interested in learning Kriya Yoga, feel free to email me. If you already practice Kriya, consider dedicating 2008 to a deeper and more devoted practice of it. You may well be surprised at the many “unintended” positive consequences resulting from your deep, sincere practice. –>
Recently Swami Kriyananda gave two extraordinary talks on Kriya Yoga in Daily Life in Pune and Mumbai, India. You can listen to both talks on the Ananda website.
People who are interested in receiving initiation into Kriya are often interested in what Kriya will do to deepen their meditation, and what kind of spiritual experiences they can expect through Kriya practice. Meditation is typically made deeper through Kriya practice, and people do have various experiences as a result of Kriya.
But these experiences are different for each person, and don’t always come immediately. As Paramhansa Yogananda said:
“Do not be anxious if you don’t have meditative experiences. The path to God is not a circus! Don’t even be anxious about such fruits of meditation as inner joy and peace. Everything will come in God’s time.”
In thirty years of Kriya practice, and in observing thousands of Kriya Yogis, I’ve seen the most tangible result of Kriya practice to be the effect that it has on ‘Daily Life’. Long time practitioners of Kriya invariably become more bright, devotional, and clear-minded.
That is why Lahiri Mahasaya described Kriya “as a practical technique of liberation” — the technique itself is scientific and practical — and Kriya practice produces very real and practical results in people’s lives. I believe that much of the extraordinary success of Ananda communities all over the world is due to the practice of Kriya Yoga by Ananda members.
Kriya bears these practical ‘fruits’ because it gives one control over the life force, or pranayama. Daily finger exercises give the musician control over their fingers, so they can play complex and inspiring pieces of music. In the same way, daily Kriya practice gives the Kriya Yogi control over their inner life force, enabling them to deal with the complex world of business, relationships, emotions, etc.
Of course, Kriya does much more than that. Over time it gives the experience of bliss and divine realization. Those inner fruits, as Yogananda said, will come in God’s time.
As Yogananda promised in his Autobiography of a Yogi, regarding the state of samadhi, or cosmic consciousness:
“It comes with a natural inevitability to the sincere devotee.”
