Message 140

Paris, 6 Apr. 2008

ESSENCE OF KRIYA PRACTICE

In a house without any resident inside for a long time where every window is shut and no light enters, there is accumulation of filth and various insects that breed in it. In just the same way a body caught up in the centrifugal activities of the consciousness and not returning home (centripetal dimension of the consciousness) for a long time is full of hurt, pleasure, pain, suffering, sentiments, emotions, fear, craving, belief systems, conflicts and so on – all filth.

And just as one would clean a house first by sweeping away most of the visible dust on the floor and walls with a long handled broom and then progressively, using finer cleaning tools, one would wash the house clean, spray insecticides, clean the glass, open windows and so on until the house is well cleaned, so also through stages of kriya, one cleanses the body until the filth of psychological residues & sediments is removed and the windows of the brain are opened to invite the entry of Life. ‘I-ness’ is thus abandoned and Intelligence is awakened.

The difference is that in cleaning a house there is an object to be cleaned – the house – which is different from the one cleaning it – the cleaner. But in inward cleaning, the object to be cleaned – the mind – also masquerades as the cleaner! The mind then only hides the dirt and the filth is merely re-arranged!

So, the question is: Is it possible that cleaning takes place without the cleaner? The danger of this not happening is very real and if the cleaner as ego exists then there is no cleaning. That is why it is so difficult to understand the teaching, which is so simple.

Patanjali said so beautifully: Yoga should be done in the state of ‘prayatna shaitilya’ – that means in a state of effortlessness – because the effort is ego, which is the illusion ‘I’. All efforts in the inner consciousness are ego-trips and all ego-trips are fragmentations & complications.

Effort is there because of the fear of failure to achieve the goal. The fear is also the mischief of the mind. Saankhya (understanding) does not happen because of effort, because of the involvement of ‘I’ – the doer-ship. When you say, “I am trying to be effortless”, you do not see the contradiction in your utterance. The brain has been atrophied by conditioning. If this is seen right now, the freedom is immediate. But if one takes notes or analyses, then there is only conceptualisation and postponement of seeing. Non-action on the part of ‘I’, is the greatest action of Intelligence.

The suggestion is: even if saankhya does not happen, don’t struggle, be in Kriya practice. It may facilitate the saankhya, because they are mutually complimentary to each other.

When doing the kriyas one should not rush through them to ‘complete a course’. In the internal pranayam is there a feeling of breathing through the sushumna as the attention in the spine is moving in union? Later when these are increased by 12, how is the body taking it? How long does it take to do the 144 pranayam? Is the 12-day-penance being done properly? These are for you to be aware of. If kriyas are done with patience and understanding without getting into the activity of the ‘I’, the blasting is not far off. That is why Lahiri Mahashaya said: “The first kriya may also liberate and even all the kriya stages may be binding if the doer-ship of the ‘I’ continues unabated”.

In the second stage, when going from one to the next other, one has to see that one has really gone through it. The main purpose of the higher kriyas is the uprooting of psychological residues and sediments from the cells of the body and throwing them out of the body by the profound movements in macro and micro levels.

Kriya done with swadhyay will bring about profound understanding; otherwise it is merely yet another mental undertaking. That is why we have said very clearly in the review paper “When the explosion in understanding happens, it is not because of yoga but in spite of it!”

Let there be meditation on (not analysis of) each word of this message. Only then will you hear the wisdom behind the words, beyond the words. Otherwise you will get lost in the wicked ideas of the spiritual market.

JAI NON-DOERSHIP IN DOING

Download the Message in PDF format: Message 140: Essence of Kriya Practice (English)