Kriya Yoga — The Yoga of Purification Through Action
Kriya Yoga (yoga of action/purification) encompasses specific breathing techniques, inner sound practices, and meditation methods that directly purify the energy channels and accelerate spiritual evolution.
Kriya Yoga (action yoga, purification yoga) has two related meanings in the tradition. In the Yoga Sutras (2.1), Kriya Yoga refers to the three practices of Tapas (discipline), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Ishvara Pranidhana (surrender to God). In the lineage of Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Yogananda, Kriya Yoga refers to a specific set of pranayama and inner sound practices that Yogananda described as 'spiritual electricity' — techniques that directly work with prana in the spine and brain to produce states of expanded consciousness. The technique involves precise breath patterns coordinated with visualization and concentration at specific points along the spine. Yogananda claimed that one Kriya is equivalent to one year of natural spiritual evolution.
Kriya Yoga is the royal science of God-realization — working directly with the life force in the spine, it accelerates the soul's evolution.
In the lineage of Lahiri Mahasaya and Yogananda, Kriya Yoga is a pranayama that circulates life-force around the spine; Yogananda called it a technique of accelerated inner evolution, given only after initiation.
Autobiography of a Yogi