Vivek Atray
“Why is yoga so important for me?” a youngster may ask, on being prodded to earnestly take up yoga. And in order to answer his query with wisdom, we ourselves need to know the answer. Every year, for a decade now, on the occasion of the International Yoga Day, India has led the rest of the world in celebrating the eternal significance of yoga in our lives. Yet, as some of us realise, the true meaning of yoga lies in its inner, deeply personal manifestation. The divine quest for oneness with God, which all the world’s religions emphasize, is propelled and ultimately made possible by the regular practice of scientific methods of yoga-meditation.
Kriya Yoga is that method of spiritual practice, which enables the sincere yogi to ultimately attain the highest goal of life. Kriya Yoga is twice mentioned in the Song Celestial, the Bhagavad Gita, by Lord Krishna to his disciple, Arjuna. And this crucial, exact, science was rediscovered after centuries of human ignorance, in the nineteenth century, by the great guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, with the blessings of his eternal guru, Mahavatar Babaji. The deep knowledge of Kriya Yoga was therafter passed on to Paramahansa Yogananda by his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, who was a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya.
Yogananda ji, in turn donned the mantle of being a global ambassador of Kriya Yoga, and he propounded its benefits far and wide in the western world. Today, millions of his followers across the world, practice the scientific methods of yoga meditation which form an innate part of the Kriya Yoga path. As Yogananda ji outlined so inspiringly in his globally acclaimed Autobiography of a Yogi, “In men under maya, or natural law, the flow of life energy is toward the outward world; the currents are wasted and abused in the senses. The practice of Kriya reverses the flow; life force is mentally guided to the inner cosmos and becomes reunited with subtle spinal energies. By such reinforcement of life force, the yogi’s body and brain cells are renewed by a spiritual elixir.”
From the pages of Autobiography of a Yogi, we further learn that the regular practice of Kriya Yoga, enables the sincere practitioner to decarbonate his blood and recharge it with oxygen. The brain and spine are thus rejuvenated by this extra oxygen and tissue decay is prevented. The physical, mental and spiritual benefits of Kriya Yoga cannot be over emphasized. It is a life-enhancing technique that is bound to elevate the very existence of the earnestly practicing yogi.
The accessibility of Kriya Yoga is universal and all men can transcend the mundane routine of life to scale spiritual heights and depths through its practice.
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, YSS, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda, in 1917, is the organization which disseminates the pure Kriya Yoga teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda to seekers across India and Nepal. Self Realization Fellowship is the sister organization of YSS which performs a similar role worldwide, through its headquarters (the Mother Centre) located in Los Angeles, which were founded by Yogananda ji exactly a hundred years ago, in 1925. Millions of practitioners have benefited from these teaching, over the years.
The foremost immediate benefit for common people of this fast paced era, is that yoga meditation calms the mind. Our thoughts are always racing hither and tither in this technology driven age. But by following regular routine of yoga meditation, especially a high level scientific path like the kriya yoga path, human beings can enhance their mental health as well as spritual advancement to an appropriable degree.
A young office goer, for instance, hardly finds the mind space these days, to spend quite, unhurried, moments with his family. These calming moments are much required for health and wellness today. Yet, they are to be found, few and far between.
Meditation is the only really substantial practice that human beings can persistently carry on with in their everyday lives, to attain a state of calmer living in this very demanding world.
Instead of going through the motions and performing routine duties, human beings must ask themselves the purpose of life itself. And the answer to that question might not be available intellectually. It will be found only through deeper and deeper meditation. The International Day of Yoga serves as a reminder to search within ourselves for universal truths which our souls are actually seeking.
For you and me, the common people of this world, the life fulfilling impact of yoga will be felt only if we take up the practice of a scientific method, like Kriya Yoga, assiduously and with devotion. That, then, is the true significance of the International Yoga Day, for each one of us!
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