And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life, said Jesus (Matthew 19:29).
In the Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda writes: Kria Yoga is the real “fire rite” oft extolled in the Gita. The yogi casts his human longings into a monotheistic bonfire consecrated to the unparalleled God … All past and present desires is fuel consumed by love divine. The Ultimate Flame receives the sacrifice of all human madness, and man is pure of dross. His metaphorical bones stripped of all desirous flesh, his karmic skeleton bleached by antiseptic suns of wisdom, inoffensive before man and Maker, he is clean at last.
Renunciation, The Wise Path
Those willing to give up the lesser for the greater are choosing a wise path. God Talks With Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita, Paramahansa Yogananda writes: “Renunciation is not an end in itself, but clears the ground for the manifestation of soul qualities. No one should fear the rigors of self-denial; the spiritual blessings that follow are great and incomparable.”
From another reference, Paramahansa Yogananda writes, “Renunciation is not negative but positive. It isn’t the giving up of anything except misery. One should not think of renunciation as a path of sacrifice. Renunciation is a divine investment by which our few cents of self-discipline will yield a million spiritual dollars. Is it not wisdom to spend the golden coins of our fleeting days to purchase Eternity?”
God wants us to escape this theater we are placed in. Each one of us has a different story to work on. Will we be caught up in the drama of our respective programmed roles or use self-discipline to see more light, more self-realization?
The Divine Romance
God loves you just as much as He loves Jesus and Krishna, says Yogananda, and we must seek His love, for it encompasses eternal freedom, endless joy, and immortality.
Speaking about his father, Paramahansa Yogananda said that his father slept with his mother only once a year for the purpose of bringing a new soul into this world. His father had eight children: four sons and four daughters. Love https://everhols.com/love and responsibility pervaded in that family.
“The greatest romance is with the Infinite. You have no idea how beautiful life can be. When you suddenly find God everywhere, when He comes and talks to you and guides you, the romance of the divine love has begun.” – Paramahansa Yogananda, “Mans’s Eternal Quest”
Kria Yoga Spinal Breathing
As you likely know, I practice scientific spinal breathing. It begins with assuming a posture with a straight spine, gazing the attention upward to a point between the eyebrows. Eventually, by gazing between the eyebrows, called the ‘Christ Consciousness Center’ that Jesus referred to when he said, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” The breathing exercise is to better get in contact with one’s Creator.
From the beginning, the baby’s nervous system, now observed from the perspective of a now fully grown adult, getting one’s mind into that nervous system with an electric feeling sensation flowing up the spine into the third eye to see, with quiet timing, and reach higher into an out-of-body type of experience with a Christ Consciousness union with Creator God and flowing back down the spine as a breathing exercise and later having a meditation is a short explanation of that experience. Before this breathing system exercise begins, 25 minutes of prep time is needed to carry out some short practices to quiet the monkey mind and bring it into better concentration mode.
Spinal Breathing
Spinal breathing begins with the observation that before we popped out of Mom’s womb, we were all embryos. The first sign of developing consciousness starts by growing a baby brain, medulla oblongata, and neuron tube, which later differentiates into a primary spinal cord. This happens before the heart and other organs start to form.
This medulla oblongata is in the posterior part of the brain and tapers off into the spinal cord. From there, nerves sprout to every part of the developing body.
Anyhow, spinal breathing as consciousness reaches the medullary plane makes sense as a vehicle for connecting with and getting in tune with the Creator God. That process of gaining Christ’s Consciousness is the goal of a devotee.
Of all the methods I tried to connect with Creator, some were hand-me-downs, others that would seem entirely off-based and experimental, and spinal breathing, known as Kria Yoga (as taught at yogananda.org), works best for me. Depending on how it is done, activating one’s conscious breathing up and down the spine, medulla oblongata to the third eye meditation exercise offers quiet talk that can bring connection.
To paraphrase my mentor, we must manifest God’s presence within us because we are a Divine part of Him. Because of that, we can’t find lasting satisfaction in anything material. Without contentment in God, as we have observed in others and ourselves, we will not win contentment from anything else.
The World We Live In
Kriya Yoga is here for the age we are living in. Mankind is evolving from constant wars and burning those who channeled higher knowledge tied to posts. Fostered by greed, profit, and anger, tribal warring factions continue to exist. Renunciation is not in the vocabulary of most humans.
Many politicians and elite controllers, as well as religions, don’t steer towards peace and love. There are few peace demonstrations, no marches for peace to capitals in the world.
Why are the religious leaders and politicians not organizing marches for peace and freedom? Is the military-industrial complex in charge? Is big tech and big money influencers in bed with the government stifling freedom of speech? However, there is an individual path to future peace and prosperity.
Aspiring Devotees For Freedom
Making the heart a hermitage of God where one strives for desirelessness and non-attachment evolves through meditation, meditation, and concentration on the spiritual eye, as found in the SRF teachings. “He who does his duties haphazardly or carelessly, or who meditates without zest, cannot please the Lord nor win liberation.” **
“The purpose of God is to reveal Himself to His children after they have been victorious in the tests of dreadful delusion in which He has designedly cast them.” **
** God Talks With Arjuna from The Bhagavad Gita, commentary by Paramahansa Yogananda, chapter 6
