Frequently Asked Questions
How one is selected to become a Yogacharyea by his Sadguru~
In the traditional yogic system, Sadguru is considered as the embodiment of The Absolute. God manifests Himself as Sadguru for salvation of human beings. When a disciple, after a rigorous sadhana under the administration of his Sadguru, reaches the enlightened state & his Guruji decides to make him a Guru like him, the Guru himself organises a ceremony attended by many sadhus and Gurus. There He confers the Acharya-ship to the disciple. In this way the yogi community acknowledges the budding of a new Yoga-Acharya. Only a Yogacharya possess the right of initiating others in the path of yoga sadhana.
The inner meaning of this fact is that one cannot become a Sadguru one his own! His Guruji makes him a Sadguru. That a sadhaka has reached to the enlightened state is confirmed by the Sadguru before other sadhaka. This is a common practice in traditional systems!
In case of Swami Sadhanananda Giri also we find that Swami Bhabananda Giri himself crowned him to be a Yogacharya! Among his disciples Swami Bhabananda Giri gave the power to initiate others to only four disciples.
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The relationship between Guru & sishya (Master & disciple)
The Guru-disciple relationship is beyond the limitation of the present birth. Receiving initiation from a Yogi-Guru is a predestined matter in one’s life. For becoming successful in the path of sadhana, complete surrender from the part of a disciple towards his Guru is a mandatory pre-requisite. But that comes on its own after interacting with the Guru for some time. Unless direct interaction with the Guru is performed for some time, by remaining close to Him, this sense of complete surrender is tough to acquire for obvious reasons.
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States of sadhana
A sadhaka has to pass through a few states while in sadhana. And through out the entire path He has to face innumerable obstacles. Sometimes it seems that one's problems in every sphere of life grew bigger after initiation! But the disciple develops the most powerful weapon to fight these obstacles - the power of rational or logical thought & interpretation - by virtue of his practices. This gives him such inner strength that he easily tides over all the crisis nicely. And the omnipresent help from the Gurusakti is always there to help him.
When a sadhaka succeeds in the sadhana of disciple-ship; His Guru imparts the fragrance of the Supreme Consciousness into him. A Yogi-Guru never wants His disciple to remain disciple forever! He likes to see the manifestation of Guru Consciousness into the being of His disciple.
While a disciple sincerely prays to his Guru ‘please mould me so that I will be like you’, his Guru also prays ‘I yearn for you to become like me.’ With the assimilation of these two prayers, the Guru-disciple relationship becomes the most valued and sacred relationship of the world. When the self of a disciple gets completely dissolved into the self of his Guru, the disciple also becomes a Guru. This union of the Guru and disciple is continuing for thousands and thousands of years in India and keeping the yoga culture alive.
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The Absolute need of a Sadguru
Kriya Yoga can not be learnt by reading books or magazines or lessons. Reading books and attending to yoga classes definitely gives an overview of yoga practices and it’s benefits. However, a sincere seeker must learn to practice yoga on his own, from a Sadguru in the traditional way. Only a Sadguru can bestow the full knowledge of yoga and self- realisation to a true seeker. One may start learning yoga from anyone, but the state of nirvikalpa samadhi or moksha remain away from him unless & until he gets blessings of a Sadguru. This is not theory but true facts seen in lives of so many sadhaka in India. Their biographies are evident enough to support this fact.
Before seeking initiation, the seeker must ensure that the teacher from whom he is seeking initiation is a Sadguru. As Sri Ramakrishna has pointed out, an incapable Guru & an incapable disciple are problem to each other! But the Sadguru is like the most venomous snake, whose bite will definitely end the mortal sufferings of the disciple within three life spans!
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Worshipping of Idols
It is generally found that ordinary persons worship idols. It is an absolutely necessity for them. One develops devotion and respect for God by worshipping idols. Afterwards when he receives sadhana from a Sadguru, his need for such worship will gradually decrease. All idols are symbols of God. During sadhana, the sages have visualised the different forms of deities (considered power centres) and established them in the shape of idols drawing a common man towards it. The sages have instructed the common people to engage themselves in idol worship. The common men are ignorant of prana sadhana and for this reason they can not visualise those forms of God with their inner or third eye.
Everything in this world consists of two aspects - one external & the other internal. In the sphere of sadhana also these two aspects are present. Idol worship, pilgrimages, fasting, taking holy dip in the Ganga, verbal japa etc. are all the external facets of sadhana. Atmakarma or pranayama is internal sadhana. A living being undergoes gradual upliftment in successive births. The compassionate sages have introduced external sadhana because all men do not have the insight. By regularly practicing external sadhana, a living being will be purified after several births and will be able to gain introspective vision of internal sadhana. Then he will be deemed fit to obtain internal sadhana or pranayama and by executing this inner sadhana can finally reach the self – realised state.
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Differences in Kriya Yoga practises in different lineages
Lahiri Mahasaya customised Kriya practices according to the needs of individual disciples. This is the Indian tradition! The Guru knows what is best for the disciple & he has the authority to prescribe the best for him.
But the basic structure of Kriya is same everywhere. When some of these disciples of Lahiri Baba themselves became men of great knowledge & had disciples, they preached Kriya as exactly taught by Lahiri baba to them. Hence these differences have persisted till today. But the basic structure of Kriya is same.
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If the Kriya Yoga practice in Jujersa Yogashram is exactly original to what Swami Sriyukteswar taught to his disciples?
We need to explain these as very often we receive emails from people from different countries of the world, asking whether Swami Sadhanananda Giri teaches the original Kriya, which disciples of Swami Sriyukteswar-ji practised.
As Swami Bhabananda Giri was a disciple of the Swami Sriyukteswar Giri, the practice of Kriya in Jujersa Yogashram is exactly same what Sriyukteswar-ji learnt from Lahiri baba & later prescribed to his disciples. Swami Bhabananda was very strict to maintain the tradition of Kriya practice & the same we see in Swami Sadhanananda Giri also. They never allow any deviation from the original. That way the techniques of Kriya we are practising is the same what Swami Bhabananda received from Swami Sriyukteswar-ji & practised themselves. As no change in Kriya maneuvers is permitted by Swami Bhabananda or Swami Sadhanananda we are satisfied that we practise daily even today the Kriya what the disciples of Swami Sriyukteswar Giri practised.
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The need of complete surrender to the Guru
Kriya is a very sacred and secret practice. It is an extremely personal matter only between the Guru and disciple. In comparing individual paths we actually reduce the dignity of this relationship. All paths ultimately lead to God. There are so many sects in India. A sadhaka chooses a path which is best suitable to his bhava. But ultimately all will lead to the final goal. We just need to perform the spiritual practices received from the respective Guru with a sense of complete surrender to Him.
The day this sense of surrender is lost, no matter how long one practises, nothing is achieved in the spiritual field. It is not uncommon to find an unsatisfied young sadhaka in the external world. An enquiry will reveal that they have somehow got into a state of samsaya or mistrust on the Guru's ability which took out the sense of complete surrender to the Guru from their mind!
To get rid of this sense, one has to be very such sure that His Guru is a Sadguru before taking initiation. For a sadhaka initiated under a Sadguru, if such symptoms ever arise, one has to pray constantly to God to relieve himself from such notions. One must visit his Guru in these times & discuss with the Guru. Then he will understand that these are also obstacles in his sadhana which he will conquer & prosper again to tough the more finer aspects of sadhana.
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The need of sadhana
The world in which we are living is full of animate and inanimate objects. All of them have some frequencies and are generating waves some way or other. We, the living creatures capture some of these frequencies with the help of our sensory organs, analyse them and then build up the perception about the world around us.
This is an absolute individualistic approach. Due to this reason, the world for a human being is different from that of animals, insects, sea creatures, etc. Even in the case of human beings, the world to a blind, a colour blind or a deaf differs from one another.
It is also seen that even with five entirely function sensory organs, different persons develop dissimilar perceptions about this world. The reason behind this difference is ‘mind’ which acts as the ultimate analyser. Mind plays the major role about integrating the inputs from the sensory organs & thus understanding the world. Depending upon the place, time and parties attached with an incident taking place, the magnitude of three gunas - swatta, raja and tama varies in our mind. Due to these ever changing characteristics of mind, the same incident has different influence on the minds of different human beings. It is a part of our expressions where logic takes the back seat and intuition, emotion etc. takes charge of it.
As per prevalent conception, the knowledge we grasp after reading text books is only partial. In reality it is the idea of truth or absolute knowledge of any subject. We read these books with our mind submersed in material world where the influences of three gunas swatta, raja and tama are very high and constantly changing. This mind under the influence of swatta, raja and tama is equivalent to a mirror covered with thick dust layer which does not reflect the true image of anything.
With the help of pranayama or sadhana one can develop control over his breathing. With regular practice of sadhana gradually the influence of swatta, raja and tama on the mind gets reduced and the fully controlled state of mind - called the trigunatita state arises. In this state the cleansed mind works like a perfect mirror and able to reflect all cosmic frequencies surrounded us. This mind can perceive the true and absolute knowledge about this universe.
Swami Vivekananda also said that 'Religion is the manifestation of Realization'.
We, with our materialistic mind try to analyze the absolute knowledge affirmed by the enlightened sages. Eventually we fail to understand them and try to establish them as fools. We, with our trusted logical mind (the ego!), try to deny the fact that we are like a baby with the knowledge of A, B, C, D only in the field of this vast consciousness. With proper guidance from a Sadguru and with the help of sadhana, if we can enlighten our mind, we will definitely be able to realise what our enlightened ancestors have said. Then there will be no sorrows and sufferings in this world.
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Miraculous powers of a yogi
While advancing in sadhana, a yogi develops miraculous powers, called bibhuti. Such miraculous powers are generally sub-divided into eight groups :
1. Anima - the power of making oneself as small as an atom;
2. Laghima - the power of becoming lighter than air;
3. Byapti - the power of spreading oneself over the entire Universe;
4. Prakamya - the power to acquire anything at the mere wish;
5. Mahima - the power to assume any shape;
6. Ishitwa - the control over all beings of the Universe;
7. Bashitwa - the power to move everywhere and
8. Kamavasayita - the power to stay at any place.
But although these come automatically to a sadhaka as he advances in his sadhana, misuse of them will definitely lead him far from the goal of self-realisation. A sadhaka should accept all these powers humbly as the kind gifts of God. A self-realised sadhaka uses them only to develop confidence about the existence of God in the mind of common man only through performance of acts beyond explanation of science.
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A rational thought
There are three ways of learning something in this world. Let us think about one example. There is an object called ‘chocolate’ which is not known to us.
We can read about chocolate in books. It gives us an idea how chocolate looks like and how it tastes etc. We compare the writing of the book with identical experiences in our memory and portray an idea of a chocolate. Unfortunately this way of acquiring knowledge gives us the most imperfect impression about this world!
Secondly, we may go to a shop, & enquire about it and come to know that it is a kind of a food with sweet taste etc. Again our intuitive mind portrays an impression about chocolate. Though it does not provide the complete idea of a chocolate, but still it is better than textbook knowledge!
The third and most effective way is taste a chocolate to have a complete realisation about the object called ‘chocolate’.
Hence, the knowledge we gather from reading books is called bookish knowledge and is the most inferior one out of the three. The second way of gathering knowledge is the intuitive one and better than bookish knowledge but still not the best one. The third way of gathering knowledge is through experience and it is the best way to know about something.
Same is for sadhana. If someone is truly interested to know the Absolute, it has to be achieved through sadhana for which he has to find out a Sadguru, pray for initiation, receive it & then perform accordingly. Only through sadhana the Absolute will manifest before him in totality.
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