TRADITIONAL TEACHING OF KRIYA YOGA AND THE LINAGE OF THE SPIRITUAL TEACHERS (GURUS)

“Kriya Yoga is practiced to weaken and remove all obstacles that interfere with the accomplishment of the samadhi of God-realization.”

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“Devotees of the gods go to the gods; devotees of ancestors go to the ancestors; devotees of the spirits go to the spirits; those who are devoted to me come to me.”

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The Sanskrit word “kriya” means action/movement. “Yoga” means oneness-wholeness, union.

Kriya Yoga can be defined as the sum of all actions realized with oneness consciousness or as being aware of the One cause behind all actions.

In Patanjali's two thousand year old yoga-sutras, kriya yoga/action yoga is defined as mastering control over mental and sensory impulses, dispassionate self analysis, profound study of higher realities, meditation and surrender of ordinary self-consciousness (egoism) in favor of God-consciousness.

In the Kriya Yoga tradition, knowledge, authorization and instruction are disseminated via a lineage of gurus (spiritual teachers). The knowledge and energy that comprise the teaching is transmitted to sincere students, who are ready, only by a living spiritual master.

The kriya yoga teaching, mentioned in the ancient yoga texts and known and practiced for centuries, was revived by Mahavatar Babaji in the mid-1800s and was transmitted to few selected students, who then took utmost care to present it to sincere truth seekers from all walks of life.

The traditional teaching of Kriya Yoga was first introduced to the West by Paramahansa Yogananda, Roy Eugene Davis' spiritual guide, in 1920. Yogananda transmitted the living spirit of Kriya Yoga to the Westerners through his “Autobiography of a Yogi”, for which he said “My spirit is in it”.

The transmission of knowledge and the practice process in the Kriya Yoga tradition can be summarized as follows:

Theoretical knowledge, basic philosophical concepts and goals
Fundamental principles regarding lifestyle routines
Yoga and meditation routines for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels practiced regularly with determination and discipline

Individual transformation and spiritual growth which unfolds during this process take place in the sincere practitioner as follows:

Self help: Wholesome harmony and healing on the physical, mental and spiritual levels.
Spiritual growth: Moving away from the ordinary states of consciousness, reflection of the spiritual and authentic qualities on the practitioner's life.
Awakening of consciousness: Strengthening of the powers of discernment
Higher consciousness: The inner wisdom prevailing by means of intuition.
Super consciousness: Absolute domination of the soul, complete liberation from external and internal influences
Self Realization
God Realization

Kriya Yoga is a path towards spiritual growth that provides wholesome harmony and healing by purifying the mind and the soul. The fundamental principle in this tradition is to sincerely and seriously focus on the goal. Simplicity is emphasized as the basic requirement.

Determining the goal and focusing on it are possible with self discipline. Surrendering our egotistical and limited perceptions, mastering control over our senses, purifying the body, thoughts and actions, contemplating on higher realities and acquiring knowledge about them, and successfully keeping our consciousness focused permanently on God with surrender and an absolute love of God are the prominent topics in the Kriya Yoga tradition.

Kriya Yoga practices help the dedicated practitioner to unfold and expand his/her innate true qualities and achieve complete liberation.

The goal of the Kriya Yoga group studies is to share knowledge about the Kriya Yoga philosophy, meditation techniques and lifestyle routines, and to engage in practice. As we experience and benefit from the energy generated by individuals united with the same aim, we also share the peace of meditating as a group for World Peace and the Highest Good of All.

In the light of the ancient unchangeable knowledge and practice of Kriya Yoga, individuals take responsibility for their own lives and make the necessary changes regarding their lifestyles, habits and behaviors, which gives them the opportunity to experience life with increasing joy, peace, harmony, confidence and balance.

In the Kriya Yoga tradition, a spiritual teacher is considered to be qualified to transmit the teachings if he/she has fulfilled the following requirements:

Discipleship training from a living spiritual master in the tradition
Practice to the level of Self-realization
Empowerment (ordination and permission to teach given by one's guru)

For the teacher-student relationship to be worthy of the teacher's time and attention and of benefit to the student, one who desires personal instruction and assistance on the spiritual path should have the following qualifications:

Be sincere, honest, unpretentious and dedicated,
Have a wholesome, constructive lifestyle,
Have respect for the tradition and the teacher,
Be willing to learn and to practice what is learned,
Have the intellectual capacity to learn and the functional ability to apply what is learned.
Not to be overly dependent on the spiritual teacher or the teaching, expecting them to do the spiritual work for them, which are taking responsibility for oneself, developing one's own apprehension freely, learning from the teacher and the teaching with sincere effort, applying what is learned, consciously taking responsibility on one's own solitary path, and focusing on the goal with determination.

Spiritual teachers are servants sincerely devoted to the Mightiest Source. They are simply instruments; their aim is to bring into the open our bond with the Mightiest One with the help of the light shed on our path by our teachers and live this bond with responsibility. All masters of the Kriya Yoga tradition have repeatedly expressed the fact that there is only one teacher ruling all existence, and that the teachers themselves are only servants of that Supreme Source.

“I salute the supreme teacher, the truth, whose nature is bliss;

who is the giver of the highest happiness; who is pure wisdom;

who is beyond all qualities and infinite like the sky; who is beyond words;

who is one and eternal, pure and still; who is beyond all change

and phenomena, and who is the silent witness to our thoughts and emotions.

I salute truth, the Supreme Teacher.”

Ancient Vedic Hymn

MAHAVATAR BABAJI

A fully enlightened saint, Babaji is the first publicly known guru/master of the Kriya Yoga tradition. Little is known about his life. Having retained his youthful physical body by using little known rejuvenation regimens and the power of his illumined consciousness, Babaji remains secluded in the Himalayan Mountains and fulfills his Universal Duties and responsibilities with his Pure Consciousness unrestricted by time and space.

In the mid-1800s, during the dawning of global spiritual awakening, Babaji revived and transmitted the ancient kriya yoga methods which had been obscured with the passage of time to a number of his students and thus made them available to sincere truth seekers from all walks of life.

“Very few people know that the wholeness of God extends fully to this physical realm”

Mahavatar Babaji

SHYAMACHARAN LAHIRI MAHASAYA

In 1861, when Lahiri Mahasaya was thirty-three years old, Babaji arranged a special meeting with him, instructed him in the Kriya Yoga techniques and principles and ordained him to his holy mission with the following words: “When they are prepared, teach kriya practices to all who sincerely ask for help on the spiritual path. Those whom you initiate must be honest and truthful persons”

Until his transition from the body in 1895, Lahiri Mahasaya fulfilled his family and secular obligations, wrote more than twenty-seven commentaries on divine scriptures and initiated more than five thousand men and women to Kriya Yoga. Those who were instructed by Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples are now fulfilling their missions in India and in various parts of the world.

His disciples referred to him as Mahasaya, meaning “one who is wide-minded or cosmic conscious”. As he fulfilled his duties with utmost reverence, Lahiri Mahasaya did not allow his disciples to publicize his mission. When initiating a person he would advise: “Don't tell anyone about this matter. Live a good life. Practice Kriya Yoga meditation in the privacy of your home”.

“Self-discipline, will power, noble desire, controlled speech, devotion, steadfastness, courage, patience, cheerfulness, and simplicity and moderation in natural living are some of the basic prerequisites to a spiritual and happy life. The senses should be used to fulfill their normal functions, always with spiritual idealism while abiding in God-communion. Perceptions of the phenomenal world become spiritual experiences when the senses are inspired and governed by the soul”.

Lahiri Mahasaya

SWAMI SRI YUKTESWAR

He is the most widely known disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya. When he was born in 1855, he was given the name Priya Nath Karar. His monastic name “Yukteswar” means “one who is united with God”.

Yukteswar was a student of Mahasaya for ten years, during which he had an interesting encounter with Babaji, who asked him to write the book “Holy Science”.

Sri Yukteswar founded and directed two modest spiritual training centers in India, one in Serampore and one in Puri. He established meditation groups in many villages and organized public meetings to promote understanding and harmony among people. One of his disciples Mukunda Lal Gosh, who later became known as Paramahansa Yogananda in the West is a great yogi who successfully fulfilled his mission of transmitting the Kriya Yoga teachings to truth seekers in the West.

“God is without beginning or end, complete and eternal; the one, indivisible Being”.

“The brain and spinal pathway is considered to be the seat of consciousness in the body. Moving life through the chakras is the kriya pranayama that purifies the mind and results in happiness. Thus purifying the mind and physical systems, the truth seeker attains a state of beatitude”.

“Devotees who (clearly) comprehend the eternal nature of the Self renounce all attachments, meditating with one-pointed concentration, they dissolve their awareness in God”.

Swami Sri Yukteswar

PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Yogananda was born on 5 January 1893 to parents who were disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya and sincere practitioners of Kriya Yoga. As a child, he was named Mukunda Lal Gosh, and later, when he was ordained as a swami, he chose the monastic name “Yogananda” (bliss of oneness with God). After his ten year long training with Sri Yukteswar, he was invited to speak at the Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, Massachusetts. Sri Yukteswar told him, “If you go now, all doors will be open to you” and he accepted the invitation. He traveled by boat to America in 1920, stayed in Boston for three years and gave seminars and public talks. Later, he traveled to many of the major cities in the US addressing thousands of people and offering a progressive series of classes. In 1925, the foundations for Self Realization Fellowship were laid. At the Self Realization Fellowship, an international organization, Kriya Yoga teachings were offered to truth seekers in an ashram environment. In 1946 his “Autobiography of a Yogi” was published and was met with great interest. When asked about the life-changing effect of the book on the readers, Yogananda said, “It is because my spirit is in it”. Paramahansa Yogananda spent the last two years of his life in seclusion, meeting with only a few of his disciples and he left his body on March 7th 1952.

“I never allow the word “impossible” to take root in my mind; nor should you”.

“Let your devotion to God be like a wood fire that burns steadily for a long time, not like a straw fire that produces a bright flame then quickly goes out”.

“Demonstrate compassion. While you are learning to swim in the sea of life, you can help others to learn to swim”.

“Don't go only halfway on the spiritual path; three quarters of the way; or almost to the end and then quit. Be firmly resolved to go all the way (to be Self-and God-realized).”

“That person is wisest who aspires to know God. That person is most successful who realizes God.”

Paramahansa Yogananda

ROY EUGENE DAVIS

Roy Eugene Davis was born in 1931 in Leavittsburg, Ohio, approximately 40 milessouth of Cleveland and grew up in a farming community. In his early teenage years, he attended religious ceremonies at church with his family and at the same time frequented the public library to read books on psychology, philosophy and yoga. He remembers these early years as follows: “As a child, I was self-motivated to discover the practical means by which my desire to know the purpose of my life and my relationship to God could be most quickly and efficiently fulfilled”.

He was deeply influenced by Paramahansa Yogananda's “Autobiography of a Yogi”, which he read at the age of eighteen. Intuitively knowing that Kriya Yoga path was his path, he traveled to Los Angeles, California in December 1949 to meet Yogananda and to join monastic life. He was accepted for monastic discipleship training and was blessed by Yogananda, who warned him with “You should know that this (kriya yoga) path is not one of escapism”, emphasizing that the goal of Kriya Yoga practice is not withdrawal from the world. Following Yogananda's instructions and under his supervision, Roy Eugene Davis continued his ardent endeavors for two years. In 1951, at the age of twenty-one, a few months before his guru left his body, he was ordained to teach Kriya Yoga and to initiate those who are ready. He was appointed as the minister of the Phoenix, Arizona, Self-Realization Fellowship Center in 1952. In late 1953, aware of a need to learn to live effectively in the secular world, he withdrew from the organization -but not from his relationship with the Kriya Yoga tradition or his commitment to serve. Having served in the US Army Medical Corps at Fort Riley Kansas for two years, he continued his true mission as an independent speaker and spiritual teacher.

After the transition of his guru, remaining faithful to his guru's teachings and his own observations, Roy Eugene Davis continued his services on the Kriya Yoga path. He lectured and taught in more than 100 cities in North America as well as in Japan, Brazil, Africa, Europe and India. Carrying out his true mission with patience and determination, he founded the Center for Spiritual Awareness (CSA) in Atlanta, Lakemont, in 1964. Built on a wide open space in the midst of nature, the center provides participants with the opportunity for withdrawal from the outside world and introspection. Mr. Davis is the spiritual director of the Center and organizes Kriya Yoga seminars and initiations at regular intervals every year, attending to his students individually or in groups. His books, written in clear and comprehensible style and translated into many languages, provide invaluable knowledge to interested readers. Mr. Davis has also been publishing the Truth Journal regularly and writing monthly lessons for the members of the Center all over the world. He has educated and ordained many CSA ministers, who transmit the Kriya Yoga teachings to interested persons in Kriya Yoga centers in various parts of the world.

Having initiated millions of people into the Kriya Yoga path during his dedicated services for the last 60 years, Roy Eugene Davis still widely travels in North America to support the activities in various CSA ministries. With his words, “There is no retirement for a yogi” he draws attention to the true lifestyle of dedicated passengers of eternity.

“We need not be overly concerned about the diverse opinions and modes of behavior of people who do not share our views and preferences. The paths chosen by truth seekers in their endeavors to know God are in accord with the sincerity of their desire, psychological temperament, and capacity to learn and comprehend”.

“The internal way to directly apprehend Self- and God-knowledge is that of intellectual examination of the facts of life and contemplative meditation. One who is Self-and God-realized may choose to continue to observe outer modes of ritual because of the enjoyment derived from the participation or for the benefit of others. Anchored in the Infinite, the enlightened soul is not influenced by transitory events and circumstances which occur in the mundane realm.”

“Just as God is not our opinion of what God is, neither is God the attributes or characteristics of Consciousness”.

“Pray in God, not to God.”

“The purpose of spiritual practice is not to withdraw from the world. A kriya yogi must learn to always be super-conscious while relating to others, skillfully performing ordinary duties, and living effectively with meaningful purpose”.

Roy Eugene Davis

SABİHA BETÛL

Sabiha Betûl grew up in a devout family. In her early years she was interested in the Sufi tradition, yoga and meditation techniques with an inner desire to know herself and the Supreme Truth. She became aware of her inner connection with the Kriya Yoga path after reading Paramahansa Yogananda's “Autobiography of a Yogi” and intensified her studies on yoga. She started teaching Classical Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga breathing and meditation techniques and Kriya Yoga philosophy and lifestyle in1999. In2000, she contacted Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, and became a member of Center for Spiritual Awareness, which was founded and directed by Roy Eugene Davis. On 28 April 2009, she was awarded a certificate of merit by Roy Eugene Davis in Ankara, Turkey, in the presence of Yoga Simurg Group members in recognition of her continuous efforts and unconditional services dedicated to the principles of Kriya Yoga tradition.

On the morning of 12 September 2011, Sabiha Betûl was ordained by Roy Eugene Davis at the Center for Spiritual Awareness in Atlanta as a representative of the Kriya Yoga lineage of gurus Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda and Roy Eugene Davis to initiate sincere students who possess the merit to teach Kriya Yoga philosophy and practices, and she has accepted the responsibility of carrying and transmitting the knowledge with diligence and utmost care.

“Being able to comprehend Kriya Yoga as a wholesome path embracing all other paths, as a path of sincere and dedicated devotion to the Supreme Source in any possible way, and being able to fulfill its principles in earnest loyalty is an endless and limitless state of joy and gratitude a person can witness during his/her sojourn in his/her limited body on this world. This state of joy and gratitude gives us a continuous sense of duty towards the Whole, as we embrace the Whole with compassion and share our understandings with those who are willing.”

“I bow before the truthful words of my venerable master Roy Eugene Davis: ‘There is no retirement for a yogi’. Feeling ‘comfortable’ on this planet, I choose to continue, witnessing with my devoted consciousness the materializing of all the tasks decreed by the will of the Supreme One.”

Sabiha Betûl

The information regarding the Kriya Yoga masters has been compiled from Roy Eugene Davis's talks and his book “Seven Lessons in Conscious Living”, a CSA publication.
For detailed information on Roy Eugene Davis and Center for Spiritual Awareness, please visit: www.csa-davis.org

Through introductory seminars and meetings, Sabiha Betûl informs individuals and groups who are interested in Kriya Yoga. She is currently teaching Kriya Yoga philosophy and meditation techniques to interested participants in study groups in Ankara. Participants receive the annual calendar in advance and regular attendance to classes is strongly recommended.

Roy Eugene Davis' books are used as resource books for the Kriya Yoga group studies.

Sabiha Betûl also informs interested groups and individuals through introductory conferences and meetings.

Please click here for information about Kriya Yoga seminars and group studies.