KRIYA PRANAYAMA FROM BOOKS

It was during those months that, after having bought the works of
Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and a beautiful book with comments to
Patanjalis Yoga Sutras - the ancient work, fundamental to understand the
foundations of Yoga, especially Pranayama - I finally decided to buy the
autobiography of an Indian saint, a book I had already seen some years before
without buying it.
I was fond only of practical manuals but then I thought I might find out useful
information, such as the addresses of some good schools of Yoga. The author
whom I will indicate by P.Y. [see the note at the end of the chapter] was an expert
of that kind of Pranayama, which was first taught by Lahiri Mahasaya and
called Kriya Yoga.
He wrote that this technique could be mastered by gradually practicing four stages
of it: this sparked my curiosity; I loved Pranayama, and just the idea of
improving it sounded amazingly wondrous.
If the techniques I had already practiced gave me such incomparable
results, it was obvious that that four-stage system would make them greater
and greater; Lahiri Mahasaya was described as the incarnation of Yoga:
this led me to think that there must have been something unique in his
"way"!
On one side, I went on reading all the books I could find written by this Master [a
few of them were in Italian, some in English]; on the other side I began to explore
as much literature as I could find about Yoga.
16

Reading P.Y., I was amazed by a personality with unequalled will and an

unexpected practical spirit. Studying his writings would not excite me when he
spoke on a purely devotional tone, but it did whenever he assumed a more
technical tone, making it possible for me to get at some aspects of the subtle art of
Kriya - I considered it an art in continuous refinement, instead of a religious
engagement.
I was impressed by the strength with which the author highlighted the
evolutionary value of Pranayama, not just including a mans spiritual side but
his physical and mental sides too.
He explained that if we compare the human spinal column to a
ferromagnetic substance constituted, as taught by Physics, of elementary
magnets that turn toward the same direction when they are overlapped by a
magnetic field, then, the action of Pranayama is akin to this process of
magnetization. It was implicit, during this practice, to concentrate on the
inner energy and make it rotate, somehow, around the Chakras.
By uniformly redirecting all the "subtle" parts of our spinal cords physical
and astral essence, Pranayama would burn the so-called "bad seeds" of
Karma.
[It is good to remember that the concepts of Reincarnation and Karma are the
bases of the Indian thought and of Lahiri Mahasaya himself; that is why it is
worth speaking freely of it, even if Kriya is a practice that can be experimented
without necessarily having to accept any creeds. It is important to underline this
last fact whenever we stick to the common belief that a person inherits a baggage
of latent tendencies from his previous lives and that, sooner or later, these
tendencies are to come out in actual life. According to this belief, Pranayama
burns out the effects of the "bad seeds" just before they become manifest in our
lives.
It is further explained that those people who are instinctively attracted by methods
of spiritual development such as Kriya, have already practiced something similar
in a "precedent incarnation". This is because such an action is never in vain and in
the actual life they get back to it exactly where, in a remote past, they quit it.]
Now, my compelling problem was whether I had to leave or not for India and
look for a Teacher who would give me all the clarifications about Kriya. At that
time, planning to get through very soon with my university studies, I excluded a
journey in the near future.
17

I rather chose to remain here and try to improve my Pranayama, using all the
books I could find about Yoga, no matter what language they would be written
in.
The question was, how could I transform my practice so that it could have
the power to move and rotate the inner energy around the Chakras?
If this had to be - as stated by P.Y. - a universal process, there was no
doubt that I would find traces of it through other sources and perhaps I
would be able to discern the whole system of Kriya in its subtle four
phases.
There was something locked in a corner of my memory which became alive
again. When I was a child, I used to read everything I came on to, especially
books censored by the Church or considered strongly unsuited for my age
anyway; I was proud to practice a total freedom of choice and I was not open to
any advice. I wasted a lot of time on poor readings. In that great heap of books it
was impossible to distinguish in advance between the valuable ones and the many
other ones which, through tantalizing titles, contained but tall stories, impossible
chimeras aimed at stunning people. In the end I felt I had travelled through an
indistinct chaos. I had the bitter feeling that the most precious secrets were still
hidden in some other esoteric books, which I was not lucky enough to find.
Now, I vaguely remembered seeing some drawings, somewhere, sketching out the
profile of a person and the different circuits of energetic movement through his
body. The idea came to seek the needed information in the esoteric books rather
than in the classic books on Yoga.
I started going to a resale of used books; it was very well furnished, probably
because it had once been the Theosophical Societys reference bookstore. I turned
down the texts dealing only with philosophical topics, while, in ecstasy and not
concerned by the time, I kept on skimming through the books which clearly
illustrated practical exercises.
Before purchasing a book I made sure it hinted at the possibility of driving the
energy along certain internal channels, of creating a distinct action on the
Kundalini energy and of arousing it.
Since my first visit, I had been very lucky; while reading the index of a text in
three volumes, introducing the esoteric thought of a famous
18

Brotherhood, I was attracted by the title Breathing exercise for the

awakening of Kundalini.
Of the more than one thousand pages, only two or three of them were worth
reading. They contained a variation of Nadi Sodhana; this was, according to
the authors, the secret to wake the mysterious energy!
Ill try to reconstruct the technique by sheer memory, being no longer practicing
it. During the inhalation through the left nostril, an energetic current is imagined
coming in through the nose and down to the base of the spinal column. The sacred
syllable Om is to be pronounced three times, thereby visualizing and striking the
Muladhar Chakra.
Then, exhaling, a current starting from the Muladhar and going up into the
body, and particularly into the spine, is to be felt.
Some notes warned not to exaggerate with the exercise, because of the risk of a
premature Kundalinis awakening. This was to be avoided by all means.
Definitely, this was not P.Y.s Kriya because, according to several clues, Kriya
was not to be done through the alternate-nostril breathing.
So, I went on haunting the bookstore; the owner was very nice with me and I felt
almost obliged, also considering the cheap price and the perfect conditions of
those second-hand books, to buy at least a book per each visit. But sometimes I
got very disappointed; a lot of space was usually reserved to theories alien from
concrete life, which tried to describe what cannot be seen and what cannot be
experienced, the astral worlds, the subtle coverings of energy wrapping our body,
whereas precise practical instructions were put in an appendix.
Among these theories, some had hypnotic names but they were only visualization
exercises; through them, practitioners hoped to materialize their desires and
projects.
One day, after a tiresome selection, I went to the storekeeper holding a book in
my hand; he must have realized that I was not convinced about buying it; so,
while deciding the price, he remembered something that might interest me.
He led me to the rear, inviting me to rummage in a messy heap of notes within a
carton box. Among a consistent quantity of miscellaneous material (complete
series of the theosophical magazine issues, scattered notes from an old course of
hypnosis, etc.) I came on a booklet, written in German by a certain K.
Spiesberger, which illustrated some Mantras and
19

some esoteric techniques. In the beginning I ran onto the Kundalinibreathing.

I did not have much familiarity with the German language, but I immediately
realized the extraordinary importance of that technique; I would undoubtedly
decipher all of it at home, with the help of a good dictionary.
[I cannot help smiling when some half-hearted people insist that they are fond of
Kriya, yet they will not study some crucial texts in English because they are
afraid to misinterpret them. I am convinced that their interest is superficial and
rather emotive. Such was my enthusiasm, that I would have studied Sanskrit or
Chinese or any other language, if that had given me the chance to understand an
essential text on Pranayama!
The description of the Kundalini Breathing still amazes me; the author, in
fact, was not as close to Lahiri Mahasayas Kriya as to the version that P.Y.
brought west. During a deep inhalation, the air was to be imagined flowing up the
spinal column, abandoning its habitual course; the visualization of this as an
empty tube was therefore prescribed and, inhaling, the air was to be imagined
streaming along it from its base all the way up to the area between the eyebrows;
then, exhaling, the air had to go down back to the base, along the same route.]
In another book, in English, there was an exhaustive description of the Magic
breath - more or less the same exercise.
[In it, the difference was in feeling the energy "around" the backbone, not inside
of it, following an elliptic path. Through the inhalation, the energy had to go up
behind the spinal column, to the center of the head; exhaling, it had to go down
along the front part of the body, just as in the "Microcosmic Orbit" technique
which is described in the Internal Alchemy texts - the mystic tradition of ancient
China.]
I forgot about the other material. The smirk of satisfaction I wore before the
storekeeper, as if I had found a treasure of unfathomable value, definitely caused
an increase of their price.
Walking home, I could not help skimming through the pages; I was curious about
some rough drawings illustrating techniques which were based on the movement
of energy.
Something that I had read, on the value of the Magic breath, filled me with
much higher enthusiasm; that was one of the most hidden secrets in the
20

esoteric schools of all times. If practiced constantly,

accompanied by the strength of visualization, it would
produce a sort of internal substance allowing for the
spiritual eyes vision.
Studying closely these two techniques at home, I
convinced myself that the Magic breath technique must
have surely been Lahiri Mahasayas Kriya, while the
Kundalini Breathing was a variation of it. I just
practiced it for some months.
I was in seventh heaven, because the practice began to
give me some extremely beautiful moments; I felt as if my
perception of things had changed. Looking around, at the
leaves and at some flowers, I tried to enjoy the warmth of
the most intense colours, as if they had reflected my inner
radiance.
The practice of Yoga was gradually coming into my life
as an integration. More and more often I had the chance to
notice a change in my minds global functioning memory, concentration, etc. I could especially see this
during my exams. A few minutes before an examination, a
little bit of Pranayama would endow me with a sudden
calm and self-possession, no matter what the questions
and the examiners attitude were.
I would not feel nervous at all. I was able to maintain the
necessary selfcontrol to master my speech, often
succeeding in expressing clearly not only what I knew, but
also something more, which just then seemed to become
evident for the first time.

With this experience, a new era began. In the

meantime, spring returned and, with it, the habit to
practise, especially towards sunset, in the open country.
At the end of the practice, moving my sight around, a
landscape might appear among the leaves: a group of
distant houses surrounding a bell- tower. I would close my
eyes and rely on an inner radiance. I was merged in
ecstasy!
Through that "light" I could easily cross the wall of my
psychological
life.
I recall how, during one quiet afternoon amid some trees,
just before sunset, the words of a book, a philosophical
comment to some Upanishads, came up my mind and I
started to repeat them: Thou are that.