MEDITATION: THE  DISCOVERY OF SELF AND DEL  SELF'  

The whole complex of yoga techniques is aimed at the purification of the different levels (kosha) that make up the human being.

The levels fade from the grossest, our physical body, to more intangible gradations, such as thought and emotions, to the spirit. Thanks to a prolonged purification over time, the functions of each level improve and better and more harmonious interrelationships are established.

Meditation is the most effective form of purification of our deep layers. We therefore work on a subtle, very subtle level, the one that represents a real gateway to the direct experience of the Absolute.

The proposed meditation is Kriya Yoga, an ancient form of meditation rediscovered by Babaji and transmitted to his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya and by him to Sri Yukteswar, master of Paramahansa Yogananda; the latter is the author of the very famous Autobiagraphy of a Yogi, a text that around the 1950s makes known to the general public the existence of a powerful technique of spiritual evolution, Kriya Yoga, in fact.

It is useless to look for the detailed description of the technique in this text: in order to safeguard the intrinsic power of the practices, the author adheres to a consolidated basic yogic rule, namely their oral transmission.

Kriya comes from the Sanskrit root kr which expresses concepts such as doing, acting and which is found in words dear to the spiritual tradition as karma (law of cause and effect) or, in a more specifically yogic context, shatkarma or shatkriya, both terms which refer to a series of actions for the purification of body and mind.

Regardless of the tradition of origin, in all meditative practices the mind is confined to a narrow and non-dispersive space that represents the field of exploration and profound transformation of the human complex and where contact with the cosmic principle is ultimately possible. causal, or the Absolute.

As supports for mental concentration, Kriya Yoga uses mudras and mantras, powerful tools for the exploration of subtle levels, a meeting point between psychic and cosmic forces as well as concentrates of the individual's evolutionary power. The practice of Kriya Yoga is a real fire ritual *, a sacred space in which we have the opportunity to burn everything the ego feeds on (patterns, limits, dissociations, distorted visions ...) and establish an intimate and profound relationship with our sacred part in order to draw on the maximum results promised by the yoga discipline:  liberation in life.

by Rossana Dall'Armellina

* Paramahansa Yogananda Autobiography of a Yogi, Ed. Astrolabio 1951 p.233

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