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We received many messages from folks who are interested in Guest Blogging here, and have short listed some of these to be featured in our forthcoming posts ...
Here is our first Guest Blog post by Johnny Krajewski on the history of the Sovereign Science of Kriya Yoga ... Since its quite a lengthy article, we intend to post it in parts ...
THE HISTORY AND SOVEREIGN SCIENCE OF KRIYA YOGA
INTRODUCTION
The use of psychedelic drugs has been demonized in this culture whereby a scientific exploration of the medicinal and psychological benefits derive from using psychedelics in a controlled situation has alluded the scientific community. Lately there've been a few case studies of LSD, Psilocybin and MDMA hopefully will come to a time where the true benefits of these substances will be made available without criminal consequences.
I discovered powerful Kriya yoga practices while under the influence of LSD in the early 60s. This encouraged me to seek other ways and means to acquire or these states of openness and ecstasy. I spent years studying yoga with kundalini masters. I found that the very same states that would occur with powerful psychoactive substances could also be experienced through the breath. I revisited entheogens in the 90s when ecstasy became popular. I found that taking ecstasy; I could relax and be aware in a particular way of my central nervous system. It was extremely beneficial to learn how to conduct the breath with the pranic energy. I find the use moderate use of plant medicine intensifies the Kriya practice. Our body mind remembers these states. After all they are what are within us. Plant Medicine only can act as a catalyst to what is already there. We have DMT, Dopamine and serotonin that are produced in our bodies. The Kriya practice is one that enables us to activate these neuron transmitters.
Now I don’t use the powerful elixirs but have found I can attain the same states with out the use of drugs. Sometimes a very homeopathic dose is useful.
I love the opening of the heart, which Kriya yoga has exemplified in my life. The search for enlightenment or special states of consciousness is a distraction from the practice itself. You miss being in the moment and are fixated on some future event. or attainment.
In seeing the futility of the search for enlightenment and coming to know myself and accept myself in all ways, I still maintain this practice out of love of the Divine. Kriya Yoga is an ancient science that activates higher qualities of mind and being.
To do a practice without seeking any attainment from it. Is a challenge. But it is very simple. It is just for the love of doing the practice itself.
As a yogi I learned to play this body instrument diving deeply into the depths of the human condition to heights of the God light.
If this book can be of assistance to others who are on the path of yoga and psychedelics I would be over joyed. It is my love for the sovereign science and art of Kriya Yoga that has prompted me to write this book.
1. The History Theory and Science of Kriya Yoga
The history of Kriya yoga is as old as the history of man. When I was an oriental art dealer. I found in ancient shamanic art of the far eastern cultures statuary that depicted deep psychedelic states or Kriya yoga. Practice. More then likely using both plant medicine and Kriya Yoga. You can recognize the facial expressions a grimace or ecstasy maybe a mixture of both. On the tantric Buddhist deities you see the tong curled up and pressed on the upper palate, which is part of the practice. The wild eyes of the wisdom beholding ditties are very similar to the opening of the pupil in deep psychedelic trance.
Recently while at an art exhibit of Toltec an Olmec cultures I saw the same expressions. I have found references to the body of light in all of the religions. The exact process or practice in its earliest forms has been recorded in India in Tamil Nadu. They have a history of enlightened beings called Siddhas. Their history borders on myth and imagination. They are said to have come from the gods and are from different stellar systems. They are known in all ancient cultures as Gods. Whether the culture is Egyptian, Greek, Zoroastrians or native cultures. They appear in the very psyche of man.
The Tamil Nadu Siddhas have a historical legacy that was recorded on palm leaves. These ancient scripts are in a library in Tamil Nadu India and are still being translated. They brought science, medicine, yoga and alchemy to teach the transformation of body being into a being of light.
The history of the Siddha tradition begins millions of years ago with the story of Lord Shiva's initiation of his consort or Shakti, Parvati Devi, into Kriya Kundalini Pranayama (the scientific art of mastering the breath) in a huge cave at Amarnath in the Kashmir Himalayas (Ramaiah, 1968, p. 108). Later Yogi Shiva initiated others, including the Siddha Agastyar and the Siddhas Nandi Devar and Thirumoolar on Mount Kailas in Tibet. Agastyar subsequently initiated Babaji. Who taught Kriya yoga to lay men through Lahiri Mahsai in the 19th century.
The attainment of the 18 Siddhas and Babaji has been the result of the grace of God and the Kriyas or techniques used by them to prepare their lower bodies for the descent of the Divinity. Collectively, the techniques are known as "Kriya Yoga Siddhantham", which means, the practical yoga techniques bringing about final perfection in the realization of God or Truth. The use of “Medicine” for spiritual and emotional unfolding is stated in poems and the plant medicines used are unknown at this time. Alchemical transformation was kept secret in ancient cultures. Two types of medicine which refer to very powerful psychedelics are Soma and Kriya Kalpa treatment.
We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods. What can hatred and the malice of a mortal do to us now, O immortal one?
- Rig Veda (c.1000 BC)
The soma plant, the process of manufacturing its juice and the drinking of it, are the recurring themes of the 9th Mandala of the Rig Veda. Because of its association with higher consciousness and the inability of spiritual seekers and health researchers to locate its habitat, scholars have speculated that soma is actually everything from a hallucinogen found in a genus of mushroom to a form of water reed or even a type of honey. That is likely because the verses in the 9th Mandala poetically describe it in such as way as to make it appear in many forms. But perhaps this is simply because the Tamil Siddhas often couched their formulas in obscure and poetic language, opening a wide door to interpretation by subsequent translators.
Medicine is that which treats the disorders of the physical body;
Medicine is that which treats the disorders of the mind,
Medicine is that which prevents illness;
Medicine is that which enables immortality.
How advanced was the Siddhas' conception of medicine when compared to that of "modern" medicine, which only in this century has included mental illness within its scope of treatment, and has not yet begun to conceive of physical immortality.
In developing and experimenting with the yogic Kriyas (techniques) the Siddhas acquired much knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, as well as in the fields of medicine and the processes of rejuvenation.
The Siddha System of Medicine, or "Siddha Vaidya"
In the Siddha system, Chemistry was developed as a science auxiliary to Medicine and Alchemy. It was found useful in the preparation of medicines for curing all sorts of sufferings, spiritual as well as corporeal and also in transmutation of baser metals into gold. The transformation into gold symbolically relates to the energy body in man.
The knowledge of plants and minerals was of a very high order. The processes like calcification of mercury, minerals and metals and the preparation of a super salt known as "muppu", the description of mupu sounds like it had a high mineral amino-acid base, and more than likely stimulated the growth hormone. They utilized animated Mercury pills with high potency possessing marvelous properties of transmuting metals and capable of rejuvenating the entire human system were unknown to other medical systems of India or other countries. Using such special salts as well as herbal formulae the Siddhas developed the unique science of rejuvenation, known as "kaya kalpa", which allowed them to prolong their lives until the long term effects of Kriya Kundalini Pranayama and similar yogic practices could complete the process of transformation, bringing about physical immortality. The emphasis was to crystallize in our consciousness our body ... being as pure energy. The very cells of the body would glow.
"Oh God! The Eternal Love, just to bestow upon me the golden body, you, the Universal Love have merged with my heart. Allowing Yourself to be infused in me, Oh Supreme Love. You with the Light of Grace have alchemized my body." - Canto 6, chapter 1, verse 480.
Most tribal societies living in nature used psychoactive substances as part of their spiritual practice or to contact the Gods... The use of psychoactive drugs has been with men since the dawn of creation. How can we apply the ancient practices and the modern drugs and supplements to enhance our vitality and open ourselves to the Body of Light?
You can reach John at [email protected] or find him on Facebook ...
... to be continued in the next blog post, Psychedelic Kriya Yoga - Part 2
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