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People seeking a deeper spiritual meaning in their lives have found Kriya yoga. Yogananda brought Kriya yoga to the West in the 1920's. He established the Self-Realization Fellowship as a total yoga experience that addressed the spiritual as well as the physical, all most other western yoga disciplines concentrate on.

A Kriya yogi, as described by Yogananda, mentally moves his life energy around the six spinal centers - the medullar, dorsal, lumbar, coccygeal, cervical, and sacral plexuses. These each relate to the twelve zodiac signs. This subtle energy revolution progresses his evolution, and it is said that this 30 seconds of Kriya is equivalent to a year of natural spiritual growth.

Kriya yoga is based on Kundalina yoga and includes similar asana and meditation methods. Kriya adds some spiritual and esoteric guidelines. It does have its detractors that point out Kriya does not maintain your power comes from within, but that you need a teacher, or guru, to release your spirituality. Although it sounds like an admirable goal, Kriya's attempt to eliminate obstacles begs the question, are the obstacles there for a reason? Is the guru the right person to decide how and when to remove them? It is very important to go into Kriya yoga with a strong sense of self. Never allow another to hijack your self-determination!

Advocates of Kriya yoga believe they can achieve self-realization faster by combining three other yoga methods:

1. Karma yoga is concentrated on the movement of the soul, both out in the world and the inner actions of the mind.

2. Bhakti yoga aims to achieve peace with all the elements of your life through the power of love. It is often stated as "oneness with all creation and cosmic consciousness."

3. Jnana yoga is concerned with intellectual discipline leading to wisdom gained from spiritual knowledge giving freedom of the mind.

Thus, Kriya joins the three into a single discipline. It highlights the relationship between breath and mind. Breath control is self control. Breath mastery is self mastery.

Preparation is the first step in Kriya yoga. The body is prepared with a hatha yoga exercise routine. For beginners or the less flexible, other alternative preparation routines are provided.

Mind preparation comes next. Here you focus your mind by studying general conduct, analyzing your overall health, cleanliness and purity. You may even study your relationship to certain metaphysical principles. These reflective studies help to prepare the mind for later techniques intended to refine and improve the nervous system.

Mantras are taught in Kriya meditation in order to tune the mind and body to a single frequency. Again, the detractors point out, one must be careful that YOU are the chooser of the destination and your mind isn't being controlled by another, even a trusted other.

Although one of a handful of more controversial yoga paths, Kriya yoga has helped many attain spiritual levels they couldn't quite reach with other methods. It may be right for you, but go into it with your eyes open and your protection activated.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Yoga