Nitya Kriyas for the Initiated Sadhakas

Timings of Sadhana Kriya

Though sadhana can be anytime or all the time, but periods of early morning or Brahma Muhurta (before sunrise) and early evening or sunset are the most important periods of doing sadhana. Among these two, the time of early morning is the best. During such time, our susumna nadi is naturally active and we should engage ourselves in doing sadhana as instructed by our guru. Interestingly, Mounibaba says that many advanced yogis visit the world during early morning in their ethereal bodies and they bless specially who are doing sadhana at this time. Great benefit could be gained by just sitting on the asana and praying to these higher souls. Mounibaba further says that if the room starts to smell differently or very nicely suddenly without any external source during such time, then understand that you came to their sight of compassion and they will definitely help you in your sadhana progress. Hence everyone must attempts to wake up from bed at around 3 or 3:30 am and then start sadhana, after doing daily morning activities.

Kapal Bhati

Mounibaba kindly taught us this ancient technique of Kapal Bhati. In usual Kapal Bhati, you have to forcefully exhale and cleanse all blockages from your skull, even though it cleanse all body parts and nadis eventually. But our technique is a bit easier, faster and gives more benefits.

Do gargle of warm water first for few rounds. Then slowly and gradually insert the thumb (make sure nail is polished) facing upwards and keep on rubbing the thumb on the upper palates. Try to insert the thumb slowly as deep as you can go. In initial days, you will surely vomit while doing this kriya, where many toxic elements get purged out. Hence make drink some glasses of warm water before doing this kriya. This surely cleanses many nadis inside and finally opens the mouth of Brahma Nadi inside susumna. It removes many diseases from the body.

After doing for some days, you won’t vomit even if you are full after lunch. This shows progress in this sadhana and your nadis getting cleared. Not required to do for long. Continue doing this for some days daily, then decrease frequency to one day in a week, and then may be once in a month. Then you might need to do any time even.

Tri Pranayam

Before starting any Kriya, Puja or Mantra Jap, one must open the path of susumna first to allow the flow of energy in the right channel, else not much benefit is gained. How do we understand that the susumna is active? When we see that air is flowing equally via both the nostrils, then we should understand that the susuma is active now and we should continue doing our sadhana. Also on activation of susumna, mind becomes very calm and meditative and some might also feel some the starting of some tingling sensation in the spine and at various chakras of us. Overall, this is the right time to start our sadhana.
Tri Pranayam as the name suggests, three pranayam. Pranayam means Rechaka (controlled inhalation), Kumbhaka (controlled retention), and Puraka (controlled exhalation). In Tri Pranayam, our dear Gurudasji cancelled the Kumbhaka part and just asked to do rechaka and puraka. 
Inhale from the left nostril carefully and safely, by closing the right nostril with thumb. Then exhale from the right nostril by closing the left nostril with other fingers. Then inhale from right nostril and then exhale from left nostril. This completes one round. So do this three rounds. Within three rounds, you will surely start to feel kriya starting inside your body. If you still feel that both the nostrils are still uneven, then do it three or four times more. For advanced sadhaka, just by doing once, the susumna gets opened. Further, sometimes without doing any such, they are still amazed to see their susumna open by the grace of Guru Kripa. If we are under sadguru, then yogic kriyas automatically happen within our body without us doing anything. We just need total devotion at the lotus feet of Sri Guru.

 

Omkar Dhyan

 After doing opening the mouth of Susumna by tri pranayam, it’s time to make our mind more tranquil and peaceful, such that it allows and helps us to concentrate on God. The restless mind is the source of all distress in our life. Krishna says that when our mind gets peaceful it becomes our greatest friend, else it is the greatest enemy of our life. 

Visualize a red glowing ball in our navel centre in the mind’s eye and keep focusing on it. We will surprised to see that how quickly our mind is getting absorbed into a state of meditation and the length of the breath will keep on decreasing. We will also notice that our abdomen is getting pulled back inside, as more breath is coming out and getting shorter. You might also feel a pull at your mooladhar chakra. Hence just by concentrating on the navel in a red color (red since, red is the color of manipura chakra and red is the fire element), mool bandh and uddiayana bandh is being done automatically. If the divine mother graces us, then she might rise into navel centre with this meditation, and you might feel a hot air rising above and a burning sensation in the entire body might be felt. 

If you are interested to go above, then come to anahata chakra and start chanting your diksha mantra there. You can also visualize the image of your istha dev like Radha Krishna standing on a lotus inside a big white halo. You might also write the mantra in mind’s eye in a golden colour and keep on chanting or do both. You can also visualize your guru murti inside and serve him in mental space as the manas puja. So its upto you, how comfortable you are with doing kriyas and for advanced sadhaka, they might do all kriyas at once together. But run at your pace! You will progress shortly by the grace of sadguru. At anahata, you will listen to various naads as well, might encounter some jyoti, etc. Overall, its more like a dream world, where you are doing sadhana and increasing your sattva gun by Bhakti. The more the anahata chakra opens, more the blissful sadhak becomes.

If you would still like to continue above, then come to ajna chakra and do dhyan here. If your below chakras are clear and open, the kundalini will easily reach ajna chakra. It is more of a place of knowledge. When all prana along with kundalini rises to ajna chakra, you get Khechari Siddhi or the ability to enter the inner sky. Here you might taste nectar of the soul. It is completely at the progress of sadhaka, how much he can witness at this stage and nothing much instruction can be shared, since it is completely internal. The guru keeps on guiding the sadhak from inside, all depends on the devotion of the disciple. When one gets Khechari Siddhi, Murcha happens or a kind of faintness happens to the sadhak. The sadhak will start forgetting everything and no external senses would prevail, but he would be alive completely inside. But when he comes back to normal senses, it would be very difficult for the sadhak to remember everything. 

Now one might be doing doing kriyas for many months or years, still he might not feel anything at all. No experiences have come to the sadhak yet. In such cases, he should self introspect more and understand if anything wrong is happening. He should also try to check if he is doing any aparadha to anyone and most importantly to his guru, since without complete faith and devotion to guru and without his grace, no one can move even an inch in sadhana. Further, when bad Prarabdha karmas are remaining, experiences dont come easily. And sometimes, Sri Guru keeps the disicple one step down intentionally, since he wants the sadhak to do external work more and complete his duties in life first. Since once real experiences start to unfold, it is very difficult to do outside work. Also it’s very risky to reach higher places beyond or at ajna chakra in the initial days. The new sadhak doesn’t know how to handle and control himself, when kriyas start unfolding. He might even die if he gets into nirvikalpa, since he doesn’t know how to come back. Hence we must be in regular touch with guru and consult regularly with him with all our doubts. We must inform him about our progress and he mercifully keeps advising us. 

Till anahata chakra, it is completely safe to do and the sadhaka must do. But before proceeding above, one must consult Sri Guru.

Mantra Jap

Your guru has mercifully initiated you with the Diksha Mantra out of his boundless compassion. Since you received this mantra from sadguru, hence it is a siddha mantra and you require no purascharan or anusthan (ritual) to make this mantra living. The mantra is already living inside you and guru has unleashed the power of Kundalini in it. The more you do mantra jap, the more your progress spiritually. It clears the unlimited patterns of your mind or samskaras gained over a millions of lifetimes. It clears the path of susumna and other nadis such that prana can flow easily. Finally chanting the mantra awakens the kundalini shakti, breaks the three granthis (Brahma Granthi at Manipur Chakra, Vishnu Granthi at Anahat Chakra and Rudra Granthi at Ajna Chakra) within you and the mother goddess rises till the Sahasrara to Samadhi. When the potential of the mantra is unleashed fully, the mantra will vibrate automatically and spontaneously within you along with the melodies of various Anahat Naad like veena, drums, bee sound and finally the sound of Krishna’s flute. Refer to this song of Gurudas – https://sriamm.com/2024/04/25/lyrics-antare-baje-go-binay/ 
 

However concentrating the mind on the mantra is the ultimate thing. Krishna says in Bhagavat Gita to make attempts and try to focus the mind on him, but he never says “focus the mind on him”. He asks to try, since he knows very well that the conditional jivas are incapable of doing such. So when we try and progress one step towards God, the God approaches ten steps towards us to take us back to his abode, the ultimate abode of liberation.

The Mantra Jap must be done, even by the liberated souls. When one is in complete knowledge, he attains complete devotion towards God, as confirmed by Sri Krishna in Gita. Then one is bound to do naam jap and he sinks into an ocean of joy serving the Yugal Kishore in his mental space. Similarly, the mantra jap is required even for the conditional souls who are not liberated yet. If one doesn’t do any yogic kriya and just keeps on doing mantra jap with true devotion, he will also eventually get the highest stage, since yogic kriyas automatically starts within us, when we do mantra jap with full devotion to guru and ista dev. However, neither full devotion nor expertise at yogic kriyas come initially, hence Gurudev suggest us to combine both and do our daily kriyas.


There are various methods mentioned in the shastras and by the saints out of sheer compassion. 

Various Techniques of Naam Jap

Omkar Jap
Inhale by taking a long breath and then loudly Chant Omkar by focusing the mind on the sound of Pranava or Omkar. Now try to chant the mantra in the vibration of the Omkar Sound. You can continue with the steps mentioned in Omkar Dhyan above
Ajapa Jap
Chant the mantra mentally in each inhalation and exhalation. By doing this, pranayam happens naturally. If you are comfortable, then to try to repeat mantra more in the inhalations and exhalations. At a certain stage, you might feel doing kumbhaka. Then while doing kumbhak (external or internal), repeat the mantras as per your limit. Don’t push hard in kumbhak, since it might cause many diseases, if done wrongly. Hence always do within your comfort zone. If mind gets more calm, then yogic kriyas will automatically start within you by guru kripa.
Mala Jap
You can keep a tulasi mala or a rudraksha mala with you and chant the mantra mentally with the mala. You can do ajapa by keeping a count on the mala as well.
Just Chant
If you are just confused and the above steps seems very difficult to you, then just chant! Forget everything, all your external world, etc. and just chant! Gradually with the mercy of God and Guru, you will find yourself blessed. But the mantra must be chanted, no matter even if it feels like a poison to you. The mantra always works, it’s like a fire that is burning the wood. If the wood is wet, then it will take some time, dry up the water first and then burn it out. But ultimately it will burn up the entire wood, since fire spares no one. Similarly the mantra also burns out all our past samskaras and finally the fire of kundalini rises.
 
 

Omkar Jap

Do loud recitation of “Hom” Beej for sometime, stroking the navel with each loud sound of elongated “Hoooom”. It’s also suggested to visualize red ball at the navel while doing this. “Hom” is the beej akshara of Lord Shiva. As per shastras, only a husband can wake up his wife according to moral conduct. Hence Shiva wakes up the sleeping Kundalini MahaShakti from Mooladhar, and she rises to Manipur. When she rises sadhaka will automatically feel mool bandh and uddiyana band in him. 

Now do loud “Om” jap and take her to ajna chakra. Initially do some omkar at navel in the red ball for sometimes, then come to anahata chakra and do omkar there. You can also chant mantra at anahat, visualize guru or Radha Krishna here and do manas puja. Then when the dhyan gets more intense, come to ajna chakra and do omkar here. Then savikalpa samadhi is easily attained. Also keep listening to the anahata naad going inside with omkar jap, which manifests at a later stage though. After sometimes, you wont be able to do omkar physically, since external sense will go away. Hence just keep listening to the naad, till the mind completely dissolves to Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Bandhatray Mahamudra

Mudra Sadhan are recommended only for the advanced sadhak, who can do the difficult sadhanas of Hatha Yoga. Without doing these, you can still go higher, since such kriyas will automatically start happen to you subtly. But explicitly doing these, also helps you in increasing your prana shakti more and lots of benefits are there. You can read yogic texts like Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Shiva Samhita, Gherand Samhita, etc and learn more about the benefits.

Mool Bandh – Contraction of Perenium

Uddiyana Bandh – Contraction of the abdomen inside 

Jalandhar Bandh – Contraction of the neck or rest the neck at the chest by putting your head down

 

Apply mool bandh, uddiyana bandh and jalandhar bandh at the same time and stay in this position of external retention, as long as you are comfortable. Great bliss is attained by this kriya. For advanced sadhakas, they can remain at this position for more than 2 hours at one go. To them, Kevali Kumbhak is attained, which helps them to stay without external breath for hours, with the help of internal breath or prana. All blockages of susumna gets cleared and kundalini keeps on going up and down giving great joy to the sadhaka. All benefits of omkar sadhana is gained here, but jalandhara should be released, one wishes to go beyond ajna. Such pranayam should be learned only from guru.

Jalandhar Bandh

If you are unable to do the above, then just keep doing doing Jalandhar Bandh in whatever kriya you do. In Jalandhar, do mantra jap. In Jalandhar, do omkar. In Jalandhar, do dhyan. By doing Jalandhar Bandh (the throat lock), great benefits are gained. One can stay forever young and increase the life span by doing Jalandhar Bandh. It stops the decay of nectar to fall and burn in the fire of Manipurak Chakra, and increases our life span. The mind stays calm and great meditation can be done.

Some Important Pranayam 

Antah Kumbhak

After some time, kumbhak should also be practised, since it will help in raising the prana to higher centres. But should be done, only if advised by guru. Else wrong kumbhak can does more wrong than the benefits. Inhale forcefully (never for beginners) and bring in all subtle prana to higher centres at ajna chakra. Now keep doing dhyana here in kumbhaka for as long as you can stay. Advanced sadhakas stay for more than 2-3 hours and then finally get samadhi in pranayam. Mounibaba left his mortal body in Mahasamadhi, by doing this kriya only.

Hamsa Jap

Another easy kriya, that can be done by anyone. Just observe the natural inhalation and exhalation of the nostrils. Feel that ‘So’ sound is being made on inhalation and ‘ham’ sound is being made at exhalation. After sometimes, the length of the breath will reduce and the breath will become very fast. Instantly a meditative state will engulf you and you might lucky enough to listen to the “Hamsa” dhwani inside you in a state of samadhi, which then finally gets converted to Omkar, and then into the soundless state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. This is not very recommended in our ashram, but it greatly helps the sadhak attaining a “laya” state of mind. The main goal is to dissolve the mind by any means. Hence Lord Shiva kindly gave us so many laya yoga techniques.

Bhastrika

Don’t do it always. Only few rounds, may be once in a week. Forcefully inhale and exhale first like a engine and bring in the storm of prana inside. Then inhale forcefully and retain the breath as long as you can. Then very slowly release the breath. It removes and burns all impurities inside and greatly clears our Nadis.

Ujjayi 

For those, whose nose remains always congested due to sinus, or issues like polyps or deviated septum, it is very difficult to breath, what to say about doing pranayam. Hence to relief them, ujjayi helps a lot in inhaling maximum amount of air. Inhale through the nose, by making a sonorous sound at the throat, like the sound of an ocean. Also expand the belly when you inhale and deflate it when you exhale. Try to feel that prana is rising above from root chakra or navel chakra to ajna chakra or sahsrara during inhalation and then exhale bring down the prana from top to bottom. You can also chant the mantra mentally during each cycle. A little retention at each inhalation and exhalation is also very useful. It enhances the fire of manipura chakra and kundalini rises fast to ajna and dissolving the mind.

Shitali

Mostly recommended to do in summer times to cool the body and to remove the tendency of thirst. Inhale through the mouth by making a small hole through the lips and tongue. Hold for sometime in kumbhaka and then exhale through nose. Do it two or three times and see the magic! Not necessary to do during daily kriyas, but it’s good to know since a helpful resource in case of need

Trataka

Not necessary! But again great benefits can be attained through this. High amount of tejas is stored at your eyesight and wonders can be done. Great concentration of mind is achieved by this. If the mind is very unstable, trataka should be done to keep in under control.
Focus on a small object like a pin, black dot, etc for atleast 4-5 mins without blinking the eye, till the tears come out. Initially tears will come out early and eyelids will fall, but with practice the time gets increased. Then you can experiment, if you got trataka siddhi. Just stare at a cat or a dog at their eyes and see their reaction. If you got siddhi, then they won’t be able to handle your tejas and they will bow down. You can also control the snakes and command them to do anything as your wish. They will work, as if hypnotised. The saints who stay in jungle protect themselves from dangerous wild animals like tiger, bear, etc by this tratak siddhi.
You can also do tratak at your shadow for long and then look at the open sky in the morning. You might see your Chaya Purush or projection of your astral body in various colours.
There are various applications of trataka, like healing, seeing aura of self or others, predicting future diseases, seeing astral beings around, etc. But the main goal should be to concentrate our mind and helping in our higher sadhanas.

Kirtan

Mounibaba suggested to do kirtan daily once. Be it Bhajan, Naam Kirtan or Lila Kirtan, it greatly increases our devotion. Music is the language of soul and hence anahata naad and everything. Music only gives bliss to the soul. By doing kirtan, many transcendental states can be attained by the grace of the Lord. Sometimes, the devotee cries, sometimes his body shakes, sometimes his voice chokes, sometimes he faints. All transcendental symptoms of devotion appear in the devotee and his state can never be explained. Be it Radha Krishna Kirtan, Matri Sangit (song of the mother), Shiv Kirtan, Guru Kirtan etc. The state of the devotee is unexplainable. Many sins are burned into ashes, huge prana starts flowing inside him. Not only kirtan, but shlokas can also be sung and same benefit is attained. The kundalini dances aggressively inside the body when bhava arises and finally putting the sadhaka into the state of Bhava Samadhi. He might also get darshan of his dear Lord, his guru, many other saints, devas etc during the kirtan. No wonder, the place where such a devotee stays become the Vrindavan Dham. Who can explain completely the glories of Harinaam Sankirtan, kindly brought by Gourango Mahaprabhu to us, the fallen souls of Kali Yuga? Gurudas says, people used to feel Krishna Lila and Goura Lila simultaneously while doing kirtan infront of Mounibaba. Once Gurudas was in a 13 hours bhava samadhi during the famous kirtan of 1977 at Ranibari Dham. During the kirtan of 1989, some people commented he got the disease of epilepsy, since two or three strong man combinedly were not able to control the body of Gurudas, which was shaking intolerably. Some thought he might have passed away, when his Bhava Samadhi was not breaking. Then Mounibaba brought him back. Who can glorify completely the glories of such Siddha Vaishnavas? 

 

Final Words

You might noticed that there is a common theme which is revolving around all the kriyas and many things are being repeated or many things are being done at once. You noticed it correct! In the initial days, sadhak learns various kriyas. But as he progress, he combines many kriyas and do at once. The goal is to raise the kundalini from mooladhar to sahsrara, where dissolution of mind happens in the sky of Para Brahman, enlightening us in the true knowledge and devotion. The main goal of the mantra jap is to awaken our dormant love for Radha and Krishna and serving them in our highest sense of consciousness. It’s very difficult to distinguish between knowledge and devotion at the highest stage, though these two paths initially seem to poles separate. Knowledge is bound to come for a true devotee and opposite is also true. Just the dry knowledge of Brahma is not enough to fulfill the bliss desire of the soul, hence the God does divine pastimes to solace the cries of the soul and increases his bliss tremendously.

 

All the best! Jay guru!