Kriya Yoga is described by its practitioners as the ancient Yoga system revived in modern times by Mahavatar Babaji through his disciple Lahiri Mahasaya, c. 1861. It was brought into popular awareness through Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi and through Yogananda's introduction of the practice to America in 1920. The system consists of a number of levels of Pranayama based on techniques that are intended to rapidly accelerate spiritual development and engender a profound state of tranquility and God-communion.
Yogananda attributes Kriya Yoga to his lineage of gurus, deriving it via Yukteswar Giri and Shyamacharan Lahiri from Mahavatar Babaji (fl. 1860s). The latter is reported to have introduced the concept as essentially identical to the Raja Yoga of Patanjali and the concept of Yoga as described in the Bhagavadgita.
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“Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)