What is Isha Kriya?

Today, for most people, the word Yoga usually conjures up images of twisting the body into impossible postures. The physical aspect of Yoga is only one facet of this multi-dimensional science. Yoga is a technology to bring the body and mind to the peak of their capabilities allowing one to li e life to the fullest. !t is the ision of "adhguru a reali#ed yogi and $aster to offer %one drop of spirituality& to e ery indi idual. Through !sha 'riya, the possibilities of a spiritual process, which were once a ailable only to yogis and ascetics, are now being offered to e ery human being in the comfort of their own home. (ooted in the timeless wisdom of the yogic sciences, !sha 'riya is a simple yet potent practice created by "adhguru. !sha refers to that which is the source of creation) kriya literally means internal action. The purpose of !sha 'riya is to help an indi idual get in touch with the source of his e*istence, to create life according to his own wish and ision. +aily practice of !sha 'riya brings health, dynamism, peace and wellbeing. !t is a powerful tool to cope with the hectic pace of modern life. !sha 'riya is free, simple, and easy to practice. , ailable as a guided meditation with an instructional ideo and downloadable instructions, it has the potential to transform the life of anyone who is willing to in est just a few minutes a day.

bout Sadhguru

-isit Sadhguru.org -isit IshaFoundation.org "adhguru, a yogi, mystic, poet and isionary humanitarian, is a spiritual master with a difference. .is life and work are a possibility for each indi idual to e*perience the peace and joy that per ades the core of e ery human being. !t is "adhguru&s ision that e ery one recei es %one-drop of spirituality/, allowing them to transform their li es and take their destiny into their hands.

Technologies for Wellbeing

Frequently asked questions:
What is the benefit of this meditation?
Sadhguru: 0here is the need to meditate, first of all1 "tarting the process of life was not your conscious choice, it happened to you. 0hen you were born your body was so small, and now it has grown. "o ob iously, the body is something that you gathered. !t is an accumulation. 0hat you call as my body is an accumulation of food. "imilarly, what you call as my mind is an accumulation of impressions.

0hate er you accumulate can be yours, but it can ne er be you. The ery fact you accumulated it means that you gathered it from somewhere else. Today you could gather a 23 kg body, but you can decide to make it a 43 kg body. You don&t go looking for that 53 kg, because that was an accumulation. 6nce you drop it, it is gone. "imilarly, your mind is an accumulation of impressions. The moment you are identified in your e*perience, the moment you are identified with something that you are not, your perception gets distorted. The moment you start e*periencing this body, which you gathered from outside, as myself, the moment you start e*periencing the impressions that you ha e in your mind as myself, you cannot percei e life the way it is. You will only percei e life the way it is necessary for your sur i al and not the way it really is. 6nce you ha e come as a human being, sur i al is ery important, but it is not enough. !f you had come here like any other creature on this planet, stomach full life would be settled. 7ut once you come here as a human being, life does not end with sur i al. ,ctually, for a human being, life begins only after sur i al is fulfilled. $editation gi es you an e*perience, an inner state, where what is you and what is yours is separated. There is a little distance, there is a little space between what is you and what you ha e accumulated. 8or now we can understand this as meditation. 0hat is the use of doing this1 !t brings an absolute clarity of perception. You see life just the way it is no distortions about it. (ight now, your ability to go through this world is only to the e*tent that you clearly see it. !f ! ha e no clarity of ision but confidence and ! try to go through this world, ! am going to be a bumbling idiot. 0hene er there is no perception, people try to o ercome that by building confidence in themsel es. 9eople are trying to make up for the lack of clarity with other kinds of substitutes. There is no substitute for clarity. 6nce you understand this, you naturally become meditati e) you want to clear up e erything and just look at life the way it is, because you want to walk through life with the least amount of friction, without stumbling on this or that.

What exactly does this meditation do?

Sadhguru: This kriya will create a certain space between you and your body, between you and your mind. !f at all there is any struggle in your life, it is because you identify yourself with these limited aspects of yourself.

"o the essence of meditation is that it creates a space, a distance between you and what you refer to as your mind. ,ll the suffering you go through is manufactured in your mind. !f you distance yourself from the mind, can there be suffering in you1 This is the end of suffering. :ow while you are meditating, there is a distance between you and your mind, and you do feel peaceful. The problem is that the moment you open your eyes, you are again stuck with your mind. !f you meditate e ery day, a day will come when you open your eyes, and you can still e*perience that the mind is there and you are here. This is the end of suffering. 0hen you are no longer identified with your body and mind, you will be in touch with the source of creation within you. 6nce this happens, ;race happens. That means your whole karmic bag your past or unconscious mind has been kept aside. !t cannot ha e any influence o er you. 6nce the past has no influence o er you, life becomes a huge potential. < ery breath becomes such a tremendous possibility in your life, because the past is not playing any role in your e*istence here now. !f you sit here, you are absolute life. =ife becomes effortless.

Why is this being offered online?

Sadhguru: , few years ago, ! simply sat down and o erflowed with ecstasy, without attempting anything, and for no reason. ! thought, %0hat/s the big deal1 >ust sitting here, ! am bursting with ecstasy. 0hat&s the big deal1 ! am going to make the whole word ecstatic.& !t has been almost thirty years now,

and ! became like this ?Refers to his beard@ but people ha e not gi en up their misery. 0e ha e touched a few million people, but that&s not the whole world. $y idea of the world is se en billion people. (ight now societies are getting freakier by the day because e erything that one could do materially has been done. :ow they don&t know what to do. ,ll you can do is cut your hair or tattoo your body from head to toe. 0hat other new thing can you do1 9eople will start doing more and more life negati e things, just because they want to do something new. "o society is o erripe for spiritual process) it is o erripe. !f you don&t pro ide it now, it&ll burst. You ha e to pro ide a large scale, non-religious spiritual process which does not ascribe to any particular philosophy or ideology - just a simple process, which will turn them inward. Till now, maybe in small patches here and there, people ha e been touched, but it has not happened on a large-scale. Today with the technology a ailable, we can make this happen. This will be the most important thing that we as a generation of people can do. To ha e the pri ilege to do something large-scale for human consciousness. !f you do too much of e*ternal engineering, we will not ha e a planet left. !t is time that human energies are turned inward so that they can engineer themsel es and not cause any damage to the outside. There is lot of work to do inside. !f we don/t open that dimension on a large scale to the effer escent, ery industrious societies on the planet, their industry will destroy the planet.

What is the importance of the breath? Is there more to breathing well than positive health effects?
Sadhguru: 7reath is the thread which ties you to the body. !f ! take away your breath, you and your body will fall apart. !t is the breath that has tied you to the body. 0hat you call as your body and what you call as me ha e been tied together with breath. ,nd this breath decides many aspects of who you are right now. 8or different le els of thought and emotion that you go through, your breath takes on different types of patterns. !f you are angry, you will breathe one way. You are peaceful, you breathe another way. You are happy, you breathe another way. You are sad, you will breathe another way. .a e you noticed this1 7ased on this, con ersely, is the science of pranayama and kriyaA by consciously breathing in a particular way, the ery way you think, feel, understand and e*perience life can be changed. This breath can be used in so many ways as a tool to do other things with the body and the mind. You will see with the !sha 'riya, we are using a simple process of breath, but the kriya itself is not in the breath. The breath is just a tool. The breath is an induction, but what happens is not about the breath. 0hiche er way you breathe, that is the way you think. 0hiche er way you think, that is the way you breathe. Your whole life, your whole unconscious mind is written into your breath. !f you just read your breath, your past, present and future is written there, in the way you breathe. 6nce you reali#e this, life becomes ery different. !t needs to be known e*perientially) it is not something that you can propound. !f you know the bliss of simply sitting here, the blissfulness of just being able to simply sit here, not thinking anything, not doing anything, simply sitting here, just being life, then life would be ery different. !n a way, what this means isB Today, there is scientific proof that without taking a drop of alcohol, without taking any substance you can simply sit here and get drugged or stoned or drunk by yourself no hango er. !f you are aware in a certain way, you can acti ate the system in such a way that if you sit here, it is an enormous pleasure. 6nce simply sitting and breathing is such a great pleasure, you will become ery genial, fle*ible, wonderful because all the time you are in a great state within yourself. The mind becomes sharper than e er before.

Why should my face be slightly upturned?

Sadhguru: "itting with your head slightly upturned is not because you want to see something floating in the sky or imagine something. You keep your head upturned because when your system looks upward, it becomes recepti e. !t is like opening a window. This is about becoming recepti e to ;race. 0hen you become willing and recepti e, your body naturally arches up.

What effect does uttering the sound Aa have on me?

Sadhguru: 0hen you utter the sound ,a ?as in the CahC in 8ather@, the maintenance center in your body gets acti ated. This is the manipuraka chakra, or the na el center. The manipuraka is just three-fourths of an inch below your na el. 0hen you were in your mother&s womb, the maintenance pipe was connected there. :ow the tube is gone, but the maintenance center is still in your na el. ,s there is a physical body, there is a whole energy bodyB This energy that we generally refer to as either prana or shakti, flows through the body in certain established patterns) it is not mo ing randomly. There are 2D,333 different ways in which it mo es. !n other words, there are 2D,333 pathways in the system through which it is flowing. "o nadis are pathways or channels in the system. They do not ha e a physical manifestation) if you cut the body and look inside, you will not find these nadis. 7ut as you become more and more aware, you will notice the energy is not mo ing at random) it is mo ing in established pathways. "ound ,a is the only ibration which spreads right across the body because the manipuraka is the only place where the 2D,333 nadis meet and redistribute themsel es. 0hen you utter the sound ,a, you will see the ibration will start about three-fourths of an inch below the na el and spread right across the body. This ibration can assist greatly in energi#ing your maintenance center. ,cti ating this center will bring health, dynamism, prosperity and wellbeing.

Is the empty stomach condition applicable to isha kriya?

,n empty stomach condition is not necessary. There is no need to lea e any gap after eating, but with a full stomach you may tend to fall asleep.

What should the time gap be between our food and this meditation process? Should one meditate for a certain time or it should be done every day for the rest of one!s life?
$editation is a process that can become as much a part of your life as anything else that you are doing. !t is just like brushing your teeth - initially someone had to insist that you do it - but once you understand the alue of it, then it simply happens without any thought. !t/s the same thing with meditation, once you understand the alue of it, then naturally it will become a daily part of your life without much effort. .owe er, in order for this to happen, initially it needs some perse erance, which is why we are insisting the practice be done twice a day for the first EF days.

I have already undergone the Inner "ngineering course and am doing it daily# Is it necessary for me to do Isha $riya along with daily Sambhavi %ahamudra kriya? If I do both together will it be advantageous for me?
You can do both practices, there is no problem with this. ,s you do the practices, you will definitely see the benefits.

I feel really good and vibrant after uttering the Ahh sound# &an I utter this mantra more than ' times or repeat this as a separate meditation?
You can do !sha 'riya a couple of times more if you want. .owe er, if you want to utter the $antra for a longer duration, ,um would be more appropriate. !f you come to the Yoga Genter, you can be initiated into this mantra, which takes place e ery day from 5D.5Ham to 5.I3pm. ,lternati ely, you can attend the !sha Yoga or !nner <ngineering program in your centre. You can go to the website for more details.

Who should not practice Isha $riya? I have cervical spondylitis is it safe to practice Isha $riya?
,nyone can practice !sha 'riya. !f it cannot be done sitting down, then it can also be practiced sitting on a chair.

&an I teach this meditation to my family and friends or do they have to watch the video too?
They can watch the ideo and learn the practice.

When I make the sound (Aa( I feel the vibrations in my throat chakra and heart chakra but not in my manipuraka# What am I doing wrong?
9lease open your mouth fully when you are uttering the sound C,aC.

&an I sit for Isha $riya on a chair and upright back since I cannot sit cross)legged?

Yes, you can sit cross legged on the chair and do it.

Where should I do this meditation? I am living in a noisy environment do I need a separate place to do this?
You can do this meditation anywhere, just be sure you are not disturbed for the duration of the 'riya. , Juiet place would be good, but it is not a prereJuisite. !f there is no alternati e, you can just do it where er you are. The important thing is to continue the practice.

I learned Isha $riya online and was practicing regularly but for some reasons the continuety broke# I want to restart the practice again# *o I have to take a class online again or +ust continue to do what I!ve learned previously?
You can just continue to do what you ha e already learned, pro ided you remember the instructions. 6therwise you can learn it once again online.

What is the proper time to do Isha $riya?

6ther than midnight, you can do it at any time that is con enient for you.

,ow many times in a day can I practice Isha $riya?

!deally twice a day - once in the morning and once in the e ening. .owe er if you want to practice the 'riya for more number of times, you can.

Why should we do this meditation for -. days?

EF days is a period of time which is generally known as a mandala. < en in ,yur eda, they usually gi e medicine for EF days because it needs that much time to take root in your system. The same is true for the !sha 'riya, so it is important that you do it without a break for that period.