Shas­tri Boodan

Cit­i­zens will soon have a rare op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­plore the an­cient spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline of Kriya Yo­ga through a se­ries of trans­for­ma­tive work­shops, sched­uled to take place from to­mor­row to Sun­day. The ses­sions will be led by Swa­mi Pur­nat­manan­da Giri, a high­ly re­spect­ed teacher from the Unit­ed States who has walked the Kriya path since 1992 and com­mit­ted his life to spir­i­tu­al ser­vice af­ter join­ing an ashram in 2005.

Kriya Yo­ga is a non-sec­tar­i­an med­i­ta­tion tech­nique de­signed to har­monise the mind, body, in­tel­lect, and soul. Of­ten de­scribed as a pow­er­ful yet ac­ces­si­ble prac­tice, it pro­vides a struc­tured method for in­di­vid­u­als—whether house­hold­ers nav­i­gat­ing dai­ly life or monks med­i­tat­ing in Hi­malayan soli­tude—to deep­en their con­nec­tion with in­ner con­scious­ness.

Root­ed in the San­skrit word kriya, mean­ing “ac­tion” or “deed,” the prac­tice sym­bol­is­es the fu­sion of work and wor­ship. Prac­ti­tion­ers say it brings about pro­found in­ner trans­for­ma­tion, turn­ing or­di­nary ac­tions in­to sa­cred ex­pres­sions and im­bu­ing dai­ly life with peace, joy, love, and com­pas­sion.

Cen­tral to Kriya Yo­ga is breath con­trol. The method is based on the prin­ci­ple that by mas­ter­ing the breath, one gains mas­tery over the mind. As its teach­ings de­clare: “Breath con­trol is self-con­trol. Breath mas­tery is self-mas­tery.” Through dis­ci­plined prac­tice, Kriya Yo­ga promis­es seek­ers the pos­si­bil­i­ty of at­tain­ing self-re­al­i­sa­tion—or en­light­en­ment—with­in this very life­time.

Swa­mi Pur­nat­manan­da’s vis­it will in­clude sev­er­al free pub­lic lec­tures across the coun­try, of­fer­ing par­tic­i­pants an in­tro­duc­tion to the phi­los­o­phy and tech­nique of Kriya Yo­ga. The lec­ture sched­ule is as fol­lows:

Tues­day, Ju­ly 29

Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, School of Ed­u­ca­tion, Room 219, St. Au­gus­tine: 6.30–7 pm.

Wednes­day, Ju­ly 30

Kr­ish­na Mandir, Todd Street, San Fer­nan­do: 6–7 pm.

Thurs­day, Ju­ly 31

Lange Park Sai Cen­tre, Gas­ton Court, Ch­agua­nas: 6.30–7.30 pm.

For­mal ini­ti­a­tion ses­sions in­to the Kriya Yo­ga tech­nique will be held on Au­gust 2 and 3.

In­ter­est­ed in­di­vid­u­als may reg­is­ter on­line at the of­fi­cial Kriya Yo­ga web­site:

👉 https://www.kriya.org/on­line-reg­is­tra­tion/7866/eThis unique event of­fers spir­i­tu­al seek­ers of all back­grounds the op­por­tu­ni­ty to em­bark on a time-ho­n­oured path that has up­lift­ed thou­sands around the world—one con­scious breath at a time.