Kriya yoga personal experience of a disciple

CHAPTER VI A DIFFICULT DECISION In the search of anything pertaining to the Omkar experience, I found the writings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. The first gave a splendid description of his meeting with the "silent music", the "sounding solitude". There is no doubt he heard the Omkar’s typical rushing waters sound.

INNER PRAYER AND KRIYA These two towering figures clarify that perfection in spiritual life cannot be reached without "Internal Prayer",.

The writings by Teresa of Avila explain that a prayer develops through several steps; it is necessary to start with a humble prayer and to gradually rise to the most elevated one, a process she calls «the transforming Union with God». Prayer starting in action, gradually becomes a condition, a state of consciousness.

We can observe that in Catholicism the concept of "Inner Prayer" suffered an almost total eclipse: over the centuries, a great deal of misunderstanding and incomprehension deposited on it.

For all those still practicing it, it seems to have - with the exception of some monasteries - the meaning of a plea to God with the only purpose of obtaining personal favors or blessings on a suffering humanity.

This tendency goes against the classic texts of ascetics and mysticism, where the Prayer is not aimed at changing the so-called "Godly plans" and obtaining anything at all, but at surrendering and accepting His "eternal plan".

I ran into the literary material relating to the Hesychasm, a spiritual movement considering the inner peace to be a basic necessity for every human being; its main spiritual tool is the "uninterrupted, continuous Prayer".

The essence of this movement has its place in the book The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way, translated from Russian by R. M. French [S.P.C.K., London; there are other good translations].

The story is that of a pilgrim coming back from the Holy Sepulchee who stopped at Mount Athos and told a monk about his lifelong search for the spiritual teaching «to pray continually» - the way Saint Paul had 83