Who are you and whom is your book addressed to?

I love Kriya Yoga: practicing it and making a deep research in this field is the reason of my life. As for the rest, I live a simple life. I am not tied to any religious creed in particular. I conceive God as the intelligence sustaining the universe and Kriya as the means to attune to this Reality; in other words, to the idea of God I do not attribute any anthropomorphic suggestion. I have chosen to keep my web site clean of references to any religion in particular. In my temperament, I do not like claims that Kriya is the highest path - the jet plane route to Self-realization, etc. Such sentences contradict the meaning of what they try to define, since they encourage egoistic expectations. Of course I consider Kriya extremely effective – otherwise I would not practice it.
I believe it is not a Divine disclosure to a particular man but a harmonious blending of various methods, discovered by a lot of researchers throughout the centuries, of mystical introspection. It is not an exclusive propriety of Lahiri Mahasaya or of His disciples. He took into consideration procedures coming from other existing mystical paths like Inner Alchemy of ancient China, Sufism etc. To give an example, Navi Kriya is the descent of the chi-energy from the head into the Dan Tien, which is taught by the Inner Alchemy, Thokar is the Dhikr of the Sufi... and so forth.
Kriya possesses the same value and dignity of other mystical paths; it is valuable since it is a complete, straightforward path, without useless frippery.
This site has been conceived as a not easy reaction to the current restrictions on the diffusion of Kriya and to the various simplifications and mystifications. These are passed off as clever devices for our good; perhaps they are that, but I will go on preferring the complete Kriya and imagine that a Kriya school which affirms to exist only to keep it pure throughout the centuries, keep its promise in reality and with a high degree of perfection from the didactic point of view.
At the present moment, such an ideal school does not exist. Unfortunately the tendency is to simplify Kriya so that it becomes a triviality that can be communicated with four words. This habit, and the obsessive demand of secrecy, is nonsense. Therefore this web site embodies a first step toward a free discussion on Internet of the Kriya path.
The idea was born after the reading of the book: Theos Bernard’s Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience [1943]. It succeeds, more than others, in clarifying the teachings contained in the various texts of Tantrism; in spite of the years passed since its publication and of several texts of Hatha Yoga appearing recently, that book is still one of the best ones. I cherished the idea that a similar book dealing with Kriya could exist.
I am not a person who wants to create a school of Kriya. Having received in the past the permission to teach it, I know well how many troubles head for he who teaches it and with how many mental weaknesses must he contend. When I happen to explain something to someone I don't enjoy a particular pleasure, I don't get carried away by it; I avoid, on purpose assuming solemn manners (disappointing the expectations of some students). The very idea of putting on the act of a ceremony of initiation makes me shiver because this is suitable to magic, esoteric,occult stuff, not Kriya. Since I feel the tremendous value and the beauty of Kriya, I would prefer that its communication happens in the atmosphere of a calm interview among two researchers, better if the background is a natural environment where the games of the human mind have less grip.
The book will be read, or quickly skimmed through, also by people who do not know anything about Kriya (I cannot know if they will be able to draw something from it) but it is particularly intended for people who are "ex" of many things. Principally they are ex-members of organizations (from which they have learned stability in a regular practice) and ex-disciples of "traveling gurus" (from whose bad example they have learned how unforgivable is the mistake to believe that the spring of our inner blessing thrives only by being near to particular human beings in whose hands they had put the keys of the spiritual direction). They are also ex-collectors of various practices found in esoteric books, but have realized that the one thing worth exploring and living is the matchless mystical path – a clean path, which has nothing to do with the illusory art of expanding mind potentials. What they have crossed gives them the firm dignity not to accept anymore any stupid, whimsical constraint to the spiritual knowledge in the spiritual field from anyone. They do not tolerate anymore that somebody’s financial interest hides behind a Kriya activity or that some drastic simplification of Kriya is passed off as a genuine original procedure. Somehow they have breathed the breath of honesty and are not able to renounce it.

Why did you make up your mind to write and post a book where the actual Kriya practices are described, violating thus the pledge of secrecy?

Should a Kriya school or an Acharya (teacher) invoke secrecy, one should not be surprised - if you keep this prohibition away you undermine the very foundations of their own maintenance.
But when kriyabans invoke it, this is rather strange. Yet this happens, in a persistent way, hysterical at times.
A person who is in the process of learning Kriya, and in his own effort faces the most varied obstacles, whose genuine enthusiasm is blocked by the sarcastic expression of some human wreck that warns him not to race with so much enthusiasm towards Kriya because the real Kriya cannot be learned anymore (since any genuine disciple lineage is, according to him, by now, closed) surely doesn't invoke secrecy.
Those who invoke secrecy, may already know Kriya, completely or in part. I don't know if they realize how strange is their position and how absurd are the reasons they appeal to, in order to support their position.
If they affirm that the Kriya techniques are dangerous, why do they not believe that they are dangerous also for themselves? The reason is that in their heart they hold themselves to be superior, special beings. Or do they believe that having received Kriya with the proper ceremony of initiation, they are protected from possible dangers? If they have left Kriya because they held it dangerous, why do they surf the web to look for news on Kriya and do not devote themselves to more "healthy" things - leaving people follow peacefully their own path?
If they deem Kriya has injured them, let them wonder what has caused their evil: if it is Kriya in itself or some latent psychic illnesses, perhaps activated by some carefree and irresponsible behavior which happened during their youth.
In certain cases, reasonings are not of worth because a miserable and mean trait of character is accountable for the insistence upon the secrecy: in the worse people there is the tendency to revolt against the idea that others succeed in possessing with little strain what cost them years of effort and various vexations.
When they quote: "Don’t give holy things to dogs, and don’t cast your pearls before swine. Pigs will only trample on them, and dogs will turn to attack you." Matthew 7:6, they do not realize that, by utilizing this sentence, they mercilessly unveil a very low consideration of their brothers who are doing research in the spiritual field. Even if there are researchers on Internet that reveal a superficial or messed up behavior, I would never allow myself to consider them dogs or pigs. However the decision to violate the request of secrecy was surely the most difficult in my life and was not taken lightly. I often think that if here in the West there were an honest Kriya Acharya - or an organization - where one could learn all the aspects of Kriya as in a University - where to go and not be abused or sidetracked toward the adoration of a Guru, in other words not being caught in the clutches of a new cult - I would immediately close this web site.
The book was written - and defended from various attacks - because of a suffering which is constantly renewing; because, let me say, it is painful to watch the situation of the diffusion of Kriya today. To those people that honestly want to know with more precision the reasons of my choice, I remind that they are sowed in the first part of the book.
The synthesis is the following:
1. From the organizations one receives simplifications and many unnecessary myths and conditioning.
2. Recently written Kriya books don’t explain anything; they are just an alluring form of advertising. They go on repeating just one thing: come to me!
3. Those who read systematically the messages in the Kriya Forums, are pervaded by a difficult-to-stand mood, it is like a descent into hell; only a masochist can endure that jazz.
4. From the aged kriyabans from India - who affirm, quite satisfied, they have received the true initiation - instead of a proposal of help, comes the tragic verdict that we have no possibility of receiving the authentic Kriya.

I refuse serenely the latter affirmation; I am not resigned to see Lahiri Mahasaya’s Kriya dying amid such idiocy and dishonesty. My first step is sharing all the informations in my possession with other researchers. I understand each perplexity but I have no other choice. I am comforted by the thought that I am not destroying anything: no honest man’s work will be disturbed in the least - good Kriya teachers will be always sought after.

Don't you think that some danger may come from reading the techniques on the Internet and trying them without surveillance?

While listening to this objection, I think about the simplicity of Kriya which can be, after due consideration, defined as the art of Prayer. I contrast it with the complication of other paths, among them Hatha Yoga itself where various exercises of respiration, much more violent than Kriya Pranayama, are explained, as well as various bodily positions (Asana) of difficult execution, various recipes of internal cleaning...
I'm surprised that one thinks this of Kriya, even if I think that his can be a reaction to the unbalanced publicity pertinent to it. From the mirage that Kriya is an extremely powerful remedy for everything, comes the suspicion it cannot lack of disagreeable collateral effects.
The answer to this question should be found by reasoning in broad terms. Actually, any mystical practice can, theoretically, contribute to do someone harm - if it is lived inside a non balanced life!
We must understand that the incentive to follow a mystical path can also be originated by a bent to avoid facing Life's struggles; the very satisfactions that Kriya, since its early phases, undoubtedly provides can isolate a person even more. When, absentmindedly, we affirm that Kriya "hurts" or "has hurt" a person, we refer to a person who was already physically and psychologically fragile and, finding in Kriya a pretext to avoid active life, has fed his or her negative tendencies by making them even more striking.
When a mature and experienced person who supervises the Kriya path is recommended, we do not allude to a magician able to see internally the level of opening of the Chakras, the Karma and other foolishness. Not at all! Actually, we envisage a mature person, with a strong constitution who checks the whole situation in which Kriya is lived and knows how to guide an individual toward a full respect of the rules of a healthy life. Often people who hold themselves as spiritual think they are able to live scot-free without respecting such a rules.
In my opinion there exist no such thing as the often-invoked "premature awakening of Kundalini".
It is as if one would say that a certain artist gives signs of mental unbalance because of the premature awakening of the strength of the genius. When there is no genius ... it is necessary to find out other causes of his ailments.

Do you want to question the figure of the Guru?

When confronted with persons who angrily reiterate their conditioning about the concept of Guru (…proper initiation in Kriya means the presence of an authorized master and his blessings…. initiation implies an invisible purification process, the bringing of the disciple’s pranic body to a higher vibrational rate … moving spiritual energy from the Guru's body to the seeker's body …. showing light in the Kutastha and all that jazz) I state calmly (speaking primarily to myself since they won’t listen) that theirs is a folkloristic concept, chimerical and fundamentally false. Such myth has been built to fuddle one, to encourage his attitude of behaving like a slave at the feet of a rascal posing as a saint. The concept of Guru is to be looked into in a deeper way.
The deepest layers of our unconscious mind are linked with all humanity. Consequently the mental condition of other persons may literally alter our mental processes.
The Jungian Collective Unconscious concept explains the transfer of deep spiritual experiences. Thus, a particular individual can actually "drag us ahead", towards the Spirit. But this happens only when a bond of disinterested affection is established. We all know that such a relationship is rarely built. Surely, it is not created by taking part in a Kriya initiation ceremony, although we may have built a temple of devotion, a universe of lofty ideals in our heart.

What do you think about the figure of Babaji?

The issue about the existence and role of Babaji is really challenging. Since legendary powers and age have been attributed to Babaji - by the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, and by additional unconfirmed stories - this has led many to doubt his existence. Let us put aside certain literature that situates Babaji in contexts that are not the Himalaya, as well as stories of recent meetings with Him. We know that there are a lot of Babajis with relating cults...
I believe that there must be something true in Lahiri Mahasaya's Babaji story. As far as I am concerned, it is unconceivable that L. M. has lied or written nonsense in his diaries. We can easily accept that Babaji existed and has had an important role in the diffusion of Kriya. Why not believe that around 1861, when L. M. was posted to Ranikhet in his work, he met an Indian saint whom he later referred to as Mahavatar Babaji? It is plausible that this saint told L. M. that he was his Guru from the past.
I am ready to change my opinion if I receive more sound information: for now I can only put forward two hypotheses:
[First hypothesis] We know that L.M. wrote in his diaries that Mahavatar Babaji was Lord Krishna. Therefore Babaji could be the internal vision of Krishna.
Lord Krishna illuminated L.M. about the meaning and scope of his mission and reminded him of something that he had already known and practiced in his past life. Kriya was therefore not a new teaching but a memory. Krishna remained always present in L.M.'s Inner Eye guiding him to develop his easy-to-be-practiced system of Kriya Yoga in a way that the lofty principles of the spiritual path could be applied by householders too.
[Second hypothesis] Babaji could be one among other highly advanced Masters who guide the destiny of humanity through the ages. This great soul made it clear to L.M. that Pranayama, practiced constantly with certain modalities, contains the possibility of man's deliverance from Maya and has the potential to disclose undreamed of possibilities of existing in the body.
L.M. learned thus to consider in a new light a practice he already knew from infancy.
We can assume that, on that occasion, he didn't receive all the techniques he later taught to his disciples. He developed continuously what he received from Babaji, refining it in four stages - he wouldn't have kept on working upon a set of techniques, if they were already complete and ready to be shared with mankind.

What is the reason of the many modifications in the field of Kriya?

Let us try to understand what happened in the time of Lahiri Mahasaya. He was a man, extremely skilled in the art of meditation, so skilled that we find it hard to conceive it. He was indeed a experimenter and an inimitable preceptor. Some Kriya variations about which we are fighting to the present day, originated from himself! Like the great mystic Kabir, his teaching was the merging of great traditions: the tantric Hatha yoga (Pranayama, Mudras and Omkar), the internal Alchemy of ancient China (subtle aspects of Pranayama, Navi Kriya, Pranayama with internal breathing) and the most elevated practices of the Sufi like Dhikr (which in Lahiri Mahasaya’s terminology became the Thokar.) Toward the last years of his life he discovered and explained techniques based on the Trivangamurari movement. As afore stated, we can suppose that he received from Babaji only the general principles which he developed and implemented with the use of techniques that he already knew and that he was able to reconsider in a new light. It is perfectly explicable why today varied schools exist that slightly introduce different methods to realize the same goals. The main point is to focus on these goals and resist any tendency to substitute them with New Age or esoteric ones.

What are the effects of Kriya practice?

The first thing to be surprised at is why one puts this question.
We can reply that Kriya is not different from any spiritual path; the effects are the same. For "spiritual path" I mean a discipline made of some procedures of introspection and contemplation (Prayer alone or mixed with breath control... concentration upon particular inner revelations...) like those which, during the centuries, bloomed around the great religions. The effects are internal peace (or, as Lahiri Mahasaya said, the true Tranquility) and that internal comfort, that intimate happiness that no other thing in the world could give. Those who practice Kriya and direct the ardor of their heart and all their possible dedication toward it, will experience them. Personally, I find that Kriya is similar to an amplifier: we receive from it, magnified and exalted, what was faintly vibrating since the beginning in our consciousness. If we put doubts or distrust in it, we won't find anything but lacerations, great as abysses. Many come to Kriya because others have induced them to practice it; perhaps they are encouraged by innocent illusions. This is not wrong, this is human. Who can claim that his or her conception about Kriya was clear and accurate since the beginning? One can start Kriya for a trivial reason and then discover its vast action on all the aspects of his or her own being. What is important is not to remain tied up to those illusions; drop them and let one's being undergo its action.
Finally, some who ask this question have in their heart a doubt they do not dare to express: considering that many teachers of Kriya have given a bad example of behavior, perhaps Kriya has not worked in them, perhaps they don't practice it? Unfortunately the answer is, in many instances, affirmative: one may infer it as soon as they say a word.

Regarding Kechari, is it all right to remove the Fraenulum Linguae through laser surgery? Maybe, in Lahiri Mahasaya’s days, cutting the Fraenulum was too risky and bloody but now it might be safe.

This is a difficult question: I am not able and I don't want to speak by hearsay, but only by direct experience. Among the so many friends practicing Kriya, only one of them didn't succeed in obtaining Kechari Mudra. In the past, in a moment of desperation, he tried to resolve the problem by himself; although he got painfully hurt, the healing after a few days caused his self-surgery to be of no use. It is not difficult today to face a surgical operation, inasmuch as such an intervention is undergone by children who find it difficult, because of the Fraenulum, to suck milk or to articulate certain sounds.
Obviously, the whole matter must respect the obligatory route: family doctor or paediatrician, speech therapist and, only at the end, the consultation with a surgeon. No surgeon would operate on an adult if the latter explains his desire to attain the Kechari Mudra! But all this is obvious.
What I want to say is that many who speak of this problem ignore the fact that they don’t need any surgical operation at all. Before bringing up the matter of surgery, it is better to be sure that the tongue will never touch either the uvula or the wall behind it. The base of the tongue can be pushed inward with the fingers: if the tip of the tongue, being kept slightly turned backward, touches the uvula, this means that Kechari is very near to being accomplished. Bearing patience with Talabya Kriya, the tongue can stretch a little bit farther. Time will allow removing the help of the fingers, so that the tongue remains as though "trapped" in that position and the soft palate acts like an elastic tape, sustaining the tongue and, thus, preventing it from slipping out and getting back to the normal position. Holding the tongue in this position, the soft palate will elongate. This is the secret. Instead of limiting the matter to the Fraenulum, one should consider the possibility of stretching the soft palate in this way.

[N.B. Who insists on cutting the Fraenulum can find instructions on the Internet -- expecially AYP site. I want to remark that I have no personal experience of that and therefore I am not in the position to express any judgment about it.]

Are the Higher Kriyas necessary?

The moment we confront the Higher Kriyas is critical, especially if we expect too much from them and foretaste an increase, over all limits, of the state of peace and joy familiar from our practice of First Kriya. Unfortunately, as soon as we insert the Higher Kriyas in our routine, we may lose such states. If we are not ready to catch this warning and go on practicing them with a stubborn attitude, we may also lose all the enthusiasm that has driven us toward the Kriya path - and that would be the end of our spiritual venture! Any session of meditation should contain two distinct phases, the second one of them, in particular, cannot be suppressed or sacrificed in order to leave room for the Higher Kriyas.
After a first part in which a certain internal action, even of great intensity (Pranayama, Navi Kriya, Thokar...) is done, there must exist a second one in which we dive deep in the internal perceptions.
This mainly passive (although full conscious) phase is usually called mental Pranayama: no Higher Kriya should eliminate or shorten it! We should have all the time to invite our ego, our obsessions, to get out of the way and let the Omkar reality strike deeply the innermost chords of our sensibility.
We should not simply let some ten or twenty minutes pass, in order that our psychophysical system absorb the effects of the first part. We must have the humbleness to recognize that even if we have practiced techniques with the most resounding names, and even we have felt a great excitation, our effort is worth nothing if it is not followed by the awakening of a keen sensitiveness: we must, in all respects, make an extra effort and enter the internal temple.
Reading the letters of Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciples - containing short descriptions of routines, with massive numbers of repetitions of the various techniques - we accept the inevitable fact that such routines are not for us. In my opinion, we should not introduce more than one Higher Kriya at a time, with minimal doses. A long mental Pranayama should always be the regal part of the routine, not to be reduced for any reason. Only with such caution, such Kriyas, rather than disarranging our routine’s balance, will add inexhaustible beauty to it.

Can I help in translating your book in my native tongue, are you going to publish it?

The purpose of my web site is to discuss freely the practice of Kriya Yoga. Whatever offer of translating the book into another language is precious. The problem is that, as long as I live, in my plan I will go on perfecting the book. I will make all possible effort to produce a new edition of the book by the end of each year. Is the person willing to revise his translation in the future?
Since the most part of the readers are interested only in the First Kriya (the greatest part of the questions that I receive concerns First Kriya), perhaps it would be enough to translate just the chapter 6. For now it is not planned to publish it: to do that would mean to put an end to the development of the work.