As the tradition tells it, Mahavatar Babaji taught kriya yoga to Lahiri Mahasaya in 1861. Lahiri passed it to Sri Yukteswar, whose student Paramahansa Yogananda brought it West and told the story in Autobiography of a Yogi (1946). The actual techniques are given by initiation; this page teaches none of them.
Why this is hard
As the tradition tells it, Babaji — described as a deathless master living in the Himalayas — appeared to Lahiri Mahasaya in 1861 and initiated him into kriya yoga, instructing him to teach it onward. Lahiri taught Sri Yukteswar, who taught Paramahansa Yogananda. Yogananda carried the lineage to America and told its story in Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946.
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Babaji is held as the lineage's living source.
Because the tradition describes him as a still-living master who initiated Lahiri directly.
A figure the tradition holds as real but never publicly verified.
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Lahiri Mahasaya was initiated in 1861.
Because the tradition dates his meeting with Babaji in the Himalayas to that year.
A date the whole lineage's story is told as beginning from.
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Sri Yukteswar carried it to the next generation.
Because Lahiri taught him directly, and he in turn taught Yogananda.
One teacher's student becoming the next teacher's teacher.
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Yogananda brought it West and wrote it down.
Because his 1946 book told the lineage's story to readers far outside India.
A story read far outside India, by people who never met anyone in it.
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The techniques themselves are given by initiation.
Because the tradition holds they're transmitted by a teacher, not learned from a description on a page.
A page that can tell the story but not teach the method.
The practice
This page tells the lineage's story, not its method. If kriya yoga interests you, the tradition holds that its actual techniques are given through initiation by an authorized teacher — a step no description here can substitute for.
A story told about masters most readers will never meet. The techniques stay with the teachers who give them.
Kriya yoga lineage: Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda; Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946