Sergio:
Welcome, Yogiraj.  Let’s start with an obvious which, likely, isn’t.  What is
the purpose of Yoga?

Yogiraj:
The purpose of Yoga is You, and the purpose of You is your finite
consciousness merging into Infinite Consciousness.  Yoga is Consciousness.  And Supreme Yoga is Divine
Consciousness.

Within
each of us is this mystic, inconceivable, indescribable Silence and Love
and this urge (calling us) back to our naturalness, or Sahaj Samadhi, our
natural state of Divine Consciousness.

So
Yoga is the science, the way, and the path to actualize the essence of your
Being.  It has nothing to do with culture or religion.  It’s just your path
to Truth.  It’s an inner ascent through ever more refined and ever more
expanded spheres of Consciousness to Divinity, that stillness before the
Big Bang; a stillness which lies at the core of your own Being.

Sergio:
Is samadhi something we’ve experienced and forgotten?

Yogiraj: Samadhi is a natural state of enlightenment.  When Consciousness enters different
sheaths of the body, there is a descent of this awareness into grosser and
grosser sheaths.  And this is what is
called Maya.  Consciousness enters the mental sheath.  Then it enters the
astral sheath of emotions.  And then
it enters the etheric sheath, and then it enters the womb and the material
sheath of flesh and blood and bone.

And
it gets more and more restricted as it, in relative sequence, by various
permutations, combinations, and aggregation of molecules, becomes denser
and denser and denser.  That’s why
man, when he takes birth from the womb of a mother, his breath penetrates
and injects his physical body with such force that the cause is mistaken
for the effect, and man idolatrously imagines himself to be the body and
not the Soul.  And then, by practice
of yoga and other techniques, “he” goes back to the natural state of
enlightenment.

So
the breath is infused into the flesh with such force that you think you are
the body, whereas you are actually the Soul.  And Yoga is a technique to reverse the
electrical flow of prana, or life
essence energy, to regain paradise lost.  And when you, by the yogic
process, reverse your process, interiorize — you merge into your own Divine
Consciousness and realize that you are a Soul and you have a body.

Whereas
the common people today think they are a body and possess a Soul.  It’s not
that!  Yoga teaches that you are a Spirit unfettered in the body and possess
an appendix, an attachment of “body,” that is just your garment.

Sergio:
What is the Yoga of the Himalayas and how is it distinguished from “Studio
Yoga” taught in the West?

Yogiraj:
There is only one Yoga. The apparent difference between all yoga branches
is only of degree and not of kind. To a Knowing Master, the various yogas
can be organized in an ascending order from the physical postural yoga
(known as Yoga Asanas) to the emotional / devotional Bhakti Yoga then
further ascending to the more mental Mantra, Tantra and Laya Yogas then
ascending and expanding further into the intuitional Raja and Gyan Yoga of
true knowledge.

When
they say yoga here in the West, they mostly imply postural integration —
asanas, where they do the Yoga Asanas, the movement of body in various
postures, to bring about health. Yoga Asanas are like a self-given shiatsu,
self-given massage where you press and compress your body, you heal
yourself with them.

But,
basically and essentially, Yoga is not postures of integration of asanas.
Essentially, the core meaning of Yoga is Samadhi which means “composed mind,” the union of the finite
with Infinite Consciousness.

So
“Studio Yoga” is the initial tenderfoot, yet sincere effort of most Western
teachers to maintain bodily fitness and then further ascend toward the one
Yoga which is Samadhi, the fusion of the finite with the Infinite
Consciousness.  The urge is to go back to our Parent Source.

Sergio:
Why is the guidance of a guru or meditation master important to the
practice of Yoga?

Yogiraj:
Yoga is a natural process of the journey of the soul towards its parent
source, the Spirit.  But it takes a million, million years for a soul to
reach its natural state of Yoga-union with its Infinite Spirit.

In
order to avoid all karmic pitfalls and difficulties and to make the journey
of our soul safer, swifter, and more blessed, it is most important that one
evolves himself in his journey by the grace of a divine master, one who has
realized Samadhi-Yoga, or the True State of Infinite Consciousness.

What
a normal meditation practitioner would take to accomplish in several
million years, the blessings of a Satguru, or Master, and the technique of
Kriya Yoga would accomplish in twenty-four years, in twelve years even,
and, if the practice is intensified, in six years and three years in very exceptional
cases.

In
the unchartered ocean of life, the Satguru is the navigator and the goal is
Shiva’s Divine Form, or realized Samadhi Yoga, the goal of Divine
Consciousness. Under no stretch of imagination, can the Satguru’s
usefulness be dispensed within Himalayan Yoga or any yoga.

Sergio:
What then is Kriya Yoga? How does it differ from other systems of Yoga?

Yogiraj:
At the outset let me make it clear that all the yogas and faiths and
spiritual practices in the world are the symphony of one divine orchestra,
it is the immature ego in the human mind which makes of this harmony a
disharmony.  All the yogas, if
understood in their proper wisdom, are flowing one into the other as the
musical notes and varied instruments.
Similarly, the practice of postural yoga, of Yoga Asanas flows into
Hatha Yoga which flows into Kriya Yoga, which flows into Raja Yoga and then
into Samadhi Yoga.

As
a matter of real fact, Kriya Yoga takes the best of all yogas: it is a
connecting yoga between Hatha and Raja Yogas containing the properties of
both and linking the spectrum of all.
Patanjali mentions Kriya Yoga in his second chapter which comprises
self-endeavored discipline, self-endeavored study, and a pure offering of
one’s self to the Divine, be it as Guru or God.

Kriya
Yoga is the science of life-force energy control which develops into a
concentration and then a meditative practice until Kriya Yoga finally
merges that into states of Samadhi and is then qualified to be called Raja
Yoga.

When
the mind is dissolved, then this yoga expands into the ecstasy of total
enlightenment called Kaivalya or Brahma Nirvana.  It is from and with this
total enlightenment that the Satguru guides aspiring practitioners towards
Samadhi, home, to their Parent Source.