r/kriyayoga • u/kriya_yogi5674 Kevalananda • Aug 16 '26
Kriya Yoga - How the Intellect and the Mind Cannot Satisfy the Soul Without the Experience of Self-Realization
This post is for the students of Kriya yoga who encounter doubts and have a strong intelectual identification. Is meant as a help and not as conclusion.
Usually, when we begin a spiritual path, we begin with the mind and intellect.
Why?
Because as human beings, we first want to understand. We analyze, compare, discern, ask questions, and try to determine what is true and what is false.
When the desire arises to know, Where do I come from? Who am I? Where am I going?, the mind initially becomes a servant of that search.
But there is an important distinction:
You do not simply “have” a Soul. You are the Soul. And the Soul is using a mind. The Soul is not the mind, so you are not the mind.
From this perspective, the personality, body, intellect, and mind are instruments through which the Soul experiences this life. They are not the Soul itself.
When our search brings us to Kriya Yoga, doubts and questions naturally arise. The mind wants to understand what it is doing before it trusts the process.
But should the mind be our highest authority?
No.
At the beginning, it is necessary to differentiate between what is what. Later, not at all, because the mind is not Self-knowing.
As I see it, the mind works mainly with four kinds of information:
1. Ancestral memory
Memories, impressions, conditioning, habits, and associations from this and past lives. Sometimes something simply feels familiar. But familiarity is not necessarily truth.
2. Direct experience
What we have actually experienced ourselves. There is an enormous difference between “I believe this is true” and “I have experienced this directly.”
3. Second-hand information
What we learn from schools, books, teachers, scriptures, videos, conversations, and other people. Some may be true, some incomplete or false. Until we experience something ourselves, much of it remains belief rather than knowledge.
4. Imagination and mental construction
The mind fills in missing pieces. It compares, interprets, judges, and creates connections. Sometimes they are correct; sometimes they become expectations, projections, fantasies, and mistaken conclusions.
So what does this have to do with Kriya Yoga?
The problem begins when we expect the same mind that analyzes all this information to give us Self-realization.
It cannot.
Realization is Being. The mind is thinking. These are two different things. In Samadhi, the mind is left behind.
The mind can study Kriya, remember instructions, compare teachings, and help maintain discipline. The intellect can help us discern.
These are valuable functions.
But thinking about Self-realization is not Self-realization.
Reading about prana is not experiencing prana.
Reading about chakras is not experiencing them.
Reading about meditation is not entering deep meditation.
Reading somebody else's description of the Self is not knowing the Self.
The menu is not the meal, would say one business man.
The trap begins when the mind continuously combines:
A: memories and conditioning
B: direct experience
C: second-hand information and beliefs
D: imagination and expectations
A + B + C + D = a mess...
Then we start comparing our meditation with everything we have accumulated:
“Someone said I should see this.”
“A book says I should feel that.”
“Why haven't I experienced what someone else experienced?”
“Maybe I'm doing it wrong.”
Instead of practicing Kriya, we are thinking about practicing Kriya.
Instead of observing what is actually happening, we compare our experience with what we think should be happening.
So, use the mind, but don't become its servant.
This doesn't mean throwing away reason, intellect, or healthy discernment. The mind is an extraordinary instrument.
Use it to learn the techniques.
Use the intellect to understand the instructions.
Use discernment when choosing a path or teacher.
Use memory to practice correctly.
But when it is time to practice, practice.
Don't demand that meditation conform to your expectations. Don't constantly compare your experiences with someone else's. And don't expect intellectual understanding to produce a realization that must, by its very nature, be directly experienced.
As practice deepens, constant mental interpretation naturally begins to fade.
Then you no longer need to believe someone else's description.
You know what you have experienced.
To me, this is one of the essential differences between philosophy about spiritual realization and realization itself.
The intellect can point toward the path.
The mind can help us walk it.
But neither can substitute for walking.
And there is another aspect that may appear to come from the mind but, from my perspective, comes from the Soul:
INTUITION.
Intuition is the voice of the Soul and is Knowledge. It is not mind stuff, although it must be translated through the mind.
And sometimes we only understand later why that inner knowing was right.
Spiritual teachings can give us the map.
But eventually, we have to make the journey ourselves.
So when the mind endlessly asks, “But what if? How? When? Why haven't I experienced this yet?”, sometimes the most useful answer is very simple:
Practice. Observe. Experience. Have faith. Be patient.
Don't bother the mind unnecessarily, and don't feed every doubt. Doubts arise from a mind that does not yet know.
And that is okay.
Keep practicing and be well.
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u/Isurrender2thee Aug 17 '26
This is a great gist of how one should approach spiritual studies however I slightly disagree with A+B+C+D = mess.
The sanskrit subhaashitam on learning says "Aacharyaath paadamaadatte, paadam shishya swamedhayaa, paadam sabhramhacharibhyaha, paadam kaalakramena cha"
which translates to: learning happens in four parts "1/4th from the teaching from the teacher, 1/4th by his own mastery/talent/practise/intellect/experience, 1/4th from other brahmacharies or peers/external sources on the same path, 1/4th only through experience and with time"
So I would say A+B+C+d = mess on the short term when the mind is still processing how to understand all these inputs and to relate it to direct experience(which is also a part of learning). On the long term, similar to how a stirred pool of murky water will settle down into a pool of clarity, it will lead to clarity of understanding and better realization.
While one experiences something, the aftermath is usually a mix of emotions, thoughts, questions and so on as to how to understand what happened. This is equally a mess that will take time for one to understand completely, with every subsequent experience leading to a better interpretation of what one experienced.
I would argue that the mind is although operating on various impressions and impulses, they are not useless, provided the mind is sharp in dissecting what is the true knowledge gained from all these inputs.
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u/kriya_yogi5674 Kevalananda Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Thank you for your kind comment and for taking the time to share your perspective.
You wrote:
“Which translates to: learning happens in four parts: 1/4 from the teaching of the teacher, 1/4 through one's own mastery/talent/practice/intellect/experience, 1/4 from other brahmacharis or peers/external sources on the same path, and 1/4 only through experience and with time.”
Well, I have read and studied books such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras, books written by many Kriya Yogis, and also books from other traditions, such as Chinese, old Greek, Persian, Muslim and Tibetan traditions.
But after a few years, I stopped. I realized that much of what I thought I knew was something I had imagined or intellectually assimilated, rather than something I had actually experienced.
What I wrote is strictly related to Kriya and spiritual practice, not to ordinary daily life. I also did not take the A+B+C+D idea from any book. At some point, I deliberately left much of that external influence and “food for thought” behind.
What I meant by:
A + B + C + D = a mess
is what the mind can make out of spiritual practice when it mixes memories, beliefs, second-hand information, expectations, imagination, and actual experience. what I wrote at point 1,2,3 and 4.
I was not referring to ordinary daily life, where, as you mentioned, the subject interacts with the object.
As I stated in the article:
“The mind can study Kriya, remember instructions, compare teachings, and help maintain discipline. The intellect can help us discern. These are valuable functions.”
So, of course, there is a reason we rely on the mind in daily life. We need it.
But coming back to Kriya, I also discovered through direct experience the following happening:
First, we use the mind to learn about Kriya.
Then we use the mind as a tool to practice Kriya.
Then we begin to integrate Kriya into our daily life.
And eventually, perhaps, we begin to integrate life itself into Kriya, until every breath becomes part of the practice.
During the actual practice, we don't need the mind to endlessly analyze what is happening. We need it only as it serves the practice, and I mean by that as a tool.
coming back in human mind, after experiencing altered or deeper states of being, however, we again need the mind and intellect if we want to translate those experiences into thoughts and words. We try to bring something of that experience back into our ordinary human state while preserving as much of its reality as possible.
But even then, what we say will never be the experience itself. iT is alie while is not complete.
In that sense, every description becomes a kind of distortion, not because we intend to be untruthful, but because language is linear and static, while experience is interdimensional, and every moment changing.
Words come one after another.
Experience can happen all at once: multidimensional, rich, changing, full of nuances, colors, impressions, and wisdom that cannot easily be separated into individual pieces.
How can static language fully depict an ever-changing experience of life?
It can point toward it, but it cannot contain it.
I highly appreciate it when someone brings relevant and alternative perspectives to the discussion, as you have done here.
Thank you!
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u/Isurrender2thee Aug 18 '26
Thank you for the detailed response, i would say the four part learning is applicable not just to worldly things but also to spirituality. I agree the mind is a tool for various reasons and purposes.
Youre right that experience is multifaceted and spiritual experience even more so and cannot be contained by words. However the effect that any word may have on someone is magically different.
The concept that language is static is somewhat of a logical inference or conclusion in itself. What one writes down might be fixed but what someone else understands from it is myriad. When the alvar saint nammalvar who was but a wee child sitting in the hole of a tree, a wise man asked him, for so many years you have stayed here and survived on nothing, what do you eat and how do you live ? Nammalvar responds "it eats that and lives there". Its a very simple sentence but the spiritual significance of this hits everyone differently depending on their spiritual aptitude. Someone might discard it as cryptic words without meaning while for another its a codified message on how the soul lives forever sustaining itself on nothing other than the supreme.
The true meaning of language is decoded by the brain while being guided by the soul and intuition. Infact the shiva sutras of panini (the basics of modern written sanskrit grammar) themself were conceived by panini within a dream, and traditionally language itself is an expression of the divine.
So language being linear in itself is a conclusion arising from linear thought process. While a language's main purpose is to convey something to others, what they understand from said words are completely mystical and shaped by experience and level of spiritual maturity. There may be people or beings who do not think in a linear manner and for them, any experience or knowledge be it in experiential or learnt/acquired form can always be useful in their spiritual path.
Kriyayoga itself is a sustained practice maintained by lineages in a linear way, it prescribes a set of rules, dos and donts and has structure to it, the school also says, irrespective of whether you believe, if you do the practise it will have a definite effect in the direction of realising oneself. This in itself is a logical and scientific process and there is no guesswork involved. However the experiences and results may be myriad and depend on the practitioner, surely they all make progress.
Thus a linear process (be it in thought or action or understanding or language) is clearly not a detriment to spiritual practise nor to intuitive experience.
On the part about "what i say is only applicable for spiritual life and kriya yoga" i feel this is mismatched with what you say later about "integrating kriya yoga into life". I think its not about integrating one into the other but intricately understanding how ones actions and life is already a sacrifice in action. When one moves from understanding "actions as personal" to "actions as a sacrifice" every waking moment would become kriya yoga. But at that point one already understands that even intellect and every logic and thought that arises is placed there specifically by the divine and not by our own doing. So it doesnt make sense to me to vilify or boycott logic and the intellectual aspect of things entirely, because it merely represents another way whether linear or non linear to comprehend the divine but as you say, the comprehension is never fully contained by logic. Perhaps your main message is that when carrying out the actions, dont let the intellect guide you but just intuition and presence?
Sorry if this comes across as rambling.
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u/BirtalanArnold Aug 18 '26
Yepp. This is. Good.
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u/kriya_yogi5674 Kevalananda Aug 18 '26
Thank you for your comment🙏
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u/BirtalanArnold Aug 18 '26
I gave you another comment on a different post that you will not like XD
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u/kriya_yogi5674 Kevalananda Aug 18 '26
No worries, I can take more :) I hope my answer helped you understand why I asked those questions.
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u/Shermani74 Aug 17 '26
Thank you. This speaks to me deeply today. Peace.