Sat Kriya

I practice this set everyday and will for the rest of my life. It sets my navel point each morning, is great for my digestion and regulated my hormones. I started first with 3 minutes and I’m now at a minimum of 11 minutes. When I get to do 31 minutes, it feels wonderful. 

Sat Kriya is essential to the practice of Kundalini Yoga. It is one of the few exercises that is a complete action in itself. It is a kriya: an action or series of actions that completes a process and has a predictable outcome. Most kriyas consist of a series of exercises that synergize. Sat Kriya can stand alone like a precious gem. Any serious student should master this kriya. A beginning student should start with 3 minutes every day. The time can be built up from that base.

The main impact of this kriya is to tone the nervous system, to calm emotional disarray, and to channel creative and sexual energies of the body. The entire sexual system is stimulated and strengthened. It relaxes and releases many phobias about sexual behavior, potency, and capacity.

If you have time for nothing else, make this kriya part of your daily promise to yourself to keep the body clean and vital temple of God.

“Sat Naam is the bij or seed mantra. It is small and potent. Great things grow from it. If it is not written in your destiny to be with God and know higher consciousness, this mentra engraves it in your destiny. Sat Kriya is to purify your being. Disease, ailment, weakness, impotency, laziness, and negativity – all improper things will leave you.” – Yogi Bhajan

Who is it for? 

Sat Kriya is fundamental to Kundalini yoga and should be practiced every day for at least 3 minutes. Its effects are numerous.

People who are severely maladjusted or who have mental problems benefit from this kriya since these disturbances are always connected to an imbalance in the energies of the lower three chakras. 

How does it work? 

As a kriya, it is a process that works on all levels of your being – known and unknown – making you more capable of responding to your own subtlety and totality.

One of the primary actions is to balance the energies of the lower triangle of chakras, the energy distribution centers, by mixing the prana and apana at the navel center. This generates a heat in the system and opens the inner channels to the upward flow and rotation of energy. The contraction of the naval and the gentle, automatic pull of the mulbandh guide the forward projection and mixing of the chakra energies. It is excellent for digestive troubles and for transcending fears. The excellence of Sat Kriya is that all three lower chakras are pulled together and act in unison. The correlated action of all three centers multiplies the effect and stabilizes the changes.

This exercise works directly on stimulating and channelizing the kundalini energy, so it must always be practiced with the mantra Sat Naam. The subtle blending of the prana and apana is accomplished with each repetition of the mantra. The bij mantra itself establishes a sattvic quality of neutrality and stillness at the navel, which allows the kundalini to flow naturally, in proportion to the individual need, for physical, mental and spiritual clarity and healing.

Sat Kriya strengthens the entire sexual system and stimulates its natural flow of energy. This relaxes phobias about sexuality. It allows you to control the insistent sexual impulse by rechanneling sexual energy to creative and healing activities in the body.

The heart gets stronger from the rhythmic up-and-down of blood pressure you generate from the pumping motion of the Navel Point.

General physical health is improved since all the internal organs receive a gentle rhythmic massage from this exercise.

How to do Sat Kriya 

Posture: Sit on the heels with the arms overhead and palms together. Interlace the fingers except the index fingers, which point straight up. Men cross the right thumb over the left with the left little finger on the bottom; women cross left thumb over right, right pinkie on bottom. Begin to chant Sat Nam with a constant rhythm of about 8 times per 10 seconds. Chant SAT and pull the Navel Point in. Feel it as a pressure from the Third Chakra. With the sound NAAM, relax the belly. 

As you continue with a steady rhythm, the root and diaphragm locks are automatically pulled. The steady waves of effort from the navel gradually enlist the movement of the greater abdomen. The force is through the navel but the two locks come along sympathetically. This natural pull of the two locks creates a physiological balance. Blood pressure is maintained evenly. The rhythmic contraction and relation produces waves of energy that circulate, energize and heal the body.

The focus of the sound Naam can be either at the Navel Point or at the Brow Point (the point where the eyebros meet at the root of the nose; the area that corresponds to the Sixth Chakra).

Time: Continue at least 3 minutes (or whatever time is specified in the kriya.) Then inhale, apply Root Lock (mulbandh) and squeeze the muscles tightly from the buttocks all the way up the back, past the shoulders. Mentally allow the energy to flow through the top of the skull. Exhale, hold the breath out and apply all the locks (mahabandh). Inhale and relax.

You may build the time of the kriya to 31 minutes, but remember to have a long, deep relaxation immediately afterwards. A good way to build the time up is to do the kriya for 3 minutes, then rest 2 minutes. Repeat this cycle until you have completed 15 minutes of Sat Kriya and 10 minutes of rest. Finish the required relaxation by resting an additional 15-20 minutes.

Do not try to jump to 31 minutes because you feel you are strong, virile or happen to be a yoga teacher. Respect the inherent power of the technique. Let the kriya prepare the ground of your body properly to plant the seed of higher experience. It is not just an exercise, it is a kriya that works on all levels of your being-known and unknown. You might block the more subtle experiences of higher energies by pushing the physical body too much. You could have a huge rush of energy. You may have an experience of higher consciousness, but not be able to integrate the experience into your psyche. So prepare yourself with constancy, patience and moderation. The end result is assured.

Alternatives:

• Sat Kriya can be done in Celibate Pose, sitting between the heels, with buttocks on the ground. For a person who cannot sit on the heels due to knee or ankle problems, the same actions of Sat Kriya can be done in a cross-legged position. However, the effects will not be as strong or precise.
• If you have not taken drugs or have cleared your system of all their effects, you may choose to practice this kriya with the palms open, pressing flat against each other. This releases more energy than the other method. It is generally not taught this way in a public class because someone in the class may have weak nerves from drug use.

Common mistakes 

The most common erros when doing Sat Kriya are to pull too strongly from the base, with a heavily squeezed mulbandh, or to lift the arms too strongly, which squeezes the Diaphragm Lock (udiyana bandh) while ignoring the lower body. Notice that you emphasize pulling the Navel Point in. Don’t try to apply mulbandh. Mulbandh happens automatically if the navel is pulled. The goal is balance: pull from the Navel Point, and as the Navel Point is pulled the mulbandh tightens, followed closely and seamlessly by the Diaphragm Lock. As those locks applied, the chest lifts and a natural Neck Lock results.

The arms stay fully extended, the main movement is in the torso, the spine and abdomen. Consequently, the hips and lumbar spine do not rotate or flex. The spine stays straight and does not flex, as one would do in the Kundalini Yoga posture, Spine Flex. Your spine stays straight and the only motion your arms make is a slight up-and-down stretch with each Sat Naam as your chest lifts. The power comes from the natural rhythm and wave of energy initiated with Sat at the navel and released with Naam.

Other common mistakes:

• Lifting the shoulders as if doing a shoulder shrug
• Accelerating or varying the speed of the rhythm
• Lowering the pitch rather than keeping it steady

Sources: 

*Kundalini Research Institute, The Aquarian Teacher, KRI International Teacher Training in Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, Level One Instructor Yoga Manual, pp.112-113

*Kundalini Research Institute, The Aquarian Teacher, KRI International Teacher Training in Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, Level One Instructor Yoga Instructor, p.22

*Kundalini Research Institute, I am a Woman – Creative, Sacred and Invincible, Essential Kriyas for Women in the Aquarian Age, pp. 10-11