True History of Sudharsan Kriya
by Nithin
One of the well known Siddha Yogi called Shiva Prabhakara Sidhha yogi also known as Pambati Vaidyar in Tamilnadu, who was well known in 20th century, he do not like people attraction, wealth, name, fame..etc so he lives isolated, very few people who are very much into spirituality know him.
In 1980 at bangalore, he came to visit some house, which become a news with in the small Yogi world in Bangalore, at that time Mr Ravi was really looking for his career. Fortunately Ravi met Siddha Yogi and asked for blessing, Yogi said you can get the world together with a common factor which makes things alive which is Air and also mentioned to him that using powerful manthras help connecting people with one conciusness, so ravi is now very curious and asked Siddha Yogi about the Manthra, he mentioned So Hum is powerful manthra to connect people.Now Ravi knows that so hum is used for breathing, few days later he do not know what to do with info, he went to Shimoga and started practicing this regularly with the support of a yoga teacher, and he then came out with this rigorous breathing called SKY.
So Hum is not rigurous breathing it is mild and smooth, this manthar is to express through breath so that breath and mind will be aligned so the body will align later and becomes meditation. All uncomfortable effect on Kriya is the reflection of Ravi’s aggressive energy.
So after 10 days of practicing he slowly started marketing as grace …etc so that people will be in his control.
If you look at the AOL members most of them losses their confidence and self faith over a period and are more dependency on Guru, which is against the spirituality.
Recently people started noticing that and the frustrated and strong ones started jumping out of it.
This is the true story of Mr Ravis Sudharsan Kriya.
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Beyond The Art of Living 
You touch on one of the more interesting topics of the technique, in that there’s various ways it can be taught and practiced. I was originally taught to do it very softly. In fact, my teacher said the person next to you should not even hear you breathe. Then I attending advanced courses and follow up sessions where people were breathing like they were sprinting on a track. Whether gentle or aggressive, I believe the technique is dangerous for many who do it long term.
When I learned SK 20 years ago with all TM people, most of the TM people were a little freaked by the heavy breathing. We were told the breath can be as soft and as gentle as the body wants as long as the cycles are always followed.
I heard the same in my basic course – ” breathe as though you are enjoying the fragnance of a rose which is held close to your heart” .. and yes in the follow ups again I saw people doing it as though they were in some breathing olympics .. I guess teachers are there only to ensure that everyone is breathing softly …
I’ve mentioned this several times in the past but will mention it again here: the one thing which always bugged me was that no two people did SK in the same way, some would breathe gently whilst others would be … doing “breath olympics” like you say. What bugged me about his was that the teacher would be there in the room and would never instruct anyone or correct anyone. Never, in the few years I was with AoL. With all other yoga pranayams I have tried, the teacher always comes round the room and helps people to do it properly. This just made me very suspicious of the quality of the technique and of the training of the teachers.
I personally knew Ravi Shankar to do Sudarshan Kriya on occasion while travelling. He did the breathing very vigorously — you could hear it very loudly from the next room. I asked him about it, and he said the breathing should be mainly ‘continuous’ as in a circle. If someone felt bad, they could breathe more shallowly. But when I heard him practicing, it was very loud, very deep and vigorous breathing.
@Nithin .. with ref to your below comments
“Now Ravi knows that so hum is used for breathing, few days later he do not know what to do with info, he went to Shimoga and started practicing this regularly with the support of a yoga teacher, and he then came out with this rigorous breathing called SKY.”
What you say might be true, but I would like to disagree that SKY is a rigorous breathing exercise.. we were time and again told that Sudarshan Kriya is supposed to be done very gently.. and we while teaching used to stress a lot of this point… still some people used to have their own versions in doing the Kriya…
if i were you I would definitely like to verify the source for this story
Googling Shiva Prabhakara Sidhha yogi returns websites with incredible stories! Anyway, what Nithin says could be true, SSRS got the essence from the Yogi, developed it into SK and marketed it to the world.
I entirely agree. I shared my views on this in a previous comment https://aolfree.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/how-can-a-divine-revelation-be-defective/#comment-11316
@ Nithin
This is an excellent post. This alternative explanation of how he could’ve got the formula for SK could well be the truth. To me, this story doesn’t seem concocted at all — it seems authentic. (The details seem authentic and how they connect with the present also seems authentic. However, I am using the word “seems” as I have no first hand knowledge of this.)
The other thing that I find utterly intriguing is that there seems to be no uniformity in the way that SK is practiced. [Ref: Jr. (April 29, 2012 6:46 am)]
Whether it is to be done gently [Ref: Original Anonymous (April 29, 2012 6:47 am)] or aggressively, it appears that, in practice, it is not being done in the same way by everyone.
If it is not being done in the same way, it means that SK is open to interpretation. If individual interpretations of SK can lead to any sort of damaging consequences, then whose responsibility is it? Is it the responsibility of AoL or is it the responsibility of the individual or is it an inherent problem with SK?
For instance, those who are taught that 2 + 2 = 4, don’t disagree, no matter where they might have studied, no matter which culture or country they belong to, or, no matter which religion they follow.
I find this disagreement on SK very intriguing. It points to the fact that SK is by no means scientific. If it was, then there would be no disagreement, just as there is no disagreement (anywhere in the world) on whether or not 2 + 2 = 4. There would be no disagreement about short term effects and long term effects. There would be no disagreement on who it helps and who it doesn’t help. There would be no disagreement on side effects. Disagreement suggests that SK has not been distilled sufficiently to a core formula that is uniformly beneficial. It may have the potential to be scientific but it is not scientific as of now.
Arguing that it is scientific is a waste of time at this point, IMHO.
As far as its “divine” stature is concerned, it has the same “divine” stature as anything else with a “divine” stature. For instance, the Satyanarayan Katha has a certain “divine” stature in Hinduism. It is done with the objective of cleansing the air in one’s home. However, its effect on different homes is different. Some say that after a Satyanarayan Katha, all “negativity” disappeared from their homes. Some say things got a bit nicer. Some say nothing happened. Different people report different consequences.
No one is right and no one is wrong.
(I have also seen that in no two places is the Satyanarayan Katha performed in an identical manner — not even by the same individual. There’s always a variation of some kind. Like all things with a “divine” stature, it is open to individual interpretation.)
I think it is high time that AoL stopped deceiving people by saying that SK is scientific. They should be honest enough to say that it is something with a “divine” stature, to be done with the objective of ensuring general well being — but with the conscious knowledge of the fact that different people have reported different consequences. AoL should also mention clearly that these consequences range from perfect bliss to permanent damage. Once people are informed, their decision will be an informed decision — whether it is to try out SK or to not try out SK.
IMHO
In addition to the points of disagreement listed in the above post, here’s another one:
Some people say it is a “Divine Revelation” while others say it is a “cognition”. This reminds me of something that I think “IO” said in a recent comment — the answer changes according to the audience. If the audience seems gullible enough, then SK is a “Divine Revelation”. If not, then it’s a “cognition”. If the audience is still not silenced, then SK is “scientific”.
Ditto for Mr. Ravi Shankar’s “divine status”. If the audience seems gullible enough, he can be sold to them as an avatar of God. If not, then he is a human being with the qualifier that Jesus Christ was also a human being, and that he has asked people to not refer to him as the avatar of God.
round and round
we go in circles
never knowing
what is what
and which is which
while AoL spins its yarns
with different versions
never knowing
which is the knit
which is the stitch
is it an NGO
is it a company
is it a business
is it a cult
is it scientific
is it magic
is it tragic
or, is it occult
does anyone know
what anyone knows
or, do we guess
and sometimes confess
or do we buy
spiritual light
and then regress
into a spiritual mess
and while we go
round and round in circles
wondering what is what
and which is which
one thing remains
a constant in AoL
the great guruji
becomes stinking rich
The tentative title of this poem is “Food for Thought”.
Incidentally, is there anyone who thinks that in the last 31 years, Mr. Ravi Shankar has become poorer than he was 31 years ago? Is there disagreement about this too?
AOL teachers , quality or quantity – a million dollar question for Guruji. I was fortunate to become a teacher in the early days when teachers were hand picked and trained by Guruji himself , he was humble, simple and compassionate at that time. Sadly, he has become a fame and power hungry person now.
Anyone can become a teacher nowadays, if one can fork out between $1500-3000 depending on the country he or she is well on the way to become His instrument. Please tell me how the following persons can qualify to become teachers?
1. Illiterate person who does not know how to read or write
2. Persons in their early twenties who have no life experience but teaching people the art of living
3. Hawkers, hairdressers, contract workers etc( I am not biased) teaching people how to live when they themselves are struggling with their lives
4. Emotionally and mentally weak persons
5. People who give up their jobs and want to dedicate their lives to AOL when they have families to support
Teachers are being churned out like a factory line – an idiot of the TTC co-ordinator in the Ashram has a major attitude problem, if one is rejected by the local body all the applicant needs to do is to send an appeal to Guruji and he/she is accepted for the TTC. All they are interested is in the USDs that can be collected as fees and not the calibre of the applicant.
I think Guruji has to stop the TTC, there are enough teachers in the world today who do a great job teaching The Art of Lying – what goes around comes around and these teachers will one day be the cause of the end of AOL.
does anyone has experience with Prem Rawats breathing techniq??…..i guess it is also (very?) similar to SK. if any one has done that can he/she comment on it?
This is what HHSSRS has to say about the origins of the SKY: http://www.artofliving.org/sudarshankriya-origin
“I had already travelled around the world. I had taught yoga and meditation. But still I was concerned about how to help people live a happy life. I felt there was something that was lacking. Though people do their practises, their life is in compartments when they come out in life, they are very different people. So, I was thinking how we can bridge this gap-between inner silence and outer expression of life.
During a ten-day period of silence, the SudarshanKriya came like an inspiration. Nature knows what to give and when to give. After I came out of the silence, I started teaching whatever I knew and people had great experiences.”
We know that HHSSRS was part of TM under MMY for some time and in the first para he says that he felt that TM wasn’t helping bridge the gap between “inner silence” and “outer expression of life”.
So full of compassion was he for the less spiritually evolved, that to remedy the sad state of affairs, he went into a period of silence in 1980 in Shimoga. He goes on say that the SKY came to him like an inspiration, though he doesn’t specify what it was inspired by, and in the very next line credits nature with having given him the gift of the SKY. From this we can perhaps safely conclude that the SKY wasn’t a cognition since that is a conscious mental process that someone like a scientist sets into motion while determining, say, the workings of nature.
In referring to the SKY as a gift of nature, he endows nature with the power of discrimination i.e nature not only knew what exactly and when to give but also whom to give it to. Modern science has proved that nature possesses no such discriminative powers, indeed scientists have to work their guts out before nature parts with any of her secrets, and that apart, most established religions also do not characterise nature as possessing discriminative faculties, including Advaita, in which nature is nothing but an illusion, while Brahman or the supreme being, possesses all discriminative faculties.
So in all probability what HHSSRS really means to say is that, TM was ineffective as per his perception, and therefore he went into silence on the behalf of suffering mankind, and then Brahman, the discriminative one, in the guise of nature gave HHSSRS, the chosen one for reasons best known to Brahman himself/herself/itself, the means to salvation for the distressed mankind to whom he could dispense it to for a fee, to the effect that many of those who practise the SKY start feeling a good deal of oneness towards the guru as is evident from the behaviour of a good many AOL folk here on this blog.
This might be possible:—
When I was in college i had the problem of getting cold very often and also had dust allergy and would sneeze like hell if contacted with dust.My father who religiously practices pranayama for years now, told me at that time to do Bhastrika,Kapalbhati and Anulom Vilom.While I was doing Bhastrika I started taking aggressive breaths just as they do in SK in the third So-Hum cycle which has the fastest tempo.And believe me guys I am not joking or talking any revelation or something here, on my nose and lips and slowly on the whole face I had tingling sensations just the same way as it happens when you do SK for the first time. Now i was beginning to enjoy and also curious to know as to what is happening in my body.I thought that maybe its the yoga effect that is cleansing my body or some good vibrations which will help me cure the dust allergy.So I decided to continue for some more time.Suddenly my dad who was watching me sitting besides me stopped me and said “dont be aggressive..take easy breaths, in yoga you should not tax your body, yoga should be done easily and the way you are doing Bhastrika is wrong” and I stopped and then continued slowly by taking slow breaths and exhaling slowly and after that all the effect was gone and I did not feel anything.I did not repeat the same later because I was afraid of the fact that yoga can backfire if you do not do it properly according to the technique.
After many years when I did my first Yes+ and first SKY, It felt familiar, the tingling sensation and the whole above story just flashed in my mind and I thought that this time I will have to see what happens because this time there was no fear of doing wrong pranayama/yoga and its bad effects and of course it was told to us that SKY is a divine revelation, so no stress, I continued.I liked the experience of it,that tingling sensation and the twisting of fingers and in the end it felt good.But,after a few days when I started to do SK short kriya regularly there was no feeling, no sensations and also in Long kriya nothing of the sort happened.And now nothing of that sort happens to me.
So here is the observation,rather my observation(it is just my opinion and no one is bound to buy my argument here) that maybe Sri Sri was well aware that when you do fast rhythmic breathing you get tingling sensations,muscle spasms and twisting of fingers and all, and these above mentioned sensations are only felt during the early days of practicing SK for the first time(when u do SKY for the first time in a course, you are dumbfounded by the experience and later on little bit of the same experience continues for a few more days or maybe a few weeks).Henceforth maybe SSRS thought that he can market this as a revelation(maybe the acumen of discerning this thing as a profit generating medium came from Mahesh Yogi because he travelled with him and he knew the tricks and tips of guru business) and tell people that the sensation is prana moving in the body and all negativities are going out of the body, body and mind are getting cleansed, guru presence and all other stories.Now Imagine the state of the people who did the Kriya for the first time in the history of SK in the first AOL course.Just think that back in 1982-83 when people of India were more God fearing and had relatively high moral values as compared to today along with a pinch of superstitious beliefs what impact such a thing would have had created on those innocent,gullible minds.They would have been overwhelmed with joy of finding a Guru who gave them a divine revelation which has instant effect(moving prana,negative energy) and on top of that it is a divine revelation that God gave to him ,just the way a poem happens to a poet.Bingo ! there right there in the eyes of those first participants sparkling with joy he could see his future,he knew that this idea is going to take him places plus the moolah factor.Just the same way as Mahesh Yogi used TM and got famous and rich SSRS could see himself sitting on a high podium with hundreds of people around him bowing in reverence and chanting Jai Gurudev.
I don’t know… did you actually experience this firsthand, Nithin? Seems like when someone wants to denigrate a spiritual teacher they always say that any technique they teach is somehow “stolen” from another teacher. An awful lot of conjecture here.
When the spiritual teacher himself loses credibility due to his own words and actions, conjectures are sure to follow
@ drpetersutphen [May 2, 2012 12:56 am]
Are you enlightened? If yes, then which siddhis have you acquired?
Same thing came in my mind wen I read this post..Author describes it as if he knows it first hand..Existence of yogi can be accepted. Shri Shri meeting him accepted..Further it’s more likely story telling..People are in denial..Shri shri is no doubt a yogi..He doesn’t need a certificate to prove it.and nobody ever will know the answer whether he is enlightened or not. ..sum devotee who have gained spiritually might feel it.
In my opinion,to start knowing what SK really is, takes time..At least it has taken lot of time for me. What people are talking here n even among them are superficial effects of SK.we have to wait to allow things to happen.
I am not pro AOL..(am talking about organization as such).Though I do regular SK and attend advance courses for past 9 years..Whatever problems are there with organization should be sorted out..But one doesn’t need to criticize ‘sadhana’ technique,here that is SK. It’s sum thing really wonderful..I can only wonder what other surprises Sk has in store.
@ sadhana [May 2, 2012 5:30 am]
Mr. Ravi Shankar is enlightened but only some people can see / know. SK is wonderful but only some people can tell / know. Nithin feels his story is true. You feel your story is true. Let it be. Relax. If you’re happy with your sadhana, why should it matter to you what anyone else is saying? Let go. We live in a free world. Some people feel going to a near-by slum and teaching people about health and sanitation issues is sadhana. Some people feel breathing vigorously / gently (since there is no agreement on the right way in SK) is sadhana. Some people say red is their favourite colour. Some people say red is the worst colour they set their eyes on.
If someone says Mr. Ravi Shankar is wrong, his battalion arrives to defend him and to discredit the speaker. Nithin is a mere mortal without any battalion. Does enlightenment mean that you target a mere mortal? Of course not. So, let it be. Why not focus on positives instead of negatives? Why not empower a mere mortal rather than target him? Isn’t that what an enlightened person would do? Aren’t you enlightened? Surely, enlightenment means that you have compassion in your heart for mere mortals. Does it not? Is enlightenment bereft of compassion in AoL? What if Nithin is mistaken? Is attacking him in this fashion going to cure him of his ignorance? If I attacked you, would you be cured of your ignorance? How does just saying that he is wrong cure him of the ignorance you think he is suffering from? I thought enlightenment is about curing people of ignorance. Isn’t it?
Why don’t you play a constructive role? Why don’t you share your knowledge with mere mortals and cure them of their ignorance about AoL? Don’t you think mere mortals would appreciate you infinitely if you did that? If enlightened people start targeting mere mortals without battalions, how will mere mortals learn from them? Mere mortals will think that there is no point in enlightenment — it only makes people target mere mortals. If you are pro-enlightenment, then please share your knowledge with mere mortals. I assure you that true knowledge is always appreciated — even by mere mortals. If you go to a near-by slum and educate people about health and sanitation issues, you will see that their eyes light up — radiant and sparkling like solitaires and stars. That is the power of true knowledge. Have faith in the power of true knowledge. Share it. It will have an impact. Don’t invest your energy in targeting mere mortals. It won’t help you or the mere mortal. Seriously.
There is no question of targeting sum body. We are sharing our views and experiences.If some body has had good experience with SK and if they share it,isn’t it a good thing ?
@ sadhana [May 3, 2012 3:15 am]
Would request you to read your previous comment again and ascertain whether you targeted the “author” of this post or not. Please read the first paragraph again (in particular).
What do you think? Did you target the author?
Then, please see the video on the post that was posted after this one. If someone claims SK is a Divine Revelation, whose responsibility is it to prove that the claim is true? I must also assure you that the video doesn’t mention AoL, so it’s not an anti-AoL video. Please see it and, if possible, share your thoughts on it.
@ sadhana [May 3, 2012 3:15 am]
Glad you changed your mind. The first paragraph of your previous comment said something else. But that’s not important any more. Please do share the good experiences you had with SK — especially on the threads that talk about the harmful effects of SK. Then, everyone will get to read both perspectives and decide for themselves.
Here’s one link where you could share your good experience in detail:
At the end of this thread are links to two other threads where you can share your good experience with SK.
Happy sharing!
I have shared my experiences of SK else where on this blog..particularly under ‘The Truth Hurts part I’.