Masters of the yoga tradition
The Kriya lineage from Babaji to Yogananda, and the saints many seekers meet alongside it. What history records, what disciples testify, and what each one asks of a practitioner.
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The Kriya Yoga Lineage: Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda
Four generations, one transmission: how Kriya yoga moved from a Himalayan meeting in 1861 to a Los Angeles hilltop, and what we actually know about each link.
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The masters
Mahavatar Babaji
Mahavatar Babaji: The Deathless Yogi of the Himalayas
The figure at the top of the Kriya lineage, known only through the people he is said to have met — and what his story asks of a practitioner.
Lahiri Mahasaya
Lahiri Mahasaya: The Householder Yogi of Varanasi
An office worker with a family who became one of the great yogis of the nineteenth century — and proved that the path runs through ordinary life.
Sri Yukteswar
Sri Yukteswar Giri: The Stern Guru and The Holy Science
The exacting teacher who shaped Yogananda, wrote The Holy Science and proposed a new reading of the ages of the world.
Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda: The Yogi Who Brought Kriya to the West
The Bengali monk who arrived in Boston in 1920, filled lecture halls across America and wrote one of the most influential spiritual books of the century.
Neem Karoli Baba
Neem Karoli Baba: Maharaj-ji, Love and Service
A saint who wrote no books and gave almost no lectures, yet shaped a generation of Western seekers. Not a Kriya teacher — a teacher of love.
Ram Dass
Ram Dass: From Harvard Professor to Be Here Now
The psychologist who went to India looking for answers, came back with a guru and a book that defined a generation, and kept teaching through a stroke.
Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi: Self-Enquiry and the Question "Who Am I?"
The quiet sage of Tiruvannamalai who asked one question — "Who am I?" — and made it a complete path.
New to the word Kriya? Read what Kriya yoga is, and for the breath practices taught openly, see the pranayama library.