The Kriya Yoga Lineage: Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda
Written and reviewed by The Kriya Yogi · Updated 25 September 2026
Most people in the West meet the word "Kriya" through one book: Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946. In it he traces his practice back through three teachers — his guru Sri Yukteswar, Sri Yukteswar's guru Lahiri Mahasaya, and the mysterious Mahavatar Babaji, said to have revived the technique in the Himalayas. This guide walks through the chain in order and is honest about which parts rest on records and which rest on the testimony of disciples.
The short answers
- The lineage runs Mahavatar Babaji → Lahiri Mahasaya (1828–1895) → Sri Yukteswar Giri (1855–1936) → Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952).
- Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda are well-documented historical people with dates, homes, letters and books.
- Babaji is known almost entirely through the accounts of Lahiri Mahasaya's circle and Yogananda's Autobiography; there are no independent historical records of him.
- Kriya yoga in this sense is not the same as the kriyas of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras or the cleansing kriyas of hatha texts.
- Several organisations teach in this line today, and they do not all agree on technique or authority.
How the chain is told
According to the account Yogananda gives, in 1861 a government accountant named Shyama Charan Lahiri was posted to Ranikhet in the Himalayan foothills. Walking on Drongiri (Dunagiri) hill, he met a young-looking yogi who called him by name, and who initiated him into a technique he called Kriya yoga. This yogi — later known as Mahavatar Babaji — asked him to return to ordinary life and teach it to sincere seekers, householders included.
Lahiri Mahasaya did exactly that. He went back to his job and his family in Varanasi and initiated people from every background. One of them, Priya Nath Karar, became the monk Sri Yukteswar Giri. Sri Yukteswar in turn trained a young Bengali named Mukunda Lal Ghosh, who became Paramahansa Yogananda and took Kriya to America in 1920.
Why this lineage matters
Two ideas run through all four generations. The first is that liberation is possible for someone with a job and a family, not only for a renunciate in a cave. Lahiri Mahasaya is the model: an office worker who practised in secret. The second is that the practice is transmitted, not merely learned. Every link in the chain received it from the one before.
Where it branches
Lahiri Mahasaya had many disciples, and several lines descend from him besides Yogananda's — through his sons, through Panchanan Bhattacharya, through Swami Pranabananda and others. Yogananda's own line continued through Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS), and later through direct disciples such as Swami Kriyananda (Ananda). Techniques, sequencing and the rules on who may initiate differ between these groups. That is normal for a living tradition, and it is also why a book cannot settle what "real" Kriya is.
What this cluster does
Each master gets his own page below, with the dates and places that can be checked, the teachings in his own words where we have them, and the stories disciples told — labelled as such. We also cover two figures many readers arrive looking for: Neem Karoli Baba and his most famous Western student, Ram Dass. They are not part of the Kriya line, and their pages say so.
Learning from his teaching
Read the primary account first
Start with Autobiography of a Yogi itself, chapters 1–35 cover the lineage. Read it as a disciple's testimony, which is exactly what it is.
Read one historical view alongside it
Pair it with a scholarly or biographical source so you can see where the devotional story and the record meet.
Prepare the ground you can prepare
Steady daily sitting, moderate food and sleep, and the kind of breath awareness taught openly (see our pranayama library) are the traditional preparation.
Seek a teacher in person
If the longing is real, look for an authorised teacher and be initiated properly. The tradition holds that when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Cautions worth reading
- Kriya yoga in this lineage is given by initiation, in person, from an authorised teacher. This page describes the people and their teaching; it does not teach the initiatory techniques, and reconstructing them from books or videos is not the same thing and can be unsettling or harmful.
- Be wary of anyone selling "secret Kriya" online courses or promising specific spiritual experiences by a date.
- Intensive breath practice can be destabilising for people with a history of psychosis, severe anxiety, heart conditions or epilepsy; talk to a clinician first.
History and devotion
The lives of Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda are documented through dates, addresses, published books, letters and, for Yogananda, newspapers, immigration records and film. Babaji's existence is attested by disciples rather than by independent records. Physical miracles in the accounts (materialisation, appearing in two places, bodies that did not decay) are matters of faith and testimony; they have not been verified independently, and we present them as the tradition tells them.
Questions people ask
+ Who started Kriya yoga?
+ Is Kriya yoga the same as the kriya in the Yoga Sutras?
+ Can I learn Kriya yoga from a book?
+ Which organisation is the 'real' Kriya lineage?
Sources
- Paramahansa Yogananda, *Autobiography of a Yogi* (Philosophical Library, New York, 1946; later editions by Self-Realization Fellowship).
- Swami Satyananda Giri, *A Biography of Lahiri Mahasaya* (Yogoda Satsanga / various editions) — an early disciple's life of Lahiri Mahasaya.
- Sri Yukteswar Giri, *The Holy Science* (*Kaivalya Darsanam*, 1894).
- Philip Goldberg, *The Life of Yogananda* (Hay House, 2018) — a well-researched modern biography.
Dates and places are drawn from published biographies; stories of miracles are reported as the tradition tells them. Nothing here is medical advice.