What’s waiting to be discovered between the pages?

A teacher and bookseller on why a familiar kriya can hide under another name, and what we gain when we study a teaching, not just look it up.

By Adi Nampreet Kaur, Adi Nampreet Yoga and Kundalini Yoga Books Australia & New Zealand

Somewhere in the world, two Kundalini Yoga teachers are preparing to teach the same kriya.

One has a well-loved manual open beside the mat, with a few pencilled notes from teacher training. The other has downloaded the instructions online.

Both have found the kriya they’re looking for, although they might be surprised to discover that it appears under different names.

It’s a familiar experience for anyone who has spent time exploring Kundalini Yoga manuals. You remember practising a particular kriya, perhaps during teacher training, and decide to look it up again. You know the exercises, and you can almost picture the page, but the title you remember is nowhere to be found.

Then, quite unexpectedly, you come across the very same set under another name.

With so much information available at our fingertips, finding kriyas has become remarkably easy. Yet tracing a particular teaching through different publications can lead us into a fascinating part of Kundalini Yoga’s history.

Following the thread

Much of what Yogi Bhajan taught and what we study today comes from a tradition of oral teaching. His lectures and classes were later recorded and transcribed, with many of the kriyas eventually published in books and manuals.

What’s particularly exciting is that the work of preserving these teachings continues. There are also written notes from his classes containing kriyas that have yet to be published, offering the possibility of further material becoming available to practitioners in the future.

It’s worth remembering just how extensive that body of teachings is. With so much material shared over so many years, exploring its history can be a fascinating part of our continuing education.

The Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) has undertaken the considerable task of preserving and publishing this material. KRI also maintains a collection of corrections and clarifications to published kriyas, drawing on original recordings and other historical material.

For anyone who has ever spent time searching for a particular kriya, these resources offer another avenue for research.

Could a different title explain why a familiar kriya has been difficult to find? Is there an earlier publication worth consulting? What additional context might be found in the original lecture?

Taking the time to explore these questions can deepen our appreciation of the teachings and the work involved in preserving them.

And sometimes, the search itself becomes just as interesting as the kriya we were looking for.

A little more than following instructions

There is a difference between finding a kriya and studying one.

A set of instructions might tell us what angle to position our arms, which breath to use and how long to continue. A good manual can also introduce us to the wider teaching, including its original context and the intention behind the practice.

Those details deserve our attention.

For teachers, this is particularly valuable. We want to share the teachings responsibly, and that includes becoming familiar with the material through our own practice. Reading and researching a kriya is important, but practising it ourselves allows us to experience its effects firsthand and appreciate what we’re sharing with our students.

For students practising at home, having a trusted resource to return to can bring greater confidence and enjoyment to their personal practice.

And it’s not unusual for a simple search to develop into a much longer study session. We might come across a reference to another kriya or find a subject that interests us enough to reach for another book.

One question leads to another, and before long we’ve spent a delightful afternoon studying something we’d originally intended to look up in five minutes.

Sound familiar?

Are books still important?

Digital resources have opened up extraordinary opportunities to access Kundalini Yoga teachings, including material that was once difficult to obtain.

Books, however, still have an important place in our study. A published manual gives us a resource to revisit, compare with other material and consult when researching a particular kriya.

KRI’s published corrections also demonstrate the value of ongoing research. As additional source material becomes available, publications may be updated or clarified to help readers better understand the original teachings.

And beyond the kriyas themselves, books offer an opportunity to delve into aspects of yogic philosophy that we might only briefly encounter in class.

Consider the subtle energy channels described in yogic teachings. Ida and Pingala are traditionally associated with lunar and solar qualities, while Sushumna is the central channel through which Kundalini energy is described as ascending. What do these teachings tell us about the relationship between breath, awareness and meditation? And how does understanding them enrich our experience of pranayama?

Even a familiar subject such as the chakras takes on greater depth when we begin studying how the energy centres relate to the wider yogic understanding of the human experience.

A bookshop with a purpose

Kundalini Yoga Books Australia & New Zealand was established to make our niche publications more accessible to our community, particularly for those who have experienced the challenge of sourcing specialist titles from overseas.

The collection includes kriya manuals and books covering meditation and yogic philosophy, with exciting new publications also on the way.

There’s a personal side to the bookshop, too. Not all titles are currently listed on the website, so enquiries are always welcome, especially if you’re searching for a particular book or resource.

And because books lead to such interesting conversations, the bookshop has also introduced The Living Library, a podcast bringing authors and teachers into conversation about their work and the experiences behind the printed page.

Keeping our curiosity alive

Perhaps one of the joys of being a lifelong student is realising just how much there is still to explore.

A familiar kriya can prompt a question that sends us down a wonderful rabbit hole, revisiting a teaching and discovering information we hadn’t encountered before. Sometimes a conversation with another practitioner is all it takes to introduce us to an entirely new area of study.

The more we study, the more we appreciate the depth of the material available to us.

So the next time you open a manual to prepare for class, or choose a meditation for your personal practice, take a moment to enjoy the process of learning.

It’s surprising how one small detail can catch our attention and lead us towards something we hadn’t thought to investigate before. And isn’t that part of the pleasure of studying something we love?

You never know what you might find.

And if the search leads you to a book you’ve been wanting to read, Kundalini Yoga Books Australia & New Zealand would love to help you find it.

After all, a book is a wonderful place to begin.

The real adventure happens when we open it and put the teachings into practice.

Explore the Kundalini Yoga Books collection

A doorway from page to practice.