Kriya Yoga vs Shatkarma: What "Kriya" Actually Means

A student who has been practising jala neti reads that neti is a kriya. They search for kriya yoga. They find an initiatory meditation lineage with roots in nineteenth-century Bengal, an organisation offering courses, and a great deal about a figure called Mahavatar Babaji.

None of it mentions salt water.

This happens constantly, and it is nobody's fault. At least five different things in yoga are called kriya, they belong to unrelated systems, and the word is used with total confidence in each of them as though the others did not exist.

Here is what each one is.

Why the Word Causes So Much Trouble

Kriya comes from the Sanskrit root kṛ, meaning to do or to make. The noun means action, process, activity, or technique.

That is all it means. It is a generic word, roughly as specific as "practice" or "procedure" in English.

The trouble is that several distinct traditions have each taken this generic word and used it as a technical term for something particular. When a Hatha teacher says kriya, a follower of Yogananda says kriya, and a Kundalini Yoga teacher says kriya, all three are using the word correctly and none of them means the same thing.

Sense 1: Kriya as Shatkarma

In Hatha yoga, kriya refers to the cleansing practices.

The six practices described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita — dhauti, basti, neti, trataka, nauli and kapalabhati — are collectively the shatkarmas, and equally often the shatkriyas. Karma and kriya both mean action, and the two terms are interchangeable here.

Individual practices carry the word too: neti kriya, agnisara kriya, nauli kriya, kapalabhati kriya.

This is the oldest and most textually grounded use of the term in a Hatha context, and it is what "kriya" means to most yoga teachers trained in that tradition. It refers to physical cleansing techniques. Nothing more mystical than that.

Sense 2: Patanjali's Kriya Yoga

Entirely separate, and considerably older.

The Yoga Sutras open their second chapter with the definition. Sutra 2.1 states that tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana constitute kriya yoga.

• Tapas — disciplined effort, austerity, the heat generated by sustained practice
• Svadhyaya — self-study, and the study or recitation of sacred texts
• Ishvara pranidhana — surrender or devotion to the divine

Sutra 2.2 gives the purpose: it is practised to cultivate samadhi and to attenuate the kleshas, the afflictions that cloud perception.

There is no cleansing here, no breathing technique, no physical procedure of any kind. Patanjali's kriya yoga is the "yoga of action" in the sense of the yoga of practical application — what you actually do, as distinct from the theory laid out in chapter one.

A detail worth noticing: these same three items appear again at sutra 2.32 as the last three niyamas. Patanjali groups them here, at the head of the practice chapter, as a self-contained path for someone whose mind is too scattered for the full eightfold method.

Sense 3: Kriya Yoga, the Modern Lineage

This is the one that dominates search results, and it is a different thing again.

Kriya Yoga is also the name of an initiatory tradition that came to prominence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its own account of its transmission runs from Mahavatar Babaji to Lahiri Mahasaya, then to Sri Yukteswar, and then to Paramahansa Yogananda, who brought it to the West and described it in Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946. That book is why most people outside India have heard the term at all.

The practices centre on pranayama and concentration techniques directed along the spine, understood to accelerate spiritual evolution. They are transmitted through initiation from a teacher, traditionally under an undertaking not to disclose the specific techniques. For that reason you will not find them accurately described in books or on websites, including this one, and any source claiming to give you the full technique should be treated with suspicion.

Several organisations teach in this lineage today, tracing through different disciples. They differ in emphasis and in their accounts of the succession, and this article takes no position on any of that.

What is the relationship to Patanjali? The lineage's own account is that Babaji revived the kriya yoga that Patanjali refers to. Read from outside, what is clearly shared is the name and the general idea of a practical, effective path. What Patanjali describes at 2.1 — tapas, self-study, devotion — is not a spinal pranayama technique, and the two are best understood as distinct things bearing the same name, whatever view one takes of the lineage's account of its own origins.

Sense 4: Kriyas in Kundalini Yoga

In the Kundalini Yoga taught by Yogi Bhajan and the 3HO organisation, a kriya means something different again: a fixed sequence of postures, breathing, mantra and mudra, performed in a set order and for set durations, to produce a stated effect.

You will see names like "Kriya for the Navel Centre" or "Kriya for Balancing the Aura." The sequence is the kriya.

This usage is internally consistent — it is a set of actions producing a result — but it maps onto neither the Hatha cleansing practices nor Patanjali nor the Lahiri lineage. Someone who trained in this system means a choreographed class sequence when they say kriya.

Sense 5: Spontaneous Kriyas

The loosest usage, and worth mentioning because people encounter it and become alarmed.

In some meditation and kundalini-oriented traditions, kriyas refers to involuntary movements or sensations that arise during practice: jerking, shaking, spontaneous breath changes, heat, or emotional release. These are sometimes framed as evidence of energy moving through blocked channels.

Two honest notes. First, this is a descriptive term for a phenomenon, not a practice you do. Second, involuntary movement during intensive practice can have ordinary explanations — hyperventilation from vigorous breathwork, muscular fatigue, anxiety — and it is not automatically a sign of spiritual progress.

If it happens and is mild and passes, it is generally unremarkable. If it is distressing, persistent, or spilling outside practice sessions, that is worth raising with a teacher, and with a doctor if it continues. Intensive breathwork and meditation can destabilise people, and the framing of such experiences as attainment makes it harder to notice when something needs attention.

Side by Side

Why This Matters Practically

The confusion has real consequences.

A student wanting to learn nasal cleansing searches "kriya yoga," lands on an initiation-based organisation, and concludes that the cleansing practices require something they do not.

Someone reads that Patanjali taught kriya yoga, assumes this means the modern lineage, and comes away with a garbled sense of what the Yoga Sutras contain.

A teacher tells a class to "practise your kriyas" and half the room has no idea whether that means neti, a Kundalini sequence, or something they were supposed to have been initiated into.

And — worth saying — the ambiguity is occasionally exploited. Sources claiming to teach "the secret Kriya Yoga technique of Babaji" for a fee are trading on the prestige of a lineage whose actual teachers do not publish their techniques.

Which One Are You Looking For?

If you want to clean your nose, tongue, or digestive tract — you want the shatkarmas. Start with jala neti and tongue scraping. These are public, well documented, and mostly learnable with care.

If you want a practical framework for spiritual practice from the Yoga Sutras — you want Patanjali's kriya yoga at 2.1. Discipline, self-study, and surrender. No initiation, no secrecy, and nothing to buy.

If you want the meditation lineage from Autobiography of a Yogi — you want one of the organisations teaching in that tradition, and you will need initiation. Research the lineages, and be sceptical of anyone offering the techniques without one.

If you were given a numbered sequence of postures and breathing in a class — that is a Kundalini Yoga kriya, and your teacher or the published sets are the source.

Common Misunderstandings

1. That the shatkarmas are part of Kriya Yoga. They are not. The cleansing practices belong to Hatha yoga and require no initiation.

2. That Patanjali taught the modern Kriya Yoga. Sutra 2.1 defines kriya yoga as tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana. The modern lineage understands itself as reviving what Patanjali pointed at; the content described in the sutra is not a spinal breathing technique.

3. That "kriya" implies something esoteric. It means action. Brushing your teeth is danta mula dhauti and it is a kriya.

4. That all kriya traditions are secret. Only the initiatory lineage treats its techniques as confidential. The shatkarmas are described in detail in publicly available fifteenth-century texts.

5. That kriya and karma are different things. In the Hatha context they are the same word for the same practices — shatkarma and shatkriya both.

Conclusion

Most of the confusion around this word comes from expecting a generic term to behave like a technical one.

Kriya means action. Hatha yoga uses it for the cleansing practices. Patanjali uses it for a threefold practical discipline. A nineteenth-century lineage uses it as the name of an initiatory system. Kundalini Yoga uses it for a class sequence. Each is using the word correctly within its own system, and none of them is obliged to signal which sense it means.

The practical move is simply to ask. When a teacher, a book or a website says kriya, the useful question is which tradition they are speaking from — and once you know that, the ambiguity disappears entirely.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does kriya mean in yoga?

Kriya means action, process or technique, from the Sanskrit root kṛ, to do. It is a generic word used as a technical term by several unrelated yoga traditions, which is why it causes so much confusion.

Is Kriya Yoga the same as the shatkarmas?

No. The shatkarmas are the six physical cleansing practices of Hatha yoga, described in publicly available texts. Kriya Yoga as usually understood today is an initiatory meditation lineage with entirely different practices.

What is Patanjali's kriya yoga?

Yoga Sutra 2.1 defines it as tapas (disciplined effort), svadhyaya (self-study) and ishvara pranidhana (surrender to the divine). Sutra 2.2 says it is practised to cultivate samadhi and reduce the afflictions of the mind.

Do I need initiation to practise the shatkarmas?

No. The cleansing practices are described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita and are taught openly. Some require an experienced teacher for safety, which is a different matter from initiation.

Is Kriya Yoga in the Yoga Sutras?

The term is, at sutra 2.1, but it refers there to tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana. The modern lineage of that name understands itself as reviving what Patanjali described; what the sutra actually specifies is not a breathing technique.

What is a kriya in Kundalini Yoga?

A fixed sequence of postures, breathing, mantra and mudra performed in a set order for a stated effect. This usage is specific to the Kundalini Yoga taught by Yogi Bhajan and is unrelated to the other senses of the word.

What are spontaneous kriyas?

Involuntary movements or sensations that sometimes arise during intensive practice. They can have ordinary physiological explanations, and if they are distressing or persist outside practice, they are worth raising with a teacher and a doctor.