Dear Sister I am glad that you enjoyed it! 
Dear Willpower,
thanks for your post 
It reminds me of my days some years ago 
Seems like the intense kriya pranayama has given you a lot of bhakti and energy to add immense amounts of practices to the routine ^^ The same had happened here aswell, after some months of Hans kriya only, suddenly it became a mixture of extreme nadi sodhana, kapalbhati, bahstrika, kriya, microcosmic orbit, DM + laying down afterwards + astral travelling and so on… ^^ Later small retests showed that whenever that kriya started, everything became intense and extreme, always the bhakti flashed and the fear also went away to overdo to the max 
The same happens with Gurunath’s kriya, if you do more of the OM-technique, then suddenly you can do a lot more kriya pranayamas. OM is like the fueling power to do the extreme amounts of kriya practice. But I remember well, that it was hard to keep the focus within the kriya set itself. One feels immensly empowered and authorative to do the own mixture. Ultimate result here with the monster mixture was it was not possible to continue at some point. Great insights and openings along that combination, but sooner or later the different causes of those practices created inbalances here.
I also remember a mixture of kriya and AYP, aka taking the original kriya parts of AYP and adding what AYP has added, which seems to be closer to what you have done aswell. It also worked for a while, but not till the end. At least the experience here was with every mixture, it didn’t work over the longterm, only for some time.
Let’s see how your practice will continue, the good news is, purification happens anyway
Regarding Ashok, some negative reports have come to my ear aswell. Hard to comment on that. To the insight here regarding the practice of that kriya with fused spinal breath and om’s, A LOT of strength and power arises very fast in the practitioner and after some time the intensity grows so much, that whatever you do it is always very intense. Your bliss is extreme, your words when harsh are very harsh, your smile very big, your walk, your doing, everything becomes immensly intense. Hans e.g. has practiced that type of kriya for 5 years, 12-18 hours and finished the job with that pretty fast. If you read his lessons of love, they always have some kind of intense authority. When practicing yourself you also see why he can not do otherwise. We know of Yukteshwar being strict aswell, only after Yogananda was not affected by that strictness, Yukteswar stopped that behaviour towards him. Lahiri seemed to be concentrated but more humorous. At least for me it is clear that someone who has practiced that kriya for many years, can show and teach and guide you a lot Coming to Ashok, some will be attracted by him, others not. If the combo will do for you or not, time will surely show. When things get very unclear, a deep honest prayer in the depth of your own silence may help. It always worked here
Peace to you and happy practice
One more addition that feels to be important to share regarding the breathless-state:
Jc Stevens and Ennio both have given the impression that the breathless stat is very hard to reach and some kind of goal and that it needs those advanced kriya’s to reach at all.
The experience here is, that any breathless state, that has been reached by holding the breath aka kumbhaka or by too much mantra or too much awareness will become sooner or later unhealthy for the body.
The most healthy breathless state that happenes here is the one after some amount of kriya pranayama. Ater practicing 12 rounds not much breathlessness happens. After 24 some moments now and then may happen. After 36 the chance increases. After 72 breathlessness happens always in the range of 1 minute again and again. After some weeks or months of that amount the breathless moments increase to several minutes, very harmoniously and without any physical side effect at all, while all other causes to breathlessness always resulted in very unhealthy physical side effects.
Kriya pranayama itself will bring everythign into stillness, from gross to subtlest. If you constantly breath prana into apana and vise versa, both currents neutralize each other and the breath stops very smoothly and easily, the so called after effect of kriya.
According to Lahiri 12 perfect kriya breaths will result in pratyahara, 144 in dharana, 1728 in dhyana, 20736 in samadhi.
144 here resulted in breathless states of 5-10 minutes without any health problems. More than 144 was not possible here due to lifestyle reasons.
Now after 3,x years of Gurunath’s kriya of easy 24-36 twice daily, without any additional practice the body-mind can become very still at any time in the day and remain breathless without any health problems. Breathlessness is really not any goal to reach, it is at best a hint for you that you are praciticing the very basic kriyas ok enough You are still very far away of savikalpa samadhi, forget nirvikalpa. What can happen to you in prolonged breathless states of about 2-10 minutes as an after effect of easy kriya pranayama is what Gurunath calls Bhava Samadhi, a prestate to Savikalpa Samadhi, were thoughts and emotions have purified and calmed down and you bath in the peace-love-bliss-presence of the self.
To bring it to the point, the very basic techniques alone will give all the goods. It is just a matter of time and amount and (I know the frustration very well) the capacity of the body-mind to handle the purification and transformation that is happening. At least it is steadily growing
All at its time,
peace and keep up the practice 
Thanks Holy, nice posts! I am glad that you are doing well.
Peace to you too and happy practice
Hello Holy.
I would be interested in reading more about Gurunath’s kriya of easy 24-36 twice daily, as It appears to consist of only one or two practices.
Practice 1. OM Japa in the centers accompanied by
Practice 2. Kriya Pranayama proper performed without Placing OM in the centers.
There are many variations of Kriya Pranayama proper. Which circuit does the teaching of Gurunath prescribe?
For instance traditional Kriya Pranayama utilizes the circuit from Muladhara to Medulla along the back of the Sushumna channel.
In some lineages the back is used during exhalation and an attempt to use the center on the inhalation.
Some traditions specify an imaginary tube going through the head to the point between the brows.
Next topic:
Holy what are your experiences of the Paravastha State?
Hi Experientalknowing
Gurunath’s kriya consists of the OM-technique, Kriya Pranayama without OM, Navi Kriya, Maha Mudra, Yoni Mudra, Paravastha. Kechari Mudra is applied during all phases.
He further divides the kriya tecniques into basic and advanced. Basic does leave out Navi and Yoni, so you have less enhanced focus upon specific chakras, less kumbhaka. Some years ago he only taught the basics, later on there were advanced kriya workshops/seminars. But since about 2012 he always teaches the complete set, most probably because of his age (70). For those who practice in good amounts, after some years he also teaches the thokar kriya, but it is an individual thing so far. More advanced kriyas are taught by him or yogic friends of him also via dreams. At least this has happened here and with some others who went into 144 for some time or even more, then suddenly all the yogis in the himalayan caves become attentive to you and start interacting with you, first by dreams, later directly aswell.
Some years ago, he adviced to start with 36 kriya pranayamas twice daily and to constantly build up until you reach 144. Today (2013) he advices to practice 144 daily, but if you cannot, he speaks of 72, 36 and 12 per day, but it should be every day.
To the observation here, depending on the country and lifestyle, people mostly can practice about ~12-36 kriyas per session in a busy city lifestyle. This is not much, but in combo with Gurunath it still does a lot But I have met many of his students, practicing 144 regularly twice daily, one boy even 400, another (the one I call samadhi boy) 600-1k per day. These people are already godlike to the eyes here, but still act as a student. they can make you enter into samadhi by intent, but in most times you won’t notice teir advancement. At least as long as Gurunath is around, even the very advanced ones listen like little children and enjoy the extreme peace and bliss together with everyone else
Regarding his kriya pranayama, it is not as proper, but it is also not as strong as the variant with OM. It is somethign inbetween. I think he finetuned it a little, similiarly to what Yogananda did back then. You can get your answers in this youtube video series, from part 1 to 3, the first part being important.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MELzxhtT6As&feature=channel
Look at his hand movements, then you know the route. He also mentions where the breath flows through and what happens if you keep up the practice for more and more and more breaths.
To the next topic, I do not think it has its right place in this thread, which is about Ashok, the kriya yoga he teaches and the experiences of those who have attended his kriya initiation in Spain 2013
Peace
Thanks for the information Holy.
I agree and so I will create a new post on Paravastha. Hope to see you there.
There exists many teachers in the world today who teach various ways of performing Kriya(s). What is most important is if the kriyaban is benefiting from the practice regardless of who they received the set of kriyas from. The teacher is someone to learn the methods from initially. Once, one has some experience from practicing Kriya unfolds on its own. At least this has been my experience as well as the experience of other kriyabans from different schools of Kriya that I have made contact with.
What I have experienced in the 22 months since my initiation from Mr. Singh is the energy flows, awareness of the prana, chakras, the mingling of the airs in the sushumna.( Inhalation and exhalation meet and become one in sushumna) Periods of no breath flowing in or out. Kumbhak or breathless state whichever term you wish to use. The stilling of the mind, peace and a brief episode of bliss.
There has been more profound experiences and realizations as a result of sadhana. All practicing kriyabans, regardless of who’s method or where it originated from can derive benefit from their practice. I do believe it is the ego mind which says, “Oh, I’m not getting much results. This technique is no good. or I think I should have attained much more in 22 months. etc.” Whatever fabrications ego can create. Some people reading this will understand what I am trying to express. Others may not understand.
Very well put I agree and think that the lineages teachings that draw you to practice with desire time and time again the practice that generates the desire to sit and do it is the correct one for the individual to practice and that is for the individual alone to discover. It may take a little work to find the right one though. [quote=“Indigo”]
There exists many teachers in the world today who teach various ways of performing Kriya(s). What is most important is if the kriyaban is benefiting from the practice regardless of who they received the set of kriyas from. The teacher is someone to learn the methods from initially. Once, one has some experience from practicing Kriya unfolds on its own.
[/quote]
Thanks for your inputs Indigo and Experientialknowing.
Yesterday I added Thokar to my routine (or at least to my weekend routine). The intensity with which I can hear the inner sounds again got very high. The effect on the breath, like Bhastrika, is remarkable.
The version that I like the most is the first version of JC Stevens’s book (it’s not Ashok). The reason is that when you move the head upwards (starting from the chest) helps you raise the energy, and after the Kumbhaka and the mental hits towards the heart chakra where you lower your head, the head is kept down for the rest of the exhalation.
However in the medulla variant, while you inhale the head is leveled to the ground, and after the mental strike to the heart chakra, the head is raised while exhaling the rest of the breath. This last part for me is unnatural, since the energy tends to go up if I raise the head, but when exhaling it should go back to the first chakra.
NOTE: this is not an explanation on how to perform the technique. They are explained in J.C.Stevens’s book
By the way I read that J.C.Stevens’s book is now in Spanish too!
Thanks for sharing Willpower! It is always good to read of the practices and findings that work for each one of us that practices Kriya. As it has been stated before, my thoughts is that Kriya is not a one size fits all method. We need to experiment with the various methods and discover what truly works for us and be ready and willing to make changes along the way when necessary.
Good to hear J. C. Steven’s book is available in Spanish now. I have it in English. It has come in handy on a few occasions when I wanted to clarify how a method can be done such as mahamudra and the practice of continuous Thokar. Right now I will stay with the regular once round head rotation instead of the more advanced form of multiple head rotations as is described in Steven’s book as continuous Thokar.
[OM]
Peace and love from the 
brother!
Thanks for sharing Indigo!
Hi Willpower,
are you still into Ashok’s kriya? If yes, would you like to update your experiences with his kriya? It would be very nice
Thank you very much,
love friend