Kriya Yoga

Kriya yoga is one of the most important, practical aspects of tantra. Therefore, when we talk about kriya yoga, we must know something about tantra as well. In the science of tantra, the body, mind and spirit are comprehended as a continuous process of evolution and movement. This physical body is a manifestation of consciousness. It is not different from spirit, but a state of spirit.

Within this physical body flow the channels of energy or shakti. On the material plane shakti is known as prana and mind. Mind is one form of energy and prana is another. These twin energies are known in tantra as Shiva and Shakti, and in hatha yoga as ida and pingala. Ida and pingala represent the mental and pranic energies permeating through and through this body. It is by these energies that we think and move.

The energies of ida and pingala flow through two nadis or passages within the framework of the spinal cord. These two nadis emanate from the base of the spinal cord at a point known as mooladhara chakra, and they terminate at ajna chakra in the medulla oblongata. These nadis are not merely psychic in structure, they are also physical. In the same way, mental energy is not only psychological, it is physiological as well. Similarly, the pranic energy is not only material energy; it is also higher energy. Besides pranic and mental energy there is a third energy in this human body which is conducted to higher centres through sushumna nadi within the spinal cord. Whereas pranic and mental energy are physiological, psychological and biological, this third energy is spiritual. When pranas predominate we are physically active, and when the mind predominates we are mentally active. However, when kundalini awakens and this energy is conducted through sushumna to the higher centres, we become spiritually active.

Therefore the purpose of kriya yoga is twofold: (i) the awakening of kundalini, the spiritual energy, and (ii) the awakening of sushumna, the channel for the spiritual energy. The awakening of sushumna is very necessary because if sushumna is not awakened, then this spiritual energy may be conducted through the wrong channel. So it is not merely the awakening of kundalini which is important, but more important is the awakening of the channel through which this energy has to be conducted. You may be able to awaken the energy in mooladhara chakra through the different yoga practices, but if sushumna is not awakened at the same time, then this energy can be diverted or misdirected through ida and pingala as well. When this happens, the practitioner has many difficulties until the energy is properly channelled. Therefore, in the practice of kriya yoga we are very careful about this twofold awakening process.

Befriending the Mind: 

One of the reasons for so many mental problems in the east and west is the way people try to control the mind. The practices of kriya yoga are designed in such a way that we do not have to confront the nature of the mind. The control of mind is an intellectual process, and it is against the very principle of spiritual evolution. Therefore, the entire range and background of kriya yoga is different from those schools of thought which stress control of the mind.

Let us talk about the mind. A thought is not the mind; an emotional upsurge is not the mind. Those people who are trying to control the mind do not know exactly what the mind is. Mind is like an iceberg; a little bit is seen and a lot is not seen. Most people do not know what thoughts or emotions they have; they are totally unaware of their mental state. Mind is a very powerful tool, and you must be very careful about how you deal with it. If you do injustice to the mind, if you fight with the mind, it becomes weak. Most of you think of the mind as a monkey, demon or monster, and when you meditate, you fight with yourself, you hate yourself. But you don't understand this, and therefore the type of meditation you have been doing leads to a process of negation and self-hypnotism.

Meditation has to be done with the mind and for the mind; it is not necessary that you forget all about yourself. We are not talking about the extension or extinction of the mind; we are talking about expansion of mind. The area of the mind evolved so far has to be extended further. We have developed the external, sensual, mental consciousness. We recognise a form, we hear a sound, we can feel a touch, that's the area of the mind so far. Now we have to extend the internal area, the possibilities of the mind within. When we are aware and able to extend the possibility of the mind internally, we should be able to maintain the external awareness at the same time. It is something like standing at the threshold and being able to look at the interior of the room and the exterior at the same time.

Therefore, in the practice of kriya yoga, the first and foremost thing is not to control the mind, because this is not at all necessary. Spiritual awareness can dawn in a man no matter what condition the mind is in. Spiritual illumination is not a condition of mind; it is different from the mind. You have been wasting your time fighting with the mind. You do not know the mind. If you knew the totality and the homogeneity of the mind, you would be surprised at what an error you have been making. The depth, the infinity, the power of the mind is so great that you can't even think about it. Therefore, in kriya yoga, an absolutely-friendly attitude towards the mind must be maintained. It is possible to evolve without the aid of the mind, but it is better to evolve through the mind.

Another important factor to consider is that many of the thoughts which you are trying to control in your spiritual life are biological products. Such thoughts need not be controlled by a process of counter-thinking. If you can properly balance your nadis, and hormonal secretions, 95% of the thinking process with which you have been fighting will be magically eliminated. When there is an imbalance between the pranic and the mental systems, the mind is agitated, and when the mind is agitated you fight with yourself.

The Practices: 

In kriya yoga we use mudras, bandhas and pranayama. For example: one of the important practices in kriya yoga is called khechari mudra. This can help us utilise a type of secretion or nectar in the body which creates a spiritual attitude. From bindu chakra in the cranial passage, this nectar flows, and it has to be tasted by the aspirant through the practice of khechari mudra. You may not taste it every day but you can taste it sometimes. When this happens, then you have no mind at all. Thoughts evaporate and tranquillity comes automatically.

When you practise kriya yoga the whole physical body is immediately controlled. Afterwards mental control comes by itself without trying to eliminate the conscious tendencies of the mind. Higher awareness can be apprehended even when your awareness is external. Homogeneous awareness is potential in everyone, but in order to have that experience we must widen the capacities of mind and consciousness.

In all the kriya practices you are asked not to worry about the behaviour of the mind. There is no emphasis on steadiness and tranquillity because the practices are dynamic by nature, not static. There is no passivity as you have in other systems of meditation. The mind and consciousness must remain active, not inactive. This is the difference between hypnotism and yogic experience. When the elements of the body and mind are directed towards inactivity, you are headed towards the hypnotic state.

Experience: 

Through the practices of kriya yoga, you are not inactivating the mind, you are stimulating the mind and the pranas as well as each and every organ. Therefore, you don't feel the same type of tranquillity which is created in the hypnotic state. Most people want to escape, and they are trying to find the easiest way, but I'm not for that. I know that the mind is troublesome, but we can channelize its dynamism.

There should be no effort at controlling the behaviour and tendencies of the mind. In kriya yoga, you are not aspiring for a state of absolute shoonya, but a state of absolute existence. You want to be spiritually evolved and, at the same time, aware of the entire creation. Sensory, mental and spiritual experiences are a composition of one experience, but when you go inside and block off sensory and mental experience, that is incomplete experience.

So, in fact, kriya yoga does not lead to shoonya samadhi. Kriya yoga leads to expansion of consciousness and liberation of energy. The energy is in mooladhara. It is dormant and it has to be liberated. The purpose of kriya yoga is to awaken the kundalini and when awakening of kundalini takes place, the totality becomes superb and beautiful. You have a new sense, a new awareness, and a new perception.

Expansion of Mind & Liberation of Energy:

Peace of mind, tranquillity, proper understanding, relaxation, etc., represent the positive accomplishments of man's spiritual life, but they are not an end in themselves. The important aim for which you practise yoga, and for which people have been practising yoga for thousands of years, is a change in the quality of experience, in the quality of mind and in the quality of perception. This is the ultimate purpose of the practices of yoga.

The quality of mind which you have is responsible for the quality of experience. You see a flower as a flower, a candle as a candle, an animal as an animal, but this experience is dependent on the mind and not on the nature of the object. This is the conclusion arrived at by modern science. Your experience of an object, whatever the object may be, is perceptible through the senses and designated by the mind. That quality of mind must change so that the quality of experience can also change.

when we speak about expansion of mind and liberation of energy, it is necessary to explain a little bit about tantra, because this is a science which is not understood by modern man. Tantra is a science which has evolved with the advent of man, and if you ask me how old it is, I would say it; is as old as man himself. Even then man had psychic abilities and with the dawning of awareness, he began to take notice of them. Of course, proper explanations were not given and wrong interpretations were presented even in those days. Often a person who was a clairvoyant, a telepath or a spiritual healer, was said to be possessed by a spirit. Later they found that these faculties were not the result of a spirit, of madness or of a drug. They were the consequence of an expanded state of mind which certain individuals had spontaneously developed as a result of their evolution.

With expansion of mind comes liberation of energy. When your mind is expanding by practices or by itself, then a certain type of energy is released. In yoga and tantra that energy is called kundalini shakti. Shakti and kundalini are the two terms used to denote this force which has to be liberated as you liberate butter from milk. Here I amusing me word liberation, but not in the religious sense. You know how butter is released from milk by a certain process. In the same way, the force or energy can be liberated from matter, because matter contains energy, or matter is a state of energy, and by a certain process you can extract that force. Beyond the body are the senses. Beyond the senses is the mind. Beyond the mind is the intellect. Beyond the intellect is the psyche. Beyond the psyche is the self, and beyond the self is the universe or the cosmos. This is how you have to extract the force from within this body and this person, and that shakti is known as kundalini.

Kriya Yoga & Kundalini: 

In tantra there are many methods which awaken kundalini, and out of them all, the practice of kriya yoga is considered to be most powerful. In Bharat the science of kriya yoga was not known for many years, because it was never published. It was handed down traditionally from guru to disciple. Disciples, both householder and monastic, practised this kriya yoga and they found that through this practice, awakening of kundalini became a real and living experience.

You know that in this physical body you have six main chakras, or junctures of energy situated within the framework of the spine. The first centre is at the root of the tailbone. (I am talking about the physiology.) The sixth centre is at the top, at the terminating point of the spine. In between these two, there are lour other centres, one in the sacral region, another in the solar plexus, another in the cardiac plexus and another in the cervical plexus.

These six centres are linked by three pathways of energy, which emanate from the first centre below the tail bone. They are known as pingala - the pathway for prana; ida- the pathway for mind and consciousness, and sushumna - the pathway for higher consciousness, that is, the Self. The purpose of kriya yoga is therefore to create awakening in these chakras, to purify these pathways, and finally, to awaken the kundalini shakti, the evolutionary force in man.

There are many kriyas, many practices, but out of all these, a combination of seventeen is considered to be most powerful and effective. These seventeen practices are divided into two groups. One group is to be done with the eyes open and the other with the eyes closed. And in the practice of kriya yoga you climb half these steps with the eyes open and the other half with the eyes closed.

What does this mean? It means that out of these seventeen practices, you should do nine with the eyes open. Do not close your eyes during the first nine practices; that is the central instruction of kriya yoga. When I taught kriya yoga I found that people have a general tendency to close their eyes because it feels more relaxed, but again and again we keep reminding them, 'No, do not close your eyes.' You may blink, you may rest your eyes, but every practice up to the tenth has to be done with eyes open. That is point number one and it is very important.

Point number two: if you feel uncomfortable and you want to change your posture during the practice of kriya yoga, you can change it. You do not need to maintain the same posture, if it is uncomfortable. Point number three: you do not waste time in trying to control the mind during these practices. This is considered to be the most important point in kriya yoga and in tantra.

A friendly Mind is your best ally: 

Through and through the tantric practices, (not only in kriya yoga), the first instruction the guru gives you is, 'Do not quarrel with your mind. Do not try to control your mind.' What is this control? Whenever you sit for meditation, what do you do? You quarrel with your mind, with yourself. This seems to be a very revolutionary idea for those who believe in the conventional system of meditation. Those who follow a traditional system of practices say, 'Everybody is telling us to control the mind.' But if you think about this, you will realise that you are definitely making some sort of mental error.

So in kriya yoga the third important instruction is : do not control the mind, just go on with your practice. If it is a practice of breathing, do it. If it is contraction of the perineum, do it. If it is contracting your abdomen, just do that, and if your mind is running riot, let it go, because sooner or later the mind can be controlled by the changes that take place in the body through the practices of kriya yoga.

The main contention of Kriya Yoga:

All the fluctuations which take place in your mind are not necessarily caused by psychological factors. Your mind may be jumping because your hormones are imbalanced. You may be emotional today because this is your cycle. Or you may be depressed due to a little deficiency in the chemical proportion of the endocrine secretions. Why take it so seriously? Why not consider your mental behaviour as an effect of a physiological imbalance? That is exactly what we seem to ignore, and what kriya yoga deals with.

The first practice in kriya yoga is called vipareeta karani mudra. Vipareeta means reverse, karani means action. Your car has a reverse gear hasn't it? What happens when you drive in reverse gear? The car goes back to the same point from which it has come. If you drive your car out of the garage and then you put it in reverse gear, it will go back into the garage, not forward to burn up its petrol on the road.

In Hatha Yoga Pradipika and in the tantric texts, there is a wonderful statement regarding this reverse action: "From the moon the nectar emanates. When the sun consumes the nectar, the yogi becomes old. His body decays and he dies. Therefore, by constant practice, the yogi should try to reverse the process. The nectar which is flowing towards the sun should be reversed and sent back to the higher centres." What will happen then? In Hatha Yoga Pradipika it says further: "When you are able to reverse the flow of amrita or nectar, it will not be consumed by the sun. It will be assimilated by your pure body."

When your body has been purified by hatha yoga, pranayama and a pure diet, this nectar is assimilated by the body, and as a result, you experience a high mental state. When the nectar returns to its source in the higher centres of the brain, and is not consumed by the sun, you begin to feel a sort of quietness. What is this quietness? It is a result of the assimilation of the particular secretion which this physical body produces. In yoga and in tantra, this particular secretion is known as 'amrita'. The word amrita comes from the Sanskrit root 'amar', meaning 'deathless'. That is the literal meaning, but amrita is translated as nectar or ambrosia which gives immortality. The point from which this nectar emanates is bindu. Bindu means 'drop' and its location is at the junction point of the inferior and the superior brain. It is exactly at that point where the Aryans and Hindus used to keep a lull of hair. They no longer do so because they consider it unnecessary.

It is from bindu, this cranial passage, that the drop comes. The cranial passage is like a very small piece of grass and it has a depression. Within that depression there is a tiny amount of fluid. It is so small I do not think it would even contain one drop. It is that particular drop of fluid which is known as amrita in yoga. Therefore, in tantra, the name of this centre is 'bindu visarga'. Bindu means 'drop' and visarga means 'falling'. So bindu visarga is the centre from which the drop of nectar falls.

Now, the effects of this nectar on the body, if it is not wasted, are two. One effect is that you become virile and produce children. I am a product of that and so are you. Other effects can be experienced also if you can stop the drop from falling and being consumed by the solar plexus. This is achieved through the practice of vipareeta karani mudra. The solar plexus which is in the navel, is the centre of the sun, of heat. In yoga it is the meeting point of two important forces in the body- prana and apana, the up-going force and the down-going force. If these two forces can be reversed, they are brought together, and the coalition takes place in the navel centre. Then the, effects of this nectar are felt by the higher consciousness, or by the subtle body or the astral body. As a result, you become calm and quiet, even if your mind was distracted, confused, wandering and vacillating a few moments before. Then everything stops and you feel total brightness. The eyes are open; you can hear sounds and see everything around you, but the mind does not move. It appears as if time, space and object have ceased, as if the whole universe has ceased to function. You feel a total full stop.

The main hypothesis or contention here is that you can influence the structure of the body, you can create a change in the energy forces, by altering the physical secretions. By altering the chemical proportions and the energy proportions in the body, you can create an effect on the mind which you may call shanti, dharana, dhyana or samadhi. This means that, even though your mind is totally undisciplined and you cannot handle it for a second, if you are able to create the correct proportion of secretions in the different areas of the body and mind, then the higher state can be achieved. Therefore the practices of kriya yoga do not require closed eyes and a steady posture. I am not criticising raja yoga because I teach that also, but I am talking about kriya yoga, and this is the main contention of kriya yoga.

Awakening of the Pranas & Chakras: 

Another important point regarding kriya yoga is the psychic centres or chakras in the body. There are six centres- mooladhara, swadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddhi, and ajna chakra, situated at certain points. Why do you not awaken and energise them? Why do you waste your time quarrelling and fighting with the mind all day long, wrestling with yourself constantly, twisting your own neck? This is suicide! Awaken your chakras instead.

How do you awaken the chakras? Kriya yoga says that by moola bandha you awaken mooladhara chakra, by vajroli mudra you awaken swadhisthana chakra, and by uddiyana bandha you awaken manipura chakra. By jalandhara bandha you awaken vishuddhi chakra and by shambhavi mudra you awaken ajna chakra. Why not try these practices? Once the chakras are awakened, experiences will begin to flow.

With psychic awakening many things happen. The first level of awakening is known as pranotthana, and at this stage the dissipated pranas in the body become one and begin to flow in one direction. If the awakening is not handled properly, if the body, the brain and the mind are not ready, then the practitioner will experience a negative result, for example, loss of sleep and hyperactivity for an indefinite period of time which have to be managed with the practices of asana, pranayama, mudra and bandha.

Expansion of the mind takes place within, the moment you start practising your mantra. If you do not have a mantra, use Om. Om is not copyright material, it is tree. Just practise Om in mooladhara chakra for one month, in swadhisthana chakra for one month in manipura, chakra for two months, in anahata chakra for one month. With practice you will strike at the right point. It may not happen immediately or even in ten, twenty or thirty days, but suddenly you will begin to feel it. After you have practised awakening the chakras through mantra or by concentration, there are many techniques in kriya yoga which you can practise.

When the pranas have become stable, the chakras awaken. Chakra awakening is the second stage and the hardest to handle. Prana deals with the realm of energy. But chakra awakening also changes the relevant part in the field of consciousness. Many people have experienced that with the awakening of mooladhara chakra, they become sexually very active, physically, mentally, emotionally and continuously. If this energy is not handled properly then the person can even become a rapist! Such a reaction is possible because the mind is not able to cope with the new form and perception of consciousness.

These chakras are definitely the basis for the beginning of the expanded state of awareness, but for the most part they are beyond your reach. You cannot even bore a nail into them because you do not know exactly where they are. Each chakra has a contact centre. Swadhisthana has a contact centre at the root of the urinary organ or the clitoris. Manipura has a contact centre at the navel, anahata at the sternum, vishuddhi at the throat and ajna at bhrumadhya, the mid-eyebrow centre. Mooladhara and bindu have no contact point.

With the awakening of the chakras, negativity and positivity come to the surface and, as always, the negative forces are more powerful than the positive ones. Not powerful in the sense of strength, but because they cause extremes to manifest in the personality. Extremes don't manifest with the positive qualities because harmony is manifesting.

Now suppose you find yourself incapable of concentrating on manipura chakra or anahata chakra, you can utilise the contact centres. The contact points are switches and if you want to switch on this light, the contact point can be used. You should remember this.

Now we have some understanding about the chakras and contact points, but the problem remains, where is kundalini? Kundalini could have left its garage hours ago. Although the native town of kundalini is mooladhara chakra, we cannot be sure that it is still there, because incarnation after incarnation, the yoga minded people, the diligent aspirants, the disciples of gurus and the followers of faiths, have practised some sort of yoga in the form of religion or mysticism. By their practice in different lives and incarnations, they must have already undergone that event called awakening of kundalini. That is why I always tell people that, although the abode of kundalini is mooladhara chakra, she may not be there, but you will find her somewhere while practising kriya yoga. Maybe you will find her moving through swadhisthana, manipura or anahata, and then you can say, 'There she is!'

So, with the awakening of a chakra, a corresponding change also takes place in the consciousness, behaviour, vision, attitude and lifestyle of a person. When swadhisthana awakens, and if we are not able to handle that awakening properly, then insecurities and fears will be very strong, so much so that people can even try to commit suicide, because they are not able to adjust anywhere in the world. So, in each chakra there are both positive and negative qualities which must be handled very carefully, and under the direction of a competent teacher.

It is true that man is a spiritually developed being and the function of man during this lifetime is to go beyond and awaken that higher potential. That should be the prime purpose of everyone who wants to practise kriya yoga. So do not be afraid of awakening your kundalini. Man has led himself through thousands of adventures; he has spanned the oceans, climbed Everest, gone to the moon He has taken many risks. What is one more for a prize above all these?

The subtle dimensions of personality: 

Now, in Kriya Yoga where many different components are combined, the result of awakening is experienced in the physical body, in the psychic body and in the pranic body. These are the three main bodies which are activated, awakened and stimulated in kriya practice. Yoga says that there are five different dimensions or koshas in the human body: annamaya kosha, the physical body or the body of matter; pranamaya kosha, the body of energy; manomaya kosha, the body of mind or mental experiences; vijnanamaya kosha, the body of cognitive faculties; anandamaya kosha, the body of bliss.

The physical practices of Hatha Yoga, asana and pranayama, influence and alter the performance of annamaya kosha. If we go deeper into the practices of mudra and bandha we find that pranayama kosha is stimulated. Then if we go deeper into the practices of Raja Yoga, pratyahara and dharana, we will find that manomaya kosha is activated. Vijnanmaya kosha is activated by the practices of dhyana.

In Kriya Yoga where we combine asanas, breath awareness, breath control, visualisations and willpower, we are approaching four different dimensions of our personality, excluding anandamaya kosha, at the same time. The awakening of the subtle dimensions of personality is not easy to handle. We can't handle the fear, anger, frustration and depression that we experience every day. Yet we still want to go deep into our consciousness, and think that we can handle the psychic changes that take place.

Incorporating the Kriya Yoga practices into daily sadhana: 

Rule No.1 – Don't be in a hurry, because if you are in a hurry you will have a lot of worries.

Rule No.2 – Never practise all the kriyas all together. In the past many people might say they have practised a number of kriyas at the same time. However, from my own experience and understanding of the kriya system, I am saying that you should never practise all the kriyas together because it will be too powerful, too strong. Rather, combine them with the normal practices of asana and pranayama, concentration and relaxation.

First, do the normal sadhana. Then at the end add one or two kriyas to the daily practice. Practise the same kriyas – let us say No.1 and No.2 – for one week along with the other sadhana. In the second week practise No.3 and No.4, and leave No.1 and No.2 behind. In the third week leave behind No.3 and 4 and practise No.5. and No.6.

Gradually go on building up your receptive ability, and at the same time balancing the awakening of energy with the normal sadhana practices. These are the two main rules for kriya practice which you should understand.

Is the practice of Kriya Yoga faster way to evolve ? If so, Do Karmas get resolved faster or do we simply bypass them? 

Kriya Yoga is not a system by which you can evolve faster and quicker. It will give you an opportunity to experience yourself with a different vision and viewpoint, but you will have to continue working with karmas and samskaras.

Rather, I feel that those people who have gone through and perfected the practices of Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, and who have in the course of their lives overcome the basic samskaras and karmas of life with the practices of Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Dhyana Yoga will have better results when they practise Kriya Yoga. However, if you begin to practise Kriya Yoga without having gone through the initial stages of purification, things will be stirred up even more and you will have to face your samskaras and karmas in the form of happiness, joy, depression, crying and frustration, sometimes with a very open feeling, sometimes in a very closed way. You will have to face the mind stuff.

As the consciousness changes, you have to handle both the good and the bad, the positive and the negative. In this process you are dealing with your own samskaras and karmas which bind you to the earthly plane. You definitely cannot bypass the samskaras and karmas unless you are an exceptional and extraordinary person.

The most important thing is your commitment to the practice of the kriyas. Swami Sivananda used to say, and still says through me, “One ounce of practice is better than tons of theory.” There is a statement in the Yoga Sutras that a practice which is done regularly, for an extended period of time, and with faith, prepares the ground for higher realisation. There are three concepts here. Regularity, without a break; for an extended period of time, allowing the practice to purify, harmonise and balance the inner structure of the personality; and faith, the conviction that eventually we will experience the result of the practice.

Is it wrong to awaken Kundalini without the help of Guru? 

When the practices of hatha yoga, the shatkarmas, are done, when you practise the mantra given by the guru, then there is no risk in having your kundalini awakened directly. Sooner or later, awakened kundalini will be the destiny of mankind. The next phase of man's evolution will not be cultural or political, it will be spiritual. We are not going to lose our arms or add two more, and we are not going to become taller or shorter, but now evolution has reached a phase where spiritual awareness will grow. Awakening of kundalini is the term to be used for that important stage or phase of human evolution.

How does one decide how many Kriyas one shall do each day ?

One should learn all seventeen kriyas from the guru or his respective teacher. If you have time enough to practise all seventeen, then do so, but if you are short of time, then you should consider maha mudra, maha bheda mudra and naumukhi to be the most important. After practising these three, if you find that you still have time, you can practise vipareeta karani mudra, and if you have more time still, you can practise shakti chalini.

Why is it that in the first half of the kriya yoga practices the eyes are kept open and in the last half they are closed ? 

In the beginning, if you keep your eyes closed you will become aware of most of your mental problems and worries. When the eyes are closed, the brain is quieter and the subconscious forces are able to come into operation. When you keep your eyes open, however, the brain is functioning more and the unconscious conflicts stay out of the consciousness. Therefore, in kriya yoga the first practices which develop pratyahara are done with the eyes open, but after tadan kriya, dharana begins and you keep your eyes closed.

Must kriya Yoga be practiced in morning ? 

The right time to practise kriyas, or any other great sadhana, is in the morning, when everything outside and inside is favourable. According to the sciences of spiritual life, the practices done at night are known as rajasic tantric sadhana. The sattvic tantric practices should be performed in the morning, the time of supreme awareness, brahmamuhurta, between four and six a.m.

When practise kriya yoga, you do not need meditation at all, because in meditation you have to control the mind and in kriya yoga you do not control the mind.

Relationship between Kundalini and Kriya Yoga. 

Kundalini yoga is not a practice but a system. Kriya yoga is a practice of kundalini yoga, not a system.