Sat Kriya: A Yoga Practice You Can Do in 3 Minutes

If you are one of those people who cannot spare the time to do an elaborate yoga routine every day, Sat Kriya is one of the best kriyas you can opt for.

Yogis claim that practicing Sat Kriya for at least 3 minutes a day can have spectacular benefits on your body, mind, and spirit.

Let’s take a detailed look at Sat Kriya through this article to explore the following questions:

• What is Sat Kriya in Kundalini yoga?
• What does Sat Kriya mean?
• What is Sat Kriya good for?
• How do you practice Sat Kriya daily?

What Is Sat Kriya in Kundalini Yoga?

Sat Kriya is fundamental to kundalini yoga. It is one of the most powerful kriyas taught by Yogi Bhajan, the kundalini yoga master.

According to Yogi Bhajan, practicing Sat Kriya for at least 3 minutes daily is as beneficial as completing an entire yoga class, because it facilitates deep relaxation, awakens sexual energy, and strengthens heart health.

This kriya directly channels the kundalini energy that lies dormant at the base of your lumbar spine (right around where your back meets your butt). Sat kriya is one of the yoga kriyas that can help you keep the body as a vital temple of god.

What Does Sat Kriya Mean?

Sat Kriya is practiced with the mantra Sat Nam, a chant that symbolizes its true meaning. ‘Sat’ is pronounced like ‘but’ with a ‘th’ and ‘Nam’ sounds like ‘calm’.

‘Sat’ in Sanskrit means ‘the truth’ and ‘Nam’ means ‘name’. When chanted together, Sat Nam can be interpreted as ‘Truth is God’s Name. Truth is my essence’. This powerful mantra is used to identify the truth within ourselves and to invoke the divine consciousness that encompasses us.

By invoking the divine consciousness, Sat Kriya can help us connect with our infinite identity. It paves the path to self-realization by enabling us to feel the vibrations of the universe.

As we chant Sat Nam, we slowly heal ourselves by clearing our subconscious and letting go of old wounds and grudges.

Sat Nam does this by altering the way we project our minds. Why? Because it’s a ‘Bija’ or seed mantra. Seed mantras make use of universal vibrations to revamp our mind’s thinking and habit-forming patterns.

The universal vibrations resonate with your being and erase any pattern within you that may prevent you from invoking the divine truth.

What Is Sat Kriya Good For?

The big takeaway: making Sat Kriya a part of your daily routine can help your mind and body heal. But let’s get more specific here.

With Sat Kriya’s combination of meditation and exercise, practicing it for at least 3 minutes daily enables deep relaxation. It also stimulates the Parasympathetic Nervous System, which helps your body repair and regenerate.

There are countless ways you can benefit from this kriya. Just to name a few, here are ways Sat Kriya can help you:

• Stimulate chakras and improve general physical health.
• Strengthen the heart by stimulating a rise and fall of blood pressure.
• Strengthen the entire sexual system and stimulate its natural flow of energy through the entire body.
• Relax phobias about sexuality and strengthen sex organs.
• Help control carnal impulses by channeling the sexual energy to creative and healing activities.
• Improve mental health by balancing the energies of the lower three chakras.
• Stimulate the kundalini energy.
• Aid digestion by stimulating the stomach and intestines.

How Do You Practice Sat Kriya Daily?

Want to tap into some of those juicy benefits? Heck yeah!

Here’s a detailed guide for Sat Kriya practice, complete with the postures, mudra, mantra, focus, and steps involved.

Posture

• Sit on your heels in the Rock pose—keep your knees together.
• Stretch the arms over the head with your elbows straight, until your arms flank your head on both sides.
• Keep your spine straight. Remember, this exercise does not involve a pelvic thrust or a spinal flex.
• Throughout the meditation, remain firmly seated on your heels.

Mudra:

Interlock all the fingers except for the index fingers, which should touch each other and point straight up. Women should cross the left thumb over the right and men should cross the right thumb over the left.

Mantra:

Begin to chant Sat Nam with a constant rhythm. You can stick to 8 times per 10 seconds chant.

Focus:

• As you chant Sat, focus on pulling the navel point in and up towards the spine. Feel it as a pressure flowing from the Solar Plexus chakra (third chakra).
• Relax your belly with Nam.
• As you maintain the chant in a steady rhythm, the root lock and the diaphragm lock are automatically pulled; causing the steady waves of energy from the navel to move to the greater abdomen.
• The focus of the sound Nam can either be at the Brow point (the point that symbolizes the Third Eye chakra) or the Navel point.
• Though the force is through the navel, the diaphragm and root locks come along, supporting each other. This creates a physiological balance and maintains the blood pressure evenly.
• Continue chanting for 3-30 minutes.

Steps:

• Inhale deeply and squeeze the muscles from the buttocks; all the way up to your spine.
• Hold the pose briefly as you focus on a point above the top of your head.
• Exhale.
• Inhale again and exhale completely. Hold your breath as you apply a maha bandha—lock in your chin, lift the diaphragm, pull in the navel, contract the pelvis, squeeze the muscles from the buttocks up until the neck.
• Hold the breath for 5-20 seconds, depending on your capacity.
• Inhale and exhale.
• Separate your index fingers, lower your arms, and switch to the easy pose.
• Ideally, you should relax for 30-60 seconds after this.

Bonus Tips:

• Take it slow at first: Star with just pulling the navel. Once you have mastered the navel pull, the root lock will follow smoothly.
• It can be practiced quietly: There’s no rule saying Sat Kriya must always be practiced with sound. Many experienced yogis don’t feel the need to chant loudly when practicing Sat Kriya. Once you master sensing the vibrations, you can practice this silently, as long as you can pull the root lock and move the navel point.
• Try to relax your entire body, except for the muscles in use: Selective relaxation is key. Many people tend to tense up as they have to focus on multiple body parts during this exercise. Calm your thoughts, relax your shoulders, thighs, and the rest of the body parts that have a lot of pent-up energy trapped in them. Channel this energy to the body parts that are actually involved in the process.
• Let your breath flow: You don’t have to focus specifically on your breath. Once you get the hang of chanting along with pulling the root lock and moving the navel point, your breath will naturally flow.
• Always stick to Sat Nam: Sat Nam is the core mantra of Sat Kriya. Don’t try to replace it with other mantras.

Sat Kriya does not come easily the first time you try. But that doesn’t mean it’s out of your league.

Give yourself time—like every other kriya in yoga, this too requires practice, focus, and dedication. Take this as a good opportunity to reconnect with yourself. Practice it daily and make it your own.

At the end of the day, yoga is all about self-realization. You can also always seek a professional teacher or explore tutorial videos for more details.

Here’s hoping that you connect with your divine consciousness soon.

Until then, stay mindful and stay safe. 🙏🏻💓