[3] It is described by its practitioners as an ancient yoga system revived in modern times by Lahiri Mahasaya, who claimed to be initiated by a guru, Mahavatar Babaji, circa 1861 in the Himalayas.

Lahiri Mahasaya received it from his great guru, Babaji, who rediscovered and clarified the technique after it had been lost in the Dark Ages.

According to Timothy Miller, the term yoga may designate various spiritual practices in Hindu traditions, translating it as "union" or "discipline".

"[14] The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.1 defines three types of kriyā, namely tapas ("heat," ascetic practices), svadhyaya (study or recitation of the Vedas, or “contemplation, meditation, reflection of one's self”), and Isvara pranidhana (devotion or surrender to God).

[19][20] The story of Lahiri Mahasaya receiving initiation into Kriya Yoga by Mahavatar Babaji in 1861 is recounted in Autobiography of a Yogi.

[21][22] Yogananda wrote that at that meeting, Mahavatar Babaji told Lahiri Mahasaya, "The Kriya Yoga that I am giving to the world through you in this nineteenth century, is a revival of the same science that Krishna gave millenniums ago to Arjuna; and was later known to Patanjali, and Christ, and to St. John, St. Paul, and other disciples.

"[3] Yogananda also wrote in God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita that the science of Kriya Yoga was given to Manu, the original Adam, and through him to Janaka and other royal sages.

[26][27][28] Kriya Yoga, as taught by Lahiri Mahasaya, is traditionally learned exclusively via the Guru-disciple relationship, and the initiation consists of a secret ceremony.

[29][2] He recounted that after his initiation into Kriya Yoga, "Babaji instructed me in the ancient rigid rules which govern the transmission of the yogic art from Guru to disciple.

Rizwan Virk writes that "The purpose of the book was to inspire readers to take up the yogic path by opening their minds to spiritual possibilities.

"[31] In Yogananda's 6 October 1920 speech at the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, he said that the Kriya Yoga of his lineage "consists of magnetizing the spinal column and the brain, which contain the seven main centers, with the result that the distributed life electricity is drawn back to the original centers", thus liberating the "spiritual Self" from physical and mental distractions.

[32] Yogananda wrote:[3] The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers (medullary, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man.

[3] According to Yogananda, Kriya Yoga was well known in ancient India, but was eventually lost, due to "priestly secrecy and man’s indifference".

[3] A direct disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri, Sailendra Dasgupta (d. 1984) has written that, "Kriya entails several acts that have evidently been adapted from the Gita, the Yoga Sutras, Tantra shastras and from conceptions on the Yugas.

"[29] The Bhagavad Gita does not teach Kriya Yoga pranayama by name, but Yogananda claimed that the fundamental idea of the practice – control over the mind and the body's energy (prana) – is expressed therein.

Specifically, Yogananda claims that verses IV:29 and V:27–28 about breath control and meditation describe the essential concepts of Kriya Yoga.