You really want to get up early and make use of the time before the dawn for your yogic practices. But when the alarm goes off, you just hit snooze. If that’s you, here are 5 steps to tweak your sleep, wake up by yourself without alarm, and benefit from the perfect time for your kriya or meditation.
Sadhguru: Your life is a product of a phenomenal happening that we call cosmos. We are not an individual existence, but we have lost sync with nature. Many ailments and problems that human beings are suffering from today are simply because we have lost the awareness as to how to be in sync with the forces of nature that are making us who we are. Coming awake to an alarm bell with a sudden start is not the best way. When you get in sync with nature, you will wake up without an alarm.
You cannot go and live in the jungle, but at least surround yourself with some plants at home and where you sleep. You must always be conscious of everything that is alive around you. If possible, open up half the roof or the wall so that some sunlight comes into you. The space should not be completely closed with an air conditioner buzzing all the time. Such reverberations around you are freaking the body completely.
Food is essentially fuel for the body. If you put in the right kind of fuel, your system will be on in a certain way. With the wrong kind of fuel, it will only manage somehow. Just experiment and see. Tonight, instead of eating cooked food, just eat fruits. Tomorrow morning, you may wake up before the alarm bell, and you will be instantly bright and alert.
You know how much sleep you need – let us say you need 8 hours. Whatever amount of sleep you need, go to bed early enough so that you come awake naturally. Suppose you have a doubt whether you will come awake or not, you can set a certain chant to wake up to. If you have identified one of the Vairagya chants, whichever resonates with you most, you can use it.
Yoga is to bring you in sync with the rhythm of life. If you get in rhythm with life, you will wake up somewhere just after 3 a.m. If you are conscious, suddenly a certain spark of aliveness will happen within you at that time. Even if you are in deep sleep, you will come awake. When that happens, it means you are falling in sync with life.
This is relevant only up to 33 degrees latitude. Between 3:40 a.m. to 4 a.m., the Sun’s rays will be at a certain angle in relation to the planet. If you become aware in a certain way, you will simply know when that time is. If you go to bed at the right time, you do not have to look at your watch. You will always know when it is 3:40 a.m. because the body will behave in a different way.
At that time, the human system functions in such a way that it is a possibility. In the yogic system, there has always been an awareness about making use of this possibility. So what should you do at that time? Should you meditate? Should you do a kriya? It does not matter what – you must do a process that you have been initiated into. Initiation means you are not just taught a practice – it was introduced or implanted in your system.
So, if there is a live seed within you, and you are awake at the Brahma Muhurta and sit for whatever yogic practice you are initiated into, it will bear maximum fruit. The seed will get the necessary support at that time to sprout and grow more rapidly than at other times. This is only for the initiated. For others, the Sandhya Kalas are more important. Sandhya Kalas are the twenty minutes before and after sunrise, and the twenty minutes before and after sunset. The same goes for noon and midnight, but those Sandhya Kalas are of a different nature.
The two twilight Sandhya Kalas are better for the uninitiated. For those who have been powerfully initiated, 3:40 a.m. is a good time.
