[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 955
A devotee asks: Those people who fall asleep when meditating – how does one avoid that?
Swamiji: There are a lot of reasons why one goes off to sleep when trying to meditate. First of all, if one's stomach is full, all the blood rushes there to digest the food, so your brain is robbed [deprived] of that energy [oxygenation]. You will feel sleepy. The other thing is that if your breathing is not right, you rob yourself of energy and then you'll also want to go to sleep. You may also not have a keen interest [in meditating]. Look, if a man wants to sleep and he sees a movie on the TV but he doesn't have an interest in it, he'll go to sleep. What else can the poor mind do?
Patanjali notes it [the desire to fall asleep] in Raja Yoga [practice] – as an obstacle. It is an....obstacle. How do you change that? Every time you want to sleep – open your eyes. Look at a picture of the Lord. Walk a little bit. Then sit again, until you overcome that feeling. Get up gently, walk, come back – it doesn't matter. Go and breathe in some fresh air. Open the windows. [Swamiji briefly demonstrates bhastrika, which is a quick energising pranayama breathing technique] Pray. Go and wash your face with cold water. Go back and sit again.
You know how it is – sometimes in the morning you can't get up at 5 o'clock. Don't just say, 'I can't get up at 5 o'clock,' say 'never mind, I'll try!' And then maybe you get up at five thirty. You say again, 'I'll try!' – then you get up and the whole day you're drowsy. Just keep at it. There will come a time when you will have adjusted to 5 o'clock. You must overcome it by sheer force of will.
Devotee: I thought his only happened to old people but does this happen to young people as well?
Swamiji: The young people nod off even more quickly because they haven't got any creaking joints. [congregation laughs merrily and long]. They're quite relaxed you see – they just go off. [Swamiji laughing too].
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.
For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:
Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites - please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham
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