Swamiji gives guidelines for bed-time prep, reading, sleep and meditation.
Swamiji is reading – by the sound of it, from Swami Yatiswarananda's 'Meditation and Spiritual Life' [For a review of the book, click HERE. This magnificent read and study, is a compilation of class talks given by Swami Yatiswarananda in Europe, the USA and India. It is sadly still not available as a Kindle or eBook.]
From the reading: 5 to 6 hours of sleep are enough for the spiritual aspirant. 8 hours are generally too much.
Swamiji spells out the need to be able to relax in order to meditate and the message is that highly-strung or very nervous people, will not easily be able to meditate.
Developing a spirit of self-surrender is key to making the mind more passive and attuned to the infinite, and thereby minimise all anxiety and our terrible nervous and mental tensions. If we're able to do this, we'll feel a sort of peace, long before even being able to really meditate. We should make it a point to relax our nerves as much as possible, before we attempt meditation.
Says Swamiji: Some people become a nervous wreck and then they go for meditation [hoping] for rest. But here it says, you must have rest before attempting meditation.
From the reading, it's suggested having a catnap after lunch in the afternoon in order to refresh the mind. It's very useful – but very difficult for some people to practise. [And for office-bound or busy business or family people, particularly difficult].
Listen to the guidelines about what we read, and the ideal state of mind to have, before going to sleep at night. The guidelines extend to the whole evening, with a focus on the divine name or form or both. There are invaluable tips and techniques for facilitating this process. With some suggestions which we might not have previously considered, or thought to be of value.
Swamiji speaks of cultivating a habit or behavioural pattern which 'makes it difficult', in a good way, to go to bed or wake up without thinking of the Divine.
There's some solid advice on not mixing up japa and sleep. As also having a 'fixed point of consciousness' on which to focus the mind, when doing japa. And there's a warning against focusing on psychic centres [chakras] advised by Tantric books.
[Trigger warning.😉] Then come the food instructions! Including a simple instruction about fasting. And a mention of 'dieters' – to the amusement of the congregation, as Swamiji intentionally repeats the 'diet' word, twice.
To carefully absorb these practical and experience-based guidelines, please click on the link below. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!
Duration: 08:33
For the free-to-read, draft 394 page expanded version of 'A Life Lived For Others'.
Click here: → Swamiji's biography
You may need to install a PDF reader on your phone if that's where you'll be reading the book.
The original audio recordings of these posts were made by close Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and Swami Shivapadananda devotee, Mother Radha. The audio editing and noise reduction of the original 1970s-onwards tapes, has been lovingly engineered, over many years, by her son and our dear gurubhai, Brother Tim. May Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji bless them both.
Admin tip: Underlined words are links. If you click on them, they'll take you to an explanation of the particular word or term. [In these overviews, Admin comments are typically in a smaller green font, and square bracketed, like this statement.]
Dear reader, if you spot typos or or other errors, please feel free to email the site admin on info@imbizo.com with your suggested correction/s.
Context: As always, care should be taken to remember that what Swamiji was saying, was often very specific to the needs of people with him at the time. Please bear this in mind.
Links to our Guru Parampara (spiritual lineage) organisations, which will broaden your knowledge base: Ramakrishna Math and Mission and our alma maters, the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa and the Sri Sarada Devi Ashram in Durban. The Ramakrishna Centre of Johannesburg is also active in Gauteng province in South Africa.
There are various publications [The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna etc.] which you can download at no charge, from the Ramakrishna Centre of SA website page, HERE.
The picture in this post was generated using prompts to Microsoft Copilot Artificial Intelligence (AI).