Expressions researched:
"sleep means"
|"sleeping means"
|"sleeping, means"
Devotee: How does the devotee go about practicing this Kṛṣṇa consciousness when he's asleep?
Prabhupāda: Yes, Sleep means your gross senses are stopped, but your mind works. Therefore you dream. So if you practice your mind to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in dream also you'll see that you are preparing prasādam. "I am going to sell Back to Godhead." (chuckles) That's all. Sometimes some nights when I feel hungry, I dream that I'm eating Kṛṣṇa prasādam very sumptuous. (laughing)
Just like a diseased man. He's lying down on the bed and eating there, passing stool there, passing urine there, and he cannot move and very bitter medicine. So many inconvenience. He's lying down. So he's thinking of committing suicide. "Oh, this life is very intolerable. Let me commit suicide." So in desperate condition sometimes the philosophy of voidism, impersonalism is followed. To make the things zero. Because this life is so much troublesome, sometimes even one commits suicide to get out of this, I mean to say, troublesome life of material existence. So the philosophy of voidism, impersonalism is like that. Mean they cannot, shudder, to think of another life, again eating, again sleeping, again working. Because he thinks eating, sleeping, means on the bed. That's all. And suffering. He cannot think otherwise. So the negative way, to make it zero. That is void philosophy.
Devotee must rise early in the morning, by four o'clock. By five o'clock, he must finish his bathing and other things. Then he takes to chanting and so many... Twenty-four hours' business must be there. So sleeping is not good. The Gosvāmīs used to sleep only two hours. I also write at night book, and I also sleep, not more then three hours. But I take sometimes little, sleep more. Not like... I don't imitate the Gosvāmīs. That try to avoid. And avoid sleeping means if we eat less, then we'll avoid. Eating, sleeping. After eating, there is sleeping. So if we eat more, then more sleeping. If we eat less, then less sleeping. Eating, sleeping, mating. And mating should be avoided. That is a great stricture. Sex life should be minimized as far as possible. Therefore we have got this restriction, "No illicit sex." Sex life, we don't say... That you cannot do, nobody can do. Therefore sex life means married life, a little concession. A license, "All right, you take this license." But not illicit sex. Then you'll never be able.
We are suffering, and Kṛṣṇa, out of His kindness, He comes to prove that the living entities are eternal servant and He is the eternal master. Still, because they are contaminated, contaminated by the yogamāyā, contaminated by māyā, mahāmāyā... Mahāmāyā. Yā devī sarva-bhūteṣu nidrā-rūpeṇa saṁśritā(?). Mahāmāyā. This material energy is described in the Chandi, yā devī sarva-bhūteṣu nidrā-rūpeṇa saṁśritā(?). (S)he's keeping everyone in sleeping, more dozes. Utthiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpta varān nibodhata. And therefore Veda says that "Don't sleep. Get up, rascal. Get up. This is the opportunity." But no. Yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ. Yogamāyā is keeping him in sleeping condition. Nidrālasya. So we should be very careful. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also: jīv jago jīv jago gauracandra bole. The Gauracandra's mission is to awaken the conditioned soul. Jīv jago jīv jago gauracandra... Kota nidrā yāo māyā-piśācīra kole. How long we shall sleep? We are thinking that "I am sleeping at the lap of my beloved mother." Don't do this. Get up. The Vedic vācana: utthiṣṭhata jagrāta prāpta varān nibodhata. We should be very careful that we have got this body, human form of body, and we should not sleep. Sleeping means ignorance. Māyā andha-kara. Just like at night we sleep because it is darkness. But during daytime we do not sleep, generally. That is the way.
Anyone who is fully, constantly, twenty-four hours engaged, avyabhicāriṇi... Avyabhicāriṇi, without any stoppage. Therefore I want that in our temple there should be program that we are always engaged in devotional service, twenty-four hours. But because we have got this material body we require a little rest, the minimum rest, as minimum as possible. Because the sleeping means waste of time.
We are supposed to be engaged twenty-four hours in the service of the Lord, but as it is not possible, we have to sleep, take little rest, so that should be the minimum. Because the whole period sleeping means waste. So all these Gosvāmīs, they used to sleep not more than two hours. That was also not possible in some day.
So we are experiencing in our this life. It is taking change so swiftly that we cannot understand how the body is changing, but it is changing. So similarly, this body will change. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. And we have to change that body after death according to my mental condition because we have got two bodies, the subtle body and the gross body. This gross body is finished; it is no more working. Just like at night the gross body does not work. We are thinking, "I am sleeping." Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working. But your another body, which is made of mind, intelligence, and ego—subtle body—that is working. Everyone has got this experience. The subtle body takes you to another place or another condition. You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not, there is no result.
So to sleep means simply waste of time. You must know it. Either I sleep five hours, six hours, ten hours, twelve hours, it is simply waste of time. The valuable life which you have got, immediately so many hours minus. Sleep is not good. Sleep, if we can do without sleep, that is perfection. Not that "Let me enjoy sleep twelve hours, fourteen hours, whole life." No.
Everything he forgets. Sleeping means forgetfulness. But as soon as he is awakened, he remembers everything. Everything. "Oh, I have to go to office. I have to do this thing. I have to meet such and such person." Everything. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa consciousness is sleeping in everyone's heart. He is hankering. He is hankering after how to love Kṛṣṇa, but he is being checked up. The māyā is checking him: "Don't try to love Kṛṣṇa. If you love Kṛṣṇa, then you will forget all these material activities." Māyā is speaking.
So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching this pravṛtti-mārga, nivṛtti-mārga, both. "You do not do this" or "You do this." "Do this" means rise early in the morning, maṅgala-āratrika. Of course, you must sleep, but not sleep like cats and dogs, animals. Simply sleeping means waste of time. The more you reduce sleeping, then you become perfect. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. All the gosvāmīs in Vṛndāvana, they conquered over these things. What is these things? Nidrā, sleeping; āhāra, eating; and vihāra, and sense pleasure. This is called sannyāsa life, reducing sleeping, reducing eating. This is pravṛtti-mārga. We think "If I can eat voraciously like an elephant, then my life is successful." No. That is not success of life. If you can do without any food, that is successful. That is success.
Suppose my father is dead or somebody, a relative, is dead, we lament that "My father is no more. He has gone away." But where he has gone? The father is lying on the bed. Why do you say, "My father has gone away?" If somebody says that "Your father is lying sleeping on the bed. Why you are crying that your father has gone away? He has not gone. He is sleeping there...,"but that sleep is not this sleep, ordinary sleep as we have daily. That sleep means eternal sleep. So actually, we have no eyes to see who is my father. During the lifetime of my father I did not know who is my father; therefore when the actual father goes away, we cry that "My father is gone." So that is spirit. Who has gone away from that body, that is spirit soul; otherwise why he is speaking that "My father is gone"? The body is there.
Pradyumna: He said Arjuna's another name was Guḍākeśa.
Prabhupāda: Guḍākeśa. Guḍākeśa. Guḍākeśa means one who has conquered sleep. Sleeping means māyā, or darkness. Just like in sleeping you do not know where you are, similarly, a person who is in the darkness... Everyone is, in this material condition of life, everyone is in darkness. He does not know wherefrom he has come, what for he has come, what he has to do, and where he is going next. All these questions are darkness for him. So anyone who has conquered over this darkness, he is called guḍākeśa.
Sleeping means just like when we sleep we forget ourself. Anyone, either common man or very rich man, when he's fast asleep he forgets himself. Sometimes he dreams. Although he is sleeping in very nice apartment, nice bedstead, but he is dreaming that he is thrown into the ocean or into the fire or something like that. Sometimes he is dreaming that he is flying in the sky—so many things dreaming. Everyone, you have got experience. Similarly, our this state of consciousness, material consciousness, is on the sleeping state, in the darkness of sleeping state. We do not know. We do not know what is my identity.
Prabhupāda: That means he believes in eternity. This loss of senses, that is we also accept that there are three stages: jāgrati, awakening, and sleeping and deep sleeping. So deep sleeping means unconsciousness. So when a man dies from awakening state, he enters into the dreaming state and then enters into the deep sleeping state. So transmigration of the soul means he gives up this gross body, and the subtle body, mind, intelligence carries him to the another body, and in another body, unless the body is prepared properly, he lives in deep sleep. And when the body is prepared at seven months for human being, then he comes to consciousness.
Prabhupāda: No. That is not māyā. I mean to say, dreaming... Yes. Sleeping means stopping your active life. So that is a waste of time. We should rather... The mind is always active, and dreaming means the mind is acting. So dreaming is not always bad. Dreaming sometimes very good. What I mean, sleeping is not very good. (long pause) Dāmodara, what is the price of these films?
So sleeping means to remain in ignorance.
Prabhupāda: Yes. No, if you keep healthy, then you will naturally rise healthy, er rise early in the morning. But if you... Because you have lost all, what is called? Stamina?
Hṛdayānanda: Yes. Yes.
Prabhupāda: Therefore sleeping is my only business. Sleeping means for the weak. And for the strong, perspiration. This is the sign. When a man sleeps too much, he's weak in his health. And the strong man will perspire. These are very... Balera ghāma, and the durbalera ghuma. Ghāma and ghuma. Ghuma means sleeping, and ghāma means perspiration
How transmigration of the soul takes place? By the action of mind, intelligence and ego. They do not know. There is no such science. There are so many universities all over the world. But who is studying all these things? The psychologists, they have studied a little more about thinking, feeling and willing. That's all. But they do not know how he is working, how he is carrying the subtle soul to other body. That they do not know.
Mr. Sar: Apareyam itas tu...
Guest (2): Why do you not explain that?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Guest (2): Why do you not explain that about subtle being carried forward?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Dr. Patel: That is going to come now.
Prabhupāda: Subtle body... Just like your body at night is on the bed, but you are carried by the thinking, feeling, intelligence to somewhere else. Is it not? So how are you are carried? You are actually lying on the bed. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. It is carried by the subtle body. Similarly, death means that this body stops working. But the subtle mind... Exactly in the same way. Just as while you are sleeping this gross body has stopped to work, but the subtle body is working.
Dr. Patel: That is in, I mean, svapna.
Prabhupāda: Svapna, yes.
Dr. Patel: But that does not work in deep sleep.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Dr. Patel: In deep sleep it does not work, no?
Prabhupāda: This sleep means temporary. Again the subtle mind, intelligence, come back. So death means no more coming back. It goes elsewhere. That is death. Is it clear?
Sleep means what you do when you are awakened, the same thing you'll dream, that's all.
One who has heard perfectly Vedas from his guru. And what is the symptom that he has heard from the authority or the...? Brahma-niṣṭham. Brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam. The symptom is that he has completely taken shelter of the Supreme Brahman, rejecting or finishing all material desires. No more material desires. Brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam. He has taken shelter of Brahman, upaśama, rejecting, no more hankering after anything material.
Mr. Malhotra: No more hankering. But he has to eat he has to clothe.
Mr. Malhotra: Minimum needs of the body.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is not hankering. That is not hankering. so long the body is there. That is wanted. Just like about the Gosvāmīs it is said, nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau **. One has to conquer over sleeping, eating, sex and fearing. A saintly person has no fearing. Because he depends on Kṛṣṇa. But these things particularly conquered over. Simply little eating, that's all. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi. At least trying to conquer over sleeping, eating and sex life.
Mr. Malhotra: Sleeping, eating and sex. (break) ...sleeping at all or some little sleep.
Prabhupāda: Practically no sleeping. Practically no eating and no sex life.
Mr. Malhotra: Sleeping means, actually sleeping or awareness, I mean awakening of the mind or awakening...
Prabhupāda: No, actual sleeping. Sleeping means waste of time. So long you sleep, it is a waste of time. Better reduce sleep.
Mr. Malhotra: But you have to sleep sometimes.
Prabhupāda: Yes, some, some.
Mr. Malhotra: Some part of the day...
Prabhupāda: That also you will find, those who are highly elevated, they can avoid.
Mr. Malhotra: They can completely avoid sleeping! Hundred per cent?
Prabhupāda: No. They can, but they do not show like that. Otherwise artificially one would like to imitate it.
Prabhupāda: Sleeping means weakness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sleeping means what?
Devotee: Weakness.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Weakness.
Prabhupāda: No, too much sleeping means weakness.
That so many people are purchasing our literature in Los Angeles indicated that it is being advertised: Oh, I have got a very nice book. Then their acquaintances want the book also. The books distribution in Los Angeles during the six day period is transcendental samadhi. They are working in trance, not on the material platform. No common man can work so hard, it is not possible. Working without sleep means no death. Sleeping is dead condition. "Jiv jago, jiva jago, gauracanda bole, kota nidra yao maya-pisacira kole. Your book distribution is really intoxication.
| Page Title: | Sleeping means |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, MadhuGopaldas |
| Created: | 09 of Aug, 2009 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=14, Con=7, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 22 |