Are You a Slave to Sleep?

(This series unravels the dharmic dialogue between Narada Muni and Raja Yudhishthira in the Sabha Parva of Mahabharata. Part XV dealt with the art of decision making and masterful communication; Part XVI follows.).Narada Muni impresses upon Raja Yudhishthira on how vital it is to have wise counsel, take timely decisions and convey them to the public. Then, in a slightly divergent fashion, the sage enquires, ‘hope you have not become a slave to sleep?’ He continues, ‘hope you wake up at the proper time.’ It seems rather out of place to ask a king such questions, but we have to understand why.Sleep is essential, sleep is necessary. However, overindulgence in sleep makes the mind dull. The mind, which is a slave to sleep, loses its ability to function well. A good night’s sleep of six to eight hours is sufficient for any individual. There would definitely be a few hours of deep sleep within that time span. Then the mind is fresh upon waking up. Ideally, we should sleep early too. But these days we observe that society has fallen into a different routine.We know of people, and sometimes we ourselves, end up sleeping at 4 AM and then waking up at 2 PM. It changes the natural order of our body. The whole sleeping cycle gets disturbed. The only aberration in recent times was during the pandemic. While we were forced to quarantine, study and work from home, most people retired to bed early. Any time before 10 PM is considered good. So automatically, with six to seven hours of sleep, we tend to wake up by 4 or 5 AM. At the hour, when the mind awakens, it is fresh, it is satvik. Such a mind can make wonderful decisions.Neither overindulgence nor the lack of sleep can aid our growth. A spiritual seeker cannot ignore sleep. A sufficient and well-timed sleeping cycle can keep the mind fresh and alert. It is natural that towards the end of a long day, the mind and the body feel exhausted, tamasik. However, upon waking up, the mind must be in a satvik state..Narada Muni proceeds to ask, ‘After waking up, do you give thought to what must be done that day and what was accomplished the previous day?’ A quick reflection of what was done the previous day helps us assess what is to be done on the same day. And in a state of pure, noble and fresh mind, the decisions taken will be focussed and dharmic. A tired, exhausted and tamasik mind is not going to aid in taking the right decisions.When we reflect upon our activities with a clear mind, we will be able to see what we did well yesterday and what we must do today. More importantly, we will also be able to flag the mistakes of the previous day and never repeat it in due course. If we tend to make a habit out of such introspection, we will be able to pay more attention to details in our life.Such people who have an eye for detail tend to plan meticulously and also execute it well. This is possible only with a satvik mind, which is a consequence of deep and timely sleep.