FIRST SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION - GET UP AT 4.00 A.M.

- Get up at 4. a.m. daily. This is known as Brahmamuhurta which is extremely

favourable for meditation on God and conducive for meditation and sadhana
(spiritual practices).

- Why get up at 4 a.m.? Because it gives you more time which can be utilized
for sadhana. The hallmark of a spiritual aspirant is that he is awake among the
slumbering, vigilant among the heedless, alert among the indolent and he
attains liberation. Time is the essence of life.

- Here I do not mean time usefully spent—serving our parents, serving the
poor, serving the sick and the suffering, serving the society, looking after
ourselves, practising asanas, pranayama, suryanamaskara, going for a walk,
relaxing, studying. Time spent in Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Hatha Yoga is not
ill-spent, it is time invested and well utilized.

- Real peace cannot be expected if we waste your time in idle gossiping,

scandalizing, backbiting, in fights and quarrels, in novels, newspapers, in
cinemas, restaurants, cards and smoking.

- Real peace cannot be expected if we sleep excessively by night and by day?

The greatest swallowers of time is this terrible thing called sleep—a product of
tamo guna (inertia) and a destroyer of life & spiritual sadhana.

- If indulged in more than what is necessary, sleep becomes a destroyer of

health—physical as well as mental. Therefore, getting up earlier gives you that
time which otherwise we might not have had during your busy daytime hours
to practice sadhana.

- At the same time this period is free of disturbance, the mind is calm and the
atmosphere is filled with sattva guna. When the day dawns and the sun rises
and daylight reveals the whole world of names and forms before you, the mind
gets thrown into activity. But in the darkness of the pre-dawn hours the world
is not visible and therefore the senses do not draw the mind outward and
cause extrovertedness.

- So, this period is conducive to introspection which is essential for

prayerfulness. May God bless us and enable us to follow this instruction. May
Thakur’s Grace give us success.