Swami Sivananda said that 1 hr of meditation during brahmamuhurta is equal to 6 hrs of meditation during other hours of the day and that by doing 1 hr meditation during brahmamuhurta, one can easily maintain a peaceful state of mind whole day despite external challenges.

For those who are trying to practise brahmacharya/celibacy, waking up during brahmamuhuta is all important. When Shushumna channel is open for 2 hrs in early morning, prana moves up it and hence, celibacy becomes much natural and easy – I am almost 100% sure now that those who sleep till 6-7 am will never be able to practise celibacy for long as their unchanneled prana will blow up their will from within sooner or later, but a yogi’s prana gets channeled up the shushumna and there is no pressure point within for him/her unlike “sleep till 6-7 am” folks. Except brahmamuhurta phase, during other times of the day, shushumna is open only for a couple of minutes every 1-2 hrs.

So, “wake up by 4 am every day” is an all-important discipline for all spiritual aspirants. It will also help everyone develop a peaceful, confident and strong-willed mind which will have numerous positive influences on our day-to-day life and work efficiency in whatever field we are.

Let us achieve “wake up by 4 am every day” discipline together and reap the resultant heavy harvest in terms of physical, mental and spiritual benefits!

Thanks

Gopal

Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9047494/Costa-Concordia-victim-died-after-she-gave-life-jacket-to-elderly-man.html

Erika Fani Soriamolina’s body was found by divers on the sixth deck of the vessel wearing the ship’s uniform but no life jacket.
Witnesses said Soriamolina had helped dozens of terrified passengers into lifeboats on the night of the disaster before giving the life jacket to an elderly man.
A tourism graduate, Soriamolina was working on only her third cruise on the Costa Concordia .
The recovery of the young woman’s body ended a desperate search by her parents and sister Madeleine who were among the family members of passengers and crew waiting for news of their loved ones on Giglio.

What a great selfless act – no words to describe my amazement and respect for her! Rest in Peace, Erika!

Regards,
Gopal

Dear friends,
As I have spent a hell lot of time and mental energy on spiritual reading, reflection and experimentation, I think, I should express my understanding on this important issue of “brahmacharya and marriage” for the mutual benefit of myself and readers who are most welcome to give their comments.

There are 4 categories of people in this respect.

CATEGORY 1. People with desire for marriage, but no desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life
CATEGORY 2. People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning and having the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy
CATEGORY 3. People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning, but without the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy
CATEGORY 4. People with desire for marriage as well as desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life

Nothing much needs to be said about “category 1 – People with desire for marriage, but no desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life” as they are present left and right, front and behind, everywhere like air in this world. The whole atmosphere on Earth is pervaded by these people. For them, sensual pleasures are too important and obviously great and words like meditation, Self-bliss, celibacy, etc. are quite distasteful and weird mumbo-jumbo. May Maya show some mercy on them and let in few rays of spiritual light in their lives – with this prayer, let us move to other 3 categories.

Now, “category 2 – People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning and having the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy” people are special people like Swami Vivekananda, Sant Jnaneshwar, etc. and most of us are much below their spiritual level. They have a specific social mission to work upon and are too spiritually evolved to desire spouse and children. Since they are absolutely devoted to their mission, they have some aversion for marriage simultaneously as marriage entails diversion of a non-trivial amount of our time, energy and attention which these greats can ill-afford due to their matchless devotion to the cause. Unfortunately, I do not belong to this category in this life (probably, If I get born again, I will be in this category).

Next is “category 3 – People with strong aversion to marriage since beginning, but without the inborn capacity for lifelong celibacy”. I definitely belong to this category. These people develop a strong aversion to marriage to one or more of below reasons:

1. Dysfunctional family background which developed the distaste for a married life in them.
2. Strong influence of some bachelor role-model. In my case, it was the strong influence of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and other martyrs of freedom struggle who made me take the decision of lifelong bachelorhood in class 2-3 itself – I had no clue that time about MAYA and its power to tempt and delude.
3. Strong influence of some great ideal or vision. Such ideal or vision may be desire for absolute independence, love for humanity, etc.

Now, these people do not have a natural capacity for lifelong celibacy as they are not spiritually very evolved. But, those with a really strong determination will develop the capacity through sincere effort and struggle and stick to their resolve whereas those with a weak level of determination will give up and violate the resolve of lifelong celibacy in a bachelor life. I have already given full details on “Greatly inspiring brahmacharya quotes” article on how to develop the capacity for lifelong celibacy for all those readers who are determined enough for lifelong celibacy in a bachelor life.

Coming to “category 4 – People with desire for marriage as well as desire for lifelong celibacy even in a married life” people, they usually possess one or more of below characteristics:

1. They were good-hearted to begin with, but got the fire ignited fully at a later phase of life like teenage or 20s. Since the fire ignited a bit late in them, the desire for marriage had got developed strongly enough by then.
2. They got very loving parents and their parents always expected them to lead a married life. So, they never thought of a bachelor life.
3. They learnt fully about the importance of celibacy a bit late like after already getting married.
4. They had a strong curiosity to have some taste of brahmacharya-unfriendly deed to see how it feels.
5. They believed that begetting children is an important duty towards parents or society or both.

Whatever brahmacharya insights I have put on this blog are important for both category 3 and 4 people because lifelong celibacy is not trivial whether one wants to follow it in a bachelor life or a married life. Full details on brahmacharya techniques are already given in “Greatly inspiring brahmacharya quotes” article. I can sum up those techniques using below 2 approaches:

1. Brahmacharya sadhana every day. We all need to follow “Wake up by 4 am” routine every day and spend 1-2 hr in pure meditation (not including asana and pranayama) in brahmamuhurta every day. Only then sushumna will awaken and prana will move towards higher centres (away from the lower centre of lust [mooladhara], fear [swadhistana] and pride[manipura])
2. Rat technique – be timid like a rat in at least first 12 years of lifelong brahmacharya practice. Rat is very timid. It never stares us in our eyes. Just a little noise and the rat rapidly runs away from us unlike dogs, monkeys and even cats who many times growl back at us with flares of anger in their eyes. Since brahmacharya is not trivial, we need to be timid like a rat and avoid all brahmacharya-unfriendly situations completely for at least first 12 years of lifelong brahmacharya practice. There is a proverb in Bengal, “The brave falters, the timid succeeds” regarding brahmacharya practice which clearly shows that showing lion-heartedness before Mahamaya (cosmic illusion) is a recipe for spiritual self-destruction. Trying to fight the currents of millions of years of natural evolution, through which human body has evolved, using our will-power shows a total lack of understanding. Will-power should surely be used as an aid (even moving our hand a bit requires will-power: will-power is needed for every minor or major effort) but full protection is assured only through rat technique for spiritual beginners like us.

There is nothing to feel ashamed of rat technique. Even greats like Gandhiji followed it. Gandhiji realized in his 30s that he was not able to practise unbroken brahmacharya despite all his efforts. He found that private meetings with his wife Kasturba were leading to brahmacharya-unfriendly deed. So, he followed the rat technique and decided that he will meet Kasturba only in public like in wide open room or outside or when children or others were present. Once he started following rat technique, he was able to maintain celibacy thereafter since the age of 37.

Instances of lion technique failing miserably and rat technique working wonderfully are too many. Sage Vishwamitra failed when he met his nemesis, nymph Menaka. If only he would have followed rat technique and kept 2-3 brahmacharya-protector dogs with him during his sadhana phase to chase away all temptresses with their fierce bark and assault, no Menaka would have been able to destroy his penance. But, alas! Only after failing once and thereby giving an eternal opportunity to all worldly people to taunt struggling spiritual aspirants, Sage Vishwamitra understood the importance of rat technique. Let us be wiser and understand it now itself.

Ramakrishna Paramahansa as well as Swami Sivananda suggested married people to sleep alone and not with spouse on the same bed. Ramakrishna even went to the extent of suggesting his householder disciples to avoid touching their spouse even in a playful, but non-lustful way as it will bring strong lust in mind – it is a harsh truth that males are very easily excitable in matters of lust. He scolded his householder disciple, Mahendranath Gupta, (also known as Master Mahashaya in Yogananda’s book “The autobiography of a yogi”) when he had a son. Mahendranath Gupta eventually started living in a separate building on rent since late 20s, away from his spouse and children whom he used to visit only in the day time for genuine family works. Thus, Mahendranath Gupta also followed rat technique as suggested by our great sages and he eventually became enlightened – so, rat technique does work wonderfully.

Having given enough examples to prove that following rat technique shows our spiritual maturity and high intelligence and leads to spiritual success in following lifelong celibacy, let me point out one remarkable thing regarding lifelong celibacy. It seems that lifelong celibacy should be begun in 20s or at the most early 30s to gain full power ascribed to lifelong celibates.

Swami Sivananda writes in his celebrated work “Brahmacharya”: “There is another sect called “Dhiryaretas”, or those persons, who, previously a prey to lustful thoughts and deviated from Brahmacharya, later take to the practice of strict celibacy. Such a person, if he practices strict celibacy for twelve years, can acquire superhuman powers. Medha Nadi or Buddhi Nadi is formed in him. By means of this, he can have retentive memory of anything as long as he lives, and he will be in a position to learn all kinds of subjects.By observance of unbroken Brahmacharya in thought, word and deed for a period of full twelve years, one is bestowed even with the vision of God, if one aspires for it. He can solve the most abstruse and complicated problems easily. But, this kind of observance should commence before the thirty-second or the thirty-fourth year.”

This clearly shows that at least, one should take to the practice of lifelong celibacy after the age of 32 (before 34 means after 32). So, one should be finished with having kids (not more than 2, plz!) and sensual enjoyment (in case, some curiosity is present) by 32 at max. Thus, marrying too late is not good for spiritual aspirants. Mid-20s (the age of 26-27 but definitely first 25 years is not right for married life as it is brahmacharya ashrama phase as per our sages) is the best time to get into married life for whatever personal, family or social reasons, one is interested in marriage.

But, what if one has already crossed the age of 32! I genuinely believe that such a person would not get Self-Realization on his/her own even after practising lifelong celibacy, but it is definitely possible with the combined effect of lifelong celibacy plus grace of a living, Self-Realized Guru as can be seen in the example of some householder disciples of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa like Girish Chandra Ghosh who was headlong into lust even in 30s, but recovered late, still got Self-Realized due to grace of his Guru. This also explains why a criminal like Angulimal (a murderer who later became disciple of Buddha) who recovered in 20s itself became Self-Realized, whereas someone like Gandhiji who recovered after the age of 36, missed the boat! It was all due to what Swami Sivananda has mentioned as “32 year deadline” to begin lifelong celibacy.

Practising lifelong celibacy after 29 or 30 is amazing because we have the example of Buddha (who started at 29) and Mahavira (who started at 30) to continuously inspire us. It will boost our confidence a lot because we are emulating giants like Buddha and Mahavira. (After 29 means: if someone is born at 1 Jan, 2000 then he will be in “at or after 29” phase after 1 Jan, 2029.)

Now, only one question is left to discuss – what if one wants to practise celibacy and spouse does want? I think, practising celibacy is such an important spiritual decision that one cannot give it up because of spouse. One should try to gently persuade the spouse, but if he/she is adamant, one should allow him/her to use other channels or persons for these things while not breaking celibacy oneself. This approach may sound harsh and even immoral but breaking celibacy whole life is not the moral duty of a husband or wife. It is spouse’s problem if he/she is not able to practise celibacy – why should one destroy one’s spiritual life for spouse’s weakness? But, to be honest – I think, using “brahmamuhurta sadhana” plus “rat technique – be timid like a rat”, even weak-minded people can reach the level of lifelong celibacy.

Gandhiji’s quotes in this regard are remarkably clear and sharp: “To the Newly-Married. I tender this advice even to the newly married. It is easier not to do a thing at all than to cease doing it, even as it is easier for a life abstainer to remain teetotaler than for a drunkard or even a temperate man to abstain. To remain erect is infinitely easier than to rise from a fall. It is wrong to say that continence can be safely preached only to the satiated. There is hardly any meaning, either, in preaching continence to an enfeebled person. May I point out to parents that they ought not to fall into the argumentative trap of the rights of partners? Consent is required for indulgence, never for restraint; this is an obvious truth.”

I have expressed various insights on the subject matter of “brahmacharya and marriage” in this article. I hope it was helpful. Feel free to offer your comments below.

Thanks,
Gopal

Hi friends,

Wish you all a happy and prosperous new year in 2012! This article is my new year gift for you as it is related to an important spiritual issue of waking up in brahmamuhurta (by 4 am) everyday in a year.

When I wrote my previous article “How to wake up everyday by 4 am?”, I had thought that my technique of going outside for 10-15 min just after waking up is the final solution for all seasons to deal with the problem of laziness, etc. in early morning. The reason for this deception was that this technique worked like a charm during the summer. The joy of walking, running and exercising in cool breeze of early morning was so intoxicating that I used to feel an ecstatic thrill rather than laziness when alarm used to ring in the morning. I had that time thought that even in winter and rainy season, I will follow this technique by using appropriate woollen clothes and using umbrella respectively.

Now, I have no experience of rainy reason yet, but the onset of this winter made me realize that my assumptions were false. In India, winter starts from November and stays till February (almost 4 months). Winter is quite chilly in the north India and temperature reaches even zero degrees centigrade – 5-10 degree is reached almost all across North India (but South India has no such problem as it lies in tropical zone with more annual sunlight).

So, when I continued with my morning routine of going outside for 10-15 min in November also, I started feeling cold. Then, I used woollen clothes, but I noticed that the amazing freshness of air that I used to experience in the early morning during summer was conspicuously absent in winter. It seemed as if air quality in early morning of winter has much less vitality or freshness or probably cold air entering my lungs was enough to give discomfort to my nervous system despite all woollen clothes. As a result, the thrill of waking up that I used to feel everyday in summer vanished in winter. By dint of will-power and force of previous habit, I continued to wake up at 3 am for few more days, but first week of November onward, I eventually felt sick due to early morning cold air.

This disturbed the rhythm completely. Then, I decided to avoid going outside in winter (but, will definitely go in summer as that is amazing joy), but I realized that I had started feeling real problem now in waking up in the morning. The primary reason was not laziness, but lack of sound sleep due to variations in cold on day to day basis every night. So, if I decide that one blanket will be enough today, the temperature at night will fall down so much that I will feel cold and will not have sound sleep. As a result, waking up at 3 am became impossible. My rhythm got broken completely for almost 1.5 months due to this (till mid-Dec, 2011). But, I added techniques after techniques to deal with cold during this period as I did not want to be “early riser in summer and late riser in winter” kind person.

My guru, Swami Sivananda, says that wake up by 4 am and I have to follow this because he was a genius. Following his advice properly has always brought all desired results in my life and I have every reason to believe his assertion that the maximum rate of spiritual progress is possible only when one wakes up and does yoga-sadhana in brahmamuhurtha (which is roughly from 4 am to 6 am). Now, to deal with the problem of cold, I had to do the following things:

1. Put a curtain on glass door because glass conducts cold much more than concrete wall.
2. Close gaps in windows through pasting cello-tape.
3. Shift bed to the sides of conjoint walls (L-shaped wall-configuration) rather than keeping it in the middle of your room. This way, wall protects us from two sides and we feel a bit less cold (we should try to use those L-shaped walls which are away from doors and windows as far as possible as concrete materials of wall conducts cold much less than glass and wood in doors and windows).
4. Buy one more blanket – total two blankets now to be used at night.
5. Use a monkey-cap plus one sweater (more woollen clothes may be tried if needed by readers – like more sweaters, inners, etc.)
6. Use a heater and put it near your head.
7. Of course, I always follow universally valid yogic law of sleep with head in South or East direction (Magnetic axis in our spine should not be aligned North-to-North with the Earth’s magnetic axis, otherwise due to repulsive magnetic force, sleep gets disturbed. This explains the reason for sleeping with head in South rather than in North. On reason behind sleeping with head in East, I did not get 100% clear idea, but it is partly related to Earth’s rotation on its axis from West to East – so, smoother experience with head in East rather than in West).
8. Use a better sleep inducing technique than mantra or meditation technique. And that technique is doing Shashankasana after going to bed till some drowsiness comes – I practice meditation in Shashankasana rather than in sitting posture just after going to bed. Shashankasana cools the nerves and mind very easily and rapidly – that’s why it is called Shashankasana (Shasahank means moon – so, nerves and mind become cool like moon due to relaxation produced by Shashankasana). Within 10-15 min, I feel much relaxed and then lie on bed to eventually fall asleep in another 10 min or so. Please search on internet to learn Shashankasana.

So, I found that my sleep pattern has stabilized greatly after I started following all 8 steps together – all this evolution occurred over 1.5 months’ bitter struggle in which I kept fighting it out by figuring one thing after another.

But, one more master stroke was needed because when I was following this technique, there was always a possibility that one day my rhythm will break and I may sleep a bit more in day-time or even at night due to unexpected mistakes (like forgetting to use two blankets properly, etc.) as humans cannot be expected to maintain perfection every day. In that case, even when I used to go at 9 pm to sleep, I would fall asleep after a long time. That effectively would reduce the actual sleep hours from 6 to less than that. So, at 3 am when alarm used to ring, I would feel disoriented and would fall back asleep again after putting off the alarm.

So, I used technique 9 now to deal with this:

9. When your total sleep becomes more than 6 hrs, but less than or equal to 8 hrs due to extra sleep that day due to whatever reason, next day, set waking up alarm at 3:30 am (9 pm to 3:30 am) and when total sleep becomes more than 8 hrs, then next day set waking up alarm at 4 am (9 pm to 4 am) rather than usual 9 pm to 3 am. Once I started following this technique, I was very happy because one day’s mistake would not break the rhythm for 3-4 days like in the past – now, I was able to recover the very next day. Other thing was I was still waking up by 4 am even in the worst case in this routine (as per the sage advice of “wake up by 4 am” of Swami Sivananda). Though staying on bed awake for 30 min or even 45-60 min was not a pleasant experience, yet I was able to wake up in the morning at the scheduled time because I was still having 6 hrs of my sleep need fulfilled after following this technique. Also, this unpleasant experience of staying on bed awake for 30-60 min due to extra-sleep made me so alert that extra sleep also vanished almost 100% eventually.

All these 9 techniques worked fine. But, I felt the need for one more refinement. I found that getting off blanket was a bit harsh experience due to sudden cold that body gets exposed in winter. The nervous system and hence, mind gets a rude shock. And this is obviously due to biological reason rather than any psychological reason like laziness etc. So, I added 10th technique:

10. Just after putting off the alarm, come under the blanket on bed, sit and set timer for 5 min and do internal breath retention with one gayatri mantra chanting during each breath-retention (one gayatri mantra chanting takes around 10-12 seconds – chanting can be skipped or replaced by any other mantra; its function is mainly to keep track of timing so that one internal breath retention does not become too long and next one too short). Set the timer again and again till total 15 min internal breath retention is done. This produces good warmth in the body as internal retention produces lots of inner heat (technique is simple – just inhale deeply and hold breath as long as possible and then exhale completely to finish 1 round of internal breath-retention). And then getting off blanket to go to bathroom to wash face does not give any rude shock as my body is warm due to inner heat generated by internal breath-retention practice. So, I put off alarm, do 15 min internal breath-retention on bed in sitting position under blanket, then go to wash my face and then start my daily routine with 1 hr meditation practice and some more asanas (details of my yoga routine given at the end of the article).

Thus, above 10 techniques together fully solved my problem. Do not get mistaken by 10 number as once I got habituated, I do not feel at all any problem in following these techniques (in fact, many of them are once-in-winter technique like shifting bed to conjoint walls, etc.)

This is the first winter when even when temperature is as low as 5 degree centigrade at night, I am able to wake up at 3 am in the morning. The problem of not able to wake up during winter was due to a host of biological reasons and I have fixed them all, thanks to good fortunes and resolute, persistent application of mind.

Since I have struggled for almost 8 years in developing “wake up by 4 am” routine, I feel at the top of the world now after vanquishing this chronic problem. During this period of struggle, I suffered a lot as extra sleep or lack of sound sleep was very disorienting to mind, usually accompanied with lack of freshness or headache (sometimes migraine) or both during day-time, affecting both my mood and over-all efficiency by a huge margin. But, spirituality is what I am sure leads to the highest peace, joy and wisdom. So, there was no question of compromise with the goal even in face of failure-after-failure for not mere 1 or 2 day, but 8 years!

I am very happy to taste full success at last. During last 8 years, due to endless disappointments in achieving success, I used to blame my Guru, Swami Sivananda, for not giving more details on how to develop early morning routine in face of so many problems. But, probably he never faced any problem in developing such a routine himself and it was very easy for him to do so. In some sense, it is good that for me it was very difficult to develop brahmamuhurta routine because it led me to discover so many effective techniques which will surely be of immense benefit to other aspirants who are aiming to develop a brahmamuhurta (early morning waking up) routine.

On the whole, I enter 2012 now with this amazing habit of “wake up by 4 am” – this is a watershed in my whole life so far. I am sure to go miles and miles deeper and higher in future due to amazing spiritual energy generated by brahmamuhurta sadhana which also aids tremendously the growth of mind power by producing more inner peace, intuition and focus.

I hope, you all also develop “wake up by 4 am” routine and enjoy the peace, joy and wisdom of spiritual sadhana of brahmamuhurta whole life like many wise people have done in the past.

Just for sake of information, my full early morning routine for winter (in summer only change will be – I will directly get up and do all pre-meditation exercises and pranayama practice on the roof of apartment in open air to enjoy cool breeze, but thoughtless awareness meditation will be done inside room only) is:

8:30 pm – 3 am: go to restroom + Go to bed and do thoughtless awareness meditation in Shashankasana for 15 min + lie on bed on left side with head in South/East and doing thoughtless awareness meditation, sleep.
3 am – 3:35 am: put off alarm + come to bed and under blanket, in sitting position, do internal breath retention for 15 min (set timer for 5 min and set it again and again till 15 min is over – I hold the breath for 1 chanting of gayatri mantra which is around 10-12 seconds) + now, get up & wash your face + come to room and do 5 min physical exercises
3:35 am – 5 am: On ground with heater ahead of you, on a wooden plank put on newspaper, do the following in Sidhasana: 1 hour thoughtless awareness meditation (begin with 5 rounds Shunya Pranayama which is similar to Kapalbhati) + 5 min Sarvangasana + 10 round “Simha Garjanasana”
5 am – 7 am: Self-studies for civil services (I am doing fulltime preparation for it in New Delhi – please pray for my desired success in this immensely complex and challenging exam)
7 am onward : bathroom, etc and day begins (whole day only studies and studies – enjoying it a lot)

Thanks,

Gopal

Kishenji’s death is quite painful for me particularly after I learnt that his brother and he had not even come home to meet their mother for last 3 decades. When almost all of us want to lead an easy life, these people are leading such a difficult life, living in jungles on plain food and under extreme psychological pressure, for what they consider to be the best way of removing injustices from the society. I have no doubt that Maoists’ method of violence is ineffective and futile in a democratic nation like ours. Despite all flaws, democratic polity leaves ample scope for positive transformation. But we have to accept that the nation collectively failed many unprivileged people and drove some of the most idealistic persons like Kisenji on a path which led them or us to nowhere. The loss of such people with an extreme empathy for the downtrodden is a tragedy. Maoists should be treated differently from other extremists and whole-hearted efforts should be made by all stakeholders to bring them into the national mainstream through general amnesty and rehabilitation like it was done in our neighbouring country Nepal. If Maoists can be made to change their path to peaceful means, they can bring great reforms in our society through their dedication and sacrifices.

1. Note: If there is no update regarding subsequent failure of this technique, know that this technique is continuously working everyday for me. Because in case of subsequent failure of this technique, you will see an update at the top of this article mentioning the same.
2. An additional technique related to sleep management is how to remove untimely sleep. Please read this technique here.
3. This technique should not be followed in winter as it makes one sick if one goes outside under the sky. One can do it inside home or on balcony in case of mild winter.
4. My new routine:
   1. 3 am – 4:30 am: till 31 Dec, 2014 (first three year of real brahmacharya practice which can be done only if one wakes up by 4 am), put on light during yoga
   a. wake up
   b. 10-11 min:
   i. On apartment roof (not in winter as it makes one sick – in winter, do it in room itself or during mild cold, on balcony), 1 min “simulated running” -> 3 min jumping & stretching and bending exercises -> 1 min Poorna titali asana. Then, come back to room. // The park in my locality in India was occupied by menacing, big and barking dogs (they started barking directly at me) when I reached there on the first day at 3 am. So, I decided to spend this first 20 min on apartment roof and instead of actual running, do now “simulated running” by running on the same spot without moving the body forward (like one does on treadmill machine) – that is as good as doing simulated running on treadmill machine .
   ii. 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
   c. 60 min Thoughtless Awareness (start with 5 round Shoonya Pranayam – described at the end of this doc)
   d. 5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
   e. 10 round Simha-Garjanasana
5. After trying for 1 month in November (the month of doom for my early morning routine), I failed in waking up by 4 am in winter not due to laziness, but due to two factors: (i) not possible or even enjoyable anymore due to cold to go outside after waking up unlike in summer and (ii) disturbances in sleep due to unexpected increase in cold on some days which destroys the rhythm for next few days due to cascading effect. Since time is very precious, I am not doing any further experiment and have moved to late night “1 am to 7 am” sleep routine till Feb, 2012. Will move back to “9 pm – 3 am” routine by following the technique of this post from March, 2012 onward. And in Nov 2012, after being done with civil services mains, will again fight to stay at early morning routine even during winter and hopefully, next winter early morning routine will be 100% maintained. So, just a tactical retreat due to civil services mains pressure.

Hi friends,

I wish, I had the credentials to write this post 8 years ago when I first learnt the great spiritual importance of getting up by 4 am after reading Swami Sivananada’s books. Ref: http://gopal4mission.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/greatly-inspiring-brahmacharya-quotes/#Wake_up_during_brahmamuhurtha – In fact, waking up by 4 am is indispensable for first-class brahmacharya practice which, in turn, is indispensable for Self-Realization.

Wake up during brahmamuhurtha. Waking up at 3 am or latest by 4 am (3 am – 7 am is most suited for reaching more joyous state during thoughtless awareness practice, as the entire atmosphere is free from thought vibrations and hence peaceful/sattwic, thus naturally deeper and more joyous state of thoughtless awareness – which is 100% peace/sattwa – is realized during this period.”) and doing thoughtless awareness practice for as many hours as possible. Since lust is a rajasic (passionate) quality, with more increase in sattwa, brahmacharya automatically becomes more easy and natural. Sushumna awakens automatically during this period and kundalini automatically ascends up the spine. Anyone aiming at full celibacy must develop the solid routine of waking up between 3 am – 4 am and utilizing time till 7 am in yoga, meditation (thoughtless awareness) and other creative activities like self-study, etc. This alone will solve more than 90% of difficulties one faces in the practise of full celibacy. No wonder, all our true sannyasins wake up during 3 am to 4 am. Most people find celibacy so hard because they sleep even in this golden period of 3 am to 7 am when the whole nature is supporting the awakening of sushumna, raising up of kundalani and hence, a natural, fast-paced evolution of our awareness. So, this rule is exceptionally important for all sadhaks. Swami Sivananda’s first instruction in “20 Important Spiritual Instructions” is: “Get up at 4 a.m. daily. This is Brahmamuhurta which is extremely favourable for Sadhana. Do all your morning spiritual Sadhana during this period from 4 a.m. to 6:30 or 7 a.m. Such Sadhana gives quick and maximum progress.” I wrote “wake up daily during 3 am to 4 am” because some effect of brahmamuhurtha is present even before 4 am and even after 6 am (Brahmamuhurtha has different definitions on internet, but one can consider 4 am to 6 am as the reasonably accurate brahmamuhurtha period).

Convinced with the fact that sexual energy generated every month in human body is so high that it is well-nigh impossible to transform it into spiritual energy (Ojas) and make it ascend the spine along Sushumna channel unless one wakes up by 4 am to utilize the automatic opening of Sushumna during brahmamuhurtha, I had been trying all kinds of techniques to develop “wake up by 4 am” routine. But, alas! An otherwise strong person like me failed miserably in this endeavour for 8 years in a row. I used to succeed for 3-4 days and then fail again due to feeling strong laziness mostly when alarm used to ring at 4 am or sometimes during subsequent meditation. Despite racking my brain, I could not solve this conundrum. All the techniques on internet failed in helping me fix this all important issue.

I always remembered that during 11-12 year’s age, I was able to wake up at 4 am and go along with my friends to nearby high school sports field to practise running and physical exercises. That success of past kept pinching me due to continuous failures of the present. I thought that I was able to do that because of group effect as even one person waking up by 4 am means he will wake up other persons and then together, they will go for running and physical exercises. And there was no group effect available as during college (IITK) as well as in USA, I had no one who was eager like me to wake up so early. But, one thing that is present in me is: I am absolutely devoted to the spiritual path despite all weaknesses as spirituality is my only real mother/father that gave me solace even in most inconsolable situations of life. So, I never gave up the quest of waking up by 4 am despite continuous failures over last 8 years. And at last, I solved this problem 100% cleanly. And the solution is based on the same mechanism which worked for me at the age of 11-12. Let me explain the solution below.

Since I am a fan of yoga, I always used to focus on doing yoga inside room just after waking up. And of course, I was failing with this method. 50 days ago (first week of August, 2011), when I woke up at 3 am as per the scheduled setting of alarm clock, I was feeling strong drowsiness. A thought came to me due to analysis of my drowsy situation, “Why not go outside and walk for 10-15 min?” I did exactly that – and oh God! It was an out-of-the-world experience in walking in that perfect stillness on the road with very cool breeze of that early morning hour. I felt so fresh that I cannot describe it in words. I came back and my drowsiness vanished. I thought, why not try it next day also to see whether it can work on every day. And so did I. And it worked on next day. And on next day. And on every day in last 50 days and I have every reason to believe that it is going to work in future also (because 50 days is a long enough time for a sleep experiment to expose any problem).

I modified the routine accordingly and added “Get up, wash face and go outside on road to do 5 min walking + 5 min running + 5 min exercises + then come back to home (takes 5-6 min) totalling around 20 min” everyday as part of my daily routine. And now, my mind feels so elated when the alarm rings just because of temptation to enjoy that out-of-the-world experience of coolness in that calm hour outside under sky that I jump out of bed with great joy to get onto the road as soon as possible. Thus, the reason why I was able to wake up by 4 am at the age of 11-12 was not group-effect, but the amazing experience of coolness of early morning hours under open sky.

Thus, my problem is solved and now, I am able to wake up at 3 am everyday 100% cleanly. My complete yoga routine is as follows:

1.3 am – 4:35 am: (Put on light during yoga – as darkness induces drowsiness)

a.wake up
b.20 min: On road, 5 min walk -> 5 min running -> 5 min jumping & stretching and bending exercises. Then, walk back to house (taking another 5-6 min).
c.6 min (1 min Poorna titali asana + 5 min sarvangasana)
d.5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
e.30 min Thoughtless Awareness (start with 5 round Shoonya Pranayam – described at the end of this doc)
f.5 min Nadi Shodhana Advanced
g.10 round Simha-Garjanasana
h.5 min Nadi Shodhan Basic (read brahmacharya quotes simultaneously)

I have a gut feeling that this technique will work for everyone. Additional suggestions for developing “wake up by 4 am” routine are as follows:

1. If you live in a region which is too cold or too rainy or for winter/rainy season, you can buy a treadmill exercise machine for running inside home itself.
2. Girls will find it potentially not-so-safe to get outside at such hours. They can use a treadmill exercise machine for running inside home and/or use rope-jumping inside home itself which is aerobically as effective as running.
3. If you cannot go on road or in a nearby field, please do running & exercises on the roof or balcony – and if that is not possible, inside room by keeping windows open to get fresh and cool air.
4. Beware of stray dogs. Look here and there to detect their presence. If one or more of them are present, do light jogging first so that they do not get startled and start barking at you. After that, move to full-speed running. If you also have a dog, you can take the dog out for running which may perhaps make stray dogs feel friendly towards you by looking at a like-minded fellow running with you – hihi.
5. If you are not habituated to wake up so early, try shifting your sleep schedule by 15 or 30 min a week till it reaches 4 am or earlier waking time. For example, I was sleeping from 12:30 am to 6:30 am during June 2011. I shifted it by 30 min every week (12 am – 6 am next week; then 11:30 pm – 5:30 am next week; and so on so forth) till it reached 3 am in 5-6 weeks. Try only gradual shifting approach; otherwise failure is almost 100% guaranteed in switching from late night to early morning routine as body-mind complex does not accept any rapid change in sleep pattern because sleep pattern is very intimately linked with various physical and psychological processes.
6. Read other techniques described here and here also for sake of completeness.

All is well that ends well. Now, my real spiritual life begins. I will improve early morning yoga practice further by making it 3 hours of thoughtless awareness practice in future, but till civil services project is over, I cannot spend more than 1.5 hours of total time on early morning yoga.

Please feel free to post your comments below. I am inactive on this blog due to civil services preparation, but your comments will surely be read some time in future by me and may surely add some value for the readers who will read this article.

Best regards,
Gopal