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Sleep means

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

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.
Lecture on BG 2.1-10 and Talk -- Los Angeles, November 25, 1968:

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)

Devotee: Oh, haribol! (laughing)

Prabhupāda: (laughs) Somebody is supplying me nice paraṭā and I am eating. (laughs) But, being hungry, oh, my hunger is not satisfied. I'm eating, eating, till the dream is end. So if you practice, this is the technique. We have to practice in this way, that when all functions of this body will be stopped at the time of death, oh, we shall remember some way or other, Kṛṣṇa. Then successful. Immediately successful. That is the technique. Therefore Kulaśekhara is praying,

kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-paṅkaja-pañjarāntam
adyaiva viśatu me mānasa-rāja-haṁsaḥ
prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ
kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te
(MM 33)

The devotee, a great devotee, King Kulaśekhara. He has a nice book, Mukunda-mālā-stotra. I began translating, commenting, this line in Vṛndāvana. So the first verse is he's comparing his mind with the swan. I think you have seen, Jayānanda, when we were walking in Seattle in that park, in a lake the swan were diving near the lotus. You have seen? Yes. That is the practice. The swan takes pleasure where there is, I mean to say, what is called, lotus or lily, lilies. There's a stem. They dive and they entangle their long neck with the... That is their sporting. So Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, we call, lotus feet. So he says that "My mind may be entangled with the stem of Your lotus feet just like the swan. Immediately. I can do that now because I am in healthy state. Otherwise at the time of death, kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, when mucus, bile, everything will be disordered, and my throat will be choked up, I will not be able to speak or chant. So why shall I wait for that time? Now I am fit. Let my mind be absorbed with Your thought and let me die." That is the technique. That our mind should be always absorbed in Kṛṣṇa thought. So if by Kṛṣṇa's grace, at the time of that last moment of quitting this body, when every function of the body will be disordered we can remember Kṛṣṇa, then our life is successful. So we have to practice this. This, everything, whatever we are doing, it is practicing for the last moment. There is a Bengali proverb, bhajana kara sādhana kara matte janle haya.(?) How you are advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that will be tested at the time of your death. The examination will be at that time. So if that technique becomes perfect, then our life is perfect. At once you are transferred to the Kṛṣṇaloka.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Sleeping means ignorance.
Lecture on SB 5.6.7 -- Vrndavana, November 29, 1976:

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.

So we must come to the light and may not sleep and lose the chance of human form of body. Here the instruction is that Kṛṣṇa, or Ṛṣabhadeva... Ṛṣabhadeva is bhagavata ṛṣabha-devasya, rṣabhasya. Imāṁ jagatīm abhimāna, abhimāna ābhāsena. Abhimāna ābhāsena. He looks like ordinary human being, but you should be careful. No. He is not ordinary human being. Then... Therefore we must know. These are the knowledge given by... And if we understand it perfectly... Understanding means when we are uncontaminated, we can understand.

Sleeping means waste of time.
Lecture on SB 6.1.6 -- Honolulu, June 8, 1975:

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.

Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working.
Lecture on SB 6.1.7 -- Honolulu, June 15, 1975, Sunday Feast Lecture:

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.

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.
Lecture on SB 7.6.6 -- New Vrindaban, June 22, 1976:

It is the symptom of this age, Kali-yuga, is that we are not living the full term of our life, hundred years. We are not living... (aside:) You can go to the wall side. So, anyway, supposing we shall live one hundred years: puṁso varṣa-śataṁ hy āyus tad-ardhaṁ cājitātmanaḥ (SB 7.6.6). Ajitātmanaḥ, ajita means not conquered. One who has not been able to conquer over the sense activities, for them, it is not, even if he lives for one hundred, fifty years immediately minus in sleeping. In our temple in New York, in the beginning when I was having classes in the morning at seven o'clock, still people from here and there they would come and protest and go to the police because we were disturbing their sleep. Yes. They want to sleep as much possible hours. I think that is very great gain in the Western country, to sleep. 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. That is waste of time:

Sleeping means forgetfulness.
Lecture on SB 7.9.9 -- Montreal, July 4, 1968:

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that "Kṛṣṇa consciousness is eternally existing in every human being, every living entity." Not only human being. You have seen the one picture that a calf, how he is loving Kṛṣṇa by licking His body. You have seen it. So even in the calf, even in the animal, even in the bird, even in the beast. We have described all these things in our Teachings of Lord Caitanya, that when Kṛṣṇa was present in Vṛndāvana, how the cranes, how the cuckoos, how the peacocks, how the walks(?), how the flowers, how the creepers were loving Him. How they were loving Kṛṣṇa. So it is not a thing that we have to teach. Simply by good association, by reference, it comes out. It is called suptotthita-nyāya. Just like a man sleeping at night, he forgets everything, where he is lying on and what he is doing and which family does he belong to, which country does he belong to, what is his occupation. 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.

Festival Lectures

Simply sleeping means waste of time.
His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada's Disappearance Day, Lecture -- Bombay, December 22, 1975:

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. This is called nivṛtti-mārga, but that is not practical; therefore if we promise that we shall not eat anything which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa, that is tapasya. If you don't go to the restaurant and eat anything nonsense, that is pravṛtti.

Arrival Addresses and Talks

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."
Arrival Speech -- Stockholm, September 5, 1973:

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is spreading all over the world gradually. It is little difficult to understand the purport of this movement because it is completely on the spiritual platform. Generally, people do not understand what is spiritual platform. So as we can understand that we are combination of two things... Every one of us, living being, we are at the present moment combination of spirit and matter. Matter we can understand, but on account of our long association with the matter, we cannot understand what is that spirit. But we can imagine that there is something which distinguishes a dead body and living body. That we can understand. When a man is dead... 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.

General Lectures

Sleeping means māyā, or darkness.
Lecture Excerpt -- Montreal, July 20, 1968:

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. So Arjuna did it. He knew, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa; therefore his another name is Guḍākeśa. Everyone is in darkness. Ask him, "What what you were in your past life? What you are going to become in your next life? Why you have come here?" "Why you have become American?" "Why you have become Indian?" "Why you are white?" "Why you are black?" "Why you are suffering?" "Why you are enjoying?" So many "whys." Ask them. They will not be able to answer. Therefore they are in darkness.

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.
Lecture at International Student Society -- Boston, May 3, 1969:

Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for your participating with us in the saṅkīrtana movement, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to awake the sleeping living entities. In the Vedic literature, Upaniṣad, we have these verses, which says, uttiṣṭha jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata. The Vedic voice, transcendental voice, says, "O humanity, O living entity, you are sleeping. Please get up." Uttiṣṭha. Uttiṣṭha means "Please get up." Just like when a man or a boy sleeps past, and the parents, who has got knowledge that he has got to do something important, "My dear boy, please get up. It is now morning. You have to go. You have to go to your duty. You have to go to your school." Just like responsible parents, fathers, mothers, they awake the sleepy, indolent boy, similarly, the Vedas are considered as the mother of the human society. So Vedas, it is crying, uttiṣṭha: "Please get up. Please get up." And what is that sleeping? 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. We do not know wherefrom we have come in this place, where we have to go.

Philosophy Discussions

Deep sleeping means unconsciousness.
Philosophy Discussion on Plato:

Hayagrīva: Plato believes that at death there is an end of the sensory life of the individual—his thoughts, his perceptions and experiences—and the individual then returns to the ideal world from which he came.

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. He feels, "Oh, why I am put into this packed-up status." If he is pious he feels very uncomfortable. He prays to God—these things are described—that "Kindly excuse me from this awkward position. Now this time I shall become a devotee." This is position. The soul is immortal, but still he enters into different stages of life.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Sleeping means stopping your active life. So that is a waste of time.
Questions and Answers -- Montreal, August 26, 1968:

Devotee (girl): Swami, even when we dream about Godbrothers and Godsisters?

Prabhupāda: Huh?

Devotee (girl): Even when we dream about Godbrothers and Godsisters?

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?

Dāmodara: Price of the films?

Prabhupāda: Suppose if we take film, very long film, what will be the cost?

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Sleeping means to remain in ignorance.
Room Conversation with Educationists -- July 11, 1973, London:

Prabhupāda: There is some epidemic, pestilence. You cannot check it. So in this way, either of these three, sufferings going on. But those who are sleeping, they cannot understand that this is suffering. Just like animals. They cannot understand. That is sleeping stage. And when one is awakened, he will think "I don't want all these sufferings. Why they are imposed upon me? How I can avoid?" That is intelligence. So human being, unless he comes to this platform of intelligence, he is animal. The animal cannot do any remedy. You take one animal to the slaughterhouse. He cannot do anything. So sleeping means to remain in ignorance. And awakened stage means in knowledge. So intelligence means one must have knowledge. That is intelligence. So this division—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra—means the highest intelligent class man is called brāhmaṇa. He knows. He's in knowledge.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Sleeping means for the weak. And for the strong, perspiration.
Morning Walk 'Varnasrama College' -- March 14, 1974, Vrndavana:

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. (break) ...principle. And human beings means trained up under principle. That is the difference between animal. The animals, they cannot take up any training. But the human being, this human form of body is meant for taking training. So if they are not properly trained up, they remain animals and the whole society in chaos and confusion. That's all. (break) ...moment, the human society's so degraded that even we are walking, this is also risky. This is also... Gradually, it is becoming.

This sleep means temporary.
Morning Walk -- March 31, 1974, Bombay:

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? Eh?

Lilavati: How is it possible to forget?

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Lilavati: The subtle body...

Prabhupāda: Yes, you forget. (aside:) Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jayo. You forget. When you dream, you forget that you have got this gross body and you are the father of such and such or mother of such and such.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Sleep means what you do when you are awakened, the same thing you'll dream, that's all.
Evening Darsana -- August 9, 1976, Tehran:

Ali: Are we closer to this practicality when we sleep?

Prabhupāda: Yes, when you are practiced. Sleep means what you do when you are awakened, the same thing you'll dream, that's all. Physical, I've told you there are two phases of senses. Gross and subtle. When the gross senses are not working, the subtle senses work. Just like you dream, your mind is working. Although your hands and legs are taking rest, but mind is working. That is dreaming. So there are two phases of physical senses, gross and subtle. When the gross senses are stopped, the subtle senses continue to work. And when you are above even subtle senses, that is spiritual. Sometimes we misunderstand subtle senses are spiritual. No. Spiritual senses are different from the subtle stages.

Sleeping means waste of time. So long you sleep, it is a waste of time. Better reduce sleep.
Room Conversation with Life Member, Mr. Malhotra -- December 22, 1976, Poona:

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.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Too much sleeping means weakness.
Room Conversation -- October 27, 1977, Vrndavana:

Prabhupāda: Sleeping means weakness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Sleeping means what?

Devotee: Weakness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Weakness.

Prabhupāda: No, too much sleeping means weakness.

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Yeah. Bhavānanda felt it was due to not sleeping at night that you were sleeping during the day. But you slept an awful lot today. But yet...

Prabhupāda: No, today avoid.

Page Title:Sleep means
Compiler:Rishab, Visnu Murti
Created:09 of Oct, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=11, Con=7, Let=0
No. of Quotes:18