If you have control over diet and your sleep, your meditation will be successful and will lead you to God-Realisation.

Meditation Yoga

Chapter 6, Verse 15

yuñjann-evaṁ sadā’tmānaṁ

yogī niyata-mānasaḥ

śāntiṁ nirvāṇa paramāṁ

mat-saṁsthām adhigacchati

Always putting himself in yoga by controlling his mind, the yogi attains to the supreme peace of Nirvana which has its foundation in Me.

“Always putting himself in yoga by controlling his mind.” The one who controls his diet, who controls what he puts into his body, who controls his mind, such a yogi “attains to the supreme peace of Nirvana which has its foundation in Me.”

Here Bhagavan says that the foundation of Nirvana is in Him, but it is not Him! Nirvana is just one state of Realisation. Many people say that the state of Nirvana is the ultimate state, but actually the ultimate state of Realisation, the supreme state, is beyond Nirvana. Nevertheless, Lord Krishna says here that when one has reached a certain purity, by controlling the mind, the diet, the body and the senses, then through meditation one enters into the state of Nirvana. Controlling what you eat, what kind of diet you have, is very important, because it has an effect on your meditation. Plants have a calm, peaceful nature, they are shanti. When you eat vegetarian food, automatically you also become shanti. On the other hand, meat contains the emotion of aggression in it from the animal! If you eat meat, you can’t sit and meditate because this quality will also awaken inside you. That’s why what you eat is very important!

It is also very important to control your sleep and your wakefulness. How long are you sleeping? Too little is not good! Too much is not good! For a yogi, six hours of sleep is enough. I think that science also says this, no? If people are not doing yoga, they need eight hours of sleep. Yogis need less. If you sleep less, it helps your concentration. Of course, you have to respect your own nature. Imagine that people

say, “I went to listen to this Swamiji and he said to sleep six hours a night.” Then you try it and wake up in the morning like a zombie. You don’t know what you are doing and nothing works. The scriptures say that you have to control your sleep, but if your body needs seven or eight hours, then sleep seven or eight hours. It’s best to respect your body’s needs: otherwise later, when you sit for meditation, you may fall asleep and be snoring, because you are not fully in control. So, six hours is enough, seven, or eight hours is okay, but much more than that is not good! You will see that when you sleep longer, eleven or twelve hours, afterwards you don’t feel good, your body is drained of energy, you have a headache, you feel lazy, drowsy, and zombified. And when you look in the mirror, you don’t even recognise yourself. You are shocked. You get depressed just by looking at yourself. Then you can’t meditate! And what about God- Realisation? It’s far away! You have to sleep only enough to be able to concentrate and continue your spiritual advancement. But don’t sleep during the day! That’s not good.

If you have control over your diet and your sleep, your meditation will be successful and will lead you to God-Realisation. It will lead you to supreme bliss, to supreme peace. Having reached a state like this, where one is fully surrendered to the Divine, there is never again suffering or sorrow. Once one has reached this state of Nirvana, there is no way that one will go backwards. When one attains this state of Nirvana, one breaks out of the cycle of birth and death. One doesn’t fall victim to grief, fear, or anxiety; one is always fully merged into this divine, blissful state, which has its foundation in Krishna Himself. In the state of Nirvana, one perceives the Supreme Lord in His glory, within one’s own Self: one also perceives Him in His sagun and nirgun aspects, which are respectively, the Lord with form and without form.

In the previous verse, Lord Krishna gives instructions about the seat that one should use to perfect one’s meditation. I would like to clarify that the asana Lord Krishna is talking about is your personal asana in your room, in your house or in your private areas. In a temple, you don’t have a specific place just for you. So don’t think that if you used to sit in one place and then somebody else sits there that you should

go and attack the person saying, “That’s my place! You have invaded my space!” No! In temples, like the Shree Peetha Nilaya Temple, there are no private places. Well, I have one. But apart from my seat and the deities’ seats, no one else has a private place. In the temples or public places, the seats are for everybody. However, when you do your dhyaan, you should be alone. It is better to meditate alone! Because the moment there is somebody else, your mind will be focused on that person.

Bhagavad Gita