Bhagavagd Gita - Session 24- Track 2411

Question: When Sattwa become predominant are the changes in the sleep patterns like Arjuna and like Lakshman, they are supposed to have conquered sleep, so that means that Sattwa guna was very predominant?

It is true that in our Indian education system, everybody was encourage to develop Sattwa guṇa. And it is quite true that among all the Pandavas, Arjuna was pre-eminently “the man of the age” you might say. As Sri Krishna says: pāṇḍavānām dhanaṃjayah aham, I am among the Pandavas, I am dhanaṃjaya, I am Arjuna. That means that Arjuna must be already…otherwise you mean to say that Arjuna would have listen to all this at the time of the war, if he was so much Rajasic. There must have been some kind of an equilibrium, so that he is ready to listen at that time. And at a critical moment to be in equilibrium is very difficult. Many people can be in equilibrium when everything is going on well; but at a critical moment to be in equilibrium is very difficult. Therefore even Arjuna’s acceptance to listen to the whole thing implies that Arjuna was highly Sattwic: there is no doubt about it.

Question: But my question was whether the Sattwa guna has a relation to sleep patterns.

Sri Krishna says that you should avoid to much of a sleep, and lack of sleep. Merely only conquest of sleep is another matter. Conquest of sleep comes when you can rest even without of what is call “sleep”. There is another capacity, it is not that you are devoid of rest; but you are in a different condition, you can regain your relaxation automatically, you don’t need to go to sleep. But for most of us it is not necessary to conquer the sleep to be able to be Sattwic. We must live nicely. In fact, Sri Aurobindo’s advice is 8 to 9 hours per day is minimum; and have these 9 hours sleep nicely every day; because that gives you a real…when you get up you are really in equilibrium.

Comment: Arjuna is appreciated for being able to conquer sleep.

….‘guḍākeśa’, but let us say there is a difference between ‘not sleeping at all’ and to be ‘guḍākeśa’. One who does not sleep … even one who suffers insomnia also does not sleep (laughter). But he has not conquered sleep (laughter). He can’t sleep. The conquest of sleep comes, the real guḍākeśa is one, who can rest whenever he wants to rest, without going into Tamas. This is quite a different quality. The Mother for example never slept. I have seen myself personally. She never slept! For years and years and years I have seen, but it does not mean that…for example 22 hours, we use to see her working all the time, 22 hours! That is, at any time you go to Her room, she is working, so there is a proof that 22 hours she has not gone to sleep. She had no bed in Her room at that time; she had only a chair, armchair. For two hours She used to go into meditation. And when She used to come out, She was fully fresh. And that was day after day, it is not as if that day She was doing, and then there was a rest, no, it was year after year; that was Her condition. This is called real conquest, which is quite different from ‘insomnia’ and all that sort of thing

…without many He is perfect; when reality is many He is perfect; when He is static He is perfect; when He is dynamic He is perfect. If you take away dynamism from the perfect, His pure staticity also remains perfect. If you add dynamism to staticity, He is also perfect. So, all these adaḥ and idam do not refer to Para Prakriti and Apara Prakriti; it is a description of the Supreme. The Supreme in His Para Prakriti is like this, that whether here or there, this aspect or that aspect, all are perfect.