Celebrating an Awakened Sky
The science of Ayurveda recommends waking up while it is still dark outside. A serene beauty and stillness envelop the Earth at this time. Though it is still dark out, the early morning darkness seems to be softer than nighttime, almost as if it’s infused with a divine light. And rising this early benefits your body, mind, and spiritual practice.
When I was a child, my eyes would open to the expectation of light, even before greeting the light itself. That is a special feeling. Witnessing the phenomenon of light banishing darkness every morning would chase away many mind-based falsehoods or concerns. Refreshed and reassured, I would embrace the day.
In Sanskrit, the language of the Ayurvedic sages, this time in the early morning is called brahma muhurta, “the time of God Consciousness,” the time of perceiving the highest truth of universal consciousness. Naturally, it is an ideal time to meditate, contemplate, and acquire spiritual knowledge.
The Vedic sages calculated that this special time begins exactly one and a half hours before sunrise and lasts until the sun comes over the horizon. From this understanding, we can easily calculate when we should wake up, based on our location on Earth. In any case, we should try to wake up at some point before or at 6:00 a.m. and not later. There are scientific reasons for this, which I will go into later, in depth.
I’m happy that because my family’s daily routine revolved around Ayurveda, I never had a choice to sleep in. All of my family members arose at brahma muhurta — and not just the humans, either. Even our family cow, Nandini, was always awake bright and early.
A big part of my life as a child was my trip to the river in the early morning with my grandfather. Like everyone there, our lives revolved around River Sarayu, whose history extends back to the Rig-Veda in ancient times. This beautiful blue river emerges from the glaciers of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, and runs across valleys and gorges through tiny mountain hamlets and settlements to reach the city of Ayodhya in the plains of northern India.
Every day, Baba would wake me at the beginning of the brahma muhurta with a reminder that River Sarayu awaited us on her way to merging into the holy Ganges River (Ganga Maa, as we called her).
As a little girl, I would wonder to myself, “Why does the river await us? Does the river know us?”
When I asked Baba these questions, he replied with a gentle smile, his eyes sparkling, “Of course, because we are essentially one.” 
The Beauty and Magic of Dawn
As individual beings, we share an inherent relationship with our environment. So when light begins to spread across the sky, our minds, too, begin to experience hope and courage.
When we gaze at the sky at this time, we know, deep in our hearts, that the sun will be here soon, and the dark night will be consumed by the spreading light, taking with it the fears, doubts, and ignorance that enveloped us as we slept. When we witness the transformation from dark to light, from night to dawn, there is a stirring of hope and a spiritual presence in our subconscious being, which begins to reveal itself, banishing ignorance and infusing our consciousness with divine illumination and intuitive knowledge.
For me, the early mornings are magical. At this time, the darkness of the night is slowly dissipating, and the light of the sun, even before it has tangibly announced its bold presence in the sky, is making its subtle but commanding presence felt. I cannot yet see the light, but I can sense the light in my heart, wherein dwells that one consciousness that connects us with the sun, moon, and Earth and all that we know and also all that we cannot fathom with our ordinary senses. It is during this time of outer stillness and inner silence that you can most easily connect to Brahman, the universal truth, and the one reality that is immutable and absolute.
One beautiful morning when I was about six, Baba said to me, “Come, little Shunya, let us resolve every day to be awake for the breaking dawn, and let us rejoice in all its breathtaking, electric magnificence.” Baba would often talk to me on our way back home from the river, and on that day, he explained how the early morning sun distributes blessings, including the gifts of health, wisdom, and peace for all of Earth’s creatures, big and small. I liked this idea of gifts; it reminded me of receiving presents on my birthday and on Diwali (the Hindu festival of spiritual lights). My grandfather must have known this because he added, “But these gifts are different. These gifts are invisible, and you open them for the rest of your life.”
Over the years, I would try my best to internalize Baba’s words because he never repeated himself. Even when I was too young to understand his words, his eyes would share an invitation to be happy by simply rising before dawn. Four decades later, as I write these words about the benefits of waking up early, I remember Baba’s eyes being lit by the first rays of the sun.
The Significance of Brahma Muhurta
As night proceeds to dawn, all the creatures of Nature, big and small, are slowly awakening, following Nature’s book of rules. Even the grass, plants, flowers, and trees are looking reenergized and awake to a discerning eye. Everything else is also stirring from sleep and pulsating with movement. It is our time to stir, too, as we are not separate from Nature.
Ayurvedic tradition tells us that those who awaken in brahma muhurta receive abundant health in body, mind, and soul. The physical benefits, alone, are quite profound: increased energy, eradication of depression, and improved digestion.
According to one classical Ayurveda text, the Ashtanga Hridayam, a healthy person should wake up at brahma muhurta to protect his or her very life. In this scripture, it is said that waking up early is tied to increased lifespan and longevity.1
In both the introduction and chapter 1, I mentioned how each part of the day is governed by a particular dosha, and now I will go into this daily timing of energies in greater detail.
Recall that in the early hours of the day, between 2:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., vata dosha is dominant and most active. Vata represents movement or variability, as opposed to kapha dosha, which represents dullness or inertia. Kapha dosha dominates between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Finally, pitta dosha, which represents transformation and sharpness, is most active from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. — at which point the cycle begins all over again. From 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., vata dosha is once again active, and from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., kapha dosha takes over. And finally, once again, pitta dosha becomes dominant from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. This cycle continues nonstop, ad infinitum.
It is useful to see how the world and natural phenomena around us reflect vata dosha’s theme of movement in the macrocosm. Literally everything begins stirring at this time. Thus, by choosing to wake up at a vata time, prior to 6:00 a.m., we are adjusting our own lifestyles according to the overriding energy of the day. By doing this, we maximize our own health and energy.
Let’s say that, instead of waking up early, we sleep through this active vata time. It’s enjoyable to pull up the covers and stay in our warm beds sleeping, is it not? Initially, yes, it is. But Ayurveda says that this extra sleep can lead to challenges in body and mind in the future.
If we sleep late on a regular basis, acting counter to the energy of movement all around us in the cosmos, an inertia settles into our beings. We have reduced energy overall, and this leads to digestive problems and even a lack of motivation.
Right here lie the roots of imbalance: in our action, or inaction. As we are not separate from Nature, brahma muhurta is our time to stir, too. All must move at the right time for good health — arrested or delayed movement can be a problem. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the colon, which is the seat of vata dosha.
Get out of bed before 6:00 a.m. no matter what! This is what I have recommended to the hundreds of people who have sought my advice on chronic constipation. Before I prescribe herbs that assist elimination or even suggest changing the diet to add the oily quality (snigdha) that aids elimination, I first ask a client a number of questions, the first of which is what time they wake up. Some people are puzzled by this line of questioning. Why am I asking what times they go to sleep and wake up? Why am I not asking the obvious questions?
But those who have followed my advice to rise early have reaped the benefits. When we arise in the vata time of the day, our bowels will function naturally, eliminating waste and pent up gas. This clears the digestive tract, gets gas out of the stomach, and makes room for agni, or digestive fire, assisted by vata dosha, to flare up appropriately. Pay close attention to the words I’m using — you’ll notice that “flare up” is also a kind of movement. This gastric movement then ensures timely hunger, timely digestion, and — hallelujah! — timely elimination the next time around.
The entire body clock begins to reset itself, just because we got up at the right time.
The Proper Time for Sleeping and Waking
Since it is ideal to wake at or before 6:00 a.m., it is also important to plan our entire day in such a way that we go to bed by 10:00 p.m. or earlier. According to Ayurveda, this is an ideal schedule for going to sleep and arising. How you can get into bed at 10:00 p.m. and then fall asleep quickly, with no tossing and turning, is a topic we’ll discuss at length in chapter 7.
It is commonly understood that getting eight hours of sleep at night is ideal for health and daily functioning. Going to bed by 10:00 p.m. and then waking up at 6:00 a.m. or earlier, you may not sleep for the recommended eight hours. By waking up at brahma muhurta, however, you have opened your being to the gifts of cosmic energy and alignment with vata dosha, so you may not need the full eight hours of sleep after all.
Routinely, I go to bed no later than 10:00 p.m. and wake up no later than 5:00 a.m. So, for decades now, I’ve been getting only seven hours of sleep each night. Yet I have more physical energy and mental endurance than most people half my age. My students can attest that in the last ten years their teacher has not missed a single class due to ill health or fatigue. And I always accomplish what I set out for myself during the day with ease and energy left for spiritual practices before bedtime. I suggest that with an Ayurveda-inspired lifestyle, the quality of your sleep may count more than the quantity of your sleep.
If you begin to incorporate Ayurveda lifestyle practices into your routine, then you will find yourself going to sleep earlier and that the quality of your sleep has improved. Then, getting up in time to meet the rising sun will become your routine. Try it, and then you won’t have to merely take my word for it.
Exception to the Rule of Waking Up
There is an exception to this rule of waking up before sunrise. If one night you need to stay up especially late — an airport pickup, say — you should not wake up at your usual hour. Let’s say you don’t get to bed until midnight. Then your whole system is running two hours behind. In such a case, Ayurveda prescribes that you sleep one hour later than usual and wake up at 7:00 a.m. Rather than making up the full two hours of lost sleep, you instead make up only half of the time lost.
You could, on the other hand, suggest that your friend take a train, call a taxi, or find a different friend! But life and a friend stuck at the airport are not in our control. And we don’t want to leave our friends hanging! So Ayurveda takes special circumstances into account and allows us to make up our sleep. But for one night — not night after night after night.
Every day is a twenty-four-hour wheel, and the choices we make for every part of this wheel impact our resulting state of health. Waking up regularly at brahma muhurta is not about simply setting the alarm for an hour or so earlier than you would otherwise. Our lifestyle choices throughout the twenty-four hours preceding brahma muhurta impact what happens on the wheel of life at this particular point. The food we eat, the sorts of activities we engage in, the time we go to sleep — all of our choices from the previous day, month, and year stack up on us. We are spinning constantly on the wheel of time from one sunrise to the next.
Thanks to a fixed bedtime and wake-up routine, every morning, my mind begins its habitual humming and wakes to the breaking dawn in its breathtaking, electric magnificence. Before the first rays of light materialize, my slumbering body stirs naturally, like the birds and flowers in my garden.
We Are Part of Nature
We humans have strayed a long way from Nature. After all, we have choices. Our windows, draped with heavy curtains or blinds, and our sound-insulated homes, barricaded from our life source, the sun, keep us well cocooned in our own world. We barely remember anymore that we are a part of Nature.
But Nature, being a mother, does not give up on us. With every sunrise, she sends us many reminders to not only wake up, but truly awaken to the truth of our connection with Nature. The golden radiance that spreads across the vast skies and lights up the horizon is meant to touch us as well and enlighten our consciousness. The divine radiance is meant to come in through our eyes, warm our lonely hearts, and illumine our isolated minds. How can the sunlight do this if we choose to keep our eyes shut?
Then, Mother Nature asks the birds to tell us all about the resplendent morning and its majestic beauty. The birds chirp away and sing profound songs about the merits of waking up early, but we can’t hear them through our spongy, multicolored latex earplugs, the hum of computers, water heaters, or electronic devices that send simulated sounds of Nature to block out the true sounds of Nature coming alive with the rising sun.
Babies tend not to follow grown-up rules. They wake up spontaneously in the early morning, during the time of vata, to coo, cry, play, and even poop effortlessly with delight. We adults put a silicon nipple into their little mouths and hope that their diapers can wait a bit. “Sleep a little more,” we tell our babies, “Mommy and Daddy are tired.” Our pets are stirring early, as well; they yearn to join creatures of the natural world outside our four walls. But the alpha human continues to snore, so what choice do we give our animals but to curl up and sleep some more with us!
I’ve spoken a lot about the benefits of rising before 6:00 a.m., but nothing yet of the disadvantages that come to those who do not. Since kapha time starts at 6:00 a.m., sleeping past 6:00 a.m. will rapidly increase kapha (inertia). In other words, an inert sleep will increase an individual’s overall inertia.
The longer we stay confined in our kapha sleep, the heavier we feel, the sleepier we become. When we finally do awaken, we don’t feel refreshed in the way we would had we awakened during vata time. On the contrary, we feel groggy, dull, and even sleepier. Sometimes this heaviness lasts for several hours after waking up, and we begin to label this experience as fatigue. Actually, this is nothing more than kapha dosha, with its qualities of heaviness, dullness, and slowness, which has enveloped us and settled into every pore and channel of our beings.
When kapha increases in the macrocosm, our bodies, which are the microcosm, will mirror it. Hence, processes that were previously under the quick command of movement, such as regular functioning of the bowels, will now slow down considerably or, in some cases, come to a standstill. You get the picture.
In this way, through Ayurveda lifestyle wisdom, we can choose the activities of our day consciously. When vata, which is variable and active, peaks in the macrocosm (from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.), individuals are advised to relax, meditate, and generally take it easy. That is, we are asked to do the opposite of “movement.” When pitta, which is fiery, peaks in the world (from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.), we are asked to avoid overheating the body and mind and choose coolness in environment and thoughts. And of course when kapha is peaking in the world (from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.), we are advised to move the body, breath, and mind and to never remain sedentary — or worse, fall asleep. Isn’t that clever?
In terms of time and our daily activities, this is another application of the Ayurvedic principle “like increases like; opposites decrease each other.” To keep a dosha in balance, invoke its opposite.
While I teach these laws, my students greet them with great excitement. There are some people, of course, who still find it difficult to wake up early when kapha time begins at 6:00 a.m. I find this unfortunate. Those who choose to remain asleep, even after receiving this life-changing knowledge, remain imprisoned under the heavy cage of self-imposed kapha, with hard-to-break habits and inner resistances.
Fortunately, the wisdom tradition of Ayurveda continuously reminds human beings of our true place in Nature and why it serves us to work with Nature rather than to defy her at every opportunity. Ayurveda is perhaps the first medical science to declare a union between the individual (purusha) and the universe (loka), a concept called loka purusha samya.2 Here, samya means “equality.” In this relationship, the individual unit can be anything: a tiny ant, a blade of grass, or the most evolved thinking, feeling animal of all, the human being. Yet, all living creatures are obliged to exist under the same law of macro- and microinterconnectedness. We are bound by the same physical and spiritual laws, and in fact, these laws exist on a continuum, which spans from the largest to the smallest form of creation. The individual living unit is a miniature replica of the universe. Hence, we humans will benefit immensely if we learn to follow Nature’s cues and take action accordingly.
It is my hope that the beautiful wisdom of Ayurveda will awaken in you the desire to align with Nature and her rules. Your life is an extension of Nature. You are invited to use Nature to your advantage. I have found that the more I embrace Nature’s laws, the more I find myself embraced by her compassion.
The followers of Ayurveda lifestyle wisdom begin to discover the deep nurturance that is available in Nature and to gradually become one with the great cycle and rhythm of Nature. It all begins with respecting Nature and understanding the basic truth that we and Nature are one; we are each other’s extension, and disrespecting or disregarding one leads to abuse and injury of the other.
Time and the Three Gunas
The human mind has a unique relationship with the light of the sun. The scriptures that inform Ayurveda say that the sun is the source of our human life.
While we can take the sun and its gift of illumination for granted during the daytime, at night, we miss it. We may not be aware that we miss the sun, but the absence of light does something to our minds: we experience fears that we did not know lurked in our subconscious. We may not demonstrate or verbalize our inner experience, but in the dark hours, we are more easily swayed by self-doubt, hesitation, and dread.
Far from the bravado we experience during our daytime socializing and professional engagements, deep inside our hearts at night we can feel abandoned and anxious. We surround ourselves with artificial light, and when we go to bed and switch off the electric light, we hope to fall asleep quickly and remain suspended in slumber until morning. As the Earth cycles from light to shadow and back, so too does our own mental state cycle.
The Vedic sages inform us that all of Nature is composed of three types of fundamental vibrations or qualities that weave the cosmos, known in in Sanskrit as gunas. The three gunas are sattva, rajas, and tamas. Imperceptible to the human senses, the gunas are like what modern physics describes as the phenomena of matter and antimatter. Gunas are the ultimate and irreducible entities that operate at the subtlest level of this universe.
According to the Vedas, rajas represents energy; tamas represents mass, inertia, or resistance to this energy (equal and opposing force); and sattva is the stabilizing force, the essence or intelligence that manifests itself as existent and brings about manifestation in spite of the presence of opposing forces. Varying quantities of intelligence (sattva), energy (rajas), and mass (tamas), in varied groupings, act on one another, and through their mutual interaction and interdependence, a world of diversity and matter, from subtle (space) to gross (earth), is born.
Thus, the gunas are the primal qualities of Nature and the mode through which Rta or cosmic intelligence operates. Clearly the gunas are not qualities in the average sense of the word. An entire galaxy — a speck of dust and a tiny amoeba to a full-fledged human being — comes under the purview of gunas.
In the human being, the gunas are witnessed through the workings of the body because they influence the doshas; they are even more subtle than the doshas, and in fact, drive the doshas themselves. Rajas (quality of motion) influences vata dosha, and tamas (quality of inertia) drives kapha dosha. Finally, sattva, or the quality of cosmic intelligence, drives pitta dosha. Additionally, the human mind — from imagination to ideas to expression of complex beliefs and concepts — is influenced by gunas, and the mind expresses itself through the interplay of the three gunas. The descriptions below clarify this point further.
Sattva Guna: Sattva guna is expressed in the cosmos through the luminosity of light, power of reflection, harmony, balance, goodness, knowledge, and purity. When sattva emerges in our minds, we experience inner clarity, pleasure, purity of being, contentment, intrinsic peacefulness, and a desire to be noble, good, and godly and to share and to care for others. Sattva has a special affinity with truth, and hence, those with sattvic minds are receptive to spiritual learning and can access inner wisdom with ease. Light, especially the pure light of the sun, or of a lamp or candle lit on an altar, is a beautiful symbol for sattva.
Rajas Guna: Rajas guna is the principle of motion. When in excess, it produces pain, both physical and emotional. Restless activity, feverish effort, and nonstop stimulation are its manifestations. It is mobile and energizing. Rajas expresses itself in the bold strokes of passion, action, change, movement, activity, and compulsion, not to mention agitation and turbulence. In the mind, it expresses itself as restlessness, changeability, addiction to activity, and the undertaking of excessive activities fueled by a multiplicity of desires with underlying selfish interests to advance. Constant change and rapid speed are characteristic of actions with rajas behind them. Changing, shifting light is indicative of rajas.
Tamas Guna: In tamas, both light and movement are absent. Tamas literally means darkness; it is the principle of inertia. It produces apathy and indifference. Ignorance, sloth, confusion, bewilderment, passivity, and negativity are its results; it is heavy (guru) and enveloping (avarna) and as such is opposed to sattva. It is also opposed to rajas as it arrests all activity. Thus, darkness is a special feature of tamas. It is often associated with nighttime in the macro sense and ignorance in the human mind in the micro sense. Ambiguity, lack of initiative, incomprehension, and the inability to see through mental confusions and emerge from self-delusions (sometimes in spite of counseling, teaching, and handholding) are characteristics of a tamas-dominant mind. Due to lack of inner movement, there is often an experience of psychological paralysis in the tamasic mind, leading to great inner frustration. Naturally, it is difficult to access wisdom and knowledge in this type of mental state.
On one of our many trips to River Sarayu, Baba explained to me that the rising sun is an important event that the entire universe prepares to greet. The plants and tress wait for it; the birds, bees, beetles, and cows bow to it. Everyone is ready to greet the rising sun’s majestic appearance in the sky. However, because humans have a choice, many of us simply stay lost in sleep.
“Why?” I had asked him. Baba explained that while it may be daytime for birds, roses, and buzzing bees, who are off to work being their spiritual best, the human mind is filled with the mist of tamas. So people can feel defeated even before the day has started. “But,” Baba reminded me, “this defeat can turn into success by simply resolving to wake up. Fight this one battle with yourself at brahma muhurta, Shunya. Wake up at any cost, and all other battles in life yet to come will simply fade away.”
The Dance of the Gunas across the Sky
All three gunas — rajas, tamas, and sattva — play a role in Nature. When tamas peaks in the cosmos, darkness takes over. Nighttime falls and envelops everything, including the minds of all living creatures.
This is why, at night, when we are under the influence of tamas, we often feel uncertain, less courageous, and we may postpone decision-making until the next day. In the evening hours, we seek the solace of friends, family, food, and finally, sleep. This is not to say that tamas is a bad thing. We need all three gunas in our lives. Without tamas, this world and its creatures would never take a break, relax, let go, or fall asleep.
When the sun is out, bright and shining during much of the day, we have a natural abundance of sattva. Of course, our individual minds may be tamasic or rajasic, firmly entrenched in its pattern, but Mother Nature, from her side, shines sattva on us through the agency of the luminous sun, giving us each repeated opportunities every day to literally clear our head of excessive sloth (tamas), as well as distracting thoughts (rajas), and get centered and focused with a more balanced state of mind (sattva).
The junctures between night and day — sunrise and sunset — and the times leading up to them are both dominant in rajas because this is a time of transition and change. It is a cosmic light switch of sorts.
While both of these periods are dominant in rajas, they have very different effects on the human mind. The three hours prior to sunset is a period of rajas that tends to evoke restlessness, even anxiety. This is because sattva will soon disappear and be replaced with the shroud of nighttime tamas.
In contrast, between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., everyone is naturally infused with the right kind of rajas, the positive kind, which leads us gracefully and ineluctably toward a full-blown encounter with sattva, both outside of us and, importantly, within us, in our own minds.
As the sun sets and darkness spreads in the macrocosm, so, too, does our ignorance of Self rise forth in our minds, and our courage plunges, bit by bit, in our mental landscape. The sight of the setting sun is exquisite, no doubt, but who can ignore an inexplicable disquiet that clutches our being at this time of the day? We can ignore it, but if we are being honest with ourselves, we cannot deny this foreboding. Tears, sadness, old memories, and even depression often follow sunset.
Fortunately, thanks to the big cycles in Nature, we won’t drown in the smaller tamas waves of our mind. The rajas period that begins around 3:00 a.m. and peaks one and a half hours before sunrise is quite the opposite in its quality. It is as if, in this part of the cycle, Mother Nature is lending our minds majestic wings of rajas to fly above the slumbering Earth and meet the rising sun halfway across the sky. The tamas accumulated over the night ends with the sunrise and the scattering of the brilliant vibrations of sattva. It is no wonder that, when we wake up at this time of the early morning, we feel reenergized, expansive, creative, and nobly inspired.
It is important to remember that while sattva is associated with light or illumination, it is not the same as the particles of physical light. Sunlight is a mode of delivery for cosmic sattva — the qualities of peace, balance, and purity. Sattva is by no means limited to the rays of the sun. Rather, think of sattva as the sun’s subtle quality, the original source of life for all beings. A burning ghee lamp or eating certain pure and rarefied foods can also transmit sattva. We could say that the ghee lamp and the food are really just altered forms of the sun’s original fire.
Catch That Extraordinary, Expansive Time
The period from 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., when rajas is moving to sattva, is considered the best time for nurturing activities that require both inner movement and purity. Self-study and learning with a guru who gives us spiritual knowledge are traditionally recommended during this time. Yoga and meditation during this time of day reap the best results.
To absorb any subject, whether material or spiritual, we need a clear mind and also the inner movement that takes us from ignorance to illumination. For countless centuries, students in traditional Vedic gurukulam would gather around their teacher’s home in the early morning, the time of sattva, to meditate together, join sacred worshipping rituals, connect with the rising sun, and then study Vedic texts. In contrast, during periods of rajas, the student’s mind is often distracted, and in periods of tamas, the mind is often prone to dullness and even unconscious fear of the knowledge being presented.
In my own gurukulam, at Vedika Global, I have noticed that it is very different when I teach in the early morning. At other times, especially at night, I have students begin by chanting several sattva-evoking Vedic mantras, especially the Gayatri mantra (a Vedic prayer for illuminating intelligence), and by lighting ghee lamps. The lamps brighten the nooks and crannies of my school and also evoke sattva in my students’ minds. Vedic altars in the school are adorned with fresh flowers and radiate all sorts of vibrations of blessing, so this, too, creates a sattvic microenvironment.
All of this does work a kind of magic. While the teacher and the students feel blessed at each class, the activity of teaching and learning is still harder work in the evenings.
In the early mornings, Sanskrit verses that were difficult to memorize the night before are effortlessly recalled from memory. The knowledge of Self and the reality of divine oneness is revealed beyond doubt in the student’s psyche. Universal compassion arises as if spontaneously in the student’s heart. Knowledge of principles of Ayurveda become established and naturally known. And discourses on the science of Ayurveda that were received in previous days — from me, the teacher — are converted in the student’s mind from facts to convictions.
Something of this sort can happen in your life, too, in relation to your own spiritual journey and study — if you begin awakening in brahma muhurta.
Brahma Muhurta and Modern Science
At times, I like to point out some observations of modern science that corroborate what the divine science of Ayurveda discovered thousands of years ago.
Modern science has identified two separate chemicals that are secreted by the brain, serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin’s secretion is triggered by sunlight, and once triggered, it automatically arrests the secretion of the other chemical, melatonin. After sunset, serotonin stops being secreted, and melatonin begins to take over.
Both chemicals perform different functions, and in Ayurveda language, serotonin assists rajas because it supports the experience of wakefulness, and melatonin assists tamas in the brain because it slows us down in general and helps us sleep. The modern scientists are explaining the circadian rhythm with the help of these chemicals and by monitoring the human, animal, and plant responses to exposure to light and dark environments.
Thousands of years prior to these discoveries, the Ayurvedic sages were talking about inner clock functions and how the mind reacts to light and dark signals from the environment. It is important to clarify, however, that I am not advocating reducing the spiritual modes of rajas and tamas to the chemicals serotonin and melatonin, which are but a material demonstration of the universal spiritual principle in action.
Many of us with night-shift jobs, who have to stay up rather than sleep at night (that is, willfully evoke rajas instead of tamas), will attest to how hard it is to go against the modes of Nature. And seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a well-known condition that arises from inadequate exposure to sunlight, a deficiency that leads to depression (tamas).
The Best Antidepressant
Those living in lands that are deprived of sun for large parts of the year can be susceptible to depression or sadness that sometimes sets in due to absence of adequate sunlight. If they practiced the Ayurveda lifestyle, they would not rely solely on the sun for their necessary dose of sattva. Rather, they would evoke sattva through other methods mentioned earlier, such as sitting and gazing at a lit ghee lamp or chanting Vedic mantras or prayers (in any language), connecting to the inner contemplation and image of a rising sun.
In fact, an Ayurveda lifestyle can be the best antidote to depression and even a preventative measure to ward it off. Each lifestyle practice that I introduce in this book promotes healthy rajas and sattva in large measures. And certain nighttime practices promote healthy tamas so that we can have a good night’s sleep.
There is something about watching a sunrise with our eyes directly and literally perceiving the phenomena of change from tamas (the pitch dark of night) to rajas (the shifting of darkness to light) to full-blown sattva (the risen sun) that is deeply healing to human consciousness.
The act of seeing a spiritual phenomenon through our human eyes, is called darshan. Through witnessing this cycle of change, from darkness to light, deep-seated inner wisdom can be evoked. This inner knowledge illuminates our entire being and reassures us frail humans that the light is the only truth, and darkness is but a passing phase. This is an important lesson to remember: light is the only truth.
Ayurveda thus teaches peace with the internal elements that regulate body and mind and a peaceful relationship with the external elements that comprise our environment. Ayurveda is indeed based on remembering, reconnecting, and celebrating the eternal harmony and sacred connections between living beings and Nature.
Waking Up Early Helps Us Sleep Better
It naturally follows that the earlier you wake up, the earlier you will want to go to bed. It’s not just the physical fatigue that sets in earlier when we start our days earlier. There is a subtler point. The sooner the human mind perceives light through the sense organ of the eye, the sooner it activates the “awake” cycle. Think of the times you switched on the bedside lamp for a drink of water or took a bathroom visit in the middle of the night. These actions can end up waking us up more than we had intended and lead to our tossing and turning throughout the rest of the night.
While all light can send us a signal to wake up, there is something about our exposure to the early morning sunlight that is special. By exposing our senses to sunlight right after sunrise, we can regulate our inner biological clock and provide it with the most natural time-to-awaken signal. Thus, the timing of our first exposure to light for the day is critical. Early morning light has a greater effect on good, timely sleep than does exposure to sunlight at any other time during the day. If we wake up late and greet the sunlight late, our time for sleep is also being pushed later. Hence, to counteract this forward glide of the circadian clock, it is best to expose the brain to sunlight during brahma muhurta.
And while any source of light can have its effect on us, all light sources are not the same. The ancient Veda recognizes light from the original source, which is the sun. All other light sources, even special light boxes or high-tech lightbulbs that simulate the sun, are functioning on borrowed light. These types of light may activate rajas, but they cannot impart the sattva of the rising sun, which we require in order to be happy and productive for the rest of the day and to get a timely, balanced sleep the following night.
Ayurveda’s sun-powered lifestyle is a twenty-four-hour cycle of living. When we wake up at the right time, sleep follows at the right time. From this perspective, the best cure for insomnia is waking up at brahma muhurta.
When Early Sunlight Is Not Always Possible
The Earth’s angle and rotation around the sun create dramatic variation in sunrise and sunset patterns. At our planet’s poles, the sun rises and sets only once each year. In surrounding areas, short distances below the poles, there are extended periods of phenomena such as the midnight sun (sun shining at night), white nights (twilight during night), and polar nights (sun below the horizon, even in the daytime).
What should you do if you live in such a location? Can you follow an Ayurvedic lifestyle? Yes, but to a limited extent. If you’re in Alaska over the winter, when the sun rises at 3:00 p.m., you should spend an hour and a half before sunrise watching the sun come up. This will lessen the effect of the late sunrise; it will not counteract it.
The Ayurvedic concept of desha pertains to the impact of our geographical location on our health. Understand that not every location on Earth is an equally healthy environment. From the standpoint of Ayurveda, the area at or near Earth’s poles is not a natural environment for human beings. For most of the year, the weather is forbidding. We humans have employed technology to triumph over Nature, rendering these places habitable, yet it remains to be seen who has triumphed over whom.
Those who live in areas where the sun does not set often report having sleep difficulties, raging insomnia to hypomania with persistent elevated or irritable moods. In Ayurvedic terms, this is all due to an excess of rajas. In places where the sun does not rise, inhabitants are often plagued by deep gloom and depression, due to the buildup of excessive tamas. If I were to travel to an area with dark days, I would take along my ghee lamp, and several times a day I would gaze at its bright flame for stretches of five minutes. I would also chant Vedic mantras to ignite some much-needed sattva. Although Ayurveda can offer some relief to people living in such conditions, it cannot fix a condition that is not, in and of itself, ideal for human habitation.
How to Wake Up at Brahma Muhurta
Before closing your eyes for the night, make a firm decision to wake up at a chosen time the next morning. In Sanskrit, there is a word for a decision that you make with your highest Self; it is called a sankalpa. Each sankalpa you make carries its own spiritual power, or shakti, and each invokes sattva. Every time you keep your sankalpa, you generate more spiritual power, and that helps you maintain the practice.
Not everyone has the ability to automatically awaken at a determined time. It’s a good idea to set an alarm to make sure you don’t sleep beyond dawn. Make sure, however, that your alarm isn’t so shrill or jarring that it jerks you abruptly out of sleep. When the alarm sounds, do not press the snooze button and let yourself doze off again as this simply reinforces procrastination (tamas). Once you hear the alarm, this is your cue to wake up and get up. You must battle with the inner enemy of laziness. Plan to not entertain second thoughts. Wake up simply by waking up. Make your actions swift to overcome any weakness that arises in your mind.
The vibration of inertia (tamas) cocoons our consciousness for several hours. It casts a spell over our minds and holds us paralyzed with dreams fueled by the memories and desires of the subconscious. To take full advantage of the restfulness of sleep, upon awakening you can quietly watch your breath. Become aware of your softly rising and falling chest. Once your attention has become mindfully established on your breath — it will take only a few seconds — then you are ready to take more energetic action. Employ your breath to activate movement. Swiftly move aside any covers and simply stand up. Once you are awake, if it’s needed, switch on a bedside lamp. Do not continue lying in bed once you’ve awakened. It’s too easy to fall back into sleep. Now is a time for action. During the colder months, keep some warm clothes and slippers next to your bed so that feeling chilled doesn’t give you an excuse to get back into bed.
In this way, slowly and steadily, you can circumvent your own mind by teaching it a new wake-up routine. In this pause between the complete inertia of sleep (tamas) and the total activation of an awakened state (rajas), you can begin to awaken with poise and mastery of the moment through embracing the illumined quality of your mind — sattva.
By following the lifestyle practices that assist sleep (provided in chapter 7), your sleep will become predictable as well as deeply nourishing. This, in turn, will ensure that you will be able to wake up fresh and rejuvenated at brahma muhurta.
Auspicious Encounters upon Awakening
Soon after waking and rising from your bed, deliberately look at something auspicious or pleasing to the senses. This could be fresh flowers, a mirror, an image of something sacred to you, or a lit ghee or oil lamp. If you have access to an open-mouthed urn of ghee, one traditional suggestion is that you simply glance at the yellow mass of ghee, which will serve as a mirror to look at your own Self as a temple of divinity.3
My mother loved to grow a variety of jasmine flowers in pots on the terrace of our home in Ayodhya. Jasmine was her favorite flower because of its fragrant aroma. Every morning before I opened my eyes — it could have been hours or minutes; I never knew — my mother would place a bunch of freshly picked jasmine flowers at the altar of Hindu goddess Durga in the room where my sister, our little cousin, and I slept. Sometimes when I awoke and my eyes fell to the northeast corner of the room, I would look at the flowers placed at the tiny bedroom altar. There lay a splendid sight for me to absorb through my senses. To this day, when I smell jasmine, I am instantly transported back to my childhood home.
At our altar, the Durga deity was smiling. She looked like a heroine in her blazing red sari with its gold border and her dark, flowing tresses that fell below her knees. The goddess sat astride a lion, a symbol of her personal power — and a reminder to me of my own power. The fresh flowers that decorated the altar perfumed the entire room and blessed me on behalf of Mother Nature. Often, the image of my mother picking these flowers for my room would bring comfort to my heart. The lamp burning on the altar, which my mother lit while I was still asleep, would display a beautiful and unwavering flame, reminding me of everything beautiful and steady in my life.
On the other walls hung mirrors and depictions of gods and goddesses as well as my mother’s paintings of flowers and birds. On the southern wall hung the photos of my ancestors. I especially loved looking at Baba’s father, a Hindu saint himself, who had such a kind face. In his lifetime, Paramatman Sadhu Shanti Prakash (as Baba’s father was called) had undertaken great spiritual and socially uplifting projects and had started a spiritual movement in my hometown of Ayodhya. What a wonderful feeling it was to wake up to these walls, where every inch was shining with beautiful symbols of upliftment, symbols with auspicious meaning for me.
Whatever we see, smell, or hear when we first come out of sleep sets the tone for the rest of our day. Consider the difference between waking up in a mindfully arranged space that supports inner well-being versus waking up to see a room where the closet door is only halfway shut and clothes are strewn here and there — or worse, looking at the screen of your smartphone to get news of the latest accidents and atrocities.
If you were to think of your home as a temple, the temple of your being, how would you arrange your personal space? What gifts would you give yourself every morning? Think about visual and aromatic gifts and even auditory gifts like beautiful music to greet your ears as you wake up!
Start Your Day with Purification
As soon as you are up and your eyes have taken in something pleasant and auspicious, it’s time for elimination of your body’s wastes. Do not, for any reason, suppress the urge to evacuate your bowels, as this can lead to a number of health issues.
Once you have evacuated, drink eight handfuls of water, a ritual called usha-paana. In Sanskrit, one handful is called prasriti, which is a normal-sized adult hand. You can measure the eight handfuls into a glass, as the volume varies per person, but do not translate eight handfuls as eight glasses, as that, of course, would be far too much water to consume at one sitting.
Ayurveda sage Bhava Mishra notes that, aside from aiding digestion, drinking this amount of water at brahma muhurta helps balance all three doshas. This practice also reduces the incidence of hemorrhoids; edema; chronic fever; indigestion; skin diseases; pain in the ears, throat, head, and pelvic region; and diseases of the eye.4
In winter, drinking warm water is advised, so heat your water on the stove or electric kettle before drinking it, or heat water the night before and put it in a thermos so it’s waiting for you at brahma muhurta. In summer, room-temperature water is preferred. Refrigerated or ice-cold water is never advised in Ayurveda, under any weather condition. Ice water leads to a number of maladies, including digestive problems and skin conditions.
For added benefit during the summer, store water in a clay, copper, or silver pot overnight. Storing the water in this way is not mandatory, so don’t give up the entire practice because you do not have a special pot. Water consumed at this time is an elixir, regardless, so the pot is only offering a secondary benefit.
Ideally, you would brush your teeth before drinking the water. You can read more about dental hygiene in chapter 4.
Create Your Own Sacred Morning Flow
Waking up during brahma muhurta not only allows you to savor the sattvic sunrise, it also gives you time to perform valuable lifestyle practices before you go about your regular day. Ayurveda is comprised of countless practices that impact all dimensions of your being.
There are a variety of spiritual practices to follow upon waking up during brahma muhurta. There is no specific order in which these practices must be followed. You can choose the practice or practices that most appeal to you. To start, select one that is realistic to implement and that makes the most sense to you, one that will impact the particular dimension of your being that you wish to nurture.
What is vital is that in the first moments you are awake, you must not start thinking about your to-do list for the day. Your first thought should be to bless yourself. Let me first explain the reason behind such a blessing.
We are not merely biological entities of flesh and blood. Nor are we merely a psychological phenomenon, a randomly emerged cognizance of thoughts, ideas, fears, and doubts that remains mostly confused about its own purpose and finally succumbs to death.
According to the ancient Vedic tradition, each one of us is a spiritual entity with a body and mind that act as our instruments. We are eternal and infinitely powerful beings. We are connected with a universal spiritual source, both outside and within us, and it is important that each day we remember our divinity. We are advised to reach into our hearts every morning, and grab a handful of divine powers to recall the truth that we are not beggars of well-being, but royal beings infused with the spiritual power to be always abundant, knowledgeable, and healthy, and always in an authentic “inner power seat.”
The Ayurveda lifestyle prescription includes the chanting of mantras at every occasion. The Sanskrit word mantra comes from two root syllables: man, referring to the thinking mind, and tra, meaning “to protect.” A mantra protects us when we meditate on it. It is a specific grouping of sound vibrations that, when verbalized mindfully or when its meaning is meditated on silently, creates a sound-based frequency that protects the mind from its own conflicting emotions, desires, and thought vacillations. A unique concentration or single-mindedness is naturally manifested in the mind upon the chanting of a mantra or even, for that matter, upon just hearing one.
So a mantra is a sacred utterance that protects and frees our minds. Ayurveda encourages that we chant mantras even while conducting the simplest of everyday activities, such as while waking up, first putting our feet on the floor after a night’s sleep, taking a shower, and before partaking a meal.
What is the significance of such a practice? It is simply that we remember at all times that we are spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience in the body, that we are one with a higher spiritual presence that is not only all around us but also dwells within us. This spiritual truth goes beyond religion to touch our hearts, to spark our awareness of oneness, and to give us joy and enthusiasm for realizing our highest Self on a daily basis.
The Vedas, which are the spiritual and philosophical bedrock of Ayurvedic medicine, attest that the infinite and inexhaustible creative force has entered the creation and enlivens it with divine potential from within each form in the universe. Each of us can feel secure in this assurance that the divine truth exists within us. The Vedas tell us that each and every form, whether large or small, whether living or inanimate, is charged with the same divinity. This is why the supreme truth is sometimes known as antaryami, “the one who moves inside us.” This truth is our innermost divine Self.
So this is all a great reason for offering blessings to oneself. Throughout the rest of this chapter and elsewhere in the book, I share some of my most beloved mantras, the mantras I learned in my family’s home. The simplest of these mantras can be repeated by almost anyone.
Chanting Sanskrit mantras is a practice. In the beginning, you may have difficulty with it, especially with the obligations and distractions of modern life. With a little repetition, however, you will soon find that these mantras are emerging spontaneously in your heart and that invoking them transforms mundane life into something harmonious and sublime. Mantra vibrations can help you overcome any tendency toward repetitive thoughts and anxiety and can also help you become fully present to every moment of your day. Once you begin incorporating mantras, the most banal events will transform into self-affirming, self-honoring sacred rituals.
With the morning mantras, your intention and quality of consciousness — that is, whether you are connected with the meaning of what you are chanting — is more important than the diction itself. A perfect chant cannot replace a heartfelt, genuine sentiment. So do not hesitate to dive into these practices, even if the mantras are in a language that may not be familiar to you. Sanskrit is considered a divine language, and mantras are powerful utterances that deserve your wholehearted attention.
Daily Self-Affirmation
Ayurveda’s lifestyle begins each day with an ancient ritual of positive affirmation. In my own traditional school, Vedika Global, over the last ten years, incoming students have reported a leap in their consciousness within days of learning this ritual of self-affirmation. These students thank me for the gifts they have received through this prayer, but I offer thanks to my teacher, Baba, who showed me the way.
At any time of day, a positive affirmation will raise our mental energy. When such a ritual is done during brahma muhurta, however, the rising sattva in the macrocosm mirrors its golden reflection in our own minds and tunnels a great pathway to the source of our very beings, connecting us to our divine potential.
Through this morning ritual, Baba taught me how to access my inner divinity and its limitless powers. “Yes, little Shunya,” Baba said to me, “the divine exists in the depths of your own being. Evoke it daily from the depths of your being through this ritual, and once connected with your inner divinity, recognize the same divinity in the Self of every being you encounter. Your day will be lit up with the light of a thousand suns by this recognition. Move through the living present with this constant divine awareness guiding you.”
As I would chant the special mantra that accompanies this ritual, a little shiver would go up and down my spine. I was remembering, through this prayer, that the divine powers of the universe, known as Lakshmi, Saraswati, and Durga (the goddesses of abundance, wisdom, and personal power), dwell in my own being, literally accessible in the palms of my own hands.
How to Perform the Ritual of Positive Affirmation
Bring your hands together and look at the palms with gentle focus. As you perform this action, repeat aloud or silently in your mind the following traditional Vedic mantra. Gaze first at your fingertips, contemplating that these are the divine abode of cosmic abundance. Then look at the hollow of your palms and acknowledge these as the abode of cosmic knowledge. Finally, pay attention to your wrists, acknowledging these as abodes of personal power emanating forth from your own heart.
TABLE 11 Mantra for Daily Self-Affirmation
Simple meaning: In the morning, I observe that at the tips of my fingers resides Goddess Lakshmi, in my palms resides Goddess Saraswati, and in my wrists is Goddess Gouri, or Durga.5
Deeper meaning: On my fingertips, dwells the divinity of abundance. With her blessings, I can create all forms of personal wealth for myself with ease. In the hollow of my palms dwells the divinity of knowledge and wisdom. I am literally holding all the knowledge I will ever need to be successful, balanced, and spiritually aligned with the highest truth. It all sits right here, in the hollow of my own palms. And the divinity of personal power, health, courage, and noble deeds dwells in the root of my hands (wrists). She is blessing me with infinite personal power. Through this chant, I am taking into account all my divine powers upon arising so that the rest of my day will be blessed and productive.
Thank Mother Earth
Ayurveda’s oral tradition recommends chanting a hymn of gratitude to Mother Earth as soon as you first place your feet on the floor or shortly afterward. You can also chant this hymn at any time of the day, whenever you wish to connect with Earth as your cosmic parent. Through this ritual, you will be able to offer your love and respect to our living and breathing planet.
Ayurveda conceives a dynamic and animated model of our universe, where all objects, beings, events, phenomena, and experiences are interconnected and vitally linked to each other. In such a mutually interactive state of affairs, human will and human gratitude impact not only the immediate state of mind, but also the condition of the environment, and actually extend to influence the entire cosmos.
Most of us stumble out of bed, reach for our laptops or handheld devices, and make our way to the coffee machine with no consciousness of the Earth and the environment. By chanting this mantra the moment our toes first touch the floor, a unique intimacy of the Self with the universe begins to manifest. You are acknowledging the union of the Self with the universe. This sense of oneness ends the abuse and misuse that is possible from a perception of separation. The limited ego with its desire to exploit natural resources for its own selfish ends is submerged in the ocean of unity consciousness that makes us take care of a random rock from the river in the same way we would take care of our own bodies.
When this mantra becomes part of our daily lifestyle, we have the potential of becoming deeply respectful beings, dwelling in profound harmony with all of Earth and her creatures. This is true health, the universal health espoused by the sages of Ayurveda.
TABLE 12 Mantra of Gratitude to Mother Earth
Simple meaning: (O Mother Earth) who has an ocean as her garment and mountains as her breasts, please pardon me for touching you with my feet.
Deeper meaning: Salutations to the Earth who is the fullness of Goddess Lakshmi, the deity of abundance, creativity, and fertility. As I rise to begin this day, please forgive me for touching you with the base of my feet. May I imbibe from you your humility and generosity.
I heard this mantra repeatedly from the time I was a baby in my mother’s lap. She would say it as she got up from her bed holding me. And I was uttering the mantra as a toddler in my baby voice. I loved the morning ritual of talking to Mother Earth and how she would respond by sending back some earthy blessings through my feet, reaching all the way up to the crown of my head. When I asked Baba about this, he did not reply, but the sparkle in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. I hope that you, too, will consider incorporating a morning practice that connects you with Mother Earth and, through her, to this entire magical, generous, and ever-abundant universe.
The Gayatri Mantra — Sun Worship
The Gayatri mantra is known as the mother of all mantras and emerges from India from the Rig-Veda, the world’s oldest body of spiritual knowledge.6 The Gayatri mantra is actually known as the Savitri Mantra in the Rig-Veda and in Ayurvedic texts. It is typically chanted during brahma muhurta all over India today, especially on the banks of holy rivers. Baba and I would chant it together every morning.
The Gayatri mantra directly connects us to the power of the sun, which is sacred to nearly all indigenous peoples. In the Vedic tradition, the sun is a perceptible divine manifestation of celestial light, representing the infinite power, splendor, and magnitude of the supreme truth. Thus, Gayatri mantra connects us to the concealed spiritual reality that lies beyond the physical sun and is immanent in it yet transcendent to it.
The Gayatri mantra thus reveals to us the spiritual truth of our own interconnected existence, and the common spiritual presence that throbs and pulsates through everything and every heart, as its innermost underlying truth. In short, through the chanting of Gayatri mantra, our individual minds are immediately connected with the great universal truth.
By meditatively contemplating continuously on the rising sun through the chanting of the Gayatri mantra, we see revealed all the secrets of the Ultimate Reality that lie beyond human senses and human reasoning. And chanting it on a day-to-day basis purifies our thinking and emotions and plants seeds of greatness, courage, and nobility in our consciousness.
TABLE 13 Gayatri Mantra to Connect to the Sun
Simple meaning: We meditate on that sacred, effulgent Sun God that activates all our intellects.
Deeper meaning: We meditate on the spiritual effulgence of that absolute, supreme Ultimate Reality, the source or projector of the three phenomenal experiential planes of existence: the gross, the subtle, and the causal, while it itself remains unchanged. May that limitless, nameless, formless supreme truth (worshipped through the manifest Sun God) guide our intelligence so that we, too, realize the state of supreme truth.
My own life has been blessed with the Gayatri mantra from childhood. Every brahma muhurta (except when it was raining), I would walk to River Sarayu holding Baba’s hand firmly. Five warmhearted street dogs named Bhura, Kalu, Lali, Munna, and Chottu would always accompany us as we walked in total silence. We must have looked like a formal procession.
I remember being intently focused on each step, treading swiftly yet softly. This was because Baba told me that all the grass on our path was actually a colony of people like us, just in different bodysuits. I would focus on being extra gentle so as not to disturb the “grass people.”
For a short part of our journey, Baba and I traveled on a tanga, a small horse-driven carriage that is still used in some smaller towns in India today. We rode the tanga to the ghat (riverbank), with the procession of dog friends trailing excitedly behind us and our sweet horse galloping along like a happy breeze, as if in a hurry to greet the sun himself.
Upon arriving at the river, when I got down from the tanga, I would slow my steps in sheer admiration. River Sarayu was always alive. Her immenseness and grandness never ceased to captivate me.
Baba would enter the river, wading in much farther than I. He would cup his hands to hold water and raise them to the east. He would then chant our lineage mantra, the Gayatri mantra.
I always heard the river chanting the mantra back; only the river’s voice was booming and thunderous, while Baba’s voice was quiet and filled with reverence. I, too, would raise my own little cupped palms, filled with water, look toward the eastern sky, as Baba had taught me to do, and chant.
Before I could even speak, Baba taught me the Gayatri mantra by chanting it to me repeatedly. I knew the mantra in my mind even before I could utter the sounds. Though I lived inside a toddler’s body then, he said I was still as wise as the whole universe, as that is the true nature of the Self.
On many mornings, as I chanted the Gayatri mantra by River Sarayu, I noticed how the sky seemed to stoop in closer to hear me, as did the Earth and wind. I felt so blessed to be awake at this hour. I knew that God knew little Shunya was wide awake.
Do this beautiful spiritual ritual outside on days when weather permits. Each time you perform it, you will be filled with spiritual power. If you live near a body of water, perform the ritual beside the water, or even better, wade into the water.
1. Fill a clay or copper cup with water. Be sure to set aside a cup just for your sun worship ritual. Do not use it for eating or drinking.
2. Go outside and face east, the direction of the rising sun.
3. Raise your hands above your head and, with both hands holding the cup, slowly and reverently pour water downward to the Earth below.
4. Keep your gaze turned upward toward the open sky, where the sun is about to rise.
5. As you pour water from the vessel, you can, if you wish, chant the Gayatri mantra, or you can simply chant OM throughout.
You can shower or bathe either before the spiritual ritual or afterward. In India, when this ritual is performed immersed in a body of water, such as in the Ganges River, that takes care of bathing. Many people, however, also choose to return home and take a full shower. For tips on Ayurvedic bathing and a special pre-bath massage ritual, see chapter 5.
Other Mindfulness Practices for Brahma Muhurta
Once you have recited mantras, you can undertake asanas (yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises). The order in which you perform these is up to you, but ideally, poses are done first, followed by pranayama, and lastly meditation. Whatever the order, however, these must be performed on an empty stomach, preferably before breakfast.
Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation)
The yoga postures I most heartily recommend is an asana series known as the sun salutation (surya namaskar), with accompanying chants. These practices have been passed down through many generations and have been finely tuned to be most effective during brahma muhurta. The sun salutation benefits all doshas.
The sun salutation is a spiritual ritual and not simply a set of physical exercises. Though it is rarely taught in this way in modern hatha yoga classes, I feel it is important that you learn and understand the meaning of the twelve chants that accompany the twelve postures in sun salutation. Each of these twelve chants connects you ever more deeply with the power of the cosmos that radiates through the sun. As you synchronize your breath perfectly with each chant and posture, your entire being will come alive with energy and spiritual joy.
Pranayama (Breathing Practices)
In the Ayurvedic tradition, prana is the life-sustaining force that pervades all living organisms. This life force flows through the body along a series of channels known as nadis. As the prana quantity and quality ebbs and flows, it impacts the general health and the quality of the mind and consciousness. In fact, prana is critical to life itself. We are alive only as long as prana continues working inside us. The moment the prana stops working, we die. When our prana becomes unbalanced, we fall sick. This imbalance can be corrected through the conscious practice of an ancient process called pranayama, which — because prana is also defined as “breath” — means “prana expansion through deliberate breathing exercise.”
One spring morning many years ago, when the weather in Ayodhya was particularly sweet, and the air was filled with smells of springtime and sounds of the river, Baba taught me pranayama by the banks of the river.
“Breathe in deeply, all the way to your belly,” Baba instructed. “Prana is divine, invisible healing energy that is always around us. But, at special times of the day, like at brahma muhurta, you can breathe it in effortlessly. As prana enters your body, it makes you healthy, and you will feel especially happy for no reason.”
That day, I understood that at brahma muhurta, the universe is charged with sattva as well as prana. At that divine time of day, the universe generously gives prana away to anyone who cares to be awake during this cosmic event and breathes it in deeply and mindfully. This time of the morning is like a prana buffet. The question is: Are you up and ready to enjoy it?
As a little girl, I loved imagining and experimenting with closing my eyes and breathing in all this divine prana into my entire being. I liked how my body felt light and energized from head to toe. I liked how, when I exhaled, my breath would make the flowers bloom in the garden and my mother look less tired with her daily chores. I felt I was having a supernatural effect on my immediate environment, and I sent people I loved all this prana I had inside me. Baba said, “Why not? So be it.”
It is important to craft a daily discipline of pranayama. One type of pranayama that has an especially wonderful and transformative impact on us during brahma muhurta is humming bee breathing, which I describe below. Other types of breathing exercises — and there are many — along with some dos and don’ts for creating a stable pranayama practice, are discussed in other chapters. I hope you will be inspired to dedicate some time for your pranayama practice right after waking up at brahma muhurta.
Humming Bee Breathing
The timeless practice known as brahmari pranayama is what, for obvious reasons, I call humming bee breathing. There are numerous benefits of this pranayama, especially when it is done in brahma muhurta. Instantaneously, the rajas and tamas in your mind will be replaced by sattva. Any anxiety will end. All your senses will become rested and rejuvenated. As for the rest of the benefits, simply do it and know for yourself.
To do this, simply sit in a comfortable posture or on a meditation cushion with your spine softly erect. You can also sit on a chair with legs uncrossed. The hands can be in jnana mudra to begin, as shown in the box, “Jnana Mudra (Wisdom Seal).”
Close the eyes and relax the whole body for a minute or so by breathing normally. Now raise both arms and bring them toward your ears. With the index or middle finger of each hand, plug your ears gently. If you wish, you could press the flaps of your ears over the opening without inserting the fingers. Now, bring your attention to the midpoint between your eyebrows. This is the place of the ajna chakra. Breathe in deeply, inhaling through the nose. Then breathe out through the nose, making a humming sound like the buzzing of a bee (OMMMMMMMM). Exhale slowly, smoothly, and in a controlled manner while making this deep, steady humming sound. There is no requirement to raise your pitch. This completes one round. The inhalation and exhalation should be smooth and controlled.
Jnana Mudra (Wisdom Seal)
The Sanskrit word mudra means “seal”; a mudra is a means in hatha yoga to hold in prana so that it doesn’t leak out. The jnana (wisdom) mudra is associated with meditation.
To do it, touch the tip of the forefinger to the tip of the thumb so that the finger and thumb form a complete circle. Continue in this position for the full duration of your meditation. This hand gesture increases inner focus and calms the mind.
Continue, performing at least three rounds of breath — or longer, if you wish.
After a while, you may notice that not only your skull but your entire body is reverberating with the humming sound. In reality, cosmic energy, or prana, is flowing through your entire being. The body becomes like a live wire conducting prana electricity. There are no contraindications. The only side effect is health and happiness!
Surya Dhyanam (Sun Meditation)
One form of meditation Baba taught me was called surya dhyanam, or “sun meditation.” This is an original spiritual practice within my lineage. It’s very simple and will fill you with delight. To perform it, sit in a place where you can be alone, with a view of the eastern sky. If you do not have a direct view, sit facing that direction in any quiet spot inside your house. Sit upright, do not slouch, and remind yourself that you are sitting down consciously to conduct a spiritual ritual.
With your eyes closed, observe your breath in its natural state for a few moments. As you slowly inhale, imagine the sun sending its first rays into your being through your breath. Then, exhale slowly. Do not rush. Repeat until your entire body feels as though it’s glowing like the sun and you are humming with golden, sattvic energy.
With your eyes still closed, do a scan of your body, as if you were observing your body from the inside. Observe what you’re feeling in your body without trying to make any changes in it. Start at your toes and work your way up the entire body to the scalp, noticing whatever is going on in your body. Be aware of places you’re tight, loose, or neutral. Send each part of your body light and radiance. Let each part light up from inside, as you turn your attention to it. Soon your entire being will be glowing with the light of the sun, from inside.
Thoughts may arise. Notice these thoughts. Know that you are the pure, neutral subject observing the thoughts in your mind. You are not questioning, editing, criticizing, or controlling your thinking. You are observing your thoughts without judgment. Continue this as long as you can. As the thoughts become quiet, turn the focus of your attention inward and begin observing the “observer,” the one who is watching, the true Self. Your Self is the witness that shines like the sun in your heart.
After a while, you will encounter a silence. This is not a negative silence. It’s not what is left in the absence of physical speech. It is a positive silence because it is the womb of all speech. In this silence, there is nothing missing. It is a state of fullness. After dwelling in this supreme solitude for some time, you will naturally emerge. Your ears will begin to pick up sounds from the world around you. The thoughts in your mind will no longer seem to be miles away. Allow yourself to slowly emerge from deeper layers of your being that lie beyond your mind, coming back to the superficial mind and its everyday consciousness. When you are ready, open your eyes and slowly integrate back into the world. Each time you meditate, keep it simple, heartfelt, and truly inspirational!
Atmabodha Meditation: My Lineage Practice
There is another form of meditation I want to impart here, the Atmabodha dhyanam that is one of the primary practices of my parampara (lineage). The word Atmabodha means “awakening to the truth of our spiritual nature,” also known as “self-realization” in English.
When I was a child, Baba and I often sat by the bank of River Sarayu to meditate. Baba told me that meditation is simply being one with our own highest Self, without paying heed to anything else.
Filled with anticipation, I would leap into Baba’s lap, unmindful of his posture of contemplation on the riverbank. Baba would immediately make room for my little body and snuggle me into his warm blanket so I could sit for meditation with him.
The stillness of Baba’s body, the silent music of his breath, and the peacefulness of his being would then envelop me with a different kind of blanket. Soon, all I could hear was the river.
Baba’s face, body, skin (which was translucent, since it was always exuding so much inner light), slim wrists (though he could carry such heavy weight), and long, bony, slender fingers (which became extremely gentle when he patted the head of a suffering person) were all familiar to me. Baba’s blanket was also something I had nuzzled into, by now, at least a thousand times since birth.
Yet, within the familiarity of Baba’s body and blanket was now an unfamiliar Baba, a deeply special and almost changed Baba. This was a Baba who did not seem to hear, speak, touch, smell, or see, yet seemed to be fully present and apparently one and the same with me, River Sarayu, the river rocks, all the big and small river creatures, the sweetly blowing wind, and the spreading rays of the sun. Everything and everyone meditated alongside Baba, or so it felt to my seven-year-old self.
These meditation moments were my first-ever lessons in sweetly dwelling with the Self, in what Baba called Atmabodha dhyanam, which means “meditation (dhyanam) to know (bodha) one’s own higher Self (Atman).”
I have never resonated with an intellectual approach to meditation, one that requires me to explain what happens in the brain and neural circuits. My way of teaching meditation is to lead you down a path from the heart. Meditation is simple, and I feel that we should keep it simple. Jargon can only complicate the experience of meditation, which is essentially being in touch with your true nature, your natural state of being.
You can enter into the state of meditation any time you have a few moments to be with your own Self. As a matter of common sense, you won’t want to meditate while you’re driving a car or conducting — or even just attending — a business meeting. But you certainly can meditate after parking your car or once the meeting has ended. You don’t need any of the rituals or paraphernalia associated with meditation. You don’t need incense and altars and special silk pillows for meditation. Nor do you need to be religious, vegetarian, or least of all, Hindu or Buddhist.
You need to be with yourself for a period of uninterrupted quality time. That is all. To begin, I think a five-minute slot is great, but even three minutes or just one minute will do. Gradually, you will find yourself wanting to meditate more often and longer. The people around you may think you are resting, contemplating, or being moody. You, however, will know that you are meditating. You have dropped in — inside — to say hi to your own abidingly beautiful, blissful, and peaceful Self.
Don’t get me wrong. You can have the trappings. If you have a meditation altar or a meditation room or a meditation garden in your backyard, that is wonderful. But don’t worry if you don’t. Any clean corner of your home or room will do. Welcome to the bare bones meditation tradition I grew up with and that I now teach!
As a child, I meditated all the time and everywhere: atop trees, inside lotus ponds (where we plucked lotus for Mother), beside rushing rivers, on my bed (before sleeping and upon awakening). When I was ten, I even meditated next to my mother’s body as it lay cold and inert because her Self had that day accomplished the final act of meditation and merged with the universal Self.
To begin meditation, simply ensure that you are sitting comfortably, either on a cushion or a chair. You may close your eyes so you are not distracted. Then take a few moments to relax your body and mind. Make sure that you are sitting comfortably, with your spine gently erect. Rest your hands loosely in your lap and fold your fingers in jnana mudra, wisdom seal. Or simply place them gently on top of each other with the palms facing upward.
Now breathe normally and allow yourself to relax. You will know that you are relaxed when you begin to lose awareness of your body. Your body will not be rigid nor your muscles tight. Everything will begin to feel soft.
I define meditation as “awakening to the truth of our spiritual nature.” I remember my Baba telling me that by meditating, I am making an appointment to meet my own spiritual Self. I remember this when I sit to meditate.
I also remember certain affirmations. Here are some to help you embrace meditation. Read through the words I suggest below a couple of times. Then allow them to become thoughts and allow these thoughts to lead you into a deep inner silence.
I am opening a door to the center of my being.
Deep inside my being dwells a silent presence,
My true Self
I acknowledge this presence as my divine Self
I AM
Stillness, Peace, Tranquility.
I AM
Limitless Existence, Infinite Knowledge,
Unbounded Bliss.
These meditation-initiating thoughts will enable you to rest in your witness consciousness mode.
Words can help a great deal to take us to the state beyond words. In meditation, we find that our thoughts may come and go, but we are at peace because we are witnessing those thoughts from a distance; we not participating with our thoughts; we are not identifying with them.
Atmabodha Meditation is based on Vedanta, the ancient science of Self. The philosophy is founded on the premise that you are not your day-to-day personality, but merely its witness, its observer. Whatever you can observe — your breath, your body, and your mind and its thoughts, ideas, beliefs, memories, opinions — you are not that. There is a difference between the observer and what is observed.
“May it be known, Shunya,” said Baba, “you are the source of consciousness, not the objects illumined in consciousness. You are the witness alone. Know it that you are Sakshi Chaitanyam; Sakshi is the nonjudging, nonparticipating, unattached witness, and Chaitanyam refers to the Self, which is pure consciousness. Pure awareness is the invisible background in which everything arises. Like a cloudless sky, it has no form. It is eternal space; it is infinite stillness; it is the essence of being. Objects appear, exist, and disappear in awareness, yet this awareness, the Self, remains unchanged. Know you are not the breath, the mind, the body identified in a personal story of planet, race, gender, age, class, religion, family, profession, sorrows, and joy. All this, your personality with all its labels, dissolves in the presence of the sheer awareness of the divine Self that you are.
“Set your personality aside, Shunya, and sit in your own divine awareness.”
I heard this great call from master to disciple, and I followed it. Again and again I dwelled in my own divine awareness, until the great, indescribable, absolute spiritual presence beyond conceptions and perceptions revealed itself to me. “You are that divine presence, which eyes cannot see and which words cannot describe,” Baba said to me. “You are pure spirit, none other.”
“Yes, I am that, the indescribable Self,” I said to him quietly and without an iota of doubt.
If you wish, try these lines of thought during meditation:
This body, I witness; therefore, this body, I am not. I am the witness alone.
Ask yourself: Am I the body? Spend some time observing this material container called body, in which your awareness appears to dwell. Observe your own body. The observer is always different from that which is observed.
This mind and its contents I witness; therefore, this mind, I am not. I am the witness alone.
Ask yourself: Am I the mind? Spend some moments observing your mind, watching the mental events — the feelings, thoughts, perceptions, memories, ideas, sorrow, pleasure, fear, anger, grief, excitement, and all such emotions. Are you the mind? The observer is always different from that which is observed. You witness the mind; therefore, the mind you are not. Your mind may be jumping around like a monkey. So let it jump around. With knowledge that you are not what you observe, you can view the monkey mind with dispassion. And then you can shift your attention. Becoming aware of the observer, you may note a whole different silent presence within, the infinite, indivisible, inexhaustible, spiritual Self. This encounter with the Self is known as Atmabodha (Self-knowing).
This is the true meditation from the sages, known as dhyanam, or attention to what is truth (spirit) and to not what appears like truth (mind). Imagine if we were trying to control a battery-run flashlight. We wonder to ourselves: Why is it flickering so much? Why is it coming on so strong? Why can’t it be this way or that? And we fidget with it. And then suddenly we become aware of a sun, with the light of million galaxies, shining right inside us. Does the silly flashlight and its peculiarities matter anymore? Treat the mind like a mere instrument or tool. Our true concern with meditation is whose instrument it is.
Until you are aware of the Self, a divine presence within, it is only an academic concept, and you mostly experience darkness, fear, anger, and restlessness in your inner world. And then, with the help of knowledge such as what I am providing through the pages of this book, you begin to — first intellectually and then emotionally and then, finally, with full conviction and experience — identify with your true Self; you will experience a natural resolution in all your sufferings — of body and mind. You would have experienced God because that is what you are.
Baba told me that in reality there is no sin, no hell to fear, and no heaven to yearn for. Rather, each moment here on Earth is an opportunity to use our free will and perhaps make a momentous discovery of inner divinity, the Self. As previously mentioned, the discovery of the inner unbounded, all-powerful Self is known as self-realization in English and Atmabodha in the sage tradition. This Sanskrit word literally refers to that moment in which our fragile ego self-encounters our indestructible, unlimited, all-powerful Self within, from beyond the mind. The human who was seeking and searching for God here and there comes home to the God dwelling within. This is a momentous experience.
The transcendent practice of Atmabodha Meditation will have a beneficial impact on your mind and body. Anyone who practices meditation in this way will find that this single lifestyle choice is the greatest possible propeller of positive change. It can fill you with joy and renewed abilities.
Throughout this chapter, I have been asking you to be physically present to witness the actual phenomena of the rising sun. This will change your consciousness. Why does the mere viewing of gigantic ball of fire do that? Technically speaking, the sun is nothing more than a gaseous mass aflame in the sky. But here we are stepping away from the rational world, with its measurable parameters, into the realm of spirit, where we may witness the emergence of an inner sun gifting us inner radiance and inner illumination.
So I implore you to entertain the idea of a pure, splendid, eternally healthy Self present within you, in spite of any health challenges you may have, in spite of any problems you may experience with your mind and your moods. This Self is your friend, and if you are willing to connect with it, your guide. You can access the Self through meditation — not after long years of practice, but immediately, right now, within minutes! Once you have connected with the Self, you will benefit all the more from Ayurveda lifestyle wisdom. This is, in fact, the way I teach: through my soul, from a script of fierce spiritual living, ignited with vivid moments of personal transformation.
As you begin to meditate, you may simply spend a moment with yourself. Do that. You may feel directed to place a hand on your heart. That may be enough. Do not be surprised if what comes up initially does not feel like peace or enlightenment but rather a sadness or an awareness of ways you betray your own Self by accepting feelings of shame, guilt, or powerlessness. Accept this insight. It too is a gift to you from the Self.
As you continue to meditate, the self-delusions and games your mind can play on you will lie exposed every morning. But when you keep returning to the center of your being, these difficult reality checks will be replaced by knowledge, insight, wisdom, and unconditional love. Claim it. This is yours. It’s who you truly are, your own joyful Self.
If I had not touched my own authentic Self through awakening early and meditating daily, my life as I know today, as a source of inspiration and comfort to many, and this book could not have manifested. I thank my Self and rest, always, in its infinite grace. And I invite you to claim this same freedom by awakening in brahma muhurta and then evoking the Self through my teachings on Atmabodha Meditation. Let me reassure you. The Self is true — it is truth — and it does not require much digging around for you to encounter it. Look for it in the ways I suggest, and you will meet it face-to-face — Atmabodha.
My Own Little Rebellion
My family has been following the tenets of Ayurveda lifestyle every day for the last several hundred years. As a child, I would happily follow along with the routines my elders set. As a preteen and teenager, however, coming into my own sense of life, I sometimes resisted the routine of waking up early, especially on school holidays. In my adolescence, I challenged many things I had taken for granted as a child. My elders dissolved this youthful angst quite efficiently, not by lecturing or forcing me into compliance, but by continuing to be cheerful role models.
During my childhood, my mother always woke up very early. As she went about her morning chores, she would croon songs and ancient verses, collectively known in India as hitopadesha. These songs, sung in my mother’s sweet voice, were brimming with life wisdom and were subtly planting seeds in me to always wake up early, to not give in to the temptations of laziness and self-indulgence.
Some days in my teens, I languished in bed well past 7:00 a.m., my body curled up in defiance, my eyes tightly shut. My conscience, meanwhile, was fully awake, and I now feel was watching me with dry amusement, asking, “Are we really going to sleep in? Why are we doing this? It is becoming tedious already!” I wondered if my beloved grandfather, Baba, was waiting for me at the banks of River Sarayu, peacefully performing sacred rituals, meditating, and meeting with his devotees.
As I lay in bed, my family was awake, my beloved animals were moving about, and I could hear Baba’s students (shishyas) chanting mantras. For several years at a time, my grandfather’s students lived at our home to study and apprentice with him. In the early mornings, they were always chanting a section of the Rig-Veda or some Upanishad that was to be committed to memory.
These chants reverberated throughout my home, setting into motion energizing vibrations. The mantras invigorated my tamas and soothed my rajas, clearing the way for my natural sattva. On the days when I heard Baba leading a new chant, his powerful, peaceful voice would enter my ears and pierce my heart. When such chanting as this was happening, how could I stay in bed with my eyes shut?
Baba never said a word to me on the subject of my sleeping in. Perhaps he understood that it was merely a phase I needed to go through in order to fully own this knowledge. Fortunately, Baba and my higher Self were both wiser than my noncompliant teenage mind.
Hence, I soon cast off the desire to prove some trivial point by sleeping late and returned to those blessed early morning practices.
Forty years later, as I write these words from my home in California, the memory of my adolescent rebellion brings a smile to my face and mist to my eyes. Now I wake up gently, with ease, and at the right time; I have no distress, confusion, or questions in my mind about the importance of rising in the brahma muhurta. Sometimes, I feel that the golden-lit sky is gently crooning my mother’s morning songs. One of these translates roughly in this way:
Wake up, O Traveler,
Dawn has broken into the sky.
Where is the night that you still continue
to sleep?
The one who sleeps
Loses out on every type of wealth.
The one who is awake
is the one who receives the wealth
worth receiving.
In this song, it’s understood that we are the traveler, the ones who have gone through many lifetimes; the “sky” is the infinite space of our own minds, “night” is our illusions and lazy indulgences, and “wealth” includes not only material abundance but also good health and spiritual wisdom.
My mother’s morning wake-up song planted questions in my consciousness, and I, at the age of nine, took these questions to my grandfather.
In our community, Baba was an important person, sought after by hundreds of people every day for both spiritual guidance and Ayurvedic medicine. So I naturally felt he was the best person to ask about this so-called “wealth” that I would potentially stand to lose if I were to remain asleep each morning.
Baba looked at me very seriously and chanted a sentence in Sanskrit: sharira madhayam khalu dharma sadhanam. He then explained the phrase, saying that we inhabit only one body in each lifetime and that we must use this body not only to fulfill our desires but also to serve others. This God-given body is a divine instrument for each soul’s worldly and spiritual aspirations. For this reason, it is important for us to take care of the physical body with mindfulness and regard for natural laws.
By waking before sunrise, you take charge of your life. As the sun rises in the macrocosm, you will experience a sun of pure consciousness manifesting within your own being. This inner sun will fill you with power, and you will find yourself able to meet your material, relationship, social, and professional goals with abundant clarity, vitality, and joy. You may find that you have more and more energy for yourself, as well as for others, as you increasingly become a gift to this universe.
Ultimately, I honor the sages who have given us Ayurveda. True well-being dwells within each one of us, enfolded like a fresh bud, ready to awaken, awaiting the morning of wisdom and the magical rays of sweet sunlight. Allow this bud to open, petal by petal, and intoxicate you with the pure bliss of your own existence.
A good morning to you. A very good morning!
