Feeling sleepy while simran

[Raaj.Karega.Khalsa]

What I've experienced is that except from when I''m actually really tired, if I totally concentrate on meditation or the chant (simran/Waheguru Mantar) I find it extremely hard to sleep after that, let alone feeling sleepy during it.

Dear scooter, (now this is something I never expected myself to say in my life)

Why don't you try concentrating and getting your entire focus upon the sound of Waheguru mantar or on what different things you experience within your body? For eg. your breath, any stress etc in your arms and legs(...don't ignore it...address the issue), whatever you can 'visualise in the darkness (or not).

The whole point of it is to be aware.

If you start meditating or doing simran as a chore it won't be much fun and you will automatically get bored...and then get sleepy.

Try to inspire yourself by reading other peoples' experiences and saakhis and actually make yourself to want to look forward to it.

[Sat1176]

Try standing up and doing simran when you feel sleepy. I often have to do this because my legs and bums gets tired and ache. This results in attention being diverted to pain rather than the simran.

On the other hand if your mind becomes still and no thoughts are coming into your mind then its not uncommon to enter a sleep like state. Body will fall asleep but mind is awake. Only you will be able tell if your dozing off or the simran continues even though body is relaxed.

Guru ji says

anadhin sachee bhagath kar sachai chith laaee ||1||

Night and day, center your consciousness on true devotional worship of the True Lord. ||1||

It's an advanced avasta which I would love to experience.

[SunSingh]

try doing simran out loud and listening to it. do it loudly if you need to. if you are still too sleepy, open your eyes. the best way is if you are staring at a blank wall, so there are no distractions for your mind to focus on. if you get tired japping naam out loud, you may find that when you loudly jap the 'wahe' then 'guru' follows automatically. this way a person doesn't get tired as fast.

Also, I don't think it's healthy to eat supper at 9 pm. if a person has their main meal at 6 or 7 pm, than their sleep will be more restful. you can't have a restful sleep on a full stomach.

[simran345]

somethin odd is happenin to me, whenever i say i will do this n this... last wk i decided to get up at amritvela n do simran, after hearin a shabad on th radio which went somthin like amritvela utke waheguru japp, but thought how on earth me goin to get up, as i cant normally get up that time due to my health. so as normal went to sleep.. had a weird dream, went into a room there were 3 amritdharis doin simran, but were like goin all over th place, when i came outside there were two Singhs one I knew of, and other i didnt, then i couldnt find my shoes or phone, so walked bare foot. Dream carried on where i walked into a room which looked a a hospital, and my deceased grandmother was on th bed, and got up and kept sayin on purpose i didnt come to see her, so i told her sorry that i had lost my phone n shoes, so was late.

The strong impact of my grandma in th dream woke me up, and kind of freaked me out. as if she was in th house, went to th bathroom, and when i came back saw th time it was 2mins b4 th time i wanted to wake up. Totally forgot all about th simran i had planned, until i saw th time. then could not concentrate as she wouldnt get out of my mind, but as i put all my energy into th simran i began to feel better, and slept nicely afterwards.

But th next day got sooo ill, there was sudden downward surge in my health, which I not been so bad in long time. And last few days not been so gud, now tryin to get to where i was b4.. Im wonderin whether there is any link between all this, i noticed everytime I do paat or simran n feel im gettin on right track i get ill, and also whenever my grandma comes in my dream mostly i get ill th next day.

why does this happen, i get very emotional after that i try so hard, and then go back to square one. I dont believe in dreams, but why does this happen, especially when im doin so well with my paat side of things.

[SunSingh]

sometimes people have karma that comes up, acting as a hindrance. maybe you need to improve your karma, and to do that you need more and more simran and seva and sadhsangat. I have heard that seva clears the obstacles in the path of doing simran.

btw, the fact that obstacles come up does not mean that you have bad karma, its just means that you need to have the wisdom force yourself to MAKE time for simran everyday.

[humkire]

Many others have responded wonderfully giving good advice about sleepiness when simran.

I just wanted to add two more important points. Firstly try to ensure you are getting at least 7 to 8 hours sleep before you get up and shower to do simran, nitnem etc because 7 to 8 hours every night is the usual average of our body's need for sleep after which it feels refreshed. Sleeping late and then trying to pray at amrit vela usually brings on sleepiness to many people. In the long term, sleeping adequately will help you feel refreshed when you get up.

Secondly you mentioned that sitting at night at your computer does not make you sleepy. That is because you are engaging and interacting your mind with the things that excite and interest you on the computer. You need to use this same logic in simran. Simran is not about mechanical chanting, not really engaging your thoughts and mind. Simran is based on talking and praising God and Guru every time you say Waheguru. You have to do simran with the understanding that God and Guru's presence is in and around you, and you are praising God everytime you say Waheguru. Then, through simran you are now really engaging and interacting with God and thats when the magic starts to happen. When you do simran the right way, instead of getting sleepy your mind will enter heightened states of naam ras, naam rangan, gyan, chardikela, sehaj, and you will start experiencing stuff that is hard to describe here but will blow your mind.

Also the thing to really aim for is not just simran morning and evening, but swaas swaas simran... breathe in..wahe/wah,....breath out....guru. Hear this within yourself as you breathe in and out making it a habit. All through Guru's grace if you always beg for naam during ardas.

[simran345]

@Sunsingh paji, yes you are right about the obstacles, i know my karm are bad due to my health,and realise the only way to clear or reduce them is by seva simran and sadhsangat, but that is only fully achievable if one is in good health. like they say health is wealth, without it not much can be done. eg. started a simran session at gurdwara and thought this is just wat i need and will go bak week after. yep the obstacle came got ill then somethin came up at home so only got to go once. but now i know its there i can go when i am up to it. try to do as much simran without sitting in one place, like doing household chores.

these obstacles make me angry. guess its all part of the process. thankuji for makin me aware of that.

[N30S1NGH]

Great post humkire veer ji and sun singh veer ji. Swas Swas Simran is best way to get fully attuned to simran. Naturally, human breath is fully connected with our mind so by infusing vahi (either audibe or in mind-ajapa jap) when inhaling breath and guru(either audible or in mind-ajapa jap) when exhaling the breath and listening to the shabad with surti, really helps bring inner peace and helps one fully connected with naam abhyas..!!!

[SunSingh]

@Sunsingh paji, yes you are right about the obstacles, i know my karm are bad due to my health,and realise the only way to clear or reduce them is by seva simran and sadhsangat, but that is only fully achievable if one is in good health. like they say health is wealth, without it not much can be done. eg. started a simran session at gurdwara and thought this is just wat i need and will go bak week after. yep the obstacle came got ill then somethin came up at home so only got to go once. but now i know its there i can go when i am up to it. try to do as much simran without sitting in one place, like doing household chores.

these obstacles make me angry. guess its all part of the process. thankuji for makin me aware of that.

I understand how you feel. Some serious health problems knocked me off the bhagti path for a few years. but looking back, i realise that b/c of my discouragement, i often didn't go to sadhsangat and i often just lazed about. i could have been much further ahead than i am now and i truly regret all my wasted time. even some slowed progress is better than much slowed progress.

if you can't make it to the simran session, there is always kirtan and katha etc. just sit listen, and do simran there if you like. btw, i found having a recording of gurmantr jaap playing in the house attunes the mind right when i walk in the door. i also like carrying around a simranee (tiny mala that fits just around the finger) b/c it really helps with focus.

also, poor health doesn't always = bad karam. some janams we are 'wrapping up' a lot of our karam so that's why if feels like we get hit left, right, and center with all sorts of things like bad health. we may be wrapping things up b/c the atma is close to its goal.

[simran345]

oh dear this wrapping up is exhausting me, its one thing after another. but i am so glad i found Sikhi, did not know nothin about it. and we are lucky we have media nowadays too, so much to learn. i like listen to shabads more than anything, maybe the therapy side of it attracts me.

good idea of th recording, was thinkin about th mala bit for a while.

i always thought poor health is karam only and that not all of it can be washed away as we have to bhog some sajaa for the bad karam.

Atma-goal? means doing good karm, and wat the gurus came on this earth to teach us, such as praising god?