Reasons for Sleeplessness
Date: 2020-08-15 Author: Vaijayantimala devi dasi Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!
The most common disorder these days is insomnia or sleeplessness. Major percentage of the population suffers from this and generally we can see that there is increase of anxiety, stress and insecure feelings everywhere. In Srimad Bhagavatam 3.9.10 Lord Brahma says
ahny āpṛtārta-karaṇā niśi niḥśayānā nānā-manoratha-dhiyā kṣaṇa-bhagna-nidrāḥ daivāhatārtha-racanā ṛṣayo ’pi deva yuṣmat-prasaṅga-vimukhā iha saṁsaranti
Such nondevotees engage their senses in very troublesome and extensive work, and they suffer insomnia at night because their intelligence constantly breaks their sleep with various mental speculations. They are frustrated in all their various plans by supernatural power. Even great sages, if they are against Your transcendental topics, must rotate in this material world.
Srila Prabhupada writes in the purport: “Factory" is another name for hell. At night, hellishly engaged persons take advantage of wine and women to satisfy their tired senses, but they are not even able to have sound sleep because their various mental speculative plans constantly interrupt their sleep. Because they suffer from insomnia sometimes they feel sleepy in the morning for lack of sufficient rest."
Our beloved Gurudev HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj very clearly explains this. Maharaj says, "We try to do so many things, and Kṛṣṇa just smashes us through the material laws.daivāhatārtha-racanā ṛṣayo ’pi deva ahny āpṛtārta-karaṇ ā niśi niḥśayānā (SB 3.9.10) ahny āpṛtārta-karaṇā day and night we are working very hard. ārta ahny āpṛtārta-karaṇ ā niśi niḥśayānā and at night we want to sleep. We try to sleep. But nānā-manoratha-dhiyā kṣaṇa-bhagna-nidrā . nānā-manoratha, in this six inches place, there are so many desires squeezed. We saw somebody having nice car, that manoratha comes in, we saw somebody having three shops, that come, we saw somebody flying away to America, that is here. So, nānā-manoratha-dhiyā, in our intelligence there are nānā-manoratha. So many things are there here in six by six inches. I think more than a million things are lying here. Except Krishna everything is here. “We don’t want Krishna, forget about it.” Then He also, you go to Him, He says, “Forget about it.” He also forgets, this is the end result. nānā-manoratha-dhiyā kṣaṇa-bhagna-nidrāḥ, and again we cannot sleep. Then our sleep is broken again and again.”
In the Udyoga parva of Mahabharata, we see that at the command of king Dhrtarashtra, in order to enquire the welfare of the Pandavas on behalf of the king, and to act in the interest of the family of Bharata, Sanjaya went to Upaplavya to meet the Pandavas. Later he came back to Dhrtarashtra with the message from the Pandavas and after conveying the welfare of the Pandavas, criticized the deeds of Dhrtarashtra. He said that in the whole world that it was only Dhrtarashtra who supported his sons in gambling and praised them. He could then witness the terrible consequences of that. He punished the trustworthy by uniting the untrustworthy. He then said that as he was exhausted, he would convey the message of Yudhishthira in front of everyone in the assembly the next day. Dhrtarashtra permitted him to go to his house.
After Sanjaya left, Dhrtarashtra called Vidura to his palace. He then shared with him what Sanjaya had informed. The king’s heart burned as he did not know what was in the mind of Dharmaraja. Agitated he was, he could not even sleep. He was not at peace and was very much disconcerted. So he requested Vidura to advise him what was good for him. This is all described in the upaparva called Prajagara parva. Prajagara means to keep awake without sleep. Shri Vidura then speaks as follows in Mahabharata 5.33.13 abhiyuktaṃ balavatā durbalaṃ hīnasādhanam hṛtasvaṃ kāminaṃ coram āviśanti prajāgarāḥ
Vidura said: Sleeplessness overtakes thief, a lustful person, him that has lost all his wealth, him that has failed to achieve success, and him also that is weak and has been attacked by a strong person.
He therefore described five basic reasons for insomnia and even in today’s science they are true. No new cause has been added in this list of stress induced insomnia. The situations are:
1. A thief 2. A lustful person 3. A person who has lost all his wealth 4. A person who has failed to achieve success 5. A person who is weak and has been attacked by a strong person.
Our Gurudev very nicely says thatContaminated “ intelligence means personified anxiety. Anxiety. And the whole world including us, we are just completely misled, mis-directed you know, regarding these things. The more and more contamination is there day after day. Nobody tries to purify it. Contamination, we increase and that’s why the anxiety never leaves us. And as soon as there is anxiety, there is a grip on our whole being. Our being gets diseased. Our body gets diseased. The anxiety has taken grip over this. Whatever we are doing here I don’t know, but at least to some extent we are out of anxiety. And because we are out of anxiety, our sleep is unbroken. Our behaviour is not that fanatic you know. We are not running after anything, or we are not doing anything.”
In Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7.31 Lord Brahma says
ahny āpṛtaṁ niśi śayānam atiśrameṇa lokaṁ vikuṇṭham upaneṣyati gokulaṁ sma
To the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, who were busy working during daytime and sleeping soundly at night because of their hard labor in the day, Lordṛṣṇ Ka awarded promotion to the highest planet in the spiritual sky.
Thus we see that the inhabitants of Vrindavana had a sound sleep and finally they were also promoted to the highest planet. Srila Prabhupada in his purport says: Here it is clearly mentioned thatthe inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were extensively busy in the hard labor of their day’s work, and due to the day’s hard labor they were engaged in sound sleep at night. So practically they had very little time to devote to meditation or to the other paraphernalia of spiritual activities. But factually they were engaged in the highest spiritual activities only. Everything done by them was spiritualized because everything was dovetailed in their relationship with Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The central point of activities was ṛṣṇ K a, and as such, the so-called activities in the material world were saturated with spiritual potency. That is the advantage of the way bhakti-yoga. One of should discharge one’s duty on Lord ṛṣṇ K a’s behalf, and all one’s actions will be saturated withṛṣṇ K a thought, the highest pattern of trance in spiritual realization.
We see that the living entities referred in both of the above verses of Srimad Bhagavatam, are engaged in hard labour through the day, but the difference is in the mental conditions. Whereas the minds of the inhabitants of Vrindavana are saturated with thoughts of Krishna, the mental space of the living entities like us, as referred in third canto are filled with plans to fulfill selfish desires. Thus it becomes very clear that physical efforts carried on in the mood of service to Krishna alone, can fill us with peace and tranquility.
Thank you very much Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev, Vaijayantimala devi dasi, Chennai.