Today Gurudeva talks about the best time to meditate. He says you should always meditate right before going to sleep, and if you wake up during the night you should meditate until you go back to sleep, and meditate when you wake up in the morning. The very best time for meditation is in the morning, before sunrise. Meditating in this way will control the instinctive mind.

Unedited Transcript:

Today at Kauai Aadheenam, March 21st.

First, we want to greet Nellaiappan in Chennai, and we want to welcome everybody to Cyberspace Ashram.

A question came up about meditation. "When is the best time to meditate?"

Well, the best time to meditate is before dawn, but there are several other times to meditate too. Just before you go to bed at night, read some scripture. Sit and meditate and lift your energies into the head before sleep. If you wake up during the night, sit and meditate for a few minutes, then go back to sleep in higher consciousness. Upon awakening in the morning, again sit up in bed and seek higher consciousness and visualize a wonderful day ahead. This is a standard practice of meditation that keeps life's karmas smoothed out in a most wonderful way.

Then of course, for longer meditations, before sunrise is the very best time. It is the time when earth is quiet. It is the time when the inner worlds connect with this world in a natural way and you can tune into higher consciousness. Of course, any other time is good too for meditation. It is good any time, 24 hours a day, but these are the best times.

It is very important to stay out of the lower realms of the mind, out of the bad dream areas of the mind. That is why this standard practice of meditation before you go to sleep. If you wake up during the night, meditate a few minutes, and meditate in the morning before you get out of bed. Then you will have a wonderful day. This controls the instinctive mind. When you are a little bit sleepy, the intellectual mind is not a barrier as much as it would be throughout the day. But the instinctive mind is a barrier and it must be controlled, because karma is created even in your dreams. Karma is created. So we want to stay out of the lower areas of the mind. I hope this answers that question on meditation and if not, ask another one.

Well everyone, we'll be seeing you tomorrow, and the next day begins a retreat. The day after that is a retreat; and the day after that, we'll be seeing you again.

Aum Namah Sivaya.