Question: Is That Why It Is Harder...

Question: Is that why it is harder to get up after you have been asleep for a longer time? Sometimes when I sleep for only a short time it is easier to get up.

Sri Chinmoy: The difficulty is that when you sleep for a long time you make unnecessary friendship with your lethargy-enemy. When you have less sleep, at that time you do not lose anything. From a medical point of view, sleep is necessary. For the body’s sake it is necessary, absolutely necessary. If the body fails, then how are you going to pray and meditate? But each time you are fast asleep for an hour or more, unless you are realised, it is like being underneath water.

Each time you sleep for six, seven, eight hours, you make friends with failure from a spiritual point of view. For the body’s sake, it is necessary to sleep. Otherwise, how will you meditate? But if the body does not need sleep and you sleep, then it is a mistake.