Question: When I am meditating in the morning and feel sleepy, it is a real struggle to concentrate. But if I don't struggle, then there is complacency. How can I prevent this feeling of struggling with sleep?

Sri Chinmoy: You must choose between the life of struggle and the life of sincere aspiration. On one side is aspiration and on the other side is this feeling of struggling. Try to feel on the strength of your heart's sincerity that aspiration is your only choice. The moment you take the side of aspiration, I tell you, it is bound to be stronger and it will win the battle. Right now neither side is the permanent winner, but if you can make aspiration the permanent winner, then struggle will totally leave you.

Early in the morning when you are meditating, please feel that your Master is there. This is not false imagination. You must keep his living presence inside you. If you have that kind of feeling, that he is physically present, then you will not sleep during meditation. If you feel that you can only meditate when your Master is actually in front of you, then I tell you it will be impossible for you to meditate. If you need his physical presence to give you a good meditation, that is a terrible insult to your soul and to your Master's soul. Your soul will feel that you are useless and your Master's soul will feel that you are more helpless than an infant. Even a child feels his mother's presence protecting him when she is not in sight.

Please feel that physical presence is not needed at all; only spiritual presence is necessary. If you can meditate well at home then you will always be able to meditate well. Otherwise your meditation or will always be uncertain.