Om Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Thiruvadikkae
While doing Japa, and practising meditation, during worship, and reading sacred texts, chanting hymns, and addressing the Lord in particular, one should lovingly fix one’s mind without interruption on the essence of the Lord, including His virtues, and glory, with reverence and faith, with single-minded devotion, fully comprehending the spirit of sacred texts.
At bedtime as well, one should fall asleep while remembering the Lord with a concentrated mind. Even the period of sleep during the hours of the night can be converted into a period of meditation. For, the six hours or so that a man spends in sleep or dream are spent more or less in the same occupation in which he spends his waking hours. Therefore, withdrawing our minds from all other pursuits, let us make it a point never to forget God. Through uninterrupted remembrance of God it is possible to overcome evil propensities, immoral practices, evil addictions, excessive sleep, lethargy, error and other defects, to end all of the miseries and speedily attain Supreme peace and the Highest Bliss in the form of God-realization.
(Excerpts from The Secret of Bhakthiyoga - The Glory of Constant Contemplation on God (Gita Press))
