Deep Sleep For Resting The Body

Prayers, meditation, chanting, singing hymns, etc are means of calming the mind.
When mind is calm, we sleep well at night.
When we sleep well, we get refreshed both in body and mind.

When the mind is disturbed, we may not be able to fall asleep as easily.
We may have laboured away hard physically, yet if the mind is also stressed, we find difficulty in falling asleep.

Sleeping is another form of deep meditation where the entire self is resting with minimum activity in continuing to breathe and maybe dreaming a little.

Since all these are inter-related, it is so important for us to rest our mind and body every 14 to 16 hours in a day, depending on how long we usually sleep.

I have watched men labor at real hard work for 8 to 10 hours in various places. I have noticed them (without exception) visiting the roadside bars selling cheap liqour towards dusk, whether or not they have sufficient money to buy the groceries for their families back home.
Have often wondered about this phenomenon. Have come to the conclusion that their muscles and limbs may be aching due to constant labor at work.
Contrary to belief that we will sleep well after a hard day's labor, they might need an external element to refresh their body for the next day's work, meaning they can labour away the next day after their body is well-rested.
Most of the labor force work for daily wages and the need to report to work the next day becomes their necessity if they have to put food on the table. Whether they put food on the table or not they need to drink to forget their bodily aches. It is like an instant gratification.

With time the equation gets reversed!
In the beginning, they need work to survive and need their daily drinks or stuff to forget bodily pain from such hard labor.
Later they need their daily drinks so they need to work for it!!
It's a vicious cycle from which there is no escape when drinking becomes an addiction, whether or not they have work for the day! This is the way a whole family gets affected due to one person's addiction to something.

One is bound to ask what about mental stress. To escape mental stress many take to such addictive habits.

Moderation is the key to balance oneself for everything be it prayers, meditation, chanting, getting used to intoxication. Yes even prayers and meditation which does our minds and bodies so much good, should be done in moderation only, otherwise they too become obsessions.

Look at the wonderful organ called stomach. It can contain only a certain amount of food when we are hungry or ready to eat. Such should be our need for props to calm our mind, body and soul.

Mahalakshmi.