If you’re used to waking up late, waking up for Amritvela can be quite challenging. However, it is not a challenge you cannot overcome. This post is just about some tips that might help you to wake up for Amritvela.
Firstly, we need to tell our mind the importance of waking up at Amritvela (https://tmblr.co/ZTV6ni211E-Lu). We also need to tell our mind that we MUST wake up at Amritvela, no matter what. No excuse is good enough to skip Nitnem.
Look at it this way – when we have to go to work (or anywhere important), we do whatever it takes to get there on time. If we wake up early, we get to work on time. However, if we wake up late, we still usually manage to get there on time. We do anything and everything we can to make sure we get to work on time for our shift, and sometimes, that means skipping meals, speeding, taking shortcuts, etc. because we know that if we get late, we will get in trouble. Think of Amritvela as a shift – if we don’t wake up on time for Amritvela, we will get into trouble (i.e. we won’t please Guru Sahib Ji). So we have got to do whatever we need to wake up on time.
Things that you could do to wake up early:
Sleep as early as you can. If your body has had enough sleep, it’ll be a lot easier to wake up.
Sleep on the floor – get a spare mattress and put it on the floor, or put a thick blanket on the floor and sleep on it. Sleeping on the floor is not as comfortable as sleeping on a bed, so waking up is easier as we don’t have to let go of comfort.
Drink a lot of water before you sleep. You will most likely need to go to the toilet in the early morning, and once you’re up, there’s no going back to bed!
Eat less at night. If you don’t go to sleep on a very full stomach, you will probably get hungry early in the morning and won’t be able to sleep as well because sleeping on an empty stomach just isn’t the same.
Set as many alarms as you need to and choose the most annoying alarm tone.
Make sure you do Rakheyaa De Shabad and Keertan Sohila Sahib before you sleep. When you do Ardaas afterwards, ask Vaheguroo Ji for Amritvela; ask Vaheguroo Ji to wake you up. If you really mean what you say and do that Ardaas from your heart, you won’t even need an alarm… Vaheguroo Ji will act as your alarm and wake you up.
Sometimes, waking up early is only half the struggle and actually staying awake is the other half of the struggle. There are some things that you could do that may help you stay awake while you’re doing Simran/Nitnem:
Whether you’re doing Simran or Panj Baaniya da Paath, do it out loud.
Set the room temperature so that it feels a bit chilly – open the window, turn the fan on, etc.
Sit on the floor with no back support.
If you’re really struggling to stay awake, stand up – it actually helps you concentrate a lot more because sleeping while you’re standing doesn’t really work.
I also just wanted to share a story about one of the most inspirational people I have read and heard about - a Shaheed Singh from 1987, Bhai Anokh Singh Babbar. Bhai Anokh Singh Babbar was arrested and tortured by Vairoval police in Punjab. Bhai Sahib was hung upside down in jail for many days and was relentlessly tortured. Despite having foot-long heated metal rods hammered into his legs, being electrocuted, metal rods passed through his chest, his eyes removed from the sockets, and being left on the ground, unable to move, Bhai Sahib Ji did not let go of his Nitnem routine and did Rehraas Sahib. Bhai Anokh Singh sang Rehraas Sahib as he laid on the ground:
“ਆਖਾ ਜੀਵਾ ਵਿਸਰੈ ਮਰਿ ਜਾਉ ॥
Chanting it, I live; forgetting it, I die.”
If Bhai Anokh Singh Babbar can do Rehraas Sahib while he was in that condition, surely the least we can do is do our daily Nitnem on time.
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