Apart from the four general principles we follow, there are several recommendations for our spiritual practice, that although not mandatory, can help us a lot in terms of both spiritual progress and general well-being. One of the most important of these is to wake up early.

It’s certainly tempting to stay awake until late at night and then sleep until 8:00 or 9:00. There are always many interesting things to do at night, both in devotional and non-devotional circles, but this comes with a series of problems.

To stay awake until late and then sleep until late morning is something that stimulates the mode of ignorance, which is the main cause of not only difficulties in our spiritual practice, but also of depression, diseases, and other problems. All of us are conditioned by a certain combination of the three modes, and it’s often not possible to radically change from one to the other overnight. However, if we can gradually reinforce the mode of goodness and reduce the influence of ignorance, this can bring us many benefits. Going earlier to bed and waking up earlier is one of the strongest factors in favoring the mode of goodness.

Waking up early allows us to practice one of the most important secrets in spiritual life: to chant our rounds in the morning during the Brahma Muhurta time (about one hour and a half before sunrise). This is one of the secrets of great devotees and one of the foundations of our spiritual practice. As soon as we start doing it, many of our problems disappear.

The days we can wake up early and chant our rounds first thing in the morning during Brahma-muhurta time, we have the spiritual strength, determination, and tolerance to successfully go through our daily activities without forgetting Krsna. These days, we don’t quarrel so much with our spouses, we keep our cool while dealing with our boss and co-workers, we interact well with other devotees, and so on. However, on the days we wake up late and have to immediately start running around without chanting our rounds, everything goes downhill, and we finish the day tired, frustrated, unhappy, and still with rounds to chant before going to bed.

The early morning, especially during Brahma-muhurta time, is the time of the day when not only the atmosphere is more propense to spiritual advancement, but also there is no pressure from work, family, etc. This is a time when everyone else is sleeping and we can turn off our phones and peacefully stay with Krsna. Once we are successful in using this time to attentively chant our rounds, everything else tends to go well on our day. More than that, by doing that we gradually become purified and create a very bright path for our future.

The problem is, of course, how to wake up earlier to do that. Many are already not sleeping enough and in such cases, to cut two hours more is not a realistic option. Apart from other considerations, one who sleeps too little will have difficulties chanting his rounds attentively, which may defeat the purpose.

However, when we consider what we do in the two hours before we go to sleep, the situation may be different. Most of us spend this time seeing photos on Instagram, watching movies, zapping through YouTube, reading the news, talking to friends, etc. We usually don’t do any vitally important work at that time.

The early morning is the time of the day when goodness predominates, and is, therefore, the time recommended for spiritual practice. After the sun appears, the mode of passion gains strength and it’s time to work. At night the mode of ignorance predominates. This is the time we are supposed to sleep because that’s the time we will not do anything very productive. By going to sleep earlier and waking up earlier we exchange time in the mode of ignorance, for time in the mode of goodness we can use for our spiritual practice.

To wake up earlier and chant better rounds we don’t really have to sacrifice any of our sleep, we just need to sacrifice these two hours before bedtime, go to sleep earlier, and wake up earlier, after sleeping the same number of hours.

If we weigh the cost and benefit of doing so, we will see that this is probably the best investment we can make.