The Academy of Yoga and Oriental Studies (AYOS) oraganised a lecture on “Importance of sleep in human life” here last week.
The lecture was delivered by Dr Indulata Das and the meeting was presided over by notable Sanskrit scholar Arun Kumar Upadhyaya. Mihir Kumar Mishra welcomed the guests and the audience. Dr Indulata Das first defined the word “Nidra” (sleep) and said food, sleep, fear and sex are the four instincts commonly present in humans and lower animals. Patanjali has enumerated Nidra as one of the Vrittis of Chitta. Human consciousness is divided into four states, viz., waking (Jagrat), sleep with dream (Swapna), deep sleep (Susupti) and the fourth one (Turiya).
Among these four, two states, Swapna and Susupti, belong to Nidra. Sleep occupies an important place in Ayurveda. According to Charaka, happiness, sorrow, nourishment, strength, knowledge, ignorance, life and death of a human being depends on sleep. Sleep enjoyed in required quantity in required time nourishes a man like a foster mother. The night in which a man does not enjoy a sound sleep is named as “Kalaratri” by Charaka. Sleeplessness or Nidranasa is a big health problem for human beings. In Ayurveda, various measures have been prescribed for the removal of the same, said Dr Das.
There was a question-answer session after the lecture and many scholars enriched the discussion by participating in it. In his speech, Upadhyaya discussed about Ratri and Nidra from a different angle.