Quiet contemplation and refined thinking has often driven many a soul to that enviable ‘doorway’ that has promised the ultimate ‘nirvana’. Magically when left to its own, the body has given the best results and the best solutions. Sleep then in its customary ‘avataar’ as the one that is beholden to better the being, is the most recommended curriculum.

‘Lets sleep over it’, has been at times the most desired and recommended expression. But it has not just remained a desired act, it has proved relentlessly, that it has value.

I value my sleep, small and limited though it may be. I value its quality of repair and recompense. It has remained that one single important element in the sobering down of its induced hangover. Medically, despite the medicinal inputs and invasive procedures, it is eventually the rest and internal working that has resulted in the final coming out from the anesthetic condition.

Respect then must become primary in our assessment or in our considerations towards this god given compulsion, sleep.

Today as I awake I know that my sleep even though conditioned because of time zonal changes, has been sufficient for the moment. When it comes again, I shall not prevent it. Nature will draw me into it. Indulge me into lethargy. Coerce me to get horizontal. If fortunate, pull me away into the softness of a pillow and bed. Curl me up fetus like, even at age 68, replicating the months spent in my Mother’s womb. Cover me up in sheet, blanket or some covering, to build the comfort of protection - a feeling of safety in the insecure environment of the world we exist in or in the one that we are undertaking to go under - our dreams. The expression on the facial muscles shall always be one of complete submission - carefree, without care, free and relaxed. Watch from close quarters those that are in deep slumber. They are the ultimate impressions of vulnerability, open to any form of inducement, open and pure, soft and gentle, sublime.

Living beings look the best when they rest. When they awake, they encounter, analyze, regret, object, opinion-ate, show anger, express, comment ….

Life’s most used comment is ‘wake up kid !’. Wake up to what ? All this ! Were we not better off when in rest ?!!

In contemplation and thought -

Amitabh Bachchan