Brahma-muhurta

Brahma-muhurta

"Brahma Period"

The penultimate, fourteenth muhurta of the dark half of day. This period of time is considered especially favorable for spiritual practice.

According to Ayurveda, a healthy person should wake up no later than two muhurts before sunrise, at 4:30am, provided that day and night are equal (which is true for the tropical latitudes of Southern India). Depending on the geographical latitude of a place, as well as time of year, sunrise time varies. 

Waking up from sleep in Brahma-muhurta allows one to start and spend the day calmly and joyfully. This is the time when sattva-guna prevails, which by itself brings all energies in human psychophysics into a harmonious state.

Also in the morning, the element of air, vayu, is active, which is advantageous for the effective practice of pranayama.