IPL 2026 and Your Sadhana — How to Enjoy Cricket Season Without Breaking Your Daily Naam Jap Habit

Let me confess something.

I love cricket. Genuinely, unashamedly, completely. I grew up watching it. I know the players, the stats, the rivalries. When a brilliant catch happens or a batsman hits a six off the last ball, something in me lights up the same way it did when I was ten years old.

I also do naam jap every morning. Radhe Radhe. 108 to 1008 repetitions, depending on the day. It is the most important 20 to 60 minutes of my entire day. Nothing replaces it.

And every year when IPL begins, these two parts of me sit down across from each other and have a very uncomfortable conversation.

The match starts at 7:30 PM. It ends at 11:00 PM or later. My body wants to stay up, the excitement is real, the group chats are going crazy. And then — morning arrives. The alarm rings at 4:30 AM. And the same body that was cheering until midnight does not want to move.

Sound familiar?

If you are a devotee who also watches cricket — or lives with people who do — IPL season is a genuine spiritual challenge. Not because cricket is bad. But because the late nights, the disrupted sleep, the stimulated mind, and the shifted schedule all work directly against the conditions your naam jap practice needs.

This post is what I have learned over several IPL seasons about how to hold both things — the joy of cricket and the depth of sadhana — without losing either one.

IPL 2026 — What You Need to Know First

IPL 2026 is the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League. It began on March 28, 2026, with defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru facing Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru. The tournament runs until May 31, 2026 — a full two months of matches.

Ten teams are competing across 74 matches. The schedule has been released in two parts — the first 20 matches are underway now, with the second phase resuming April 13 after a short break.

IPL 2026 Key Dates: Season Opener: March 28, 2026 (RCB vs SRH, Bengaluru) Second Phase Starts: April 13, 2026 League Stage Ends: May 24, 2026 Final: May 31, 2026 Defending Champions: Royal Challengers Bengaluru

That is two full months of 7:30 PM matches, group chats, highlights, and the particular kind of excited energy that Indian cricket produces like nothing else.

Two months is a long time to lose your morning routine. But it is also a long time to white-knuckle your way through guilt every time you watch a match.

There is a better way.

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The Real Problem — It Is Not the Cricket

Here is something important to understand before we get to the practical tips: the problem is not that you watch IPL. The problem is what watching IPL does to your conditions for sadhana.

Late night screen time stimulates the nervous system. The excitement, the tension, the social media commentary — all of it increases Rajas (restlessness) and delays the natural settling of the mind that should happen in the evening. When you finally go to bed at 11:30 PM with an agitated mind, the sleep you get is shallower. And when the alarm rings at 4:30 or 5:00 AM, your body has simply not had enough rest to function well.

The naam jap that follows from this state — done with a tired, stimulated, sleep-deprived mind — is genuinely of lower quality. The name does not go as deep. The stillness is harder to find. And after a few days of this, many devotees simply stop the early morning practice altogether and tell themselves they will restart after IPL.

By the time May 31 arrives, the habit has been broken for two months. Rebuilding it takes weeks. This happens every year to thousands of sincere practitioners.

The goal is not to choose between cricket and sadhana. The goal is to manage the conditions so both can coexist. Cricket cannot be the reason your practice breaks. But pretending you do not want to watch is also not honest or sustainable.

7 Practical Ways to Protect Your Sadhana During IPL 2026

1. Shift Your Jap to the Evening — Temporarily

This is the most practical and least-discussed solution. If staying up for matches makes early morning practice impossible, move your naam jap to the evening — before the match begins.

From 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM, before the 7:30 PM match, sit for your naam jap session. This preserves the practice completely. You are not skipping it — you are doing it at a different time. The match then becomes guilt-free because your sadhana is already done.

Set a firm rule: Match starts after jap ends. Not before. This one habit protects your practice for the entire two months without requiring you to choose.

2. Do Your Minimum Even If You Cannot Do Your Full Practice

On days when you stayed up late and the early morning is simply not happening — do your minimum. Not zero. Your minimum.

My minimum is 108 Radhe Radhe — one mala — no matter what. It takes 7 to 10 minutes. Even on a match night when I slept at midnight and woke at 6 AM, I can find 10 minutes before my day begins.

108 done consistently through two months is worth infinitely more than 1008 done sometimes and zero done when IPL is on. The habit is more important than the quantity right now.

Use the free Radha Naam Jap Counter at RadhaJap.in to track your daily count. Even seeing 108 logged on a difficult morning maintains the psychological continuity of the practice. You are still in the habit. You have not broken it.

3. Stop Watching After 9:30 PM — Use Highlights

This is the one I resisted for years and finally accepted: the last overs of a match matter less than your next morning.

In 2026, every match highlight is available within 30 minutes of the final ball on JioHotstar and YouTube. You miss nothing by going to bed at 9:30 or 10:00 PM and watching the final highlights the next morning with your chai.

What you gain is a full night’s sleep and a morning practice that actually works.

The last 4 overs of a close match are genuinely exciting. I know. But they are also the most stimulating content of the entire evening — the content most likely to disrupt your sleep. Ask yourself honestly: is staying up for those 4 overs worth the quality of tomorrow’s naam jap?

4. Use the Match Itself as a Mindfulness Practice

This sounds unusual but stay with me.

During the match, when your team is not batting or fielding — in between overs, during the drinks break, during the commentary — instead of reaching for your phone, close your eyes for 30 seconds and say Radhe Radhe quietly to yourself.

You are not turning cricket into a spiritual practice. You are keeping a thread of the name running through your day. Even five or six quiet repetitions during a 3-hour match is something. It keeps the name present in the mind rather than completely replacing it with cricket energy for the evening.

5. Make a 40-Day IPL Sankalp

The IPL runs for approximately 65 days. But you can make a 40-day sankalp right now — from today until May 7 — with one specific commitment.

Something like: For the next 40 days, I will do minimum 108 Radhe Radhe every single day regardless of match days, late nights, or travel.

A sankalp creates a different relationship with the commitment. It is not a rule you might break. It is a promise you made to Radha Rani. That difference, in practice, makes you more likely to keep it.

6. Keep One Match-Free Day Per Week as Your Deep Practice Day

Matches happen 6 to 7 days a week during IPL. But most weeks have at least one day with no match or a match you care less about.

Pick that day as your deep practice day. No match watching. Full Ayurvedic morning routine. Long naam jap session — go for 1008. This one deep session per week maintains the quality and depth of your practice even when the rest of the week is compressed.

7. Watch With Awareness — Not Obsession

Cricket is a beautiful game. It is also designed to be addictive — the tension, the uncertainty, the social element. There is nothing wrong with enjoying it fully.

But there is a difference between watching cricket as a joyful recreation and watching cricket as an escape from everything else. One is healthy. The other slowly hollows you out.

A devotee watches cricket the same way they do anything else — with presence, with joy, and without losing themselves completely in it. This is exactly what the Gita teaches about enjoying the world: not renouncing it, but not being enslaved by it either.

What Radha Rani Thinks of Cricket

I want to end this section with something that might make you smile.

There is a line from the teachings of Premanand Ji Maharaj that I carry with me during IPL season. He said — in a satsang I watched several years ago — something along the lines of:

“Bhagwan ko koi bhi bhav se bulao — main suno, main dekhta hun. Lekin agar tum bhool hi jao… toh phir kaun sunayega?” — Call to God from any feeling. He listens, He sees. But if you forget completely… then who will call?

The teaching is not about cricket. It is about the difference between enjoying the world and forgetting the name entirely.

Enjoy IPL 2026 fully. Cheer for your team. Stay up for the important matches. But do not forget the name completely. Even 108 Radhe Radhe a day, through two months of matches — that is not forgetting.

That is a devotee who enjoys life and keeps the name alive in it at the same time.

That is exactly what Radha Rani wants.

Quick IPL 2026 Sadhana Plan — Week by Week

Week 1 (Mar 28 – Apr 6): Settle into the shift. Move jap to evening if needed. Set your minimum (108 daily). Make your 40-day sankalp.

Week 2–3 (Apr 7 – Apr 20): Second phase begins Apr 13. Keep evening jap habit firm. Pick your match-free deep practice day each week.

Week 4–6 (Apr 21 – May 10): Tournament heats up. This is when most people break their practice. Your sankalp is your anchor. Keep the minimum no matter what.

Week 7–8 (May 11 – May 31): Playoffs and Final. High excitement period. Stay with your minimum. Keep one day per week for deep practice. Final is May 31 — celebrate fully, then sleep early.

Jai Shri Krishna 🙏 | Radhe Radhe 🙏 | Enjoy IPL 2026!