Laziness- the biggest obstacle to spirituality

As you can see, I haven't written a blog post for some time now. It was not for the lack of a subject to write.

In fact, every waking, sleeping, walking and talking moment I find another interesting thing to write about and I file that topic away into the list in my head. But that is the main problem. We have a habit of filing things away for later use and then sometimes we never end up using it.

I suffer from this habit a lot. Just last week, I decided that I will be very regular in my Asana practices. My body has become unusually stiff and it needs oiling. But I ended up actually practicing asanas only on two of those days.

Since childhood, my problem has been laziness. I was lazy when doing my homework, lazy when it came to walking (till I was 5 years old, I forced my parents to carry me everywhere we went). I even used to be lazy when it came to brushing my teeth.

Thankfully, I'm not that lazy anymore. I can assure you I am clean and so are my teeth. Still, when it came to writing this blog, I became a victim of the old habit again.

Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 1.30 also talks about laziness as being one of the obstacles on the path of Yoga.

Sutra 1.30 says that disease, languor, doubt, indecision, carelessness, laziness, sensuality (i.e. hankering after objects), erroneous perception and instability are the obstacles on the path of Yoga.

Over the past two years I have been struggling in my fight against laziness and doubt, which have prevented me from regular disciplined practice of Yoga and prevented me from believing completely in the Yoga principles, my gurus and myself.

During this struggle I found three solutions to overcome my laziness.

1. Laziness is due to an excess of Tamasic (dull) state. There are 3 gunas- Rajas, Tamas and Sattva (which I will explain in a later post). To overcome the tamasic state and get into the positive Sattvic state, I made some diet changes, like having freshly cooked, natural food and positive thinking.

2. I forced myself to practice asanas. I made a vow that I would not eat my next meal untill I did me asanas. I had to force myself for a few days, but then the body started craving asanas on its own and I did not have to force myself. Asanas became natural.

3. I stopped planning and started doing. I used to think "I'll do asanas in the afternoon". In the afternoon I'd think "I'll do them in the evening." I kept planning but did nothing. Now, in the morning, I do not give my mind time to think. I just slide out of my bed and onto the mat on the floor and start with my asanas.

So if you are feeling lazy today, don't give in to the monkey mind. Zip its mouth shut and do your thing.