What's with laziness?

What's wrong with just sitting still and listening to a distant sound come nearer and nearer? Or lying in bed in the morning and watching the birds in a nearby tree, or a single leaf dancing in the breeze when all the other leaves are very still? We condemn laziness because we think it is wrong to be lazy. So, let us find out what we mean by laziness.

When the mind is unaware of its reactions, of its own subtle movement, such a mind is lazy, ignorant. You can't pass examinations if you haven't read many books and have very little information; that is not ignorance. Real ignorance is having no knowledge of yourself, no perception of how your mind works, of your motives.

Similarly, there is laziness when the mind is asleep. And most people's minds are asleep. They are drugged by knowledge, by the scriptures, by what Shankara or somebody else said. They follow a philosophy, practice a discipline, so their minds - which should be rich - are made dull. Such a mind is lazy. And a mind that is ambitious is not active in the true sense; though it may be superficially active, it is heavy with despair.


The man who merely accepts, rejects or imitates, the man who, being afraid, digs a rut for himself. But a man who is watchful is not lazy, even though he may often sit very quietly and observe the trees, the birds, the people, the stars and the silent river.

Abridged from Think on These Things, courtesy: KFI