Are You Lazy or Are You Conditioned?
Questioner: What is laziness?
Acharya Prashant: When you are conditioned against something, you do not want to do it. It is laziness, nothing else is laziness. You know, in one of the Sunday sessions, very recently in fact, a couple of your friends from this gathering were also there. We start in our office at nine, and certain people arrived a little late. So I asked, “Why were you late?” They said, “You know, it is so cold and so foggy; laziness takes over, and the distance is large, laziness takes over.”
I said, “The distance is the same even while going back. You feel lazy in coming over, and if distance is the reason for laziness, you should feel equally lazy in going back. So today you will not go back, because you are so lazy now that you are here. Just sleep, relax, eat; let your folks from home come pick you up, take you back.”
When I don’t want to do something, I feel lazy. It’s as simple as that. And why do I not want to do anything? Because all my wants emanate from my conditioning.
Conditioning will never want to do something which goes against it, and conditioning will be dead against something which threatens to dissolve the conditioning.
Have a sharp look at what we call our wants. We often say, “I don’t want this,” and we take this as an expression of our individuality or something. “Meri marzi, I don’t want this,” or “I want this,” or something. Our wants are just an expression of how we have been programmed; they are not our wants at all. All that needs to be done is that you need to be conditioned a little differently, and your wants will change.
Do not take your wants, desires too seriously. When the mind says, “Oh, I am feeling lazy; I do not want to study,” do not give importance to this statement of the mind, because the mind is a machine that will only say what it has been programmed to say. Do not take the mind seriously, never. It may say, “I do not want to do something,” or it may say, “I want to do something.” Neither its wants or likes nor its dislikes are of any consequence.
Wanting and realizing are very, very different dimensions. Do not act on the basis of your want; act on the basis of your intelligence, your realization.
Laziness will come, just do not give energy to it, just do not give importance to it. The body will say, “No.” Does the body ever say, “I do not want to eat”? The food is right here, pizza! Does the body ever say that, “I’m feeling so lazy, how can I pick it up, and who wants to chew?” Does the body ever say that? Because the tongue is conditioned to like a certain kind of taste.
But the body, when it comes to going to the gym, what does it say? Not only does it say “lazy,” it goes to the extent of hiding its laziness. It will say, “I am not lazy; it is just that today it is cloudy, so one should not go to the gym. Research in the Netherlands has proved that clouds have a detrimental effect on muscle formation, so that is why I am not going.” You will find so many arguments.
The mind is such a clever thing. When it wants to do something, it keeps on giving you wonderful arguments. “No, no, I’m not going to her house to gawk at her, to ogle at her. I am going to her house because I want to deliver milk to her mother. My intentions are pure, like the milk.”
Questioner: Sir, does it mean that whenever we feel lazy while doing something, we should decide to do that thing first?
Acharya Prashant: Yes, yes, obviously. Laziness is just a symptom of the effect of conditioning. Laziness is nothing else.
How many of you feel lazy sometimes, at least? Now observe your laziness. You will not feel lazy when it comes to doing all those things that are called fun, entertainment. Have you seen, it is midnight now, and you’re reading, and you’re feeling so sleepy, so sleepy, and you have almost closed the book, and you have decided to retire and sleep. And then two of your wonderful friends arrive, and all the sleep is gone, and now you can be awake for another two hours. Now where has the laziness gone? Where has the sleep gone?
It was not laziness at all. It is just that you didn’t want to read. You didn’t want to read, so the body gave you a reason.
The body helps the mind. When you don’t want to do something, the body will give you a reason.
Suppose you don’t want to come to college on a particular Saturday morning. The body will help you. How? The head will start paining, there would be something in the back, or you’ll feel like vomiting. So you have a genuine excuse now. And remember, it is genuine, because the body is actually making you feel that you are unwell. So now you have a genuine excuse: “I have not gone because I was unwell.” And at 9:15, you will be totally well. At 9:15, you will be just all right. You can even get a fever, you know. Such are the games of the mind. You can even get a fever, yes.
Questioner: Sir, sometimes this happens that we are hungry, but we don’t want to get out of our bed, because it is warm there. So, it is not that we do not want to do but…
Is this also laziness?
Acharya Prashant: No, it is not laziness. Now here you have two fragments of the mind. You are conditioned to give comfort to the body, and you are conditioned to eat. It is just that one type of conditioning is dominating right now. Which type of conditioning? Give comfort to the body. There is still no intelligence in all this. It is one conditioning dominating over another conditioning.
You know, you are conditioned to watch cricket matches as if it is a great exhibition of patriotism. You are also conditioned to go around fooling on Valentine’s Day. Now, if on the 14th of February there is an India–Pakistan match, what will happen? Think of it, two types of conditioning clashing with each other. And to add to it, it is your mother’s birthday on the 14th of February. Now what to do? Three types of conditioning are pulling you in three different directions, whether to go to her, to her, or to the match.
Another thing: you have a day-long session in your CAT coaching that day. An important visiting faculty is coming. Now, Valentine’s Day, mother’s birthday, CAT coaching, India–Pakistan match, and you’re also having loose motions.
Now obviously, one of these will prevail. Does that mean it is laziness towards the rest of them? No. You are being pulled in five different directions. One of the forces has won, but you are still a slave. Five masters wanted to control you; one master has succeeded in controlling you, but you are still a slave.
The body might have controlled you, the body is the master. The girlfriend might have won, the girlfriend is the master. The mother might have won, the mother is the master. The match might have won, entertainment is the master. The CAT coaching might have won, the future. is the master.
Where are you in all this? You are still not there.
