Do you know that laziness pattern makes you shrink in life? Are you aware that laziness brings diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, even cancer to your physical body? To the seekers, do you know that laziness is considered a spiritual disorder?
In March, I started a new yoga module called “Creating Health Consciousness” and I made the students identify some of the mental patterns which stopped them from enjoying good health. One of the patterns which the group identified was “Laziness”. My guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda spoke about the laziness pattern elaborately in many of his discourses. So I decided to research more on the laziness pattern and enrich humanity with the right understanding from the Yogic perspective in this article.
Firstly, let us define laziness.
Laziness means maintaining a habitual mental pattern of behaviour in response to new situations. The experiences may be unfamiliar but, because of unconsciousness, the action will repeat from previous encounters. Through this stagnation, one fails to create anything new in his life and falls into the pain of boredom and depression. With laziness, one experiences a shrinking in his life i.e. he is moving towards death.
Paramahamsa Nithyananda once said that: “A lazy body is the devil’s residence”. This is true because, as long as we don’t physically become active, the suppressed physical pain starts happening in our body. For male body, the laziness pattern leads him to more senses indulgence and new engrams whereas for female body, the laziness pattern leads her to indulgence in the past suffering and engrams. The scary thing about laziness pattern is we don’t even know we are stuck and we go on suffering from this stagnation and slowly wither away. Laziness is one of the biggest engrams that human beings can easily slip into in the name of tiredness through our ignorance.
The first ignorance human beings suffer is disrespecting their body and they drop the necessity to maintain their body. Due to this inattentiveness to their body, it leads to a large belly and diseases. The truth is the body is the victim of our ignorance; we go on abusing the body to the extreme for sense pleasure and enjoyment.
The next ignorance is believing that by being inaction and floating in the past and future is relaxation and being in the present with restful awareness is a stressful effort. Many of our bio-memories believed that being pushed and pulled by the past and future is our nature and in that we feel more relaxed than being in the present. That’s why we think that being in the present looks like an action. Actually, going into the past and future with our restless mind is action. Being in restful awareness is true relaxation. This is the ignorance that human beings need to realise and get out!
Secondly, whether one chooses to be in action or inaction, it is still a choice. Every moment we are accumulating – either in expansion or contraction. So laziness is also a conscious choice and we are responsible for it. Taking the responsibility to break the laziness pattern is one of the important steps everyone needs to do to have a healthy fulfilling life!
That’s why in Vedic tradition, one’s spiritual growth is measured by his or her ability to break free from the laziness pattern. Hence, ancient masters, sages and rishis have developed the science of breaking the laziness pattern which not only makes seekers feel alive and energetic constantly, it also puts them in a non-return zone where laziness pattern is removed from their bio-memory permanently.
Based on a study done on the effect of Hatha Yoga on the human brain in USA, the conclusion is yoga practice is the perfect formula for creating behavioural grooves in our brain. Working on the body is the straight way working on the laziness pattern. From another research by Neuroplastic Science, it was found that our brain has the ability to create new grooves and pathways and the existing ones will heal and disappear if it is left on their own. This means the possibility of new life and a new mental setup exists, we just need to know the right methods.
According to Vedic knowledge, laziness can be classified in 3 levels: 1) Physical laziness – is experiencing a constant state of lethargy & dullness in the physical body; 2) Mental laziness – is the inability to take cognizance of your mind and expand your capacity to understand the outer world and inner world truths; 3) Spiritual laziness – is the inability to make yourself feel alive continuously and drill yourself to take cognizance of subtle inner truth and live with the right cognizance of consciousness.
Let’s look at step-by-step how this Yogic Science works.
Firstly, we need to experience the deepest truths of the body-mind. From Vedas, it says that the human body is hardwired to flow with life without getting tired or falling sick. Your body carries at least 70 times more possible energies and powers than what you use in your daily life. The human body is a living entity or bio-organism which is created by independent intelligence.
To be free from the laziness pattern, you need to learn the Science of handling your body! Just to give you an analogy. Your body-mind is like clay, every day you can make it as you desire. All you need to do is reclaim the superiority over your body-mind, or else the laziness pattern will possess your body. This is the worst abuse that can happen to your body-mind. It is only when you restore the integrity with your body, you will start taking ownership of your body which is a first step towards health. Diseases happen because you have given up on your body. Consciously own your body-mind, create it the way as you want with Hatha Yoga and kriya. To build a Yogic body means squeezing the body and taking the tamas (lethargic energy) out of it. The pain we experience during yoga practice is due to the laziness, the amount of pain is directly related to tamas in your body. Pain is your silent cooperation in your body to laziness.
According to Paramahamsa Nthyandanda, he says that your body is like the mirror, the light coming to the mirror is the Cosmic light. You would need to align the mirror (your body) to a certain posture where the Cosmic light completely reflects itself without distortion or deflection, that aligning or tuning is Asana (yoga postures). Pantajali Yoga Sutras states that Asanam means “Sthiram sukam asanam” i.e. your muscles are completely comfortable and stable with each other. Therefore, your Sadhana (spiritual practice) should be regular until each of your body muscles can sit on the other in comfort and stability. Sadhana means expressing your innate intelligence, creating new bio-memories to experience your innate intelligence. Spend at least one hour daily with yourself to build an intense yogic body and mind. Every action or posture releases some engrams from our system when you add life to your movement with the right intention. When you become integrated with awareness of your body, breath movement and thoughts in the inner space, your body will start to feel alive & energetic! The moment you start altering your body physiology with Hatha Yoga and kriya, major samskaras (engrams) of your system can be up-rooted. Your body is like a shell consciously created by your will. With this understanding, constantly work on your body, don’t leave blind spots unattended on your body.
The mental laziness such as boredom can be removed by building a Vedic mind with new cognizance and inspirations from the Vedic scriptures and teachings of enlightened masters. For example. the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Shiva Sutras, Bhagavad Gita and the 4 principles of life – integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching self and others.
Next, as you progress with your body, you are likely to hit a psychological plateau at some point. This is the time you need to bring in the principle of authenticity by breaking the body-mind patterns with intensity. Without stretching the body to its peak capacity, you will not see the re-wiring of your brain happens. You won’t know the glory of your body-mind until your mind reaches its peak. The principle of authenticity is the master key that awakens the Kundalini Shakti (innate potential energy) which activates the non-mechanical parts of your brain so that new expansion and experiences are possible. When you move the body in an unclutched way (meditating on the infinite continuously), all the engrams that stop you from aligning will leave your system and you will be aligned to the awakening of Kundalini Shakti and divine consciousness. It is important to align the body every day before you sit for meditation, take 3 minutes to align your body so that Kundalini Shakti can flow easily from lower chakras (energy centers) to crown chakra.
From my own experience, I realised that after stretching myself to the peak condition of living a Nirahari lifestyle i.e. one who does not consume solid food but draws life energy source from prana in the ether, my body-mind is constantly feeling so energetic and alive. The lethargy seems to have left my system forever. So it is only when your body hits a peak condition, you will have respect for your new body and move to mind, only when you have respect for a new mind, you will move to consciousness and experience the larger concept of “I am”, the non-duality of enlightenment itself.
Finally, the spiritual laziness can be eradicated when you don’t give up on yourself and others and assume the responsibility in enriching yourself and others. Life happens with people in the outer world, by refusing to take responsibility in being useful in the society where you live is like committing the sin of destroying your consciousness. This is a conscious cancer that can destroy new possibilities for your Being. By taking up responsibility in enriching self and others as a living lifestyle, the first thing you realise is that the fatigue and tiredness disappears from your Being. With a Yogic body-and-Vedic mind, you will feel so alive, aware, creative such that you will be able to continuously contribute to humanity. Life just pours, Existence showers on you with abundance energy and new possibilities. When that happens, you live like a divine being on planet earth.
In essence, it is the laziness pattern which creates a sick body-mind in you. A sick body and mind cannot liberate you, only with a healthy body and mind, you can experience the consciousness beyond the body-mind. Namaste. 🙂