Laziness

Hare Krishna!All glories to Srila Prabhupada!I am a very lazy person. Even if I do get motivated I tend to be so lazy that I end up doing nothing.This laziness, lack of motivation and seriousness is hurting my spiritual progress.I do not know of the kind of emotions a devotee must have when executing the orders of The Lord and spiritual master. Hence, I am not able to focus my determination on anything. Not even on something materialistic because I now know it's bad.Please tell me how to stay motivated all the time and focus my determination.Is it wrong to only be serious and sincere and execute Krishna's order without any other emotions, without thinking of anything else?

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  • Hare Krsna Prabhu,

    PAMHO, Please go through the advice of Rashmi Mathaji. She mentioned very nice and simple information to get out of laziness. simply read Srila Prabhupada's books and associate devotees.

    Hari boll.

    AMKD.

  • E-Counselor

    Hare Krsna Prabhuji,

    PAMHO.

    Laziness is one the characteristics of tamoguna, as explained in the Gita.

    From what you have mentioned, you are lazy per se, it has nothing to do with new found spiritual enlightenment. Thats ok, we all have our vices and the entire process is aimed at overcoming them by practising bhakti yoga.

    The best way to overcome laziness is to get up at 4.00 am and immediately take a cold shower. All sleep and laziness will go away at one go. You need to associate more and more with devotees and then get into more and more devotional service. That way, even if you fail, you know Krsna noticed your endeavour and that will give you satisfaction.

    You can motivate yourself by giving self targets and self rewards - like you will have a sweet if you complete chanting 16 rounds, you will have 2 sweets if you complete the rounds before say 8.00 am.

    Regarding the kind of emotions a devotee can have - prabhu, all emotions. When we are establishing our lost relationship with Krsna, we can have all emotions - there is no bar. While executing devotional service, one should be very determined and serious about executing the service, but that does not mean that one has to become a serious and grave person. YOu can be yourself - whatever is your natural tendency. You can have a lot of fun and still execute devotional service. The seriousness and the determination is only in seeing that the service is done with due diligence and completed on time. Thats all, the rest - be yourself.

    Haribol,

    Your servant,

    Rashmi

    • Thank you so much for your detailed replies, Mataji! I really needed this
      Hare Krishna!
    • Hare Krishna, Mataji

      Thank you so much for your reply.

      Mataji, I have no problem in staying up till 2 am but when I try to get up early I fail almost all the time. And that has reduced my confidence in trying to get up in the morning.

      Also because of that I am now scared that if I sleep 2 hours early and fail to wake up 2 hours early, I will be wasting 4 hours. I also tend to catch a cold when I wake up early. These fears are making me give all sorts of excuses for waking up early.

      Please suggest some tips as to how I can trick my mind into waking up early, Mataji. I go to college, Mataji so the stress and association from there is also proving to be a problem.
      • E-Counselor

        Hare Krsna Prabhuji,

        PAMHO.

        One day, you will have to change your routine with effort. Sleep early and get up early the next day. That day, if you have slept only 2 hours in the night, try to be busy and awake the whole day, and sleep really early, in the evening itself - maybe by 7.30 - 8.00 pm itself. Next day, again get up at 4.00 am.Then you will be fine.

        The way to motivate yourself is to be in the association of devotees. You can get a devotee friend to wake you up every morning by calling you at 4.00 am everyday. I have done that service for a friend for months and it worked for her. Now she is calling up two more friends every morning. You start feeling overwhlemed that someone is waking up early just to call you. That is more motivating than an alarm - which you may anyways keep.

        Another thing you can do is simple - turn to Krsna and tell Him taht you would like to get up early and chant with sincerity, so please can He help? We think taht we should not ask anything from Krsna. That is right and taht is what the acharyas also recommend - but we are fallen souls and till we reach a stage where we can handle our issues, its best to ask Krsna than anyone else. These small small things also He will solve for you. You'd be surprised how you can wake up after having that chat with your best well wisher - God Himself. He waits for us to show Him our sincerity, He always always reciprocates. Just ask Him once.

        Cover yourself in the morning when you wake up, you will not catch a cold. Dont take bath or bathe in warm water.

        You go to college - so you are facing peer pressure from friends who discuss that they slept really late and what they did all night - right? Bluff your way if you have to - but be honest to Krsna. Do not bluff Krsna and be honest to your peer group - that would be foolishness. Once your routine of getting up early is set and you are more firm in your resolve towards Krsna COnsciousness, then you can discuss with your friends, if you are feeling shy now. Its ok, I can understand. Your age is such that you want acceptance at all levels right now - from elders, from peer group, from teachers and from youngsters also. Pray in the middle of all that  and you will realise that such pressures ease up quite a bit.

        Please just be honest and chant 16 rounds everyday. Everything else will fall into place.

        Haribol,

        Your servant,

        Rashmi

    • hare krsna mtg. thank for ur advice to parbhu g..
      plz can u comment on t comment of asur vasudev comments....
      • E-Counselor

        Hare Krsna Prabhuji,

        PAMHO.

        Prabhu, you made me read Asur Vasudev pr's comments - which I haev started to skip. In the recent past, he has given such long posts and at the end writes the views need not be his at all. I have tried to reason with him and then realised that he is on his own trip.

        Like Krsna says, not everyone who decides to seek, ends up seeking. And of the many who do end up seeking, very few end up finding - bahunaam janmanaam ante, gyaan waan maam prapadyate, vasudeva sarvam iti, sa mahatma sudurlabha -..... he has started to walk down this path and if he is sincere, Krsna will show him the path, in a few lifetimes if not in this lifetime.

        How much we all would like to have a direct connection with Krsna ourselves and not have any human guru in between - wouldnt we? But then we will not be fulfilling the desire of the  lord - who gives a lot of importance to His devotees and to whom servants of His devotees are more dear. The biggest devotees and acharyas of our times have followed a parampara of disciplic succession and chosen any one path to reach God. That is the way to reach God - otherwise wouldnt everything become mental speculation? Choose any one path and start walking down that path prabhuji, with full faith and conviction, you are sure to progress. If the path chosen by you is not right, Krsna will see the sincerity of your heart and make arrangements to guide you to the right path, have faith.

        Regarding fulfill your desires till you are satiated and then thank God for each such satiation, we already have reference in Gita that desires/ senses can never get satiated. One sense that is not controlled can bring down all the senses and the mind can even become more powerful than intelligence and not listen to intelligence. It is on you whom you want to believe, Bhagavad Gita or Asur Vasudev.

        Haribol,

        Your servant,

        Rashmi

  • prabhu, what is the thing that makes you the happiest?

    there lies you, there, lies, and you.

    u are not alone; that's a lie hahaha

    lazy prabhu, i am also somewhat of a lazy prabhu; but i never do things i don't like; and yet I'm always doing things i don't like for wtv reason i do them, its beyond me.

    lack of progress and lack of experience is what your true complain is about prabhu, truly speaking, you will not be illuminated or enlightened beyond this point in life. 

    neither has anyone been or will be more enlightened than you are either; 

    the preference of certain things are due to other factors that you may or may not judge as friendly towards you or others; but why they happen is of a higher realm of cause, effect and order.

    why can't u just sit down and meditate urslef to the state of bhagavan sri krishna? isn't the soul and super soul one and the same and finely perfect? why isn't ur ..

    here's a test for u my prabhuji; 

    sit down closed eyes, and view yourself as you are if you wouldn't be able to pass any judgement on anything; and tell me what do you see... the quality judgement and value that you say and give urself is proportionate with the hell you live in. sometimes, one has to suffer by doing "sadhana" in order to find a way that the mind can justify and cannot overcome by its own wild nature the greatness of your own actions; wanting ever to live righteously and in a conscientious way, sometimes one has to suffer to calm this mind down and not let it bother us...

    and yet that sadhana is useless because that peace is given by the Lord;

    quite simply put, 

    it is easier to read measures and opinions of sages like vasistha, read or listen to vasistha ramayana.

    you will see prabhu that the supreme is supreme regardless of u or me or anything that can be conceptualized.

    unfortunately for us living beings, our system of judgement and "measurement" is based on language and experiences.

    prabhu if i tell people i experience dreams where I am vishnu; does that make me vishnu prabdhu? 

    prabhu even the greatest dreams and experiences are not commiserate with what we are. 

    everything that you can describe is fruit of the conceptual mind; would u truly speak of the things that the great sages cannot speak about for that NO WORD can actually come when they even THINK of those things or states; thats nothing even there prabhu

    think of the best, God can create that to be the bottom of the ocean or hell itself. 

    ask God for nothing prabhu, u will obtain what you want faster than you even think.

    sit without asking, sit without practicing, it is counter intuitive, but trust me, enlightenment is not a matter of intuition. 

    don't move to attain samadhi or revelation, your laziness may be your spiritual response to something which you already have and know and feel you don't need. spiritual practices were written in an age where we couldn't give each other documentation nd information with the ease of today; today you can go online and go through everything great sages have meditated upon.

    before you lucky if you even heard gayatri mantra; now u can have gayatri mantra sung by 1000 different people with 1000 different musics for hours on youtube.

    people are not grateful to God of being born in Kali Yuga, they feel victimized and in pain, they wait for better times to reach enlightenment; prabhu that's not appropriate behavior, true devotees of God are always born in chaotic times to bring peace to people in suffering ; pbuLord Krishna, yada yada hi dharmasya, etc etc etc

    prabhu u may feel lazy because other things are more pressing: video games, television, women, good food, etc..

    enjoy those things until u feel satiated, then say thanks to God for every single chance to enjoy them.

    whether u decide to do these things now or later, your soul will do them if they are necessary.

    you may think that people who joined iskcon 2-3 years ago, took a vow are already spiritual masters; but our community uses these words too easily, a greater sense of communion is needed to really have any weight in these remarks,

    prabhu, if you have no peace and decorum in how you live, u cannot feel such things, decorum comes after u decide to STOP all things which bring u displeasure. if u hate sitting down for chanting mantra, u think God will do anything other than laugh by seeing u impose suffering on urself? 

    observe those around u, observe the older devotees, and come to them, and ask them to bring service unto u by having them share their stories; be a judge urself of their enlightenment NOT by comparing to scripture of which neither u or I know much about, but by using ur common sense.

    I've heard a mataji once tell me that living in new vrindaban is 1000x faster than living at any other krishna isckon temple; some devotees of the Lord have childish views even in their own very advanced doctrine. don't make mistake that by being born in iskcon = being enlightened soul already, and by chanting maha mantra x1, u already are going to krishnaloka.

    people subvert scriptures and saints speeches in order to fulfill 1st and foremost primal desires like desire to be appreciated and worshipped. 

    prabhu, my message to u is that spirituality is mainly and essentially a code of conduct to ensure that humans live happy with each other; in the golden ages there is no need to recite maha mantra, why? cuz everyone is legit? because everyone respects each other? because everyone is compassionate? prabhu, be compassionate, be gentle, be soft spoken. ur owns scriptures say that these beings who are like that ARE true devotees.

    Do you need krishna to tell u these things prabhu? listen to the soul and ur "conscience", what is right and wrong is sufficient, were u born in an age without the knowledge of Lord Krishna, would u have not practiced his religion regardless? what is the basis of krishna religion and teachings to arjun?

    krishna didn't speak Gita to be seen as god, but to correct his lost friend. isckon reveres him as God, but how much of the Isckon community has changed their lost ways?

    already understand the nature of ur determination, that's probably why you can't exceed or understand what you already understand even though you try continuously against yourself; u already know krishna is bhagavan, and yet, u try to know that more? it sounds kinda strange. on the flip side prabhu, how much of the orders and directions of the isckon lifestyle are u able to maintain in ur life?

    focus on those if thats ur goal and forget the things which are not concrete. 

    lastly, is it wrong to only be serious and sincere and execute krishna order? did krishna order people to chant maha mantra? no; he ordered arjun to be a yogi and to submit unto him afterwards. get it? how much of a yogi are u?

    krishna in gita spoke directly and gave direct meditation technique and practice.

    tell me what percentage of isckon actually sits down and fixes the eyes between the eyebrows like Krishna speaks in Gita?

    its like Krishna says in Gita: do x y and z. and people then look for others to help them follow krishna's orders, and so people end up doing a b and c. 

    • May lord krishna keep you in his mercy.

      You are your own trip n destiny; tryinhg to be spmeone other than who u reall are is the opposite of self exploration; i do not doubt that is why st least u are in kali yuga.

      Devotees of the lord condtantly ask for forgiveness perhaps because they are merciless with themselves holding purports that if they hear the lae once and the. Disobey guru they are filth.

      Such speech is not worthy in my opinion of any good person.

      We have opportunity to be good and bad trhougj life; iskcon morals are excellent in my opinion; i definitely benefit from them.

      It is difficult for people tp speak of devotion; in my experience devotion canot even bre understood but from extreme thankfullness. Extreme thankfulness in turn experienced in mpments of extreme despairz and uncommon generosity.
      Of this i mention that nectar is found in gita, i do not understand why people do these things.

      Why would acharyas write commentaires on gita; who can say they fully understand the supreme personality of godhead snd his medsage. I see decendant of decendant bring about broken and more personalized forms and understanding;

      Relly on krishna and bother him for all and all ur heart; why look gor a human guru when God himself speaks to u everydy??
    • Hare Krishna, Prabhu

      Thank you so much for taking your time to give me such a detailed reply.

      I don't know about others, Prabhu - what they do all the time in ISKCON or how sincerely they do.
      But what I do know is that I need the guidance of my spritiual master, Srila Prabhupada and his sincere devotees.

      That very common sense you speak of is lacking in me, Prabhu because my knowledge base itself is being corrupted by my association with the material world. I need the mercy of Krishna and his devotees without which I shall continue to stay in ignorance.

      As to why I took birth in the Kali yuga, I don't know that again. But regardless, I just wish I can execute God's orders with sincerity and that sincerity is lacking now in me, Prabhu. I hope with the association of devotees I will remember what is right and wrong and get motivated to go on the right path.

      Once again, thank you for your reply, Prabhu
      Please forgive me if I have offended you

      Hare Krishna
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