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Procrastination Enemy

Procrastination, which is the habit or tendency to delay performing functions, is one of the most vicious and successful enemies of a yogi. Procrastination is also contagious, where it can move from the psyche of someone into a yogi, such that a yogi who does not have it as a habit or regular tendency, develops it by being in association with anyone who is habituated to it.

One of the dangerous vrittis mental operations which Patanjali warned about is memory. This function works in harmony with procrastination to defeat a yogi’s objective and also to make a yogi into a hypocrite where he/she pretends to be a faithful yogi, while in fact, this person secretly cooperates with the delay tendency which undermines the association that student yogi gets from the teacher.

There are so many students of yoga practice who do not adhere to the instruction of Patanjali in his second sutra where he says that yoga means ceasing the chittavritti mento-emotional agitations in the mind. If one procrastinates, that is one way of undermining the instruction of Patanjali, but why cry, if one is not successful in yoga practice, if one does not adhere to the methods recommended by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras?

When something is to be done, when something should be promptly done, when there is pleasure in the mind because one can delay a necessary action, at that time, there is an effort in the mind on the psychic level to store information about the delayed action. This storage is costly. The memory chamber must log the event and put a tag on it for future referral. The intellect must note that the action will not be committed immediately. To avoid negative consequences for the self, the intellect must make a deadline for when the action should be committed.

These psychological calculations cause inefficiency in the psychological energy of the self. That negatively impacts meditation because the intellect will have to interrupt some meditation sessions, and regular mental activity, to give alerts about the neglect of the action so as to motivate the self to get the delayed function committed.

A yogi should not procrastinate. If possible, he should avoid associating with people who do. Procrastination is contagious. However, if one is unable to avoid someone who is habituated to procrastination, one should be aware of the danger of such association. It will negatively impact one’s meditation. When one feels the influence of procrastination, one should promptly commit the action. That is the method for crushing the tendency for delay.

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