Procrastination ruins Meditation

Procrastination or postponement of duties and services, harms meditation practice. If a duty or service is left aside for another time, the mind stores a notation of postponement. It then exposes the coreSelf to that notation, repeatedly, at intervals of its own choosing.

When the yogi attempts to meditate, the mind presents the activity with an energy of inconvenience, which disrupts the meditation. It injures the state of mind, making it impossible to enter into a deep meditative state. This causes the yogi to focus on the duty or service. The mind must then decide whether it should put aside the meditation, until the said service of duty is completed. This takes time. It takes focusing energy which otherwise should be invested in the meditation.

This distraction was estimated as being negative for a yogi. That was supported by this statement to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita.

कर्मेन्द्रियाणि संयम्य

य आस्ते मनसा स्मरन् ।

इन्द्रियार्थान्विमूढात्मा

मिथ्याचारः स उच्यते ॥३.६॥

karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya

ya āste manasā smaran

indriyārthānvimūḍhātmā

mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate (3.6)

karmendriyāṇi — bodily limbs; saṁyamya — restraining; ya = yaḥ — who; āste — sits; manasā — by the mind; smaran — remembering; indriyārthān — attractive objects; vimūḍhātmā = vimūḍha — deluded + ātmā — self; mithyācāraḥ — deceiver; sa — he; ucyate — it is declared

A person who while restraining his bodily limbs sits, with the mind remembering attractive objects, is a deceiver. So it is declared. (Bhagavad Gita 3.6)

However, the remembering of the attractive objects need not be a voluntary or deliberate recall of anything. It could be an involuntary, compulsive display in the mind, something which holds the yogi’s focus, even if he does not desire to be aware of it.

Procrastination, postponement of obligatory actions, damages meditation. The permanent solution is to promptly complete the duties and services which one should perform.