Procrastination is the carrying forward of misery || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)
Question: Does procrastination imply that the priorities in the life are wrong?
Acharya Prashant: What is this thing about sending something, delegating something to the future. What is this thing about procrastination? Would you ever postpone something to the future if you are really in love with it? Would you do that? You would not do that, right? But then procrastination happens to be a way of life with most of us.
We will do it tomorrow!
What does it tell us about the quality of our life?
We are not in love with what we are doing. We don’t find joy in it and hence there is a tendency to lose time.
A few words go along with Intelligence: Joy, Freedom, Love. They happen only in Intelligence. They are not carried forward from the past. Neither Love, nor Freedom, nor Intelligence. They are always in this moment.
But misery is carried forward, boredom is carried forward, inattention is carried forward, repetition is carried forward, habits are carried forward.
Whatsoever is unworthy is always carried forward, taken ahead and whatsoever is really worthy lives and dies in this moment.
Relationships are carried forward, Love cannot be carried forward. Pleasure can be carried forward, Joy cannot be carried forward. It is right now, in this moment and the moment is gone, Joy will also go. You may have to rediscover your Joy again in the very next moment. There is no inertia in it. Only matter has inertia to it.
Freedom, Love, Joy, Truth, they are right now without any inertia. You cannot have inventory of them. You cannot freeze and store them in the refrigerator, to be used tomorrow. Love; to be used tomorrow! Freedom;
You cannot say, ‘I was quite free today. Partially I used the freedom today, rest for tomorrow’. No, it can’t be carried forward.
Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.