I was reading the Hindi book Shishya Upanishad by Sirshree and would like to translate and share a part of the chapter that brought about a huge transformation in my life— “Laziness is an obstacle in material as well as spiritual life. It keeps us entangled in the world of imagination and thoughts and we are not able to accomplish anything.”

“Thoda magar aaj— Do a little today— this mantra creates awareness within us and inspires us to complete a task on time. It helps us to shake off our laziness and is a simple and unique way to success.”

As I read this I asked myself, is it really this simple? Why don’t I give it a try? The very next day I had guests for lunch and missed my daily riyaaz. I was doing my 3rd level classical music exams, so riyaaz for a minimum of an hour every day was a must. But as I applied this mantra I thought— “okay! I am too tired right now to work for an hour, let me do it for 20 minutes. My mind agreed to this and tada! I was able to do it.

Normally the day I would miss my riyaaz I would feel guilty and then I would be put off with myself. And this would bug me even more and my riyaaz quality would go down the second day too!

But as I received this mantra, I would coax myself to work for smaller time slots rather than missing… and there were many times when it would get late in the night and yet I would sit for my riyaaz if not for 20 minutes at least 10 minutes. This made me feel positive and disciplined. It assuaged all my guilt for missing an hour of riyaaz. The daily continuity made me feel connected to my riyaz and there were many times when the 20 minutes would automatically turn into an hour.

So, this small mantra really helped me achieve my big results— I scored a distinction in my exam. I applied it to various aspects of my life, I was able to lose weight and maintain it. There are many times when I exercise for five minutes or I even do one suryanamskar when I am in a hurry.

Daily morning meditation was another challenging area. Yes… here again, I meditate for at least five minutes even when I am in a hurry.

I realized the mantra helped me with 2 important things—Daily continuity and killing my guilt for not doing a task. And these in turn helped me achieve success for my set goals.

So, on this auspicious occasion of Gurupurnima, I would like to dedicate this learning to my Guru Sirshree and express my heartfelt thanks to him for all the various kripas he’s bestowed me with.

Dhanyawad Sirshree!!!