"Laziness is a negative state. One should be overflowing with energy. One should be at ease, but not lazy. One should be relaxed, but not lazy.

"Laziness and easiness look so alike that it is very easy to misunderstand which is which. If you are enjoying your aloneness, it cannot be laziness because laziness always feels a certain guilt, a certain feeling that 'I am doing something that I should not be doing,' that 'I am not participating in existence.' Laziness means you have dropped out of the creativity of the universe – you are standing aside while the universe goes on creating day in, day out.

"You are misunderstanding laziness for easiness.

"My whole teaching is: take everything with absolute relaxation, with ease. Whether you are doing something or not, that is not the point. You must be overflowing with energy even when you are not doing anything. These trees are not doing anything, but they are overflowing with energy. You can see that in their flowers, in their colors, in their greenery, in their freshness, in their absolute naked beauty in the sunlight, in the dark night under the stars.

"Life is not a tension anywhere except in the minds of humanity. To take life with ease, without any tension, without any hurry – that is not laziness, that is easiness.

"I am reminded of one of the very learned scholars of Bengal. His name was Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. He was going to be awarded the highest prize that the British Empire had in India, for his scholarship.

"But he used to live in a very simple way, and his friends forced him – 'It won't look right standing before the viceroy in the Parliament House, before all the members of the parliament and all the other dignitaries. We will make a beautiful dress for you, we will bring you good shoes.' He was reluctant, but they were insistent, so finally he agreed.

"But there was uneasiness in his mind; in his heart, there was not total acceptance. To change your style of life just because you are going to receive an award from the hands of the viceroy looked to him like a compromise."