Busy-ness

Came across this wonderful passage recently when I was reading about Gandhiji.

Gandhi was sworn to punctuality, and his life was governed by the watch to an unusual degree; though it should at once be added that despite keeping to a meticulous schedule for much of his life, Gandhi’s conception of time was never such that it did not allow him to make time for anyone, howsoever high or lowly, who should choose to enter into his life or make demands upon him. That pernicious word ‘busy’,1 with which we all excuse ourselves from the common obligations of humanity, and the onerous company of unwanted relatives, acquaintances, and others who seek to intrude uponour time, was surely no part of Gandhi’s lexicon.23

I guess there is a logical reason for this, notwithstanding the humanitarian one. It is that if you live by your plan, you close your mind to new experiences and in a way to life.

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  1. Emphasis mine []
  2. Emphasis mine []
  3. From ‘Hey Ram’: The Politics of Gandhi’s Last Words, Vinay Lal, Published in Humanscape 8, no. 1 (January 2001):34-38. []