Give father a break

A person living in society but aspiring to be a jnani goes through two stages in his life. As a householder (grihastha) he plays out all roles correctly and purifies his mind through right action. Then as a sannyasi (in-house mostly) he withdraws from daily responsibilities and focuses more on reading and discussing spiritual matters, trying to gain jnyana. Both these stages are important to evolution.

It is the duty of a father to start off a healthy grihastha life for his child. And it is the duty of a son to make possible a peaceful sannyasi life for his parents.

I hope I can do the first one. Definitely did not do the second one for my father. Till the last he had to remain bogged down in running the administration of his house and other daily chores, while I lived abroad. That should not have been so.

The 4th test match

Recently, I heard an excellent analogy to the attitude of a karma yogi.

Imagine that in a 5-test series, one team has already won the first three. They have practically wrapped up the series. So what is their attitude in the 4th test match? They are happy and satisfied because they have already won the big event and even losing this match can be taken in their stride. Yet they still strive to put in a good performance, maybe break some records for the books. There is no tension on their face and they respond to the other team's desperate sledging with grins!

The karma yogi knows that he is complete already, a winner of the series. Various things may please him and he will put in full effort for them but he is not tense about getting or not getting them. He does not build his own image out of ther people's comments. He is smiling inside.

Bounce

Karma and free will.
The wall and the ball.
Things happening just now, the present moment, is immutable.
What we decide to do just now is flexible.
Sometimes we are deluded into thinking it is the other way around.
Instead of trying to change the wall, let's learn how to bounce the ball.