Gender Differences

It is true that many husbands are sensitive and affectionate, love their children deeply and are even willing to “help out”. But families make it very clear that such an offer of help is an act of generosity and the woman must be grateful for it, because his real job is his professional work, not raising children. In contrast, if the mother of young children goes back to work, she is suspect in all eyes, most of all in her own. Is she being selfish? Is she going against nature and denying her children their natural rights?
-----Mrinal Pande

Transcending Karma and Retribution

Transcending Karma and Retribution

Free will coupled with intelligent action and thought can, to a large extent, neutralise and make up for the limiting and binding effects of karma and destiny. The Bhagawad Gita (4, 19 and 4, 37) and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (2,16) also assure that intelligence (jnanagni) can quell the impact of all karma whereby difficulties, which would otherwise have ensued, can be preempted.

This intelligence is obtained by assiduous study, practice and application (sadhana) cultivating thus, a dominant free will within. Aeschylus observes how even gods join in when a person is eager and willing, while H W Longfellow sings (Psalm of Life), “Let us then be up and doing/With a heart for any fate”. This is also the application of W E Henley’s concept in his Invictus: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”