"We have the right to perform our duties but should not be attached to the outcomes of our actions. It's about acting with sincerity and responsibility without being overly concerned about the results."
Lord Krishna
Bhagwad Gita
Chapter 2, Verse 47
Garima, I can't recall our karmic relationship from past lives that has us defaulting to a father-daughter dynamic, where I can't say no to her, and neither she completely free in my presence. It's difficult to deny those you live with, even when they're in the wrong. Everyone is here to fulfill their own vasanas, not someone else's.
This morning, Garima came down from her bedroom in a hurry. She didn't wake up Anuj, our driver appointed to take her to the bus stop, which would then take her to her college 45 kilometers away. Garima met Pooja, our cook who also works in two other places. Pooja, who also has a scooty, chose to help Garima get to the bus stop. Normally, I would consider this a kind and intelligent act on both their parts, but this time it felt like casual confidence, not well-thought-out. The logic is simple; she didn't think about the petrol or the time she took from Pooja's busy schedule, which should have been kept for emergencies.
Every evening, all the kids in the family, along with anyone interested, gather in my study to read and discuss books. I read, translate, and share my opinions, experiences, and insights. I record these sessions and share them as a video series on YouTube and our website, reaching thousands. Repeatedly, the kids provide feedback that live sessions are more engaging and effective than watching the same videos later on their phones. There's power in presence. Aman and Nandini, who were once frequent visitors, now rarely find the time to watch from Bengaluru, where they've shifted due to their jobs.
Today, Garima brought a handwritten leave application for the evening class because she needed to prepare a project for her college. It seemed funny on the surface, but deep down, it exposed casualness. To draw a comparison, Shreesh, the youngest of the students and my son, approached me two days ago, expressing his desire to attend the class, despite having incomplete homework. He genuinely didn't want to miss out on the topics we were covering, like levels of human consciousness and unfair advantages in business. His request seemed so sincere that I postponed those topics for the next day and chose to discuss how to develop confidence, something I'd been planning for weeks. Even before the class was half over, Shreesh joined us, saying he'd completed most of the homework and would finish the rest after the class. I would categorize this as diligence.
Vaibhav, our eldest son, who has been with us for three years, developed casual interest in these classes and later turned serious. However, in the past few weeks, since he's taken an interest in making movies, he prefers to skip a class to print or read scripts. For him, not the entire session, but only a few selected parts are worth attending.
Shravan is a new addition to these evening sessions and has the weakest English. Originally from Bihar, he worked as a welding technician in a factory. He began watching my YouTube videos in Delhi, then requested to join our Zenoga basic course, which we usually sell for ₹12,500, but I gave it to him for free because he couldn't afford it. His eagerness grew stronger, and he showed up at our doorstep, asking to stay with us, take any unpaid day job available, and sit in these classes. I asked my manager, Dilip Singh, to assess his work attitude. If he was diligent and not lazy, we'd hire him. After one week, Dilip's response was that Shravan was really good, and we should hire him. My experience in the evening classes is similar. He sits through the whole session, be it one class or more than two after a full day of hard work. He still has the energy not only to attend the class but also to help me with editing. I would categorize this as very diligent.
So it's not just about performing actions without focusing on results, but doing them diligently and not for someone else, but for oneself. Every action we take produces a result in the world and also shapes us. If our actions are casual, we get weaker; if they are serious, we get stronger.