Two Scholars

Responsibility

The word responsibility has been continuously used in the wrong way. It gives a feeling of burden: you have to do it, it is a duty; if you don’t do it you will feel guilty. I want to remind you that the word responsibility has none of those connotations. Break the word in two – response-ability – and you enter a totally different meaning of the word, in a different direction. Response-ability is not a burden. It is not a duty; it is not something you have to do in spite of yourself.

Response-ability simply means spontaneous response. Whatever situation arises, joyously you respond to it, with your totality, with your intensity. And this response will not only change the situation, it will also change you.

There are two words to be remembered: one is reaction and one is response-ability. Most people react, they don’t respond. Reaction comes from your memory, from your past experiences, from your knowledge; it is always inadequate in a fresh, new situation. And existence is continuously fresh. So if you act according to your past, that is a reaction. But that reaction is not going to change the situation, it is not going to change you, and you will be in utter failure.

Response is moment-to-moment. It has nothing to do with memory, it has something to do with your awareness. You see the situation with clarity; you are clean, silent, serene. Out of this serenity, spontaneously you act. It is not reaction, it is action. You have never done it before, but the beauty of it is that it will suit the situation, and it will be a joy to you to know that you are capable of being spontaneous.

Then we have a question – “What is the relationship between love and responsibility?” No relationship, because love is responsibility. But the word has to be understood well – what it means. I insist on the root meaning of the word. Responsibility means “ability to respond.” It does not mean duty.

Responsibility – go to the root meaning of the word: it means responding. Love is a response. When the other calls, you are ready. When the other invites, you enter the other. When the other is not inviting, you don’t interfere, you don’t trespass. When the other sings, you sing in response. When the other gives you her or his hand, you take it with deep response.

Responsibility means openness, readiness, to respond. Somebody is calling and you don’t respond, you remain closed. Somebody wants to love you but you don’t help, you don’t cooperate. Rather, you create barriers. If this is what you are doing – and the majority of lovers go on doing this. When the other calls, you don’t respond; then when you call, the other does not respond. When the other calls, you see that it will be a good ego-enhancing thing not to respond. Then you feel your own master: nobody can push you, and nobody can pull you into something which you were not going into already. You don’t follow anybody.

Comes your beloved – and she is happy, and she would like to be in a deep silence with you, but you remain closed. Then when you call, there is no answer. Have you seen birds calling each other? That is a responsibility. A cuckoo calls; there is silence and then another cuckoo responds. By their sounds, by their song, they answer. They may be far away in farther away trees, then they start flying closer. They have responded. By and by they come to the same tree, then they are sitting together, loving.

When the other beings are called “Ready!” be ready. Respond with your totality. Don’t be a miser – that is the meaning of responsibility.