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Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)

This paper presents the summary of Part one, chapter 5, from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.

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No Boundary, No Burden 

Who is responsible? It’s a big question. Responsibility does not mean taking on the burdens of the world. Responsibility simply means your ability to respond. The quality of our lives is determined by our ability to respond to the varied complex situations that we encounter. If you decide, “I am responsible,” you will have the ability to respond. If you decide, “I am not responsible,” you will not have the ability to respond. It is as simple as that.

Your physical existence is possible only because of your body’s seamless ability to respond to the entire universe. It is only your thoughts and emotions that need to become conscious of the fact. Taking responsibility simply means consciously responding to the situation. Once you take responsibility, you will look for solutions; and you will become secure within yourself. 

You become angry or stressed only when you compulsively react to a situation. Then your very chemistry is altered, and your system turns toxic. Your memories of past adversities distort your perception of the present, and your thoughts, emotions, and actions become disproportionate to the stimulus. But, if you take one hundred percent responsibility for the way you are now, it is possible to transform the greatest adversity into a stepping-stone for personal growth. 

Many believe that taking responsibility compromises their freedom. Your logical mind tells you, “Give up all responsibility and you will be free.” But in your experience of life, the more you are able to respond to everything around you, the freer you are! The ability to respond gives you the freedom to act; it offers you the choice of action. If you are willing, you can respond to just about anything. But your action has to be judiciously performed, depending on a careful analysis of resources.

Responsibility is about being and not about doing. When it comes to response, it is just a question of willingness. If you are willing to respond, you will explore various options. When it comes to action, capability could play a role; but responsibility does not mean capability. Life is a moment-to-moment dialogue with the universe. You don’t have to work at making it that way. You just have to see it the way it is. 

Every subatomic particle in your body is responding in a limitless way to the great dance of energies that is the cosmos. But the mind is resisting it because it is crippled by its own limited logic. Any limitation is only on the level of biology. On the level of human consciousness, you are like a bird in a cage without a door. It is only out of long aeons of habit that you are refusing to fly free. 

The possibility of ultimate freedom may seem deeply threatening to many. It doesn’t have to be this way. “I am not responsible” makes you unwilling to get along with anyone—until you can’t even get along with yourself. It often comes to a point when you believe you are not even responsible for what is happening within yourself! What the mind forgets is that the ability to respond is the basis of life.

Like responsibility, to be loving is also a willingness to respond freely and openly. Right now, it may be limited to one or two people in your lives. But it is possible to extend this ability to embrace the entire world. Love is not something you do; it is just the way you are. Love has nothing to do with someone else. You are only using the other person as a key to open up what is already within you. Once you experience this inner freedom of love, you will never experience insecurity in your life again.

A fundamental step would be to recognize consciously just this: “My ability to respond is limitless, but my ability to act is limited. I am one hundred percent responsible for everything I am and everything I am not, for my capacities and my incapacities, for my joys and my miseries. I am the one who determines the nature of my experience in this life and beyond. I am the maker of my life.” 

“God,” means that, which is responsible for everything in the universe. Therefore, taking unlimited responsibility is the simplest and easiest way for you to express your own divinity. The aim is to unshackle yourself from the limited identity you have forged, as a result of your own ignorance. Everything is here and now; and it lies only in one’s ability to respond

Limited responsibility is a way of drawing boundaries. Boundaries are burdensome. But if your responsibility is limitless, there is no boundary and no burden. Once you choose to become conscious of this simple fact—my ability to respond is limitless—suddenly life within you reorganizes itself in a completely different way. The inner revolution is about moving from unwillingness to willingness. You don’t have to do anything in particular. You just need to become a willing piece of life in this glorious living cosmos. 

Infinite responsibility is infinite willingness to perceive what is there. Then you can choose among the options available to you to act.

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