The DNA Of Leadership🔗

Thursday 4th April, 2013

Today, I will expand on the third principle – ‘Responsibility’, and the unique relationship it carries, the unique equation it carries, to construct the reality of your choice.

Let me define responsibility once more. Please listen! I am defining responsibility.

Responsibility means, thinking, feeling, acting and cognizing life from the truth that you are the source of everything; therefore, you are responsible for all happenings inside you and around you.

Please listen! Responsibility is thinking, feeling, acting, responding and cognizing from the truth that you are the source of everything!

Listen! I am not talking to you about some corporate values and principles, or on something that rishis have uttered in the upanishads.

I am talking to you about what I have directly experienced, which you have to experience. I am talking from the context of being responsible for making you responsible.

Be very clear, the person who talks has only one reason – of making you responsible. I am responsible to make you experience responsibility as I have experienced it.

A person with eyes is responsible to give vision to a blind person.

œ A person with wealth is responsible to guide a poor man to wealth.

œ A person with power is responsible to make powerless people become powerful.

œ A person with energy is responsible to make energy-less people full with energy.

œ A person with knowledge is responsible to make ignorant people knowledgeable!

If you have knowledge, the moment you have knowledge, you become responsible to make the ignorant, knowledgeable. If you are powerful, you become responsible to make the powerless, powerful. If you are wealthy, you become responsible to make the poor, wealthy.

Listen! I am not saying distribute your wealth. If there are ten poor people, and you distribute all your wealth to the ten poor people, then with you, we will have eleven poor people; that's all! With you, we will have eleven poor people; one more poor person! No! I am not asking you to distribute your wealth; I am asking you to take the responsibility of educating them and making them rich. You become responsible to share anything you own, and make it grow.

The Vedic tradition beautifully says, 'annam bahu kurveetha!' Let us create and share! This is the vision statement I have given for all the Nithyananda annalayas that will start all over the world. All the satsanghis should know that I have initiated a project of sharing food all over the world, because sharing food is Vedic culture. We are an agricultural society. Vedic tradition is a grain-based society, a grain-based civilization. So, sharing was our lifestyle. That is why, no ritual, no festival, no celebration is complete in Indian tradition, without sharing food.

annam bahu kurveetha When you own, you become responsible to make everyone own. Because I own responsibility, I own the responsibility of making everyone own the responsibility.

There are only two types of human-beings on planet Earth - those who feel responsible for everything and those who don't feel responsible for anything. These are the only two types of human-beings.

Listen! People who feel responsible become leaders. People who don't feel responsible continue to be slaves.

There are some people who don't feel responsible even for their own actions, because they forgot that their action is going to bring this result. Many times, even when they plan for business, they only plan who they will hold responsible, if it fails! They don't plan to make it successful. Holding somebody else responsible is not going to solve your problem.

Plan for success! Don't plan for failure. When you plan itself, if you get a thought, 'If this fails what to do?' you immediately think, 'I will hold him responsible!' But you holding him responsible is not going to bring you success. Even as the thought comes - 'I will hold him responsible,' cut it. Holding somebody else responsible is not going to solve the issue. See to it that he is educated to make things successful.

Listen! How many of you cognize, what I am saying? Many times, when you plan itself, in your mind, if you think you can hold somebody responsible, you think that you have planned perfectly? Raise your hand.

You are wrong! Holding somebody else responsible is not going to make the work happen. Listen! Work not done plus valid reason is not equivalent to work done!

Work not done plus valid reason is not equivalent to work done! Only work done is equivalent to work done. Anything else is not equivalent to work done!

There are some people, the only thing they know is this - 'How to manipulate the boss? How to answer the boss? How to stop the boss from pushing?' That's all! They spend their whole life with only this one thing and also retire with it! Of course, the day they join work and learn this art of not allowing anybody to make them feel responsible, they have retired! Retirement does not happen. It is not based on the day you stop going to the office. It is based on the day you stop taking responsibility!

You become responsible to make everyone responsible.

Listen! There are some people who don't take responsibility even for the actions they do or are supposed to do; they don't take responsibility even for their own existence! Because they did not visualize that the results will come in this way, for the actions they did. People who don't take responsibility even for their own actions remain as slaves forever!

Second, there are a few people who take responsibility for their actions. They live a middle-class life as human beings – with one house, one car, one wife, two kids, may be one affair somewhere. A middle-class life! This is what I call neo-middle-class, happening in India. Life lived as mediocre, middle-class level, is not going to fulfill you!

There is another class - people who take responsibility even for others' actions. When you take responsibility even for others actions, for others' irresponsibility, you become a leader.

Even if you are not the reason for a certain happening, if it is affecting you, only if you take the responsibility will you solve it. I will tell you from my own experience. Only when I take responsibility even for others' actions, I will be able to solve the problem from the root, at the root level.

Whatever may be disturbing you and your life's mission, even if you are not the reason, you are responsible! Listen. Being a reason is different, being responsible is different!

Many times, even if you are not the direct reason, only when you take responsibility is it solved. Leaders are created with the DNA of responsibility. Responsibility is the software for a leader's inner space.

Again, I want to remind you. If an egg is broken from the outside, a life is destroyed; it is end of the life; life is killed. If the egg is broken from the inside, then life is happening; life is starting! If the egg is broken from the outside, life ends. If the egg is broken from the inside, life starts!

If your cognition is broken from the outside, you shrink, demolish yourself, destroy yourself and fall into depression. It happens if you are irresponsible! If you stand with responsibility, the egg breaks from the inside and life starts!

Take responsibility not only for your actions, but also for everything which affects your life, even if it is others' actions. Only when you feel and decide that you are responsible, you will even look into the direction of solving the problem. And only then will you solve the problem! Until then, you will just be blaming others with, 'He is responsible!'

‘He is responsible!’ ‘He is responsible!’ He is responsible, all right, but blaming one another is not going to make you successful! You can may be manage your boss by saying, ‘He is responsible!’, ‘He is responsible!’ But that will not solve the problem!

Why don’t we take responsibility? If you receive ten thousand rupees salary from your office, as the first step in your life, you think, ‘Oh, for this ten thousand rupees salary, I am already taking enough responsibility! Why should I take more responsibility when they are only paying me ten thousand?’

Don’t be foolish! Taking responsibility is going to first help you to live an expanded life! It is not a favour that you are doing for your boss!

Listen! The first thing you need to understand is that the ten thousand rupees is not a measure of you and your service. Second, you need to understand that by you not taking responsibility, you are not destroying your boss’s possibility; you are destroying your possibility! It is like you destroy your possibility and you think that your boss will be suffer. You drink poison and you expect your boss to die!

When you don’t take responsibility, you destroy your own possibility!

First, decide that you are going to be in your peak possibility by constantly taking responsibility. Taking responsibility is the right mental set-up. It is not as if you are doing a favour to anybody by taking responsibility. By taking responsibility, you are doing a favour to yourself! It is the greatest favour you do to yourself. When you break the pattern, ‘Why should I take responsibility,’ your life starts! When you build the pattern, ‘Why should I take responsibility’ your death starts! When you stop taking responsibility, even if you are alive, you are not living. You are just waiting to be buried!

Unless you feel that you are responsible, you will never look into solving any issue. Unless the cognitive shift of 'I am responsible for everything!' happens in you, nothing, nothing is possible! Listen! Let the cognitive shift happen in you. Let you understand, 'I am responsible for everything!'

A sannyasi is not a person who does not feel responsible. He feels responsible for the whole world! He is not an 'out-fit' of the society; he is an 'over-fit' for the society!

When you feel that you are responsible, I tell you, even your body will be ready to be healed, not just the mind! When you feel responsible, your mind will already be healed, your body will be ready to be healed and even society will change its attitude towards you! Even the people with whom you live will change their attitude towards you!

Listen! The whole world is a hologramic structure, the universe is a hologramic structure. What is there in the macrocosm is also there in the microcosm. If you have seen a hologram, what is the largest picture in it? For example, if there is a ten-meter by ten-meter hologram or a picture or a photograph, even if you cut that into several ten-millimetre by ten-millimetre ones, the same picture will be there inside that. That is a hologram.

The universe functions with the principles of a hologram. It means, that whatever is in the macrocosm - the whole universe, is also there inside your body - the microcosm! If you dissect, dissect and dissect, go into a small atom, the brahmanda (macrocosm) will be there in the pindanda (microcosm). Whatever is there in the pindanda is there in the brahmanda. The cosmos functions with the principle of a hologram.

Responsibility is the DNA which awakens the cosmic hologram in you, the macrocosmic hologram in the microcosmic body. If you want to experience the macrocosmic hologram in the microcosm, awaken responsibility. When you feel responsible, your whole life changes!

The macrocosm and microcosm are just mirroring each other's possibility. When you feel the responsibility for existence, you become existence and existence feels responsible for you!

œ If you feel that you are poor, take responsibility for it.

œ If you feel that you are sick, take responsibility for it.

œ If you feel that you are not having the right relationship in life, take responsibility for it.

œ If you feel that you are not in the right space, take responsibility for it.

œ If you feel that you are not in the right place, take responsibility for it.

Continuously take responsibility for everything!

I have seen some people shivering in front of responsibility. Responsibility is not death which has come to take away your life. It is Yama (Lord of death), who came to make you enlightened! Be authentic like Nachiketa. Then death will be Yama, who will make you enlightened!

Go on feeling constantly responsible, responsible, and responsible! Go on feeling responsible for everything. When you feel responsible, your inner space will find a solution for it.

Responsibility makes everything, from your ordinary desire to your desire for the ultimate space of desireless-ness, as reality in your life. From an ordinary desire to have a good meal

tomorrow to your desire to be in the desire less space of enlightenment forever, everything becomes a reality. Everything is realized when you take responsibility.

Responsibility is not just a cognitive shift, it is a new cognition itself. With responsibility, a new life, a new possibility happens to you. A new being happens to you. You become a new person with everything. So, naturally, everything responds to you as a new person. Responsibility has universal value - as an individual for you to flourish in your life, as a family to be a stable family, as a team to deliver what you have to deliver, as a community to support each other - at every level. I tell you, when you serve teaching responsibility, you become a leader. I have seen many people serve for their whole life, but they never become leaders.

I started feeling responsible at the age of eleven. One day, there was a cricket match that was happening. I was eleven years old at that time. In those days, the radio was very popular. I was never interested in cricket from the beginning. In one cricket match, India lost and Pakistan won. One of my classmates, a Muslim boy was jumping, enjoying and celebrating it. So my Math teacher told that boy, ‘Ye, India is your country! You should not celebrate the loss of India!’ But that boy said, ‘No! My people taught me that Pakistan is our country!’ So he was celebrating.

I watched this conversation, but could not understand. First of all, as an eleven year old boy I did not understand what Pakistan was and what India was. And I also did not know what cricket was. But this Math teacher was kind of a close friend to me. I asked him, ‘What is happening? Why are you telling that boy what you just told him now? He was my friend. We used to play together.’

In those days, the Indian villages never had this problem of different religions and all that. It was like one family, one society. So I asked the teacher, ‘Why are you telling him what you just told him?’Then the teacher explained to me, ‘This is India. That is Pakistan. Our country lost in cricket and he should not be celebrating for it. But he is celebrating it, because our enemy country won.’

I was only bothered about one thing. I asked him immediately, ‘If our country lost, does that mean will they take away our temple?’ That is the first thing I asked.

He said, ‘No, no, no! It is only a cricket match! We will not lose Arunachaleshwara temple!’ Because that was my life! I did not bother about what India or Pakistan or cricket was. I only knew one thing – the Arunachaleshwara temple. The place where I used to play whole day and where I lived was very important in my life!

‘Will they take away our temple?’ That’s all I asked him! He said, ‘No, no, no! Don’t worry! The temple will not be taken away. The temple will continue to be with us. After that I was not interested in anything. I left it. I said, ‘Alright, then I don’t care!’ and I went away.

After a few days, in another situation, the teacher explained to a few of us who used to go to his

house for tuition. He said, ‘Long ago, there was a riot in our place. Two religions and religious people attacked each other and killed each other. It was a Ganesh chaturthi festival.’

Then, I started budding with responsibility, for the first time.

I asked him, ‘What can we do so that this does not ever happen again?’ He said, ‘We should organize programs, festivals and functions. We should invite them to our functions and we should go to their functions.’

I said, ‘Yes, I will do this,’ and for the first time in my life, I organized a Ganesh chaturthi function and called some of my Muslim friends and celebrated it.

And then I went to the local mosque. After they finished their chanting, they would come and blow the through the mouth, and bless the visitors. This is still there in villages. Once they finished chanting their Quran, they would come out and blow the air by chanting Quran. So I went to attend that ritual.

I tell you, after I decided to take that responsibility, even my idea about myself changed. What I was feeling about ‘me’ itself has changed. I was a different person. I tell you, I’ll say that this incident is more important for my happening than me spending time with Arunagiri Yogishwara!

LISTEN! Listen to the statement I am making! I will say that this incident is more responsible for my happening, because the incident with Arunagiri Yogishwar would have anyway happened. To realize who I am is not a big thing. But to take the responsibility for who I am is the real thing!

Realizing who I am is not the real thing. Taking responsibility for who I am is the real thing!

My experience with Arunagiri Yogishwara was only for the realization of ‘who I am’. But this incident is about ‘taking responsibility for who I am!’

That was the first function I organized. I went around and collected money from all of my pre-monastic family, friends, and even from people on the street. I went and called the temple officers, the local VIPs as guests, and organized a pandal with garlands and decoration items. I did the decoration myself with a few disciples and arranged all the music instruments and arathi vessels.

I think that I started almost all the departments that day - publication department, spreading department, temple, sacred-arts - I started almost all departments at the age of eleven! What we are now doing as sangha, I started doing this at the age of eleven! I tell you, I have just been continuously expanding, expanding and expanding from that time! Life is just expanding, expanding and expanding, nothing but expanding!

If you are a housewife, take responsibility for that. If you are working, take responsibility for that. If you are a father, take responsibility for that. If you are a student, take responsibility for that. If you are a son, take responsibility for that. Whatever dimensions you have in your life, take responsibility for everything.

Unless you experience the ultimate as reality, you are not going to feel fulfillment, you are not going to experience completion. The ultimate will happen only when you take responsibility, only when you become responsible. Only when you become responsible does the ultimate happen!

Know very clearly that unless you take responsibility, nothing will be solved in your life. When you take responsibility, everything in your life will start happening as you want it. You will create the reality of your choice!

It is responsibility which makes you experience you that are a 'Being'. Only responsibility makes you experience that you are a possibility. Responsibility makes you experience everything you want in your life. Responsibility makes you experience the choice of your reality.

The essence of today's satsang is this. Only Responsibility can make you experience the reality of your choice. Responsibility makes you experience the highest possibility. Responsibility makes you experience the highest reality.

I bless you all to achieve, experience, live, express, radiate, share, explode and enrich with enlightenment! Let you all achieve, experience, live, express, radiate, share, explode and enrich with eternal bliss – 'Nithyananda'! Thank you!

Listen! One of the biggest problems we have is this - 'Let me have the power, status and position first. Then, I will take the responsibility.' No! Take the responsibility and build the state inside you. Then, the cosmos gives you the status.