Responsibilities are something we are born with and they will follow us all of our lives. To start with we are all charged with two responsibilities we can never ignore; one is to improve ourselves and the other is to strive for balance in life. Also, we are responsible for what we take on in life; for the responsibilities we accept as we go along. Whatever we set in motion, we are responsible for the scope and nature of the activity that ensues; cause and effect. Cause and effect is one of the laws of creation that no human can evade.

The thing we learn as children is how to handle the responsibilities that we will incur as we go along in life. We are taught to be responsible to the degree that we understand the meaning of the word. Then again, there are times when we choose, of our own free will, to take on certain responsibilities and then later on we are sorry we did so. And we then begin to shirk our responsibility and that is not good. Then again, we may shoulder a responsibility that later on we can drop without any serious consequence, if we so desire. However, it is the fixed responsibilities that we can not get away from that we must learn to live with. Oftentimes we are saddled with responsibilities that we did not ask for and in most cases this is our karma coming into play. Because there was no desire on our part to take on the responsibilities in the first place we often rebel not knowing that this is our karma. First and always this is a lesson world and lessons and responsibilities become one and the same thing.

Many times when we are on the other side, and we are planning our next life here, we do take on a greater load than we should, and oftentimes we can not carry the load, so we leave this life at an early age unless we are very strong. Sometimes we take on the responsibility of caring for an elderly parent which at the time seems like a heavy burden, yet later on after the parent is gone we are very happy we did what we could do to help them and make them happy in their last days.

Quite often a child will say to a parent, I did not ask to be born, which is a very incorrect statement because they very much asked to be born. It was their greatest desire to be born or they wouldn't be here. To help make a parent happy and comfortable in their old age is indeed good karma. They cared for us when we were helpless and oftentimes sick and now it is our time to help them.

When a couple decides to have children they accept an eighteen year responsibility that they should never renege on. They have taken on the responsibility of giving that child the best care and guidance possible while they are growing up.

Responsibilities come in many forms and in many degrees such as sole responsibilities, joint responsibilities and group responsibilities, and one person can be involved in all three at the same time. Some people, however, take to and accept responsibility while others run when the word is mentioned. This in turn depends on whether or not they have a strong nervous system. If they have a weak nervous system they cannot face hard responsibilities no matter how hard they may try. So, their responsibility in life is to gain a stronger nervous system and not to weaken it still more in this life. Transcendental Meditation, however, will greatly strengthen the nervous system as one continues the practice.

The mistake in life is in asking one with a weak nervous system to shoulder too heavy a responsibility because they simply are not equipped to do so. Even if they are willing to do so, they cannot handle the load, and when you most need them they are nowhere to be found. Sometimes we expect too much out of people and when we do we are often in for a big disappointment. Generally speaking, a strong person believes others are, or should be, just as strong as he is and in reality this is simply not the case. Strength gravitates to strength and weakness to weakness. It is, however, the strong that should help the weak to become stronger and not make them weaker by forcing them beyond their capacity.

The Bible says the meek shall inherit the earth, but the weak will never inherit the earth or much else. The projection should be to become stronger and the way to do this is to take on certain responsibilities, but not too much at any one time, as one will grow stronger with time, consideration and effort. A weak person being around strong persons tends to become stronger by association and admiration. Another thing, strong people who take on given responsibilities have a way of being successful in what they do, while the weak deal mostly in failure. It has been said that there are no great men. They are simply men who, thrust into a given situation at a time of great need, lived up to the responsibility placed on them and they carried through to success.

Generally, those in the mode of ignorance neither feel nor have a sense of responsibility. They merely roll along in life looking for help from any source available and do so with very little sense of pride or self maintenance. Those in the mode of passion very often desire to take on the responsibilities of the world. They are very active and very intense in regards to what they do and that is usually too much, and many depart this world in their middle age years. That is why there are so many wealthy women in the world. Then there are those in the mode of goodness who are usually on the path of spirituality. They have a deep concern for humanity, but they also understand reincarnation and karma. They lend their help where they are able to help and leave alone that which they have no control over. They thoroughly understand their responsibilities and they live up to them, realizing that their principle responsibility is to gain as much spiritual development as possible in this life, and by their light be a guide to those who ask for guidance. They do not rush out and try to save the world because they are only too aware that many people haven't the consciousness to be saved. They know that humans are like children; they must grow into responsibility and into awareness of the goal of life.

Most people in the world wish to be happy, but they do not yet realize that a direct pursuit of happiness does not produce happiness. Happiness comes as a by-product of selfless service and not from selfish motivation for personal gain and personal happiness at the expense of others.

The final great responsibility we all have is to find the path of liberation and once initiated onto the path to stay faithful to the practice and reach the goal of life as soon as we are able. So, ages ago we took on the responsibility for human evolution; the responsibility for our actions, our speech and our thoughts. And now we are coming to the close of human life on this earth where we may lay down our responsibilities and hear the Father say in all love, “Well done you may now come home and go no more out; you have faced your responsibilities and you have fully matured and you are now one with me for eternity.”