Chapter 81அதிகாரம் 81 பொறுப்பு Responsibility

The words “Someone will carry it” are where the burden no one carries begins.

“I will cut the root and grow higher,” he says; and when he has fallen, “Who cut it?”

When one of the two pillars holding up a weight is taken away, the pillar left standing carries the whole burden.

Branches break; do those who eat the fruit ever weigh the strength of the branch they stood on, trusting it?

To the eye of one who has taken on a charge, every anthill is a snake; to those who walk barefoot, it is earth.

Cobras may shelter in anthills. Responsibility, not exposure, changes what catches the eye.

Whoever holds up the land becomes the land; when such a one crumbles in heart, the land crumbles.

To bear the land is to hold it up, as ground holds up all that stands on it.

Those who do their own duty are worthy; honour belongs only to those who say of another’s duty, “It is mine to do.”

The Tamil word for duty also means debt.

She carves with a crooked tool and insists that every stone is crooked.

Their umbrella is theirs to hold; those who do not hold it soak their own heads.

In endless mud there is no footing. Yet it is not the mud: our own unchanging step is the mud.