Why are there so many PROBLEMS in the World today…YOU ARE THE WORLD!

“You are the world… without you, there is no world. You must understand the
whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why
you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems
and suffer and understand, for all that is life.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
This is one way of understanding the statement: that the individual is the only
reality. And the world is nothing but the collectivity of individuals, so whatever it
is, it is a contribution of individuals. If it is ugly, you have contributed to its
ugliness. If it is full of hate, jealousy, anger, greed, ambition, you have contributed
to this whole hell in which we are living. You cannot throw the responsibility on
somebody else; you have to accept the responsibility on your own shoulders.

J. Krishnamurti’s statement that “You are the world” simply emphasizes the fact
that every individual, wherever he is, whatever he is, should accept the
responsibility of creating this world that exists around us. If it is insane, you have
contributed to that insanity in your own way. If it is sick, you are also a partner in
making it sick. And the emphasis is important – because unless you understand
that “I am also responsible for this miserable and insane world,” there is no
possibility of change. Who is going to change? Everybody thinks somebody else
is responsible.

One of India’s great emperors was Akbar. There is an incident in his life recorded
in AKBAR MAMAZ – “the biography of Akbar.” One day he was just chit-
chatting with his friends…. And he had around him the very best, wisest, most
creative people chosen from every part of the country. His court jester was
standing just by his side. By the way, you should understand it: in all the courts of
all great emperors there used to be a jester, whose whole function was to keep the
court from becoming too serious, to keep the court light, playful – once in a while,
an explosion of laughter. It was a great insight to have a court jester, and he used
to be one of the wisest men of those days – because they were not easy to come
by.

Birbal was Akbar’s court jester. And as they were discussing, Akbar slapped
Birbal – for no reason at all. Now you cannot slap the emperor back, but the slap
has to go somewhere – so he slapped the person who was standing next to him.
Everybody thought, “This is strange!” There was no reason in the first place.
Suddenly, as if a madness had got hold of Akbar, he slapped poor Birbal. And
that man is also strange. Rather than asking, “Why have you slapped me?” he
simply slapped the man who was standing by his side!

And that man, thinking perhaps this was the rule of the court, slapped the next
person. In a chain, it went all over the court. And you will be surprised: that night,
Akbar’s wife slapped him! And he said, “Why are slapping me?” She said, “That
is not the question; a game is a game.” He said, “Who told you that this is a
game?” She said, “We have been hearing the whole day long that a great game has
started in the court. The only rule is you cannot hit the person back, you have to
find somebody else to hit. And somebody has hit me – so your slap has come
back to you, the game is complete!” In this big world, thousands of insane games
are going on, and you are all participants – of course in very small measures,
according to your capacity. But remember, the slap is going to come back to you
sooner or later. Where else will it go? Whatever comes to you, remember, it is
your doing. Perhaps you have forgotten when you started it. The world is big, it
takes time. But everything comes back to its source – that is one of the
fundamental rules of life, not just rules of a game. So if you are suffering, if you
are miserable, if you are tense, full of anxieties, anguish, don’t just console
yourself that this whole world is ugly, that everybody else is ugly, that you are a
victim.

J. Krishnamurti is saying you are not a victim, you are a creator of this insane
world; and naturally, you have to participate in the outcome of whatever you have
contributed to it. You are participating in sowing the seeds, you will have to
participate in reaping the crop too; you cannot escape. To make the individual
aware so that he stops throwing responsibilities on others – on the contrary, he
starts looking inwards to see in what way he is contributing to this whole madness
– there is a possibility he may stop contributing. Because he has to suffer too. If he
comes to know that the whole world is nothing but his projection on a wider
scale.. Because millions of individuals have contributed the same anger, the same
hatred, the same violence, the same competitiveness, it has become mountainous.
You cannot conceive that you can be responsible for it: “I may have contributed
just a small piece…” But an ocean is nothing except millions and millions of
dewdrops. A dewdrop cannot think that it is responsible for the ocean – but the
dewdrop is responsible. Without the dewdrop there is going to be no ocean at all.
The ocean is only a name; the reality is in the dewdrop. To accept your
responsibility will change you, and your change is the beginning of the change of
the world – because you are the world. However small, a microcosm perhaps, but
you carry all the seeds. If revolution comes to you, it heralds the revolution for the
whole world. And when J. Krishnamurti says “You are the world” he is not saying
it only to you; he is saying it to everybody: You are the world. You change
yourself.

Be alert not to contribute anything that makes the world a hell. And remember to
contribute to the world something that makes it a paradise. This is the whole secret
of a religious man. And if every individual starts doing it, there will be a revolution
without any bloodshed.
“The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel
the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is
transformed.”
“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door
is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key
or the door to open, except yourself.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti