Who Cares?! The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar

112 Pages·1999·43.09 MB·English

by  Ramesh S. Balsekar, Blayne Bardo (editor)

Who
Also by Ramesh S. Balsekar W ho C a r e s ?!
The Happening of A Guru (2003)
Confusion No More (2003) The Unique Teaching of
Guru Pournirma (2003)
Ramesh S. Balsekar
Peace and Harmony in Daily Living (2003)
The Ultimate Understanding (2001)
Advaita, the Buddha and the Unbroken Whole (2000)
It So Happened That The Unique Teaching
of Ramesh S. Balsekar (2000)
Sin and Guilt: Monstrosity of Mind (2000)
Meaningful Trixnalitiesfrom the Source (2000)
The Infamous Ego (1999)
Who Cares?! (1999)
The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita (1999)
Your Head in the Tiger's Mouth (1997)
Consciousness Writes (1996)
ANet of Jewels (1996)
The Bhagavad Gita - A Selection (1995)
LUce a Large Immovable Rock (1994)
Ripples (1994)
Consciousness Speaks (1992)
From Consciousness to Consciousness (1989)
TheFinalTruth (1989)
A Duet of One (1989) Edited by
Experiencing the Teaching (1988) Blayne Bardo
Explorations into the Eternal (1987)
Experience oflmmortality (1984)
Poin ters from Nisargadatta Maharaj (1982)
Advaita Press
Copyright © 1999 by Ramesh S. Balsekar
First Published in India by
Dedicated to Nisargadatta Maharaj
ZENPUBLICATIONS
5 Raja Bahadur Building, 156 J. Dadajee Road, Tardeo,
Mumbai 400 034. India. Tel.: [phone].
Fax: [phone]. E-mail: [email protected]
Published in the USA by
Advaita Press
PO Box 3479
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Tel: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
www.advaita.org
Credits:
Cover Design : Chetna Bhatt
ISBN: 0-929448-18-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 99-62314
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author
or his agents, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Contents
Introduction xiii
Who Cares?! xviii
1 A Seeker Hearing the Teaching 1
for the First Time
Forget the Teaching 1
Bhakti Begins the Teaching 2
Basic Teaching 3
No One Speaking and No One Listening 4
Silence and Simile 5
Life Has No Value 6
The Meanest 7
Clarity or Confusion 7
Divine Joke - Ego "Wanting" Annihilation 9
Destiny to Come and Listen 10
No "One" Can Get Enlightenment 11
Million Dollars or Enlightenment 11
2 Consciousness Is All There Is 13
Consciousness-at-Rest,
Consciousness-in-Action, I Am 15
HI Am 16
Concept, I Am, Present Moment 20
3 Manifestation 21
A Reflection 22
Flip-Flop and Involvement 114
Simultaneously Both Real and Unreal 24
Temporarily No Ego, No Doer 117
A Pot and Immanence 25
Witnessing and Observing 119
A Shadow and Duality 25
Witnessing, Non-Witnessing, Samadhi 120
Duality and Dualism 26
Guru 124
Duality and Space-Time 28
The Step Before Enlightenment 127
The Dream and Space-Time 29
Divine Hypnosis 29
7 Effect of the Teaching on Daily Living 137
Destiny 32
Programming, Conditioning, and
Life Becomes Simpler, Not Easier 137
Programmed Computer 36
Who Cares? 139
The Movie 43
What the Understanding Brings 140
4 Ego 47 Expectation - Importance of Doing Something 144
Destiny - Funny How It Manifests 147
Sense of Freedom 51 Life Does Become Simpler 149
Free Will 53 Responsibility 149
Thought, Feeling, and Prayer 60 Cannot Avoid Pain in the Manifestation 152
Mind-Intellect 63 Can Only Surrender to the Mystery 154
Emotions 65 No Purpose in Listening - Just Enjoyment 154
Responsibility 66 Who Cares? 155
Death - God's Will Prevails 71 Talking About the Teaching 157
Births - Reincarnation 76 Enjoy Life 157
5 Working Mind and Thinking Mind 79 Appendix - Bhakti and Jnana 159
6 Seeking 87 Bhakti-Jnana and Maharaj 159
Adi Shankara's Hymns to the Mother 162
What Is Enlightenment? 90 "Bhakti, Jnana and the Individual" 164
Subject - Pseudo-Subject 91
Ego Is Not God - Never Has Been a Seeker 93
Why Ego Asks Questions 94 Key To Quoted Works 175
Seeking Is a Process 95
Effort and Self-Improvement 97 Glossary 177
Analysis of Actions - The Only Sadhana 103
Pleasure Arising from Successful Analysis 112 Index 195
If You Get the Message 113
Self-Enquiry - Who Am I? 113
Acknowledgements
Nothing happens but that it was to happen—the supposed
individuals are merely characters within that event, any
event There is no one to give credit to or any thing to
take credit for—by the same token there is no question of
any blame, nor of any failure. (LR 9)
Truly, Guru and disciple are a single movement in
Consciousness, and in the fullness of this understanding
there arises inexpressible appreciation and gratitude for all
that has been given through you. Dear Ramesh, thank you.
There are three primary reasons I am grateful for having
been asked to compile and edit a second book for the Guru.
First, it is something I can give to Ramesh. Second, it is yet
another gift to provide a wider audience with access to the
teaching as it happens through Ramesh. And third, I have
the opportunity, which I missed the first time, to thank
Sharda, Ramesh's wife. Thank you Sharda Maaji for your
kind and gentle concern, silent and expressed support, and
the relaxing and insightful conversations over coffee and tea.
Any polished book, especially one compiled and edited
in a short span of time, is the result of devoted proofreaders
and readers catching errors and contributing their
suggestions. My heart-felt appreciation goes out to each of
you: Susan Herbert, Jennifer Claire Moyer, Faye Fields,
Chaitan Balsekar, Gerry Hackman, Mark Worthington, and
Avinash Kadam.
Due to the thoughtfulness and generosity of Ben Pierce,
privately published and valuable substance for the book
magically appeared at my door via courier. Other key
Introduction
materials were provided by Kanwarjit Singh, satsang tapes,
and by Jennifer Claire Moyer and Giovanna Dalle Rive Carli,
several transcriptions.
The unique teaching happening through Ramesh is pure
So many kind and generous people contributed to my
Advaita.
being able to live in Bombay while working on the book—
Luzius Jegher, Catherine M. Asche, Ben Pierce, Philippe
Why pure? Because the entire teaching is unequivocally
and Geraldine de Henning, Narayani Etienne, Claudia
a single concept—Consciousness is all there is. It is not two,
Nangoi, Gert Seglitz, and David and Faye Fields. Warm
the meaning of a + dvaita. There is not die manifestation
thanks to each of you.
and all of its objects plus Consciousness, or whatever name
Thank you, Bianca, for a beautiful cover!
you call That which cannot be named. All there is is Con-
The book was gratefully produced on two computers:
sciousness. There is no ego deciding to do spiritual seeking.
the first, a generous loan from Rajiv M. Naik, and the
If this were the case, then there would be two—Conscious
second, a state-of-the-art rental spontaneously and
ness and ego. There is only One without a second. Pure
magnanimously provided by William Van Braam.
Advaita. Consciousness is all there isl
And at the last moment in a flurry of energetic generosity
Why unique? Because Advaita has never been presented
and hospitality, Madhukar Thompson donated staff and
precisely the way the teaching happens through Ramesh.
equipment for laser printing the pages of the book for the
Ramesh repeatedly points out that whatever he says is not
press.
the Truth—"Anything any sage or any scripture has ever
said is a concept and consequently can be either agreed or
disagreed with." His teaching is unique because he tells
the seeker not to try to remember what has been taught—
"In every effort to remember, the ego is present. The ego is
absent only when the understanding brings about the re
membering." There is uniqueness because he says, "Accept
the ego! Resisting the ego only nourishes it." And there is
uniqueness in that Ramesh begins with bhakti, or devo
tion, and ends with jnana, or final understanding—"... ac
cepting that T am nothing, that T am merely an object at
the will of God is basically nothing but pure devotion, or
bhakti. So what I say strictly begins with bhakti: Thy will
be done." Finally, if there is intent listening or reading, then
xiii
INTRODUCTION WHO CARES?!
there will be no doubt as to the exact teaching happening The working concept for Who Cares?! was four-fold: to
through Ramesh. clearly present the teaching as it happens through Ramesh
The importance of this last point is easily missed. Ask with minimum interference and maximum input from him;
yourself the same question that Ramesh often asks seekers to accomplish this by quoting from recent satsangs and
attending satsang for the first time: "What is title under Ramesh's other published works; to make it as seeker
standing now?" In other words, as a result of all the seek friendly as possible—there is a glossary of concepts and all
ing, whether having had teachers or reading books, what quotes from published works are noted; to keep the com
exactly is the understanding that you, the reader or listener, pleted work half as long as either Consciousness Speaks or
has right now? Very few can say! Your Head In The Tiger's Mouth; and to have the final manu
After sitting in five or six satsangs you realize that the script carefully read and approved by Ramesh. Accomplish
entire teaching as it happens through Ramesh is precisely ing these, everything would be in one place, easily acces
stated in five words—Consciousness is all there is. Or if sible, authentic, and portable.
you wish, All there is is Consciousness. That's it! If these
five words are spontaneously and totally intuited in the
heart, then the process of seeking has ended and the final
event has happened. If not, then more concepts are given,
The glossary contains brief definitions of all the major
and title teaching unfolds simply.
concepts used in the teaching. For example, if there is any
For "whom"? That's the point. Seeking comes for the
confusion over the meaning Ramesh gives to the related
teaching in the form of "seekers" believing that "they" are
concepts of destiny, programming, and conditioning or to
purposefully seeking something. For these seekers the
the concepts of duality and dualism—the glossary quickly
teaching is conceptually developed. In other words, the
provides the clarification.
primary concept of Consciousness is all there is, is explained
However, there are four words which frequently occur
the only way which is possible—with further concepts.
throughout the presentation of the teaching, the significance
The second basic concept of the teaching is—there is no
of which is often not appreciated. Except for one, they are
doer. All which happens is the impersonal functioning of
not typically part of the spiritual or philosophical vocabu
Consciousness, or God's will. With this, the teaching is then
lary. Because of one's casual familiarity with these words,
developed:
the pivotal and deep meaning they have in the teaching
The apparent manifestation is a reflection—which is si
may escape attention.
multaneously both real and unreal—of Consciousness
within Itself. Human beings are body-mind organisms— God - This word or concept is frequently used by
objects having no free will. Ego is the sense of doership, Ramesh to indicate or refer to That which cannot be
not just the identification with name and form, which is conceived and thus is beyond mind-intellect. God is
created by Divine hypnosis for life to happen as we know not an object or an entity and has no qualities. That
it. Spiritual seeking may happen if it is the destiny of the which is beyond mind and consequently cannot be
body-mind organism and the will of the Source. If it does, conceived is referred to as God or any number of refer
it begins with an ego and, if it is destiny, ends in the annihi
ences such as Consciousness, Source, Noumenon, I-I,
lation of the ego. Consciousness is all there is!
Reality, Tao, Potential, Subject, Absolute, Primal En-
xiv xv
INTRODUCTION WHO CARES?!
ergy, or whichever concept The teaching as it happens body-mind organisms, the ever increasing number of books
through Ramesh is not theistic. (In theism God is an and magazines devoted to the subject, and yet he was known
object and an entity with qualities such as omnipres for his quoting Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita about
ence, omniscience, all merciful, etc.) how few seekers there are. Ramesh's response:
happens - This indicates an occurrence without any doer It simply means there are more people so there
doing anything. "Happens" is spontaneous and with are more seekers. "Out of thousands there is one
out intention or volition, although there usually ap seeker, and among seekers hardly one knows Me
pears to be a chain of events, cause and effect, which in principle." That is what Lord Krishna says. So
leads to something that just happens. The meaning of there are more people and there are more seek
this word is best conveyed by two examples: ers. If there are more seekers there are more Gu
rus, and if there are more Gurus there are more
"The teaching happens through Ramesh." In books!
other words, there is no "one" who does
anything. It, the teaching, happens.
"There is no seeker. The seeking is just
happening." If this apparent editor were granted one heart-wish in
the totality of the impersonal functioning of Consciousness,
arises - This has the same meaning in the teaching as it would be that all spiritual seekers arrive at the attitude of
"happens." "who cares?" thus setting the stage in the process of seek
ing for the final, total understanding to happen. And that it
functioning - Consciousness is all there is. There is no happens! But who is there to care?
doer, no seeker, no decision maker, no lover, but there
is doing, seeking, deciding, loving. "Functioning" is the
impersonal movement of Consciousness-in-action that Manifestation
gives the manifestation the appearance of being real. For an apparent tapestry
example, the ego, sense of personal doership, inter ever being woven spontaneously
prets as "its functioning" that which is always and can in the Present Moment
only be the impersonal functioning of Consciousness with a single thread—
through a body-mind organism. Consciousness
At the feet of the Guru,
In a recent satsang Ramesh was asked how he explained
Blayne Bardo
the increase in the number of seekers all over the world,
Bombay
the apparent "quickening" of realization happening in
March 1999
xvii
xvi
Who Cares?!
Every month the disciple faithfully sent his Master an
account of his progress.
In the first month he wrote: "I feel an expansion of
consciousness and experience my oneness with the
universe." The Master glanced at the note and threw it away.
The following month, this is what he had to say: "I have
finally discovered that the Divine is present in all tilings."
The Master seemed disappointed.
The third month the disciple's words enthusiastically
exclaimed: "The mystery of the One and the many have
been revealed to my wondering gaze." The Master shook
his head and again threw the letter away.
The next letter said: "No one is bom, no one lives, and no
one dies, for the ego-self is not." The Master threw his hands
up in utter despair.
After that a month passed by, then two, then five months—
and finally a whole year without another letter. The Master
thought it was time to remind his disciple of his duty to
keep him informed of his spiritual progress.
Then the disciple wrote back: "Who cares?"
When the Master read those words a look of great
satisfaction spread over his face.