Dissolving Spiritual Confusion: The Essence of Ramesh Balsekar’s Teachings
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Dissolving Spiritual Confusion was written when the devotee in Shirishkumar Murthy witnessed remarkable changes in the visitors’ attitude after meeting Ramesh Balsekar. In some cases, old concepts were replaced by new ones. In some, there were tears of gratitude. In yet others, the frown of confusion gave way, in due course, to a broad smile. An Indian seeker who had exclaimed, “What nonsense!” the first time he heard Ramesh’s teaching, ended up becoming an ardent devotee.
It was a wonder to see how the intellectual understanding slowly percolated to the heart. The seeker, who had started off brimming with questions, became silent and receptive. The resonance between the Guru and the disciple, happening gracefully, would delight quite a few visitors. It was known that once this happens to the seeker, he stops expecting anything from anybody...including God.
No other miracle happened at Ramesh’s place.
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Dissolving Spiritual Confusion - Shirish Kumar S Murthy
1
I don’t expect
any respect from you.
We are just talking.
I have no responsibility of taking you anywhere.
If I accept someone as my disciple
I don’t struggle to turn him into a Master.
I only have the responsibility of talking to him.
You think you have come here.
My total conviction is
that you couldn’t have come here
unless it was God’s will.
Do you accept, at least intellectually,
that nothing happens unless it is God’s will?
Yes.
Then we can talk further.
You think ‘we’ are talking to each other.
The talking and the listening
happen in Consciousness
by the will of God.
Ramesh says,
The consequences of this talking and listening
are in God’s hands.
2
"How to go
with the will of God?"
You want to get away from
misery and cling to happiness.
Do you think you are not in touch with God
when there is misery?
That means you are not accepting
the situation as it is.
At any moment,
the situation as it is,
is the will of God.
Where does receptivity or resistance come from?
The scientist, surprisingly,
attributes everything to the genes.
Can you blame God
if the genes and the conditioning are not good?
What makes you think that
God has the responsibility of being fair to you?
Life means existence of interconnected opposites.
lf you don’t accept it
there will be suffering.
Ramesh says,
Whether you accept it or not
depends on the will of God.
3
You are merely an instrument
through which God or
Consciousness functions.
But, from the society’s point of view,
you do exist and
will be held responsible for your actions.
This understanding should not prevent you
from living your life.
You do whatever you think you should do.
How does this tally
with the basics of the teaching
that nothing happens unless it is God’s will?
In doing what you think you should do
you are still going with the flow.
Accept whatever happens
through your bodymind organism
as well as others’ as God’s will.
That is going with the flow.
At any moment, what you think you should do,
is precisely God’s will.
Ramesh says,
What you want to do cannot happen
unless it is God’s will.
4
My basic concept is,
Nothing happens unless
it is God’s will.
This doesn’t prevent you
from doing whatever you want.
God’s will does not restrict
the individual will from functioning.
Your will is just an instrument
for God’s will to function.
Lord Krishna says,
There is no sin or merit.
You think of sin or merit because
Knowledge is covered by ignorance.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says,
"Totally accept that nothing happens
unless it is God’s will
and you may do whatever you like."
God’s will does not refer to any individual.
Ramesh says,
God’s will in respect to any bodymind organism
is it’s destiny.
5
I would like you to go away
without that confusion
on your face.
Me too!
The basics of the teaching
is that everything happens.
No one does anything.
Is it acceptable to you,
or is that where the confusion lies?
Life is all about making decisions.
You have to decide which way you want to go.
The teaching does not tell you
that you do not have to decide.
You cannot get away from making decisions.
Using the working mind,
decide whether to go this way or that.
Based on the calculations,
make a decision,
knowing that the decision
could not have happened without God’s will.
Ramesh says,
The decision that you make
has already been made by God.
So, why be afraid of making decisions?
6
Only that Power
which has created the hypnosis
can remove it.
The most encouraging statement for the seeker
comes from Ramana Maharshi.
He says,
Your head is already in the tiger’s mouth.
So, let God do his job.
No one is to be blamed for the resistance,
or complimented for the receptivity
in the bodymind organism.
The same Power
that has created the organism of Mother Teresa
has created the psychopath.
To accept that you are not the doer
is to accept that nothing happens
unless it is God’s will.
Consciousness recognizes itself
when the sense of personal doership
is totally annihilated.
No ‘one’ can be Enlightened.
Enlightenment can happen
only if it is God’s will.
Ramesh says,
Enlightenment is the total annihilation
of the one who wants to be Enlightened.
7
My friend
married a native American.
When the child was three
his wife left him
for no apparent reason.
One day the child found him
moody and upset during bed time.
The child asked him,
Are you thinking of mummy?
He said, Yes
,
The child told him,
Don’t think of her and you will be alright.
A five year old told his nurse one day,
"Janet, do you know we are all dreaming?
We will wake up when we are dead."
The nurse told this to the mother.
When the mother, in her ignorance,
asked the child, Who told you that?
,
he looked at her
with tremendous compassion and pity
for asking the question.
A few seconds later he said,
God told me that
, meaning,
Are you satisfied now?
Ramesh says,
The only way
to get rid of the sense of personal doership
is to understand
that everything just happens.
No ‘one’ does anything.
8
The understanding is that
no ‘one’ is doing anything.
First I must understand,
why can’t anyone do anything?
You must understand
that what you call your action
is merely a reaction of the brain
to an outside event,
strictly according to the way it is programmed.
The question that comes up
with this understanding is,
"Is there any action
which I can call my action?"
If you accept
that you don’t act,
then the enquiry,
‘Who am I?’ begins.
When the mind-intellect
repeatedly questions itself,
"If no action is my action
then who am I?",
the ego goes deeper and deeper
into the background
until the question dissolves
in the Heart.
Ramesh says,
When you truly accept
that you are merely an instrument
through which God creates
such actions which He wants,
the sense of personal doership gets lost.
9
You couldn’t have
changed what happened
yesterday, last week or last year.
You can’t know what will happen
tomorrow, next week or next year.
All that you can understand
is that whatever happens
is not your action.
What is destined will happen
through the bodymind organism
irrespective of whether you want it or not.
You cannot stop the wanting that arises,
You have no control over what you want.
By the same token
you must also accept
that whatever arises in any other bodymind organism
is independent of that person.
The brain will react to the outside event.
If the programming is to be quick of anger
then anger will arise.
Ramesh says,
With this understanding
anger won’t turn into hate, envy or jealousy.
10
Surrender can only happen.
When acceptance happens
there is grace.
Then the whole problem disappears.
The sixty-four thousand dollar question then is,
"I understand all that you say,
but please tell me
how do I get that acceptance?"
There is always someone ready with a technique.
The knowing is not of the mind.
If you apply your mind
it will cut the understanding into pieces.
Every one of you
has experienced this sense of oneness.
Ramesh calls them ‘free samples’.
Do you know what drug pushers do?
They give you free samples first.
That is what Consciousness does
to make you a seeker,
and then you are hooked.
Wayne says,
Then there is nothing you can do
to stop the seeking.
11
You ask,
"What causes
Enlightenment to happen?"
Any connection you make is purely notional.
You can take it the other way around.
In horse racing
you think money came into your hands
because the horse won.
Is it not reasonable to conclude
that the horse won
because it was your destiny to receive the money?
A lot of sadhanas will strengthen the ego
until the breaking point.
Feelings of superiority will come up
but the feeling of emptiness comes about.
How long this will continue is anybody’s guess.
These sadhanas always end up
in giving you the feeling of emptiness.
Then you meet a Guru like Ramesh
and understand
that all these techniques are not real.
They are not needed.
Wayne says,
Truth is here and now.
12
When you find your Guru
everything becomes clear.
You can see and understand.
Essentially every teaching is false.
When this is understood
a lot of things become clear.
There are lots of avenues
to come to the point of surrender.
I was never a spiritual seeker.
I was an alcoholic and drug addict.
The first part of awakening came
when these dropped away.
At that