Balsekar's Euphoric Nihilism: Is this Bhagavan's Teaching?

November 8, 2002

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Access the WIE article at http://www.wie.org/j14/balse.asp then tell

me what you think. Chris Parish, the interviewer, calls Balsekar's

form of Advaitic Nihilism "madness". I agree. What's YOUR opinion?

Here's a paste-in of the epilogue:

EPILOGUE

As I stumbled past the doorman and out into the bustling Bombay

streets, my mind was reeling. How could it be, I asked myself as I

made my way through the crowd, that an intelligent, educated man like

Ramesh Balsekar could really believe that everything is predestined,

that before we are even born, our fate is already etched in a kind of

ethereal granite? Could he really be serious in his insistence that

our entire life, with its seemingly endless stream of choices and

decisions, of precarious opportunities to set our own course for

better or for worse, is actually, from the first breath, a fait

accompli? While I traversed the sidewalk in search of a café in which

to find respite from the chaos, the difficult turns of our brief

dialogue swirled in my head. Yes, "Thy will be done" is the essence

of at least most religions, I thought to myself, but for the great

mystics and sages who have made such utterances throughout history,

surrender to the will of God has meant far more than simply accepting

that there is nothing anyone can do to affect the circumstances of

their life. Surely what has been traditionally referred to as "God's

will" is that which one discovers when one has absolutely given up

the ego, when all self-centered motives have been extinguished,

leaving one utterly surrendered to doing God's will, whatever it may

be! For Jesus or Ramakrishna or Ramana Maharshi to say he was

surrendered to God's will was one thing. But to say that this is true

of everyone seemed at that moment to reflect a peculiar and even

dangerous form of madnessand one which could be used to justify the

most extreme forms of behavior. Balsekar's statement, "What you think

you should do in any situation . . . is precisely what God wants you

to think you should do," means that to him the enlightened Buddha is

no more doing the will of God than the serial killer who is attacking

his next victim.

I had come into the interview expecting some disagreement, but

somehow even Balsekar's booksin which all of these ideas are clearly

and repeatedly expressedhad not prepared me for my encounter with the

man himself. How had he come up with them? I wondered. And why?

Around and around my thoughts went, recalling everything from his

chilling claim that even when we hurt someone, we need not feel

guilty, for we are not responsible for our actionsthat even "Hitler

was merely the instrument through which the horrible events that had

to take place, took place"to his assertion, defying all common sense,

that we have no power to control our behavior or even to influence

the behavior of others. And all of this in the context of his science-

fiction description of each of us as "body/mind organisms" acting out

our "programming."

Suddenly the welcome sight of a tea shop appeared through the smog,

and as I made my way inside, I was relieved to find the kind of quiet

oasis for which I had hoped. It was there, at one of the many empty

tables, as the first sip of sickly sweet milk tea passed across my

lips that, in a flash, it hit me. I was not drinking the tea! I was

not sitting at the table! In fact, I was not the one who had entered

the tea shop. And I was not the one who had just been tormented for

an hour in discussion with a man who at that moment was beginning to

seem like the sane one. In fact, it had never been me doing anything.

It was as if a burden I had been carrying for my entire life was

suddenly lifted into the sky by a hot air balloon, whisked away,

never to return again. All those years I had struggled to be a

better, more honest and generous human beingall that effort I had

made to renounce my tendencies toward superiority, selfishness and

aggressionhad all been a folly, all foolishly, needlessly based on

the self-important idea that I had some control over my own destiny,

and the petty presumption that what I did to "others" ever mattered

anyway. How could I have been so misguided? But wait, it wasn't even

me who was misguided! As if through parting clouds, clearly now I

could suddenly see that what I had thought of as "my life" had in

fact been only a mechanical process. The person I had thought I was

was just a machine. And the world in which I thought I had been

living was not, as I had assumed, a world of human complexity, but

one of mechanistic simplicity, of perfect order, a mathematical

playing out of programs in motion since the beginning of time.

As the clinical perfection of God's scientific plan started to open

up before me, the ecstatic thrill of absolute freedomfrom worry, from

care, from obligation, from guiltbegan to rush through my veins like

a torrent of undammed rivers. And with it came an enveloping,

resounding peace, an absolute cessation of tension, in the

recognition that no matter what apparent ambiguity or uncertainty I

might encounter thereafter, no matter what seemingly difficult

decisions I might face, I could always rest assured that whatever

choice I made was exactly the choice God wanted me to make. The

mysterious sense of an Unknown that had tugged at me for so long had

evaporated. The others in the café turned their heads as I laughed

out loud, a long belly laugh, and mused to myself what a fantastical

game life would be if everyone understood how it all really works, if

everyone could at least get a glimpse of how free we could be, if we

all lived on Planet Advaita.

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--- End forwarded message ---

November 8, 2002

Dear Gary , I feel you should be very careful in your criticism of Ramesh .The

article you quote

appeared in Andrew Cohen's magazine which is a strange eclectic mix of dualism

and non dualism,and

is biased against Ramesh's categorical,absolute non-dualism .Have you read any

of Ramesh's own

written books such as "Duet for One'or "The Final Truth" for example ? .I have

met Ramesh , like

Alton , have you ? He teaches an unequivical surrender to God's Will which

eventually leads to

anobsessive practice of Self Enquiry .This is my own experience .According to'

Enlightenment an

Outbreak' and ' Like An Immovable Rock' there have been many people who have

received the'

understanding ' , the term he uses for 'awakening '.Probably more people have

received the

experience of the dissolution of 'the me' through him than any other

contemporary Teacher , to my

knowledge .Ramesh was given permission to teach by Nisargadatar,from whom he

received the

understanding, and says he is a devotee of Ramana who was his first spritual

inspiration .He pays

obeisance to Ramana every day 7 days a week before giving a Satsang which he

has done for over

20 years .Thousands of seekers have visited him and have their intellectual

problems and doubts

resolved , and many have found peace in his presence .I can understand you wish

to reject the

total abnegation of egotism as he does if you have a plan to gain a siddha or

convert people to

Ramana .The Maharshi's Teaching is an organic growth , your efforts smack of

'personal doership'

rather than giving that up and gaining your own Realisation which can be found

through Ramana's

Surrender and Self Enquiry and then allowing this influence of 'impersonal

doership' to spread

without a campaign .If you haven't been to see him , it maybe a good idea

before you level an

attack based on a spurious magazine article .But you had better hurry up as he

is 85 and says he

is at the "check in " Regards , Alan

--- matrixmonitor <matrixmonitor wrote:

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Access the WIE article at <a

href="http://www.wie.org/j14/balse.asp">http://www.wie.org/j14/balse.asp</a>&nbs\

p; then tell

me what you think. Chris Parish, the interviewer, calls Balsekar's

form of Advaitic Nihilism "madness". I agree. What's YOUR

opinion?