Pointers From Ramesh Balsekar

POINTERS FROM RAMESH BALSEKAR GAUTAM SACHDEVA POINTERS FROM RAMESH BALSEKAR First published in India in 2008 by Yogi Impressions Books Pvt. Ltd. 1711, Centre 1, World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai 400 005, India. Website: www.yogiimpressions.com First Edition, April 2008 Copyright © 2008 by Gautam Sachdeva All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, or transmitted in any form, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher. “All there is, is Consciousness.” – Ramesh Balsekar CONTENTS Foreword Introduction The Truth Happiness Non-Doership Destiny Free Will Non-Duality Ego Thought and Thinking Egoic Reaction and Biological Reaction Working Mind and Thinking Mind Enlightenment Personal Investigation Staying connected to the Source Prayer Afterword Acknowledgements FOREWORD By Ramesh S. Balsekar When Gautam told me that he had written a small book about the teaching and asked if I would like to go through the manuscript, my immediate reaction was: “Ah, at long last, it has happened!” I had known for quite some time that Gautam was a ‘natural’ for the teaching. From the beginning of our association, it was clear to me that the teaching was more of a ‘deliverance’ rather than an ‘awakening’ for him. To be told that he was more a machine than a man did not surprise him at all. And that reminds me of a story that I read a long time ago. A large multinational company had to engage a number of people at a fairly high level, and they wanted to be sure that there would not be the slightest prejudice in the selection and that the selection would be totally objective. So, they used a very expensive robot especially designed for the purpose. One particular candidate soon forgot that he was being interviewed by a robot and, while arguing a certain point, burst out saying, “You are a fool!” The robot quietly replied, “Maybe so, my friend, but it is you who is being interviewed for the job.” The reader, I think, will find Gautam Sachdeva’s book so tremendously rewarding that, at the end of the book, he will probably lean back, relax, and wonder: “Who’s been reading the book?!” Ramesh S. Balsekar 24th February 2008 INTRODUCTION I remember the first time I attended Ramesh Balsekar’s talk in February 2000. I really could not understand what all the fuss was about, as all I could hear him say to the group of visitors was that everything was the will of God. I made subsequent visits over the next few Sundays to see what I had missed out, but it invariably boiled down to this. I truly wondered why people would be so fascinated by such an obvious thought, that they would come from all over the world to hear it. I kept going back Sunday after Sunday, and in the process absorbed various facets of his teaching. It had always been apparent to me that the biggest things that moulded my life up until then had simply happened, without me playing an active role in them. I lost my father when I was fourteen. Truly, that happening was not a result of something I had done. Similarly, another situation arose when I had to take the reins at work when I was twenty-four and head a staff of thirty people all of whom were older to me, or else the Company would wind up as the management had exited the business en masse to start a competitive venture. I surely had not chosen this situation either; it simply happened. I remember, in my teenage years, when confronted with innumerable fearful situations such as waiting for the exam results, there would be anxiety and I would keep repeating to myself: 1. There is no po