Who Cares?

Who Cares?!

Copyright © 1999 Ramesh S. Balsekar

First Edition 1999

Revised Second Edition 2019

PUBLISHED BY

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Dedicated to Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

BOOKS BY RAMESH S. BALSEKAR

•Sage Mukundraj’s Paramaamrita: Pointers To Self Realization (2017)

•A Duet of One (2010)

•Pursue ‘Happiness’ And Get Enlightened (2008)

•Celebrate the Wit & Wisdom: Relax and Enjoy (2008)

•Pointers From Ramana Maharshi (2008)

•Does The Human Being Have Free Will? (2007)

•Enlightened Living (2007)

•A Buddha’s Babble (2006)

•A Personal Religion Of Your Own (2006)

•The Essence of The Ashtavakra Gita (2006)

•The Relationship Between ‘I’ And ‘Me’ (2006)

•Seeking Enlightenment – Why ? (2005)

•Nuggets of Wisdom (2005)

•The End of The Seeking (2005)

•Spiritual Search Step By Step (2004)

•Confusion No More (2003)

•Guru Pournima (2003)

•Advaita and the Buddha (2000)

•It So Happened That... (2000)

•Sin and Guilt: Monstrosity of Mind (2000)

•Meaningful Trivialities from the Source (2000)

•The Infamous Ego (1999)

•The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita (1999)

•Your Head in the Tiger's Mouth (1997)

•Consciousness Strikes (1996)

•Consciousness Writes (1996)

•Consciousness Speaks (1995)

•The Bhagavad Gita – A Selection (1995)

•Ripples (1994)

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Who Cares?!

1A Seeker Hearing the Teaching for the First Time

Forget the Teaching

Bhakti Begins the Teaching

Basic Teaching

No One Speaking and No One Listening

Silence and Simile

Life Has No Value

The Meanest

Clarity or Confusion

Divine Joke - Ego Wanting Annihilation

Destiny to Come and Listen

No One Can Get Enlightenment

Million Dollars or Enlightenment

2Consciousness Is All There Is

Consciousness-at-Rest, Consciousness-in-Action, I Am

I-I, I Am

Concept, I Am, Present Moment

3Manifestation

A Reflection

Simultaneously Both Real and Unreal

A Pot and Immanence

A Shadow and Duality

Duality and Dualism

Duality and Space-Time

The Dream and Space-Time

Divine Hypnosis

Destiny

Programming, Conditioning, and Programmed Computer

The Movie

4Ego

Sense of Freedom

Free Will

Thought, Feeling, and Prayer

Mind-Intellect

Emotions

Responsibility

Death - God’s Will Prevails

Births - Reincarnation

5Working Mind and Thinking Mind

6Seeking

What Is Enlightenment?

Subject - Pseudo-Subject

Ego Is Not God - Never Has Been a Seeker

Why Ego Asks Questions

Seeking Is a Process

Effort and Self-Improvement

Analysis of Actions - The Only Sadhana

Pleasure Arising from Successful Analysis

If You Get the Message

Self-Enquiry - Who Am I?

Flip-Flop and Involvement

Temporarily No Ego, No Doer

Witnessing and Observing

Witnessing, Non-Witnessing, Samadhi

Guru

The Step Before Enlightenment

7Effect of the Teaching on Daily Living

Life Becomes Simpler, Not Easier

Who Cares?

What the Understanding Brings

Expectation - Importance of Doing Something

Destiny - Funny How It Manifests

Life Does Become Simpler

Responsibility

Cannot Avoid Pain in the Manifestation

Can Only Surrender to the Mystery

No Purpose in Listening - Just Enjoyment

Who Cares?

Talking About the Teaching

Enjoy Life

Appendix - Bhakti and Jnana

Bhakti-Jnana and Maharaj

Adi Shankara’s Hymns to the Mother

Bhakti, Jnana and the Individual

Key To Quoted Works

Glossary

Index

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 materials were provided by Kanwarjit Singh, satsang tapes, and by Jennifer Claire Moyer and Giovanna Dalle Rive Carli, several transcriptions.

So many kind and generous people contributed to my being able to live in Bombay while working on the book – Luzius Jegher, Catherine M. Ashe, Ben Pierce, Philippe and Geraldine de Henning, Narayani Etienne, Claudia Nangoi, Gert Seglitz, and David and Faye Fields. Warm thanks to each of you.

Thank you, Bianca, for a beautiful cover!1

The book was gratefully produced on two computers: the first, a generous loan from Rajiv M. Naik, and the second, a state-of-the-art rental spontaneously and magnanimously provided by William Van Braam.

And at the last moment in a flurry of energetic generosity and hospitality, Madhukar Thompson donated staff and equipment for laser printing the pages of the book for the press.

__________________________

1 The cover for the first edition of Who Cares?! was designed by Bianca Nixdorf.

Introduction

The unique teaching happening through Ramesh is pure Advaita.

Why pure? Because the entire teaching is unequivocally a single concept – Consciousness is all there is. It is not two, the meaning of a + dvaita. There is not the manifestation and all of its objects plus Consciousness, or whatever name you call That which cannot be named. All there is is Consciousness. There is no ego deciding to do spiritual seeking. If this were the case, then there would be two – Consciousness and ego. There is only One without a second. Pure Advaita. Consciousness is all there is!

Why unique? Because Advaita has never been presented precisely the way the teaching happens through Ramesh. Ramesh repeatedly points out that whatever he says is not 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 remembering. 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 devotion, and ends with jnana, or final understanding – … accepting that ‘I’ am nothing, that ‘I’ 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 there will be no doubt as to the exact teaching happening through Ramesh.

The importance of this last point is easily missed. Ask yourself the same question that Ramesh often asks seekers attending satsang for the first time: What is the understanding now? In other words, as a result of all the seeking, whether having had teachers or reading books, what exactly is the understanding that you, the reader or listener, has right now? Very few can say!

After sitting in five or six satsangs you realize that the entire teaching as it happens through Ramesh is precisely stated in five words – Consciousness is all there is. Or if 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, and the teaching unfolds simply.

For whom? That’s the point. Seeking comes for the teaching in the form of seekers believing that they are purposefully seeking something. For these seekers the teaching is conceptually developed. In other words, the primary concept of Consciousness is all there is, is explained the only way which is possible – with further concepts.

The second basic concept of the teaching is – there is no doer. All which happens is the impersonal functioning of Consciousness, or God’s will. With this, the teaching is then developed:

The apparent manifestation is a reflection – which is simultaneously both real and unreal – of Consciousness within Itself. Human beings are body-mind organisms – objects having no free will. Ego is the sense of doership, not just the identification with name and form, which is created by Divine hypnosis for life to happen as we know it. Spiritual seeking may happen if it is the destiny of the body-mind organism and the will of the Source. If it does, it begins with an ego and, if it is destiny, ends in the annihilation of the ego. Consciousness is all there is!

The working concept for Who Cares?! was four-fold: to clearly present the teaching as it happens through Ramesh with minimum interference and maximum input from him; to accomplish this by quoting from recent satsangs and Ramesh’s other published works; to make it as seeker friendly as possible – there is a glossary of concepts and all quotes from published works are noted; to keep the completed work half as long as either Consciousness Speaks or Your Head In The Tiger’s Mouth; and to have the final manuscript carefully read and approved by Ramesh. Accomplishing these, everything would be in one place, easily accessible, authentic, and portable.

The glossary contains brief definitions of all the major concepts used in the teaching. For example, if there is any confusion over the meaning Ramesh gives to the related concepts of destiny, programming, and conditioning or to the concepts of duality and dualism – the glossary quickly provides the clarification.

However, there are four words which frequently occur throughout the presentation of the teaching, the significance of which is often not appreciated. Except for one, they are not typically part of the spiritual or philosophical vocabulary. Because of one’s casual familiarity with these words, the pivotal and deep meaning they have in the teaching may escape attention.

God - This word or concept is frequently used by Ramesh to indicate or refer to That which cannot be conceived and thus is beyond mind-intellect. God is not an object or an entity and has no qualities. That which is beyond mind and consequently cannot be conceived is referred to as God or any number of references such as Consciousness, Source, Noumenon, I-I, Reality, Tao, Potential, Subject, Absolute, Primal Energy, or whichever concept. The teaching as it happens through Ramesh is not theistic. (In theism God is an object and an entity with qualities such as omnipresence, omniscience, all merciful, etc.)

happens - This indicates an occurrence without any doer doing anything. Happens is spontaneous and without intention or volition, although there usually appears to be a chain of events, cause and effect, which leads to something that just happens. The meaning of this word is best conveyed by two examples:

- "The teaching happens through Ramesh. In other words, there is no one" who does anything. It, the teaching, happens.

- "There is no seeker. The seeking is just happening."

arises - This has the same meaning in the teaching as happens.

functioning - Consciousness is all there is. There is no 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 gives the manifestation the appearance of being real. For example, the ego, sense of personal doership, interprets as its functioning that which is always and can only be the impersonal functioning of Consciousness through a body-mind organism.

In a recent satsang Ramesh was asked how he explained the increase in the number of seekers all over the world, the apparent quickening of realization happening in body-mind organisms, the ever increasing number of books and magazines devoted to the subject, and yet he was known for his quoting Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita about how few seekers there are. Ramesh's response:

It simply means there are more people so there are more seekers. Out of thousands there is one seeker, and among seekers hardly one knows Me in principle. That is what Lord Krishna says. So there are more people and there are more seekers. If there are more seekers there are more Gurus, and if there are more Gurus there are more books!

If this apparent editor were granted one heart-wish in the totality of the impersonal functioning of Consciousness, it would be that all spiritual seekers arrive at the attitude, Who cares?! thus setting the stage in the process of seeking for the final, total understanding to happen. And that it happens! But who cares?

Manifestation

an apparent tapestry

ever being woven spontaneously

in the Present Moment

with a single thread –

Consciousness

At the feet of the Guru,

Blayne Bardo

Bombay, March 1999

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 things. 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 born, 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.

1

A Seeker Hearing the Teaching for the First Time

RAMESH A seeker hearing the teaching for the first time is often stunned, even if the seeking has been going on for twenty years.

RAMESH People are told by masters that they should fight the ego, kill the ego, but what I’m saying is to accept the ego. Is that not unique? Don’t fight the ego. Accept the ego. Why, because you didn’t create the ego. The Source has created the ego, and the Source is in the process of destroying the ego in some cases. That’s why your head is in the tiger’s mouth. There’s no escape. There is no escape if you fight the ego. That’s my point. If you keep on fighting the ego, the tiger will have its mouth open for ages and ages. You accept the ego, and the tiger will snap its jaws quickly.

Forget the Teaching

RAMESH This teaching in many ways is unique. Usually with a teaching, it is to make a note of it, study hard, use it in practice. What I’m telling you is, forget the teaching. Let it work by itself. Very important!

Forget the teaching because who wants to remember the teaching? It’s the ego that wants to remember the teaching and wants to use that teaching to achieve something. But if you forget the teaching, then the teaching leading to the understanding will work by itself. And if the teaching doesn’t lead to the understanding, then it’s not worth it. So either way, forget the teaching! It’s either effective or not effective. If it’s not effective then there’s no question. If it is effective, let it be effective!

Will the ego want to contribute to its own annihilation? No. The ego wants the teaching only to be able to use it, to achieve something – not for its own annihilation. If the teaching is forgotten the ego is forgotten, and the teaching works by itself.

Your effort is the obstruction. That’s why I say forget the teaching – don’t try to use it. Let that understanding work at whatever level.

Bhakti Begins the Teaching

RAMESH People ask me if there is anything unique about