Table Of ContentTHE HAPPENING OF A GURU
First published in India in 2003 by
Yogi Impressions Books Pvt. Ltd.
1711, Centre 1, World Trade Centre,
Cuffe Parade, Mumbai 400 005, India.
Website: www.yogiimpressions.com
First Edition, November 2003
Copyright © 2003 by Ramesh S. Balsekar
Illustration of Goddess Saraswati: Vijay Ugale
Painting on Bookmark: © Santosh 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.
In honor of Ramesh’s tireless and limitless
dedication to the Teaching.
Thank You, Guru.
CONTENTS
About this Book
Awakening for the Ordinary Man
The Goddess of Learning
The Cubicle of Family Life
The Bank of India
Marriage and Family
Maharaj and the Teaching
Seminars and Satsangs
How do I live my Life?
Letter to God
ABOUT
THIS BOOK
More than ten years ago Martin L. Myman, a lawyer from Northern California
and devotee of Ramesh S. Balsekar, started a project that almost never got off
the ground. One day he told Ramesh about his intention to write the biography
of his Guru. Ramesh was astonished that someone wanted to write about a life as
ordinary as his own, and so he tried to discourage him. Luckily Martin wasn’t
dissuaded and what you are holding in your hands now is proof of his
disobedience. He sat down with Ramesh and recorded his questions and
Ramesh’s answers. He then transcribed them and before he could edit these
interviews into a real book, his health failed him. He sent a copy of the
unfinished manuscript to Ramesh and Mary Ciofalo, and that seemed to be the
end of a book that might have been titled: ‘Biography of a Guru.’
In June 2001, after Ramesh’s last Seminar outside of India in Schermau,
Germany, Ramesh told me to write my own biography. The main reason for his
advice was to keep me so busy as not to get lost in too much thinking and
conceptualizing. I had strong doubts that anyone would be interested in my life,
although it certainly was not – I had a very checkered past to say the least – as
ordinary as that of Ramesh. I knew the reader’s interest would only be in my
connection with Ramesh for the last seventeen years. As I started to fill the
pages with all the bad things I had done in my life, I knew it needed something
more than just my misdeeds and one day I remembered Martin’s manuscript.
Martin couldn’t find his copy, Mary also couldn’t find hers. When I also drew a
blank with Ramesh, I saw my project: ‘Biography of a Guru and his Disciple’
going down the drain.
In October 2002, I stayed with Ramesh in Bombay for ten days before
flying down to Kovalam, South India, to set up another Seminar for Ramesh. We
talked again about this book project and Sharda started digging in some places
that Ramesh hadn’t thought about, and she was successful. The old manuscript
turned up and as I went through it, it became clear that it needed a lot of editing
to change the format of an interview into a proper book.
Thanks to Martin’s persistence and Mary’s editing skills, you hold a book in
your hands that really deserves the title: ‘The Happening of a Guru.’ Over the
years I had collected many photos of Ramesh and his family, and it seemed
appropriate to include them in this book.
Heiner Siegelmann
Schermau
August 2003
AWAKENING FOR
THE ORDINARY MAN
Ramesh S. Balsekar is an enlightened sage, devotee of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
and a leading contemporary exponent of the Advaita (Non-Dual) philosophy.
Notwithstanding that position, by most measures his life has been an ordinary
one and that is the heart of the matter. As a son, brother, husband, father, bank
executive, grandfather, teacher and writer, Ramesh has lived life fully, naturally
and normally. His life affirms that the vehicle of our liberation is ‘built-in.’
Ordinary living helps eliminate the imagined split between the life of the world
and that of the spirit.
Given Ramesh’s education, training and life experience, and with English as
his primary language, he is uniquely suited to reveal the Teaching to westerners.
Ramesh clears long standing misconceptions which have obscured the Truth as
originally propounded by the great seers. Such aberrations as the theory of
reincarnation and, most importantly, the concept of the existence of an
individual entity as the individual doer are conclusively eliminated, thereby
restoring the Teaching to its pristine and effective state. He provides invaluable
practical assistance with his Teaching on the distinction between the thinking
mind and the working mind. There is also an important distinction between
duality and dualism: the sage lives with the acceptance of duality with the
understanding that everything in phenomenality has its opposite, and both are
accepted as part of life; the ordinary person is not able to accept the duality of
life, every moment chooses one opposite against the other – lives in dualism –
and is, therefore, perpetually frustrated and unhappy.
The form of this biography is principally oral history. Why undertake
writing a biography of a sage when individuality is of no importance and
actually does not exist? The answer can only be that it is part of human nature to
be curious about life as lived, and as such, a biography may serve as a point of
entry into the Teaching. As Ramesh has said: “You have undertaken to write a
biography of a person whose life could be described in one word: ‘Ordinary!’ –
Description:The Happening of a Guru is a biography of the Advaita sage Ramesh Balsekar. This anecdotal biography is dotted with glimpses into his life, from his days as a boy growing up in Mumbai's Saraswat community, to his years spent in the London School of Economics. It follows his career with the Bank of I
