Ramesh S. Balsekar - Pursue Happiness and Get Enlightened

Pursue

Happiness

And Get

Enlightened

RAMESH S. BALSEKAR

EDITED BY

YOGESH SHARMA

A DIVISION OF MAOLI MEDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

Books by Ramesh S. Balsekar

Pointers From Ramana Maharshi (2008)

Celebrate the Wit & Wisdom-Relax and Enjoy (2008)

Does The Human Being Have Free Will? (2007)

Enlightened Living (2007)

A Buddhas Babble (2006)

A Personal Religion of Your Own (2006)

The Essence of The Ashtavakra Gita (2006)

The Relationship Between I And Me (2006)

A Homage To The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar (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)

Upadesa Saram (2001)

Advaita, the Buddha and the Unbroken Whole (2000)

It So Happened That (2000)

Sin and Guilt: Monstrosity of Mind (2000)

Meaningful Trivialities from the Source (2000)

The Infamous Ego (1999)

Who Cares?! (1999)

The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita (1999)

Your Head in the Tigers Mouth (1997)

Consciousness Writes (1996)

Consciousness Strikes (1996)

The Bhagavad Gita A Selection (1995)

Ripples (1994)

Consciousness Speaks (1994)

Pursue

Happiness

And Get

Enlightened

RAMESH S. BALSEKAR

EDITED BY

YOGESH SHARMA

Copyright 2008 By Ramesh S. Balsekar

First Edition July 2008

PUBLISHED BY

ZEN PUBLICATIONS

A Division of Maoli Media Private Limited

60, Juhu Supreme Shopping Centre,
Gulmohar Cross Road No. 9, JVPD Scheme,
Juhu, Mumbai 400 049. India.

Tel: (+91 22) 32408074
eMail:
Website: www.zenpublications.com

CREDITS

Cover & Book Design by Red Sky Designs

Photographs of the Author by Dheeraj Chawda (p 14, 52) and Colin Mallard (p 20, 86)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Publishers would like to thank Suresh Makhija for providing the recordings of the satsangs; Canta Dadlaney, Jyoti Gyanchandani and Nehal Shah for their invaluable help in transcribing the talks at extremely short notice; Chaitan Balsekar for valuable suggestions and advice; and Dheeraj Chawda and Colin Mallard for providing the photographs of the author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author or his agents, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

CONTENTS

NOBODY COULD TELL ME WHAT ENLIGHTENMENT IS

I PURSUED ENLIGHTENMENT AND ENDED UP IN FRUSTRATION

I PURSUED HAPPINESS AS A SELFISH AIM AND FOUND MYSELF ENLIGHTENED

HAPPINESS IS ENLIGHTENMENT!

Enlightenment has never ever been a certified event.

RAMESH BALSEKAR

What do you think enlightenment
will give you in this life, for the rest of your life,
that you didnt have before?

RAMESH BALSEKAR

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

H appiness and Enlightenment must probably be the two most misunderstood words in the spiritual lexicon. Happiness is routinely mistaken for pleasure in the moment and Enlightenment for a state of permanent bliss, insulated from all pleasure and pain.

Then again, pursuit of happiness is mistaken for pursuit of pleasure, and that happening called Enlightenment is actually considered worthy of pursuit.

There are those, and there are a great many of them, who believe that the distance to enlightenment is inversely proportional to the pain you inflict upon yourself. These are the ones who indulge in austerities.

And there are those who are convinced that if they can snuff out desire, the reward would be enlightenment; not realising that that itself is a desire. Moreover, the arising of a thought desire is a biological reaction over which the ego has no control. The problem is not the arising of desire, but the pursuit of desire.

And then there are those who think that the path to Enlightenment is through the annihilation of the ego; and that ego spends an entire lifetime trying to snuff itself out. Who is it that is supposed to have an ego? The whole point is to understand what precisely is the ego who wants enlightenment as a means to happiness.

All this would be vaguely comic if it were not so tragic.

What Pursue Happiness And Get Enlightened does is turn the whole subject of enlightenment or Self-realization on its head by demonstrating that pursuing enlightenment leads to frustration whereas pursuing happiness makes enlightenment happen.

Rameshji, using a patient, step-by-step approach, based on his own personal experience, simplifies the quest for true happiness. He walks you through the evidence till you can conclude for yourself that happiness is your very nature and a sincere pursuit of that true happiness actually leads you to a state of sukha-shanti, happiness through peace of mind which is precisely what you expected enlightenment to give you! As simple as that. No need for austerities, no need to insulate yourself from day to day life, no jostling with the ego, no giving up and no doing.

In fact, while reading Rameshjis conversations with spiritual seekers published here, it suddenly hits you that the key lies in understanding that the real problem is the sense of personal doership.

Unless you are crystallised into set concepts, you will find this book as refreshing as it is fascinating. For once, your intellect will back your intuition in saying: Yes, I know this is true.

Yogesh Sharma
Mumbai, July 2008

CURTAIN RAISER

Extracts from the authors recent book Pointers from Ramana Maharshi

Happiness

T he desire for happiness (Sukha-prema) is a proof of the ever-existing happiness of the SELF; otherwise desire would not arise. If headaches were natural to human beings, no one would try to get rid of it. Man desires that which is natural to him. Happiness is natural to him. Mans attempt can only be to get rid of that which prevents happiness from happening.

Dukha nasham = Sukha prapti

Ramana Maharshi

[The human being pursuing pleasure, at some point of time, depending on his destiny, comes to the conclusion that pleasure depends upon a desired object, and therefore that the happiness he is seeking cannot be found in the pleasures of life, but in his attitude to life, and, finally, that the happiness he desires can happen only when he has surrendered his sense of doership and purified the ego. Such happiness lies beyond the waking, dream and sleep states. This is the Reality and consists of the original happiness