Actions are ‘happenings’, not something done by someone

The 92nd birth anniversary of Ramesh Balsekar was observed on May 25

Do you really know what you want most in life? Even if you have all the success, fame and money you want, and the good health to enjoy it - are you happy and fulfilled? Why is it that we all find ourselves seeking something more from life - all the time?

Each one of us, at some time or the other, has a taste of what that is: an uninterrupted experience of peace and harmony. But there is a very basic question: Why should anyone seek 'enlightenment' or 'Self-realization'?

A simple examination of one's personal experience will reveal that what usually disrupts the peace and harmony in life is a thought about something we think we - or someone else - should or shouldn't have done. Hence, a massive load of guilt and shame for oneself, or hatred and malice for the other, is perpetuated.

Without a lot of arduous effort - work, discipline, sacrifice, sadhana - without outside assistance, but simply by investigating one's own experience, it is possible to get relief from this bondage.

What mystics have said for ages, is viewed from the perspective of modern living: that actions are 'happenings' and not something done by someone. This understanding is what actually contributes to and helps us in discovering the state of equanimity and peace which we most ardently seek.

The basic concept is that "all there is, is Consciousness"; all actions are happenings, the functioning of the Primal Energy, and not the doing by anyone.

Being lonely and being alone

There is a fundamental difference between being lonely and being alone. Throughout the history of mankind, what we find is that excessive self-concern, self-occupation, is the outstanding feature of human behavior. Human life is anything but a matter of certainty, fulfillment, plenty. On the contrary, life is like an obstacle race.

We can see that our whole activity is self-centered. We keep thinking about ourselves endlessly: we must improve ourselves; we want a better job; we must fulfill ourselves; we want a better relationship; we want to achieve enlightenment.

Our self-concern motivates all our activities. It is this pre-occupation with the self and rivalry with the 'other', which brings about isolation and loneliness. We try to escape from it in various ways, but such strategies cannot succeed.

When one is conforming to a pattern - religious, psychological or even self-imposed - there is bound to be a contradiction between 'what-is' and the pattern. The self becomes supremely important with the idea of self-improvement.

One needs tremendous energy to see this situation in its truth and entirety. It demands utter honesty to recognize that 'what-should-be' is an avoidance from the actuality of 'what-is'.

It is only the urgency to see the truth that can make us accept the 'what-is' in the present moment. One needs to be completely alone in this investigation.

The accumulation of conceptual knowledge must be totally set aside. And such aloneness certainly does not mean isolation: it does not mean building a wall around oneself.

On the contrary, this means one is not alone but represents all humanity, a universal brotherhood, regarding all separate selves as merely instruments through which the Primal Energy - Consciousness - functions and brings about, at any moment, precisely that which is supposed to happen according to a Cosmic Law. It is only such an awakening of Divine Intelligence, which ends selfishness - the cause of loneliness of the self.