A Personal Religion Of Your Own Ramesh S. Balsekar Books by Ramesh S. Balsekar • Consciousness Speaks • Your Head in the Tiger’s Mouth • Who Cares?! • A Duet of One • Advaita and the Buddha • Sin and Guilt: Monstrosity of Mind • The Bhagavad Gita – A Selection • Enlightened Living • Confusion No More • The Essence of The Ashtavakra Gita • The Relationship Between ‘I’ And ‘Me’ • Pursue ‘Happiness’ And Get Enlightened • Does The Human Being Have Free Will? • Pointers From Ramana Maharshi • A Buddha’s Babble • A Homage To The Unique Teaching Of Ramesh S. Balsekar • Seeking Enlightenment – Why ? • Nuggets of Wisdom • Guru Pournima • It So Happened That... • Consciousness Writes • Celebrate the Wit and Wisdom: Relax and Enjoy • The Infamous Ego • Ripples • Spiritual Search Step By Step • Meaningful Trivialities from the Source • The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita • Tumcha Swatacha Vyaktigat Dharm (Marathi) • Atmabodhacha Shodhat Aahes? – Ka? (Marathi) • Ashtavakra Gita Saar (Marathi) • Koun Parvah Karto?! (Marathi) • Dharm Se Swadharm Tak (Hindi) COPYRIGHT © 2006 by RAMESH S. BALSEKAR Revised Edition February 2018 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 9022208074 eMail. [email protected] Website. www.zenpublications.com Cover & Book Design by Red Sky Designs, Mumbai 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. There never has been a creation, nor a dissolution. Your Maha-mantra for happy daily living “In any situation, do whatever you feel you should do, without any regrets about the past, without any complaints for the present, without any expectations for the future, and without blaming or condemning anyone for anything, neither yourself, nor the other. What actually happens has never been in anyone’s control. It has always been according to God’s Will / Cosmic Law. Thus you will always be free of sin and guilt for yourself, and free of the burden of hatred towards the others. This will mean the supreme happiness of peace of mind...Sukha-Shanti.” Ramesh S. Balsekar The dictionary defines ‘Religion’ as ‘a system of daily conduct and mental attitude’. I NTRODUCTION D aily living means every human being at any given time or place, even 5,000 years ago, doing in any situation, whatever he felt he should do. In other words, daily living cannot happen unless every human being has total free will. Thereafter, what happens has never been in anyone’s control. What has happened is one of three things: 1) he has got what he wanted, 2) he has not got what he wanted; or, 3) what happened was beyond his expectation, for better or worse. Thereafter, the society has accepted what has happened, as the individual’s action, judged it as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and given its award according to social regulations and legal provisions: reward or punishment. Reward has meant pleasure in the moment; punishment has meant pain in the moment. That is what daily living means. It must begin with free will for the human being, but thereafter it is God’s Will. And the human being’s free will is based on two factors – genes, and conditioning in the social environment in which the individual was born, over neither of which did the individual have any control. Both factors were created by God. Therefore, it is perfectly clear that whatever any individual has done is precisely what God expected him to do; how can he ever commit a ‘sin’? It is absolutely clear, therefore, that whatever the human being does is precisely what God expected him to do, and to accept the consequences also – pleasure in the moment or pain in the moment. At any moment, whatever situation a human being finds himself in, is precisely what is supposed to happen according to his destiny, God’s Will/Cosmic Law. The human being is thus merely an instrument through which God functions according to the Cosmic Law, the basis of which the human brain is incapable of understanding: it is too vast and too complex. It is absolutely clear, therefore, that the human being is not the doer of any deed – neither himself nor the ‘other’. Whatever happens, the human being has to accept as God’s Will; and since he is not the doer of any deed, he does not have to carry, at any time, the load of sin and guilt about his own actions, nor the load of hatred for the others who have hurt him. The absence of these two loads means peace of mind the ‘happiness’ which every human being seeks in life. CONVESATION WITH RAMESH June 25, 2006 RAMESH: So, who is going to start? Your name is? SUHAS: I am Suhas and this is Kalpana. I have come here for the first time. I was guided by Vipul. RAMESH: I see. SUHAS: I wanted to ask a simple thing. Is it necessary for a human being, who wants to lead a happy and disciplined life to follow a religion? RAMESH: No! What do you mean by religion? SUHAS: That was my second question. What is the meaning of religion? What is the meaning of spirituality and dhamma? [ R ELIGION The basic principle of every religion happens to be the same. The Bible says: Thy will be done. The Hindu scriptures say: a) Twam eva karta, Twam eva bhokta (Thou art the doer; Thou art the experiencer) b) Twam eva shrota, Twam eva vakta (Thou art the listener; Thou art the speaker) The Muslim religion says: LA ‘ILLAHA IL’ALLAHU (There is no Reality but God, there is only God) And yet there have been religious wars over hundreds of years. It cannot be denied that whatever has happened – wars, natural disasters, epidemics or whatever could not have happened unless it was God’s Will. But the apparent cause of conflict between religions is that the basic principle common to all religions, so direct and simple that it needs no interpretation, has been interpreted by successive generations of interpreters (by whatever name and authority designated) in such a way that each religion has its own dogmas, mainly concerned with behaviour in daily living. And it is these interpretations, or rather, misinterpretations and appurtenances that are the cause of dissension among the followers of various religions: rites and rituals based on concepts of Do’s and Don’ts which have no foundation. If an individual does not follow the prescribed religion’s rites and rituals, he is supposed to commit a ‘sin’ which is deemed to have various horrible consequences in this life and beyond. And, unfortunately, in the various daily routines, the basic principle of God’s Will is totally forgotten. Religion and ‘Sin’ go together, whatever the religion. The dictionary definition of ‘sin’ is “a transgression against divine law or principles of morality; offences against good taste, propriety, etc.” This is obviously a necessarily vague description because the basis of sin varies from time to time, from culture to culture. The dictionary further enumerates ‘seven deadly sins’ like pride, envy, lechery, anger, covetousness, gluttony and sloth. On this basis, one can only wonder if there could be any person, including a religious person like a priest, who is not continuously committing some sin or the other, all the time.