 |
The average person mistakenly believes he
is an individual entity that is separate from the totality
of manifestation. He believes he has free will and personal
volition; and he believes he is the body-mind organism that
he owns, uses, enjoys and controls. Furthermore, he believes
that his own efforts and doings will somehow suffice to bring
him what he wants ó including lasting happiness. However,
sooner or later, his own life experiences will show him clearly
that this belief is false. He will find that nothing he can
do or acquire can bring him the peace he so desires.
Realizing this, his mind turns inwards. Now
he will try to find lasting peace and happiness within. His
spiritual search has begun. He has become a seeker. Now he
may want to know more about the riddle of life, its purpose,
and its end, the mystery and "reality" of the Creator
(who created the Creator, if there is one) and then perhaps
the final and ultimate Reality beyond the Creator. He may
begin to wonder "Who or what am I?", "What remains
after death?", and he may keep asking other such existential
and metaphysical questions and longing for answers to them.
His search will not end until he has realized, through his
own direct experience, who he really is. Only in this realization
will he find lasting, final and complete peace, contentment
and fulfillment ó enlightenment.
Ramesh states that the seeking begins with
an individual who is convinced that enlightenment is attainable
through his personal efforts. The desire for freedom compels
this individual to follow certain spiritual practices (sadhanas)
in the belief that "Enlightenment must happen!" as a
result. Underlying such pursuits is the conviction that if
he only tries hard enough, he will be rewarded with lasting
peace and happiness. Ramesh, however, teaches that the seeker
ó as an individual with personal volition and doership ó just
doesn't exist, hence there is nothing anyone can do to hasten
his spiritual progress. It is God or Consciousness that turned
the person into a seeker in the first place, and it is God
or Consciousness that does the seeking and that recognizes
Its own nature in the event of enlightenment.
According to Ramesh, the spiritual search
is actually a process of disidentification "in which
the apparently separate 'me'-entity, with the sense of individual
free will and personal doership, gradually weakens until its
final and total dissolution is reached." It is therefore impossible
for the individual seeker to "make" progress happen;
the process of dis-identification can only be witnessed. During
this process, the seeker's progress can be "measured"
by his attitude towards the spiritual search and enlightenment.
The further the process advances the greater is the seeker's
lack of concern about progress and enlightenment. The disidentification
process nears completion when the seeker realizes that "Enlightenment
may or may not happen." At this point he has finally and totally
understood that he doesn't exist as an entity with personal
will and doership. He therefore has no power to influence
the outcome of his search; the occurrence of enlightenment
depends strictly and entirely on God's Will alone.
As a result of this understanding, the attitude
"Enlightenment? Who cares!"
may then arise in the seeker, and this is seen by Ramesh as
indicative of the imminent occurrence of enlightenment. At
this stage, even the goal of enlightenment has lost its allure.
The seeker understands that he has all the while been seeking
enlightenment because he was hoping to enjoy it. Now he realizes
that enlightenment (representing, as it does, the annihilation
of the individual) is a state in which there will be no "enjoyer"
left to delight in the culmination of the spiritual search,
hence there is really no point getting all worked up about
it why bother? In short, the "hallmark" attitudes for
the three stages of the disidentification process that leads
to enlightenment, are:
- Enlightenment must happen!
- Enlightenment may or may not happen.
- Enlightenment? Who cares!
This book is
intended to provide you, the reader, with some indication
as to where you are at on the spiritual path, clarifying your
own spiritual understanding and facilitating an honest appraisal
of your situation. As you read on, one of the above attitudes
(or hopefully enlightenment itself!) may resound and arise
from the depth of your being, finding its echo and manifestation
in your daily life.
The book may also raise new questions for
you, leading on to further and deeper inquiry. It may make
you aware that you need further guidance. If this is the case,
you can always pay a visit to Ramesh in Bombay. I am sure
he will welcome you cordially, greeting you along these lines:
"You have come for the first time. What can I do for
you? Tell me, what is your understanding!" He may say, "This
teaching is a self-destructive process as far as the ego is
concerned. Merely hearing it may bring about the understanding,"
and he will willingly answer those questions which have driven
you to his door.
Don't worry, though; you will not find Ramesh
waiting for you in the garb of an armed samurai as depicted
on the cover of this book. But you can be sure that he acts
like a samurai in the service of Truth, using his three "weapons,"
each of which is embodied in one of the chapters that follow.
Gentle Hammer consists of 933
aphorisms drawn from his teachings, Friendly
Sword conveys his teaching through a series of questions
and answers, while in Silent Arrow
the words flow out straight from Ramesh's own pen and heart.
After the persistent slogan-like hammering
of the teaching, and the surgical excision of what is unreal
from what is real, the final target ó understanding in and
as the Heart ó remains for the silent arrow of Ramesh's own
writing to penetrate in the concluding part of the book. The
book as a whole conveys Ramesh's compassionate and gentle
teaching style, and his unique ability to adapt the ancient
Advaita Vedanta teachings to suit the predicament of the modern-day
seeker. The master uses his weapons skillfully and with utmost
precision until ó sooner or later ó the annihilation of the
ego is completed.
|
|
