THE LIFE MODEL OF NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ AS INTERPRETED BY RAMESH BALSEKAR Gejza M. Timčák Received May 12 2015 - Revised July 1 2015 - Accepted July 3 2015 ABSTRACT Ramesh Balsekar (1917–2009) was a disciple of Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981). Nisargadatta Maharaj lived in Bombay and taught what he realized: For doing our dharma everything is provided for us. Thus we can focus our attention on discovering “Who one is“ and let life flow. In 1996 the author of this article had a short conversation with Ramesh Balsekar, who presented his way of understanding the teaching of Nisargadatta Maharaj. Key words Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramesh Balsekar, submission to God, Self-enquiry, life flow 1 Introduction Usually we consider “free will“ to be granted. The level of freedom in applying free will differs from school to school, but is usually the motivation towards making effort related to achieving the aims of life. It is specially so, if the aim of life is defined as to get to “know one-self“. Ramesh Balsekar shows a different approach. Life (prarabdha karma) puts us at a given moment to a family, situates us at a given place in a given time. It also gives us a certain personality and the greater environment, where we have to participate in life processes. On the way, we either move along without creating new karma by following our dharma, or we pave our way with a lot of new karma that are related to differences between the ideal dharmic activity and acting in a way that does not take into consideration one’s dharma. Yoga, for that matter, developed an amazing set of processes that could help soothing our tendencies and get sufficient energy for stilling the mind and achieving Self-realization. It defines the principles of yama and niyama, which could form a basis for interpersonal interactions. It assumes, that with effort we can change also our life circumstances and eliminate also our various counter-producSpirituality Studies 1 (2) Fall 2015 55 (1)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=