Who Cares?! The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar [Paperback]

Ramesh S. Balsekar (Author), Blayne Bardo (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

Consciousness is all there is. So 'who' is to know or seek 'what'? All there is is the impersonal functioning of Consciousness, or God, reflecting within Itself the totality of manifestation. Live life making decisions and accepting the consequences as if you have free will knowing it is Consciousness seeking, doing, living deciding... Ramesh Balsekar is an awakened sage whose long life has been devoted to Ramana Maharshi and whose final Guru was Nisargadatta Maharaj. He perfectly reflects both East and West-born and raised in Bombay, India, thinking and speaking in English, student of Sanskrit and translator of the Bhagavad Gita, intimately familiar with the Taoist and Chan classics as well as the new paradigm (Consciousness is all there is) which has emerged from quantum mechanics. Poignantly clear and precise and delightfully, humorous, his teaching makes life simple.

Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Advaita Press (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929448189
• ISBN-13: 978-0929448183
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars essence of advaita; a must read, September 11, 2003

By 

Srikrishna Ghadiyaram (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Who Cares?! The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar (Paperback)

This book truly deserves a 5 star rating. It clearly captures Ramesh's method of teaching Advaita. The editor has done a very good job culling the most clearly articulated teachings from several of Ramesh's books. The dialogues are categorised into chapters with good meaning and method.

The beauty and uniqueness of Ramesh's teaching is that Ramesh clearly defines Seeking, Seeker, how it starts, what is enlightenment, why enlightenment, and method of daily living. No other book or teacher seems to address all these points in one sitting.

If one has a chance to attend a 1 hour group/personal dialogue/session with Ramesh, he will dish out complete teaching very systematically and one need not go again. That makes it easy to live. This is my personal experience.

The book presents the complete teaching based on several such dialogues. So, it is of real value.

But, I have my own concerns about the way the word 'ego' is used 'unrestrictively' to mean both the individual and individuality, causing ample confusion. After making several months of attempt to reconcile this word in Ramesh's teachings, I gave up and now I am trying to follow his vocabulary, though it does not match with Upanishadic usage.

Nevertheless, this is a must reading for those who want to understand 'Advaita' with no ambiguity. However, it does not teach exactly what Hindu Advaita Vedanta of Sankaracharya teaches. Ramesh's teaching does not adhere to rebirth and an individual travelling through higher worlds etc., So, one should be prepared to read it as an independent philosophy with no comparison to the 'Advaita Vedanta' school of thought.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some excellent clarifications...thought provoking and understandable, February 18, 2007

By 

anonymoose (LA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Who Cares?! The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar (Paperback)

An excellent book which deepened my understanding. A worthy companion to "I Am That" or "A Course In Miracles" in pointing one at truth.
Well written and clear, and not just another rehashing of Advaita.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my Top 3 Advaita books, December 14, 2009

By 

Nat Hunt "Author of ATTACK OF THE COINCIDENCES" (Springfield, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Who Cares?! The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar (Paperback)

I have only read two of Ramesh's books, but I love this one. I read it over the span of only a couple days and it remains in my Top 3 Advaita books along with Wayne Liquorman's Acceptance of What Is and Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-knowledge by Arthur Osborne.

Who Cares?! is a series of dialogues between the late Ramesh Balsekar and various spiritual seekers who came to his home in Mumbai. The editor, Blayne Bardo, explains that this is a fusion of recent satsangs given by Ramesh as well as excerpts from 9 of his previously published works. While reading, you feel like you are sitting right there in Ramesh's apartment, with his seekers and him. It really works and unlike the other book by Ramesh I have read (The Wisdom of Balsekar), the dialogues are not dry or intellectual at all. I was disappointed when I quickly came to the end of Who Cares?! because it had been a real delight to read: I resonated with everything he said.