Final Truth: A Guide to Ultimate Understanding [Paperback]

Ramesh S. Balsekar (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 092944809X | ISBN-13: 978-0929448091 | Publication Date: May 1, 1989

The Final Truth is one of the most complex and rewarding of Ramesh's written works. It may well be the most comprehensive look at Advaita currently in print. It takes us on a rich and vivid journey from the arising of 'I AM' to the final dissolution into identification as pure Consciousness.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Advaita Press (May 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 092944809X
• ISBN-13: 978-0929448091
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Non-volitional" Review, August 26, 2006

By 

the young - See all my reviews

This review is from: Final Truth: A Guide to Ultimate Understanding (Paperback)

Of the 30 or so books published by Ramesh Balsekar, I thought this was probably the most amazing of them all.

It's divided into four sections: The Nature of the Phenomenal Manifestation, The Individual in Relation to the Phenomenal Manifestation, The Individual and His Problem, and Ultimate Understanding Is Itself the Solution. The same points are covered again and again but from different angles. For instance, that everything is Consciousness, that there's no such thing as an autonomous individual entity with volition, and that the manifest world is itself an illusion--analogous to a dream or mirage.

Probably a little familiarity with Balsekar's teachings would help before reading this one. His teaching focuses less (if any) on devotional practices and more so on allowing certain understandings and realizations to blossom within one's self. For instance, he frequently references Nisargadatta Maharaj in his quote that "understanding is all", and therefore doesn't prescribe any spiritual practices for the seeker, as he suggests that intentional practices and techniques would only strengthen the sense of a personal self/ego with autonomy of volition and free will. So one of of the main themes then, is 'non-volition' and the absense of personal doership: "...volition is not at all an effective element in phenomenal life because there is no entity as such to have any effective volition", "Everything is the absolute Consciousness and the individual entity is nothing but an illusion."
(...a sigh of relief)

...if you find it relieving to hear that the "you" doesn't have any independent existence then this book is right up your alley!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not To Be Missed, February 15, 2008

By 

Rodney Stevens (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Final Truth: A Guide to Ultimate Understanding (Paperback)

While CONSCIOUSNESS SPEAKS (a wide-ranging collection of graspable spiritual topics) may be Balsekar's most popular work, THE FINAL TRUTH deserves broad readership, as well. Focusing solely on Advaita, it is a treasure-trove of rich and in-depth discussions on the nature of nonduality.

Balsekar correctly tells us that "the understanding [awakening, enlightenment, etc] which is itself Truth, happens only when there is immediate and direct (and therefore `true') perception." He goes on to explain how this "understanding" relates to the world as we know it: "The very essence of the ultimate understanding is that there cannot be any difference between the unmanifest noumenality [awareness] and the manifest phenomenality [our bodies, the world, the universe, etc]."

Balsekar favorite word for this oneness is Unicity. And like the best works on nonduality (e.g., any of John Wheeler's books, such as AWAKENING TO THE NATURAL STATE and SHINNING IN PLAIN VIEW), THE FINAL TRUTH points to our ever-present Freedom from various angles and directions. But it is always within the framework of "all there is, is Consciousness."

The book is divided into four sections, with such compelling chapter-headings as "The Manifest World--Its Nature," "The Concept of Bondage," "The State of Enlightenment," and "The Understanding That is Pure Joy."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucid Descriptions, Explanations, and Conclusions of Advaita Vedanta, March 28, 2010

By 

Gary Reiner (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Final Truth: A Guide to Ultimate Understanding (Paperback)

The Final Truth
A Guide to Ultimate Understanding

By Ramesh S. Balsekar (1989, Advaita Press)
Spiritual Teacher and author of over 20 books;
student of Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi, former President of the Bank of India; lives in Bombay and has daily Satsang gatherings

My Comments

What a wonderful book with lucid descriptions, explanations, and conclusions concerning Advaita Vedanta. For me, this book clears up so much opaqueness in spiritual matters, especially basics: what am I, how did I get here, where am I going, what is creation all about, what is realization, etc.

Since Balsekar speaks so eloquently, I will let him speak from the pages of his book now...

From the Preface

The final truth, as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj and all the sages before them have clearly stated, is that there is neither creation nor destruction, neither birth nor death, neither destiny nor free will, neither any path nor any achievement.

The Arising of I Am (pp.,19,21-22)

The simple situation is that the appearance of the universe exists in infinite Consciousness, just as the notion of distance and emptiness exists in space.

The formless Consciousness can be experienced only through the multitude of sentient bodies with names and forms, just as light can be seen only through refracting agents. It is thus not that the multitude of names and forms exist independently of Consciousness but that Consciousness can express itself only through these forms. It is not the fans and the lights and the kitchen gadgets that work by themselves, but it is the electricity that operates through these various forms.

Consciousness is all there is, expressing itself in various ways to bring about the manifestation and its functioning in totality.

When the truth is realized, apperceived [direct perception], all notions of dualism cease. Whatever is seen, in any form, can only be Consciousness because all is consciousness, and all manifestation now or at any time cannot but be Consciousness. This is the final truth.

The Ubiquitous Who (p. 48-49)

Bondage for the supposed individual appears because of a mistaken identity. What-We-Are is the animating Consciousness - which is noumenon. What we think we are is the phenomenal object to which the animating Consciousness provides sentience. The only "existence" any phenomenal object, including the human being, can have is merely apparent. That is to say, it is only an appearance in Consciousness, and objectivization that is entirely dependent for its existance on the mind that objectivizes it. In other words, the existence of the phenomenal object, with mind as its nature (like any dreamed object), cannot have any independent nature of its own.

The Nature of Existence (pp.61-62)

Similarly, "living" as an existence is a spatial Illusion, while "dying" as non-existence is a temporal illusion. What-We-think-we-are is a spatio-temporal illusion in a "living" based on the serializing of three-dimensional "stills" or "Quant". As with motion picture "stills. These are perceived and cognized as a movement only so long as the light of consciousness is available.

As What-We-Are we have never lived and we cannot die.