Customer Reviews

Final Truth: A Guide to Ultimate Understanding

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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!

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."

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.

I have read several books on Advaita, including "The Book of One" by Dennis Waite. I'm now halfway through the second reading of "One", and enjoying it all over again. I thought Ramesh S. Balsekar's book "The Final Truth" would be similar to Mr. Waite's book. It may be, but I am having a hard time understanding it. Not because of the concepts but because of his choice of words. This is the first book I've read where I hold the book in my right hand and a dictionary in my left hand. I'm determined to read this book! All the while wishing Mr. Balsekar had chosen more common english words for the unenlightened like myself.

Three months later: I've never finished this book. I can't get past the frustration of having to look up the author's $50.00 words, and re-read every paragraph five times, hoping to understand what he's saying. I believe the author really does have a message. I'm disappointed that his use of unusual or never-used words is such a barrier to understanding.

I never write reviews. I read alot and this subject of "Consciousness" is a new and interesting subject for me.

I've read the more Mainstream stuff like Tolle and Mckenna, etc, etc. But this guy...
I'm sure he know what he's talking about, but the use of such elaborate and lengthy, metaphors and explanations of subjects that could better be explained in lament terms, are rather unnecessary, and so far out of left-field.

It's pretty much understood the importance of Consciousness and "what is truth?" But the amount of frustration and confusion, going over the same sentence to just grasp this idea every other paragraph makes it too hard and causes too much energy to be expended that could be better used with less of a frustration on someone whose able to explain it without such in-depth analogies.

Maybe this book is better understood by someone who has 10+ years of experience with this stuff, but then again, why would you want to or have to read anymore about "what is truth?" if you already know the answer?


This seems to be for the true theorists out there who wanna prove to themselves there "at the level" of this kinda understanding.

If I can manage to finish this book and am truly changed, i'll rewrite a review. It's so tempting to push this aside and reread Tolle's New Earth for a second time as opposed to struggling with something like this. I takes 10mins to read one page, just to get a brief understanding of what he's talking about.

The final truth is that all words are concepts. There are no instruments one can use to measure truths. It is a matter of preception. Ramesh explains and points the way in his book. It is up to the individual to aperceive.