What we’re about
Welcome to our Meetup, inspired by the practical and transformative teachings of Ramesh S. Balsekar, a renowned Advaita Vedanta teacher and disciple of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. This group is dedicated to exploring a spiritual teaching that complements traditional top-down Advaita and nonduality teachings, making them accessible and applicable to daily life. While Advaita often emphasizes profound concepts like “you are not the body,” “you are awareness,” or “the world is maya (illusion),” this teaching helps seekers integrate these insights practically, focusing on achieving “happiness in daily living” through “peace of mind, regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in.”
Ramesh Balsekar (1917–2009), a former president of the Bank of India and a householder, brought a unique perspective to Advaita by blending his corporate experience with the nondual wisdom he absorbed as Nisargadatta’s English translator. His teachings, rooted in the idea of “non-doership”—that all actions are happenings determined by “God’s Will” or Consciousness—emphasize that life’s flow of pleasure and pain is not in our control. As he famously quoted the Buddha, “Events happen, deeds are done but there is no individual doer thereof.” This teaching, shared in our satsang talk, offers a framework to dissolve suffering by addressing two core false beliefs: that we are separate doers in control of our actions, and that happiness lies in external outcomes.
In our meetups, we’ll dive into key questions like, “What are we really looking for?” The answer, as the teaching suggests, is simple yet profound: happiness, which is “peace of mind, continuous unbroken peace of mind regardless of the circumstance.” Peace of mind isn't actually the addition of something; it's not gaining anything. It's what's there naturally when a certain layer of thinking falls away—a certain layer of thinking about life, about our role in life, about our successes and failures in life. A certain type of thinking that's obsessed with the past and the future, a certain type of thinking that is blaming the other all the time for what they did or didn't do, feeling shame for what I did or didn't do, having expectations of how life will turn out. So, if that's the background thinking that's in place because of certain belief systems, then the peace is covered up. The peace is revealed when that thinking starts to dissolve. So really, the process is about losing, not gaining. It's not about becoming more complete—we're already complete. We're off seeking for something that is already right here, but in practice, it's here but it's not here because it's covered up. So, the process is really about removing the veil, removing what is covering up our true nature—you could say, the peace that we're looking for.
We've got one part of us, our intellect, which is conceptual and conceptualizes things. But there's a large part of the human being that is not at all a conceptual being. So the happiness is not a conceptual happiness; it's our essence, which is there prior to any thinking. It's our essence that is the source of our happiness. Its very nature is to be at peace in life, and it gets its nature to be at peace in life because the nature of what we are at our core isn't affected by what happens in circumstances in life. The external aspect of the human being is affected by circumstance—things are either pleasurable or painful, but that pleasure or pain doesn't actually add or subtract from what we are at our core, which is why our core can remain at peace with whatever is happening in the flow of life because it's not attacked. It doesn't get defined by what's happening. So a lot of spirituality is trying to get us to recognize that aspect of the human being that has been forgotten, overlooked. The process is a process of remembering who we are at our core, and it's a simultaneous happening—not only the remembering of who we are but also the dissolving of the false beliefs of who we are that create all the suffering.
“I don't have to do anything in this moment for life to be. I just get to witness it; it's already created. What's here in this moment is the manifestation, the creation, and I really don't have a job to do right now. In fact, just being, knowing that I am, having a sense that I am awareness, is a great relief from all of the efforts that we tend to get caught up in in life. Recognizing that there's a great merit in just being present with what is, a relaxation happens”
Our gatherings will feature readings from the teaching, group discussions, and personal reflections in a supportive environment. Whether you’re new to spirituality or a seasoned seeker, this group welcomes anyone curious about finding lasting happiness by uncovering their true nature.
Join us to explore how Balsekar’s practical Advaita can guide us to “the end of suffering” and a life of equanimity, where we live fully in each moment, free from the burdens of guilt, blame, or expectation. Come share in this journey toward peace of mind in daily living. We look forward to seeing you at our next satsang!
