Advaita Press Final Truth: A Guide to Ultimate Understanding

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!

An excellent book.

Excellent book, very interesting

Excellent ! This was a re=order for friends. I had purchased it way-back in 2001 (or earlier) and found itwonderful and enlightening. Author Ramesh Balsekar(EAST) has so much to offer the (WEST), as usual.

Not his best book. This book is too dense. Its not reader friendly. The wisdom of Balsekar and who cares are the other books of his I read, both books were really good. This one is dense, boring and feels like reading a academic thesis.