Poonjaji (fwd)

[Shashikanth Hosur]

>
>           Sri H.W.L. Poonjaji, endearingly known as Papaji, was a
>    disciple of the greatest and most revered sage of India, Sri Ramana
>    Maharshi. Papaji became enlightened through him almost 50 years ago.
>    Ramana resided in Arunachala, The Holy Mountains and pilgramage centre
>    of South India. The essence of Sri Ramana's message was to find out
>    who you are. The device he used was self enquiry - to look inside and
>    ask the question "Who Am I?", to find out where this "I" comes from.
>
>    Many people from all over the world are travelling to India to sit in
>    satsang in front of Papaji to ask just that. Papaji shares the
>    possibility of freedom now."Let us cherish that Self, which is the
>    reality, in the heart."
>
>    This pasage was taken from satsang (meaning meeting with the truth).
>    The book: Wake Up and Roar, volume 2, pages 121 -- 124.
>
>    Papaji's fax contact is: 0091-522-222061
>
>
> Devotee: Since you were already in devotion to God, what did you get when
> you met Ramana Maharishi?
>
> Poonjaji: Vichara [self-enquiry].  This I never knew.  Now I speak about it
> because now I have realized.  My master used to speak about this, and
> through his grace I received the experience.   My master gave me this
> experience.
>
> I was in devotion, but something was missing.  There was still a separation
> which was unbearable.  I used to dance with Krishna, but not twenty-four
> hours.  Sometimes there was separation, and this was very painful.  I
> wanted to have it stabilized twenty-four hours.  Until then I didn't have a
> teacher.
>
> I went all over India in search of a guru.  I would ask, "Have you seen
> God?  And if you have, can you enable me?  And what is your charge?  I will
> serve you all the rest of this life."  Everybody said, "You have to do
> practice."
>
> But I said, "No, When I go to the market, I see what I want and I pay.  It
> should be like this.  I am willing to pay, but do you have what I want?
> Why should I practice?"
>
> They would say I am mad.  The gurus' students would rise up and say, "We
> have been here for forty years.  We have grown grey beards and still we
> have not yet found the way.  So stay here and practice."
>
> "But I have not come for that.  If the guru has seen God, what is the
> problem in his showing It to me?"  I went everywhere searching without
> result.
>
> Then I went home, disappointed.  My father was quite upset because I was
> not working.  One day I was sitting in a house and a sadhu came for alms,
> bhiksha.
>
> I said, "Swamiji, you can have lunch with me.  You have been traveling
> throughout India.  Can you give me the address of someone who has seen
> God?"
>
> He said, "Oh yes, I know one person.  Go to him."  So he gave me the
> address of Ramana Maharshi [Maharishi].  He lives in Tiruvannamalai, south
> of Madras.
>
> I noted the address, and he left.  I have no money, and my father would
> give me no money, as he was already taking care of my wife and children.  I
> was very shy to borrow money.  I had helped people, but I had not taken
> money from anyone else.
>
> I had one friend who was a sweet-meat merchant. We had done gymnastics
> together in boyhood.  He invited me to his place for some milk.  There was
> an old newspaper lying on the table.  I started casually looking at the
> want ad column.
>
> I saw an advertisement for an ex-army officer to work in Madras.  I
> applied, got money and a travel ticket to Madras, and one month time to
> report.
>
> I went from the Punjab to Madras, and then to Ramanashram. I got down from
> the bullock cart and was guided and told that the saint was there in the
> hall.  I went and saw it was the same sadhu who had given me the address.
>
> I got very angry and did not enter the hall.  I thought this was the same
> man who was boasting about himself.  I wanted to go back to the station.
>
> A man who lived in the ashram followed me outside and asked, "Aren't you
> from the north?  You have come all this way.  Why not stay some time?"
>
> I told him, "No.  This man is a fraud.  He gave me his own address,
> therefore I don't want to see him or to stay."
>
> The man said, "No, you are making a mistake.  It cannot be him.  He has not
> moved from here for fifty years.  He came here as a boy.  He must have
> shown himself to you by his special powers."
>
> I didn't agree, but he insisted and took my baggage and gave me a room.
> Straight-away there was a bell for lunch.  The Maharishi was there in the
> hall for lunch, and I saw clearly that he was the same person I had met in
> Punjab.  I decided to speak to him anyway.
>
> After lunch everybody left, and he went back into the hall.  I didn't know
> that after lunch nobody went to see him.  I went into the hall, and the
> caretaker stopped me because this was the Maharishi's time for rest.  But
> Maharishi was looking at me, and signaled me to come.
>
> I spoke to him and said, "Are you not the same person who met me in Punjab
> fifteen days ago?"  He just kept quiet.
>
> I said, "I don't understand silence.  Please speak."  He didn't speak.
> Even then, I was not happy with him.  I was not happy with this silence
> which I had never heard.
>
> Anyway, I thought, this place is nice.  It is very attractive, very holy.
> Since I am here anyway, I will go to the other side of the hill.  I hiked
> alone for four miles from the ashram, seeking my krishna.
>
> After awhile it was time to leave and return to Madras to start my work.  I
> came to say good-bye to Maharishi.  He said, "You have not come to see me."
>
> I said, "No, I was living on the other side of the hill, and now I am going
> to Madras."
>
> He asked me, "What have you been doing?"
>
> I said with pride, "I was playing with Krishna."
>
> He said, "Very good.  You have been seeing Krishna?"
>
> "Yes," I said proudly.
>
> "Do you see him now?"
>
> "No.  Now I don't.  When I have a vision I see him.  Now I don't."
>
> He then said, "So Krishna appeared and disappeared?"
>
> He said, "What appeared has disappeared.  The seer is still here.  God
> cannot be an object that appears and disappears.  So find out who the seer
> is."
>
> For the first time ever I heard, "Find out who the seer is."
>
> With the master, I got the experience.  This experience was already here.
> When we love God, we think he is an object.  But he is the subject.  So you
> have to surrender to the subject.  The ego is the object.
>
> You merge into the subject so that no object is left behind.  God will
> speak, God will walk, and God will see.  I got this from my master.  I saw
> the seer.  I realized the seer through my master, and prostrated before
> him.
>
> Then I returned to Madras to take up my duty.  All holidays, Saturdays and
> Sundays I would return to Tiruvannamalai to spend with him.  It was so
> close: only four hours.  Everything was fine.  Same devotion -- at the
> ashram or in the office, no difference.  Then knowledge and devotion work
> together. If you know, then you will love God.  If you love God, then only,
> you will know.  Then vichara and bhakti are the same.
>
> I don't speak of bhakti because people are not prepared.  In ego the heart
> is sold to someone else.  Then what to surrender?  What to give?  With whom
> can you love when it is sold to someone else?