H. W. L. Poonja ("Papaji")
Papaji has been one of the eminent non-dual saints of modern times. We covered his early life in an earlier post. The previous post bought him to the doorstep of the sage Ramana Maharishi.
When he reached the hermitage where Ramana Maharishi stayed he was shocked to see that Ramana Maharishi was none other than the same man who had visited his home. He was disgusted at this and made preparations to leave without meeting the sage. He thought, “Ramana Maharishi visits my home advertises himself and then jumps back on a train to reach here before me! How disgusting! He is nothing but a fraud who wanders the country advertising himself.”
Just as he was leaving he ran into somebody who convinced him to stay. He assured him that Ramana Maharishi had never left town for the past forty-eight years. His curiosity aroused Harivansh decided to stay and meet the sage.
When Harivansh eventually met Ramana Maharishi he was very aggressive. He asked him repeatedly if he had come to his house, but he got no answer from the sage. Eventually he asked Ramana Maharishi to show him God. To this query the sage replied, “No. I cannot show you God or enable you to see God, because God is not an object to be seen. God is the subject. He is the seer. Don’t concern yourself with objects that can be seen. Find out who the seer is.” He then added, “You alone are God!”
Just when the sage stopped speaking Harivansh felt his entire body tremble and shake. His nerve endings felt as if they were dancing and his hair stood on end. Harivansh later described the experience as an opening of the spiritual heart, “It was as if a bud inside opened up and bloomed. And when I say ‘Heart’ I don’t mean that the flowering was located in a particular place in the body. This Heart, this Heart of my Heart, was neither inside the body nor out of it. I can’t give a more exact description of what happened. All I can say is that in the Maharishi’s presence, and under his gaze, the Heart opened and bloomed. It was an extraordinary experience, one that I had never had before. I had not come looking for any kind of experience, so it totally surprised me when it happened.”
Even though Harivansh got this extraordinary experience he was somehow not impressed with Ramana Maharishi. All his life he had spent being devoted to Krishna and getting his visions. He was unable to grasp how nobody in this hermitage including the sage himself was devoted to Krishna in the manner he expected them to be. He expected everybody to be continuously chanting the name of Krishna like he did. Absent this he felt that their devotion was not complete and that he could not get any benefit from staying there further. Eventually he left the place disappointed and reported back to work.
Harivansh would get up at 2.30 am every morning and repeat the name of Krishna till 9.30 am. Then he would proceed to work. Once he came back from work he would once again lock himself in the room where he did his meditation and resume his chanting. His goal was to repeat the name of Krishna at least fifty thousand times during the day.
Then one day something bewildering happened. At 2.30 am he had a vision of Lord Rama, his wife Sita, his brother Lakshmana, and his great disciple Hanumana. The vision lasted 7 hours till 9.30 am. He then went to work but when he came back he was unable to resume his chanting of Krishna. He was unable to read any spiritual books either. This left him bewildered. Why had Rama appeared before him rather than Krishna? Why could he not chant the name of Krishna as he did before? What happened?
Harivansh began visiting all the holy men in his town to get an answer. But he was disappointed as no one provided him with a satisfactory explanation. Then he had a vision of the sage Ramana Maharishi standing before him and smiling. This gave him the thought that he should visit the sage and maybe he could provide him with a solution to his dilemma.
When he met the Maharishi he said, “For twenty-five years I have been repeating the name of Krishna. Up till fairly recently I was managing 50,000 repetitions a day. I also used to read a lot of spiritual literature. Then Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman appeared before me. After they left, I couldn’t carry on with my practice. I can’t repeat the name any more. I can’t read my books. I can’t meditate. I feel very quiet inside but there is no longer any desire in me to put my attention on God. In fact, I can’t do it even if I try. My mind refuses to engage itself in thoughts of God. What has happened to me and what should I do?”
The Maharshi looked at Harivansh and asked, ‘How did you come here?’
Harivansh did not see the point of this question but politely said, “By train.”
“And what happened when you go to the station?” the sage inquired.
“Well, I got off the train, handed in my ticket and engaged a bullock card to bring me here.”
‘And when you reached here and paid off the driver of the cart, what happened to the cart?’
“It went away, presumably back to town,” Harivansh replied, still not clear as to where this line of questioning was leading.
The Maharishi then explained what he was driving at, “The train brought you to your destination. You got off it because you didn’t need it anymore. It had brought you to the place you wanted to reach. Likewise with the bullock cart. You got off it when it had brought you here. You don’t need either the train or the cart any more. They were the means for bringing you here. Now you are here, they are of no use to you. That is what has happened with your chanting, your reading, and your meditation. They have brought you to your spiritual destination. You don’t need them anymore. You yourself did not give up your practices, they left you of their own accord because they had served their purpose. You have arrived.”
What happened next is described by Harivansh as follows: “Then he looked at me intently. I could feel that my whole body and mind were being washed with waves of purity. They were being purified by his silent gaze. I could feel him looking intently into my Heart. Under that spellbinding gaze I felt every atom of my body being purified. It was as if a new body was being created for me. A process of transformation was going on—the old body was dying, atom by atom, and a new body was being created in its place. Then, suddenly, I understood. I knew that this man who had spoken to me was, in reality, what I already was, what I had always been. There was a sudden impact of recognition as I became aware of the Self.”
“I use the word ‘recognition’ deliberately, because as soon as the experience was revealed to me, I knew, unerringly, that this was the same state of peace and happiness that I had been immersed in as an eight-year-old boy in Lahore, on the occasion when I had refused to accept the mango drink. The silent gaze of the Maharishi re-established me in that primal state, but this time it was permanent. The ‘I’ which had for so long been looking for a God outside of itself, because it wanted to get back to that original childhood state, perished in the direct knowledge and experience of the Self which the Maharishi revealed to me. I cannot describe exactly what the experience was or is because the books are right when they say that words cannot convey it. I can only talk about peripheral things. I can say that every cell, every atom in my body leapt to attention as they all recognized and experienced the Self that animated and supported them, but the experience itself I cannot describe. I knew that my spiritual quest had definitely ended, but the source of that knowledge will always remain indescribable. I got up and prostrated to the Maharishi in gratitude. I had finally understood what his teachings were and are. He had told me not to be attached to any personal God, because all forms are perishable. He could see that my chief impediments were God’s beautiful form and the love I felt towards Him. He had advised me to ignore the appearances of these ephemeral Gods and to enquire instead into the nature and source of the one who wanted to see them. He had tried to point me towards what was real and permanent, but stupidly and arrogantly I had paid no heed to his advice.”
After his realization experience Harivansh wanted to stay with Maharishi and was very reluctant to return back to work but he had a family to feed. So after a few days, he reluctantly took leave of his Guru and returned back to work. What was remarkable for Harivansh that his mind had become completely “thoughtless” and he did not need thoughts to function. This is what he said later:
“In the first few months after my realization, I didn’t have a single thought. I could go to the office and perform all my duties without ever having a thought in my head. There was an ocean of inner silence that never gave rise to even a ripple of thought. It did not take me long to realize that a mind and thoughts are not necessary to function in the world. When one abides as the Self, some divine power takes charge of one’s life. All actions then take place spontaneously, and are performed very efficiently, without any mental effort or activity.”
Harivansh was happy. He had found realization and he had found a true guru. As soon as he had enough leave accumulated he would go to Maharishi’s hermitage and spend time with him. But then as the years rolled by the year 1947 came around. This was the time when India got freedom from the British. It was also the time of partition when India and Pakistan were separated into two different countries. There was mass migration and rioting and the relationship between Hindus and Muslims deteriorated. Even in villages where Hindus and Muslims had lived side by side in peace and harmony for centuries, now there was tension. Ramana Maharishi got concerned about Harivansh’s family. This is because they lived in a village that would now be located in Pakistan and because of rising tensions between Hindus and Muslims their lives would be in danger. Maharishi requested Harivansh to proceed immediately and get his family to India so that they would be safe. Harivansh was reluctant to leave the presence of Maharishi. But Maharishi insisted, telling him, “I am with you, wherever you are.” These would be the last words Maharishi said to Harivansh.
Harivansh got to his village with great difficulty and got his family back to India on what was to be the last train out of Pakistan to India. They settled down in the city of Lucknow, because Harivansh had a friend in that town and knew that he could count on his help. With the help of his friend he was able to find a place to stay and he had to work hard night and day to take care his family and extended family. Just because you become enlightened does not mean that you are excused from work. Harivansh was a householder saint and never shrank away from his responsibilities. Being established in his Self, he carried out his duties and took care of his responsibilities.
Slowly the fame of this humble householder saint spread. He retired in 1966 and he came to be known as “Papaji”. With more time on his hand he was able to meet more people and his fame spread to other countries. Soon visitors from West began to show up at his doorsteps. Amongst his prominent western disciples are Mooji, Andrew Cohen, Merle Roberson (Gangaji) and David Godman. Papaji passed away in 1997 after a brief illness.
Papaji’s life shows us the relationship of devotion and enlightenment. It shows that though devotion can take you to a certain level at some point you have to go past it. This is because in devotion there is duality and in higher states of Samadhi there is no duality. His life also shows that it is possible for householders to also achieve enlightenment, and after enlightenment it is still possible to carry out your normal responsibilities, even while remaining established in a deep mystical state.
Related:
The Life Of Papaji- Early Life
Ramana Maharishi biography
Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah. This is based on the Biography by David Godman here.