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.” Continue reading →
