H.W.L. POONJA | here and now in lucknow

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H. W. L. POONJA

HERE AND NOW IN LUCKNOW

Let there be peace and love among all beings of the universe. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

BY SHANTI DEVI

HIS article was written in 1993 for Odyssey, a South African New Age magazine. After reading it out in satsang, Papaji commented that it was an excellent article because it was written from the heart and not the head.

Luck-now! Definitely an appropriate name for the city where H.W.L. Poonja resides. It wouldn't seem so at first sight as it is a rather polluted and large Indian city which can easily repel non-serious seekers. Who is coming here? Those who seek freedom! More than two hundred people every day, the amount varying with the seasons of the year. Many of them are Osho sannyasins, but there are also many others who come from all parts of the world, sometimes for only a couple of days. What brings them here? Grace. The Self. Themselves. The Universe. Whatever name you want to give to that force which propels us to our destiny. Whatever is to be fulfilled – That which is – that's what we discover in Lucknow: ourselves, who we are!

First of all, who is Poonjaji? He defines himself as "That". He is saint, a master, a Guru [although he himself claims to be none of these]. He brings us to the end, the end of samsara, the end of millions of years of searching and suffering. His message? Enlightenment is here and now! We are all enlightened, but we don't know it. Bondage is only a concept, he says. It is not real. We can wake up from that dream, from the illusion of life and the world, right now. There is no need to postpone it, all we need is a desire for freedom and one moment of inner silence. One moment between two thoughts, two breaths. No need to meditate or practice. Nothing to learn, nothing to do. Nothing to attain, reach, grasp, or understand. One only needs to keep quiet. That means not doing anything, not stirring a single thought, having no desire, no wanting, no attachment, no expectations.

All this can be accomplished by Self-enquiry. Asking oneself, "Who and I?" is the key to being in the Here and the Now. The question attacks the root of the mind. In fact it bypasses the mind completely and reveals to us what we really are.

If we are not this bag of bones, blood, and flesh that forms our bodies – if we are not our senses, nor the mind, which is only a bundle of thoughts, ideas, notions – who or what then are we? What we really are cannot be understood or even experienced. It can only be realised. Because it is beyond the mind, no words can describe it. That which we are is timeless, infinite. It can be called awareness, consciousness, space, love, silence, or rather, what is beyond silence. We are One, we are God, we are nothing. Total emptiness and nothingness. No word, no name. A total wonder and a total mystery.

Our troubles arise because we identify ourselves with our body, our senses, and our mind. This creates the separation and the duality that is the cause of suffering. "When there are many, there is falsehood", says Poonjaji.

In Self-enquiry, one looks at the root of this "I". After that we do not need to touch it again. That is freedom, freedom from the mind. Freedom to be who we are, totally unrestrictedly, enjoying forever serene fulfilment, peace, love, joy, happiness and bliss. In this sate one accepts oneself as one is – without notions, concepts and judgements. There is no past and no idea of how things should be in the future. There is just a surrendering to what is, to the reality of the Here and Now. This is knowledge, this is Truth, and this is also very simple. Only our minds want to make us believe it is difficult.

Who convinces us that it is easy? It is the master, a being who is already enlightened. Only a few very rare beings, such as Ramana Maharshi, have spontaneously realised the Self without a living human master. And even those who have realised with a master are rare. That is why it is the most wonderful luck to have a living master like Papaji, a being whose grace can give us the necessary push to jump into the Here and the Now. That grace is what he is offering us from the bottomless depths of his Heart.

Defining Papaji is like talking about the Self: words are lacking, inadequate, inappropriate. How to describe that unconditional love, that infinite wisdom, that kindness, that patience, and sweetness? How to talk about his silence, a silence which communicates so richly? How to speak about the unnameable beauty of the Self that shines through him?

He is now eighty-three years old and probably the happiest man on earth. His happiness is contagious, overwhelming. His sense of humour is spot on, sharp, hilarious. His satsangs are always an occasion to roar with laughter. He never condemns, criticises, or judges. He is egoless, mindless. What comes through him is the clarity of his Heart, which is the Truth. He has that wise ability to see the essence, the Heart, and not the name and form of those who come to him. As a real sage his words and deeds sometimes surprise and puzzle, but the passage of time will inevitably vindicate him and demonstrate the grandeur of his wisdom. He is delightful, mischievous, playful and has incredible fun by just being who he is. His satsangs are touched by beauty, with songs and music that people offer gratefully to him. There are moments of love, moments of truth. In satsang with Papaji we return home, to the now that has always been our true home.

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