At the age of eight, he claimed he had experienced an unusual state of consciousness:
The experience was so overwhelming it had effectively paralysed my ability to respond to any external stimuli. For about an hour they tried everything they could think of to bring me back to a normal state of consciousness, but all their attempts failed.[web 1]
However, rather than giving another vision of God, Ramana Maharshi pointed him in the direction of his own self:
I cannot show you God or enable you to see God because God is not an object that can 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.[web 2]
He found that he could no longer bring his mind to think of God, do japa or any other spiritual practice. He asked Ramana for help and was told that this was not a problem, that all his practice had carried him to this moment and it could be left behind now because it had served its purpose. Poonja recognised this as the same state he experienced when he was eight years old, but this time it was permanent.[web 3]
Poonjaji met two other men "who convinced me that they had attained full and complete Self-realisation.",[web 4] a Muslim Pir and an unknown sadhu whom he met by the side of a road in Karnataka.[web 4]
At the end of 1968 Poonja met in Rishikesh Geneviève de Coux (born 1947), — later known as Ganga Mira — a young Belgian seeker, who became his disciple and with whom he would form a new family, after the ancient Vedic polygamic tradition. Their daughter Mukti was born in 1972.[1][self-published source?]
Poonjaji later settled in Lucknow where he received visitors from all around the world. Some well-known students of his and later self-appointed gurus of Neo-Advaita included Eli Jaxon-Bear, Gangaji, Mooji, and Andrew Cohen, who later distanced himself from Poonja. Sam Harris also visited Poonja several times in the early 1990s.[2]
David Godman, a devotee of Ramana Maharshi, moved to Lucknow in 1992 to spend time around Poonja and stayed until 1997. Godman wrote prolifically about Poonja, including Papaji Interviews, an anthology of interviews, and Nothing Ever Happened, a three volume 1,200-page biography.
His teaching emphasises that words can only point to ultimate truth, but never are ultimate truth, and that intellectual understanding without directly realising the truth through one's own investigation is not enough. Like Sri Ramana he stressed that teaching through silence was more important than teaching through words. Once, when a French seeker informed Poonja that he was learning Sanskrit to better understand ancient scriptural texts, Poonja replied:
All your books, all the time lost in learning different languages! Are they any use for conversing with the atman, with the Self, for speaking to yourself? None of that leads anywhere useful. The atman has nothing to do either with books, or with languages or with any scripture whatever. It is — and that's all![3]
Poonja mentions several events in his own life which "illustrate, in a general way, how the process of realisation comes about."[web 5]
"There must be a desire for God, a love for Him, or a desire for liberation. Without that, nothing is possible."[web 5]
"This desire for God or realisation is like an inner flame. One must kindle it and then fan it until it becomes a raging fire which consumes all one's other desires and interests."[web 5]
"If this inner fire rages for long enough, with sufficient intensity, it will finally consume that one, central, overwhelming desire for God or the Self."[web 5]
The presence of the Master is the final ingredient: "When the Maharshi’s gaze met my vasana-free mind, the Self reached out and destroyed it in such a way that it could never rise or function again. Only Self remained."[web 5]
His message, like that of his teacher Sri Ramana, was always that the Self is already enlightened and free. Like Sri Ramana, he taught self-enquiry, which involved locating a person's sense of "I" and focusing on and investigating this directly. Famous for eschewing all forms of practices or sadhana, Poonja nonetheless recommended self-enquiry as the only practice one should take up, but he didn't want people to take it up as a form of meditation. He would say, “Do it once and do it properly, and your spiritual quest will be over instantly."[3]
According to Poonja, Self-realization is in itself liberating from karmic consequences and further rebirth. According to Poonja "karmic tendencies remained after enlightenment, [but] the enlightened person was no longer identified with them and, therefore, did not accrue further karmic consequences."[4] According to Cohen, Poonja "insisted that the realization of the Self had nothing to do with worldly behavior, and he did not believe fully transcending the ego was possible."[4] For Poonja, ethical standards were based on a dualistic understanding of reality and the notion of an individual agent, and therefore were not indicative of "nondual enlightenement:[4] "For Poonja, the goal was the realisation of the self; the illusory realm of relative reality was ultimately irrelevant."[4]
Caplan, Mariana (2009). Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path. Sounds True. ISBN978-1591797326..
Gleig, Ann (2013). "From Being to Becoming, Transforming to Transcending. Andrew Cohen and the Evolution of Enlightenment". In Gleig, Ann; Williamson, Lola (eds.). Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism. SUNY Press. ISBN978-1438447919..
Cohen, Andrew (1995). My Master is My Self: The Birth of a Spiritual Teacher. Moksha. ISBN978-1883929077. Account of his relationship with H. W. L.Poonja.
Godman, David (1998). Nothing Ever Happened. Avadhuta Foundation. ISBN978-0963802255. A three-volume biography.
Godman, David (2007). The Fire of Freedom: Satsang with Papaji. Vol. 1. Avadhuta Foundation. ISBN978-0963802262.
Madhukar; Poonja, H. W. L. (2006). The Simplest Way. Editions India. ISBN978-8189658045. Contains an interview with H. W. L. Poonja.
