Sylvin Thomas at 02:00, 13 March 2026

2026-03-13T02:00:53Z

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{{Short description|Indian philosopher}}
{{multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|article|date=July 2008}}
{{independent sources|date=August 2023}}
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{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox Hindu leader
|name = H. W. L. Poonja
|image = Papaji 1.jpg
|caption = H. W. L. Poonja, often known as "Papaji"
| religion = [[Hinduism]]
|birth_date = 13 October 1910 (or later)
|birth_place = [[Punjab, British India]]
|birth_name = Hariwansh Lal Poonja
|death_date = 6 September 1997 (aged 86 or 87)
|death_place = [[Lucknow]], India
|nationality = [[Indian people|Indian]]
|guru = [[Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi]]
|philosophy = [[Advaita Vedanta]]
|honors =
|footnotes =
}}
{{quote box|width=22em|title=Quotation|quote=No teaching, no teacher, no student.}}
{{Advaita}}

'''Hariwansh Lal Poonja''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ʊ|n|dʒ|ə}}; born 13 October 1910 (or later) in [[Punjab, British India|Punjab]], [[British India]] – 6 September 1997 in [[Lucknow]], [[India]]) was an Indian [[Sage (philosophy)|sage]]. Poonja was called "'''Poonjaji'''" or "'''Papaji'''" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|a:|p|a:|dʒ|i}} by devotees. He was a key figure in the [[Neo-Advaita]] movement.

==Biography==

===Early life===

At the age of eight, he claimed he had experienced an unusual state of consciousness:
{{blockquote|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.<ref group=web name="EarliestMemory">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024044631/http://www.satsangbhavan.net/biography.htm Papaji biography, ''Earliest Memory'']}}</ref>}}

===Meeting Ramana Maharshi===

However, rather than giving another vision of God, [[Ramana Maharshi]] pointed him in the direction of his own self:
{{blockquote|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.<ref group=web name="MeetingRamana">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024044631/http://www.satsangbhavan.net/biography.htm Papaji biography, ''Meeting Ramana Maharshi'']}}</ref>}}

===Transformation===
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.<ref group=web name="WithRamanaAgain">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024044631/http://www.satsangbhavan.net/biography.htm Papaji Biography, ''With Ramana Again'']}}</ref>

===Teaching others===

Poonjaji met two other men "who convinced me that they had attained full and complete Self-realisation.",<ref group=web name="MuslimPir">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024044631/http://www.satsangbhavan.net/biography.htm Papaji Biography, ''The Muslim Pir'']}}</ref> a Muslim Pir and an unknown sadhu whom he met by the side of a road in Karnataka.<ref group=web name="MuslimPir" />

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 [[Polygamy#Hinduism|Vedic polygamic tradition]]. Their daughter Mukti was born in 1972.<ref>[https://www.gangamirasatsang.com/ganga-mira/biography ''Ganga Mira biography'']</ref>

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 (spiritual teacher)|Andrew Cohen]], who later distanced himself from Poonja. [[Sam Harris]] also visited Poonja several times in the early 1990s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sam Harris on Poonjaji (Papaji) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_Ud_KQkrF0&t=154s |website=YouTube | date=22 November 2021 |access-date=15 July 2023}}</ref>

[[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.

==Teaching through silence==
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:
{{blockquote|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!{{sfn|Godman|1998|p={{page needed|date=August 2023}}}} }}

===The process===
Poonja mentions several events in his own life which "illustrate, in a general way, how the process of realisation comes about."<ref group=web name="TheProcess">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121024044631/http://www.satsangbhavan.net/biography.htm Papaji Biography, ''The Process'']}}</ref>

# "There must be a desire for God, a love for Him, or a desire for liberation. Without that, nothing is possible."<ref group=web name="TheProcess" />
# "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."<ref group=web name="TheProcess" />
# "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."<ref group=web name="TheProcess" />
# 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."<ref group=web name="TheProcess" />

===Self-enquiry===
{{Main|Self-enquiry}}

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."{{sfn|Godman|1998|p={{page needed|date=August 2023}}}}

===Liberation===
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."{{sfn|Gleig|2013|p=194}} 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."{{sfn|Gleig|2013|p=194}} 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 enlightenment:{{sfn|Gleig|2013|p=194}} "For Poonja, the goal was the realisation of the self; the illusory realm of relative reality was ultimately irrelevant."{{sfn|Gleig|2013|p=194}}

==Works==
* Poonja, H. W. L. (1992). ''Wake Up and Roar.'' Pacific Center Pub. [[Special:BookSources/9781591795896|ISBN 978-1591795896]].
* {{cite book |last=Poonja |first=H. W. L. |editor-first=David |editor-last=Godman |year=1993 |title=Papaji: Interviews |publisher=Avadhuta Foundation |isbn=978-0963802200}}
* {{cite book |last=Poonja |first=H. W. L. |year=2000 |title=This: Prose and Poetry of Dancing Emptiness |publisher=Red Wheel Weiser |isbn=978-1578631766}}
* {{cite book |last=Poonja |first=H. W. L. |editor-first= Prashanti |editor-last=De Jager |year=2000 |title=The Truth Is |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=978-1578631759}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===

====Printed sources====
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Caplan |first=Mariana |year=2009 |title=Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path |publisher=Sounds True |isbn=978-1591797326}}.
* {{cite book |last=Gleig |first=Ann |year=2013 |chapter=From Being to Becoming, Transforming to Transcending. Andrew Cohen and the Evolution of Enlightenment |editor-last1=Gleig |editor-first1=Ann |editor-last2=Williamson | editor-first2=Lola |title=Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-1438447919}}.
* {{cite book |last=Godman |first=David |year=1998 |title=Nothing Ever Happened |volume=1 |publisher=Avadhuta Foundation |isbn=978-0963802224}}.
* {{cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Alan |title=Advaita and Western Neo-Advaita |journal=The Mountain Path Journal |date=Autumn 2004 |pages=81–88 |publisher=Ramanasramam |url=http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/trad_neo/neoadvaita_jacobs.htm |access-date=2023-08-15 |df=dmy-all}}.
{{refend}}

====Online sources====
{{reflist|group=web}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Andrew |year=1995 |title=My Master is My Self: The Birth of a Spiritual Teacher |publisher=Moksha |isbn=978-1883929077 |ref=none}} Account of his relationship with H. W. L.Poonja.
* {{cite book |last=Godman |first=David |year=1998 |title=Nothing Ever Happened |publisher=Avadhuta Foundation |isbn=978-0963802255 |ref=none}} A three-volume biography.
* {{cite book |first=David |last=Godman |year=2007 |title=The Fire of Freedom: Satsang with Papaji |volume=1 |publisher=Avadhuta Foundation |isbn=978-0963802262 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Madhukar |last2=Poonja |first2=H. W. L. |year=2006 |title=The Simplest Way |publisher=Editions India |isbn=978-8189658045 |ref=none}} Contains an interview with H. W. L. Poonja.

== External links ==
* [http://www.avadhuta.com/ Papaji's Avadhuta Foundation]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041031075405/http://www.satsangbhavan.net/ Papaji's Satsang Bhavan]}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poonja, H. W. L.}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1997 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Advaitin philosophers]]
[[Category:Indian Hindu spiritual teachers]]
[[Category:Indian spiritual writers]]
[[Category:Neo-Advaita teachers]]
[[Category:Nonduality teachers]]
[[Category:Writers from Lucknow]]
[[Category:Ramana Maharshi]]

H. W. L. Poonja - Revision history

Sylvin Thomas at 02:00, 13 March 2026