The Truth Is (Sri H.W. L. Poonja)

Adyashanti-Level Advaita Vedanta






[My 2-star Amazon review (March 22, 2014) of “The Truth Is” by Sri H.W.L Poonja.]



I first read this book about ten years ago, and I recently received my copy, which had been in storage since before Barack Obama took office. Unlike the first time I read it--when I quickly motored through it because I thought it was mediocre--I decided this time I would really read it. Well, to make a long story short, it didn't happen, and it didn't happen because this time I found the late author-guru Sri H.W.L. Poonja (1910-1997), known as Papaji, to be an unstomachable read. Papaji's guru was the incomparable Sri Ramana Maharshi (whom I adore I and whose books I gave 5-stars in my Amazon reviews), but Papaji is a quantum leap beneath Ramana on the guru scale, and his inability to clearly and deeply communicate Dharma was more than I could stomach, so I simply skimmed through the 553-page text and just read the sections that interested me.

What I'll do now is quote some passages from the text and then provide commentary on them.

"There is no time or space. It is just a concept of the mind, which vanishes when it is transcended... Seeing everything as a mental construct is the best experience one could have. All is mental construction... When "I" rises thought rises, when thought rises senses arise and when senses rise they produce objects of their respective senses. Eye to see, nose to smell a flower, ears to hear music, tongue to taste and hands to touch. These are the objects that senses see, but senses and the objects are the same."

First off, time and space are not a concept of one's mind; they exist independently of one's mind. If someone excised your brain, time and space would still exist, but your mind wouldn't. All is not mental construction; the world exists independently of your mental constructs. Your mental constructs allow you to recognize phenomenal reality and identify facts pertaining to it. The idea that senses and objects are the same is beyond ludicrous. The great Tibetan guru Longchen Rabjam debunked this ridiculous notion, which is common among fogged-out, epistemologically ignorant Eastern mystics.

Papaji, along with Ramesh Balsekar, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's translator, are probably the two gurus most responsible for spreading the spiritual "disease" of neo-Advaita Vedanta, which teaches that no effort is necessary to realize the Self. Although I wouldn't characterize Papaji as strictly neo-Advaita, he is definitely quasi-neo-Advaita, as the following passages indicate:

"Here I don't teach any meditation or any exercise. Just keep quiet for an instant and don't stir a thought in your mind... Just sit quiet and don't anything... The concept of effort and practice is bondage. Just keep Quiet. Wherever you are, just keep Quiet."

Simply put, the spiritual practice of effortlessness or keeping Quiet, in and of itself, will not yield En-Light-enment. That is why in Zen, Dzogchen, and Mahamudra, spiritual teachers do not teach just effortlessness, especially to neophytes. It took me decades to figure out why effortlessness, or just letting go, was not, by itself, an integral spiritual practice--and I elaborate on this in my writings.

Papaji also taught Self-enquiry (vichar), but his teaching of this method is muddled, mixed, and contradictory. For example, he says:

"Vichar is Quietness. Quietness is not moving the mind... Vichar is true meditation, concentration on Awareness ... Spend more time to find where the "I" arises from. Don't make any effort, you don't need any to locate the "I" and you don't need any thinking either. Just keep still and find out where the "I" rises from... Inquire until there is no one left to inquire. The habits of the mind are very hard to break, and so it must be continued. You have been ignorant for for years, so when you know the truth you must stay As Such for some time. What else is important? You have to be very strong. Question the mind unceasingly."

Firstly, Vichar is not Quietness or concentration on Awareness, and it does take an effort (which would also be the case if it were concentration on Awareness, since all concentration involves effort). Secondly, questioning the mind ceaselessly is work and takes effort. It is almost comical how Advaita Vedanta gurus preach effortlessness then "smuggle" effort into their teachings. Thirdly, Papaji is unable to clearly expound and articulate Ramana Maharshi's Self-enquiry. Here is my description of the practice/process:

One's thoughts must be traced to the root of the causal body (where the Bliss Sheath intersects one's soul, the root of one's psyche). This `place" is the Hridayam, the Heart (distinct from the Anahata Chakra). And in accordance with Ramana Maharshi, I say the Self cannot be realized via Self-enquiry unless one's spurious, ego-based `I' thoughts are traced to their Source in the Hridayam, the spiritual Heart-center, where they are obviated, or outshone, by the true, transcendental `I,' the radiant Self, whose locus, relative to one's body, is two digits to the right of the center of one's chest. One's thoughts, the products of one's samskaras (karmic seed tendencies), originate in the spiritual Heart and travel to the brain, where they crystallize as one's mind. A Jnani must practice Self-enquiry and thereby pull the mind into the spiritual Heart, where the false, or ego, `I' is spontaneously dissolved, and supplanted by the true, or transcendental `I,' the Self.

As soon as Papaji discusses anything esoteric, he reveals his limitations. For example, consider what he says about Kundalini:

"Kundalini Shakti, sexual Shakti, and Shiva Shakti are different names for the same thing. But it is not true experience. Sexual experience you will forget, but you can never forget True experience and you can never describe it. Anything you can describe is false and stupid. True experience has been had by very few and none of them can describe it, so you need to find a very expert teacher who can give you practical lessons on this."

First, unbeknownst to Papaji, sexual Shakti is not the same thing as Shiva-Shakti, which is equivalent to Sat and Chit-Ananda. Second, the taste of sugar can no more be described than the taste of the Divine, which, according to Papaji's "logic," makes it a True experience as opposed to an untrue one, such as that of of a book you've read. Third, whereas Papaji is unable to explain the relation between the Self and Kundalini, Ramana Maharshi has no such trouble. According to Ramana, the Kundalini-Shakti rises out of the Heart-center as a permanent force-current, or nadi, or pillar of Light-energy, which he calls Amrita Nadi (Immortal Nerve). Regarding this Hridaya Shakti rising out of the Heart, Ramana states: "The yogis call it Kundalini-Shakti. It is the same as the vritti of the form of God." "Kundalini is not different than the Heart [or Self]."

In summary, this book doesn't even begin to compare to "Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi" (avoid the dumbed-down, de-esotericized Inner Directions version). The questions are all softballs, and the answers aren't much better. In my first book, "Beyond the Power of Now," I didn't place this text on my recommended Spiritual Reading List, but I did state that Papaji, along with Jean Klein, and Adyashanti, was a guru whose writings those into Advaita Vedanta might benefit from. If I issue a second edition of this book, I will remove all reference to Papaji and Adyashanti, and add Jean Klein, whom I like, to my Spiritual Reading List.