Ref. Poonjaji interview

[Giri]

On Wed, 23 Oct 1996, Dennis Waite wrote:

> All the activities that the body performs are predetermined. The only
> freedom you have is to choose not to identify with the body that is
> performing the actions.

        Similar statements can be found in an other site, which i just
found
        http://www.sentient.org/amber/robert.htm

I noticed that a few other people on this list making similar statements
(everything the body performs is predetermined). Kartik once told me this
may not be correct (from a scientific point of view) since the body is
atomic, and anything sub-atomic can not have deterministic values.

> Thanks again Giri,
> Dennis

        Namaste Dennis and thanks for appreciating the page. However, by
stating the above reference of Poonjaji, and mentioning him as a disciple
of Ramana Maharshi SEEMS to have opened a different issue of "false"
teachers - some disciples of Ramana", and i am guilty of it :-) [As
Cameron would rightly ask, did i have a choice ?]

        Even when i met poonjaji (we called him papaji), there was some
"controversy"  surrounding him, but controversies always surrounded Shri
Ramana Maharshi and Shri Ramakrishna in their days [and even now], and
even Shri Shankara (who is referred as an incarnation of a demon by some
sects in hinduism). The only way, as Papaji himself states, to "recognize"
a self-realized person is to "sense" how peaceful you are in his/her
presence. I think Ramana says the same.

        However, me trying to judge the "authencity" of a "self-realized"
teacher is like a blind man trying to judge the coloration in a painting
[borrowing an example from Ravi].  In tamil there is a saying 'Does a
donkey know the smell of camphor ?' As Aikya mentions, it is better for me
to evaluate the "ability" of the "jnani" to eliminate the [perceived]
ignorance. Of course, that does not mean others are not capable of judging
"authencity."

**

Though Ramana Maharshi may have denied any disciples, there are hosts of
people : Sadhu Arunachala, Balaram Reddy, Kunju Swami, Ganapati Muni etc
who claim Ramana to be their Guru and that includes Poonjaji. I don't
think Poonjaji has ever claimed that he was the sole lineage of Ramana
Maharshi. From the Maharshi Newsletter, the following by Balaram Reddy,
   WHEN I HAD OBSERVED Bhagavan closely for some time I discovered that
   he would never openly say that he was our guru and we were his
   disciples; in fact, he would sometimes say things that sounded
   contrary to this. But for us close devotees there was never a doubt
   that he was our guru. He loved us like a mother, protected us like a
   father, guided us like a teacher and moved with us like a friend. We
   constantly felt his guidance and grace.

**

What is self-realization ? It is the state when one views the world as
it is - not different from yourSelf.

**

Wish to thank the members of the advaita list (especially egodust and
Cameron) for providing me sources and enabling to obtain the current
residential address of Shri Ramesh Balsekar.

**

A gentle request : Please quote only relevant portions from the mail you
are replying to (i.e try to say more than the amount quoted from the
previous poster). This not only saves bandwidth, but also is easier to
read. Just a request.

**

The manishha panchakam has been transliterated, and is currently being
translated. Due to problems in the sanskrit document site, i have not
uploaded any of the newly encoded stotra-s [yet]. If you need them, let me
know.

**

praNaam.