Meeting Papaji and writing about him

www.davidgodman.org
This is a long answer I gave in my house to a Russian film crew who wanted to know how I met Papaji, and what happened in my early meetings with him.
In the middle of the reply I go into a long digression about a Tamil saint, Andavan Pichhai. When I talked about her life, I had not read her account for about twenty years. I realised later that I had misremembered some crucial parts of the story. I passed on these misremembered portions to Papaji, but serendipitously, they turned out to be the trigger that launched him into a long account of his early life. I reread Andavan Pichhai's story about five years ago and ended up writing a very long blog post on her life. If anyone is interested in a full and more accurate version of her life, it can be found at sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.c...

[@stacydavidson9087]

Thank you Mr. Godman for the account of this story. It is a treasure to hear your experiences of working with Papaji. Your efforts are our treasures.

[@EAMason-ev3pl]

Love this so much!! Been a "ghostwriter"; this is priceless, David❤️😂!

[@mikezrymiak5256]

David, you are such a wonderful story teller. I love it! Thank you❤️

[@angeloiodice9304]

David Godman’s mind is so exquisitely precise and untainted with emotion. Anything he speaks or writes need not be taken with a grain of salt. He is a blessed fearless soul who speaks the truth with no embellishments. I much appreciate all his works and contributions to this world.

[@prashant4]

Another wonderful session! Thank you David!🙏🏻

[@jutoku4379]

Your description of Papaji was like a teaching from a sage that had a power. I was moved to be objective and detached from my ego as you described how he operated in those days...appearing and disappearing...without clinging or allowing clinging to him...you always do a fine job of sharing some great insights...

[@RamKumar-yi6wn]

Mr.Godman ,it's always so very insightful hearing your stories. In this particular set of videos taken in your home , you are most at ease and I feel relaxed on a first hand basis lol. Must have been a very enjoyable and memorable experience for the interviewer !

[@bohdeesvaha1243]

Thank you, David!

[@jeffgeorge9681]

Thanks for the video..quite interesting

[@carolynresnick]

Thank you for sharing. Warmly, Carolyn

[@pdevika3629]

🌺🙏

[@xandaartheart6577]

sweet man

[@esneliamunoz4475]

🕉🕉🕉🙏

[@gloriasilence]

Thank you, David... I would like to see the entire interview...how/where may I do that? In gratitude...

[@mortalclown3812]

They are kind of split up into different topics, I've found - not in one long video. 🕉️💙

[@joeybtheman1906]

david has had a cool life :D

[@mortalclown3812]

It's definitely been a committed one: we can all hope for such passion coupled with illumination. ☺️📿🕉️🙏✨

[@NoRamanaMaharshiLineage]

It's true that Papaji "met" Ramana, and was apparently inspired by him, but there's no getting around the fact that Ramana did not send out teachers to spread his teachings. Papaji therefore should not be seen as someone to get Ramana's teachings from. If one knows Ramana's teachings, they'll notice that the ideas Papaji had were often counter to Ramana's teachings. This contrast is particularly stark around the subject of effort. Ramana was firm that only ardent, sustained effort could rid oneself of the vasanas occluding the Self. Papaji went against this with his notion to just "abandon vasanas" in an instant. Looking back, Papaji's experiment didn't seem to work on anybody. Various vasanas popped up with literally all of the people he asked to teach. They may have "thought" that they'd dropped them, but these vasanas were clearly still intact. As Ramana gave no one permission to teach on his behalf, we should be very careful in equating anything that Papaji said as someone "endorsed" by Ramana, or representative of Ramana's actual teachings.

[@petermcinnes7126]

Papa didn't any props. He is a jnani. No past, no future.

[@tr7b410]

I had heard that he had 17 children.Now I don't want go about disparaging people,but where is his self control in his lifetime/sexually when trying to give a secure/stable life to all those children.? Also he always said: drop your vasanas=did he practice what he preached.? He never was a CLOSE DEVOTEE to Ramana Maharshi =absorbing his Shakti for years,which really transforms the soul.

[@rainerreiter8927]

Do you really believe, that any of those millions of people, who benefitted from Papaji's presentations, will ever listen to your hogwash?😂 It reminds me of a medicine, that helped millions of people by curing their diseases and the FDA warning from that medicine simply because the Big Pharma industry wants to stop you BY ANY MEANS, if you help people, because they then can't profit from it anymore financially. Here it's not even about profiting financially, but simply about idiots wanting to spread long outdated doctrines and dogmas, because, who cares, whether Ramana authorized anyone. It's obvious, that Ramana helped many in the subject of Self-realization, and Ramana definitely wouldn't stop anyone, who attained Self-realization and feels, that he can help others. On the contrary, he'd encourage everyone to do whatever they can to help mankind achieve a higher state of consciousness. It's rather the student's duty to listen to his heart, that'll help him, who's right and who's wrong. We're all entitled to rely solely on our own experience and stop listening to idiots, who want to keep us in the stone age of religions and cults, where everything's supposed to follow certain rules, where are finding out, that there are no rules. There's only one rule, and that's the rule of the heart, to listen to one's own heart and stop believing, what others say. A true Master doesn't want anyone to believe him but rather asks everyone to let the heart be the judge.