Adopt a single thought: ‘I want to be free’

Papaji (H. W. L. Poonja)
There is a river of thought-waves. Everyone is being washed downstream. Everyone is clinging to these thoughts and being washed away. Just give rise to the single thought, “I want to be free.” This thought will rarely come out of the entire population. The entire population of the planet is moving downstream. They are not destined to give rise to the thought, “I want to be enlightened in this very span of time.”
So I call this thought of freedom going against the stream and towards the source. It does not require any effort to give rise to this thought. The thought “I want to be free” is itself free. This thought will take you to freedom. It is the most rare thought. Out of the entire population of 6 billion, only a handful give rise to this thought.
Master, I have been with you for four days now, and I am still not enlightened

(Laughing) Yes, I am surprised, a smart boy like you. What should I do? Let me tell you what my teacher told me. Just be quiet.
This quiet does not involve talking or not talking. It does not involve any doing whatsoever. Just let the mind fall into silence. This is enough. Now wait.
I can’t believe what you just said to him. I’ve been trained to think that it takes years and years of practice and life-times of training and hard work to reach liberation. Now you say it’s simply a switch on the wall, a change of perception. Is that correct?

You need not switch on or off. For the sun to shine do you switch it on? No. Just like this. This light is always there. No switches at all. The sun has no switches. You turn your face away and you call it night. Sun has no night and no day. You are that sun. This is your own light and you are that. You don’t need any switches. The switches are limitations. You have fixed these limitations yourself. Nature has not fixed any switches.

“I want this, I want that. I dislike this, I like that.” If you remove this switch of like and dislike, how will you feel? Instantly you will be free. Likes and dislikes keep you in bondage and suffering. There are no walls for the switches either. Walls are imaginary only, like walls between countries. You have constructed this wall between you and something else. You have to break this which does not exist. The frontier you have created is the suffering. You have to demolish it by yourself. Nobody will help you.

What do you mean, “Nobody will help you”?
The Self has to help the Self; nobody else can help. Who else will drop this wall? You have to help yourself. Find out, is it possible to be out of the Self, ever? First say, “I want help.” Then discover who needs help. Self is not suffering. Self is not in bondage. Self is ever free.

So you are saying it is the mind clinging to the wall that is suffering?
Yes. Who has created separation? Mind has created separation, and no mind will remove this separation. The separation doesn’t exist. Even to say “I am separate” is a joke.
Allow yourself a couple of moments when there should be no trespassing.
Excerpted from ‘Wake Up & Roar.’ H. W. L. Poonjaji was a teacher of Self-enquiry as advocated by Ramana Maharshi. His 108th birth anniversary is celebrated on October 13.