Who Is the Inquirer?

You say ‘awareness.’ Aacha [‘All right’ in Hindi]. This means inquiry for freedom or awareness. I see that you’ve been told about this before. I will tell you what you have to inquire now. “That enquiry did not make me see it at all,” you say. You’re right. That didn’t do well, no? Now you ask, “Is there an inquiry without effort?” Yes. You have not conducted enquiry without effort before. Now I will explain it for you.

All the previous inquiries were done with effort and there was someone, an inquirer. There was someone who was making the inquiry. But he was not tackled. This means that awareness or freedom had been tackled before, but not the inquirer — and this is what you write about. Now please investigate the one who was the inquirer — who was the investigator. That has not been investigated. Now investigate. Find out who was this person who was inquiring about something else. Now make an inquiry.

Start here. You have to do it only once. Inquire this one [time], and you have done enough. You will now understand what I mean. Now you inquire. Don’t make any effort because you have already made 50 years of effort. It’s enough. Now don’t make any effort, just inquire. Look again at the one who doesn’t want the inquiry — just look at the one who has been doing all these practices. Look at that one. That is the “I.“ So now you simply look at this “I” who desired awareness, who wanted Bodhi. Just look at it. Don’t make any effort and no thought is involved. You are at the end of 35 million years now. You have done everything now. Tell me now. What’s left now?

DEVOTEE:The Self.

PAPAJI: Self, yes. Has the inquiry worked? It looks like it because I can smell it. I know very well that the inquiry’s there.