Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
I Want to Be Free
To deliberately give rise to the single, all-consuming desire ‘I want to be free’ — letting it burn away lesser wants — and then to turn and look at the source of that very desire, since the one who truly wants freedom is already what it seeks.
In 5 lines: Find the want beneath all your wants, and give rise to the single desire — “I want to be free.” Let it burn clear and let lesser wants quiet in its heat; respond to it now, don’t postpone. Then turn and look at its source: who is it that wants to be free? Find no bound self there — only what was always free. The desire, honored and traced home, dissolves into its own answer.
What it is
Alongside “keep quiet” and “look where the ‘I’ rises from,” H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji) taught a distinctive motivational practice: deliberately raising one single desire — “I want to be free” — above all others, and letting it burn so intensely that every lesser want falls away. Papaji: “Just give rise to the single thought, ‘I want to be free.’” He saw this not as ordinary wanting but as the deepest fire in a human being — “the desire for freedom is always there, burning… deeper than the mind” — and he insisted it is rare and must be answered: “This desire for freedom is intense and you must respond to it… It will continue to trouble you if it is not fulfilled in this life span.” The twist that makes it a contemplative practice rather than mere goal-setting: once the single desire is burning clearly, you turn and look at its source — Papaji’s instruction “Go to the source of this desire” — because, he held, the one who genuinely wants freedom is already free; the desire, traced home, dissolves into what was never bound.
It operationalizes the recognition that the seeker is what it seeks (All Is One), the motive power of clear feeling (The Inner Creates the Outer), and the present moment (Everything Happens in the Now).
The Method
A faithful rendering of Papaji’s pointing:
- Find your wants — then find the deepest one. Notice the many things you want (security, love, success, peace). Ask underneath each: what is the want beneath this want? Papaji held that under all of them lies one — the desire to be free.
- Deliberately give rise to the single desire. Form it clearly, once, with full sincerity: “I want to be free.” Papaji: “Just give rise to the single thought, ‘I want to be free.’” Let it be the whole of your wanting for this moment.
- Let it burn — let it consume the lesser wants. Don’t dilute it with other agendas. Papaji described the genuine desire for freedom as burning, deeper than the mind. Allow it to be intense and single-pointed; let smaller desires quiet down in its heat.
- Respond to it — don’t postpone. Papaji warned the desire “will continue to trouble you if it is not fulfilled.” Treat it as the most urgent thing, here and now, not a someday-project.
- Now turn and look at the source of the desire. This is the pivot. Don’t chase freedom as a far-off object. Ask: where does this desire itself rise from? Who is it that wants to be free? Papaji: “Go to the source of this desire.” He pressed further: “What is the difference between that one desire and the one who is desired for, if there’s only one?”
- Find that the wanter is already free. When you look at the source, you find no separate bound self standing apart from freedom — only awareness, which was never imprisoned. Papaji: “Who is journeying for freedom? The one who is already free.” The desire, fully honored and then traced home, dissolves into its own fulfilment. (Sourcing note: “just give rise to the single thought, ‘I want to be free,’” “the desire for freedom is always there, burning,” “this desire for freedom is intense and you must respond to it,” “go to the source of this desire,” and “who is journeying for freedom? The one who is already free” are Papaji’s published/archived phrasings, attributed. Steps are a faithful description, not a long reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Hariwansh Lal Poonja (1910–1997), “Papaji,” disciple of Ramana Maharshi, taught from Lucknow in his final decade. While Ramana paired self-inquiry with self-surrender, Papaji often opened the door through the seeker’s own longing — finding the one desire for freedom and using it as both fuel and inquiry.
This emphasis on a single burning desire that points back to its own already-free source is a hallmark of his satsang and is preserved in The Truth Is, Wake Up and Roar, and the Avadhuta Foundation archive.
The note carried into students such as Gangaji (“the diagnosis is desire; the cure is inquiry into who desires”) and Mooji. → (Papaji); kin to.
The Traditions' versions
Ramana’s self-surrender — handing the whole self (and all desire) to the source; the parallel non-inquiry path.
- Bhakti / devotional longing — the burning viraha (longing for the Divine) that consumes lesser desires; same fire, theistic frame.
- Sufi shawq / yearning — intense longing for union with the Beloved as the engine of the path.
- Christian “one thing necessary” / holy desire (Augustine’s “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee”) — desire purified to a single object.
- Values-clarification (ACT) — identifying one’s deepest value and letting it organize behavior; the secular cousin of “find your one true want.”
Common refinements
Turning the desire into striving/perfectionism. “Burning” longing can curdle into self-pressure and self-judgment for “not being free yet.” The fire is meant to focus, not to flog.
- Chasing freedom as a future object. If “I want to be free” stays aimed at a distant attainment, you reinforce the lacking self. The pivot — look at the source of the desire now — is the essential half; without it this is just wanting.
- Faking the desire. Reciting “I want to be free” without it being your real, deepest want is hollow. Papaji’s first move (find the want beneath your wants) is what makes it sincere.
- Using it to bypass real needs. A consuming spiritual desire can be a way to avoid grief, relationships, or practical responsibilities. Keep it honest and keep living.
- Refinement: when the desire is most intense, that intensity is the best moment to turn and ask “who wants this?” — the heat carries attention straight to the source.