Pandas, Woodpeckers,
and Renunciation
The following
conversation between Avatar Adi Da Samraj and three young devotees
— which took place on March 21, 1983 — reveals His genius in adapting
His teaching on ego-transcendence to seven-year-olds.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj asked one girl, "What is it that you
really
like?"
She thought for a moment and then answered, “Pandas!”
Avatar
Adi Da said, “What if you had an infinite number of pandas, as
many as you wanted—would that make you Happy?”
“Yes!” said the girl, smiling delightedly.
“But what if you could only have pandas?” asked Avatar
Adi Da. “Nothing else! No people, no toys, no books, nothing else
around you except pandas.”
She began shaking her head and firmly changed her answer to,
“No.” Adi Da Samraj then asked, “Well, what would it be that you
could have — and have nothing else at all forever but only that
one thing — that would make you Happy?”
The girl looked at her Heart-Master quietly for a time and then
she said, “You.”
“You mean me—this body here?” Asked Avatar Adi Da.
“No,” she said, “my Divine Heart-Master.”
“Who is that?” Avatar Adi Da asked. “Do you mean Happiness?”
“Yes,” replied the girl.
“Where is the Happiness then?” Asked Avatar Adi Da.
She touched her heart and said, “Right here!”
“That’s right,” Said Avatar Adi Da. “And when you
feel that Happiness, you forget about everything else.” He opened
His arms to the room. “You forget about all of this.” He slapped
His knee. “You even forget about the body. That’s the Big Place
— the Happiness Place. And It’s very Big! You don’t need
anything else when you are There. You don’t need toys, or books,
or TV, or sweets. You don’t even need a panda!” Avatar Adi Da
looked around at all the children. “Or a polar bear! Or a Woody
Woodpecker! Or an E.T.!” He said, listing their favorite stuffed
toys. He smiled at the girl. “There are no pandas in the
Happiness Place.”
Adi Da Samraj continued, “A lot of grown-ups are in
trouble because of thinking they are un-Happy and thinking that
they need things to make them Happy. They have the ‘I-gotta-getties’
and the ‘I-need-it-nowies’. But these people are only thinking
they are un-Happy. So, what you must do is realize that
you are only thinking you are un-Happy. And, instead of
doing that, just remember that before you started thinking you
were un-Happy, you are already Happy. Already!” said Adi
Da loudly. Then He looked around at the children. “You can feel
that right now, can’t you? That you are already Happy?”
“Yes!” they said.
“Well, then,” said Avatar Adi Da Samraj with a smile,
“that is the practice!”
