For others, finding Adi Da was the discovery of
their Spiritual Master. From black liberation movement veteran Greg
Wells, who was also a lifelong spiritual seeker; to Frank
(Cheech) Marrero, who was imprisoned at Rikers Island Penitentiary, awaiting
trial for a crime he had not committed and a likely sentence of 20 or 30 years,
when a miracle occurred — their stories tell how they finally found what their
hearts were seeking (whether they knew it or not when they first encountered Adi
Da). It was only then that the real adventure — a life dedicated not to seeking
for God but to Realizing God (made always presently available through Adi Da) — could begin at last.
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| | | Life With Adi Da Samraj — Aniello Panico has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da ever since their first meeting in 1972. Over the years Aniello's primary service to Adi Da's great Work of liberating all beings has been the publication and distribution of Adi Da's books. Aniello left his body on February 3, 2022, at 86 years old. This page commemorates and celebrates his life of devotion to Adi Da Samraj. | | | | | |
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Four
Luminously Amazing Days — Professor Paul
Muller-Ortega Ph.D. is recognized internationally
as one of the world's most highly respected and
renowned academic scholars in the field of Indian
Religion and Hindu Tantra. "I palpably sense
an emanating wave moving out from [Adi Da's] body,
a wave that forcefully ripples outward through the
entire hall. As it does, this wave of his beneficent
and now magnified and intensified blessing force
catches directly at the heart; it strongly moves
the mind; and it powerfully lifts the spirit."
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I
Feel the Greatest Devotion to Him — Robert
Hall is the co-founder of the Lomi School. "The
first time I saw Adi Da was at a Darshan in 1986.
That first Darshan was very powerful for me because
I experienced a transcendent "exit" from the body
and a meeting with Him outside of the body. It was
exhilarating and ecstatic. It happened spontaneously
and, for me, it removed any doubt and concern I
might have had about His authenticity as a Great
Spiritual Realizer. From that time on I became even
more interested in His Work."
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Finding the Divine in Person and Waking Up From the Dream
— Chris Tong: "I literally felt love
pouring out of my heart, reaching His Heart, and
feeding Him. Then I felt His Love tangibly transmitted
back to me, in a great overwhelming wave, which
caused my heart to open even wider. I soon found
myself totally engaged in the most direct relationship,
at once both human and spiritual, crying out to
my Beloved Guru with tears in my eyes, 'Let me feed
You with my devotion! May You always feel my devotion,
wherever I am!'
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The
"Adi Da" Frequency — Well-known
futurist, Barbara Marx-Hubbard, describes how
she found Adi Da, and how she draws upon the 'Adi
Da Frequency' to help her work in creating a better
and more conscious future for humanity.
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Only
the Divine Presence
— Alex Grey is one of the foremost visionary
artists in the global spiritual counterculture. Here
he writes about the profundity of his encounter with
Adi Da, and about his subsequent painting of Adi Da.
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At
The Feet Of The Spiritual Master
— Gerald Sheinfeld has been a devotee of
Adi Da since the early 1970's. In these video clips,
Gerald tells the story of how he found Adi Da, and
how he became Adi Da's devotee.
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I Will Find You Again and Then You Will Know Me By Name
— DL: When it surrounded us, I sensed it as a gigantic dome or sphere extending limitlessly upward. Its light seemed to infuse everything in the area. On top of this was an undeniable Presence of Something or Someone. Someone vast. Fear enveloped both Scamper and me. We began to run like crazy away, from that place. There was a sudden, non-verbal command to STOP!
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A
Glimpse Of Him In Truth — "I was never fortunate
enough to have been a true devotee of a Guru. I was
closest to Adi Da. I was an appreciator of Him, and
occasionally let into His world by Grace to catch a
glimpse of Him in Truth."
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He
Is God! — Tom Jacobs:
"There was a Force like an enormous bolt of
electricity entering through the top of my head
and pinning me utterly to the ground. I was beside
myself, and just ran outside through the snow, up
the hill and to Robin's house. I just burst open
her front door. She was standing in the kitchen.
I yelled: 'He is God!' She looked at me and said:
'yes, I know.' "
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God
In Person Was Loving Me
— Nahshon Nahumi:
"Suddenly, there was no limitation, no self-contraction
— only Divine Freedom. . . I felt like God in Person
was loving me. I tacitly knew that Avatar Adi Da
was my Master and had been my Master before all
time. His Presence was so familiar and so personal
that there was no way I could deny it. I felt liberated
from the seeking and dilemma of my life and reunited
with my Beloved. And I knew that this moment was
the true beginning of my Spiritual life."
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"This
is Home!"
— Daniela Morena:
"Suddenly, the room around me dissolved in a
bright cloud. There was light everywhere, only light.
The boundary of my skin, separating my body from the
surrounding environment, was no longer there. My heart
skipped a beat from the emotion, as my brain formulated
these words: Finally! Finally what I have been longing
for! This is Home! "
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The
Baby on My Shoulder
— Margaret Dempsey:
"One night, I had a dream. I was standing in
my kitchen, looking out to sea, and I had a baby on
my shoulder. Because of how the baby was positioned,
I couldn't see the baby's face, so I leaned back a
little to look — and got the shock of my life when
I recognised it as the face of Adi Da when He was
a baby."
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Ice
Cream and Divine Distraction
— Pamela Bennett: "I
turned my gaze away from the frozen yoghurt toward
a most unusual image: a Supremely Attractive Being
whose photograph graced the book's jacket. . . in
an instant, a shift occurred. There was no granite
topped counter and wooden stool with music in the
background. There was not a shred of bodily awareness
whatsoever. There was only a Bright, Radiant Field
of Whitest Light, a tiny point of witness, and the
most extraordinary, limitless, astonishing feeling
of extravagant and limitless Joy."
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An
Ecstatic Falling into Him — Nicole
Ortega tells the story of how she discovered
Bhagavan Adi Da. While doing so, she recounts two
remarkable dreams. In the first, the whole human
condition is revealed to her in a kind of metaphor.
In the second dream, Adi Da appears to her, and
connects with her directly and personally, correcting
a false, cultic view of Him that she had previously
held.
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Finding
My Master — David
tells the story of recognizing Avatar Adi Da Samraj
to be his Spiritual Master. He describes the first
time he saw Adi Da. He then tells how he found and
became a formal devotee of Adi Da.
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Beyond
All Doubt
— As a child in Jamaica, Donald Webley
recalls feeling that there was something lacking,
something without which real happiness was not possible.
An unexplained experience of Bliss moved him to
spiritual practice and eventually to Avatar Adi
Da.
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Tasting
The Moon
— Meg McDonnell tells the story of how she
found Adi Da, and of her relationship with Him, by
reading excerpts from her book, Tasting The Moon:
Adventures in the Meaning of Life.
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Never
Has God Revealed Himself So Fully — Max Rykov:
"The moment the video started, my heart was
broken by the immensity of Divine Force emanating
from Him. I wept and wept, my body radiating with
His Spiritual Transmission. . . The Divine Love
I felt was the Perfection of God that I had only
read about but never thought possible to experience
while alive."
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"Let
Me Live You. Dissolve In My Current Of Bliss."
— Terry Cafferty is an aerospace engineering
consultant and has worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. Terry tells how, even in the midst of
a conventionally "successful" life, he became aware
of his own inability to truly love, feel, and be in
relationship with others. The crisis engendered by
this realization ultimately led him to his Spiritual
Master, Avatar Adi Da Samraj.
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My
First Meeting with Adi Da — Dan Sleeth:
"I marveled at these eyes, even happy to be amazed!
Then a startling realization came. Clearly, he had
seen — in fact, was seeing now. The face in the poster
seemed to literally come alive. I could feel his presence,
a person standing in front of me — looking at me."
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I
Knew He Was the Divine Being in Human Bodily Form
— Catherine Dames: "At
a certain point into the video I felt a strange
but very pleasant feeling between my eyebrows, as
if an electric charge was plugged into that spot.
When I looked at the Guru, I felt completely overwhelmed
with Joy. His bodily expression of total Happiness
and Freedom were such as I had never seen before
in any man or woman."
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A
Difficult Beginning — Max Cottrell:
"Alongside my dedication to Maharishi and teaching
TM, I liked to keep my mind open to study other paths
to liberation. . . One summer weekend in London in 1976,
I attended a showing of a short movie called Laughter,
about the American-born teacher Adi Da Samraj. . . This
had a profound effect on me; here was a person who,
though born in the West, showed all the signs of complete
Divine Enlightenment!" |
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How
Did He Know?
— Max recounts the
beginning of his life as a devotee of Adi Da, in the
community of Adi Da's devotees. He tells how he was
initiated into the devotional relationship with Adi
Da on his birthday, through an ecstatic dream of union
with Adi Da and His Divine State. |
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Coming
Home: The Spiritual Odyssey of a Former Clergyman
— Tom Williams: "My
story is about how I moved from being an ordinary
person to someone who was given the greatest gift
in the world. This is the story of how I fell in love
with God. And I wouldn't trade this life for anything
in the world. There's nothing that compares to being
in communion, in love with God."
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He
Is Alive — Lyn Hart, an administrator
and businesswoman, tells of being contacted psychically
and Instructed by Avatar Adi Da over a period of several
years before she had any idea of Who He was or that
He was alive in this world.
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The
Timeless Intrusion — Martin Goulding:
"I looked at the picture of Franklin Jones and
those words, 'The Radical Teaching of Franklin Jones',
over and over. The image and words and the import
of them had a sudden impact on me — like a shock —
not quite at the level of the conscious mind, more
like: whoever that person is, I absolutely need
to know more about him and must find and read that
book!"
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The
Book of Light
— Trish Mitchell, an Australian radio journalist,
bought The Dawn
Horse Testament one day, simply because she
was "attracted" to the cover. She had no idea what was
waiting "inside" that book.
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My
First Years with Adi Da — Bill Worden
has been a devotee since 1997. "An energy started
to descend into me. The energy seemed conscious.
It was intelligent. It moved steadily. It wasn't
affected by anything I did. It must have taken about
thirty seconds to go all the way down my body. It
was the most amazing thing to feel. I felt love
as I have never experienced it. It was pure love."
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"What
Have You Been Doing with Your Life?" —
In 1972, Wes Vaught worked as
a proofreader at CSA Press, in Atlanta, Georgia, the
original publisher of Adi Da's autobiography, The
Knee Of Listening. After proofreading The
Knee Of Listening, he decided to go to California
to meet Avatar Adi Da in person. Wes: "I knocked.
Adi Da answered the door. . ."
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"What
Do I Do Now, Since I Have Been Given Everything?"
— In 1975, Marvin Carpenter watched an
introductory film about Adi Da. At the end of the film,
Adi Da looked directly into the camera for a long period
of time. Looking into His eyes, Marvin received a heart
opening and heart communication he could not explain.
He wept, and realized there was nothing more to look
for. Adi Da was exactly What he had always been seeking.
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How
Total Satisfaction Found Me — A highly
educated veteran of the black liberation movement,
Greg Wells spent years as a spiritual seeker,
trying to discover how he could live a fulfilled life.
Read Greg's account of how he finally found God in
the Person of Adi Da Samraj, and came to understand
that Adi Da was the Spiritual Master he had been looking
for since he was a small boy.
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Another
Reality was Unveiled — As someone with an
academic career in the humanities, Carolyn Lee
was familiar with the highest intellectual and artistic
achievements of Western civilization. But she was quite
unprepared for what happened in her first meeting with
Adi Da Samraj. |
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He
is Here! — After years of searching and
practicing world religions, Dennis Coccaro
discovered Adi Da Samraj when he heard a radio broadcast-interview
which featured some of Adi Da's early devotees. A
profound and beautiful relationship to His Spiritual
Master ensued.
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First
Meeting: A Personal Story — After a manic
decade of violent seeking, self-indulgence, and
confusion, Anthony Costabile stumbled across
a book by Avatar Adi Da Samraj. Its discovery led
him to an intimate, spiritual meeting that was to
change his life forever . . .
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The
Book Landed on the Floor in Front of My Feet —
In 1974, Anthony Costabile was a young seeker,
living in the Denver/Boulder area, and given to browsing
spiritual bookshops. As he was browsing in the yoga
and spirituality section of one of those shops, Adi
Da's Knee
Of Listening suddenly "fell" off the shelf,
landed on the floor in front of his feet, and changed
his life.
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The
"Bright" in the Darkness: How Adi Da Found
Me — In 1967, Frank (Cheech) Marrero
was imprisoned at Rikers Island Penitentiary,
awaiting trial for a crime he had not committed.
At a plea bargaining session, he was told that
if he pled guilty, he would receive "only" 20
or 30 years, instead of life without parole. Cheech
was at the lowest point of his life. He decided
to end it all. Just as he was about to do it,
a miracle occurred.
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"Where
Have You Been???" — Patrick Mahoney,
a former nuclear reactor engineer and professor of
Physics, describes the process and ordeal he went
through leading up to his first meeting with Avatar
Adi Da Samraj in 1975. For Patrick, it was Avatar
Adi Da's Humor that first caught his attention.
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I
Realized That I Was "Playing for God" —
In the early 1980s, Bill Somers had already
realized what he had held to be his life's ambition:
to be principal clarinetist in a symphony orchestra.
But this accomplishment was not enough for Bill,
after all; his heart was not satisfied. And that
was a good place to be! It led him to his Spiritual
Master.
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An
Immense Burden Had Been Lifted from Me — Toni
Vidor (daughter of renowned movie director King
Vidor) tells how she met Adi Da for the first time,
and of the impact of Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission
on her: "When it was finally over, I felt as if an
immense burden — eighty tons of whatever it was I
had been carrying around all my life without even
realizing it — had been lifted from me."
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The
Story of Francis Popkin
— The story of how Francis Popkin found
Adi Da, as told by Frank Marrero. Frank talks about
how a young country boy showed up at his doorstep
in 1981, after having read and been completely transfixed
by Adi Da's book, The Enlightenment Of The Whole
Body.
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"This
is the God for me!" — In this radio interview
(with Aaron Joy), rock musician Theo Cedar Jones
describes how he became Adi Da's devotee; how Adi
Da transformed his entire manner of singing and his
craft of songwriting; and the creative challenge of
communicating Adi Da's Presence and Teaching through
the medium of rock.
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"No,
You Are Meant For Another"
— Flick Rahke: "So when Swami Muktananda
asked for questions from the audience, I stood up,
bowed, and asked him if he was to be my Guru. He tilted
his head and looked at me with a little smile as he
said: "No, you are meant for another."
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Every
Cell in My Body Relaxed
— Steven Shapiro: "As I watched
the video with Adi Da, every cell in my body relaxed
and lined up as one. Nothing fancy, just home. Utterly
home."
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The
Meaning of Life
— Award-winning artist Marla Baggetta
talks about finding Adi Da Samraj and the meaning
of life.
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The
Divine IS Everything and Everyone
— Andre Decio: "Let me try to tell you
about the deepest yearning of the human heart, and
how it was fulfilled beyond measure, by the truth
of all."
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The
Room Exploded Into Brightness
— Lassi Lammassaari: "I sat down
to read the book. I felt like I was breathing in something
nectarous from the pages. I totally relaxed. In the
next instant, the room exploded into Brightness."
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No
Doubts Whatsoever
— Alaya Gernon: Suddenly, Adi Da Samraj appeared
in the room, life size. He was sitting right in front
of me. . . And then — suddenly, it was Ramana Maharshi
sitting in front of me!"
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Beyond,
Beyond
— Karen Richardson: "There was
no religious upbringing, but as a young girl, one
day I found myself looking up at the sunny spring
sky and just 'knowing' that something wonderful is
going to happen in my lifetime — not only to me, but
to the whole world."
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The
Eternal Answer of the Divine
— Frederick Court: "The room that night
had a constant shower of nectarous Transmission of
Him, washing down continuously, so, so sweet. Many
Profound and extra-ordinary visions of His Form arose.
It was a bathing in His Love, and all the devotees
in the room were swooning in His Love-Bliss. In those
moments, it was the most beautiful place to be on
the planet."
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His
Blessing Intrusion
— Dennis Regan tells the story of how
he received a Ph.D. in biotechnology and was pursuing
a successful career in scientific research when he
encountered a book with the unusual title, Scientific
Proof of the Existence of God Will Soon Be Announced
by the White House! — and a Revelation occurred
that changed the course of his life.
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At
the Feet of the Malibu Surfer-Dude
— Jan Myer: "In the midst of my search,
at the bookstore I frequented in those days, I saw
(for the first time) the too-happy, too-youthful face
of what appeared to be a kind of 'Malibu surfer-dude',
on the cover of a book I'd never seen before, titled
The Knee Of Listening. The man looked too cool
by half, and I was a little offended by the book's
subtitle, 'The Early Life And Radical Spiritual Teachings'
of 'Franklin Jones'! I chuckled to myself, thinking,
'Just about anybody can claim to be Enlightened these
days!'"
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