Finding Adi Da > Marla Baggetta

The Meaning of Life

Marla Baggetta

Marla Baggetta is a prolific painter and teacher, whose artwork and workshops are nationally sought after. Her work has been represented throughout the country for over 30 years. Contributing to many art publications such as Pastel Journal, she is a signature PSA member and an IAPS Master Circle Recipient. Marla worked as a commercial illustrator for 25 years. After moving to Oregon in 1993, she was inspired by the beauty of the Willamette Valley and began painting landscapes blending realism and abstraction, so as to convey a sense of calm and balance. Among her numerous awards and honors are Arts for the Parks Annual Juried Exhibition. She has been featured in the Pastel Journal and is included in Sketchbook Confidential II. She is the author of Pastel Step by Step. Her paintings can be found in numerous public and private collections throughout the country. While she makes her home in Portland, Oregon, Marla travels extensively throughout the United States teaching painting workshops and jurying shows. More about Marla on her personal website and her landscape painting lessons website.

This story was first published as "Marla Baggetta: The Meaning of Life and the Commitment of Love" (March 1, 2016) on Nicolae Tanase's Excellence Reporter website, which contains reports from over 500 accomplished people writing about "the meaning of life".

Nicolae Tanase: Marla, what is the meaning of life?

Marla Baggetta: Having spent my entire life as an artist, I've had the good fortune to pursue a career in art: painting, teaching and traveling. By conventional accounts I've been quite successful. But, I was beset by depression and profoundly empty. I was suffering and constantly searching with every action, every attempt to experience, every desire and even every thought. One could say I was involved in a desperate search for the meaning of life.

Then, in a moment of crisis, Grace broke through and reality was revealed as perfect happiness prior to all seeking. I soon came to recognize this Grace was actually my Guru, Adi Da Samraj, and I was shown a principle of life profoundly greater than the one that I had been aligned to.

Adi Da Samraj purifies and breaks the spell of ego, awakening us to the one true Reality, the Conscious Light, the Bright, all that IS. This Revelation is the greatest liberty and freedom I've ever known. All dilemma and seeking for the meaning of life is resolved. Truth is revealed prior to the mind, and it is shown that it was our own act of separation or refusal of the Divine which created the dilemma in the first place.

Now having found the purpose of existence and the true import of life, I've taken on the commitment of love and devotion for the Divine.