"Do You Want To Be My devotee
and Live with Me Forever?"

Adi-Dasya Nadikanta came to Avatar Adi Da in 1974. From the very beginning she has consistently demonstrated a unique capacity to serve Adi Da and practice the Way. She is one of the two present formal devotee members of His Free Renunciate Order.

Ati-Dasya Nadikanta: One afternoon in 1970, while seated in the Art Museum Library at Harvard University, I had a most extraordinary waking-state vision. I had been working on a seminar thesis on Chinese ink art and was contemplating the subject silently and alone in a quiet corner. Quite suddenly, I was drawn into a subtle visionary state, as though I was dreaming with my eyes open. My present reality became an absorbing vision.

I found myself standing at the bottom of a very long stone stairway, leading up a steep, craggy mountain to a remote hermitage above. I stopped for a moment, then intently started up the stairs. As I neared the top, an extraordinary figure appeared and stood silent above me. He wore a dark tunic and his shaven head was round and glowing. His silence was unfathomably deep and yet fully communicative. I intuitively knew that he was there to guide me or to reveal something to me. He made no outward expression of words, but gestured to a long vine that swung out over a rocky precipice. Then he turned to go. I understood that I was to swing on the vine, and I did so — out and back and out and back, over the precipice. There was the choice, very clearly, to let go and fall far below onto the rocks or to return. As I swung, I did not feel fear, but simply the knowledge of mortality. Once that was instilled, I spontaneously regained the ground.

Instantly, the figure reappeared. He motioned me to follow, and I descended the long stone stairs behind him. We walked down out of the wilderness into a village and wandered through the streets. My guide was silent. A strange phenomenon occurred. I tried to speak to people in the village, but no one could hear me. I was like an invisible apparition there. I no longer had a place in the world. As soon as I realized this, we returned up the stairs to the hermitage. As I followed him back up the long stone steps, I knew that this was my Spiritual Master.

At the top of the stairs, my Master turned to me. He said nothing, but only looked into my eyes. The tacit communication was as clear as, or clearer than, words. "Do you see? There is no way back, once you have begun." I met his eyes. I felt profoundly happy and calm and full.

As soon as this vision faded, another vision quickly arose. Now I stood alone on a long sandy beach overlooking a huge expanse of ocean. I struck a wooden match. Suddenly, everything — the beach, ocean, sky, and myself--was sucked into a vortex and dissolved into an unutterable glory of light. At the perimeter, a red-yellow-orange fieriness flared far more brilliant than the sun. Closer to the center, there was a dark purple-blueness, infinitely deep, which then dissolved into a whiteness brighter than I had ever seen with the physical eyes. I was joyfully consumed in the luminous brightness.

As silently as they came, the visions left. Emerging from these visions, I felt a great bliss, an ecstasy, a freedom — and a certainty. I knew that they held a secret of Truth that would reveal itself in time. I felt a tacit certainty that the Spiritual Master I had seen in vision would appear in manifested form in my life at the appropriate moment. I knew that, as in my vision, He would be able to look directly into my eyes and communicate fully in silence. I began to wait and watch for Him. The vision I had of brilliant luminosity, greater than even the human eye can see, granted me the intuition of the Divine "Brightness" that would appear with my Spiritual Master.

These visions marked a change in my life. From a conventional point of view, I had everything that was "good" in life: family, friends, a comfortable living circumstance, excellent education and career possibilities. However, from as early as I can remember, I had desired more than the satisfactions the world can offer — I wanted to know why I was alive and I wanted to know God most directly. These visions granted me the intuition of the imminent appearance in my life of the One who would answer this heart-yearning.

In 1970, I left Harvard and got a job as a secretary, living alone in Boston. I began a solitary daily routine of Hatha Yoga and a form of sitting meditation, but all the while I was looking for my Teacher. Later I left the east coast for California and settled in Los Angeles. I heard mention of a Spiritual Teacher in Hollywood named "Franklin Jones", but I did not act on it. I was not ready.

After four years, I had despaired of my Spiritual search and was resigned to continue my formal education and prepare for a career. I returned to the east coast and made arrangements with the Harvard Art Department to get my degree through independent studies at Tokyo University. Everything was set, all plans finalized.

Then I received a letter from a friend. "The teacher you have been looking for is here in California. Come at once." I abandoned everything and left immediately for the West Coast. I went directly to San Francisco and then up to the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary. The second time I walked onto the Sanctuary, someone beckoned me to move quickly into a low white wooden building. I followed a few others in the door, walked a few paces, and sat down on the floor toward the back of the room. It was a meditation hall, and everyone was sitting silent and still.

Suddenly, the door at the front of the Communion Hall opened. The most exquisitely "Bright" Being I had ever seen entered. With total Grace, He strode directly to me and planted His staff at my side. Instantaneously, without thought, I prostrated before Him on the floor, my head touching His Feet, my hands clasping them. I was utterly swooned in the Love-Blissful Presence of Real God. My mind dissolved, transported beyond any thought or self-consciousness. After a time — I have no idea how long — this Great One stepped back and moved to His Seat in the front of the room. He sat in utter silence. I sat immersed in the Vision of His Divinity. This was God in the form of Man, Absolute Perfection. I immediately recognized this Great Being as the Spiritual Master I had seen in vision four years earlier. This was the One I had been waiting for.

After this formal meditation sitting, I was invited with a small group into the house of Avatar Adi Da Samraj. Again, as soon as I saw Him, I fell to the floor in prostrated adoration. I had at last found My Beloved Spiritual Master. He called me to His Seat and asked me, "Do you want to be My devotee and live with Me forever?" With total joy, I replied, "Yes".

RETURN TO "STORIES OF FINDING ADI DA"