 Celebrations
> The Establishment of the
Way of Adidam RuchiradamThe Celebration of the Establishment of
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In April of each year, Adi Da's devotees celebrate the inauguration of His world-Blessing Work at 8pm on April 25, 1972 — the opening of a small ashram (Shree Hridayam Siddhashram) and bookstore (Shree Hridayam Bookstore) at 6913 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California, and the occasion of Adi Da's first public Discourse. It was also the start of the Adidam community, then called "Shree Hridayam Satsang" ("The Company of the Heart").
This Spiritual Celebration (sometimes called Dharmavara) has always been the time that we honor Adi Da's unique and incomparable Wisdom-Teaching and His Revelation of Truth to the world. We acknowledge that this is a World-Teaching — through the four congregations of Adidam, Adi Da (as Divine World-Teacher) has provided a means for all human devotees to formally practice sadhana in His Company.
The Gift of this Celebration is Ruchira Avatara Vani (or Ruchira Avatara Vani-Vichara), the Gift of the Word: [1]
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. . . and the Gifted calling, and the By-Me-Given Responsibility, For Devotionally Responsive "Consideration" Of My Avatarically Self-Revealed Divine Word, and Of All My Instructive and Revelatory Avataric Divine Work, or My Avatarically Self-Manifested and Forever Living and Me-Revealing Leelas. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Dawn Horse Testament |
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In April 1972, Avatar Adi Da established a small bookstore on Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, which He intended to become a base for His Spiritual Work, a place where He could gather with His devotees. He Himself did the lion's share of the renovation, with help from a few of His devotees.
What was to become Avatar Adi Da's Ashram center and bookstore had previously been an embroidery workshop, a dry cleaner's, and a photo-processing lab. Each time a new tenant had leased it, they had merely added new equipment, partitions, and so forth, without taking anything else out. Truckload after truckload of sheetrock and plywood had to be pulled out and hauled away.
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Avatar Adi Da Samraj, See My Brightness Face to Face |
Gerald
Sheinfeld: One day, while the few of us who were already
students of Beloved Adi Da's were working full speed to get
the bookstore and Communion Hall ready, Beloved Adi Da and
one of the students came into the center with two very large
wooden objects: the letter 'C' and the symbol '&'. They had
found them in an alley, where an advertising company had thrown
them away. The symbols were both quite large — five
or six feet tall and three or four feet wide. Beloved Adi
Da asked us to clean them up and paint them white so that
He could use them in the bookstore. The 'C', lying flat, was
perfect as a check-out counter. The ampersand was placed in
front of the entrance to the Communion Hall. It was a most
unusual object to encounter before entering the Hall! When
we asked its significance, Beloved Adi Da said, 'There is
only God! The 'and' is the problem.'"The devotees who were helping Avatar Adi Da were amazed at His endless energy. He just kept pushing and pushing, beyond the point of exhaustion. One day, He fell over in His chair, having pushed His body too hard. But, in a matter of moments, He was immediately back at it. He worked for thirty days straight renovating the store.
before . . .
after
Finally, on the evening of April 25, Avatar Adi Da Samraj formally began His Teaching Work, gathering with the small group of people who had become His devotees in recent months, some of their friends, and random individuals who had responded to a poster in the bookstore window.
There was a great air of anticipation and excitement. Some who came had heard of "Franklin Jones" but had never read anything by Him, as none of His books had been published yet. After the last person had arrived, a total of about twenty people were present.
That night, Adi Da entered through a doorway directly behind the chair at the front of the room. Once seated, Adi Da silently looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone present. Then, after some time, He closed His eyes and sat quite still. He looked young and "Bright". He Radiated simplicity and ease. As He sat, the room took on the feeling of Fullness, which was typical in His Company. Some people closed their eyes, while others looked at Adi Da.
Avatar Adi Da sat in silence for an hour, magnifying the Force of the "Bright" to everyone in the room. Everyone showed their respect by remaining silent and attentive. After a time, Adi Da stretched from left to right in His Chair, as He characteristically does.
Then He said, in a voice so quiet that almost no one heard Him, "Who will cast the first stone?"
No one responded.
And, then, in a completely engaging manner, He asked, "Are there any questions?" Again there was silence.
"Everyone has understood?"
"I haven't understood," came the reply from one man in the room (Larry Geller). "Explain it to me. You could start with the word 'understanding'."
And in response, Adi Da began His Teaching Work.
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There is first the periodic awareness of that sensation, then the awareness of it as a continuous experience, then the observation of its actual structure, the knowing of it all as your own activity, a deliberate, present activity that is your suffering, that is your illusion. The final penetration of that present, deliberate activity is what I have called "understanding". Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Understanding", My "Bright" Word [2] |
Yes.
There is a disturbance, a feeling of dissatisfaction, some
sensation that motivates a person to go to a teacher, read
a book about philosophy, believe something, or do some conventional
form of Yoga. What people ordinarily think of as Spirituality
or religion is a search to get free of that sensation, that
suffering that is motivating them. So all the usual paths
— Yogic methods, beliefs, religion, and so on —
are forms of seeking, grown out of this sensation, this subtle
suffering. Ultimately, all the usual paths are attempting
to get free of that sensation. That is the traditional goal.
Indeed, all human beings are seeking, whether or not they
are very sophisticated about it, or using very specific methods
of Yoga, philosophy, religion, and so on. . . . 
As long as the individual is simply seeking, and has all
kinds of motivation, fascination with the search, this is
not understanding — this is dilemma itself. But where
this dilemma is understood, there is the re-cognition of a
structure in the living consciousness, a separation. And when
that separation is observed more and more directly, one begins
to see that what one is suffering is not something happening
to one but it is one's own action. It is as if you are pinching
yourself, without being aware of it. . . . Then one sees that
the entire motivation of life is based on a subtle activity
in the living consciousness. That activity is avoidance, separation,
a contraction at the root, the origin, the "place", of the
living consciousness. . . .
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And so it began — hours, days, nights, weeks, years, decades of Spiritual Instruction, in which Avatar Adi Da would cover all human, religious, and Spiritual questions, examine every aspect of life and consciousness, and Reveal every detail of the Spiritual Process culminating in Most Perfect Divine Enlightenment.
The small gathering at the Ashram bookstore on that first night had not the slightest idea that they were witnessing the birth of such Revelation. In the thirty-six years that followed, Adi Da devoted Himself to creating a vast repository of wisdom, and an entirely new way of life — the way of devotional and Transcendental Spiritual relationship to Him, to which He gave the name, "the Reality-Way of Adidam", or simply — "Adidam".
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All My Wisdom-Teaching is intended to be a direct address to you. A relationship, in other words, is the context of My Wisdom-Teaching of the Way of Adidam. This is what you must come to understand and appreciate. Therefore, make your study of My Wisdom-Teaching into a form of relationship with Me, not just thinking about ideas by reading books. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, August 3, 1987 |
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You could still smell the wet paint when I first arrived. I sat down in the main area. Franklin was sitting by Himself, in a chair on a platform towards the back of the room. And He had a bright orange aura around His Head! My first thought was: they must have put an orange floodlight behind His Head. While I was sitting, I thought to myself, "this place is going to close in a few weeks." Just as I was in this doubting mood, Franklin stood up and left His Chair. The bright, vivid halo followed Him, as He walked around the room!!!! Years later, I was with the silent yogi, Baba Hari Dass, up in Santa Cruz. I described my experience to him, and asked him what an orange aura means. He wrote on his little chalk board around his neck: "What you saw was not orange — it was a combination of gold and red. It is extremely rare, and is the sign of total fearlessness." Randall Moffett |
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| [1] |
For more about Adi Da's Wisdom-Teaching, visit our section, The Books of Adidam. |
| [2] |
Adi Da's first public talk, "Understanding", is also available as a CD. |
| [3] |
This logo celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Adidam is available from The Dawn Horse Press as a beautiful commemorative paperweight. |
| Quotations
from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright
owner: © Copyrighted materials used with the permission of The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam. All rights reserved. None of these materials may be disseminated or otherwise used for any non-personal purpose without the prior agreement of the copyright owner. ADIDAM is a trademark of The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as Trustee for the Avataric Samrajya of Adidam. Technical problems with our site? Let our webmaster know. |