Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

This video appreciation of Adi Da's Image-Art begins with a testimonial from devotee Stanley Hastings, who grew up in the Adidam community and is the Co-Director of Da Plastique (the group that presents Avatar Adi Da's Art to the public), and who worked with Adi Da on His Divine Image-Art.

Then, at 9:34, we hear various art professionals express their appreciation of Adi Da's Image-Art.

This is followed (at 13:14) by a slideshow of photos drawn from some the Exhibitions of Adi Da's Image-Art, from 2001-2009.

The video concludes (at 18:58) with a slideshow of photos of Adi Da creating His Image-Art from 1998-2008. Background music is Naamleela Free Jones, "I Served to Priest the Pharaohs", from her album, Eyes In Other Worlds.

Tags: image-art   Stanley Hastings   Mahasamadhi   Tribute   DVD  
Comments: 4

In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse from October 12, 2004, on Adi Da Samrajashram, Adi Da addresses the inevitability of death, the life of profound purpose that outshines mortality, and how living life as a sacrifice in the Divine is the key to the death process.

The full Avataric Discourse can be found on the DVD, The Wordless Condition Prior to "I".

Tags: Avataric Discourse   death   DVD  

In this rare historical footage from 1973, Adi Da speaks about the relationship with the Guru in Satsang (the Company of the Awakened One) as the Way of Truth, and Reality Itself.

Adi Da: "During My 'Sadhana Years', whenever My Guru asked Me to do something, I would do that. The rest of the time, I would sit there and be absorbed in Him. And there was nothing else I could do. The Guru is sufficient — and the devotee of the Guru is one who knows that."

Tags: DVD  
Comments: 2

Excerpt from a talk given by Adi Da on June 18, 1976, at The Mountain Of Attention.

Adi Da describes how, through the Grace of His Company, the devotee becomes increasingly aware of suffering and its nature. Increasingly, Grace reveals that suffering is the result of the devotee's own activity.

Consequently, the Way of Adidam [called "The Way of Divine Communion" in this 1976 talk] involves a life of counter-egoic activity, that focuses on devotion to the Divine Presence of the Guru, rather than working on one's tendencies. Over time, the act of devotional surrender to the Divine (and the Happiness associated with that surrender) replaces the act of self-possession (and the suffering associated with that self-possession).

Comments: 1

In this Discourse (which took place on November 11, 2005 at The Mountain Of Attention), Avatar Adi Da answers a devotee's question about the human condition. He criticizes reductive viewpoints (scientific, religious, etc.) that try to account for a multi-level phenomenon (such as evolution) in terms of just one level (the gross level of bodies), ignoring other levels that participate in the phenomenon (the impact of subtle or "mind" level influences on evolution, the impact of molecular level influences on evolution, etc.). He also criticizes the presumption that everything can be explained, and points out that the multi-level phenomenon that is life and experience is (when fully examined) so complex that it is "irreducible", beyond comprehension. Beyond all the apparent (and incomprehensible) arising that is conditional existence is the indivisible Conscious Light in which all is arising. To Realize Conscious Light is to be liberated from all need for explanations. As Adi Da puts it: "When It is Realized, it becomes entirely clear what everything is and how it is happening."

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

Adi Da recites "The Heart of Understanding", the Prologue to His autobiography, The Knee Of Listening. The recitation is accompanied by photos of Adi Da.

"The Heart of Understanding" is extraordinarily good news: death itself can be transcended! Death is not a problem, and is utterly acceptable, if one realizes and stands as Consciousness Itself, in which all mortal forms and limited worlds are arising.

In the final words of "The Heart of Understanding", Adi Da reveals that He is That: Consciousness Itself. Because this is so, He transmits that Revelation to all beings, and provides (and is) the means whereby all of us finally can be free of mortality and the mortal vision.

Tags: death  

Devotee Ben Grisso, who grew up in the Adidam community, and who worked with Adi Da on His Divine Image-Art, offers this testimonial to Adi Da's life and work.

Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 11 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.

A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.

To watch more excerpts from the Tribute DVD, click here.

Tags: image-art   Ben Grisso   Mahasamadhi   Tribute   DVD  

Throughout the years of His Divine Avataric Teaching-Revelation, Avatar Adi Da spoke at length in response to devotees' questions on all subjects relative to the human circumstance — including death, and all the sorrow and fear inherent in the circumstance of human mortality.

This video excerpt is from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da on September 18, 2004. In this Discourse, Adi Da points out that all fear is fear of death or fear of extinction. This fear is like a constant background noise, from which we constantly try to distract ourselves with the games of life. Adi Da describes the choice we face: to live in fear, the "native mood of the ego" — or to realize the profundity of the inherently fearless Condition.

Avatar Adi Da calls us to a surrendered life that is about Realization and all that is relevant to Realization, including compassionate service. Such a surrendered life is the key to an "easy" death.

Tags: Avataric Discourse   DVD   death  
Comments: 3

Devotee Ben Grisso talks about growing up in the community of Adi Da's devotees and the joy of being with Adi Da as a child. He describes how he later lived on Naitauba and served Adi Da's Image-Art work for many years. He tells a humorous story of the Crazy-Wise play Adi Da engaged in, to reflect to Ben his tendency to be "analytic".

Ben was in the room with Adi Da at the time of His Divine Mahasamadhi (on November 27, 2008), and he talks about that moment, and its significance.

Tags: Image-art   mahasamadhi  
Comments: 7

Longtime devotee, James Steinberg, tells the story of how he found Adi Da. He offers this testimonial to the life and work of Adi Da Samraj.

Excerpt from First Evening: Track 4 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.

Tags: DVD   James Steinberg  
Comments: 3

Adi Da criticized religious cultism, long before the subject gained any popular attention. (For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.) This discourse, given in 1978 at The Mountain Of Attention, is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.

Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."

Tags: cult  

Adi Da: "Sex is fundamental ego-identity, lived. And generally speaking, it is a problem for everyone. . . The social pattern of 'self' and 'other' is founded upon emotional-sexual patterning to a very great degree. . . So it certainly is an important dimension of bondage, and therefore an important aspect of sadhana. The Perfect Practice is not based on any reference to the body-mind, or any method of the body-mind."

In this Avataric Discourse (from January 21, 2005), Adi Da explains why the Perfect Practice (the most advanced development of the Way of Adidam) has nothing to do with sex (or the ego-"I" altogether), and is not a "method" of the body-mind or something to be applied to the body-mind. The Self-Condition prior to the body-mind is the domain of the Perfect Practice. The Self-Condition is not a separate "self", but the Nirvanic Condition that is always already the case, and that inherently transcends the body-mind.

This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and self. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.

Tags: Avataric Discourse   Perfect Practice   DVD   CD  
Comments: 3

In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.

The full talk is available on the DVD, The Commitment To Real-God-Realization.

For more on this subject, read our article, Why Great Spiritual Realization Requires a Spiritual Transmission Master.

Tags: DVD  
Comments: 1

Interviews and overview of Adi Da's solo exhibition at the Cenacolo di Ognissanti in Florence, Italy, in 2008. How Adi Da's art was chosen for exhibition in Florence at Cenacolo di Ognissanti.

Tags: Image-Art   Florence   Cenacolo di Ognissanti   Christina Acidini   Monica Bietti   Gary Coates   Paula Crema  

Excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da at Adi Da Samrajashram on October 24, 2004.

For more on Adi Da's running theme, "You Can't Get There from Here", read our article, Why No Self-Applied Technique is Capable of Realizing the Divine.

Tags: Avataric Discourse