Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

Run by devotees of Adi Da, Da Mantra Cafe is a restaurant, store, and mission center in the city of Tiruvannamala in Tamil Nadu, India. It is located at a spiritual nexus and place of pilgrimage: near the hill, Arunachala (sacred to Shiva), and near Sri Ramana Ashram (the Ashram of Ramana Maharshi).

In this video, Matt Braithwaite takes us on a walk-through of Da Mantra Cafe in January, 2023, which has been in development since 2017 and is now open to the public.

Comments: 2

The Celebration of Da Purnima at the European Danda in the Netherlands, July, 2016.

videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Da Purnima   Guru Purnima   European Danda  
Comments: 3

Young people growing up in the Adidam community go on retreat to Adi Da Samrajashram, the sacred island of Naitauba, in Fiji, during July, 2009.

Opening music: Frou Frou, Let Go.
Videographer: Matt Braithwaite.

Tags: children  
Comments: 3

“The Ascent of Orpheus” exhibition of Adi Da's art ran from July 9 - October 11, 2015, at the Bargello National Museum, Florence.

This video clip is a final walk through of the exhibition, on October 11, 2015.

For more information about the exhibition, click here.

videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art  

Ruchiradama Nadikanta is a senior devotee of Avatar Adi Da and a member of the Ruchira Sannyasin Order. She served as Adi Da's spiritual ambassador at the groundbreaking exhibition of Adi Da's Image-Art, The Ascent Of Orpheus, in the renowned Bargello Museum in Florence, which ran from July 7 - October 11, 2015. In this unique presentation (filmed on July 7, 2015), Ruchiradama Nadikanta takes us on a guided tour of the exhibition, describing the extraordinary nature of Adi Da's art, and providing us with an esoteric understanding of "The Ascent of Orpheus", and how it reflects Adi Da's incarnation and liberating work.

videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Ruchiradama Nadikanta  
Comments: 4

The European Danda is offering a 3-day retreat (hosted by longtime devotee Gerald Sheinfeld) from Friday, July 31 through Sunday, August 2, coinciding with the Celebration of Da Purnima. For more information, click here.

This video is an update on the special "Art Night" that will be taking place Saturday night (August 1), as part of the retreat and celebration. Your hosts will be longtime devotees Brian O'Mahony and Antonia Randazzo.

Tags: image-art   European Danda  

This extraordinary poem, “The Mummery-cult Of Pairs Set Free”, was spoken completely extemporaneously (in the style of William Shakespeare) by Avatar Adi Da Samraj, in a gathering with devotees in 1998, in response to the suffering of the world. The text being recited here was only slightly edited by Adi Da from His original spontaneous Outpouring, and appears in Adi Da’s Happenine Book. The metaphors, Liberated Proclamations, and wisdom about our desperate search for the object-other flowed from Adi Da’s Heart in an astounding soliloquy that left the devotees at the gathering in awe.

Devotee Steve Brown is reciting. He stands before the River Avon in Stratford, Shakespeare's hometown.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: poem   Steve Brown   Orpheum  
Comments: 10

On July 21 and 22, 2014, The Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj. The venue was the courtyard of the historic Bargello Museum in Florence.

This video clip provides an introduction to the place (Florence), the dancers, the musicians, the art (images from Adi Da's Geome One: Alberti's Window, in four different colorings for the four seasons), and the costumes (which were color-coordinated with the art).

Also in this clip: Italian art critic, Giuliano Serafini (author of Matisse e il Mediterraneo and Goya, praises the combination of music, dance, and art: "It's the best!". Serafini, Keith Ferrone (director of the Florence Dance Company), and Ruchiradama Nadikanta all note the technological advance represented by the LED lighting in the back panels, that brought out the color in Adi Da's art to a far greater degree than in previous performances (assisted by new fabrications of Adi Da's art), and enlivened the dancers' performance.

Ruchiradama Nadikanta: "Absolutely exquisite! . . . It was one symphony — of dance, and art, and music. . . Adi Da was immensely present, infusing every note and every step, as well as shining through His extraordinary Art. . . You feel [the dancers] really dancing to the Art."

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  
Comments: 1

Opening Reception of the exhibition, "Quandra Loka - The Indivisible Space of Conscious Light": color and black-and-white photographic images, combined with the full-wall multi-media installation. Showing at Galerie Pien Rademakers, Prinsengracht 570, Amsterdam, May 24 - June 29, 2014. Also appearing at the KunstRAI Art Fair in Amsterdam, June 4-9, 2014.


For more about this exhibition, click here.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka  

A few scenes from the preparation at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on March 14, 2013. Some views of the famous old theatre itself. The use of back projection for the video produces very crisp images of Adi Da's art, without the projection being interrrupted by the dancers (who would stand between the projector and the lower part of the screen in a traditional forward projection system).

For more on the performance, click here.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-art   Florence Dance Company   peace