Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

[A presentation given by James Steinberg on June 2, 2016, at the Many Rivers Bookstore in Sebastopol, California.]

Adi Da Samraj (1939-2008) offers a unique Spiritual Way that radically differs from, and yet perfectly completes the world's Great Spiritual Traditions. James Steinberg provides an introduction to Adi Da's core teaching. Questions to be discussed include: "What do you need to know about yourself and any teacher before you approach for instruction? Is a Spiritual Master necessary for Realization? What makes Avatar Adi Da's Teaching and Realization unique? How does his Spiritual Transmission work to purify body, mind and emotion?" Video footage will offer attendees an experience of Avatar Adi Da's Living Spiritual Presence. In Adi Da’s words: "Your Heart must decide whether to raise a fist and throw a rock, at the ego-crushing natural universe or make a flower grow in the Garden of Indestructable Light." James will also share many remarkable stories of what he witnessed serving in the company of his Spiritual Master for many years.

James Steinberg, international lecturer and religious scholar, has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da Samraj since 1973 and was personally schooled by Him in the entire Great Tradition of humankind's practical, religious, and Spiritual literature. At Adi Da's Instruction, he wrote two books about the Guru-devotee relationship: Love of the God-Man and Divine Distraction
Tags: James Steinberg  

[Contains Spanish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

Un discurso de Avatar Adi Da Samraj acerca de la Por Qué Se Necesita a Un Gurú.

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: Spanish  

[Contains Finnish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

Tässä ainutlaatuisessa puheessa vuodelta 1979 Avatar Adi Da Samraj pohtii, miten ihmisen hengellinen muutos liittyy fyysisen vartalon eri piirteisiin. Hän myös käsittelee sitä, että aito hengellinen prosessi ei perustu pyrkimyksiin tai kokemusten lisäämiseen, ei edes mystisessä ulottuvuudessa. Aidossa hengellisessä prosessissa se kaikki koetaan, kaikissa sen muodoissa (fyysisissä ja ilmiöllisissä), ja se kaikki täytyy ylittää.

From a question and answer session with Adi Da on October 28, 1978, in Land Bridge Pavilion at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California. This is track 2 on the DVD, Surrender of self Is A Koan.

In this excerpt, "Ei ole ketään, kuka antautuisi" ("There Is No One To Surrender"), Adi Da Samraj considers the spiritual transformation of a human being, and states of the body-mind. The real spiritual process is not based on effort or having more (or greater) experiences, even in the mystical dimension. In the true spiritual process, experience, in all its forms (first physical and then mystical), must be transcended through our heart-based practice of God-Communion.

Tags: Finnish   DVD  

An excerpt from Track 3 (entitled "Realization Has No self") of the CD, You Can Get There From Here.

The famous punch line "You can't get there from here" is Avatar Adi Da's starting point for this engaging Discourse. He uses this humorous paradox to perfectly crystallize the condition of all who are caught in the trap of seeking.

"The 'self' can't get to God", Avatar Adi Da clarifies, because the act that generates the sense of "self" is the act of recoil from the Divine. Life is rightly lived not by concentrating on "fixing" this recoil but as the feeling-embrace of the requirements and conditions of existence. And Avatar Adi Da offers the Way "out" of the trap of "self" -and-"other": Locate the supreme attractiveness of His Radiant Divine State, and "self" is dissolved in "Brightness".

Tags: CD  

[Contains Finnish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

Avatar Adi Da Samraj puhuu "sadhanan", tai hengellisen harjoituksen, välttämättömyydesta suhteessa Jumalan Toteuttaneeseen Hengelliseen Mestariin.

On July 2, 1988, in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention, Adi Da gives the talk, "Contemplation, Satsang, Sadhana", which would appear in the May/June 1988 issue of Crazy Wisdom Magazine.

In this excerpt, "Omistaudu Jumalan Toteutukselle" ("Devote Your Life To God-Realization"), Adi Da speaks about the necessity for "sadhana", or spiritual practice, in relationship to the God-Realized Spiritual Master.

"All there is is a mechanism to be dealt with. You're not uniquely born. It's the same mechanism as in all other cases. And, in all cases it requires a tremendous ordeal."

Beginning at 17:30 (and continuing to the end of this video), a formal Darshan occasion is shown.

Tags: Darshan   Finnish  

This audio excerpt is from the CD, The Ultimate Self-Understanding and Divine Communion, a collection of Talk excerpts illustrating the two fundamental principles of Avatar Adi Da’s Unique Revelation.

Tags: CD  

A brief overview of the many forms of Wisdom, Blessing, and Agency that Avatar Adi Da has made available to all beings for all time, including His written Teaching, His Transcendental Image-Art, His Empowered Sanctuaries, and most especially, His Eternal Presence, which is as potent after His lifetime as during His lifetime, making God-Realization possible for all, for all time.

A recording of Adi Da speaking begins at 1:15.

Mitchell Rabin, host of the New York City-based community cable TV show, A Better World, interviews Carolyn Lee, Ph.D, the author of several books on Adi Da Samraj. The focus of this interview is Carolyn’s book, The Promised God-Man is Here.

Note: The audio and video are slightly out of synch for much of this video.

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“The God Who Truly Is” is track 6 on the CD, Awaken To Brightness.

This CD contains a selection of Discourses from 1974 to 1997, which cover a broad spectrum of Avatar Adi Da’s Instruction. They provide a basic introduction to His Wisdom-Teaching and include Adi Da addressing principle matters of Spiritual life.

These Talks encompass the relationship to the Spiritual Master, the principle of Attraction, what occurs in the death process, the fundamental error at the root of all seeking, the limits of conventional religion and scientific materialism, and more.

Tags: CD  

“Garbage and the Goddess” is track 2 of the CD, Awaken To Brightness.

This CD contains a selection of Discourses from 1974 to 1997, which cover a broad spectrum of Avatar Adi Da’s Instruction. They provide a basic introduction to His Wisdom-Teaching and include Adi Da addressing principle matters of Spiritual life.

These Talks encompass the relationship to the Spiritual Master, the principle of Attraction, what occurs in the death process, the fundamental error at the root of all seeking, the limits of conventional religion and scientific materialism, and more.

Tags: CD  

CHRIS: Happy Danavira Mela to everyone!

I’ve sung Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Beloved Adi Da many times over the years — at the Manner of Flowers, at Adi Da Samrajashram, at First People / Great Food Dish, etc. (as one of a small group of singers, and usually also as the keyboardist) — and I’m singing it to Him again (and all of you!) here. It is one of my favorite songs at this time of year.

For me (starting with Judy Garland's original film version), it has always been an emotion-filled song, by turns joyful, playful, nostalgic, and wistful — so that is how I sing it here. The karaoke arrangement is based on Michael Bublé's version.

Tags: Danavira Mela  

This is track #3, "The New Doctrine of Materialism",from the CD, Participate In The Invisible Dimension of Reality, available from the Dawn Horse Press. This talk was given by Avatar Adi Da on February 27, 1988.

Using the Shamanistic traditions of North America to illustrate right relationship to the invisible, energy realms of existence, Avatar Adi Da urgently calls everyone to overcome the addiction to the false doctrine of materialism. Free and full participation in the energy dimension of existence, Avatar Adi Da says, provides the necessary foundation for restoring balance to the Earth-world, and for ecstatic embrace of the Reality-Realizing Process in His Divine Company.

ADI DA: Aren’t you still . . . limited by this materialistic “point of view”, such that you do not yet feel free to accept the Reality of the Very Divine (and the spirit-“world” itself) in all of Its dimensions? . . . You have to break the spell of the doctrines of your own time that limit your consciousness to the material domain. . . . You have to Wake Up.

Tags: CD  

[Contains Czech subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

An archival talk from July 15, 1973. One of the earliest video recordings of Avatar Adi Da speaking. Here He talks about the Free State of the fully Realized being, which is neither inward nor outward.

Adi Da: "God is neither within nor without. This is the principle of Satsang [the relationship with the Guru]: the Divine already present, the Divine lived with, the Divine as your Condition."

Tags: Czech  

[Contains Spanish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

In this clip, "Acércate a Mí desde el Corazón" ("Approach Me from the Heart"), Adi Da speaks to devotees in the Manner Of Flowers (at the Mountain Of Attention), during the "Love of the God-Man" Celebration on March 8, 1984. Adi Da talks about praise speech, ecstasy, and Satsang.

The full talk can can be found on the DVD, Approach Me From the Heart.

Some of the questions Adi Da addresses in the full talk are: What is a Divine experience? Who is God that God could be identified over against anything whatsoever? Who is a Spiritual Master if He can find Himself apart from God, such that He could say: “This piece is Me and this piece is God”? How could such distinctions continue in the consciousness of one who has Realized the Divine?

Tags: Spanish   DVD  

[Contains Czech subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

In this clip, "Přibližuj se ke Mně srdcem" ("Approach Me From the Heart"), Adi Da speaks to devotees in the Manner Of Flowers (at the Mountain Of Attention), during the "Love of the God-Man" Celebration on March 8, 1984. Adi Da talks about praise speech, ecstasy, and Satsang.

The full talk can can be found on the DVD, Approach Me From the Heart.

Some of the questions Adi Da addresses in the full talk are: What is a Divine experience? Who is God that God could be identified over against anything whatsoever? Who is a Spiritual Master if He can find Himself apart from God, such that He could say: “This piece is Me and this piece is God”? How could such distinctions continue in the consciousness of one who has Realized the Divine?

Tags: Czech   DVD