Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

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  

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  

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  

The DVD, I Am Always Already Free, commemorates the Divine Mahasamadhi of Avatar Adi Da, which occurred on His Hermitage Island, Adi Da Samrajashram, on November 27, 2008. This DVD is a very beautiful and deeply moving treasure.

This video excerpt is the first track, "Now, and Forever Hereafter". It is a slideshow created immediately after Adi Da's Passing, which includes photographs and video clips from the last month of His life.

Tags: 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.

In "Enter the Inherently Fearless Condition", a video segment from September 18, 2004, Avatar 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.

This excerpt is part of the two-and-a-half-hour DVD, Easy Death — Discourses on the Ultimate Transcending of Death and Everything Else. Subtitles in English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew.

This compilation of ten talks spans thirty-four years of Avatar Adi Da's Work. It includes His compassionate Instruction about:
- the sorrow of loss
- the fear of death
- serving the dying person
- how to practice during and beyond the death process
- the Ultimate Demonstration of Divine Translation (or Most Perfect Realization of the deathless Condition).

From His Perfect Disposition of Absolute Freedom, Avatar Adi Da Samraj reveals the greater process within which death occurs, and the Ultimate Demonstration of What Is, Prior to life and death.

[Note: Since we posted this video, we have also posted a longer excerpt from the same DVD track here.]

Tags: death   DVD   Avataric Discourse  

In this 1973 talk, Adi Da Samraj responds to a question from a student about the tendency to either suppress, rise above, or indulge emotional states. He makes clear that "doing something else" - namely, the sadhana - is a different (and inherently right) alternative to all these other choices, in every moment.

What kind of experiences might you notice arising in the course of esoteric practice or via Spiritual Transmission? What is the secret to relating to them rightly?

On the DVD, The Secret of Experience, Avatar Adi Da Samraj addresses questions on this topic in two revelatory Discourses.

On December 5, 2004, when asked by a devotee about a particular experience, Avatar Adi Da contrasted the self-authenticating nature of the experience with the attitude of having a question about the experience.

And on August 13, 2004, Adi Da talked about the potential of blissful experience to create unrealistic presumptions about the self and about real practice.

This video clip is an excerpt from the DVD, in which Adi Da is responding to a devotee who asked Him a question on the phone. The DVD includes Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew subtitles.

Tags: DVD   Avataric Discourse  

Antonina Randazzo's new CD, Fall Into My Heart, contains ten tracks of devotional music — including live chanting occasions from Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji, and new, original musical settings of Avatar Adi Da’s Ecstatic Words.

This excerpt from her album is track 2, "Fall Into My Heart". Ron Strauss is playing viola.

You can listen to (or purchase) the individual tracks here. The CD can be purchased here.

For Antonina's story of how Adi Da taught her the sacred art of devotional singing, click here.

Tags: devotional   music  

"The force of primary geometric forms is everywhere in the world. . . once you begin to get the sense of shape, then you can see that the world of perception is actually made of primary geometries. It is just that there are so many of them all at once that the natural world seems to have feathered edges."
--Avatar Adi Da Samraj

With works from Adi Da's Image-Art projected in the background, the contemporary dance piece, "Feathered Edges", was performed at the Adidam Midwest Center in Chicago, in celebration of Adi Da's 74th Birthday.

"FEATHERED EDGES, a joint creation that encapsulates rapturous elements that make the couple's forays into contemporary dance so compelling. They swirl and yearn, hover over one another and intertwine. In the Everts' world, geometry in motion is often a means to sensuality in motion."
--DONALD ROSENBERG (THE PLAIN DEALER/Cleveland)

''When Tom and Susana perform together on stage my own reality of time, place, and context is blurred. Their dance duets embrace their dualistic energies with intrinsic vulnerability and compassion."
--DANIEL WHITLEY (Visual Artist/Cleveland)

Choreographers and Dancers: Susana Weingarten & Tom Evert
Costume Design: Luzano Rey & Janet Bolick
Lighting Design: Deb Malcolm
Music: The Cinematic Orchestra
Sound engineer: Jordan Davis
Video: Alejandro Rivera

Projected Image-Art:
The Scale of Perfection, Part One: NYC, NYCSTET I (from Geome Three) 2006, by Adi Da Samraj, © 2013 ASA

Tags: Image-Art   dance  

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  

Every year in late October and early November, devotees, friends, and supporters of Adi Da Samraj gather to enjoy an extended weekend of Celebration and Spiritual Retreat focused on the Life, Teachings, and Avataric Work of Adi Da Samraj. The occasion is the birthday anniversary of Adi Da, during which we joyously acknowledge that this Supremely Realized Spiritual Master has appeared in the world to Awaken all beings to Radiant Love, Perfect Freedom, and Indestructible Light. This year’s Celebration is also based on the new book, The Gift Of Truth Itself, and like all Adidam Events, is founded on the acknowledgment that Adi Da Samraj uniquely bestows the ultimate Gift of Divine Truth or “Reality Itself” to the human heart.

For more about this retreat, click here.
Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: European Danda   retreat  

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  

Video excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da Samraj on July 7, 2005, in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention.

Adi Da talks about the presumption of the egoic "separate self" sense that is the root of human suffering. He contrasts this with our actual Position in Truth: the Position of Conscious Light.

This talk is from the first occasion in many years in which Avatar Adi Da spoke directly to a gathering of His devotees in California. Questions from devotees about intimate, familial, and social issues are met with Avatar Adi Da's Compassion and Humor, as well as His Liberating Wisdom.

The complete Avataric Discourse is available on the DVD, Relinquish the Mummery of This World. (This video excerpt is from Part 3 of the DVD.)

At 19:58, a formal Darshan occasion begins (at Adi Da Samrajashram) and continues to the end of this video clip.

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

A nine-minute audio excerpt from "Use Your Unique Advantage", a discourse given by Adi Da Samraj in October, 1985.

In this talk, Avatar Adi Da affirms the great law: "You become what you meditate on." One implication of this law is that we keep rebinding ourselves karmically, lifetime after lifetime. But this same law also can be used to free us from karma. Because "you become what you meditate on", Adi Da is the unique Advantage of His devotees. Those who feel the inherent heart-attraction to Avatar Adi Da’s Divine State are spontaneously moved to meditate on Him and to thereby "become" (or commune with, and ultimately Realize) His Divine State.

This talk is published in The Aletheon and is now available for the first time to read online, in the Adidam Revelation Magazine article, I Am Your Unique Advantage.