Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

Megan Anderson reads from Adi Da's essay, "There Is One Truth - Which Is Always Already The Case", which appears in the book, The Gift Of Truth Itself. This book is a compact introduction to Avatar Adi Da's Reality-Teaching and Way, and a highly accessible collection of essays from His master work, The Aletheon.

This audio clip is part of a larger presentation on The Gift Of Truth Itself appearing in The Adidam Revelation Magazine. The presentation features text excerpts from each section of the book.

"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  

Excerpt from Adi Da's talk, Guru As Prophet - available on a double CD from the Dawn Horse Press. This talk is also published in the book, My "Bright" Word. A course, My "Bright" Word, is also available from The Laughing Man Institute.

In this talk Adi Da distinguishes between the Spiritual (Transmission) Function of the True Guru and the public function of Guru as "prophet" (or critic).

For another excerpt from the same talk, click here.

See also the Adidam Revelation Magazine article, Guru as Prophet.

Tags: CD  

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  

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.

Excerpt from the Avataric Discourse of August 23, 2004 at Adi Da Samrajashram.

Adi Da explains how ordinary meditation techniques accomplish nothing more than relaxation. They don't touch the egoic identification with the body-mind. Only the Way of Adidam (practiced in every detail) does that. Practice of the Way of Adidam does not require one to stop fear (which continues to serve a useful, practical role for the survival of the body-mind). But in every moment of real practice of the Way of Adidam, one is released from identification with the body-mind, and so one is not bound by any fear the body-mind may be experiencing.

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

At Da Love-Ananda Mahal, on December 17, 1982, Adi Da gives the talk, "The Baptism of Immortal Happiness".

"The ego is such a heavy grip, such a clench on the Divine Light, that Spiritual experience through Spiritual Transmission in life does not amount to much for most people. They cannot make it part of their existence. This is why I expect My devotees to prepare themselves by listening to and then hearing My Wisdom-Teaching. Then My Spiritual Baptism can Awaken you to My Spirit-Presence, and you will begin to practice the Way of Adidam in Spiritual relationship to Me."

A devotee reads an excerpt from Adi Da's essay, "Searchless, Lawful Management of the Body", from the book, Green Gorilla.

In this essay, Adi Da addresses "lawfulness" in relation to diet, in contrast to the fascinated preoccupation with food that characterizes people in the modern world. This preoccupation is based in the egoic search for fun and pleasure, and inevitably results in suffering and pain. The lawful diet is not an end in itself, but a simple, ordinary practice that establishes "the 'position' of well-being of the body" and is part of a larger practice of what Adi Da calls "right life".

For more on this topic (as well as the text of the complete essay, "Searchless, Lawful Management of the Body"), read the Adidam Revelation Magazine's article, Searchless, Lawful Management of the Body. Further excerpts from Green Goriila can be found here.

Tags: Green Gorilla   diet  

Dr. Sally Taylor serves the Adidam culture by helping devotees with their practice of the Way of Adidam.

In this video, she talks about her voluntary participation in Adi Da's considerations about the emotional-sexual dimension of life. She describes the instructions she received, and the profound benefit she has derived by being "grown up" beyond childish patterns of self-suppression, shutting down of the life force, promiscuity, and limitations on love.

For more about Adi Da's wisdom on the emotional-sexual dimension of life, visit our Crazy Wisdom section.

Tags: emotional   sex  

In this seminal discourse (at The Mountain Of Attention), from the early years of His Teaching Work, Adi Da speaks about the inevitable process of self-revelation and self-understanding that prepares the being for true Spiritual life.

The full talk is available on the CD, The Grace of Suffering, and on DVD as Volume 2 of the 25th Anniversary DVD Series.

Tags: CD   DVD  

A slideshow with pictures of Adi Da Samraj from the early days of His Formal Teaching Work to the 1980's, historical photos covering a broad period of His Work.

Soundtrack is a devotional piece by devotee John MacKay.

Excerpt from First Evening: Track 8 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.

Tags: slide show   DVD  

Solomone Finau, a longtime Fijian devotee, who lives at Adi Da Samrajashram in Fiji, pays tribute to Adi Da in a heartfelt communication.

Excerpt from First Evening: Track 9 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.

Tags: Leela   Solo   Mahasamadhi   tribute   DVD  

An overview of Adi Da's life and work by Ruchiradama Nadikanta, a long-time devotee. She is a member of the Ruchira Sannyasin Order, the order of fully renunciate practitioners in Adidam.

Excerpt from First Evening: Track 2 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.

Tags: Leela   Ruchiradama Nadikanta   Mahasamadhi   tribute   DVD  

Devotee Rachel Kuhn, who grew up in Adi Da's community, gives her testimony about her relationship to Him.

Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 7 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.

Tags: Leela   Rachel Kuhn   Mahasamadhi   tribute   DVD  

A slideshow taken from the last year of Adi Da's lifetime.

The photos are accompanied by a moving song, "What Will You Do If You Love Me?", sung by Adi Da's daughter, Naamleela Free Jones (from her album, Eyes In Other Worlds).

This video clip is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 2 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 (more than 7 hours long) 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
Tags: slide show   Mahasamadhi   tribute   DVD