Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

An audio excerpt from the CD, Your Real Condition Is Prior To Waking, Dreaming, and Sleeping.

In this excerpt (from August 26, 2004), Adi Da responds to a questioner who asks how she can practice devotion in her dream state.

Adi Da indicates the necessity of self-understanding, in order for devotees to grow in practice. He points to the depth of existence that is always the case regardless of the changing states of awareness (waking, dreaming, and sleeping). And He Calls for ego-transcending practice (sadhana) to be engaged at this depth—so that What Is Prior to all conditional states can be Realized.

Tags: CD   Avataric Discourse  

Adi Da: "The world is not physical in nature; the world is psycho-physical."

This talk excerpt is track 1 of the CD, Science and the Myth of Materialism, a collection of talks from throughout the 30 years of Avatar Adi Da’s formal Teaching-Work that brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the psycho-physical nature of the world, the limits of scientific materialism, and the Inherent Unity of Existence.

The album is available through iTunes, Microsoft, and The Dawn Horse Press.

Note: This video may not be available or viewable in every country.

Tags: CD  

An excerpt from the talk, "The Grace of Suffering", given by Adi Da on January 18, 1976.

This excerpt is track 1 of the CD, The Impulse to God-Realization, a collection of talks focusing on Adi Da's clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse to Realize God that is inherent in all beings, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it to become the guiding force of one's entire life.

The album is available through iTunes and The Dawn Horse Press.

This selection of Talks by Avatar Adi Da Samraj focuses on His clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse (inherent in all beings) to Realize God, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it be the guiding force of one's entire life. As Avatar Adi Da points out, the real Spiritual Process cannot be truly initiated until and unless one’s Impulse to God-Realization becomes the governing principle of one's life.

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

Note: Due to distribution policies set by CDBaby (and beyond the control of this website and Adidam), this video may not be playable in every country. However, sometimes, even when you can't play it on this page, you may be able to play it on YouTube: click here.

"The Grace of Suffering" is a beautiful talk by Adi Da. But it IS very compressed, making quite a few points in a short space, and depending to a significant degree on a familiarity with Adi Da's spiritual teaching. Here are some notes that may help.

Throughout the talk, the technical term, "sadhana" (spiritual practice), is used.

Genuine spiritual practice is not about belief systems, mere rituals, or a little "peace of mind", but rather about actually locating the Divine, through the tangible Transmission of the Spiritual Master.

After a recent illness, a devotee mentions to Adi Da that he notices how the physical suffering of illness was distracting enough that he was not "able" to find Adi Da's Transmission when he is ill.

Adi Da acknowledges this, and responds with three more general points.

1. The illness didn't "make" the devotee lose the thread of practice; rather, he allowed himself to be distracted from God by the illness. When the devotee gets this, and sees how he himself is "doing" the turning away, he'll be able to "do better next time" by not turning away even when ill.

2. Until Divine Enlightenment — in other words, until there is no limit on one's spiritual practice — sadhana (spiritual practice) is always only reflecting back to devotees the remaining limits in their practice: where they are still turning away from the Divine, where they still need to become responsible for not turning away.

In the beginning, the "turning away" is very "crude": even mere physical suffering is enough to distract one from God. (If we find ourselves saying, "what do you mean, MERE physical suffering?" that definitely identifies us as spiritual beginners! :-) ) But as one grows in practice, and ceases to turn away in such a crude manner (as one becomes a "saint", "yogi", "sage", etc.), one discovers that one is still turning from the Divine at an even subtler level of the being (in the mind, the psyche, etc.)

It is only when that "turning away" has been inspected, understood, and transcended in every dimension of the being that Divine Realization occurs.

In this sense, for the genuine spiritual practitioner, physical suffering — along with every other circumstance that reveals to us our turning away from the Divine — is truly a Grace, enabling us to grow in our practice.

3. Where we are turning away is a reflection of what we are identifying with: the body, the mind, the soul, etc. (For example, if physical illness is enough to distract us from God, then the physical body is what we currently are identified with.) God-Realization only occurs when all "identities" less than God are understood and transcended.

In this sense, "there are no winners in God" — the Way is not about seeking, accomplishment, or winning, but rather about surrender to God, sacrifice of self, and ego-death. There's no "one" left to "win"! But the One Who Remains is perfectly, eternally happy.

Tags: CD  

An excerpt from the talk, "The Gorilla Sermon", given by Adi Da on June 22, 1972.

This excerpt is track 2 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da's essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.

The album is available through iTunes, Microsoft, and The Dawn Horse Press.

Note: Due to distribution policies set by CDBaby (and beyond the control of this website and Adidam), this video may not be playable in every country. However, sometimes, even when you can't play it on this page, you may be able to play it on YouTube: click here.

Tags: CD   death  

This video clip includes:

• Commentary from Jonathan Condit (at 0:00) — Jonathan Condit was Adi Da's senior editorial assistant, and is Senior Editor for the Adidam Editorial Department. Jonathan talks about "The Function of the Spiritual Literature of Adi Da Samraj", and how Adi Da's Teaching works as Transmission of His Transcendental Spiritual State, and serves the Spiritual Realization of the reader.



• Excerpt from an Avataric Discourse by Adi Da (at 5:35) — The Discourse is "My Teaching is a Direct Transmission of Me", from October 28, 2005. Adi Da talks about how His Teaching Word is a form of Spiritual Transmission, that enables Divine Communion with Him (if the devotee is in the right devotional disposition), in the same way that a Murti photograph does, or any of the other forms of Agency that Adi Da has created for this purpose.



• Commentary from Megan Anderson (at 12:44) — Megan Anderson is an editor in the Adidam Editorial Department. Megan talks about Adi Da's great, final masterpiece, The Aletheon as the purest communication and Transmission of Adi Da Himself (among all His many, extraordinary books), and describes receiving the Revelation of Adi Da as she was proofreading The Aletheon before its publication.

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

This clip is an excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "The Fire Must Have Its Way", which was given on July 17, 1978. In this talk, Adi Da clarifies that real Spiritual practice is not about "feeling good", but an intense purification of all limits on feeling. This fire of purification occurs by coming into contact with the Pure Radiance of the Spiritual Master. By persistently granting feeling-attention to Avatar Adi Da’s Living Divine Presence, all ego-patterns are "burned up" by His Grace—ultimately enabling egoless participation in the Perfect Ecstasy of Real God.

An additional (videoed) excerpt from this talk is available here.

The full talk is available on the CD, The Fire Must Have Its Way.

The talk also appears in written form in the book, My "Bright" Sight.

Tags: CD  

Adi Da talks about how His Teaching Word is a form of Spiritual Transmission, that enables Divine Communion with Him (if the devotee is in the right devotional disposition), in the same way that a Murti photograph does, or any of the other forms of Agency that Adi Da has created for this purpose.

For more on this subject, read our section, The Mantric Force of Adi Da's Word.


Tags: Avataric Discourse  

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  

A talk in which Adi Da elaborates some of the philosophical implications of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (from quantum mechanics).

This talk is track 5 of the CD, Science and the Myth of Materialism, a collection of talks from throughout the 30 years of Avatar Adi Da’s formal Teaching-Work that brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the psycho-physical nature of the world, the limits of scientific materialism, and the Inherent Unity of Existence.

The album is available through iTunes, Microsoft, and The Dawn Horse Press.

Note: This video may not be available in every country.

Tags: CD  

In March 1988, Avatar Adi Da left Adi Da Samrajashram — His principal Hermitage in Fiji — and traveled to New Zealand where He met with practitioners of the Reality-Way of Adidam and with people interested in taking up the Transcendental Spiritual Way He has Given. This audio excerpt is from one such occasion that occurred on April 1, 1988.

Tags: CD   DVD  

An excerpt from the talk, "Identification of the Beloved", given by Adi Da on April 18, 1977.

This excerpt is track 3 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da’s essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.

The album is available through iTunes, Microsoft, and The Dawn Horse Press.

The entire talk is available on the CD, Identification of the Beloved.

Note: Due to distribution policies set by CDBaby (and beyond the control of this website and Adidam), this video may not be playable in every country. However, sometimes, even when you can't play it on this page, you may be able to play it on YouTube: click here.

Tags: death   CD  

In this excerpt from the film, "Reality, Truth and Conscious Light", Adi Da describes Reality from the "point of view" of Conscious Light. (The excerpt includes a clip of Adi Da speaking, from an Avataric Discourse on November 11, 2005. A longer excerpt can be watched here.)

The complete film, "Reality, Truth, and Conscious Light" can be viewed at our "Reality, Truth, and Conscious Light" introductory events, held worldwide. Click here to locate an event near you.

Narrator: Nick Elias

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

This audio clip is an excerpt from an Avataric Discourse by Adi Da on December 19, 2004. The Discourse is available as a CD: The Gift of Ripening.

By listening to this Discourse, you will receive Avatar Adi Da’s Guidance in understanding your level of ripeness. And such a realistic (rather than idealistic) assessment is an essential element in preparing for the process of Realizing True Happiness He Offers — the process of the “transcending of all conditionality in the Self-Radiant Conscious Light that is the 'Bright'”.

Quotes from this CD:

Adi Da: "Realization is not "caused". It is Given. It is made tacitly obvious. I can, through interaction with you and by being accessible to you, ripen you, so to speak, for this Spiritual Apprehension of Reality. And I am made available to you through this Bodily Sign which gives a focus for the faculties in the process of them being purified and relieved of their patterns."

Adi Da: "Divine Self-Realization is not just some happy-hunting-ground metaphor in the mind. It is not just a light. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that people see in the death process. That is not it either. Do you have any idea how many tunnels there are, how many lights there are, how many 'worlds' there are to the left and right, how many ends of that tunnel there are? You have no idea. You do not know what it is about, generally speaking."

Adi Da: "Anything in the mind or of the mind is not true. So all of your pursuit of 'answers' or states of mind or content for your thinking is fruitless — but what are you going to do about it?. . . You do not even necessarily notice that your thinking is a matter of seeking. You think there are some kinds of thinking that may be said to be motivated by a search, but you do not think that thinking is seeking. And yet it is always seeking. Thinking is itself seeking. So if the Way is not seeking nor can the Truth be Realized by seeking, then thinking has nothing to do with it and you should just forget about thinking from now on — but you cannot do that, can you? You are already thinking, even though I just told you that. . ."

Tags: CD   Avataric Discourse  

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."

On November 2, 2013, the eve of the seventy-fourth anniversary of Avatar Adi Da’s Birth (Da Jayanthi), a live concert was held at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California to celebrate His Eternal Blessing of all. The recording of this concert is now available on a CD, Ode to Divine Joy.

This audio clip contains a sample medley from the CD, featuring the voices of devotees JoAnne Sunshine ("Made by Your Hand"), Mel McMurrin ("Mary Don’t You Weep"), and Crane Kirkbride ("Ode to Divine Joy"), the voices of the Adidam Choir, and the piano-playing of Naamleela Free Jones. You can also hear the Choir singing devotee and Billboard Award-winning composer Ray Lynch's song, "This Is the Great Gift".

The rendition of Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" (retitled "Ode To Divine Joy" with new, devotional lyrics) performed during the concert was a unique fusion of two performances: the live performance and a 1990 studio recording played as accompaniment. This unique amalgam of both studio and live performances of Ode to Divine Joy, as well as all of the other pieces of the live concert included on this CD, are offered in the spirit of celebration and gratitude.

Tags: CD