Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

It was common during Adi Da's lifetime for His devotees to offer musical performances to Him as gifts of their gratitude and love. This video excerpt form 2013, five years after His Bodily passing, includes a variety of music, including traditional Indian chanting, a choral rendition and adaption of Beethoven's Ode to Joy and even gospel music! We offer this excerpt in this world-wide season of celebration and gratitude for the unity of humankind.

This video clip features performances from many devotees, including Mel McMurrin singing "Mary Don’t You Weep", 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".

Available as a CD, Ode To Divine Joy, from the Dawn Horse Press.

Tags: music  

On the first night of His formal Teaching-Work, on April 25, 1972, Avatar Adi Da gave a presentation of His "radical" argument relative to the activity of separation that is the root of all suffering and dilemma. When that activity is "understood", then the Real Divine Condition can be felt and Enjoyed.

This audio excerpt is from a digitally remastered recording that was released in honor of the 30th Anniversary of this seminal moment in Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching-Work. The CD is available from The Dawn Horse Press.

(Note: This Talk was recorded in North Hollywood adjacent to a busy highway, and the sound of traffic in the background makes it difficult to hear Avatar Adi Da Samraj at times.)

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  

As part of our commemoration of renowned actor Kenneth Welsh (who passed away on May 5, 2022), we have created this enjoyable "peek" inside Ken's process of preparing to play the role of narrator in the January, 2000 ten-hour long performance of The Mummery Book.

The video excerpt was edited (by Chris Tong) from a much longer, unreleased documentary (created by well-known film director, Terence Gross) about the making of The Mummery Book. (Consequently, the audio and visual quality are a little spotty in places.)

At a certain point in the process (3:02), Avatar Adi Da (“Beloved”) sits in at a rehearsal, and then begins to actively participate in making suggestions for the production. Finally (at 5:45), there is a brief glimpse of the end of the actual performance, after which Adi Da expresses His appreciation by coming up and embracing Ken.

You can learn more about Kenneth Welsh in our article, Kenneth Welsh: An Appreciation.

Tags: Mummery   Ken Welsh  

For the fifteenth episode of the Integral Stage Authors Series, Layman Pascal sits down with author and Adi Da devotee, Frank Marrero, to talk about, not a book this time, but an affective writing curriculum that he developed for children. Drawing particularly on Vedic and Greek sources, but also contemporary knowledge, the curriculum introduces students to the major stages of development they can expect to pass through on the way to becoming healthy, mature, wise, affectively fluent individuals and moral agents. In the discussion that follows, Frank guides Layman through lucid, engaging descriptions each of the stages, and offers some reflections on the integration and "clean up" work adults can do if they have not successfully passed through them all.

Frank Marrero is an educator, a disciple of Adi Da, and the curator of the Beezone website. As he says about himself, "I fell 4 meters (head-first) into concrete at age 6, inflicting me with life-long dysgraphia, or the crippling of handwriting. Sixty-one more times around the sun, I am the unlikely author of 9 books (thanks to computers!). As you may notice, my non-fiction ranges from biographies to fasting to education to spirituality. Writing is such a joy for me, I pray some of it leaks through!"

Tags: seven stages  

Problems with the audio player? Try the MP3 download link below.
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Chris Tong sings "Adi Da Beloved" — a devotional version of the traditional Christmas carol, "Angels We Have Heard On High".

Words, musical arrangement, and performance by Chris Tong, in the manner of other ecstatic, dramatic, immersive musical pieces like the “Hallelujah Chorus” (the finale of Handel's Messiah) and “Ode To Joy” (the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony).

instruments: synthesizers, horns, flute, piano, violin, bass, drums, bells.

Thanks to my dear friend, Crane Kirkbride, whose own beautiful singing of music like this inspired me to create Adi Da Beloved. Crane also gave me some very helpful singing tips after listening to an earlier version.

This audio is also part of an article, Adi Da and Holiday Music.

Tags: music   Danavira Mela  

This excerpt is from "Parama-Sapta-Na", track 6 of the album, I Am The Heart.

I Am The Heart contains six tracks of beautiful devotional music and chant, written and recorded by Antonina Randazzo and Elaine Dixon, with one traditional chant.

Antonina and Elaine write: "We offer this CD in loving regard, devotion, and gratitude to our Divine Heart-Master, Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj, who is our inspiration. 'I Am The Heart' is His Divine Confession and True Nature, which He Reveals and freely Gives to all. May His Blessings flow through this offering, and touch your heart."

Joining Antonina and Elaine on "Parama-Sapta-Na" is Steve Brown (vocals).

Special thanks to the other musicians who participated in this offering: Steve M. Haggerty, Simon Llewelyn Evans, Tom Stiles, Pamela Gray, Steve Brown, Bill Somers, and John Wubbenhorst.

I Am The Heart is a wonderful gift for the holidays!

Links:

• Dawn Horse Press (buy CD)


• Amazon (stream / download)


• Apple Music / iTunes (stream / download)

If you enjoy this album, please help us let others know about it! One way is by writing a review on Amazon.com.

You can also read Antonina's leela, Devotional Singing: The Focus Is On The Divine.

Elaine (with Rosa Guilfoyle) has also released another album, The Teaching Manual Of Perfect Summaries, which includes chanting and recitation of Adi Da's Teaching.

Tags: music   CD   download  

This excerpt is from "Da Adi Da", track 5 of the album, I Am The Heart.

I Am The Heart contains six tracks of beautiful devotional music and chant, written and recorded by Antonina Randazzo and Elaine Dixon, with one traditional chant.

Antonina and Elaine write: "We offer this CD in loving regard, devotion, and gratitude to our Divine Heart-Master, Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj, who is our inspiration. 'I Am The Heart' is His Divine Confession and True Nature, which He Reveals and freely Gives to all. May His Blessings flow through this offering, and touch your heart."

Joining Antonina and Elaine on "Da Adi Da" are Simon Llewelyn Evans (vocals), Pamela Gray (cello), and John Wubbenhorst (bansuti flute).

Special thanks to the other musicians who participated in this offering: Steve M. Haggerty, Simon Llewelyn Evans, Tom Stiles, Pamela Gray, Steve Brown, Bill Somers, and John Wubbenhorst.

I Am The Heart is a wonderful gift for the holidays!

Links:

• Dawn Horse Press (buy CD)


• Amazon (stream / download)


• Apple Music / iTunes (stream / download)

If you enjoy this album, please help us let others know about it! One way is by writing a review on Amazon.com.

You can also read Antonina's leela, Devotional Singing: The Focus Is On The Divine.

Elaine (with Rosa Guilfoyle) has also released another album, The Teaching Manual Of Perfect Summaries, which includes chanting and recitation of Adi Da's Teaching.

Tags: music   CD   download  

[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.]

Adi Da kritisoi uskonnollista kultismia. Hän kiteyttää sanomansa aiheesta tässä puheessa vuodelta 1978.

This discourse, "Mitä on kultismi?" ("What Is Cultism?"), was given at the Mountain Of Attention on December 16, 1978, three weeks after the Jonestown Massacre.

Adi Da criticized religious cultism long before the subject gained any popular attention. For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.

This 1978 talk is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.

Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."

Tags: Finnish  

Longtime devotee Aniello Panico tells a story from one of the happiest days of his life: the day Bhagavan Adi Da met and Blessed his mother (when she was 79 or 80 years old) at the Mountain Of Attention, during the Ten-Day Gathering of 1995-1996. This video tells the whole joyous story.

ANIELLO: "I like to share this story because it shows the human compassion and humor of the Guru."

The cookbook Aniello and Brenda helped create for Aniello's mother, Elodia Rigante's Italian Immigrant Cooking, and a New York Times article on the book, Recapturing the Flavors of an Era (August 27, 1995). Aniello, quoted in the article, "We all got heavier putting this cookbook together. . . I gained seven pounds."

For a photo of Adi Da with Aniello's mother, click here.

For a photo of Adi Da holding Aniello's mother's hand, click here.

For more stories and videos from Aniello, click here.

[Contains Italian 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.]

Adi Da critica il cultismo in genere e in particolare quello religioso. Questo discorso, che risale al 1978, è uno dei ricorsi sullo stesso tema che si sono susseguiti negli anni.

Adi Da criticized religious cultism, long before the subject gained any popular attention. (For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.) This discourse, "Cos'è il Cultismo?" ("What Is Cultism?"), given in 1978 at The Mountain Of Attention, is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.

Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."

Tags: Italian  

The Adidam Sacred Music Guild is happy to announce Radiance, a stunningly beautiful and powerful 2-CD set of nearly two hours of devotional music featuring live chants and sacred offerings from Adi Da Samrajashram — all recorded since Tropical Cyclone Winston hit Adi Da Samrajashram in February, 2016.

This brief excerpt is from Track 2, "Ruchira Avatara". This was recorded during the first sacred occasion in the temple, Is-Da Happen, after the cyclone. (More information about album tracks here.)

Radiance is available as a 2-CD set from the Dawn Horse Press; or as MP3 downloads from CD Baby or Amazon.com. You can listen to samples from all 12 tracks at CD Baby.

Proceeds from this album will go toward equipment for Sacred music at Adi Da Samrajashram (e.g., better amplifiers, microphones, etc.).

[If you enjoy this album, help us let others know about it! Write a review on Amazon.com or CD Baby.]

The exquisite devotional offerings on Radiance bring us all directly to Bhagavan's Holy Feet at His Great Hermitage and remind us that, despite the damage wrought by the cyclone, His Divine Presence remains Sublimely Untouched and Present there. Devotees and friends from all over the world came together to serve and restore the Holy Places and we offer this Sacred music at His Blessed Feet with all our love and devotion. All the recordings were made by the Adidam Sacred Music Guild during live occasions in the various Temples on Naitauba.

Compiled and produced by Antonina Randazzo and Caroline Lindsay; sound production by Aaron Nakagawa.

Chants composed by Chris Merz, Caroline Lindsay, Dalia Zirkiev, Antonina Randazzo, Rick Evans, Aura Bakker, Steve Brown, Jacqueline Clemons, Simon Llewelyn Evans, and Lucy Arqué.

The painting by Nara Wood on the CD cover is of the "chanting room" at Samraj Mahal (on Adi Da Samrajashram), where countless musical offerings were made to Avatar Adi Da during His Lifetime when He was spending time there.

Album design and layout by Matt Barna.

Tags: music   CD   download  

[Contains French 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.]

Adi Da critique le sectarisme religieux. Ce discours, donné en 1978, est une de ses allocutions récapitulatives sur le sujet.

Adi Da criticized religious cultism, long before the subject gained any popular attention. (For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.) This discourse, "Qu'est-ce que le Sectarisme?" ("What Is Cultism?"), given in 1978 at The Mountain Of Attention, is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.

Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."

Tags: French  

[Contains Polish 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.]

Adi Da krytyka kultu religijnego. Dyskurs ten, wydany w 1978 roku, jest jednym z jego podsumowań na ten temat.

Aby uzyskać więcej informacji o Adi Da Samraj i Drodze Serca proszę pisać na adres: adidavideo.pl@gmail.com.

Adi Da criticized religious cultism, long before the subject gained any popular attention. (For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.) This discourse, given in 1978 at The Mountain Of Attention, is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.

Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."

Tags: cult   Polish  

A report in June, 2016 on the state of Naitauba, three months after the devastating destruction wrought by Cyclone Winston on February 20, 2016.

Interviews with Michiel Vos (Samrajya Administrator), Grace Evans (retreatant from California), Carol Smith (resident), Susie Bagshaw (Taveuni Support and Fijian Advocacy), Naamleela Free Jones (daughter of Adi Da Samraj), Joy Harland (resident), Andrew Savio (retreatant from Melbourne, Australia), Nicholas Wagner (public guest from Cape Town, South Africa), Da-vid Forsythe (resident), Ruchiradama Nadikanta (Ruchira Sannyasin Order), Jeff Hughes (retreatant from Taveuni, Fiji), and Ryan Bass (retreatant from Cape Town, South Africa).

While much has been done to restore Naitauba since the damage of Cyclone Winston (some of it reported in this video), much more recovery and restoration work and work aimed at minimizing the damage from future cyclones is still needed. You can find out more here.

Tags: Naitauba