Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

Antonina Randazzo's 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 6, "Parama Sapta-Na".

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.

For more about the meaning and significance of "Parama Sapta-Na", click here.

Tags: music  

From July, 2015 through May, 2016, longtime devotee Gerald Sheinfeld embarked on a worldwide "Leela Tour" spanning 50 locations in 10 countries. (The tour stops are listed below.) The tour was in anticipation of the release of Gerald's forthcoming book, At The Feet of the Spiritual Master: Stories from My Life with Avatar Adi Da Samraj.

In April, 2016 (close to the end of his tour), Gerald hosted several events at The Mountain Of Attention. This hour-long audio clip contains excerpts from those events — so if you were unable to attend any of Gerald's events. . . here is a taste!

Gerald has been a devotee of Adi Da since the beginning of Adi Da's work with devotees. He accompanied Adi Da on His 1973 trip to India, and has participated in countless sacred occasions and events in the company of Adi Da in the intervening years — so he has many stories to tell.

Tags: Gerald Sheinfeld   CD   DVD  

Adi Da's entire human lifetime was a unique demonstration of His Eternal Form — the State He calls the "Bright", the Conscious Light that is Reality Itself.

From His birth on November 3, 1939 on Long Island in New York, to His passing from the body on November 27, 2008, on the Island of Naitauba, Fiji, His Life is the story of the Intervention of the "Bright" in human time.

The fruits of Avatar Adi Da's Lifetime are the establishment of a new and unique possibility for the transformation of all beings and the world itself. His Revelation is of the Divine Reality, which is always Shining — like the sun — as the Prior Condition of every one and every thing.

[Show actually begins at 00:56, after a commercial and a brief excerpt from Mozart's Symphony No. 40.]

In this episode of the radio show, A Better World, host Mitchell Rabin conducts a Round Table discussion on the relationship between diet and climate change. He raises the tremendous possibility for both personal-planetary transformation and spiritual growth.

Joining Mitchell are Abel Slater and Dina Lautman. Abel and Dina have been devotees of Adi Da for over 25 years, and have spent significant time in Naitauba, Fiji at Adi Da’s principal Hermitage Sanctuary, Adi Da Samrajashram, where they received direct guidance from Adi Da, both in practical life wisdom and esoteric spiritual practice. Now based in New York, they also travel extensively throughout the world presenting Adi Da's spiritual teachings about right life, including diet, sexuality, meditation and conductivity. Recently, they have been focused on raising awareness about the benefits of the raw vegan diet by promoting Green Gorilla raw treats across the U.S. and around the world.

What occurs at the micro level of each individual's diet is effectively magnified at the macro level of the collective global ecosystem. Today, over 70 billion land animals are killed annually to support human meat consumption. A recent United Nations environmental impact study determined that livestock is the source of 18% of global greenhouse gases, now exceeding emissions from all transportation sources globally, which account for 17% of global greenhouse gases. Meat consumption is growing exponentially and is increasingly jeopardizing the health of the planet. Today’s Round Table will address these issues in depth. This conversation and the information we consider is vital to our personal health and to the collective survival of our species and all sentient life.

This video begins with longtime devotee, Anthony Costabile, describing how the relationship to Adi Da is manifesting after the end of Adi Da's human lifetime.

Then at 2:29, Adi Da also speaks on this subject. This is an excerpt from a talk He gave on April 16, 1995, "Love is How I Got To Here". You can read a transcript of much more of this talk here. The talk is also available as a CD here.

At 6:43, another longtime devotee, Dennis Coccaro, talks about the direct relationship to Adi Da after His lifetime.

For much more about Adi Da's human passing and Eternal Presence, visit our section, Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi and Adidam In Perpetuity.

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  

James Steinberg is interviewed on the podcast, Vajra Body Vajra Mind. Vajra Body Vajra Mind is a provocative podcast that explores the outer limits of spiritual practice and human development. James Steinberg is a longtime devotee of Adi Da, and the author of Divine Distraction and Love of the God-Man.

In this episode of Vajra Body Vajra Mind, we discuss James' life with Adi Da. We talk about the practice of Guru Yoga, challenges in reading Adi Da's Teaching, anti-Guru sentiment in contemporary culture, sexuality in spirituality, the importance of discipline in the Way of Adidam, the unique Transmission of Adi Da's Revelation and Presence (through photographs, videos, Image-Art, etc), resistance to the Guru by the ego, positive disillusionment (aka "the Lesson of Life"), and more.

Track 2 from Pauline Chew's album, Shapeless As The Water.

Words are from poem 13 ("Hymns To Me") in Adi Da's book of poetry, Crazy Da Must Sing.

Hymns to me,
am I the song,
the untouched glamour of the poem,
the word and rhythm of the Real.
Then sing.
And sing of me,
am not the soul.
The type whose singing sings the Heart,
the vowel and consonants am I.
Then sing.
And say of me,
he is the sound,
the syllable who is my form,
and hymns me, is me, song to song.

And I will sing you all the more.
Then sing.

Tags: poem   music  

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  

Track 5 from Pauline Chew's album, Songs For Baba Da. . . And The World.

Words are from poem 43 in Adi Da's book of poetry, Crazy Da Must Sing.

My loved one sits upon my knee.
My left hand is on her head.
My right hand guides
her listening to my Heart.
My touching awakens her need,
her love for me,
and makes her know me while I speak.

My loved one lies with me.
Our loving appears as every form
of all the worlds.
Our sounds together
make all sounds.
We are the thing that is seen and heard.
We are the rhythmed mind of everything.

Troubles arise for one
who does not know the act
in which he lives.
Therefore, I display the image
of my loved one and me.
One who does not understand
gains power for his lust in holy places.
But one who understands
becomes the lovers’ act that is.

Tags: music   poem  

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  

In 1986, Adi Da made His first visit to the European community of His devotees. He travelled through England, France and Holland. In the South of Holland, in the village of Maria Hoop close to the German border, a former Catholic monastery was found which could be rented for a few weeks. Devotees swiftly cleaned buildings and the grounds. Adi Da stayed in a specially prepared wing of the monastery for several days. During this time, He granted Darshan and held "Question and Answer" occasions in the chapel (now called Adi Da Kapel) with German, English, Dutch, French and American devotees. The former monastery has since been acquired by the European community of Adidam and is now known as The European Danda.

In this rare, never before published excerpt from one of the "Question and Answer" occasions, Adi Da addresses the primal human emotion of doubt in a most direct and simple manner. He describes how doubt is not ultimately a sign that we have been "betrayed" in some way. The radical solution to doubt is to identify with the Divine Itself, beyond the temporary cycles of the body and mind and beyond the sense of being a separate self.

Tags: European Danda  

John Wubbenhorst interviews master dhrupad player Rishabh Dhar (via Skype). Rishabh lives in Calcutta, India. He is the son of the first lady dhrupad singer in India, Ashoka Dhar), and travels around the world giving concerts and workshops.

Rishabh first talks about having spent twenty years living in his music Guru's house, immersed in in-depth learning of his musical craft in the traditional Gurukula (family of the Guru) manner.

He then talks about the many times he has played music for Adi Da on Naitauba in Fiji. He recalls giving a sacred musical offering for Adi Da, and about an extraordinary occurrence that took place when Adi Da gave him prasad after the offering. He also talks about the amazing resemblance of Adi Da and Swami Vivekananda which holds a special significance for him.

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  

In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse from October 19, 2004, on Adi Da Samrajashram, Adi Da talks about the Great Tradition. He describes The Basket of Tolerance as a tool for transcending religious provincialism and the limits of one's cultural upbringing. Through use of such a tool, one is relieved of one's "belief systems", but is also made increasingly aware of the Reality-based Way that truly liberates.

The complete Avataric Discourse is available on the DVD, Human History Is One Great Tradition. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. Also available on CD.

Tags: Great Tradition   Avataric Discourse   DVD   CD