Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

[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.]

Tämä on ote Adi Dan puheesta "Ilon ruumiillinen sijainti", jonka Hän antoi 28. marraskuuta 1981.

This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness", which He gave on November 28, 1981. This talk was originally published in the book, The Bodily Location Of Happiness. The full talk is available on DVD and on CD, and as an online transcript.

ADI DA: Elämä on typeryyttä. Nyt ei ole muutenkaan aika suvaita typeryyttä. Maailma on hullu, ja nämä ovat karmeita aikoja. Asiat eivät helpotu tulevina vuosina. Hengellistä prosessia on aina eletty vaikeina aikoina. Hengellinen prosessi ei siis suvaitse typerystä. Hengellinen prosessi sylkäisee sinut ulos. Se ei ole helppo saavutus, vaan syvästi vaikea koettamus. Jopa se, mitä tänään kuulitte on vain ihmiskunnan murto-osan kuulemaa kautta historian. Mahdollisuus harjoittaa hengellistä prosessia on erittäin harvinainen, ja sen täyttymys on\Nkäytännössä tuntematon.

Jossain mielessä voisi sanoa, että tämä on elämä on helvettiä. Uskonnollisella kielellämme puhumme siitä, mitä voi tapahtua kuoleman jälkeen. Voit joko nousta taivaaseen tai joutua puhdistautumaan kiirastuleen, tai voit joutua helvettiin. Ja sitten ehkä joudut kiirastuleen tai tilapäiseen helvettiin, mutta ehkä sinulla on riittävästi hyvää onnea syntyä ihmiseksi, jotta voit omistautua hengelliselle prosessille. Tämän helvetin luonne on, että olemme itseemme käpertyneitä. Synnymme ilottomuudessa emmekä helposti pääse tämän ilottomuuden yli. Tavoittelemme iloa jatkuvasti kaikenlaisin uskomattoman monimutkaisin keinoin emmekä ikinä saavuta sitä.

Jos Hengelliset Mestarit eivät olisi alkaneet opettamaan, tämä todellakin olisi helvetti eikä vain helvetin kaltainen. Tämä todellakin olisi helvetti jos täällä ei olisi Valaistuksen mahdollisuutta, jos täällä ei olisi Opetusta, ei Hengellisiä Mestareita, ei Pyhää Tietä, ei Pyhää yhteisöä, ei kykyä ymmärtää tai ylittää itseään.

ADI DA: Life is foolishness. This is no time, in any case, to be tolerant of foolishness. The world is mad, and these are dreadful times. Things are not going to be easier in the years ahead. The spiritual process has always been lived in difficult times. Therefore, the spiritual process tolerates no fool. The spiritual process itself will spit you out. It is not an easy attainment, but a profoundly difficult affair. Even what you have listened to today has been heard by only a fraction of the human race in all of history. The opportunity to practice is extremely rare, and the fulfillment of practice is practically unknown.

In some sense you could say this life is hell. . . The nature of this hell is that we are self-possessed. We are born in un-Happiness and we do not transcend it readily. We constantly pursue Happiness through all kinds of incredibly complex means, and we never attain It. . .

If Spiritual Realizers did not turn about and Teach, this would truly be a hell instead of being like a hell. It would truly be a hell if there were no possibility of Enlightenment, if there were no Teaching, no Spiritual Masters, no sacred Way, no sacred community, no capacity for understanding or self-transcendence.

Tags: Finnish   CD   DVD  

Max Rykov speaks with James Steinberg. This video is the third of three parts.

James Steinberg has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's. He has been a principal presenter of Adi Da's communications to the gathering of devotees. In the '70s and '80s, James was the librarian for the Laughing Man Library. He has been a principal spokesperson for Adi Da to other religious and spiritual groups and prominent individuals. James has also continually served Adi Da Samraj's sacred projects in India. James is one of Adidam's principal educators and public representatives. He has written the comprehensive book, Love of the God-Man, and its more abbreviated version, Divine Distraction, about the Guru-devotee relationship.

Max Rykov speaks with James Steinberg. This video is the second of three parts.

James Steinberg has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's. He has been a principal presenter of Adi Da's communications to the gathering of devotees. In the '70s and '80s, James was the librarian for the Laughing Man Library. He has been a principal spokesperson for Adi Da to other religious and spiritual groups and prominent individuals. James has also continually served Adi Da Samraj's sacred projects in India. James is one of Adidam's principal educators and public representatives. He has written the comprehensive book, Love of the God-Man, and its more abbreviated version, Divine Distraction, about the Guru-devotee relationship.

Max Rykov speaks with James Steinberg. This video is the first of three parts.

James Steinberg has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's. He has been a principal presenter of Adi Da's communications to the gathering of devotees. In the '70s and '80s, James was the librarian for the Laughing Man Library. He has been a principal spokesperson for Adi Da to other religious and spiritual groups and prominent individuals. James has also continually served Adi Da Samraj's sacred projects in India. James is one of Adidam's principal educators and public representatives. He has written the comprehensive book, Love of the God-Man, and its more abbreviated version, Divine Distraction, about the Guru-devotee relationship.

Part 12 of longtime devotee Gerald Sheinfeld's reading of his book, At the Feet of the Spiritual Master.

For more information about Gerald, and his life with Avatar Adi Da Samraj, please visit www.storiesofthespiritualmaster.com.

On July 7, 1992 (Fiji time), at Adi Da Samrajashram, Adi Da created "Club Rat", a most unusual gathering during the height of a Celebratory period. For those unfamiliar with Club Rat, you can read Chris Tong's story about it here.

Music plays a central role in the story. For this reason, in celebration of the 29th anniversary of Club Rat (on July 7, 2021), Chris has recreated part of the rock song he wrote and performed that evening, Club Rat, so you can at least get a taste of the actual music from that night. (Adi Da had called for an evening of rock music. Club Rat was the opening song of a night of music that would go on to include much more than rock music. . .)

If for some reason, the player above doesn't work, try this player:

or this link.



Club Rat.
Club Rat.
The funky place where God is at.
Club Rat.
Club Rat.
The funky place where. . .
only skanks and whores
walk through its doors.
There you find Your Self
and lose yourself.
When the Lord's in town
Everyone gets down.
Club Rat.
Club Rat.
The funky place where God is at.
(etc.)

---

CHRIS: This recreation is just as we presented it to Beloved Adi Da during the Club Rat gathering, except for some improvements due to better musical equipment and technology (e.g., drum machines instead of upside-down, plastic "piss buckets" 😜 — read the full story for more about that! ).

I wrote Club Rat, keeping in mind the intensity and "badness" of the pop rock music Beloved Adi Da was listening to at the time (like Michael Jackson's Beat It).

The lyrics are drawn from Adi Da's instructions to us about Club Rat, such as: Club Rat was to be the most "funky" place ever; participating devotees had to be "skanks and whores" — in other words, no suppressed energy or emotional-sexual complication (so He could work with our entire energy, not just the superficial part we usually show to or share with others socially); etc.

The lyrics also drew on current, ongoing considerations Adi Da was having with devotees at the time, such as His Calling to us to "get down" (He was riffing on the popular 1970's slang phrase, giving it His Own unique meaning): a reminder for us to incarnate whole bodily (rather than being merely a "point" in the head, refusing to "get down" below the head).

The line, "When the Lord's in town" was a reference to Beloved Adi Da visiting the "village" of Qaravi: the area of the island of Naitauba where His devotees lived and where "Club Rat" (Hymns To Me) was located.



Tags: music  

[Contains Spanish 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.]

In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse, Adi Da speaks about the necessity to become disillusined with mortal life in a positive sense. Positive disillusionment is emerging when one begins to understand and relinquish the stressful and ultimately futile search for personal survival, worldly happiness, and ultimate life fulfillment. Only then can one be drawn into recognizing, learning about, and ecstatically participating in Reality Itself, in relationship to a True Realizer.

ADI DA: The teaching of Truth is for those who are disillusioned in the positive sense, who have been sobered in their lives by grasping the nature of existence and being cured of search.

Tags: Avataric Discourse   Spanish  

[Contains Spanish 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.]

A retrospective of Adi Da's monumental-size art. Includes clips of Adi Da talking about His work. Also includes slides from various exhibitions and some quotes about Adi Da's art from an art critic, art historian, and museum curator.

Soundtrack:
* Adi Da speaking about "point of view" and "no point of view".
* a piece by Tamarind Free Jones (composer, singer).
* Ray Lynch, Celestial Soda Pop, from Deep Breakfast.
* a piece from the album, Baba Da's Great Tradition Improvisation Fusion Orchestra
* Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons

Tags: image-art   Spanish  

"You Must Know The Place You Are In" is a video excerpt from the award-winning documentary, Conscious Light, about the life and work of Adi Da Samraj.

Drawing on an extensive archival collection of film, photography, and audio recordings, as well as interviews with students who have lived with Adi Da and who practice His teachings, Conscious Light takes the viewer on a journey from Adi Da's birth, through His thirty-six years of Teaching and Blessing, to the legacy and spiritual relationship that is eternally available to all after His passing.

For more information and screening locations, visit the Conscious Light website.

Conscious Light is also available as a DVD from the Dawn Horse Press.

Tags: Conscious Light   DVD  

[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.]

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.

Tags: image-art   Ben Grisso   Mahasamadhi   Tribute   DVD   Italian  

[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.]

This video clip is an excerpt from the DVD, The Relationship To The Guru Is The Constant In Life.

By tendency, people are bound to the natural cycle of ups and downs. Neither bodily pleasures nor spiritual pursuits result in True Freedom from this constant phasing. One path merely accentuates the descending (or bodily) experiences and the other, the ascending (or subtle) experiences.

In this Discourse, Avatar Adi Da reveals with absolute clarity how the relationship with the Guru gives freedom from this trap—because the Guru is the Manifestation of the Condition that is Prior to this mechanical cycling, not part of it.

Watching this DVD will transport viewers to a special moment in Adidam history. July 29, 1973, was the day Avatar Adi Da left Los Angeles for a Yajna (sacred journey) through India and Nepal. He returned as “Bubba Free John”, His first spontaneously revealed Teaching-Name. Thus, this was the last Discourse He gave as “Franklin Jones” (Avatar Adi Da’s birth name).

Tags: Italian  

[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.]

Devotee Antonina Randazzo talks about Adi Da's passing and His Eternal Presence, and how He assured devotees that He would never leave them, and how she can confirm this in her own life.

Tags: Finnish  

[Contains Czech 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.]

Video excerpt from an early discourse by Adi Da Samraj on July 29, 1973.

This video clip is an excerpt from the DVD, The Relationship To The Guru Is The Constant In Life.

Adi Da would later make a similar communication in a very memorable way in “The Divine Avataric Self-Disclosure” (in The Aletheon):

ADI DA: The conditionally Apparent “world”-Process Of “Everything Changing” Is Simply The Natural “Play” Of Cosmic Life, In Which the (Always) two sides of every possibility come and go, In Cycles Of appearance and disappearance. Winter’s cold alternates with summer’s heat. Pain, Likewise, Follows every pleasure. Every appearance Is (Inevitably) Followed By its disappearance. There Is No Permanent “experience” In The Realm Of Cosmic Nature. One whose Whole bodily Devotion To Me Is Constant Simply Allows All Of This To Be So. Therefore, one who Truly Listens To Me and “Knows” Me Spontaneously Ceases To Add “self”-Contraction (and, Thus, “conditional-experience-causing” energy and intention) To This Relentless Round Of Natural and Futile Changes. . . Intrinsically egoless Self-Realization Of Me Is Possible Only When a living being (or body-mind-“self”) Has Whole bodily Ceased To React To The Always Changing Imposition Of Cosmic Nature. . . Those who Perfectly “Know” Me Tacitly Understand That whatever Is Not Always Already (or Eternally) Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Only Changes. . . Those who Perfectly “Know” Me Acknowledge (Tacitly, and With every Whole bodily act) That What Is Always Already The (One and Only) Case Never Changes. Such True Devotees Of Mine (who Perfectly “Know” Me) Perfectly Realize That The Entire Cosmic Realm Of Change—and Even the To-Me-Surrendered Whole body (itself)—Is Entirely Pervaded By Me (Always Self-Revealed As That Which Is Always Already The Case).

For more about Adi Da’s principle that what is not used becomes obsolete, read His Essay, “Right Principle and Right Self-Management: The Secrets of How To Change”, in The Aletheon.

Tags: Czech   DVD  

[Contains Czech 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.]

Longtime devotee, James Steinberg, 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: James Steinberg   Tribute   Mahasamadhi   DVD   Czech  

[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.]

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.

Tags: Italian