Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

[Contains German 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 is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness" (German: "Der körperliche Sitz des Glücklichseins"), 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 CD.

The talk communicates several core insights:

1. Everybody is intuitively familiar with happiness. You don't have to be a devotee of Adi Da! This was part of the reason Adi Da chose "happiness" as the focus of this Teaching period: because the subject was so accessible. Everyone knows what it's like to be happy (at least a little). It's just that most people are not aware that Perfect, Eternal Happiness is possible and Realizable. (And it certainly isn't, through ordinary human means.) Adi Da: "All beings are always already Happy. You always know, at this very moment you know exactly, what it would be to look and feel and be and act completely Happy." The esoteric reason everyone is familiar with happiness is because everyone is always, already happy. And the esoteric reason everyone yearns for complete happiness is because complete happiness is realizable — and everyone's heart knows that.

2. Adi Da's "Lesson of Life":"You can't become happy; you can only be (already) happy." People are always seeking for happiness. The "pursuit of happiness" (not happiness itself!) is even enshrined as an "unalienable right" (alongside life and liberty) in the preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence. Its author, Thomas Jefferson, knew better than to think a government could guarantee happiness itself — hence only the guarantee of "the pursuit of happiness". Only a Divine Incarnation can guarantee Happiness Itself.

Adi Da reveals that happiness is the native state of beings. It is already the case. Every attempt to seek for it (mis-identifying the source of happiness as some object or other) in fact serves to dissociate one from it. Adi Da: "You think that you can seek Happiness and find it. Your search for Happiness is itself a confession of un-Happiness. You cannot realize Happiness by persisting in un-Happiness, persisting in the method of un-Happiness. All seeking is an expression of un-Happiness, all seeking is the method of un-Happiness, the practice of un-Happiness. This must be understood. It is not merely true — it must be understood."

Self-understanding allows one to get this point. Based on self-understanding, one can devote oneself to Happiness rather than to seeking for It and settling for the little bit of Infinite Happiness that "bleeds through" the clench of ego into conditions. This ultimately enables the Eternal Realization of Infinite, Perfect Happiness. Adi Da: "Understand your un-Happiness. Then you will be capable of locating Happiness, and, having located Happiness, you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness."

3. The Transmission of the Divine Guru is How One Locates Happiness. The subtitle of the book, The Bodily Location Of Happiness, is: "On the Incarnation of the Divine Person and the Transmission of Love-Bliss". In other words, you can't apply "The Lesson of Life" by somehow "locating" happiness directly, by yourself (or in yourself). Happiness is our native state, but that doesn't mean it can be located by an egoic, "do it yourself" process. We locate happiness directly as a Grace-given Gift, through devotion to the Transcendental Spiritual Transmission of Adi Da. Adi Da: "Happiness is presently the case. In this moment you are already Happy. Sitting with Me, locate this Happiness." We locate our "Native State" by recognizing and submitting to our "Native Person" — our Very Self appearing here in bodily (human) form.

4. It is a Process of Whole Bodily Location. "The bodily location of Happiness" is not primarily a reference to some place where Happiness resides in the body (although Adi Da teases His listeners with this idea: "Look for it in your toes, in your fingers, in your shirt, in your head"). It refers to a process ("the bodily location of Happiness" = "the locating of Happiness with the whole body-mind") that involves the surrender and transformation of every aspect of the body-mind, immersed in the Perfectly Happy State of the Divine Guru, through recognition of Him as the Divine in every moment. Then the secondary and supportive practices of the Way of Adidam become means for staying immersed in that Divine State in every moment: "Having located Happiness [having recognized Adi Da as the Divine], you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness [Adi Da, recognized as the Divine]. The practices of this Way are not methods for attaining Happiness, but they are the expressions of Happiness. The disciplines of money, food, and sex are not a way to become Happy. Discipline is difficult enough — why should we also burden it with the obligation to make us Happy!"

Tags: happiness   CD   German  

[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 Samraj mówi o popularnym teraz w świecie "zrób-to-sam" podejście do duchowości i tłumaczy dlaczego na duchowej drodze potrzebny jest guru.

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

In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.

The full talk is available on the DVD, The Commitment To Real-God-Realization.

For more on this subject, read our article, Why Great Spiritual Realization Requires a Spiritual Transmission Master.

Tags: DVD   Polish  

In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.

The full talk is available on the DVD, The Commitment To Real-God-Realization.

For more on this subject, read our article, Why Great Spiritual Realization Requires a Spiritual Transmission Master.

Tags: DVD  

Longtime devotee and Adidam educator, Anthony Costabile, summarizes the purpose of Adi Da's lifetime succinctly, and describes how the practice given by Adi Da authenticates itself.

For more about Adi Da's Teaching, click here.

For more about Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission of Divine Enlightenment, click here.

For more about Adi Da's Work with human beings after His lifetime, click here.

For more about how Adi Da made the Offering of Adidam available for all beings for all time, click here.

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 CD and on a new DVD, The Location Of Happiness.

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  

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  

In this short video clip from 1988, Adi Da talks to His devotees about what is required, in any moment, to open the doorway from "here" to the Divine Domain. He describes how devotion to Him and His "Brightness" is the means for locating the "loka" (place) of His Spiritual Transmission and for growth in spiritual practice (ultimately, to the point of Divine Translation).

This is an audio excerpt from the CD, The Secret of Experience.

The CD contains excerpts from two Avataric Discourses (December 5, 2004, and August 13, 2004), in which Adi Da addresses the questions: What kind of experiences might you notice arising in the course of esoteric practice or via Spiritual Transmission? What is the secret to relating to them rightly?

On December 5, 2004, when asked by a devotee about a particular experience, Avatar Adi Da contrasts the self-authenticating nature of the experience with the attitude of having a question about the experience.

On August 13, 2004, Adi Da speaks about the potential of blissful experience to create unrealistic presumptions about the self and about real practice.

Tags: CD   Avataric Discourse  

In response to a devotee's question about Spiritual Transmission, Adi Da discusses how the various schools of religious and Spiritual instruction fit within the Great Tradition.

("Great Tradition" is Avatar Adi Da's term for the total inheritance of human, cultural, religious, magical, mystical, Spiritual, and Transcendental paths, philosophies, and testimonies, from all the eras and cultures of humanity.)

Avatar Adi Da also describes the qualities of genuine Spiritual Transmission and offers guidance in transcending naive belief and all forms of limited thinking.

This excerpt is from the DVD, Human History Is One Great Tradition. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. This talk is also available on the CD, Human History Is One Great Tradition.

Tags: DVD   CD   Great Tradition   Avataric Discourse  

In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.

The full talk is available on the DVD, The Commitment To Real-God-Realization.

For more on this subject, read our article, Why Great Spiritual Realization Requires a Spiritual Transmission Master.

Tags: DVD  

What kind of experiences might you notice arising in the course of esoteric practice or via Spiritual Transmission? What is the secret to relating to them rightly?

On the DVD, The Secret of Experience, Avatar Adi Da Samraj addresses questions on this topic in two revelatory Discourses.

On December 5, 2004, when asked by a devotee about a particular experience, Avatar Adi Da contrasted the self-authenticating nature of the experience with the attitude of having a question about the experience.

And on August 13, 2004, Adi Da talked about the potential of blissful experience to create unrealistic presumptions about the self and about real practice.

This video clip is an excerpt from the DVD, in which Adi Da is responding to a devotee who asked Him a question on the phone. The DVD includes Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew subtitles.

Tags: DVD   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."

In this talk, given at The Mountain Of Attention on July 3, 1988, Avatar Adi Da Samraj discourses on His Spiritual Transmission, which He describes as transcending space-time and occurring in the "True Realm of Reality". He Reveals the mystery of how it is "very easy" for Him to Spiritually Bless the entirety of the cosmos with His Transmission.

ADI DA: "If you walked into a room, and there were a light shining in the ceiling, it would be shining in all directions. You would see the light at one point, depending on your position in the room, and say 'It's shining on me', as if in some sense the lightbulb noticed you! But in fact the lightbulb is radiating in all directions indifferently. You are in a position to notice it.

Of course you had to come into the room to notice it. If you didn't come into the room, if you stood outside the room, in other words, if you stood apart from this Transmission, from My Company, through some barrier or other, of your own obstruction in mind and emotion and so on, then you wouldn't come in contact with Me, you wouldn't be able to receive this Transmission."

For more, visit our Spiritual Transmission section.

Tags: Transmission