poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 12:45 date added: March 17, 2012 event date: 1978 language: English listens: 6202; listens this month: 20; listens this week: 7
In this talk from 1978, Adi Da notes that cultism is rooted in the childish need to believe and to depend on a person, group, myth, or symbol — without assuming responsibility for oneself. He then points out that the tendency to create a cult (of whatever kind) is present in everyone, every level of human society and culture. Adi Da criticizes the tendency toward cultism in the world at large and within His community of devotees. He calls His devotees to understand and relinquish all modes of false and childish dependency on Him as a Spiritual Master, and to make only the most serious and mature approach to Him, for the great purpose of Spiritual Awakening and Divine Enlightenment.
The Great Secret poster: AdidamRevelationMagazine length: 05:54 date added: December 2, 2010 event date: July 1988 language: English views: 3837; views this month: 9; views this week: 5
In this excerpt from the talk, The Great Secret, Avatar Adi Da speaks about how growth in Spiritual terms depends on fulfilling the impulse of the heart: to live the sacred life by always living in contemplation of the "Sat-Guru", or Spiritual Master.
Adi Da: "So practice is not what you do alone when you are home. Practice is what you do with Me. Wherever you may be, you must find the Space of My Company. This is the Secret...you find It by "locating" that Attractiveness Itself, being attracted by It, being moved by It.
So this is a concentrated life, a life of contemplation, a life of being attracted, a life of gravitating toward the sacred domain... The movement of the heart is always to be right here, to be right where the Sat-Guru is. So the devotee finds every opportunity to do just that."
The full talk is available from the Dawn Horse Press on the DVD, The Great Secret, which is available alone or as part of the 6-DVD 20th Anniversary Series.
poster: adidatribute speaker: Ben Grisso length: 08:33 date added: July 6, 2011 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 7820; views this month: 38; views this week: 13
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.
3WBC Radio Interview of James Steinberg poster: AdiDaUpClose speakers: James Steinberg, Jan Bucknell length: 53:05 date added: October 16, 2014 event date: October 16, 2014 language: English listens: 6335; listens this month: 37; listens this week: 11
Devotee James Steinberg is interviewed about Adi Da and Adidam on 3WBC 94.1 FM, Melbourne, Australia on October 16, 2014, for the program, "Jazz and Spiritual", hosted by Bill Livingston, Minister at Unity of Melbourne. Australian devotee Jan Bucknell also joins in the conversation every now and then.
The program ends (at 47:14) with a recording of Adi Da reciting from The Spiritual Gospel of Jesus of Galilee, Adi Da's rendition of "The New Testament" (available on CD).
My name is Megan Van Niekerk. I am a 24 year old Youth Fellowship devotee of Avatar Adi Da Samraj. I am a South African, and am currently living in Cape Town studying a Eurythmy BA degree at the Centre for Creative Education. I am currently in my third year of study.
I have been a formal devotee in the Youth Fellowship for over a year now and I would like to make my transition into the Second Congregation this year. I have been invited to travel up to the European Danda to meet the community living there and to make my transition. I would like to travel up at the end of June 2024 as this is the best time to do so during my college holidays.
It my heart’s desire to travel to a space that has been Empowered by Adi Da, and to experience the living quality of a community devoted to Him. There are only five South African devotees and we are scattered across the country, far away from each other. So I have not yet experienced Guruvaras or Celebrations with other devotees, despite having taken part online. I would love to experience what it is love to collectively invoke and praise Adi Da!
Unfortunately, I am not earning an income at the moment due to my studies and am living on a simple student allowance. And due to the short amount of time between now and June, it does not feel possible for me to save up the amount that I need to make this journey happen.
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.
This song as a bridge to God. In Beloved Adi Da’s Company, everything (from Mickey Mouse to cookie-making) becomes “a bridge to God”.
ADI DA: “You must Awaken and discover the Divine World wherein everything is a bridge to the Infinite, One Being.”
And so for me, the words of this song have always taken on a significance beyond the usual secular understanding of the song. They lead me through a consideration that I’ll share with you here.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas Make the Yuletide gay From now on our troubles will be miles away.
Here we are as in olden days Happy golden days of yore Faithful friends who are dear to us Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together If the fates allow Hang a shining star upon the highest bough And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
That wistfulness: Raymond’s problem. On the surface, the words of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas are purely joyful — "faithful friends" coming together each year in a joyous Christmas celebration. And yet, one of the emotions I feel when I sing this song is wistfulness. So where is the wistfulness coming from? It's that big "IF" in the song: "if the fates allow". In fact, as every one of us knows (more and more, with each passing year), fate (conditional existence) only allows such reunions for a limited number of years. As I sing, I have a vision of a photograph of a gathering of friends, from a Christmas or Danavira Mela many years ago, and, in this vision, each face in the photograph — one by one over the years — turns "ghostly", either through our circumstances (high school, college, living near each other) no longer being shared, or life paths that have moved in different directions, or the passing on of that person. My awareness of that inevitable reality is the source of the wistfulness and nostalgia. The inevitable disappearance of the (mortal) loved one is “Raymond’s problem”, a phrase Adi Da uses, based on the central character of The Mummery Book.
Danavira Mela: A Divine Celebration in the midst of a conditional universe. The joy and playfulness of the song comes from the celebration we can still have together, even in the midst of an ever-changing, conditional universe. One of my (and many other devotees’) favorite quotes of Beloved Adi Da has always been this extraordinary prayer, from “Death is a Perfect Insult” in The Enlightenment of the Whole Body:
“Let us surrender into Infinity with all our friends and hold on to no thing or condition that ever appears. Let us forget all things in present Happiness, and so forgive the universe for all its playful changes. Let us always love one another, and so forgive one another for appearing, for changing, and for passing out of present sight. So be it.”
When I sing this song, I hear it giving further guidance for just how to do this.
Ben Grisso: Being with Adi Da poster: AdiDaVideos length: 20:02 date added: February 23, 2014 event date: 2011 language: English views: 5635; views this month: 24; views this week: 12
Devotee Ben Grisso talks about growing up in the community of Adi Da's devotees and the joy of being with Adi Da as a child. He describes how he later lived on Naitauba and served Adi Da's Image-Art work for many years. He tells a humorous story of the Crazy-Wise play Adi Da engaged in, to reflect to Ben his tendency to be "analytic".
Ben was in the room with Adi Da at the time of His Divine Mahasamadhi (on November 27, 2008), and he talks about that moment, and its significance.
Growing Up in the Adidam Community poster: AdiDaVideos length: 05:37 date added: October 30, 2012 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 4752; views this month: 24; views this week: 11
Devotee Rachel Kuhn, who grew up in Adi Da's community, gives her testimony about her relationship to Him.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 7 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.
poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Gerald Sheinfeld length: 10:53 date added: October 23, 2016 event date: 2016 language: English views: 4510; views this month: 39; views this week: 14
Gerald Sheinfeld, a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's, tells a wonderful story about how he found his Guru, Adi Da Samraj and his immediate recognition of Adi Da's unique state of Freedom, Happiness, and Liberation. Gerald speaks about how that recognition of Adi Da has the capacity to awaken others to that state of Prior Unity.
Image-Art Testimonial: Ben Grisso poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Ben Grisso length: 08:30 date added: June 11, 2014 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 5999; views this month: 30; views this week: 13
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.
To watch more excerpts from the Tribute DVD, click here.
poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Stanley Hastings length: 25:06 date added: March 31, 2015 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 10560; views this month: 54; views this week: 14
This video appreciation of Adi Da's Image-Art begins with a testimonial from devotee Stanley Hastings, who grew up in the Adidam community and is the Co-Director of Da Plastique (the group that presents Avatar Adi Da's Art to the public), and who worked with Adi Da on His Divine Image-Art.
Then, at 9:34, we hear various art professionals express their appreciation of Adi Da's Image-Art.
This is followed (at 13:14) by a slideshow of photos drawn from some the Exhibitions of Adi Da's Image-Art, from 2001-2009.
The video concludes (at 18:58) with a slideshow of photos of Adi Da creating His Image-Art from 1998-2008. Background music is Naamleela Free Jones, "I Served to Priest the Pharaohs", from her album, Eyes In Other Worlds.
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: 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.
The Unity of Humankind poster: AdiDaVideos length: 09:46 date added: July 27, 2013 event date: August 22, 2004 language: English views: 4999; views this month: 20; views this week: 10
Excerpt from the Avataric Discourse of August 22, 2004.
Adi Da describes how humankind is a single family, a single species in "diaspora" — dispersed across the earth as the result of migrations from a single point of origin (in Africa) thousands of years ago. Making much of superficial differences due to race, nation, religion, language, tribe, political system, etc. obscures this more fundamental, deeper reality of the unity of humankind. For the sake of everyone's survival, humankind must begin to live on the basis of its unity, and establish a global cooperative order that includes and serves everyone.
In recent decades, yoga and meditation have become a regular part of the daily lives of millions of people around the world. Through these and other practices, people develop stronger bodies, more personal discipline, better health, more loving relationships, and a greater ability to manage the stresses of modern life.
In the last few months, however, it has suddenly become universally apparent that these benefits are not be enough. Life is not programmed to produce lasting satisfaction and immunity to the challenges, inherent suffering, and mortality of existence.
In this Avataric Discourse, Avatar Adi Da Samraj describes how "positive disillusionment" with ordinary life is a necessary prerequisite for entering into the truly liberating process of spiritual practice.
ADI DA: "I find people's sorrows and losses to be heartbreaking and terrible and an immense burden and I am sympathetic and bless people in their trouble. However you must understand that is the nature of this place. This is not utopia, it is not paradise. It is a place of death, endings, suffering, brief amusements. It is not enough and merely to react to your difficulties for overlong and try to make an entire life out of it is fruitless. You do have to move on beyond that reaction to any moment's suffering and loss. You must know the place you're in and live in accordance with that knowledge instead of being sympathetic with some false view of the world or self or trying to idealize some aspect of potential experience, indulging in what amounts to addictions, repetitions of experiences, in order to avoid the knowledge of what is inherent in life, as well as all the hell that is coming on earth and is here. You will not be fulfilled."
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