February 22, March 2, and March 5, 2014 — An evening of sacred devotional music and chanting, in honor of Adi Da Samraj. Beautiful video Darshan of Adi Da and stories of His Divine play, told by longtime devotees.
John Wubbenhorst, who has played for Bhagavan Adi Da many times, will be offering bansuri. Dhrupad vocals will be offered by Nirmalya Dey and Ashoka Dhar. Rishabh Dhar will be playing pakhawaj. Felix Woldenberg will lead us in chanting.
Adi Da: "The worship that occurs in Sacred Arts is surrender to the Divine Form and through that surrender, reception of the Divine Shakti or the Divine Energy of that Divine Form. If you surrender to the Divine Form in the Bodily Human Divine Form of the Guru, then the Divine Shakti will move you. To practice Sacred Art, you must surrender to the Guru and receive the Guru’s Transmission. The Guru's Divine Transmission does the sacred art."
February 22, 2014, 6:30pm
Where: C 401 Rosewood apartment Mayurvihar phase 1 in front of Mayurvihar phase 1 market Delhi, India
Special directions: Take the Mayurvihar extension metro station on the blue line, direction towards Noida city Centre.
There Is Only Light poster: 2012spirit length: 05:06 date added: October 29, 2010 language: English views: 5766; views this month: 40; views this week: 18
Light Imagery created by Ute Posegga-Rudd against the backdrop of music and chanting from the Adidam Music Guild, based on the Word of Adi Da Samraj.
"There is Only Light" is by John Mackay, from his album, Danavira. It draws on the Qawwali tradition of Sufi devotional music (exemplified by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Read Adi Da's appreciation of the Qawwali musical tradition here.
Slide Show 2008 poster: AdiDaVideos length: 05:28 date added: October 30, 2012 event date: 2008 language: English views: 5766; views this month: 41; views this week: 23
A slideshow taken from the last year of Adi Da's lifetime.
The photos are accompanied by a moving song, "What Will You Do If You Love Me?", sung by Adi Da's daughter, Naamleela Free Jones (from her album, Eyes In Other Worlds).
This video clip is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 2 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 (more than 7 hours long) 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.
Ben Grisso: Being with Adi Da poster: AdiDaVideos length: 20:02 date added: February 23, 2014 event date: 2011 language: English views: 5658; views this month: 47; views this week: 25
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.
This album of Adidam devotional music from The First Amendment Choir was originally released on audiocassette tape in 1981. (The name, "First Amendment Choir", was chosen for the choir by Adi Da, which performed for Him on several occasions.)
The album begins and ends with "The Divine Invocation":
Radiant Da, All-Pervading Current of Life, Consciousness where I appear and disappear, Hear My Breathing Heart.
Awaken me To feel the Heart of Light and Love, Where this life and mind and body may dissolve. I hold up my hands.
"The Divine Invocation" was an early version of what we now call The First Great Invocation. Now we would begin with the First Great Invocation and end with the Second Great Invocation — but Adi Da had not yet created the Second Great Invocation at the time this album was created.
Many of the songs on this album were composed by Billboard Award-winning composer Ray Lynch or by JoAnne Sunshine. Ray Lynch is also the guitar player. Eric Leber is the choir director. Besides Ray Lynch and JoAnne Sunshine, vocalists include Brad Crawford, Robin Richardson, Kathleen Ewart, Sylvia Hayden, Carol Mabin, Janet Kopieki, Rita Gordon, Happy Hayden, Ginny Leber, Maggie Roberts, Lynzee Elze, Ron Guba, Steve Benson, Chris Cardullo, Phyllis Hyde, Karen Booth, and Antonina Randazzo (among others). The album was recorded at Prune Production Studio, in Mill Valley, California, and was released by the Laughing Man Institute.
The volume is low, so you may need to turn it up. The sound quality of this digital version is not up to contemporary standards, but many listeners — old and new — may find it just as heart-moving now as so many found it when it was originally released.
The Gift and Calling of Adi Da poster: Adidam India length: 12:35 date added: September 25, 2014 language: English views: 5494; views this month: 35; views this week: 13
The video, from Adidam India, begins with a slideshow of photos from Adi Da Samrajashram, accompanied by traditional Indian chanting by Nirmalya Dey, with devotee John Wubbenhorst playing the bansuri.
As the musical accompaniment continues, the video shows photos and video clips of Avatar Adi Da, accompanied by excerpts (and adaptations) from the recitation, Aham Da Asmi ("I Am Da"), overlaid on the screen.
The Divine Is Not the Cause poster: DawnHorsePress length: 10:52 date added: June 13, 2010 event date: October 20, 2004 language: English views: 5385; views this month: 47; views this week: 17
This excerpt is from the Adidam Revelation Discourse of October 20, 2004. In response to a series of questions about self-awareness, the nature of the “ego”, and how the self-contraction is caused, Avatar Adi Da speaks of the self-confinement of human beings (in contrast to non-humans as natural contemplatives), the effort to trace any experience or thought to its Source, and the Divine Reality as the True Condition of all things (not the “cause” of any thing). This Discourse concludes with Avatar Adi Da's confession of the direct and tacit “Point of View” of Divine Realization — the universe as Unconditional Light.
This excerpt is part of the longer DVD, The Divine Is Not The Cause. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
A version of this excerpt with German subtitles can be watched here.
poster: Adidam Europe speaker: Tilly length: 03:28 date added: April 5, 2012 event date: March 2012 language: English views: 5293; views this month: 31; views this week: 13
Tilly talks about the value of growing up within the Adidam community, her relationship and time with Adi Da, and her Sacred Art of music.
poster: CDBaby length: 10:24 date added: January 21, 2017 event date: March 28, 1994 language: English views: 5247; views this month: 54; views this week: 22
In this talk, Avatar Adi Da describes the Way of Adidam as the utter transcendence of fear — including fear of being without a body or world (in the Divine State of Infinite, Eternal Love-Bliss). He speaks about finding True God as Source rather than "Creator", and He describes the mechanism that is actually responsible for generating the conditional universe. Adi Da closes with spontaneous and ecstatic poetry, communicating the Sublime Peace that is Realized in His Sphere of Love-Bliss.
This excerpt is track 8 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da's essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.
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.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 04:52 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 5221; views this month: 55; views this week: 26
In this seminal discourse (at The Mountain Of Attention), from the early years of His Teaching Work, Adi Da speaks about the inevitable process of self-revelation and self-understanding that prepares the being for true Spiritual life.
This 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.
[Contains Dutch subtitles. For the version without subtitles, click here.]
Adi Da: "Sex is fundamental ego-identity, lived. And generally speaking, it is a problem for everyone. . . The social pattern of 'self' and 'other' is founded upon emotional-sexual patterning to a very great degree. . . So it certainly is an important dimension of bondage, and therefore an important aspect of sadhana. The Perfect Practice is not based on any reference to the body-mind, or any method of the body-mind."
In this Avataric Discourse (from January 21, 2005), Adi Da explains why the Perfect Practice (the most advanced development of the Way of Adidam) has nothing to do with sex (or the ego-"I" altogether), and is not a "method" of the body-mind or something to be applied to the body-mind. The Self-Condition prior to the body-mind is the domain of the Perfect Practice. The Self-Condition is not a separate "self", but the Nirvanic Condition that is always already the case, and that inherently transcends the body-mind.
This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and self. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
Longtime devotee, James Steinberg, tells the story of how he found Adi Da. He 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.
More excerpts from this Tribute DVD can be watched here.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
[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!"
Adi Da Tribute poster: DattatreyaSivaBaba speaker: Dattatreya SivaBaba length: 07:28 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English views: 5158; views this month: 41; views this week: 18
A tribute to Adi Da from Dattatreya Siva Baba after Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi.
[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.]
Un discours classique donné par Avatar Adi Da en 1981 sur la nature du Vrai Bonheur et la façon dont il peut être Réalisé d'un moment à l'autre, mais pas en le recherchant.
This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness" (French: "L'Emplacement Corporel du Bonheur"), 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!"
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