Purnima poster: NAADA OM length: 06:13 date added: November 6, 2018 event date: 2017 language: English views: 2568; views this month: 24; views this week: 16
NAADA OM is a World Music collaboration between composer, singer, and harmonium player, Felix Woldenberg, and percussionist and arranger, Alan Corne. In 2017, Felix and Alan made two trips to the beautiful island of Naitauba in Fiji to offer Sacred music for a variety of celebrations: Da Purnima, Naitauba Padavara and Da Jayanthi.
This is an excerpt from the Purnima album, which can be purchased through NAADA OM's online store.
[Ths video is currently not playable on the Adi Da Up Close site. Click this link to watch it on YouTube.]
As sacred musicians and devotees of Adi Da, Felix Woldenberg and Alan Corne have been involved in providing music as part of the devotional culture at Adi Da Samrajashram for two decades. They were involved in many sacred musical occasions offered in honour of, and gratitude to Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj during his lifetime at celebrations held between 2003 and 2006.
Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj instructed Felix and Alan in different ways and settings about the devotional relationship to the spiritual master, as well as the function and purpose sacred music and chant serves in the context of that relationship and in the sacred culture of practitioners who respond to the master.
Though Felix and Alan have undergone all sorts of musical training both in the East and West, the instruction they received in Bhagavan Adi Da's company is directly responsible for the devotional musical aesthetic which the NAADA OM collaboration encompasses.
NAADA OM's music can be divided into three categories: 'Devotional Songs or Bhajans'—based on traditional call-and-response chanting; 'Mantric Chants'—generally slow chants sung in unison utilizing mantras; and 'Sacred Offerings'—musical works encompassing elements of Western classical harmony, Bhajans, and Indian Dhrupad, Hindustani, and Qawwali classical traditions -- in which the audience participates only as listeners.
Traditionally, Bhajans and Kirtan tend toward stimulating the participant emotionally and physically, in contrast NAADA OM's orientation aims to move the participant to a depth of feeling in a space of stillness where the body-mind is brought to equanimity rather than being stimulated, thereby supporting the participant in a greater awareness of, and heart response to the Source-condition of his or her own being.
To continue the yearly service to the devotional culture of Adi Da Samrajashram, NAADA OM is releasing four albums made up of recordings from live performances that occurred during the 2017 celebrations.
All proceeds from the sale of these albums will go to support NAADA OM's return to Naitauba on a yearly basis, and thereby the creation of new musical offerings and future album releases.
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."
Contemplative instrumental piece performed for a Da Purnima Puja in Temple Adi Da at Adi Da Samrajashram. Devotees invoke Adi Da (with The First Great Invocation) at the very beginning of the musical performance period.
Devotees describe the beneficial impact of sacred music on their practice of the Way of Adidam, during the Celebration of Da Purnima on Adi Da Samrajashram, in July, 2014. The music was performed by John Wubbenhorst and Peter Van Gelder (sitar), on many different occasions.
John writes: "It was a very full Celebration of Da Purnima at Adi Da Samrajashram in Fiji. Peter Van Gelder (sitar) and myself (bansuri flute) came for music service and we were very busy every day. Each morning we would sit for several hours practicing the most refined compositions from Peter's music guru Ali Akbar Khan and we would chose what we felt would be the best gifts for our Guru, Adi Da, that day. Almost every day there would be offerings and also many chanting occasions. It is very tangible the difference between playing at Adi Da Samrajashram and playing music anywhere else. The island is so full of Beloved Adi Da that as soon as we would start to play, we would feel the music coming from a deeper place and that would in turn help everyone to drop into deeper communion with Beloved, which would then allow the music to be deeper — and on and on."
Led by Antonina Randazzo, they are singing one of the chants for the season, This Is The Great Gift. The words are drawn from Adi Da's Sacred Texts. The music is by devotee and award-winning composer, Ray Lynch.
Transcendental TV poster: madjym length: 01:54 date added: June 5, 2010 event date: August 2009 language: English views: 2829; views this month: 5; views this week: 4
Separative vs. transcendental existence. Performed for the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Featuring the Irish Company, Fidget Feet, with Jym Daly, Chantal McCormick, Jenny, Lee, Steve, and the voice and wisdom of Adi Da Samraj.
Kalimba Chant poster: FacingEast108 length: 09:58 date added: May 20, 2010 event date: July 2008 language: English views: 5161; views this month: 26; views this week: 8
This is an improvisation that took place in July 2008 on the island of Naitauba, Fiji. On this occasion, we were playing while Adi Da Samraj was working on His Divine Image-Art. It was truly a blissful and ecstatic time.
Ruchira Avatara Gita poster: DawnHorsePress length: 02:04 date added: November 7, 2010 event date: March 2001 language: English listens: 5008; listens this month: 7; listens this week: 3
A remarkable recording of Naamleela Free Jones chanting Avatar Adi Da’s Ruchira Avatara Gita in a manner that serves contemplation and devotion. The entire text is chanted in the traditional mantric “swadhyaya” manner. This most beautiful devotional Gita is sometimes broadcast in Adidam temples and centers around the world. Recorded in Temple Adi Da at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in California on March 28 & 30, 2001.
[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!"
There Is Only Light poster: 2012spirit length: 05:06 date added: October 29, 2010 language: English views: 5739; views this month: 18; views this week: 9
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.
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