poster: Tastingthemoon speaker: Meg Fortune McDonnell length: 07:35 date added: April 7, 2012 language: English views: 13632; views this month: 22; views this week: 15
Devotee Meg Fortune McDonnell reads from her book, Tasting the Moon: Adventures in the Meaning of Life. This story is excerpted from the chapter titled "On the Road," which goes on to describe the ferment of the sexual revolution, beat poetry, living theater, and alternative lifestyles of the early 1970's.
The Sunshine Makers poster: frizz lefryd length: 07:43 date added: May 8, 2010 language: English views: 10760; views this month: 55; views this week: 16
One of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, "The Sunshine Makers" is a classic from the golden age of animation. Released on January 11, 1935 (an auspicious day of the year, in the sacred calendar of Adidam), the cartoon was directed by Ted Eshbaugh, the first artist/technician to figure out how to create animated cartoons in color. This restored print is the highest quality available, and is from the DVD, Toddle Tales & Rainbow Parade Cartoons.
"The Sunshine Makers" is the third cartoon in the "Rainbow Parade Series", which was produced by Van Beuren Studios to compete with Walt Disney's "Silly Symphonies". The series consisted of 27 full color, animated shorts, and was distributed to theaters by RKO between 1934 and 1936. (You can watch more of these here.)
"The Sunshine Makers" later became a regular on 1950's television, after the sale of RKO's film library. In his book, Of Mice and Magic, well-known film critic Leonard Maltin writes that his childhood (in the 1950's) included "countless viewings" of the cartoon.
"The Sunshine Makers" is also one of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, because of its depiction of Light and Happiness (magnified and spread by the "Sunshine gnomes" in the cartoon) dissolving and outshining the force of egoity (the "gloomies").
In his article, "The Sunshine Makers cartoon from 1935", James Steinberg writes, "Bhagavan Adi Da loved that cartoon! He thought that it showed the simplicity of the argument of the open hand and the closed fist, or that our un-happiness is just something that we presume. Just like He used to tell us when we came to the Mountain of Attention, or came to see Him altogether, that we could 'leave it at the gate'. There is no reason to presume the dilemma in the face of the Divine (or truly altogether). We used to watch 'The Sunshine Makers' cartoon with Him when we had to watch it on a 16mm projector. I saw it multiple times with Bhagavan and He would laugh heartily as it was shown and watch our faces to see our reactions beaming with Happiness. He always used to tell us that we could just 'drop it in the moment' (our self-contraction) and that it was 'just an act'."
Further notes on the cartoon:
* It's a musical! Almost all speech is set to music.
* At 0:43: The "Sunshine gnomes" start their morning with a conscious exercise routine that begins with bowing down to the Transcendental Sun (the source of their sunshine): "Hail, His Majesty, the Sun!"
* At 7:00: When the "gloomies" refuse to "take their medicine", the gnomes force "sunshine" down their throats. In the words of the great Spiritual Master, Sri Ramakrishna: "There are three classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and inferior. The physician who feels the patient's pulse and just says to him, 'Take the medicine regularly' belongs to the inferior class. He doesn't care to inquire whether or not the patient has actually taken the medicine. The mediocre physician is he who in various ways persuades the patient to take the medicine, and says to him sweetly: 'My good man, how will you be cured unless you use the medicine? Take this medicine. I have made it for you myself.' But he who, finding the patient stubbornly refusing to take the medicine, forces it down his throat, going so far as to put his knee on the patient's chest is the best physician. This is the manifestation of the tamas of the physician. It doesn't injure the patient; on the contrary, it does him good."
poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Stanley Hastings length: 25:06 date added: March 31, 2015 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 10546; views this month: 45; views this week: 26
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.
poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Ruchiradama Nadikanta length: 25:39 date added: November 3, 2012 event date: November 28, 2009 language: English views: 10042; views this month: 35; views this week: 17
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.
Excerpt from First 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 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.
Divina.com Trailer poster: FlorenceDanceCompany length: 15:04 date added: November 19, 2010 event date: July 2010 language: English views: 8915; views this month: 26; views this week: 16
A promotional video from The Florence Dance Company showing Divina.com, a work presented in Italy at the Bargello Museum in Florence, in July, 2010. An expanded group of the Florence Dance Company's principal dancers perform a dance based on Dante Alighieri's 700 year-old epic literary masterpiece, "La Divina Commedia" (The Divine Comedy). Choreographed and directed by Keith Ferrone and Marga Nativo, the dance takes place in front of a monumental multimedia display of the breakthrough (and sometimes animated) digital art of Adi Da Samraj. All of this is accompanied by live musical performances from master Florentine pianist, Stefano Maurizi, and the electronic musical mastery of Maurizio Fasolo, and Enzo Regi (who lead the European underground electronic group, Pankow). Voice in song by Hélène Tavernier, guitar Lorenzo Castiglia. Piano preludes introducing each part are composed and performed live by Naamleela Free Jones.
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 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.
On July 22 and 23, 2012, the Florence Dance Company presented a multimedia spectacle entitled Not-Two Is Peace. The performance at the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy brought together image-art by Adi Da Samraj, original ballet by the Florence Dance Company, and live music — a dynamic exploration of the principles of world peace and prior unity as described in Adi Da's book, Not-Two Is Peace.
Part Two of the performance featured music for solo piano, composed and performed by Naamleela Free Jones, and presented here in this commemorative recording. The CD also features photographs from the performance as well as the city of Florence.
Saturday July 17th, 2010 7-9:30 pm St. John's Presbyterian Church 2727 College Avenue Berkeley, California
Featuring the Facing East group, with John Wubbenhorst (bansuri), Steve Zerlin (bass), Rishabh Dhar (packhawaj), Kit Walker (keyboards), and Samrat Kakkeri (tabla). Also music from Adi Da's daughter, Tamarind Free Jones (vocal), and a performance by Peter van Gelder (sitar) and Tim Witter (tabla).
The Universal World-Prayer poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Jacqueline Clemons length: 03:32 date added: April 28, 2015 language: Finnish views: 8070; views this month: 44; views this week: 20
Beloved, Inmost Heart of every heart, donotLet our human hearts be broken by our merely mortal suffering here — but Make our mortal human hearts break-Free to an unconditional love of You, that we may, Thus, love all living beings with Love's own True, and Truly broken, Heart.
Composed by Jacqueline Clemons and Nick Milo, and sung by Jacqueline Clemons, this soulful rendition of Adi Da's prayer for world peace, "The Universal World-Prayer", was sung many times at The Parliament of the World's Religions in Cape Town, South Africa, in December, 1999.
The song accompanies a slideshow of pictures of Adi Da.
We live the Law backwards. Instead of living from the point of view of Happiness, love of God, submission to the Transcendental Reality, we live in submission to others, objects, relations.
poster: adidatribute speaker: Crane Kirkbride length: 13:28 date added: July 6, 2011 event date: November 28, 2009 language: English views: 8012; views this month: 24; views this week: 12
Longtime devotee, Crane Kirkbride, offers this testimonial to the life and work of Adi Da Samraj, in which he describes singing for, and with, Adi Da. Includes a clip of Adi Da singing opera with Crane; and a slideshow of stunning pictures of Adi Da from 1972 through 2008, accompanied by Crane singing "I Am Who You Are".
This video clip is an excerpt from First Evening: Tracks 16 and 17 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: adidatribute speaker: Ben Grisso length: 08:33 date added: July 6, 2011 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 7807; views this month: 28; views this week: 16
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.
The Bodily Location of Happiness poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:12 date added: May 4, 2016 event date: November 28, 1981 language: English views: 7787; views this month: 30; views this week: 17
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.
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 "pursuing 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 (or mis-identify 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!"
Slideshow: 1970-1986 poster: AdiDaVideos length: 06:09 date added: November 3, 2012 language: English views: 7770; views this month: 49; views this week: 13
A slideshow with pictures of Adi Da Samraj from the early days of His Formal Teaching Work to the 1980's, historical photos covering a broad period of His Work.
Soundtrack is a devotional piece by devotee John MacKay.
Excerpt from First Evening: Track 8 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: sacredwalk-about speaker: Ruchiradama Nadikanta length: 02:15 date added: January 3, 2013 language: English listens: 7638; listens this month: 23; listens this week: 14
World-Friend Adi Da: "The old moral, social, and political order of humankind is now dead. A new and true and right order of humankind is, now, and forever hereafter, necessary. This Free Declaration is the Seed-Utterance of that new and necessary true and right (and truly globally, totally, and universally cooperative) order."
INVOCATION offered by Ruchiradama Nadikanta
Dearly Beloved Bhagavan, Adi Da Samraj, we surrender at Your Blessed Feet in deepest devotion to You, the Divine Avatar of Conscious Light.
We pray to fulfill Your Urgent Calling to fully serve the establishment of Your Divine Avataric Work in this world, so that all may feel Your Touch of Divine Love and receive Your Perfect Wisdom and Divine Grace
May we collectively incarnate (and, thereby, inspire all to heed) Your Great Admonition, Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace.
May we embrace all beings everywhere, always making available to everyone the Gift of Divine Compassion and all-Embracing Love You have Brought to here.
We bow at Your Holy Feet in love and deepest gratitude, now and forever.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:37 date added: June 2, 2016 language: English views: 7587; views this month: 27; views this week: 15
Adi Da's entire human lifetime was a unique demonstration of His Eternal Form — the State He calls the "Bright", the Conscious Light that is Reality Itself.
From His birth on November 3, 1939 on Long Island in New York, to His passing from the body on November 27, 2008, on the Island of Naitauba, Fiji, His Life is the story of the Intervention of the "Bright" in human time.
The fruits of Avatar Adi Da's Lifetime are the establishment of a new and unique possibility for the transformation of all beings and the world itself. His Revelation is of the Divine Reality, which is always Shining — like the sun — as the Prior Condition of every one and every thing.
Adi Da has always said that the Way He Teaches is an ego-transcending relationship, rather than an ego-serving technique. The Way is founded on devotional recognition and response to Him. It is a silent, wordless intuition in the heart of one’s being—not a matter of mere belief, ideas, or techniques to seek for fulfillment (whether material or spiritual). To all who respond to Him with devotion and self-discipline, Adi Da Reveals the Very Divine Condition—the Love-Bliss-Light of Consciousness Itself.
This video provides a brief overview of Avatar Adi Da's life and work, and is an invitation to enter into Spiritual relationship to Him for the sake of Divine Realization.
Adi Da: "I Demonstrate Totality to here. I Reveal Reality Itself, Which Is Divine in Its Totality—not fractioned by humankind, not changed or limited by humankind. I Function in an egoless Transcendental Spiritual (and, Thus, Super-normal) Manner. I am not here limited as a gross (physical) phenomenon. When I am Really 'Located', My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission is literal and undeniable. My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission Is the 'Proof' that Reality—and the 'world' altogether—is of an entirely different Nature than people otherwise suppose."
Our multimedia library currently contains 1206
YouTube video clips and audio clips about (or related to) Adi Da and Adidam.[1]
Enjoy! indicates
a video, and
an audio. Special categories of interest include:
Thanks to the many videographers who took the footage, to the many editors who
created these videos and audios, and to the 132
people and organizations who posted these videos and audios on YouTube and other places on the
Web. Special thanks to Lynne
Thompson, who did a lot of the data entry for our audio/video database.
" (The Divine Comedy). Choreographed and directed by 
