Adi Da Causal

“Such religion is free. It is native religion, it is God-made religion. Those who enter in such a religious process may live with one another, create a structure or an institution for association with one another and the communication of the Teaching but their religion itself is free and immediate.

It is a process that is always intimate, that one can practice in every moment of existence, that one must practice in every moment of existence. It is not a practice to be engaged only sometimes in meditation or weekly church gatherings….. It is a kind of renegade Teaching. It is not smiled upon by religionists and worldly people.”

This remarkable text was taken from a book written by Adi Da called - The Fire Gospel- published in 1982. The particular talk is- “A Birthday Message from Jesus and Me”.

The concept of Free Religion has often been used by Adi Da, examples are “The Free Communion Church” and later “Free Daism”. I often wondered why He used this term “Free” so often, in particular related to Adidam (whatever form it was conceived of in the past). Now I get it, it’s the complete reversal of how religion is perceived - by me at least, perhaps everyone already has this astonishingly liberal view !

Religion is generally seen as an imposition from without, it requires something of you by an institution or organisation outside of self.

This is crucial point and a most liberating one. Quite astounding in its direct emancipation from what I call “catechism” (1) something I endured with at best fortitude, as a child attending catholic school- in short, rote, unbelievably boring ritual, and feelingless liturgy. Adi Da calls it “mummery”.

“Such religion is free. It is native religion, it is God-made religion.”

It must come from your own free response, not imposed on you from without !

“Those who enter in such a religious process may live with one another, create a structure or an institution for association with one another and the communication of the Teaching “

So the structure and institution is based on the practice of a religious process, it comes from that process-freely.

“but their religion itself is free and immediate.”

How cool is that, the almost universal complaint about “organized religion” ends here, because you the practitioner create and maintain this religion, freely. This inherent religious process (understood in this most expansive manner) precedes the structure of religion itself, in any form, nor can it be ever subservient to the institution itself. It must stand prior to any external form, though the form  and institution is its free expression and natural form (again understood from this most radical point of view)

It’s a revolutionary point of view and one all the Great Adept Masters of the past have gestured at (in this talk Adi Da equates Jesus to this primary attempt to establish Free Religion), previous to the formation of “religion” in its far lesser or exoteric (2) mode, after the death of The Master.

There is no need for naive idealism though, it is far more gritty than that, in how it actually works out. Adidam is thus described in the best case scenario, there is already something of this quality there, at particular times it is very clear. As time goes on this will become more the case. It’s a wonderful vision. Should inspire the Free Heart in all, just in its mere contemplation.

Listen to the talk (or MP3 download) “A Birthday Message from Jesus and Me”

(1) catechism (; κατηχισμός from kata = “down” + echein = “to sound”, literally “to sound down” (into the ears), i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present

(2) exoteric & esoteric religion

This is taken from a book written in 1983 called “What Is the Conscious Process?” it includes some of Adi Da’s most direct and simple word on the Esoteric nature of The Spiritual Master’s influence in the daily life of a practitioner, it is my habit to read later texts (currently The Aletheon) combined with older texts(such as this one) which remain a remarkable and seemingly endless source of Wisdom Instruction, this combination has a wonderful expansive and enrichening quality

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“As I have told you, when the Adept Awakens into his Function for others, the “Siddhi” or Divine Awakening Power achieves universal Agency. Thereafter, when the Influence of the Adept is contacted via the practice of devotees (or when the Adept makes his Influence effective, spontaneously or at will, in the case of any person or condition), changes begin to occur. The essence of those changes is a Work that purifies, balances, and ultimately Awakens the individual being.

Those who truly practice, and thus cooperate with (rather than resist, or even merely luxuriate in the superficial effects of) the Adept’s Transmission, are progressively relieved or purified of the “karmic” (or self-based and habitual) limitations they have accumulated in the functional domain of the body-mind and its relations.

It should be understood that the karmas or habit patterns of every individual are effective at every level: physical, emotional, mental, unconscious, subconscious, conscious, waking, dreaming, and sleeping. And those karmas extend beyond the individual body-mind to include others, objects, and environments on every level, visible (or gross) and invisible (or subtle), known and unknown–past, present, and future. Also, because of the universal effectiveness of the karmic or conditional associations of individual being, it is not at all possible merely to invert upon and identify with the self-essence (the “Atman” or most inner consciousness) and have that be true Transcendental Self-Realization or Enlightenment. The inner self or “Atman” is not identical to the Transcendental Self (”Paramatman” or “Brahman”) unless it is Realized to be Such. (Just as “Nirvana” and “samsara” are not identical until they are Realized to be So.) And such Realization is not at all possible until the individual or self-bound consciousness has first been transcended through the real discipline of practice.

Transcendental Realization requires, as a prerequisite, the purificatory release of karmic accumulations, or the tendencies of attention that limit and suppress the ability of attention to Locate its Ultimate Source-Condition. Therefore, the ultimate fulfillment of the Way (which is to “Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that It Is Radiant Happiness”) requires, as a matter of preparation, the purification or release of attention from the self-bond, the stable development of true psycho-physical equanimity (or full responsibility for self-transcendence), and the magnification of free energy and attention.

The Adept Spiritual Master Works spontaneously for devotees as a Free Agent that Serves both the initial or preparatory process (of purification, self-transcendence, equanimity, and free energy and attention) and the ultimate process of Transcendental Awakening that follows naturally upon and even always coincides with every stage of such preparation. Therefore, when I regard my devotees, or when I sit with them in Transcendental Communion (whether I am physically near or far from them), I Magnify the Purifying, Liberating, and Awakening Power to them, each and all.

As devotees progressively develop and mature in their practice, the Power in my Company acts directly and effectively to prepare them and to Awaken them. This is shown by many kinds of evidence in life and meditation, and there are at least many hundreds of individuals thus far who can attest to this. The Awakening Effect is affirmed even by those who first study the literature of my Teaching. Likewise, all the Effects that serve to purify, to release the self-contraction, to create equanimity, and to release energy and attention can be testified to by many who have practiced this Way in my Company for years or even months.

The process whereby these Effects are Demonstrated is directly associated with the unique daily life and meditation of each devotee. Each day, unique tendencies, associations, and conditions of life and meditation appear in the case of each devotee. When those tendencies, associations, and conditions are combined with real practice (in the forms of conductivity and the Conscious Process) and brought into the sphere of Communion with the Adept in God (or Reality), a purifying, harmonizing, liberating, and Awakening Force is brought into the context of the moment–and this Event produces all kinds of transformative changes, both ordinary and extraordinary or profound. In this manner, the various karmic accumulations or habitual limitations of each true devotee are gradually lifted off and absorbed or eliminated by my Agency.

My own Work in this regard is a spontaneous Siddhi that has always been Alive in me, but I accepted full responsibility for It in relation to others only after the Event in the Vedanta Temple. Then the Signs of Its Operation began to Move and Oblige me toward others for the sake of their Awakening, and I began to Teach. Over the years since then, I have entered spontaneously and freely into all kinds of relations with people in order to allow this Siddhi to do Its Work without limitation. As a result, the Great Way has now been fully Communicated anew, and devotees and I practice the Siddhi of our Great Relationship even at great distances. It is a Marvel of Divine Grace which few are able to value and understand.

And so I call you to practice this Way in my Company. I call you to understand, surrender, and transcend yourself in Divine Company, free of the conceits of egoity. If you do this, then all of the obvious and also hidden content of manifest consciousness will gradually rise up to your attention–and each portion of it will be inspected and released in your own case. When all of that content has been drawn up and released, then attention will stand bare in you, and all of the energies of your manifest being will be free to collect in the locus of the right side of the heart. Then, and only then, your own consciousness will be free to Identify with the Transcendental Consciousness, which is prior to the body-mind and all of Nature.

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A fundamental aspect of the Way is the progressive recognition of the Spiritual Master. In other words entering into that Company, the sphere of the Spiritual Master’s Influence more and more profoundly. By entering into more and more profound levels of recognition of the Spiritual Master, beginning with obvious acknowledgment of the Spiritual Master, as a Living Master, but then going on to recognize and locate the Spiritual Master as Siddha, as Siddhi, as that Influence, which is directly present to every practicing devotee, in every moment, not merely in occasions of being in the Spiritual master’s human company, or being in meditation, of being in an empowered place, or being in the community and so on, but always. Those who truly practice begin to locate and recognize and acknowledge this Influence in every moment of life and meditation. it is always available. It is a matter of turning to it, of acknowledging it, recognizing it, locating it, making your practice into communion with that Influence. Therefore allowing that Influence to transform the conditions of existence that are arising from hour to hour, moment to moment, not only in meditation, but in daily life. In daily life all kinds of changes occur, all kinds of moods, all kinds of circumstances, physical, emotional and mental states, relations, changes in relations and so forth. Those are just as much within the sphere of Transcendental Influence, as any of the activities that occur in the subjective realm of meditation. Therefore these also, you will discover, remarkably, are constantly being changed, in various ways by this influence.

The Influence, or Siddhi that you have entered into is the Power and Being in which all of nature is arising. And therefore it has its effect on all of the apparently objective conditions of your existence, just as it has an effect upon the subjective conditions. So in daily life, you notice this influence making changes, if your sensitive and really practicing in this company, in both the subjective and objective levels of your existence. In meditation, you notice this influence more in terms of the subjective changes and the effects this Influence has on you immediate personal experience, you physical, emotional, mental states, and those kinds of states that may arise in meditation.

You should also begin to notice how this Influence is operative beyond the waking state, in dreams, in sleeping, in every moment of existence. There is a tradition in which Adepts have asked devotees, usually advanced devotees, to sleep at night, with the intention of entering into the Spiritual Master’s company. Sometimes this instruction is given in very specific detail, to go to sleep with the intention in the astral or dream form, to go to a specific location, usually the Communion Hall, or the place of residence of the Spiritual Master, with full visual expression and so on, during the dreaming time. Also with the intention in the sleep state, to be entered into communion with the Transcendental Condition and presence of the Spiritual Master, or the Consciousness, or Being that is the Adept and the Divine.

Well, devotees over the years, frequently report random, unintentional experiences of this kind. Similar experiences in fact occur even during waking hours, various kinds of visionary experiences, of seeing me in the meditation hall, or having some vision of me and so forth, in a moment of activity. These are reported by people. they also report all kinds of extraordinary dreams. Now these dreams in general do not have anything to do with me in the sense that I am personally, at the level of my human mind and so on, aware that you are having these dreams, although I very often am aware of them. But the fact that somebody has a dream in which I appear to them, does not necessarily mean that I would be able to tell them the next day that I was aware of it. I may or may not be aware of it. Or I may be aware of it in a difference form. Or I may be aware of it in the same form. But most of the time I wouldn’t be aware of it, there would be no reflection in my waking mind of it. But this does not mean that the experience if false. It can be falsified by the individual who just uses it for his own self-glamouriation, to console him or herself so they can feel they’re had some profound experience. But generally the essential content of such dreams is a feeling of entering into this communion, and something about the meaning of the dream, will generally have some pertinence, some significance that is real and appropriate enough, worth remembering, worth allowing to have some effect on you whenever it will.

Therefore since this possibility exists, some people might try this. You should feel free to try this. These gatherings we have on celebration occasions are something like this. People gather in Centers and various parts of the world, at the same time I’m sitting here with you all. And they prepare themselves through the devotional occasion, and use my photograph as a way of associating with me. They are literally tuning into me, allowing themselves to enter into the sphere of my Influence, personally. During meditation, or perhaps in dreams, or some other visions afterwards, they may have some sense of coming to some place where I’m sitting with them and so forth. During that time of meditation, they may have visions of it, of my being in the room with them, or them being in a room some place or other with me.

In other words the psyche may function automatically to create some sort of association with me that’s tangible. Whether or not that tangible association has anything directly to do with my actual physical location or not. It is simply something that adds a dimension to the whole force of their alignment to me”

 Notes on a meditation experience

Today had an insight into that which stands Free or is never implicated in all the arising conditions of the body-mind with which we normally identify.

That which stands Free, just “rest-abides”, it seems to be where our attention would naturally rest if it was not constantly disturbed by stressful demands in our association with the body-mind. Ordinary life as we know it is a constant demand on our attention, in my life I conceive of it as “survival stress”, or the most basic form of self-contraction.

The place I rested today briefly, was free of any bound implication, any need for my attention to be absorbed in the ordinary round of events-money, food, sex, society, or to respond to any environmental demands. There was just profound rested-ease, it felt like my (our) native condition, free of disturbance, unperturbed, moveless, thought-free (though thinking was possible and clear) searchless, without dilemma and completely free of primal fear

It can also be described as natural, wherein the life lived in my conventional manner is unnatural, rooted in stress, craving and fundamental disturbance. To be absorbed there in motionless ease, seems to be what Adi Da calls “at-root” or “in-depth”. He also says that many non-humans (sentient beings) abide here whenever they are at rest, after having handled business they “contemplate’, he does not describe this contemplation as of a something, just the act of contemplation itself, everyone would allow this condition (beats any vacation, strategic meditation state, or entertainment possible), “Handle business and drop out !” is the Adept’s advice.

By convention a human being tends to do nothing other than “handle business”, here to “drop out” means to fall into the Heart Depth, rest there, abide there, the Sages and Great Ones did not hesitate about it, just dived in. It is not enlightenment as some claim, just native to all beings.

If you want to get technical it may be resting attention naturally at the causal root(1) of the being, not by any method or technique, it’s just where attention natively “sits” when all the hub-bub of life demands really fall away for periods of time. It feels structural or a natural progression or evolved state of our essential being, what I mean by this is it is not ephemeral (or at least less changeable) like so many internal states that come and go, but more like a stage of life of human possibility.

(1)The causal dimension is senior to and pervades both the gross and the subtle dimensions. It is the root of attention, or the essence of the separate and separative ego-”I”. The causal dimension is associated with the right side of the heart, specifically with the sinoatrial node, or “pacemaker” (the psycho-physical source of the heartbeat). Its corresponding state of consciousness is the formless awareness of deep sleep

Some may find this image a strange choice but others will know exactly why I chose it, over time my choice may change but as it stands this is my number one image of the Miraculous Great Sage-Adi Da Samraj- here as Master Da Free John, most likely taken in 1983 shortly before or after the acquisition of Naitauba Island.

His almost naked stance, has a timeless, unconcerned, ease and fearlessness, I immediately think of the Avadhoot tradition, His Freedom in striding effortlessly and indifferently through the water with a remote island in view, is a waltz through the universe of samsara. Most of all look at that Blessing Hand and Arm, it’s the gesture of Divine Victory- All forms will ultimately dissolve in Divine Love- no doubt of this expressed here.

“The Avadhoot in unshakable equanimity, living in the holy temple of nothingness, walks naked, knowing all to be Brahman”  -Avadhoot Gita

 

Quote from B.M

Adi Da is asking a huge amount of people, just looking at it from the average joe-seeker’s point of view, I would say too much is asked of him or her and outside of the cloisters of Adidam, my friend, it’s gob-smackingly-freaking-obvious, which is tragic, because this great wisdom should be available to all surely, as this was the point of this Incarnation of the Adept in my opinion - since it is what will always bring many people to the Master.

The other thing to consider is that the spiritual market, has changed mightily since we were new, young and fresh seekers of Truth, there may have been 30 or 40 present sources of spiritual influence available to westerners at that time, hanging around spiritual bookshops and reading posters on health food notice boards for sources of wisdom, was as good as it got for us. These days the numbers of such sources and influences is massive and they pander to individual taste, even. The waters are so muddied in present time, the guy looking for Truth in all of that, has so many more options than the dude reading “The Method of The Siddha’s” in the 70’s and even 80’s The questions may be exactly the same, but the potential answers by all the Guru’s of now, has become overwhelming, I pity the poor devil moving through all of this hype and possibility. We had it easy, in fact. I sometimes think if I was was a young person trying to make sense of it all, could I have found my way, even to “The Knee of Listening” and if I did would I have been able to recognize the Adept’s appearance or gone on from there to be lost in the miasma of all current possibilities in the spiritual marketplace, or more to the point, If I came across some of Adi Da’s more recent and demanding texts would I have the capacity to persist through them ? Hard to say, perhaps, but it was certainly more clear cut, then, than now.

(Response)
Well, agree on some points, but things are not necessarily how they seem. Grace has to be there, right. No matter what the circumstance, now, in the future, after death, in another state, we depend utterly on Grace that is fundamental to the Way and has always been the case.

Anyway take heart brother, this young hero proves it is currently possible to Recognize- The spiritual Master, and will continue to be in any time and space  and his quote (below) is really pertinent to our conversation

I found The Knee Of Listening to be an amazing book and was fascinated by Adi Da’s life story. I enjoyed reading His Writing and reading about His childhood and His time in India, and everything else. I found it very humbling. And His Writing was so sophisticated, intelligent, and creative. I was fascinated with the technical precision in His use of language. I remember reading the first essay “Do Not Misunderstand Me“; it was full of capitalization, underlining, and parentheticals. I did not feel intimidated, but immediately felt that whoever Adi Da Is, He is very serious.

I never felt offended by His claims of Divinity or Avatarhood, but was more struck by the way He said it. His Written-Word was absolutely confident, firm, and unshakable. I felt that there was no trace of uncertainty in Adi Da about anything. His Writing was so strong, with the underlining, the capitalization, everything. I did not care if He was the Divine Avatar or not, I could at least respect His utter seriousness and confidence about it. He did not feel weak at all, as if He was someone who needed to make claims about himself for the sake of identity, or self-esteem, or megalomania. His strength was overpowering to me. I did not even question Him, nor did I believe Him, but I just kept reading. I was fascinated and attracted to Him and His claims, that someone would even say something like that was startling and amazing to me. I couldn’t get enough. I continued to read passages where Adi Da would say that He was the Divine, and sometimes would even seek for these passages, just marveling that someone would say such a thing! Why would a man say that? And with such Force?

(B.M) - A lot of readers and friends of Adi Da felt there is a real schism between the early works & writing and audio’s of Adi Da especially starting in the 1990’s, it seems to me that when he started to use phrases like “Only-By-Me-Revealed-Way” and an apparent claim to exclusive Avatar-hood and the massive use of “Me” in text, he lost his audience to a large degree, at least many who followed him through the changes of his remarkable life would have struggled mightily with all this. I often read and play media from early years and feel this is the Master whom I can relate to, and will always relate  to. His world view was one of him being an “Adept” or “Siddha” in an infinite lineage of other True Adepts and Siddhas appearing forever in the past and future. This was to me and many, a beautiful, cohesive cosmology and world view which made perfect sense in the light of the great tradition of religion and spirituality

(Response) Could write a lot about the demanding language, but from my point of view the constant “Me” ism and “Only-By-Me-Revealed-Way” style phrases is an ego prickling device, it is part of the necessary demand put on the serious reader to go passed “me” or “self”. This language also gives the reader a great opportunity for self understanding, in that here is the constant reflection of the action of self, or self-contraction, back to consciousness. As the egoic self in its ordinary enjoyment and reading capacity we just want to be entertained, gather information or whatever, but we are given the opportunity to do sadhana , just by reading these sacred texts. Yes its tough, demanding, hard work at times this is exactly how Adi Da Samraj wants it to be, then its as if we crack the code and briefly feel what he means by all of this.

Ultimately the ” Me” he champions so relentlessly, the “Reality” he pounds us with so harrowingly, when ego is fully dead, vanished, is our state, our Realization.In other words the ” Me” that is so offensive to “you” as that tiny ego being is the only “One” that is. In “The Boundless Self Confession” there is a chapter titled ” I am alone in My House” - you would understand the “My House” to be the “Divine Domain” used extensively in earlier works, therefore you could say there is only one being here called “Me” but it is not “me” now or ever, “me” is the one that prevents ” Reality” from currently being the case, thus you are forced to stand outside of “me” in order to enjoy “Reality” or “Me” ( our ultimate post egoic condition) That is why Adi Da also uses the phrase “Realize Me” you can’t Realize something (one) who is not already your ultimate condition.

So you start getting a lot more sympathy for this formerly troublesome “ Me” language, its coded, a seemingly endless “prickle” to the conventional self, yet for those that persist yielding a great and awesome Intuition.

Having said that, there is also the constant falling back into the conventional viewpoint and thus again a constant resistance emerging when ever the texts are read, recited or listened to, I don’t think there is any alternative to this engagement.

The other point you raise about Avatarhood  and the only 7th stage Realizer, seems to me to be something arrived at spontaneously by Adi Da, I don’t think there is any doubt that He assumed there were other 7th stage Realizers and over the years spoke of certain individuals and sometimes a whole tradition of such Realizers (Great Siddhas) but upon great testing he appeared to come to the certain knowledge that this is not the case, so no matter how much we would like it to be so, how symmetrical it could be, and even painful this may be to accept, according to Adi Da these concepts and possibilities fell short of “Reality” or how things actually are, but of course it would be far better for Adidam as a believable missionary offering if it had turned out otherwise (in my opinion) or again pehaps this is just a “santa claus” type of illusion.

More conversation with B.M

(B.M) - A lot of readers and friends of Adi Da felt there is a real schism between the early works & writing and audio’s of Adi Da especially starting in the 1990’s, it seems to me that when he started to use phrases like “Only-By-Me-Revealed-Way” and an apparent claim to exclusive Avatar-hood and the massive use of “Me” in text, he lost his audience to a large degree, at least many who followed him through the changes of his remarkable life would have struggled mightily with all this. I often read and play media from early years and feel this is the Master whom I can relate to, and will always relate  to. His world view was one of him being an “Adept” or “Siddha” in an infinite lineage of other True Adepts and Siddhas appearing forever in the past and future. This was to me and many, a beautiful, cohesive cosmology and world view which made perfect sense in the light of the great tradition of religion and spirituality

The sudden refutation of this in the early 90’s was devastating to me and I had to put this all on hold for some time in order to deal with it and got quite narky about the whole thing and for a while posted along these lines at the other forum. However as you know I have never lost my great regard for Adi Da and consider him a true Buddha and the penultimate Enlightened Master of all time ( never doubted this)

I have had a read of some recent stuff mainly from short books and essays you have sent me and admit there is powerful stuff there, but it takes a huge amount to get into it, your post here points that out, now from my short readings of the recent work,  Adi Da is asking a huge amount of people, just looking at it from the average joe-seeker’s point of view, I would say too much is asked of him or her and outside of the cloisters of Adidam, my friend, it’s gob-smackingly-freaking-obvious, which is tragic, because this great wisdom should be available to all surely, as this was the point of this Incarnation of the Adept in my opinion - since it is what will always bring many people to the Master.

The other thing to consider is that the spiritual market, has changed mightily since we were new, young and fresh seekers of Truth, there may have been 30 or 40 present sources of spiritual influence available to westerners at that time, hanging around spiritual bookshops and reading posters on health food notice boards for sources of wisdom, was as good as it got for us. These days the numbers of such sources and influences is massive and they pander to individual taste, even. The waters are so muddied in present time, the guy looking for Truth in all of that, has so many more options than the dude reading “The Method of The Siddha’s” in the 70’s and even 80’s The questions may be exactly the same, but the potential answers by all the Guru’s of now, has become overwhelming, I pity the poor devil moving through all of this hype and possibility. We had it easy, in fact. I sometimes think if I was was a young person trying to make sense of it all, could I have found my way, even to “The Knee of Listening” and if I did would I have been able to recognize the Adept’s appearance or gone on from there to be lost in the miasma of all current possibilites in the spiritual marketplace, or more to the point, If I came across some of Adi Da’s more recent and demanding texts would I have the capacity to persist through them ? Hard to say, perhaps, but it was certainly more clear cut, then, than now. 

{Response Coming}

With the forthcoming The Aletheon people will have the opportunity to review Adi Da’s final work which is relatively unknown compared to earlier writing. On this point a friend asked me this question, he has been a longtime student of Adi Da but never a formal devotee. It’s an ongoing discussion and perhaps will be much thrashed out over time with increasing clarity. I think it is an interesting consideration and perhaps on the mind of many

Q : (B.M) With the passing of Adi Da, would not his whole life as Avatar, Realizer, Guru, Teacher become the source of study by Adidam now, rather than the last years wherein the Master is sort of polarized or frozen in time as that exclusive form and teaching emphasis. I realize that this may be seen as a sort of heresy in Adidam, if it does not have the capacity to inspect its own dogmatism

A:(my answer) Adi Da is unique in the manner that He clearly wanted this period, even closer than this, perhaps the last 2 years of His life to be his legacy to All. His Enlightened Leela only came to Real Fullness or Completion- post 2000 after the Ruchira Dham Event. He made the point that only after this Event, His Teaching & The Reality Way of Adidam fully came into being.

Q: Yes I understand this, but surely if you inspect the life of anyone after they have left the body, their whole life, not just how they were at the end of their life becomes the Event, in other words Franklin Jones, Bubba Free John, Da Free John, Da Kalki, Da Avabhasa, Adi Da etc all represent distinct periods of wisdom study, all unique all with a specific emphasis, if you only emphasize the last few years, the greatness of each period is lost. I can go to YouTube and enjoy ( for instance) The humorous play of the Adept as Da Free John as a distinct and marvellous period of instruction and Leela and read books from the era with great joy.

A : No one in Adidam would deny you any of this and many may do the same thing, there is obviously no taboo against reading and listening and watching and enjoying any of the great media available from the past, however the ego being what it is, we may not see the earlier work as one in transition and a compromise, or submission to the approach of devotees and what they represented, at that time and place. In other words all of it can be an enjoyment and a study, but from what I can understand of Bhagavan Adi Da’s final instruction and that given to His Renunciate devotee’s whom He definitely personally instructed was that He clearly wanted His word and emphasis to be as it was at the end of His physical Incarnation. Again this was without a doubt Adi Da’s Blessing Intention, so Adidam is correct in trying to manifest the Masters Instruction. Others will naturally take whatever position they will on His lifetime, but Adidam will always represent what the Master Himself conveyed as His Demand.

Just discovered these 2 video’s, the first one has a beautiful freshness to it, Adi Da’s Gaze is full of Blessing and Compassion

This one is more Esoteric and reveals a strong Transmission of Spiritual Potency ( Shaktipat)

Stories of devotee’s bringing the Master into life, communicating Him directly to others seem more prevalent in the 1970’s to early 1980’s, I can’t account for this, it is fundamentally mysterious, as are many things connected with the Adept’s Work, I don’t think it is either possible or necessary to try an explain this If you do want to speculate about it, here is my own addition, the 60-70’s were a completely energetically and psychically different time–weird stuff happened a lot more often

Some examples:

A man was standing in the Darshan line waiting to see UG Krishnamurti, a man in front of him turned and either spoke to him or others and said (paraphrasing) “If you want to see God, go to the Ashram Bookstore in L.A (at the time Adi Da was using this facility) He is there”. The man listening later became a devotee.

I met a devotee on Naitauba in November 2008, he had been so since 1974, both formal and informal, in that year he met a man named Bill C., who told him that Franklin Jones, a man in California was the “Living Siddha Master, without a shadow of doubt, the Real Thing”. Merely on the say so, of Bill, he went to California and became a devotee.

In the mid-late 70’s I went into a bookstore and found this incredible stack of books right down the back of the store in Melbourne, Australia (which was a conventional bookstore) It was truly mind blowing, they seemed to have tangible almost glowing, energetic quality, as if I had suddenly been thrust into another realm, the titles included : “Garbage And The Goddess” and “No Remedy” by someone called Bubba Free John, and some other books about Ramana Maharshi The humorous thing was I had previously read “The Knee of Listening” and did not know the author was the same, I bought a copy of “Garbage and Goddess” Talking to the sales assistant he seemed to be perplexed by the mysterious books as well, almost whispering about them. Later I learned that a very close devotee of Bubba Free John, had come to Town and distributed the books directly to that store.

I recently spoke to a lady H. who told me of seeing a friend called Terry (circa 1981-2) who had been practicing as a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, on his return to the West, he spoke of an amazing being called Da Free John and a book called “Garbage And The Goddess”, these 2 impresssions stayed in her mind.

Some time later in a 2nd hand bookshop, she saw GG and bought it, H. was a very poor english reader, being a native of Poland and expected to struggle with reading it, on the contrary the book came alive to her, she understood it completely, she told me of her profound experience merely by reading this book and feeling her connection to Adi Da via the photos’s inside, which stays with her to the present (2009)

There are dozens of true accounts recorded and unrecorded, just like these, another good example has recently been added to adidaupclose.org here, apart from being very well written it also clearly demonstrates the necessary influence of Adi Da’s devotees in making the Way available to others.