Avatar Adi Da Samraj |
Book Excerpts Eleutherios 
"You Can't Get There From Here"(continued) In 1986, in what Avatar Adi Da has described as His "last great Teaching Demonstration", He made a Spiritual Revelation that summarized everything He had ever Taught. Over the years (and especially in His first great Teaching Demonstration in 1974), He had miraculously and liberally Transmitted all the ascended visions and supersensory experiences that are valued in Kundalini Yoga, and shown that they were "not it". But, during this time in 1986, He took many devotees beyond the entire "tour" of Spiritual experience that is potential in the "Circle" (or esoteric circuitry) of the body-mind, and Revealed directly what is Prior to all of that. He drew devotees into profound glimpses of the Position of Consciousness Itself, and tacitly showed them how Identification with Consciousness Itself is associated with a psycho-physical locus in the right side of the heart. For a period of time, devotees' sense of standing in this utterly Free Position was entirely real — a miraculous Gift. And then, at a certain point, it faded, and there was a lesson to be learned about what is required to be truly equipped for the "Perfect Practice". One devotee, Angelo Druda, who had been a practitioner of Adidam for more than a decade at that time, describes the process that occurred in his case after he came to Adi Da Samrajashram (Avatar Adi Da's Fijian Hermitage) in March 1986, in order to enter into Spiritual retreat in his Master's Company. ANGELO: The first occasion of sitting with Avatar Adi Da Samraj was indescribably profound. From the moment the sitting began, I felt utterly and totally assumed by Him. I did not really even know how deeply until towards the end of the evening when He became quite still and most intense and began speaking about Consciousness. He said, "How foolish to bind Consciousness to life!" — and I suddenly realized that every cell of my being was profoundly sympathetic with what He was saying. I had sat with Him many times, and never felt such depth of sympathy with His Argument. I had always felt a kind of sympathy, but the resistance had usually been strong. But, in this case, there was literally an awakening taking place. Then Avatar Adi Da started speaking about Outshining the Cosmic Mandala, and He began to Demonstrate how Divine Consciousness Outshines all worlds, all beings, all space, and all perception. I felt Him Magnifying the True Self-Position to the point that any form of noticing of even the time-space dimension was being lost. There was only this Happiness.
No one could move for half an hour after He left. All devotees present remained because they were so lost in this Happiness. During the second week of my retreat, I began to experience a lot of Yogic phenomena. For the first couple of days, I would come back from meditation, sit in my room, and simply become an amorphous energy-body — not particularly identified with the body-mind, and extremely blissful. As these phenomena began to occur, I wanted them to go on forever. But then one day, after an occasion of Avatar Adi Da's Darshan, I lay down on my bed and entered a visionary state. I began to feel a clear white, bright light, particularized in the base of my subtle being, rise up. By the time it passed through the throat and began to move into my face, I began to feel my body dissolve from the base to the throat and then beyond the throat — my face began to dissolve. For a moment, I stopped the process through fear — but then I allowed it to continue, to the point where I observed my entire face break up into tiny molecular and atomic particles and even smaller particles. After the entire face was dissolved, there was a classic vision of a thousand-petaled lotus — and then I enjoyed the dissolution of the lotus. Then there was simply nothing but a blue void, devoid of form. I do not recall what occurred beyond that.
I woke up again into bodily consciousness and said to myself, "So that's that. Do I spend the rest of my life trying to have that experience again?" That seemed absurd. The ascending mode seemed empty of fascination at that point. The next day I went to one of the Communion Halls, called "Extraordinary Eyes", for meditation. As I walked up to the Hall, I saw Avatar Adi Da's Sandals on the steps and knew that He must be in the Hall. At the time, He would visit the Halls periodically and Work to further Empower them with His Spiritual Transmission. I waited with several others, and after a time He came out. To everybody who saw Avatar Adi Da, it seemed that He was walking in very slow motion. Time was profoundly "stretched". His Siddhi somehow broke through time, or the way we perceive time — a phenomenon that is accounted for in numerous stories of Adepts in the traditions. There was a tremendous aura of peace and depth around Him. I noticed that He had moved everyone who saw Him into Samadhi. Each one was taken over, assumed by the Guru. As He left, I went into the Hall. I sat down and noticed that my meditation was seated in the right side of the heart. I began to receive sublime internal Instruction from Avatar Adi Da: "If this subtle contraction that arises in the heart is not transcended, almost immediately attention moves out and fixes in the Circle of the body-mind, either in the lower coil (fear, sorrow, and anger, the vital drama of life) or in the upper coil (the drama of ascended experience and spinal phenomena). I observed this subtle contraction in the heart as the primitive sense of relatedness. Avatar Adi Da showed me the whole thing, and He Communicated directly, without words, "If you transcend the tiny interior tension at the heart, there is no need to exploit the Circle. There is no identity. There is no separate being involved in situational phenomena." Angelo's account shows the unparalleled Divine Transmission that Avatar Adi Da was pouring upon His devotees during that period. And, at the same time, He was making a lesson. Devotees soon found that they could not consistently remain in the Position of Consciousness Itself, Prior to the body-mind — and, thus, their attempts to actually transcend that "tiny interior tension" (or root-form of egoity) fell back into mere fruitless techniques. The fact was that devotees had not yet fully adapted to all the preliminary practices that are the necessary foundation for the "Perfect Practice". And, most important, they had not yet gone deep enough in the devotional and Spiritual relationship to Avatar Adi Da to allow Him to move them beyond body-mind identification altogether and permanently. Nevertheless, Avatar Adi Da made this unique "Teaching Demonstration" in order to quicken the seriousness of devotees to fully prepare themselves for the ultimate course of Realization. Only a Supreme Master could have done this. There is no record anywhere in the traditions of such an awesome Manifestation of Divine Power, Revealing to ordinary people the literal process of ultimate Spiritual and Transcendental Awakening. Avatar Adi Da has spoken many times about the lessons of that time. He has emphasized that no mere disciplines, no philosophy, no ego-effort of any kind can accomplish the transition to the "Perfect Practice" of the Way of Adidam. It is a Divine Spiritual Matter. Only He can Accomplish this profound transformation in His devotee.
Next: Divine Self-Recognition — from The Dawn Horse Press —
 Eleutherios The Only Truth That Sets The Heart Free This new edition of Eleutherios is Avatar Adi Da's Supreme and Summary Instruction on His Great Offering of the "Perfect Practice" in His Divine Company. It also contains His most recent Instructions to His devotees about the "preliminary root-practices of the Way of Perfect Knowledge", including "Reverse Enquiry". learn more Paperback: 736 pages $34.95 |
