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Adi Da Samraj
File:Adi Da Samraj 2000.jpg
Adi Da Samraj
Born(1939-11-03)3 November 1939
Jamaica, New York, United States
Died27 November 2008(2008-11-27) (aged 69)
Naitauba, Lau Islands, Fiji

Adi Da Samraj (November 3, 1939 – November 27, 2008)[1][2], born Franklin Albert Jones in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, was a contemporary, often controversial guru, spiritual writer, and artist[3], and the founder of the new religious movement currently known as Adidam.

Adi Da asserted that he had realized the "Most Perfect Happiness—God, Truth, or Reality" — and that he had the power to transmit that divine realization to others. He called his religion Adidam, or "The Way of the Heart". In the tradition of the South Asian religions that were his primary influence, Adidam emphasizes a devotional, guru/disciple relationship with Adi Da[4], who claimed and is seen by his followers to be the most spiritually realized being ever to incarnate in human form, or even in the manifest cosmos.

Adi Da's teaching is summarized as follows: suffering is the result of the (false) presumption of separateness. This assumption forms the basis of all conventional human activity, and must be undone. The ego is identified by Adi Da as the activity of separativeness, which is enacted in every moment. Ultimately, there is only one divine consciousness, which is the state to be realized. This can be done by turning one's attention to the realizer of the divine in every moment, thereby receiving the grace of spiritual blessing and transmission. [5] He states that the ego cannot undo itself, which is why divinity in the form of the spiritual master appears in human life. He describes the ultimate condition (or prior condition) as love-bliss, self-radiant indivisible conscious light. More simply, he refers to it as the Bright. In this realization, all egoic tendency is "outshined", or made completely obsolete.[6]

Allegations by ex-members of what is now known as Adidam that Adi Da (then known as Da Free John) and some of his followers engaged in financial, sexual and emotional abuses were widely reported in American news media in 1985,[7][8] including The Today Show. [9] Adidam said these public allegations were part of a conspiracy to extort large sums of money from the religious group and to discredit and destroy the group in a smear campaign.[10] The claims were settled out of court by Adidam with payments and confidentiality agreements, per an attorney who handled three such cases.[7]

Biography

Born Franklin Albert Jones and raised in the New York City borough of Queens, he graduated from Columbia University in 1961, with a BA in philosophy, and from Stanford University in 1966 with an MA in English literature. In 1965, Franklin Jones became a disciple of Albert Rudolph, also known as Rudi or Swami Rudrananda. In 1968, Jones became a disciple of Rudi's Indian teacher Swami Muktananda, whom he visited in India, and, he wrote, gave him extraordinary spiritual experiences. For approximately one year, in 1968–1969, Adi Da was involved with Scientology[11] (mention of which was omitted from subsequent versions of his autobiography, which say that during this period he did not meditate, but "simply listened"[12]). He returned to India in 1969 to see Muktananda, who subsequently gave Adi Da a letter acknowledging his yogic realization and authorizing him to initiate others into the Siddha Yoga tradition of meditation (this letter can be read here: [8] and a photograph of this hand-written letter can be viewed here: [9].

Adi Da (then still Franklin Jones) founded his own group in April 1972, operating out of a bookstore in Los Angeles, California. Initially known as the Dawn Horse Communion, the movement founded by Adi Da has been through several name changes: previous names have included The Free Primitive Church of Divine Communion, The Johannine Daist Communion, and Free Daism. It is now known as Adidam, or The Way of the Heart.[13]Adi Da formally left Muktananda after a meeting in India in 1973, where Adi Da and Muktananda differed irrevocably on the nature of full enlightenment, which Jones claimed he'd achieved while Muktananda had not.[citation needed]

In 1974, Adi Da and his followers established a residential community in Northern California called Persimmon, which became the center of their organization. In 1983, the group purchased an estate on the island of Naitauba, Fiji, which became the center of Adidam's activities as well as Adi Da's residence.[14]

Adi Da frequently changed his name, which he asserted reflected changes in his teaching. As a student of Muktananda, he was given the name Dhyanananda. Shortly after declaring himself an independent teacher, he adopted the name Bubba Free John. In 1978, he changed this to Da Free John. Subsequent names included Da Love-Ananda, Da Kalki, Da Avabhasa, and finally the Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj, literally "the radiant avatar, primordial giver, universal ruler". His followers frequently refer to him simply as "Beloved".[15]

Adi Da died of cardiac arrest at the age of 69 in Fiji at 5:05 PM Thursday, November 27, 2008. [citation needed]


Adi Da wrote over 70 books on religion and related matters. [citation needed]

He had four daughters: one adopted, and three biological daughters by three different women. [16]

Adidam

In the introduction to his teaching, the Adidam website states: "While there have been many saints and sages in human history, the ancient traditions of humankind foretell a final Revelation, a God-Man promised for the "late-time" who will perfectly fulfill the deepest longings of the human heart. Adidam is established on the recognition that this all-surpassing Event has occurred. Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj is the Divine Being of Grace and Truth Who authenticates the ancient intuitions."[citation needed]

Adi Da wrote that "I (Alone) Am the Avatarically Self-Manifested Divine Self-Revelation of the seventh stage of life." [citation needed] In his cosmology, there are 7 stages of life. Though once teaching that he was only one among a small number of beings to reach the 7th stage, after 1991 he claimed he was the only one to have done so (writing that Buddha was a Sixth Stage Realizer and Jesus a Fifth Stage Realizer) He stated "I Am the First and the Last seventh stage Adept to Appear in the human domain (and in the Cosmic Domain of all and All). It is neither possible nor necessary for another seventh stage Adept To Appear anywhere." [citation needed] According to Adidam, for the rest of humanity it is primarily through faith and devotion in Adi Da and this attainment that the end of human craving, hence suffering, can be achieved.[citation needed]

In the practice of Adidam, all the traditional means of religious life are employed as a means of "radical understanding" and devotional communion with Adi Da —meditation; study; ceremonial worship; community living; ethical observances; disciplines related to diet, health, and sexuality; money; and so on. The specific, or technical, practice of this relationship to Adi Da is called Ruchira Avatar-Bhakti Yoga—or the God-Realizing practice ("Yoga") of devotion ("Bhakti") to the Spiritual Master ("Ruchira Avatar") who is the chosen Beloved ("Ishta") of your heart. According to Adidam, Ruchira Avatara Bhakti Yoga (or Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga) is the turning of every faculty of the body-mind to Adi Da—always bringing attention, feeling, body, and breath into contemplative communion with him.[17]

Again, quoting Adi Da: "Those who do not Heart-Recognize Me and Heart-Respond to Me - and who (therefore) are without faith in Me - do not (and cannot) realize Me. Therefore, they (by means of their own self-contraction from Me) remain ego-bound to the Realm Of Cosmic Nature, and to the ever-changing round Of conditional knowledge and temporary experience, and to the ceaselessly repetitive cycles of birth and search and loss and death."[citation needed]

While based in Fiji, there are a number of Adidam communities and practice centers around the world[18] In a 1999 news article they claimed 1,800 members worldwide [19]

Online, numbers of advocacy websites have been created for positive discussion, testimonials, and dissemination of Adi Da's teaching and influence (see 'Advocacy').

Art

In the last decade, Adi Da has engaged himself as an artist. From 1998 to 2006 he focused primarily on camera based images. During this time he created a body of work exceeding 60,000 images. In 2006 he began to create large or “monumental” scale digital images using pigmented inks and paper on large aluminum substructures. In some cases he has integrated his original photographic and videographic images into this digital work. [20] Adi Da states that his image-art can be characterized as paradoxical space that undermines “point of view”, and thus communicates a reality or truth that transcends the limitations of the ego. [21] Adi Da calls this art “Transcendental Realism”. [22] In 2007 Adi Da was featured as a collateral artist at the 52nd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition [23] curated by highly recognized and respected Italian contemporary art critic, Achille Bonito Oliva who wrote in his curatorial statement, “Adi Da Samraj has established a new use of geometry, as a fertile field of unconventional aesthetic communication that takes delight in developing its principles asymmetrically, through surprise and feeling. [24] Welcome Books of New York has also published a book of Adi Da’s work titled “The Spectra Suites” with a forward by American art critic and professor of art history, Donald Kuspit, who wrote “It is Adi Da Samraj’s imaginative triumph to have conveyed the illusions created by discrepant points of view and the emotionally liberating effect when they aesthetically unite in the psyche of the shocked perceiver.” [25] Hank Sims, writing for the alternative weekly newspaper North Coast Journal, was dismissive of Adi Da's art and suggested parallels between his efforts as guru and as artist, stating: "both rackets require the ability to corral a pile of detritus and imbue it with all the mystery and meaning and wonder that has supposedly escaped our dull, quotidian existence."[26] American art critic Titus O'Brien, blogging for the online Texas art journal Glasstire.com said: "[Adi Da] studied the roots of Modernism in college before realizing he was “the World Teacher.” You see him channeling Bauhaus, surrealist, and pop sources he would have been aware of, mixed in with some Indian yantric trickery and happy Hawaii tourist art cliches. Subtle they aren't."[27]

Controversies

In 1985 Adi Da and his church were sued by a former member for (among other things) fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, and assault and battery; the suit sought $5 million in damages.[8]) The church then filed its own suit naming the former member and 5 others for abuse of process, extortion, breach of fiduciary duty and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit further charged that the 6 former members tried to deprive the church of its "constitutionally protected rights to freedom of religion. The church sought $20 million in damages.[10] In November 1985 a Marin County judge ruled that the plaintiff had no legal basis for bringing the original lawsuit. [28]

Around the time of these lawsuits, Adi Da and Adidam (then known as Da Free John and The Johannine Daist Communion) were subjects of a report on The Today Show.[9] There, and in other media reports, ex-members were quoted as saying that Adi Da exhibited a pattern of abusive, and self-serving behavior. Adidam charged that these public allegations were part of a conspiracy to extort large sums of money from the church.[10] They said that the former members "met several times to discuss, conspire and scheme to obtain extraordinary sums of money from Adidam under the threat of destroying the church".[10] Adidam also said that the former members unfairly discredited the church in the eyes of the public through a media smear campaign.[10] Adidam stated that they received a letter several months prior to the public allegations that were made on the Today Show and in other local media. In that letter the former followers of Adi Da demanded $5,200,000 and said that they might undertake to destroy the church if their demands were not met.[10]

Examples of allegations made public on The Today Show were that Adi Da forced one woman to participate in a pornographic movie and also gave her herpes. Also, one woman in her 20’s who claimed that her first encounter with Adi Da was at the age of 10, when she met him at a naked party and he told her to take off her clothes. She stated: "And I said, no, and I ran out of the room. Somebody had to go get me, and I had to take off my clothes". [9] Other former followers of Adi Da made the following statements also on the Today Show: "There was only a handful of the women he hadn't taken sexually. And this involved getting them drunk, having them stand up and strip, and then taking them in the bedroom."[9] "He could do whatever he wanted with his women that way. He lined a bunch of us up, and took off all our clothes and cut all our pubic hair. You know, if he wanted to cut their hair, he cut their hair. He owned them. I mean we were owned."[9] "I ended up giving up my own personal morality and adopting his morality."[9]

Local media also reported that a church spokesman disclosed that despite previous denials, controversial sexual practices involving the guru had continued after 1976, but had been hidden from some members and the general public.[29] A church official said that no illegal acts took place and the church had a right to continue experiments in lifestyles.[30]

In 2005, the Washington Post reported: '"The lawsuits and threatened suits that dogged the group in the mid-1980s were settled with payments and confidentiality agreements", says a California lawyer, Ford Greene, who handled three such cases.'[7]

In his 1989 book, Saniel Bonder wrote "Much of which was alleged in the media was sheerly preposterous and much of the rest was twisted and distorted...the representatives of our institution learned the hard way there is no way to achieve a fair hearing in the sensation-mongering elements of public reporting."[31]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Spiritual leader passes on", Fiji Times Online, Friday, November 28, 2008
  2. ^ Adidam home page
  3. ^ Samraj, Adi Da The Spectra Suites (2007) Pg. 17. New York: Welcome Books, ISBN 978-1-59962-031-2
  4. ^ Lewis, 2001, pg. 215
  5. ^ Samraj, Adi Da , Ruchira Avatara Hridaya-Siddha Yoga (2000) Pg. 76, Dawn Horse Press, ISBN 1-57097-106-4
  6. ^ "Do Not Misunderstand Me",p. 20, My Bright Word, Adi Da Samraj, 2005, ISBN 1-57097-205-2
  7. ^ a b c "Deep Throat's Daughter, The Kindred Free Spirit".
  8. ^ a b Butler, Katy. "SEX SLAVE" SUES GURU: Pacific Isle Orgies Charged in San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 1985. [1]
  9. ^ a b c d e f Transcript of NBC Today Show report on Da Free John, Transcript by Steve Hassan, 2000; retrieved Nov. 2, 2006.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Colin, Molly. "Da Free John Sect Sues 6 Ex-Members On Extortion Charge" in The Mill Valley Record, April 17, 1985. [2]
  11. ^ Jones, Franklin Albert, The Knee of Listening, (1972) Pg. 84 CSA Press, GA. ISBN 0-87707-093-8 [3]
  12. ^ The Knee of Listening: The Early-Life Ordeal and the Radical Spiritual Realization of the Divine World-Teacher, Adi Da (The Da Avatar). New Standard Edition, popular format: 9/95). ISBN 1-57097-023-8
  13. ^ Lewis, 2001, pg. 215
  14. ^ Lewis, 2001, pg. 217
  15. ^ Feuerstein, Remembrance Of The Divine Names of Da, 1982
  16. ^ Feuerstein, 2006, p. 169
  17. ^ Lewis, 2001, pg. 219
  18. ^ The Adidam Global Community of Websites
  19. ^ Gourley, Scott and Edmiston, Rosemary Adidam Comes to the North Coast January 14th, 1999, North Coast Journal. Humboldt County, California
  20. ^ Samraj, Adi Da The Spectra Suites (2007) Pg. 18. New York: Welcome Books, ISBN 978-1-59962-031-2
  21. ^ Samraj, Adi Da The Spectra Suites (2007) Pg. 13. New York: Welcome Books, ISBN 978-1-59962-031-2
  22. ^ Samraj, Adi Da The Spectra Suites (2007) Pg. 15. New York: Welcome Books, ISBN 978-1-59962-031-2
  23. ^ La Biennale di Venezia, Art, 52nd exhibition, [4]
  24. ^ Arte Communications, Exhibitions 2007, Transcendental Realism: The Art of Adi Da Samraj. [5]
  25. ^ Samraj, Adi Da The Spectra Suites (2007) Pg. 11. New York: Welcome Books, ISBN 978-1-59962-031-2
  26. ^ Boys Making Noise, by Hank Sims. North Coast Journal, April 5, 2007.
  27. ^ Nothing Always Happens, by Titus O'Brien. July, 2008
  28. ^ http://lightmind.com/thevoid/daism/sfchron-03.html
  29. ^ Butler, Katy. "Sex Practices Did Not Cease, Marin Cult Officials Admit" in The San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 1985. [6]
  30. ^ Seidman, Peter. "Sexual Experiments Continued after '76, JDC Officials Admit" in The Mill Valley Record, April 10, 1985. [7]
  31. ^ The Divine Emergence of The World Teacher S. Bonder 1989 p 244

References

  • Georg Feuerstein, Holy Madness: The Shock Tactics and Radical Teachings of Crazy-Wise Adepts, Holy Fools, and Rascal Gurus, Paragon House, 1991, ISBN 1-55778-250-4; Hohm Press; Rev & Expand edition Holy Madness: Spirituality, Crazy-Wise Teachers, And Enlightenment, (June 15, 2006) ISBN 1-890772-54-2
  • James R. Lewis, Odd Gods: New Religions and the Cult Controversy Book, Premetheus Books, February 2001, 435 pgs. ISBN-10: 1573928429

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to Adi Da.

Advocacy

  • Adidam.org: Official Website of Adidam
  • Da Plastique: Adi Da's "Transcendental Realism" Art (Official Adidam site)
  • Fear No More Zoo Zoo established by Adi Da (Official Adidam site)
  • DAbase: Unofficial Advocacy Site (includes mirrored Adidam publications)

Criticism

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