On November 3, 1939, Avatar Adi Da Samraj was born on Long Island, New York. From His birth and throughout His infancy, He Enjoyed a unique State which He called "the 'Bright'": Even as a baby I remember only crawling around inquisitively with a boundless Feeling of Joy, Light, and Freedom in the middle of my head that was bathed in Energy moving unobstructed in a Circle, down from above, all the way down, then up, all the way up, and around again, and always Shining from my heart. It was an Expanding Sphere of Joy from the heart. And I was a Radiant Form, the Source of Energy, Love-Bliss, and Light in the midst of a world that is entirely Energy, Love-Bliss, and Light. For His first two years, Avatar Adi Da enjoyed the undiminished Bliss of His Real Condition. But then He made the spontaneous choice to relinquish the "Bright"--to be an apparently separate person relating to apparently separate others. He made this choice out of a "painful loving", a sympathy for the suffering of human beings. He was responding to the Great Impulse behind His Birth--to make the "Bright" known to every one. The only way that He could fulfill this Purpose was to intentionally "forget" the "Bright", to experience life from the ordinary human point of view--and then, in the midst of that limited condition, to find the Way to recover the "Bright". This was Avatar Adi Da's early-life Ordeal. He had no method or technique for recovering the "Bright". For the next 28 years-from the age of two until the age of thirty-He simply embraced every aspect of human life in order to discover the Truth. He first explored all the realms of ordinary human experience. And then, at the age of twenty-four, He turned to the Spiritual traditions of mankind. Through the guidance of His Spiritual Teachers--first an American, Swami Rudrananda (known as "Rudi"), and then Rudi's own Gurus from India, Swami Muktananda and Swami Nityananda--Adi Da passed through all the traditional Realizations, including visions, trances, mystical raptures, states of profound meditation, and Transcendental "Knowledge". Avatar Adi Da's Impulse to Truth led Him into territory unknown to His Gurus, unknown in any Spiritual tradition. His ultimate Divine Re-Awakening to the "Bright" occurred on the basis of a unique insight, a "radical" understanding that places mankind's entire history of Spiritual seeking and Realization in a new light--and leads beyond it.
This "radical understanding" transformed Avatar Adi Da's entire perception of Reality. He came to Realize that we are now and always inseparably One with the Divine, the Very Source and Consciousness of all worlds and beings, and that the feeling of being separate from the Divine is something that we are doing. He came to see with total clarity that each human being, in every moment, is creating an illusion in Consciousness--the illusion that he or she is a separate, mortal being, and that all others are separate beings also. And He saw that at the root of this illusion is the act of self-contraction--a shut-down feeling, a withholding of oneself from others and the world, a heart-refusal, a recoil from the One Divine Reality.
On September 10, 1970 the culminating Event of Avatar Adi Da's Spiritual Ordeal occurred in a small temple in southern California. On this day He went and sat in the temple, as usual: As time passed, there was no Event of changes, no movement at all. There was not even any kind of inward deepening, no "inwardness" at all. There was no meditation. There was no need for meditation. There was not a single element or change that could be added to make my State Complete. I sat with my eyes open. I was not having an experience of any kind. Then, suddenly, I understood most perfectly. I Realized that I had Realized. The "Thing" about the "Bright" became Obvious. I Am Complete. I Am the One Who Is Complete.
In That instant, I understood and Realized (inherently, and most perfectly) What and Who I Am. It was a tacit Realization, a direct Knowledge in Consciousness. It was Consciousness Itself, without the addition of a Communication from any "Other" Source.
Avatar Adi Da had permanently and Most Perfectly Re-Awakened to the "Bright". His Realization was not dependent on meditative states, or on any manipulation of experience. It transcended even the slightest sense of being a separate self. It is the Realization that There Is Only Real God, and that all apparent things and beings and events are simply the passing forms (or modifications) of Real God, arising and dissolving in an endless Play that is, ultimately, Realized to be Bliss and Love beyond comprehension.
Now Avatar Adi Da was consumed with an intense urgency to Teach the great Process of Liberation which He had Discovered and which His own Re-Awakening made possible for others. Individuals began coming to Avatar Adi Da, and, face to face, He Instructed them, down to the smallest detail, in everything that it takes to practice a truly human and Spiritual life. Thus Adi Da Samraj established the religion of Adidam, creating the culture of His devotees that exists worldwide today.
Avatar Adi Da's Work is to Awaken everyone to the unqualified Joy and Bliss and Love of Real God. He is the Incarnation of the Eternal Divine Being, Who has Descended into this world in Love-Response to beings everywhere. After 25 years of Divine Teaching and Blessing Work, Avatar Adi Da has summarized His Wisdom-Teaching in 23 extraordinary "Source-Texts". The Five Books Of The Heart Of The Adidam Revelation are the epitome of this Great Communication and Gift to the world.
