A Brief Bio of Adi Da Samraj

Adi Da Samraj is a spiritual master of the highest degree, with devotees all over the globe who have chosen to live the way that He teaches.

Adidam, the way that He has revealed, is offered to all beings as a means of realizing reality and waking up from suffering. His primary means of teaching is to transmit or radiate His state, which is that of egoless Divine Reality itself. Those who are sensitive to His transmission have a spontaneous recognition of who He is and therefore respond devotionally. Thus, the way that Adi Da teaches is not based on any kind of belief or technique but rather on this recognition and response to Him.

Adi Da was born in 1939 on Long Island, New York. He was born already in a state of absolute freedom, synchronous with infinite reality. He refers to Himself as an Avatar, a Sanskrit term that means, “One who has crossed down”, or one who was born already enlightened, already free from the limitations of the ego.

“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—always shining from the heart. And I was a Radiant form—the Source of Energy, Love-Bliss, and Light in the middle of a world that is entirely Energy, Love-Bliss and Light. I was the Power of Reality, a direct Enjoyment and Communication of the one Reality. I was the Heart Itself.”

~ Adi Da Samraj

At the age of two, Adi Da was spontaneously and compassionately moved to allow His enlightened state to recede into the background in order to “learn” the normal human experience of suffering and fearful mortality. His childhood was to all appearances relatively normal, but in fact His experience was constantly punctuated with intrusions of spiritual phenomena that gave evidence to His true state.

In 1957 Adi Da entered Columbia University, after graduating He began a Master’s degree in English literature at Stanford. In 1964 Adi Da moved to New York City where He found His first teacher Swami Rudrananda. Soon He was moved to see Swami Rudrananda’s Guru, Swami Muktananda, in India.

Swami Muktananda recognized Adi Da as a powerful spiritual being and after a period of time acknowledged Adi Da as enlightened and as a spiritual teacher. And yet Adi Da felt that there was something more to be realized. He eventually left Swami Muktananda’s ashram and engaged in a period of wandering. This wandering, lasting for months, contained an unfolding process of the greatest profundity. It eventually culminated in His divine re-awakening to His enlightened state. This profound process is described in detail in Adi Da’s spiritual autobiography, The Knee of Listening.

Since Adi Da’s re-awakening He has revealed an entirely new spiritual way, not based on any prior tradition, book, or teacher. He has considered all aspects of this way over years and years of relating to His devotees face to face. He has worked tirelessly to offer this way to everyone, making His case in multiple media. He has written dozens of books, given countless hours of talks, much of it available on video or audio, He has written an epic piece of theatre/literature that he has referred to as a “prose opera” called The First Room Trilogy, and He has created a body of visual artwork that includes, photographs, drawings and digital images. Some of His visual artwork was recently exhibited at the Venice Biennale, where it was received very favorably.

Adi Da is now in a period of blessing in which He speaks very little, and very rarely to large groups of people. Rather, having given the teaching, and demonstrating it fully over the past thirty-six years His mode is to be silent and available for contemplation, always blessing His devotees and the whole world.

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