Children
also suffer, but they do show this Life-sign of a spontaneous commitment to the
Motive of Ecstasy Itself, of True Joy. This is why their company is pleasing —
because they, without all the baggage of adults (in their suffering at any rate)
rather typically show the sign of this commitment that is fundamental to being
human, to being born. All other signs made in Nature, or by reaction, are there
to be overcome. And it is a great struggle — no doubt.
Avatar
Adi Da Samraj
(click picture for enlargement)
Every child must be free and ecstatic at the simple native level of his or her own existence. Children must be awakened to feel that they
are associated with an Infinite Power or Mystery that sustains them, that gave them birth, that is their Destiny, and that is the Power that moves their entire future
if they will associate with It rightly.
Every child must be free and ecstatic
at the simple native level of his or her own existence.
Children must be awakened to feel that they are associated with an Infinite Power or Mystery
That Sustains them, That Gave them birth,
That Is their Destiny, and That Is the Power
That Moves their entire future
if they will associate with It rightly.
Adi
Da Samraj has given extensive instruction about child development, the process
of human growth, and conscious childraising based on the principles of non-separation,
prior unity, and truly sacred culture. Adults in the Adidam community have studied,
practiced, and learned many lessons about the serious responsibility of raising
children.
Big Wisdom Free
School San Rafael, CA
Many devotees choose not
to have children because they understand the profound obligations of parenting
and decide to dedicate their time to the inherent demands of spiritual practice.
But for children who live in the community of devotees, we have provided excellent
education programs ranging from preschool to high school level. Big Wisdom Free
School (in San Rafael, California) and the Garden of Lions (in upstate New York)
are examples of Adidam schools that successfully served the education of young
people during the 1980's and 1990's.
Big Wisdom Free School San Rafael,
CA
This section includes
stories about the children and young people in Adidam, and their experiences growing
up in the Adidam community. We also will be adding personal accounts from the
adults who learned how to serve children, and from the young people who made the
choice to practice the Way of Adidam when they reached adulthood.
Please also visit the website published by our community organization
dedicated to serving children and educating others about Adi Da
Samraj's Instruction on children: The
Vision of Mulund Institute.
Children boating on Mother's
Bed
at The Mountain Of Attention
(click picture for enlargement)
1.1. Excepts from Adi Da's Teaching on Children and Childraising
(click picture for enlargement)
Three Talks by Avatar Adi Da Samraj
about the love of children and Spiritual practice.
Adi Da: "I Love men, women, children, walls, and frogs with the same profound intensity. I simply have a different kind of relationship with every being. I am in Love with children! I mean deeplyinLove with them. I have a profound love relationship with them."
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here. Other excerpts available on this site can be found here.
"We feel the Mystery and even breathe
it. We are more than what we look like.
We don't know what anything IS. We ARE the Mystery. IT is all
one feeling."
(click picture for enlargement)
1.2. Stories and Insights on Children and
Childraising
(click picture for enlargement)
Roar Like
a Lion — A three-year-old is drawn beyond his
fear by Adi Da Samraj.
The
Peach — Adi Da reads the mind and heart of one young
devotee with a strong desire.
Loss
of Intimacy and Inappropriate Behavior — Frank Marrero
tells the story of a lesson he learned as a teacher
at Adidam's Big Wisdom Free School, about using Adi
Da's wisdom about relationships and intimacy to address
children's inappropriate behavior.
1.3. Videos about Young People and their Relationship to Adi Da
(click picture for enlargement)
You must understand the limits you yourself are imposing upon Enlightenment. That sobers your very being. It must,
and only that sobering is the beginning of the Way. All beings are enthusiastic. Look at children. They would like to enforce their own
vital happiness forever, and have it Realize the Divine. At some point, they must understand — they must be sobered by Reality.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, at a gathering with devotees in July, 1987
In 1978, in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention, Adi Da answers a young boy's question about His energetic feet, pointing out that Enlightenment is not merely inner happiness but a whole bodily state. (He answered questions from young people for an hour.)
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
In this talk, Adi Da offers guidance on how to relate and serve children in the process of fully maturing and becoming a loving, balanced human being, capable of relating to others and to the Divine Itself.
This talk excerpt can be found on the CD, Remember About Being Happy: Instructions to and about Children. On this CD, Adi Da gives humorous and loving answers to questions from children and speaks of the freedom and the responsibility that parents and guides must grant to children for the sake of their “growth and out-growing”.
The First Three Stages Of Life: Serving the
Right, True, and Free Development of Children and
Young People and Completing the Human Work of Individuation,
Socialization, and Integration for Adults.
Presenting Instructions Given By His Divine Presence,
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
A
humorous and instructive story written by Adi Da Samraj
for young children. Onion One-Yin and his vegetable
friends embark on a search for someone who can help
them solve their problems — and discover the secret
of how to be happy, right now! Illustrated with black
and white line drawings.
The Scale of the Very Small: Establishing
Yogic Responsibility for Your Reproductive Potential
(Including Regenerative Sexuality and Orgasm, Birth
Control, Conscious Conception, Pregnancy, Birth, and
Infant Care)
Avatar
Adi Da’s Instruction on how and why we incarnate,
death and reincarnation, conscious conception and
birth control, Spiritually sensitive pregnancy and
infant care.
The Lesson Of Life: A Consideration with Young
Practioners of the Way of Adidam
Avatar Adi Da responds to a gathering of His young
devotees who were on retreat at Adi Da Samrajashram
(Avatar Adi Da's principal Hermitage, in Fiji) in
1991.
Look at the Sunlight on the Water: Educating
Children for a Life of Self-Transcending Love and
Happiness
In
2008, Beloved Bhagavan Adi Da said that He would like
to see more children's books written in Adidam and
that He wanted to write more as well. Now, after many
years, with the help of many devotees, there is a
children's book about Bhagavan and His first camel
Jingle Baba — with 55 awesome color photographs, many
of which have never been seen before. Jingle Baba:
the Happiest Camel is a heart-warming story about
the love between a camel from the London Zoo and the
Unique Spiritual Master and World-Teacher Adi Da Samraj.
Enjoy this magical story for children-about a duck named Yaneshwari who lived on the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in California, a little girl who loved animals and became his best friend, and the Great Heart-Master Adi Da Samraj who was visiting His non-human friends at Fear-No-More Zoo.
Beautifully illustrated by artist Melany Fay, this heart-warming little book will delight any child.
Detailed,
practical instruction and Wisdom on the first three
stages of life: individuation (1-7 years); socialization
(8-14 years); and discrimination and integration (15-21
years). Includes Talks and Essays by Avatar Adi Da
on conscious child-rearing.
The Practice of Ecstasy with Children: Booklet
3 of The Conscious Childrearing Series
Four young devotees in a puja acknowledging
the transition to the third stage of life
(click picture for enlargement)
Many (perhaps most) adolescents tend to allow their adolescence
to be used up by what Adi Da characterizes as a struggle between
dependence and independence. At a certain point, they "leave
the nest", and settle into the patterns of conventional "adulthood"
(defined primarily by family, friends, and job) for the long run,
through the end of their lives.
But adolescence can serve a greater purpose than just this transitional
struggle. It is a time when one has the free energy and attention (along with
the motivation) to ask deep questions like: Why are we here? and: What is the
purpose of life? Almost all of us do at least briefly consider questions such
as these when we are adolescents, but then the responsibilities of adulthood impinge
greatly on our time and energy, and these questions usually go "underground".
(They sometimes emerge explosively, decades later, in the not altogether conscious
form of a mid-life crisis. But doing things to make oneself feel "young" —
like buying sports cars or having affairs with younger people — doesn't
actually effectively address the deeper question of one's mortality: "What's
the point of it all if we're going to die in the end, anyway?")
The
usual life sequence is described in the Hindu tradition in four stages: brahmacharya:
the young person and student; grihastha: the householder, married with
children; vanaprastha:the retiree (a transitional period); and
sannyasa: the renunciate, whose life is focused on Spiritual Realization.
(In our contemporary materialistic society, the final, spiritually oriented "renunciate"
stage has been eliminated, and "retirement" is mostly devoted to materialistic
preoccupations.) The householder phase is presumed to be generally unavoidable — something one must experience oneself for a few decades — to get it out of one's system . . . to the degree where one is ready and willing to take up renunciate practice (in a non-idealistic fashion).
However, a fortunate few adolescents engage in a fuller
consideration of deep questions than most, and allow that consideration to move
their life in a profound direction, one that bypasses the usual life sequence.
(Perhaps they are being assisted by spiritual understanding carried over from
past lives. And perhaps they are also receiving the wisdom and spiritual blessing of a great Spiritual Master like Adi Da.) Their life has the possibility of proceeding straight from brahmacharya
to sannyasa, giving them a far greater opportunity than most for Spiritual
Realization (regardless of whether they go on to have intimate partners, children,
jobs, etc. — as is the case within life-positive traditions like Adidam,
where renunciation is not defined by ascetic dissociation from ordinary life,
but by one's complete focus on the Divine in the midst of — and transforming
one's relationship with — everything else).
The stories below are
about adolescents who are engaging their adolescence and early adulthood as just
such a spiritual opportunity.
In part one of this three-part series, 20 year-old Max Rykov describes first hearing about Avatar Adi Da Samraj and how Beloved Adi Da began to manifest in his life. More from Max here.
Devotee Rachel Kuhn, who grew up in the Company of Adi Da, offers this testimonial to His life and work.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 7 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
Devotee Megan Anderson, who grew up in the Company of Adi Da, offers this testimonial to His life and work. She also describes how she was encouraged by Adi Da to take up her service to Him as one of the key editors of His Word, and how He personally guided her growth into human maturity.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 7 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
Devotee Ben Grisso, who grew up in the Adidam community, and who worked with Adi Da on His Divine Image-Art, offers this testimonial to Adi Da's life and work.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 11 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
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