The Eternal Vow

If you were brought up in the Jewish culture, perhaps the main thing you learned as a kid about "comparative religion" was to discriminate between "orthodox" and "reform" Judaism, focusing on the notion that the key difference between the two alternatives was strictness (as well as the latter being more of a cultural than a religious choice, since the "reform" presumption is that God didn't write the Torah). There really isn't a notion of Spiritual Realization per se associated with either choice, so that was not part of your consideration. And now you are projecting that same distinction onto Eastern paths and Adidam, "grading" some as having a degree of strictness more like the "reform" alternative, and others (like Adidam) as more like "orthodox" Judaism — and expressing a personal preference for the less strict "reform" alternatives.

But this evaluation of Adidam (evaluating it solely on the basis of "strictness", not on the Realization offered) misses the entire point of the Adidam Offering! Adidam is not belief-based. It is not a conventional religion, with "commandments" that you are supposed to conform to in order to be a moral person. Adidam is a Revelation-based Way, whose sole purpose is Spiritual Realization. I can't emphasize this enough! And I don't think we devotees do a good enough job in communicating this.

Let me say it again: Adidam is a Revelation-based Way. This means (amazingly enough!) that you are not to become a devotee until a miracle occurs: the direct Revelation to you that Adi Da is the Divine Person. It is the exact opposite of getting up the will to do it. In some sense, you don't choose It; It chooses you. It doesn't "choose you" in the sense that the Divine Person is deciding when to give you this Revelation, and "holding back" until then. No — the Blessing for enabling this Revelation is constant (bold added by us):

So as Adi Da has said for years (and spells out the "why" more precisely in the above passage), it is His "meditation" of us (not anything we do per se) that is consequential in terms of actual Realization, and even becoming a devotee.

But even though it is not sufficient or the core of what transforms us, our meditation on Him is essential, to allow Him to do His Work with us. (To use another of Adi Da's metaphors, about the "division of labor" between Adi Da and His devotee: Grasp the tail of the Horse; the Horse will then take you — but you must be grasping the tail of the Horse.) So your receiving this always-given Revelation (and becoming a devotee of Adi Da on that basis) depends on It catching you in a moment of sufficient heart-openness, and in the presence of the means for transmitting this Revelation. And when exactly that will happen is a matter of Grace. But just as "chance favors the prepared mind", so Grace favors the person who is steadily immersing themselves in the Means for transmitting this Revelation. It is a relationship from the beginning. Adi Da is always Transmitting Himself. But the Revelation depends on you being open enough to Him that Adi Da can reveal Himself to you.

This is completely different from orthodox Judaism, or any of the Eastern paths. None of them is offering God-Realization, made possible by God appearing here in human form. In contrast, that is the communication and offering of Adidam. Everything else is secondary to that communication. It's not about meditation techniques, breathing exercises, culture, community, etc. Those are completely secondary to the primary communication: God is here in person.[1]

The eternal vow is only to be taken by people who have received that Revelation of Adi Da as the Divine Person. This is why Adi Da says (bold added by us):

First the Revelation; then the Eternal Vow. It is also why the Eternal Vow begins:

You cannot say this — you cannot and should not take this vow — without having received the Revelation that allows you to recognize Who Adi Da is. No one should be saying these words on the basis of belief or "faith". Revelation alone is the sole basis for speaking this vow.

Conversely — and this is the key point for you — IF you receive the Revelation of Adi Da as the Divine Person — your Own True Nature — you won't have the slightest difficulty signing the Eternal Vow, or any problem with the notion of surrender (into your own True Nature). As Adi Da has said:

You happily, willingly want that moment of Revelation to last forever, to last for all eternity! You never want to leave the Divine State Revealed in that moment — and the eternal vow, surrender, and the entire practice of the Way of Adidam, all completely resonate with your own deepest, heartfelt desire to never leave the Divine State that was Revealed, to never lose the Revelation that was Given in a moment of Grace.

What exactly is the nature of this Revelation of Adi Da as the Divine Person, that enables someone to begin the Revealed Way of Adidam? It certainly is not based on the Judeo-Christian notion of "God" or "Divine Person" as the one who created the universe, or is in charge of the universe now, or is omnipotent, or omniscient. Instead, it is based on the notion of the Divine Person as the Source of the universe: this entire universe is arising in the Divine Consciousness. It literally is a modification of the Divine Consciousness, in much the same way as a dream I have at night is a modification of my consciousness.

Once in a very rare while, a circumstance arises that allows the Divine Consciousness to appear in its own dreamed universe as a human being, enabling others to awaken out of the dream and Realize the Divine State. That is what happened in Adi Da's case. But that Adi Da is just such an incarnation of the Divine Person must be Revealed to you.

This doesn't mean you have some kind of "vision" (say, of Adi Da coming from the Divine Domain and incarnating here). The Revelation is not really a matter of visions, or any other kind of experience (although some devotees do have such visionary experiences too). Rather, here is how you know when you've received the Revelation that is recognition of Adi Da as the Divine Person, upon which the entire Way of Adidam is based:

(1) - (5) above are what you understand when you receive this Revelation.

Bottom line: once you actually receive this Revelation, you won't have any problem with "an Eternal Vow"! What you will be aware of is that you could lose what was Revealed — and nothing in you wants to do that, ever (for all eternity). No one wants to lose Perfect Happiness, once one becomes aware of its Reality. That's why you willingly sign the Eternal Vow! That's why the word, "eternal", poses no problems for you. Because you want the Perfect Happiness that was Revealed to be your Real State forever. The State of Perfect Happiness is every heart's deepest impulse. That's why everyone talks about wanting to be happy (or happier than they are at present). It's just that our materialistic culture has no awareness that Perfect, Eternal Happiness actually exists or that there is an always available Source of It (in the form of Adi Da). So moments of limited happiness are what we usually aspire to, in our presumption that "that's as good as it gets".

I should also point out that — from a philosophical standpoint, there are not many contexts in which it even makes sense to talk about an Eternal Vow . . . but this is one of them. In order for a vow to be eternal what you are vowing to or about has to be something that actually endures, independent of changing circumstances, independent of what any or all future lifetimes may look like. We can't even make an "Eternal Vow" of love, commitment, or fidelity to our spouse, since we have no way of ensuring that we will be together in future lifetimes! The best we can do is a vow in this lifetime: "till death do us part". An Eternal Vow could only be conceived in terms of something that is actually eternal, and the only thing that is eternal is the Divine State, the Divine Person, our very Source; and our relationship with the Divine, with Eternity, with that which is prior to time and space. Everything else passes. So in fact, our relationship with the Divine Person — with that which is always already the case and doesn't change with circumstance — is the only context in which we can make an Eternal Vow, even in principle.

So what should you do if you haven't yet received the Revelation I described above, but nonetheless are attracted to Adi Da (because of His Wisdom, because you feel His Spiritual Transmission, or whatever the reason) and are interested in doing everything you can to enhance the possibility of receiving this Revelation? Your best bet is to immerse yourself in the contemplation of Adi Da: His Word (books, websites, audios, etc.), His Image (photos, videos, etc.), His Art, supporting and serving His Work of liberating all beings, etc. The Revelation will then be Given to you, sooner or later, in some Graceful moment!

Becoming a devotee of Adi Da is not like joining a club. It is not like joining the exoteric versions of the Eastern paths, to which your question alluded. It is more akin to joining the esoteric versions of those paths, which were carefully protected from casual curiosity seekers and to which few were allowed entrance. Unlike the traditional approach in ancient times, we don't "guard" the Way of Adidam from curiosity seekers. Rather, in this era of global interconnectedness, we want as many people as possible to be aware of this extraordinary opportunity. Nonetheless, to take advantage of this opportunity requires the same seriousness as the traditional esoteric Ways, western or eastern. Only, rather than this seriousness being primarily a matter of a sober assessment of conditional existence and an application of personal will (as many have mistaken becoming a devotee of Adi Da to be about), this seriousness is primarily based on a personal response to Revelation. But it is a joyful seriousness! Like the joyful seriousness associated with preparing for one's wedding, after having fallen in love. As Adi Da once put it, Adidam is "a hard school, but a happy way of life."

Over the years, Adi Da engaged in an ongoing process of refining the "entrance requirements" for becoming a devotee. From a historical viewpoint, it has only been since about 2000 (and the time of the Ruchira Dham Event) that He really began focusing on "recognition of Him as the Divine" as the starting point and basis for taking up the Way of Adidam — changing not only the language of the Eternal Vow to reflect that, but the language of His Teaching altogether. (This is most evident in The Boundless Confession and Volume 7 of The Aletheon.) The timing is not surprising, in retrospect, because all that occurred with the Ruchira Dham Event made that Divine Revelation more transparent and more readily available to all than ever before.

Since Adi Da made that clarification, I don't think we, as a Mission, have done as good a job as we could in clearly communicating to those interested in the possibility of becoming a devotee what is meant by the "Adidam Revelation" — I suspect a significant number of people have taken the Eternal Vow (even becoming Second Congregation devotees) who haven't received the Revelation I described in (1) through (5) above. (They perhaps have felt Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission in some sense, but that is not the same thing as recognition of Him as the Divine.) If so, that was a mistake, and shouldn't have been allowed to happen. Adi Da Himself has confirmed this many times by speaking of the lack of the necessary recognition of Him among devotees. This is not a criticism of people's practice, or a criticism of anything people can intentionally "change" (one can't "will" oneself to recognize Him as the Divine Person — it's a Revelatory Gift); it's simply a criticism that implies people were allowed to be called "devotees" prematurely. But hopefully we (as a Mission) will make this clearer over time — I certainly am doing my best to clarify it for you here!

Once this is clearly understood, it is also clear that there may be a lot of people (like yourself) who would like to have a means for immersing themselves in this preparatory process of coming into Adi Da's "Room" as often as possible, to the point where His Revelation is received. I think we also can do a better job in creating such a living community (we might call it, "Friends of Adi Da") for those of us (like yourself) who are attracted to Adidam and Adi Da but have not yet received the Adidam Revelation in its fullest form of recognition of (and on that basis, response to) Adi Da as the Divine. And in this sense I think you are exactly right: we can create a more vibrant community of pre-Adidam "friends". But actual practitioners of the Way are a different matter altogether: they can only be those who have received this Revelation. You are in some sense right in intuiting the difficulty of taking up the Way of Adidam without having received this Revelation. It's not only difficult — it's impossible!

This response is meant not to discourage the reader, but rather to clarify, inspire and move you to do what is required to receive this extraordinary Revelation, this miracle which many otherwise ordinary people have received, by doing the necessary preparation. As I said earlier, your best bet is to immerse yourself in the contemplation of Adi Da: His Word [2], His Image (photos, videos, etc.), His Art, serving His World Work, etc. We will do our best to help you with this "immersion" process. And that Revelation will be Given to you by Grace, sooner or later — guaranteed! The Revelation is always being Transmitted. When you receive It depends upon the occurrence of a moment when you are turning to that Revelation, and your heart is sufficiently open.

Q: Wow — so becoming a devotee of Adi Da requires a miraculous Revelation to occur. . . that is incredible! But then why is a vow needed, after you have had such a Divine Revelation? Wouldn't the Revelation transform you (and your behavior) so profoundly that it would render a vow unnecessary?

A: If only! Yes, in principle, a single moment of Revelation should be "sufficient to motivate a lifetime of practice", as Adi Da has said. This would be the best of circumstances. And if one were living in the ancient cultures Adi Da associated with the Ancient Walk-About Way, one's culture raises one to be spiritually sensitive and responsive — to the point where that initial moment of Revelation may very well be sufficient.

But modern, materialistic culture is at the extreme other end of the spiritual spectrum from the cultures of the Ancient Walk-About Way. We are profoundly in-sensitive to the Spiritual and Transcendental dimensions of Reality. Starting in the 16th century with the Reformation (which established the notion that anyone — priests, saints, etc. — who set themselves up as an intermediary between man and God is suspect); and the Renaissance (which shifted the center of cultural focus from God to man and scientific and technological accomplishment — why pray to God when you can control the universe yourself?); we have been increasingly, culturally programmed to be profoundly distracted by programs of materialistic self-fulfillment and indulgence; to be profoundly anti-authoritarian; and to be profoundly anti-Guru.

Indeed, in modern materialistic culture, "Guru" is a taboo notion. So those of us living in this "Kali Yuga" (as Adi Da has often referred to this time), are profoundly in-sensitive to the miracles and the Revelation of the Divine Guru. If, in spite of that cultural programming, we receive a Divine Revelation from Adi Da, the odds are (because of our profound lack of preparation) it won't last very long, and we will be returned to our ordinary, heart-closing, egoic patterns fairly quickly, by the force of habit (over many lifetimes). And that is why the vow is necessary. A moment of Divine Revelation is sufficient to become Adi Da's devotee. But for most devotees, that is followed by an extended period of "beginner's practice", where brief moments of Divine Revelation punctuate long periods of no Revelation, or lesser Revelation (e.g., feeling Adi Da's Transmission in the body-mind, but not simultaneously recognizing Him as the Divine).

The vow holds one in place, during this extended "beginners" period. It requires us to act on the basis of our "best understanding" (as Adi Da put it) of the Divine nature of Guru and Reality. . . which was Revealed during those treasured moments of Recognition.

So the Way of Adidam begins with the Revelation of recognizing Adi Da as the Divine. It then moves into an extended beginning period, in which one is using the vow to practice on the basis of the Revelation, even in the many moments of non-recognition. Over time, such rigorous, consistent practice develops into a consistent capability of moment-to-moment recognition of Adi Da as the Divine. But you don't get to that point without having held yourself in place for the months or years preceding that (including many moments of non-Recognition), required to develop that moment-to-moment recognition capability. And the Eternal Vow is what holds one in place.