The Books of Adidam > Related Books by Devotees > Gerald Sheinfeld

Related Books by Gerald Sheinfeld


Gerald Sheinfeld has been a devotee of Adi Da since the beginning of Adi Da's work with devotees. He accompanied Adi Da on His 1973 trip to India, and has participated in countless sacred occasions and events in the company of Adi Da in the intervening years. Click here to visit his website.  
Gerald Sheinfeld

At the Feet of
the Spiritual Master

Gerald Sheinfeld
Self-published 6" X 9" paperback (illustrated)
396 pages
ISBN 978-0692924983
September, 2017

Stories of life lived with Avatar Adi Da Samraj. These are entirely true stories, in some traditions called Leelas, about the Play of the Enlightened Master with His devotees, and ultimately with all beings. Each story helps us feel Adi Da's Enlightened State, as the truth of our own Enlightened State, which is Revealed prior to our act of ego separation.

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  At the Feet of the Spiritual Master


An Introduction to the Book by Gerald Sheinfeld

Even from ancient times, it has been a mystery for most people to understand why some respond to the profound attractiveness of an Enlightened Person. In these stories, I tried to help everyone feel that attractiveness. It comes spontaneously as a deep heart feeling in response to Adi Da's Brightness. Adi Da has always said, "When the truth is heard and felt the heart knows it to be true". What happens is the enlightened Spiritual Master, Avatar Adi Da, can be felt in each of these stories, or "Leelas" (the Sanskrit word for "the play of the Divine").

As the book progresses, the Leelas show the progress of greater and greater awakened recognition of His egoless Enlightened State and the awakened, spontaneous devotional response.

In some ancient spiritual traditions, it was acceptable for devotees to exaggerate or even make up stories about the greatness of their Guru, or Spiritual Master. In contrast, none of the stories in this book are exaggerated or made up. These stories are true accounts of events that I experienced firsthand.

The Divine Avatar Adi Da Samraj works at all levels of Consciousness, so while I understood things that related to my own separate perception, He was also working to transcend the illusion of identification as a separate being. He was (and is) communicating His Divine State of Consciousness Itself. His Divine State of Consciousness is very different from the consciousness that a “separate being" experiences, for it is perfectly egoless.

The Leelas in this book take the mystery out of enlightenment. They show that enlightenment is the Divine condition of all, but it is the condition that is prior to the separate illusion of ego-I. Adi Da's living demonstration and His Teaching fully explain it all and reveal how all separation from our true love-bliss, egoless reality is transcended as a free gift. There is no greater gift than the freedom from all that is less than true love.




Photographs from the Book

The book contains 29 rare black and white photographs (dating back to 1971), including the ones below (which are reprinted here in color).

click photos to enlarge

Adi Da with Gerald
Adi Da with Gerald

Adi Da in India, 1973
Adi Da in India, 1973: on the Ganges in Benares
(photograph by Gerald Sheinfeld)

Adi Da in Nepal, 1973
Sunrise on a mountain top in Nepal, 1973
(photograph by Gerald Sheinfeld)

Adi Da in India, 1973
Adi Da in India, 1973: leaving the Taj Mahal
(photograph by Gerald Sheinfeld)

Gerald attending Adi Da -- Naitauba, Fiji, 2008
Gerald attending Adi Da — Naitauba, Fiji, 2008

 


Endorsements for At the Feet of the Spiritual Master

A brilliant U.S. scholar once stated, “Adi Da Samraj is the greatest Spiritual Master in all of history.” Gerald Sheinfeld is uniquely blessed to have spent decades in intimate proximity to the God man Adi Da Samraj. Gerald describes some of what it was like to live in the midst of such an incomparable, magnificent, humanity-serving, radiant Force. I felt the presence of God throughout the pages of his book, which is a rare gift to the world.

Charmian Anderson, Ph.D.
Author, The Heart of Success
and one of the first individuals to receive an advanced degree
in Transpersonal Psychology in the United States

“I offer you a relationship not a technique”: These words by Adi Da Samraj open the engaging and revealing stories of Gerald Sheinfeld’s 45 years with his Spiritual Master. Gerald’s stories give a unique insight into the Guru/devotee relationship, beginning with his confession that feeling Adi Da’s Enlightened State answered his search for God and truth. Then over time Adi Da served that heart-awakened response by revealing more and more of His Awakened Condition, spontaneously generating a deeper devotional response. These stories show how spiritual growth happens as a free gift by the Enlightened Master. A book worth studying, filled with the awakened recognition of Divine Reality and profound lessons in ego transcending self-understanding.

Andrew Harvey
Author, Evolutionary Love Relationships, Teachings of Rumi,
and The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism

Gerald Sheinfeld has written an up-close account of his lifelong devotion and service to his Guru, Adi Da Samraj. In brief vignettes, this Leela book chronicles Gerald’s 45-year struggle for increasingly profound self-understanding aimed at ego-transcendence. The Leelas make abundantly clear that living in the ever-blessing presence of the Guru is an utterly demanding practice, keeping devotees on their toes all the time, out of their comfort zone, without a let-up, moment to moment, day after day. The reader becomes a witness to the intimate play in which the Guru, with no holds barred, creates an endless variety of teachable moments, often out of seemingly innocuous events and circumstances, and thereby confronting devotees with their interminable acts of self-contraction. The Guru mirrors devotees back to themselves, all for the sole purpose, and ultimate reward, of Enlightenment.

Rolf C. Carriere
Senior UN official (1971–2004)
and senior advisor to several INGOs (2005–present)


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Quotations from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright owner:
© Copyrighted materials used with the permission of The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam. All rights reserved. None of these materials may be disseminated or otherwise used for any non-personal purpose without the prior agreement of the copyright owner. ADIDAM is a trademark of The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as Trustee for the Avataric Samrajya of Adidam.

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