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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. |
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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.
Read
two free chapters from the book
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the book
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Gerald's
2017-2018 book tour schedule
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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
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Adi Da in India, 1973: on the Ganges in Benares
(photograph by Gerald Sheinfeld)
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Sunrise on a mountain top in Nepal, 1973
(photograph by Gerald Sheinfeld)
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Adi Da in India, 1973: leaving the Taj Mahal
(photograph by Gerald Sheinfeld)
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Gerald attending Adi Da — Naitauba, Fiji, 2008
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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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