The Number of Devotees

Question: How is it that after so many years, Adi Da has only a few thousand devotees and is basically unheard of in many parts of the world?

Chris Tong: Along with other spiritual teachers and traditions, Adi Da has referred to this time as the "Kali Yuga", or "Dark Epoch" — the time when the spiritual inclinations of humanity are at their nadir. It is easy to see why: The rise to dominance of the viewpoint of scientific materialism, alongside the continuing power of religious fundamentalism, provides strong forms of cultural programming: the two strongest. Only the most discriminating (or the most lucky) can see through and rise above such programming.

So you won’t see large numbers of practitioners in any esoteric spiritual tradition today, let alone Adidam. And, were you to research statistical studies of spiritual populations over time, no doubt you'd not only find what is well-known, like the number of people entering the Catholic priesthood has been steadily dwindling (see here for example), but you’d find similar statistics for Buddhist monks (click here for an article on decline of Buddhist monks in Thailand, due to consumerism), Hindu sannyasins [renunciates], etc.

Another point is that other spiritual traditions often attract large numbers of devotees through more "exoteric" means. For example, we have Sai Baba with hundreds of thousands of followers — but largely on the basis of his supposedly being able to materialize vibhuti [sacred ash] in his hands. Adi Da doesn’t do that sort of thing! We have Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) going around hugging hundreds of thousands of people. Or the Dalai Lama touring the world, and writing largely secular bestsellers. Adi Da is not a public figure; He doesn’t write secular books, and He doesn't go around performing miracles to attract followers. This is not because being a public figure is "beneath Him" — He often used to say, "I wish I could kiss every human being on the lips, embrace each one, and enliven each one from the heart." It is because the extraordinarily sensitive nature of His Incarnation here does not allow for His bodily exposure to the karmas of masses of people; He would automatically absorb these karmas, and that would literally destroy His body.

So people become practitioners of the Way of Adidam purely on the esoteric basis of their spiritual recognition of Adi Da.

Another difference is that Adidam is an entirely new tradition. As the late Tibetan Buddhist Master Chögyam Trungpa remarked about what Adi Da is trying to accomplish, establishing an entirely new tradition is an exceedingly difficult thing to do.

Yet another point: It is well-known that the esoteric traditions throughout history were highly secret, difficult to find, and it was difficult to attain Realization. Their members were always small in number because the group and the practice was very selective — in fact, self-selective — people were not running in large numbers to the secret monasteries in the hills where they'd have to live incredibly disciplined lives (as devotees of Adi Da are absolutely required to do), spend much of their time serving the monastary, etc.! You would only want to do such a thing if the spiritual value of such a life had already been revealed to you. If your attraction was merely idealistic — a passing enthusiasm or fad — you were rightly warned away, and you would most likely "drop out", sooner or later.

So this methodology of measuring the worth or truth of a tradition by numbers of adherents is of limited value. If we went by numbers alone (for example, click here), we’d have to conclude that, since it's the largest religion on earth by far, Christianity is the "best" or "truest" religion, right? Which already is a dubious way of reaching a conclusion. But let's take it a step further. What if, a century from now, there are more Muslims than Christians on the planet? Will that mean that Islam has "become" the "best" or "truest" religion? Certainly not "truest", because religious or spiritual truth doesn't change with time, whereas numbers of adherents do.

Here are just some other examples of the limited value of trying to measure truth or worth by "numbers of believers":

Bottom line: Having large numbers of believers or followers doesn't imply truth or worth! And having small numbers doesn't imply falsity or worthlessness. This doesn't mean now go ahead and indulge in believing any tom-fool thing. It just means that things that are not immediately "obvious" to the senses or the mind — like the earth going around the sun (rather than vice-versa) or the Divine Incarnating as a human being — may nonetheless be true, and even intellectually comprehensible, but on the basis of a more subtle and sophisticated analysis and evidence; and don't ignore that analysis and evidence when it comes your way, simply because it may not happen to be popular at the time.

Brian O’Mahony: Adi Da Asks that question almost every day of His Life!! If you go back to His very first Teaching Statements, you will see that He only Works with devotees, those who have prepared themselves to make use of His Blessing. Of course, He Freely Blesses all beings, but anyone who seriously wants to engage in the Spiritual Process in His Company must prepare themselves. All are invited to prepare themselves and come to Him. There are many examples of this requirement of preparation in other traditions. One who wishes to be a Roman Catholic priest must go through 7 years or more in a seminary before they are ordained, for example. Adi Da requires a similar and even more profound seriousness in His devotees. You have to be profoundly disciplined to make use of His Divine Transmission. It seems that this is not a particularly popular choice in this age of self-gratification and self-fulfillment.

Adi Da Invests Himself completely in this Work with His devotees. That is His Work. The work of His devotees is to make Him known and to make the opportunity of being a devotee available globally. Have they succeeded to date? Not even close. But is that a sign that the Way itself is not what it should be? No, it is not. It is a sign of the relative immaturity of the gathering of devotees as a body able to fulfill its calling, a lack of resources, and a world that often seems immune to Divine Intervention. Will this pattern change? Of course. Adi Da’s Way is at its very beginnings.

David Simon: The real spiritual and religious process is esoteric: It is a secret that very few in any generation ever grasp or comprehend. The mass religions of mankind are, for the most part, exoteric cults that have little or nothing to do with Divine Realization. For the most part people are not seriously interested or inclined toward Divine Realization! So if you really want to try to measure whether a spiritual teaching/process is really working or not, you cannot use a conventional measure, such as, "how many members do you have". The amount that Adi Da has accomplished in the past several decades is utterly astounding to me! He has established empowered holy places all over the world. He has given thousands of the most inspiring discourses about every topic imaginable. He has developed a wisdom-teaching that is unparalleled in its breadth and depth. He has miraculously intervened in the lives of thousands of devotees and not-quite-yet devotees. He has created a massive amount of the most heart-breaking and revelatory artistic work. And much, much more. Now we need to come up to what He requires and make His Revelation known in the world.

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