1. How To Tell Whether One Is Recognizing Adi Da

1. What is Not Recognition
2. Five Criteria Associated with Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine
3. Recognition, Hearing, and Divine Self-Realization

• What is not meant by "the Divine" — While we will elaborate more (in the five criteria below) what is meant by "recognition of Adi Da as the Divine", we can say right away that what is not meant by "the Divine" is "the Creator of the universe", "the One in charge of everything, and planning everything", "the One who is all-knowing and all-powerful", or any of the other common God-ideas. There is no human Incarnation of such a God because there is no such God. Rather, what we mean here by "God" is the Consciousness in Whom the universe is arising, and the very Source of one's existence.
  
  

  There Is Only One Reality, One Self-Nature, One Self-Condition, One Source-Condition, One Self-State. That One is not "Other". That One is not your parent. And, in phenomenal and "experiential" terms, That One is not merely devoted to rewarding and punishing you, supporting you and protecting you. Rather, That One Is the Acausal Divine Self-Nature, Self-Condition, Source-Condition, and Self-State of all phenomenal conditions — including all opposites, even all contradictions. Thus, you cannot account for That One in childish terms. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Parental Deity and The One To Be Realized" Part 2, The Aletheon

  
  
  To recognize Adi Da as the Divine is to recognize Him as that One Reality, miraculously appearing here in human form.
  
  

  I am not Calling you to believe that I Am the "Creator-God"! I am Calling you to recognize and understand My Avataric Divine Revelation of Myself As the Revelation of What God Really Is — Guru, the Divine Liberator, the One and Only and Non-Separate Reality. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Aham Da Asmi

  
  
  
• Attraction, love, or responsiveness of a less-than-Divine kind — Certainly all devotees love Adi Da, are attracted to Him, and respond to Him on that basis. But all of us can be moved to do things for a spouse or friend in a responsive manner, and that is still not the egoless responsiveness to the Divine required by the Way of Adidam.
  
  We can even feel Adi Da as a Spiritual Transmission Master, and respond to Him on that basis (of feeling the effects of His Transmission in the body or mind), but that is still not the egoless responsiveness to the Divine required by the Way of Adidam.

  Recognizing (and being attracted to, and loving) Adi Da as an ordinary human being and recognizing Him as a (less than Divine) Transmission Master are both natural aspects of being Adi Da's devotee. But neither is recognizing (and responding to) Him as the very Divine.
  
  

  Adidam Ruchiradam is not a practice that is engaged merely because someone is moved by Me (or relates to Me) as an "objective other", or as a Teacher-Master in some not-yet-most-profoundly-recognized sense. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Boundless Self-Confession" Part 24, The Aletheon

  
  

• Belief, "faith", or inference — Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine Person is not a matter of belief, or what is conventionally referred to as "faith".
  
  

  You cannot merely "believe" in the Guru. You cannot merely have emotional — or even "aesthetic" — feelings toward the Guru as an individual. That is conventional "religion". That is cultism. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Guru, Faith and Satsang

  
  

  Don't believe in anything, but allow the heart to Recognize the Truth. Avatar Adi Da Samraj

  
  
  Recognition of Adi Da is also not based on inference; for example: "No one but the Divine could have created such an extraordinary Teaching, so therefore I conclude He must be the Divine." Or: "No one but the Divine could have created the wealth of miraculous phenomena, transported so many devotees into such extraordinary states, etc." These certainly are powerful forms of indirect evidence that Adi Da is Who He says He is. (And for this reason we are documenting ever more of them on our site.) And, on their basis, we may strongly suspect that Adi Da is the Divine. But recognition is neither belief nor inference. It is direct, Self-Authenticating Revelation.
  
  On the other hand, given the profundity of that Revelation, we certainly can say that people (even devotees) who are still wondering about whether Adi Da is the Divine certainly have not yet recognized Him. And we can add that people who "window shopped", spending some time as "devotees" (even ones who had extraordinary experiences in Adi Da's Company) and then leaving Adi Da and moving on to some other "spiritual adventure", never recognized Adi Da. Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine is a permanent (even eternal) heart-conversion (altogether sufficient for ultimate Realization), and for this reason, it is the basis of the Eternal Vow that is taken at the outset of the Eternal Way of Adidam.
  

1.2. Five Criteria Associated with Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine

Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine Person is a Revelation that changes the game completely.[2]

On the one hand, because this is so, it's obvious as anything (to you and everyone around you) if recognition is the case for you, and, in principle, doesn't really require any words either to confirm or to live a life of practice based on that recognition of Adi Da. (It's equally obvious — when one sees "the game has not changed completely" — to determine that one is not recognizing Adi Da.)

Adi Da has said that, in certain traditional cultures, the spiritual sensitivity of the people would be such that the entire process — from the moment of initial recognition to Realization — could take place without even a single verbal exchange between Spiritual Master and devotee. That "ideal devotional process" is what Adi Da means when He uses the phrase, "the Ancient Walk-About Way". (For a simple example of such spontaneous and wordless recognition of and response to Adi Da, click here.)

But, of course, we generally are not such spiritually sensitive people, most of us having been raised in the very opposite of a spiritually sensitive culture (in which Gurus are taboo and anything greater than material is in doubt). Furthermore, not only because we do not have the discrimination of the spiritually sensitive, but also because of the historically unprecedented nature of Adi Da's Divine Revelation, it is easy for us to mistakenly presume that this or that extraordinary experience we may have had (associated with Adi Da) means we are recognizing Him as the Divine.

For these reasons, verbal descriptions can be very helpful in bringing discrimination to bear on how we interpret our experience. That is why Adi Da Himself has written (and spoken) so much — not because it is necessary, in principle; but because it has turned out to be necessary, in practice, for people like us. So that is why we are providing (below) five criteria for helping us determine whether we have received (and are established in) the Revelation that is recognition.

1. The Revelation of the egoless, Divine State — That repeated Revelation convicts one of the Divine Reality: there is a State that is perfectly Happy, perfectly Free, and which transcends all conditionality: life, death, and all forms of suffering.
   
   

   If I am whole-bodily-responsively devotionally recognized, then the "world" is (coincidentally) recognized as a transparent (or merely apparent), non-necessary, and intrinsically non-binding modification of Reality Itself. . . Whole-bodily-recognition-responsive devotion to Me is the intrinsic transcending of the entire "world" — not only the transcending of the apparently separate body-mind-"self", but of the entire "world" within which the body-mind-"self" is arising. . . . Devotional recognition of Me Is Joy. Devotional recognition of Me Is Liberation. Devotional recognition of Me Is Realization. Devotional recognition of Me Is renunciation. Devotional recognition of Me Always — Immediately and Tacitly — Frees My devotee from this dreaming illusion and suffering. Then that Awakeness Grows and Grows — to the point, Most Ultimately, of Divine Translation. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Boundless Self-Confession" Part 24, The Aletheon

   
   
   When one is recognizing Adi Da as the Divine, one's "experience" of world, self, and the Divine is as a nonseparate Prior Unity. Thus it is not that one is ignoring or dissociating from the world; rather, the intuition of Prior Unity dissolves the sense of problem that otherwise arises whenever there is an "other". In this sense, from the beginning, recognition is something like the ultimate seventh stage Realization, which is the ultimate development of recognition of Adi Da: recognition of self and world as arising in (and as a modification of) the Divine Self.
   
   

   Sin, suffering, maya, samsara, desire, aversion, dilemma, or un-Happiness is only a symptom of the present non-recognition of self and world. In any moment that self (or experience and knowledge) and not-self (or the world of conditions, relations, and objects) are truly recognized, the binding power of self and not-self is utterly transcended. . . . The whole matter of Wisdom, God-Realization, Enlightenment, or Spiritual Liberation is recognition of what is presently arising. Until there is such recognition in each moment, each moment is confinement to self and what appears. Therefore, what must be Realized is the Siddhi of recognition (or the Disposition of the seventh stage of life). Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Siddhi of Recognition" The Bodily Location of Happiness

   
   
   The only difference is that, in the beginning of the seventh stage Way of Adidam, the transcending of the world and self is "intrinsic". In the culmination of the Way, the transcending of the world and self is a permanent Realization and is overt, through standing as Consciousness Itself and through direct recognition of all that is arising as modifications of Consciousness Itself. The way begins with recognition of Adi Da as the Divine and intrinsic transcendence of self and world. The way culminates in recognition of Adi Da as the Divine and recognition of self and world as the Divine as well — there is only God.
   
   That the Divine State is "egoless" means the activity that is "me" has ceased, in any true moment of recognition:
   
   

   Devotee: My Lord, who is the one who is in Communion with You? Adi Da: There is no "who" about it. There is just Me. If you are in Communion with Me, there is just Me. You do not get to Communion with Me until there is really self-surrender and self-forgetting. Therefore, there is no "who" about it. Devotee: So there is no one left but the Divine. Adi Da: That is it. Avatar Adi Da Samraj "The Way of Non-Separateness", Ishta

   
   
   "There is no one left but the Divine" may sound strange or paradoxical. But the strangeness is only because we are used to thinking of our "self" as a "thing", a "solid reality"; from that viewpoint, "there is no one left but the Divine" sounds like this solid "self" thing has vanished, so you start wondering: "how could 'I' even be conscious then, after 'I' am gone?" But Adi Da explains how in Reality, there are no separate selves; there is only One Being: the Divine Consciousness. "I" is not a solid thing, but an activity in that Divine Consciousness that creates the sense of being a separate self. When that activity ceases (in any moment of egolessness), the reality that there is actually only One Being (not many) is revealed — not only in the present moment, but as having always already been the Truth, even in every moment we were (mistakenly) thinking being a "separate self" was actually a solid (or ultimate) reality. There is no actual "separate consciousness" (somewhere "inside" a human body); there is only the one Divine Consciousness mistakenly identifying with this human body and that human body: that's the actual reality of "me" and "you".
   
   

   Devotee: We have to radiate love, and yet there can't be an ego there doing it. Very few people in the world are able to do that. Adi Da: When there is no one there, there is only love. In the New Testament it says, "God is love." Well, that is true. There is no self, there is only God manifesting most primitively and naturally and outwardly as this force of love. It just washes through. Jerry Sheinfeld, "India Tapes" The Dawn Horse Magazine, Vol 2, No. 2, Jubilee Issue August 1974

   
   

2. The Revelation of Adi Da as the nonseparate Divine — Because the Source of that repeated Revelation is the contemplation of Adi Da, it is tacitly clear that Adi Da Himself is none other than that Divine State, here in Person. Contemplation of Adi Da is what restores us to that Divine State, consistently and repeatedly. That Divine State is not separate from ourselves. (The "Spiritual Transmission" is not like a radio transmitter, from "over there" to "here".) Rather, the Revelation tacitly makes clear that we are arising in that Divine State.
   
   

   The conclusion that the Divine is Real is the result of conversion, not the result of a mere intellectual process. If it is to be effective in your life, however, it must become a conviction in the mind, and in every function altogether, in your disposition altogether. To be governed by the presumption of the Divine means you have come to the conclusion about reality that it is arising in Real (Acausal) God and is to be surrendered in Real (Acausal) God. Life, then, is about Real-God-Realization and not about conditions. Therefore, the important matter is this conversion, or your conclusion about reality. Avatar Adi Da Samraj "“What Is Your Conclusion About Reality?”, Ishta

   
   
   That Divine State also immediately reveals the Perfect Non-Separateness of Reality. Therefore, it is completely clear that the "devotional relationship" to Adi Da is not of the "me/other" kind between two apparently separate beings, but rather of the "me surrendered into my very Source" kind.
   
   

   I am not the ego's "other". Those who heart-recognize Me "Know" this — and, therefore, they do not relate to Me as "other" to their egoic separateness. . . . The Way of Adidam Is The "Radical" (or Always "At-The-Root") relationship of Inherently Perfect (and Always ego-Surrendering, ego-Forgetting, and ego-Transcending) Devotion to Me — not the relationship to Me as ego's social, institutional, or "religious" (or merely ceremonial) "other", but the Priorly egoless recognition-response relationship to Me (as I Am). Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Radical" Transcendentalism

   
   
   Recognition is a heart-Revelation. It is not of an experiential kind per se — great visions, sounds, or the kind of thing we might conventionally tend to associate with the word "Revelation", from our traditional religious backgrounds — but rather a taste of the experience- and experiencer-free, non-dual Divine State Itself. But it also equally clear that Adi Da's appearance here, as an "apparent other", an incarnate human being, has provided the means by which from now on we can locate our very Source directly.
   
   

   I am not a space-time-located entity — because I Am Conscious Light Itself. I Am Perfect Space Itself — the Very Identity, the Very Matrix, of all appearances and all beings. I am Able to Appear in Association with conditions. And, if I am Invoked, and if there is the right devotional cultivation of the relationship to Me in and via My Incarnate Person, My Inherently egoless and Self-Evidently Divine Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State is Spontaneously Self-Transmitted. My Association with This body-Mind Is the Divine Avataric Event. I Am Self-Transmitted. My Self-Nature, My Self-Condition, My Self-State Is Self-Transmitted. . . . When I am Really “Located”, My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission is literal and undeniable. My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission Is the “Proof” that Reality — and the “world” altogether — is of an entirely different Nature than people otherwise suppose. When people “Locate” and “Know” Me in that Real manner, they no longer continue in the merely gross pattern of egoic “worldliness”. To “Locate” and “Know” Me, Transcendentally and Spiritually, is Inherently Transformative. If you “Know” Me Transcendentally and Spiritually, you are transformed. If you are not transformed, then you do not “Know” Me Transcendentally and Spiritually. . . . Most Perfect Realization of Reality Itself is Inherently egoless — and, therefore, Intrinsically (and literally) Non-local. My devotees must never relate to Me as a merely localized entity. My devotees must always relate to Me As I Am. If you heart-recognize Me, then you “Know” this. I am not confined by the Body. I am (while I live) merely in apparent association with the Body — for the Sake of beings. That is all. I am not of a local nature. There is no ego “inside” This Body. If you “pin” Me in the Body — seeing Me only in terms of the gross body and the social personality — then you are not aware of Me. Through the bodily eyes, I can look into the room, but I am literally seeing everywhere. It is an extraordinary Process, Beyond ordinary human comprehension — but It is Really So. I am Associated with all the dimensions of Reality — altogether and everywhere. I am not localized in a body or in a mind. I have an apparent association with This Body, for the Sake of everyone — but It is I (As I Am) Who am Associated with This Body. I am not an egoic entity. Therefore, I am not aware in egoic-entity terms. This is not a matter of mere belief, but it is “Known” to be so if you heart-recognize Me and Really “Locate” Me. Heart-Communion with Me is about “Perfect Knowledge” of Me, not mere belief in Me. If you truly enter into heart-Communion with Me, you “Know” Me in the Non-localized sense — and you are (Thus and Thereby) Un-bound, by Me, from your own localized existence as well. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Indivisible Perfect Space" Part 20, The Aletheon

   
   
3. The Revelation of egoity via contrast with the egoless Divine State — Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine and egoity (the act of separation from the Divine) are mutually exclusive:
   
   

   Human egos cannot recognize Me As I Am.           Human egos cannot understand the import of My Divine Avataric Self-Revelation of Reality Itself As "It" Is.           Human egos are so "veiled" in their disposition, and even in their perception, that they cannot see Me As I Am.       Human egos cannot see Me As I Am, because they are actively dissociating from Reality Itself As "It" Is.           Human egos cannot accept the Divine Avataric Self-Revelation of Reality Itself As "It" Is.           Human egos cannot accept the Divine Avataric Self-Revelation of Reality Itself As "It" Is, because they are actively dissociating from Reality Itself As "It" Is. In Reality Itself (As "It" Is), there is no separateness, no relatedness, no otherness, and no "difference".           Reality Itself (As "It" Is) Is Intrinsic egolessness and Perfect Indivisibility — Divinely Self-Evident As No-separateness, No-relatedness, No-otherness, and No-"difference". Avatar Adi Da Samraj "There Is A Way — and Reality Itself Is It" Part 21, The Aletheon

   
   
   In receiving this Revelation (repeatedly), it is tacitly obvious to all of us that our own egoic activity is the only reason we haven't already realized this Divine State perfectly (and permanently) — because what we always experience is (a) the Divine State; and (b) our egoic tendency to contract from that completely unlimited, egoless State, in every moment. It is tacitly obvious that the consistency and profundity of our practice in any moment is what is determining the degree of Realization.
   
   

   Outshine the world By Exercising The Heart — Which Is Love's Radiant Wound. Do this by Always and Constantly Turning Your Heart (Whole bodily) To Me. And, In and By Means Of That Constant Turning, Always Heart-Recognize Me, and Always Feel Me, and Always Feel To Me (Beyond self-Contraction — Beyond the Separate, and Separative, and Total psycho-physical Act of ego-"I".) And Be Thus (and Always More and More Profoundly) Eased To Me — By Means of ego-Surrendering, ego-Forgetting, and ego-Transcending Devotional Love Of Me (Even, At Last, To The Most Perfect Degree Of Non-Separateness, and No-"Difference", In Me). Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Dawn Horse Testament

   
   
   The repeated Revelation of recognition is always immersion in the Divine State. But the Realization of that Revelation is neither perfect nor permanent until Divine Enlightenment. Until then, whatever forms of egoic resistance we still have not understood are still present in the midst of the Revelation. They are revealed as that which yet needs to be transcended in order for our Realization of the Revelation to become perfect and permanent.
   
   

   Whole-bodily-responsive devotional recognition of Me is "radical" (or always "at-the-root") "self"-understanding — because whole-bodily-responsive devotional recognition of Me vanishes egoity at the "root", and vanishes all "difference" at the "root". . . . When I am recognized, the Water Itself Is Found. Then Narcissus Vanishes, and Only My Divine Self-Domain Is. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Boundless Self-Confession" Part 24, The Aletheon

   
   
   Thus, those who have recognized Adi Da (even those who are still just beginners in the Way of Adidam) have been given the Ultimate Realization, even as they also see the self-activity that they are going to have to transcend perfectly (over time) in order to realize that Ultimate Realization perfectly and permanently. As Adi Da puts it: the Way of Adidam is a seventh-stage Way from the outset.
   
   

   Divine Translation Is simply The Most Perfect Culmination of a Process that takes place from the beginning of My devotee’s practice of The Reality-Way of Adidam. Therefore, The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Reality-Way of Adidam Is The seventh stage Way from the beginning. The Reality-Way of Adidam does not move through the first six stages of life, in order to get to the seventh stage of life. The Reality-Way of Adidam Always Already Transcends the first six stages of life, by being devotionally Self-Established in non-dissociative (and non-introversive) devotional Communion with Me on Sight, from the beginning. In that case, there is simply the more and more profound demonstration of devotional Communion with Me, of being devotionally (and, Thus and Thereby, Always Priorly) Established in The Intrinsically egoless Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State of The Indivisible Divine Conscious Light — from the beginning. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "In Place (Where and As I Am)" Part 14, The Aletheon

   
   
   Thus, by virtue of the nature of the Revelation, every one of us established in recognition of Adi Da is already in a position to bear witness to the Ultimate Realization of the Way of Adidam, even though we still may be relative beginners in the Way of Adidam.
   
   
4. The Revelation of recognition dissolves the questioner — Having the means — through recognition of Adi Da — to be immersed nonseparately in the Divine State in any moment from now on is so obviously the Ultimate Treasure anyone could wish for (and the means for Realizing the greatest possible destiny), that no one who realized this would ever give up that Treasure simply because of the typical kinds of questions about Adi Da (His "Crazy Wise" behavior, etc.) that often confuse people first getting to know Adi Da and wondering about becoming His devotee. No devotee who has truly received (and therefore has been penetrated by) the Revelation of Adi Da as the Divine Person (i.e., someone who is established in moment-to-moment recognition of Adi Da as the Divine Person, or at least has had many moments of recognition) would throw the Baby out with the bathwater! All of us for whom the "did He or didn't He" kinds of questions no longer hold any power over our commitment to remaining Adi Da's devotees have one thing in common: We have been immersed repeatedly in Adi Da's Divine State. Part 5 ("The Recognition Consideration: Prior to Becoming a Devotee, The Fruitful Question Is Not 'Did He or Didn't He?' But Rather, 'Is He or Isn't He?' ") goes into this in much greater detail.
   
   

   When you recognize Me As I Am, there is no doubt in you. One who Beholds Me As I Am (and with right and true devotional recognition-response) is Beholding the Divine (or Reality Itself) As "It" Is. Every moment of whole bodily devotional turning to Me is simply that — Beholding the Divine As "It" Is, moment to moment. When you rightly and truly devotionally Behold Me, you are in the Divine Self-Domain, you are in the Paradise of Reality Itself, and you have been Given all the Divine Gifts. In the Divine Self-Domain, there is not anything lacking. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "As I Am — And In Plain Sight" Part 21, The Aletheon

   
   
5. The Revelation of recognition leads to a spontaneous unfolding of practice — As we will explore in greater depth in part 3, if one recognizes Adi Da as the Divine Person, then one's response is instantaneous and extraordinary, and should spontaneously demonstrate itself by one's passing through the crisis of hearing any time within a few months to a couple of years after recognizing Him. In short: one advances through the levels of practice "like a hot knife through butter" (to use Adi Da's words).
   
   

   Adidam Ruchiradam Is the Process That Spontaneously Unfolds if I am devotionally recognized. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Boundless Self-Confession" Part 24, The Aletheon

   
   

1.3. Recognition, Hearing, and Divine Self-Realization

"Anybody who is recognizing Me is absorbed into My State. It is a profound Transcendental Spiritual condition." Because both recognition of Adi Da and hearing both enter us into such a profound and egoless State, we might wonder: what exactly is the difference between recognition, hearing, and Divine Self-Realization?

For instance, Adi Da describes hearing as "fundamental self-understanding". But He also says, "whole-bodily-responsive devotional recognition of Me is 'radical' (or always 'at-the-root') 'self'-understanding" — which sounds very similar to "fundamental self-understanding", at first glance. And it would be easy to (mis-)read the following passage as suggesting that recognition included fundamental self-understanding (hearing):

Permanence. The first important distinction is that recognition and hearing are capabilities (that must be consciously exercised to be effective), while Divine Self-Realization is a permanent Realization that cannot be lost, regardless of what one does or doesn't do. To begin the Way of Adidam Ruchiradam, one establishes recognition as a moment-to-moment capability. This capability enables one to return to being egolessly absorbed in Adi Da's State in any moment. But before hearing, one will fall out of that State repeatedly because of egoic tendencies, and one's responsive but intentional practice of turning to Adi Da based on recognition-response is needed to return one to absorption in Adi Da's Divine State.

Hearing gives one the capability to stand prior to the ego, and thus, to not have to fall out of absorption in that Divine State — but one must still (responsively) intend and practice that hearing capability in every moment, in order to remain standing prior to the ego.

With Divine Self-Realization, the Divine State is permanent and intention is no longer required. Here is how Adi Da wrote about this in His Own case:

Relaxation of Identification. Over time, recognition leads to hearing; and recognition coupled with hearing lead to Divine Self-Realization. What is occurring is a progressive relaxation of identification, based on the principle of non-use, and the practice of recognition and "Divine Distraction" (in which the principle of non-use is applied):

Initially, one is, by habit, identified with the conditional body-mind in the form of the gross and subtle bodies. By constantly being absorbed in Adi Da's Divine State (which is prior to the body-mind), that identification is weakened, to the point where one's primary identification is with Consciousness, and one is spontaneously entered into the Perfect Practice in the Way of Adidam. The Perfect Practice, in turn relaxes identification with the causal body and attention, to the point where one finally Awakens to Divine Self-Realization, beyond identification with any conditional forms, gross, subtle, or causal.