FAQs about Adi Da & Adidam > Numbers and Value

Numbers and Value

Questions about whether the number of devotees, the number of advanced or Enlightened practitioners, or the degree to which Adi Da and Adidam have been recognized by the world at large, reflect on the "value" of Adidam.

Truth does not win. Fundamentally, the entire affair of the communication of Truth to mankind has been a failure, and it will always be a failure. It is a fruitless enterprise — if we consider its results in terms of the true and perfect Awakening of great numbers of people and the Divine Transformation of human society as a whole. However, since a few in every generation are prepared to respond to the Teaching of Truth, the communication of Truth must be continued in the world.

A few in every generation become a Sacrifice in God, while mankind in general ignores, denies, and otherwise betrays the Teaching, the Way, and the Agents of God. This is so, not only because of the subhuman evolutionary stage of mankind at this time, but because the embodied soul is naturally motivated toward its own experiential fulfillment, not the transcendence of itself. Therefore, only a random few in any generation Awaken, while all others are oblivious in their bewildered intoxication.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, June 27, 1978
The Enlightenment of the Whole Body

Number of Advanced Practitioners in Adidam — Are there any devotees who are never less than perfectly happy? I have been seriously considering the argument of the Spiritual Master for decades. My interest is not academic. The whole argument presupposes the ability of the Spiritual Master to transmit happiness.

Number of Seventh Stage Realizers in Adidam — How is it that after so many years of Adi Da's Teaching and work with His devotees, there aren't any seventh stage realizers among Adi Da's devotees? Weren't other teachers such as the Buddha, Nisargadatta, or Ramana Maharshi much more successful in bringing their disciples to their level of Spiritual Realization?

Number of Devotees — 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?

Predictions — Hasn't Adi Da said a few times that by the year 2000, He will be recognized by the world as the messiah (or something to that affect)? If so, why has this not happened?

Whether My birth and My association with people can represent the force of some great age, a great transformation of the world, is to be seen. My work can be relatively modest and local, as Shirdi Sai Baba's work was in his lifetime, or My work can be associated with a global transformation. It will depend on recognition, surrender, and acceptance of a lawful order of existence by many, many, many people.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, January, 1982
The Divine Life and Work of the Spiritual Master