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An Overview of The Seven Stages Of Life
The Divine World-Teacher, Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj,
has Revealed a brilliant map of the full spectrum of human
adaptation and growth-seven distinct stages of life, from
birth to the Most Perfect Realization of Real God. Most
Perfect Real-God-Realization (or Divine Self-Realization, or
Divine EnLight-enment) is the Realization and Demonstration
of the inherently egoless seventh stage of life – which had
never been Realized previous to Avatar Adi Da’s Divine
Re-Awakening in 1970. Now, by virtue of Avatar Adi Da’s
Revelation of the Way of Adidam and His Free Gift of His
Divinely Awakening Power, the seventh stage Realization is
the (present and future) potential of all beings.
Briefly described, the first three (or foundation) stages
of life constitute the ordinary course of human
adaptation-bodily, emotional, and mental growth from birth
to nominal adulthood. The fourth and fifth (or advanced)
stages of life are characterized by the Awakening to Spirit,
or the Spiritualizing of the body-mind and higher psyche.
The sixth and seventh (or ultimate) stages of life are based
upon an Awakening to Identification with Consciousness,
prior to the body-mind and all the planes of possibility
high and low.
In the sixth stage of life, the Realizer first Awakens to
Identification with Consciousness in its Function as the
“Witness” of arising phenomena. That-original- sixth
stage-Realization-progressively deepens until it becomes a
profound state of meditative ecstasy wherein all awareness
of phenomena is excluded in Perfect (sixth stage)
Identification with Consciousness Itself. In fact, the
highest Realization previous to Avatar Adi Da’s Appearance
here, was this (sixth stage) Identification with
Consciousness Itself Realized so profoundly that even if
phenomena were then allowed to arise, It was not forgotten.
But Avatar Adi Da Reveals that this Realization, although
extraordinary by any possible measure, is yet
incomplete-there remains a very subtle contraction of the,
being in its implicit dissociation from conditional
existence, a refusal of Reality in its totality.
Only the seventh stage of life (or the Realization of
“Open Eyes”) transcends this last limit on Most Perfect
Real-GodRealization. No exclusion- of, or implicit
dissociation from, conditional Reality is necessary, for the
world is directly Realized to be a modification of
Consciousness Itself, not separate (or “different”) from
Consciousness at all.
The fact that there are precisely seven stages of life
(and not six or eight or however many one may propose) is
intimately related to the hierarchical structural anatomy of
the human bodymind. That structural anatomy includes not
only the fleshy dimensions of muscles, bones, and so forth,
but it also includes the subtler dimensions of energy and
mind and Consciousness.
In some of the most highly developed religious and
Spiritual traditions of mankind, the human individual is
described as comprising three “bodies”.
The “gross body” is the physical body – which has
typically been presumed by Western medical science to be the
only human body. The “subtle body” comprises the dimensions
of life-energy and emotion, mind and psyche, as well as the
higher functions of intelligence and will. The “causal body”
is the core of the apparently separate egoic self, the
root-sense of existing as an “I”. These three “bodies” are
traditionally understood to form the foundation of the
waking, dreaming, and deep-sleep states, respectively.
Avatar Adi Da confirms that this traditional description is
correct, but He goes further and describes the structural
anatomy underlying these three bodies.
Avatar Adi Da describes that the hierarchical structural
anatomy of the human body-mind exists in two fundamental
“planes”-the vertical and the horizontal. The vertical plane
is a great energy-circuit, which He calls “the Circle”. The
Circle runs down the front of the body from the crown of the
head to the perineum, and up the back of the body along the
spinal line to the crown of the head. The horizonal plane
comprised the esoteric structure of the heart, which has
three parts-the left side, the middle station, and the right
side. Beyond the Circle and rooted in the right side of the
heart stands the most esoteric of all psychophysical
structures-“Amrita Nadi”, or the “Current of Immortal
Bliss”. Amrita Nadi is rooted in the right side of the heart
and rises in an S-shaped curve to the Matrix of Light, the
apparently Objective Source of all forms and energies, Which
lies infinitely above the crown of the head.
The left side of the heart and the frontal line of the
Circle are the fundamental structures underlying the gross
body-they are particularly associated with development in
the first three stages of life and the beginnings of the
fourth stage of life. The middle station of the heart and
the spinal line of the Circle are the fundamental structures
underlying the subtle body-they are particularly associated
with development in the advanced fourth stage of life and in
the fifth stage of life. The right side of the heart is the
fundamental structure underlying the causal body-it is
particularly associated with development in the sixth stage
of life. Amrita Nadi, which stands prior to all these
structures, is particularly associated both with the fullest
Realization of the process of the sixth stage of life and
with Divine Self-Realization in the seventh stage of
life.
Avatar Adi Da’s map of the seven stages of life is not
only a powerful tool for understanding the fullest human
potential-it is also the unique means by which the diverse
religious and Spiritual traditions of the world can be
understood to form a single (collective) Great Tradition.
The various (and often contradictory) philosophies and
practices recommended within the Great Tradition are-by
means of Avatar Adi Da’s Revelation of the seven stages of
life-rightly understood as simply reflecting the different
points of view of the different stages of life Realized by
each particular tradition.
Avatar Adi Da has also Revealed that the seventh stage of
life does not merely lie at the end of the developmental
unfoldment of the previous six stages of life. Indeed, He
Reveals that each of the first six stages of life is to be
progressively dissolved in the always present Realization of
the seventh stage of life. And how is that always present
Realization of the seventh stage of life possible?
By virtue of Avatar Adi Da’s Most Perfect Divine
SelfRealization, any moment of true devotional
self-surrender to Him Grants immediate access to His seventh
stage Condition. That is the Great Secret of Most Perfect
Real-God-Realization in the Way of Adidam. Avatar Adi Da
Samraj Himself is the Great Means for the Realization of all
beings.
As with each of Avatar Adi Da’s “Source-Texts”, The Seven
Stages Of Life begins with His First Word, “Do Not
Misunderstand Me I Am Not ‘Within’ you, but you Are In Me,
and -I Am Not a Mere ‘Man’ in the `Middle’ of Mankind, but
All of Mankind Is Surrounded, and Pervaded, and Blessed By
Me”. In this remarkable Essay, Avatar Adi Da Explains that
His open Confession of Most Perfect Real-GodRealization is
not to be misapprehended as a claim of the “Status” of the
“Creator”-God of conventional religious belief-but, rather,
His Divine Self-Confession must be understood and
appreciated as a Free Demonstration of What is Realized in
the Perfect Fulfillment of esoteric Spiritual practice,
Which is the Most Perfectly Non-Dual Realization of Reality
Itself. By virtue of His Free Demonstration, Avatar Adi Da
Samraj makes clear that Most Perfect Real-GodRealization is
the ultimate Potential and Destiny of all beings.
The Prologue to The Seven Stages Of Life, “My Divine
Disclosure” (also, like “First Word”, found in all
twenty-three “Source-Texts”), is a poetic epitome of Avatar
Adi Da’s Avataric Divine SelfRevelation and His Call to all
to turn to Him at heart and practice the Real-God-Realizing
life of devotional self-surrender.
In Part One, “Tat Sundaram!-All Of This Is Sacred, All Of
This Is Beautiful! (The Essence of the Message of Adidam and
of the One and Entire Great Tradition of Mankind)”, Avatar
Adi Da Sings the essential Secret of the Realization of
Reality, Truth, or Real God:
No matter What, Where, When, How, Why, or Who Is Reality,
Truth, or Real God-Consciousness (Itsel Is (Inherently, and
Necessarily, and Always Already) the Only Basis for (and the
Only Substance of) your Realization of That Which Is
Reality, Truth, and Real God.
In Part Two of The Seven Stages Of Life, Avatar Adi Da
describes the progression of each of the seven stages of
life. He describes how children and young people in the
first three stages of life are to be served by the community
of practitioners in the Way of Adidam. And He describes how
the Way of Adidarn is tile same for those who come to Him as
adults-as for those who attain maturity within the
Wisdom-Culture of Adidam. He then goes on to explain how the
fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh stages of life develop,
and how Most Perfect Real-God-Realization is ultimately
Demonstrated by the Outshining of all of conditional
existence in the unspeakably Sublime Event of Divine
Translation.
Part Three of The Seven Stages Of Life consists of seven
extraordinary Essays. “‘God’-Talk, Real-God-Realization, and
Most Perfect Divine Awakening” contains Avatar Adi Da’s
explanation of the five possible worldviews, their
relationship to the Great Tradition of mankind, and the
nature of exoteric and esoteric religious ideas and
practices. “The Servant, The `Soul’, and The Very Self: The
Three Points of View of the Progressive Stages of Life” is
Avatar Adi Da’s commentary on the stages of life as
summarized in the epilogue to The Wisdom of Unity (or
Manisa-Pancakam), traditionally ascribed to the great Indian
Sage Shankara. “The Cultivation of My Divine Samadhi” is
Avatar Adi Da’s explanation of how Divine Self-Realization
can and must be the Foundation of the entire course of the
Way of Adidam via the moment to moment practice of
devotional Communion with Him. “The Samadhis of Earth, Moon,
and Sun” is Avatar Adi Da’s metaphori-. cal description of
the traditional samadhis of the first six stages of life and
how they relate to the hierarchical structure of the human
being and to the seventh stage Awakening in the Way of
Adidam. “I Am The Only `Room’ That Is” contains Avatar Adi
Da’s minddissolving “consideration” of the “Point of View”
of Totalitywhich “Point of View” transcends all separate
points of view within space-time. In “The Only Way To My
`Room”‘, Avatar Adi Da describes the uniqueness of the Way
of Adidam. And in “On Transcending the First Six Stages of
Life” Avatar Adi Da explains how the Way of Adidam is a
Process that is both progressive and instant, and how the
characteristic errors of the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages
of life are to be transcended. Part Four, “I (Alone) Am The
Adidam Revelation”, is Avatar Adi Da’s full elucidation of
the uniqueness of His Revelation of the seventh stage
Realization. In this unparalleled Essay, incomparable in its
scope and profundity, Avatar Adi Da examines His own Course
of Divine Self-Realization in order to Demonstrate how the
two primary divisions of the Great Tradition-the
Emanationist (or absorptive mystical) Way (associated with
the first five stages of life) and the non-Emanationist (or
Transcendentalist) Way (associated with the sixth stage of
life)-are, in Truth, only different aspects of the great
seven-stage process of Most Perfect Divine
Self-Realization.
In Part Five, “The Heart-Summary of Adidam” (a brief
Essay that is included in all twenty-three “Source-Texts”),
Avatar Adi Da Samraj summarizes the profound implications of
His Statement that the Way of Adidam is the Way of Devotion
to Him “As SelfCondition, rather than As exclusively
Objective Other”.
In the Epilogue to this Great Scripture, Avatar Adi Da
Confesses His Most Perfect Realization of Identity with the
Divine Self-Condition and Source-Condition of all and All.
And He Reveals His Unique Function as the Adept-Realizer,
AdeptRevealer, and Adept-Revelation of the seventh stage of
life.
Altogether, The Seven Stages Of Life is Avatar Adi Da’s
AllCompleting, and Perfectly Clarifying, Revelation of the
Ultimate Potential of a human life. In reading this Divine
“Source-Text” of Adidam, you have the unparalleled
opportunity not only to learn about that Ultimate Potential,
but to directly taste the Radiant Divine Grace of Avatar Adi
Da Samraj, which makes Most Perfect Real-God-Realization
possible.
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