Santosha

As a sign of the great change that had occurred in His Work altogether, Avatar Adi Da now assumed “Santosha” as one of His Names, the meaning of which is a story in itself. During His visits to the Indian shops in the preceding weeks, Avatar Adi Da had noticed a form of the Divine Shakti He had not seen before—a form known as “Santoshi Ma”. Santoshi Ma is typically portrayed as seated in the lotus posture, with four arms—the upper two hands bearing a sword and a trident, the third hand carrying a bowl of sweets, and the fourth hand assuming a gesture of blessing.

Because of Avatar Adi Da’s interest in this form of the Shakti, His devotees purchased several images of Santoshi Ma for Him, which He placed in the room where He was sitting on September 7. In the ensuing days and weeks, Avatar Adi Da began to ask for more information about this representation of the Shakti. It was discovered that Santoshi Ma had risen to prominence as an object of worship only during the previous twenty years, but had already attracted vast numbers of devotees. Avatar Adi Da began to Reveal the association between this form of the Goddess and the Completion of His Avataric Divine Self-Revelation.

“Santoshi” is the feminine form of “Santosha”—meaning “satisfaction” or “contentment”, qualities associated with a sense of completion. And, as Avatar Adi Da pointed out, these qualities are equivalent to no-seeking, which is the fundamental principle of His Wisdom-Teaching. Avatar Adi Da also observed that the Yogic force and equanimity of the posture of Santoshi Ma—seated firmly, in balance, bearing simultaneously the powerful signs of sword and trident (representing the overcoming of the ego) and the gentle signs of the bowl of sweets and the Blessing mudra of the hand (representing the Free Gift of Divine Grace)—reflected His Completeness.

Adi Da – The Promised God-Man is Here – p. 207

In 1997, Beloved Adi Da described how He came to write Four Thorns Of Heart-Instruction. This description is remarkable; it is His own summary of the Leela of His Life and Work since 1995.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: When I left Naitauba a year and a half ago (1995 – the obvious cause at the moment being the problem with the eyes and having to get the eyes worked on), the intention at that time was to go and very quickly deal with the eyes and then return to the Island. But, except for a very short stay last June to July, I haven’t been to the Island since.

So you could say that the day I left Naitauba a year and a half ago (September 4, 1995) was the end of the past, and the new period began from then. Or you could say that September 7, 1994, was that point. Then, in the discussion that went on early last year—actually, even at the very end of the year previous—we were talking about the transition being the visit to Sugar Bowl in northern California (December 29-30, 1995), when I spoke with everyone for a few nights in a row about basic matters having to do with the Guru-devotee relationship and so on. We talked about that having been the end of the 25-year period, followed by the conversation I had with the two Quandra Mai, the general subject being Radiance (January 3, 1996), and then people began to gather with Me at the Manner of Flowers (January 5, 1996), and a period of gathering “considerations went on from then. We talked about that being the beginning of the new period, the period of My Blessing Work, the period of devotees fulfilling their obligations, as I have Given to them at the time of the Initiation of My Divine Emergence.

But then that didn’t happen. So that response wasn’t there yet, and I was thrown into this chaotic situation now for this last year and a half or so. But it wasn’t initially thought it was going to be that, or proposed it was likely to be that. It just turned out to be that. So it was a process of it being that.

So when exactly is the end of the 25-year Revelation period, and the beginning of My real Divine Emergence work, with people relating to Me rightly, and so on? It no longer seems apt to say that the Sugar Bowl Talks marked the end of the earlier period, and what followed from then is the new period. It was still transitioning.

So it would seem to Me that certainly a clear indicator of the beginning of My Divine Emergence Work, actively, rightly and so forth, is My Giving to you the Four Thorns Of Heart-Instruction. March 29th was the date when I passed on the manuscript and then saw the first copy typed and printed out. And then there was also a process of My continuing to work on it over several days, until April 5th. I originally passed on the manuscript on March 29th, having worked on it that day, but a high percentage of it had already been written during the previous period of weeks.

So on that day, after doing the final work that I had to do on it at that stage, I put the manuscript together to pass on. I felt it was a perfect moment. From that point, I continued to work on it each day. And when it was complete, it was complete.

Since then, on that basis, people have been invited to sit with Me. I don’t have any intention of doing anything other than this. This is what I Do, and not institutional work. The institution, culture, community, and mission of the general gathering of four congregations is the responsibility of devotees; that’s their work. It’s not supposed to be given to Me.

My new Work, My Divine Emergence Work for real, really began to happen in the process of the initial weeks in Kauai, when I was staying in Princeville in a hellish situation. It was an Event. It was going on and on, in the midst of which there was this Communication of the Four Thorns Of Heart-Instruction. I was making this Communication, along with all the process that is associated with the Work that I Do and that I am here to Do, in which this Instruction is basic to everyone’s approach to Me.

QUANDRA JANGA MAI: Did You start writing the Four Thorns in California?

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: No. Not the writing of it, but there are references in it that come from My conversations during the previous months, or even the previous 25 years. It’s the summation of all, even all the language of the 25 years. Therefore, it contains the language of the more summary “considerations” leading up to this Four Thorns writing. But the actual writing took place after I came to Kauai. I was in the midst of a hellish situation in Princeville, but it wasn’t that I was simply sitting there and having to endure it. I was there Working. Everything else that was going on was something I had to deal with, but I was just doing what I Do there.

QUANDRA JANGA MAII: It felt like You were converting everything around You.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: There were all kinds of profound matters in My Doings there, that need not even be described really. What can be said about it and have it be completely clear? But it was really a Process or Event or Sequence from which the actual Four Thorns Of Heart-Instruction came. And the Four Thorns reflect expressions of Mine—from the previous weeks, especially, and (obviously) from all the years—but did not take the form of this specific Gift of Instruction to you all until I was in that particular circumstance.

QUANDRA JANGA MAI: It felt to me that You personally endured a Yogic process in which You literally relinquished everyone and everything connected with the way You had Worked in the previous 25 years.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes.

QUANDRA JANGA MAII: Even down to all of Your intimate associations. Everything.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: I Did everything.

QUANDRA SUKHA MAI: I felt like You had to go through such a profound change in order to do what You are doing now.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: As an Event, it has great dimensions to it, and it’s comparable to the Divine Emergence Event in 1986. It generated the wandering Yoga, the detachment (in Yogic terms) that moves Me differently. I dealt with all kinds of things there, but, simply speaking, Emerged from it just Doing this Work. Nothing else is tolerable to Me or of interest to Me to be associated with. This Work must be fulfilled.

QUANDRA JANGA MAI: It felt to me very much like the Initiation of the Divine Emergence, Beloved. I had never seen You in such frustration and despair relative to Your Work since that moment in 1986.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: When I was in that circumstance in Princeville, nothing was sustaining this Body, nothing was keeping Me here any longer. So, as in 1986, this Body was relinquished. It simply fell away. But it didn’t disappear. It simply Emerged differently. A different Process became animated. It is the same Process as before, yes, in ultimate terms, but animated, patterned, moved differently, and no longer dependent on what had become a totally unworkable situation. So something new emerged altogether.

QUANDRA JANGA MAII: After You came back into the Body in the Divine Emergence, one of the first things that You Revealed was Your Passion. You started weeping for the billions on Earth. And during the time in Princeville I remember when You started shouting at me and You were weeping similarly about everyone alive and suffering on Earth.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

Third Quarter 1994

The Santosh Event

Adi Da Samraj – Leaving Ashram, August 1994

Thus, on August 5, 1994, Beloved Da left His Hermitage Ashram in order to Reflect to His devotees His Urgency for a circumstance where He can do the Work He took Birth to Do. At that time, He felt that His devotees had not created a place and a circumstance for Him where He could do His True Work. This does not mean that His devotees have not done great and real and devoted service—it means that the circumstance of most profound renunciate response that allows Beloved Da to truly retire from all concerns about the present and future of His Work in this world had not been established. Just so, a circumstance in which Beloved Da could Work most directly with His devotees for the sake of their most perfectly self-transcending God- Realization had not been established, because no one, apart from the Kanyas, was showing—through actual life choices—-any interest in anything beyond the practice of religion associated with the first three stages of life.

It is important to remember that Beloved Da has always indicated that the majority of His devotees will be householders, or “general practitioners”—individuals who will practice a purifying and genuine religious discipline in the context of great love and devotion to Him, but who are likely to do that practice in the context of the first three stages of life, and perhaps the fourth stage of life. But He naturally expects, and His Work requires, that some will step forward for a more profoundly renounced and most intensive practice for the sake of all and for the sake of the future of His Work

Avatara Adi Da’s leaving the Island of Naitauba was a painful moment for all His devotees. No one could escape the reality that we had required Him to reflect our ordinariness to us by leaving His principal Residence. Beloved Da now undertook a Yajna in Fiji that was similar in many respects to His worldwide Yajna of 1986.

This time of “Wandering” in Fiji was not merely a criticism of the circumstance at His principal Hermitage Residence—it was a time of Beloved Da’s Embrace of Fiji. I have always noticed that in each and all of Beloved Da’s Acts, even when they appear, as in this case, to be a form of Criticism, He is always only Giving His extraordinary Blessing. This fact was completely obvious during this Yajna. The trip was His constant, Divine Play. There were only two things going on: On the one hand, there was His daily, Fierce Calling, via His Notes, to His devotees everywhere to resort to Him absolutely, rather than resorting to ourselves and to our ordinary’ searches and distractions. On the other hand, there were continual forays into the land and culture of Fiji through visits to parks, gardens, and other scenic places, and countless small shops full of native Fijian handicrafts and Indian religious images and traditional Indian clothing. Beloved freely Blessed all.

Santosha Ma – See article above.

In the midst of all of this, Bhagavan Adi Da was doing intensive Work on the manuscripts of many of His Source-Texts. It was this Work that provided the first signs of the transformation that this time would bring. He Worked on His Manuscripts almost daily and for many’ hours at a time. On August 30, Bhagavan Da made the following statement when passing on some of His Manuscript Work:

BHAGAVAN ADI DA: From the time of the initiation of My Divine Emergence, My devotees were to relate to Me in a new and right and traditional manner, based on obedience to My Word and acknowledgement of Who I Am. I Describe this in “The Order of My Free Names”. But My devotees have been slow to make this change in relationship to Me. It has been nine years since the Event that initiated My Divine Emergence, and it is time, for the sake of My devotees’ practice, that I am related to in the traditional and altogether right manner. Likewise, this right relationship to Me should be manifested by the public as well as by My devotees. As part of the process of emphasizing the right and traditional way of relating to Me, certain places should be renamed, and references to Me should be changed as I have indicated.

Avatara Da was Working to bring about a cultural change within our gathering, specifically at Purnashram, and, in that process, He Called us to a deeper Revelation of Who He Is through study and Contemplation of His Divine Names and Titles, which, by including English, Sanskrit, and Fijian, represent Beloved Adi Da’s Embrace of all beings, East and West, and they indicate the Sign that Beloved Adi Da Gave throughout His Yajna in Fiji.

Beloved also Signed the Freedom of His Avadhoot Purity by adopting the traditional sannyasin color of orange, as He had in 1986. The first day that Bhagavan Da went in orange on a trip into the public, it was to Nadi, the second largest of Fiji’s cities. There, Beloved moved gracefully into the heart of Indian culture in Fiji, visiting one tiny Indian shop after another. We had lunch in a beautiful orchid warden, “The Garden of the Sleeping Giant”, established many years ago bv Raymond Burr. At this site many Fijians were moved to receive Beloved’s Darshan.

It was astonishing to me to walk with Bhagavan Da, clad in sannyasin orange, in the streets and shops of Nadi. I had traveled with Him in the United States and Europe during the 1986 Yajna, and He was met with complete abuse on that trip. There was no understanding of His renun-ciate Sign. People would deliberately knock into Him on the street or make derogatory and abusive comments as they passed Him. There was a total lack of respect and understanding of Him. In Nadi and in Suva, by contrast, the Hindus there especially understood His Sign.

When we entered a shop, everyone would quietly and respectfully gaze at Beloved Da and He would just Stand or Sit there and Grant His Darshan to everyone who gave Him their attention.
In addition, He looked at all the images in these shops associated with Indian Spirituality—even the least expensive images of the various Hindu deities were inspected carefulIy by Him.

I felt Sri Adi Da Granting His Blessing to the entire tradition of Indian Spirituality by this means. He likewise inspected all the merchandise in the Fijian shops, Granting His Blessing to the traditional Fijian culture by so doing and selecting a number of wooden Fijian bowls that He could take His meals from. Virtually every day Beloved Adi Da would make a most passionate,
intense, and critical Calling to His devotees. Then, in the afternoon, He would venture out into the Fijian and Indian culture in the most Benign and obviously Blessing Disposition, even occasionally allowing for humorous conversations that revealed His unfailing and Absolute Humor and Freedom from all of it altogether.

On our way back from our first trip to Nadi, I sat with Beloved Adi Da in the front of the van. As we drove through the countryside, I was struck by how similar the Fijian landscape is to the landscape of India. By the streams, there were groups of Fijian women doing their washing, pounding their wet clothes on the rocks while laughing and talking together. On the other side of the road, Indian women in colorful, traditional saris walked together. Fijian men strode through the fields, carrying baskets of root vegetables on their shoulders, with their seles (a kind of machete) in hand. We drove through Fijian tribal villages and then through clusters of Indian hamlets. Beloved Da constantly gave His Blessing Regard to everything and everyone.

I felt His Blessing strongly, and I began to praise Him. I told Him that this trip was paradoxical to me because it represented a great struggle and Work of purification on the one hand, while on the other I could feel His extraordinary and even magnified Blessing of Fiji and the whole world through this Act of bringing Himself into the world, Granting His Darshan to anyone and everyone who had any attention at all for Him.

I said to Him that I felt that He was establishing His Hermitage now in Fiji—not only at Purnashram but in the country itself—this tiny nation that rests on the International Date Line, the place where the day of the world begins, and the place where East and West are both clearly culturally present. I told Him that although I did not understand this moment altogether, I felt that the Gift of His Names and the profound Blessing of Fiji, and through it the profound Blessing of the world, were signs of a very important and auspicious moment in His Work.

Beloved received my confession with a compassionate “Tcha”.

When we returned to the house, He once again made a Fiery Call for the signs of the particular form of devotional response He was looking for from His devotees.

SEPTEMBER 7, 1994

The next day was September 7. That morning, Beloved Da Avabhasa called me to His quarters and said that He wanted a response from His devotees about one thing and one thing only: the direct, Spiritual relationship to Him. He then retired to His sitting room and remained there all day. The house was totally still. At one point, He called me in to get something for Him. The curtains were drawn, and the room was dark. He was not doing any of the Work on His Manuscripts that I had become so accustomed to each day in recent weeks. He was simply sitting in the large, upholstered chair we had placed in the room for His use. Beloved Adi Da’s Force was so focused and concentrated in the room that the room itself felt almost unapproachable to me. I felt as though I were being pushed out, as when the heat from a fire blasts you backwards out of a blazing space.

As I left this sacred Place, I realized that a Profound Event was occurring in the Person of our Beloved Guru. I felt how important it was for me to make a response to Beloved on behalf of all His devotees, acknowledging Who He Is and expressing their desire for the most direct and sacred relationship to Him. I immediately went to call Purnashram to talk to devotees there, hoping to get a personal response from them about the Spiritual relationship to Sri Sri Adi Da that I could pass on to Him. I was also acutely feeling the wrongness of His living in the suburbs of Suva as the Feast of Aham Da Asmi approached, and I hoped that somehow, in conversation with devotees at Purnashram, we could collectively find a way to reinstate Bhagavan Da at His Blessing-Seat.

Everyone to whom I spoke expressed their commitment to Beloved Da’s service, to the practice of the Way of the Heart, and to the ordeal of purification that the real Spiritual Process involves. I returned to Beloved Da’s rooms when He eventually called for me at eight o’clock that night. I felt prepared to fully represent devotees’ desire for the most direct relationship with Beloved Da and their understanding of what that sadhana requires.

When I entered the room, Beloved Adi Da was seated at His desk. The curtains were still drawn, but the light was on. There were Manuscripts on the floor at His Feet. He did not turn to look at me. There was so much Transmission-Force Radiating from Him that I felt that even my silent entrance into the room was an intrusion. I began, on behalf of all His devotees, to speak about their desire for the most direct Spiritual relationship with Him. I also spoke passionately about my feeling He could not remain in His present circumstance, but must return to His Siddha-Peetha.

I expressed my observation and intuition that there was a Yogic Process taking place in Him that, it seemed to me, was His means of preparing Himself to Work with renunciate devotees for the sake of creating the renunciate orders of the Way of the Heart—the Lay Renunciate Order and the Free Renunciate Order. I told Beloved Da that I felt His devotees’ response to His Call for real renunciation and most intense commitment to the process of most perfectly self- transcending God-Realization.
As I spoke, He slowly turned toward me, so that eventually I was face to face with Him. The Face of my Beloved Guru was so full of Passion and the Sign of Perfect Love for all beings that I was overwhelmed by the vision of His Sacrificial Ordeal in His Work with His devotees.

Beloved Adi Da then Gestured for me to take some notes while He Spoke. He said that it was essential that there be a group of practitioners fully prepared to do the most direct sadhana in His Company for the sake of God-Realization. He spoke about the need for a group of such renunciate individuals to surround Him with whom He could do His Spiritual Work for the sake of creating Instrumentality in the world. He explained that in order to quicken that process He was magnifying the qualifications for entrance into the formal renunciate orders, such that the sadhana in these orders would be intensified. Only in this way could His devotees be quickened in their practice.

Beloved Adi Da then Described to me the changes that He had just made in several of His Source-Texts, The Dawn Horse Testament Of Adi Da and The Adi Da Upanishad. He explained that relative to the Free Renunciate Order, formal and fully established celibate renunciation was now the qualification and sadhana that He required. He had come to tire firm conclusion, He said, that this was a necessity for the sake of the true maturation of the Spiritual process in the sixth stage of life. Beloved said that He was “Considering” this same discipline for the Lay Renunciate Order, but that He had not made that final decision yet. He then asked me how I felt about everything He had just told me.

I was overwhelmed by the feeling of my Beloved Guru’s great Urgency for the sake of His Blessing Work with the whole world. His Extraordinary Patience and Willingness to Work with us, always and only Serving the process of our Liberation, broke my heart. I saw His utter vulnerability to the ego-bound suffering of humanity, even epitomized so directly in my own puny self, convicted of the illusion of the separate self sense, sitting there at the Feet of the Divine Person Who was Regarding me without the slightest presumption of my separateness. His Calling in this moment was a Beckoning far greater than Ramakrishna’s legendary wailing for devotees from his roof-top. Beloved Da’s Call was a Call for the sake of the Spiritualization of mankind.

I could feel in that moment, as I sat before Beloved Adi Da, that He was Giving me and all His devotees a Great Gift: the possibility of slipping through the net of egoity by means of further renunciation. Now He sat , still and Perfect in His Love, waiting for my humble response.

I Praised Beloved Adi Da for His Perfect Grace, and I confessed to Him this moment was an extraordinarily auspicious one in His Great Work with His devotees and all beings. I felt that His Call to us to Contemplate His Names and this most unusual Yajna in Fiji were signs of the expansion of His Work. I confessed my feeling that these greater signs of renunciation were essential for tire growth and authentication of the practice of the gathering of His devotees. I confessed to Beloved Adi Da that I understood the profound need for the establishment of Instrumentality during His Lifetime that would make it possible for His Work to be extended to everyone for all time.

It was clear that He felt able now to bring the Free Renunciate Order into being as a celibate renunciate order, which signalled the relinquishment of an entire way of Working with devotees that He had felt obliged to embrace for the last twenty-three years.