The Free Daist (This is a portion of an ongoing talk Adi Da was having with a group of his devotees at Adidasamrajashram) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Relative to telling the Leelas of the Teaching years, that is another matter. The Teaching years were a continuous “consideration”, a most serious matter, from My point of view. That “consideration” covered everything. There was nothing casual or frivolous about it, its meaning, its purpose, or its results. Every matter addressed then was addressed as a “consideration”. It was a process. Everything “considered” came about in due course to produce the final form of Instruction, the final Admonition. “The
perfect among the sages is identical with Me. There is
absolutely no difference between us”
Vol 2 Number 3 & 4
Special Double Issue, 1991
I have noticed that some people like to talk about the Teaching years because they like talking about high energy times, and celebrations, and parties. They just like the mood of things being that way, and they like to ritually return to all of that by telling My Stories.
Of course, they are not really telling the Leela of the Teaching years by doing that, not in general. You can tell an anecdote here and there, but to tell the Leelas of the Teaching years, you must fully communicate the “consideration”. It is not enough to talk about a particular occasion, something I said, some particular moment, something you did. That is not the Leela. That is not the “consideration”. The Leela is the totality of My Address, to that matter or that person.
In general, the “consideration” was not covered in a moment or in an incident or even in a period. Those “considerations” took years. And it was not so much something I entered into with individuals-it was that certainly- but it was a “consideration” I entered into with everyone. The totality of its meanings, then, depends on everyone’s telling his or her portion of it and then putting it all together in the form of a comprehensive Leela. Cover the entire “consideration” by showing the depth of that “consideration”, all parts examined, entered into fully.
Then the results, the final Admonition, the ultimate Instruction, the necessity for that finality, becomes clear. If you just go about telling people about the celebratory events or the celebratory atmosphere of some time in the past, you are only stimulating their interest in indulging themselves in one way or another, wishing it were that way now, perhaps: “Do you still do that?” “No.” “Well, I’m not interested. If it was loose, informal, maybe I’d consider joining up now, but since you aren’t doing that anymore, I’m not interested.” Then you get the other kind of character: “You did what?! He did what?! I don’t want anything to do with it.” All the forms of mind have their angle on it.
What is the purpose of telling these Leelas, then? It is to reveal a right understanding of life, reveal the Lesson of life itself, but also reveal a right understanding of the elements of life that make it clear what right practice is, or the possible range of forms of right practice, since there is some variation from person to person. That is what it is to tell the Leela of the Teaching years, then. I would say, then, no single individual can properly tell it, even though some individuals were present much of the time, although certainly such individuals have a unique point of view from which to tell the Leelas and describe the “consideration”. Any one individual present much of the time still represents only one point of view. I was involved in interaction with all who were there, and they were involved in interaction with one another. It was all a “consideration” in which everyone participated to the point of an ultimate resolution. You are not telling the Leelas of the Teaching years if you do not tell what that resolution is and why it was necessary.
The resolution of the Teaching years is a call to right practice, that very practice which is the Way of the Heart, summarized in The Dawn Horse Testament. This is what you have not told, you see. You are not giving others the opportunity to “consider” these things. Nowadays there are still many individuals, student-beginners or perhaps student-novices, who are just wasting months, years at a time, taking forever to adapt to the basic disciplines, indulging themselves one day and being straight the next day, indulging in their idealistic and double-minded approach. They could well use a good summary presentation of the “considerations” of the Teaching years, and not merely pictures of how some people partied and enjoyed themselves at one time or another, and also enjoyed My Company, and I Said and Did remarkable things, and they had visions. Not just that, but the whole matter of how the ego lives, what its tendencies are, what its interests are, what its points of view are, all the different arguments it makes relative to each aspect of ordinary life. And, after examining all of that, what is the right conclusion you must come to as a result? What is the fullest “consideration” of that, and what is its result? Such clarity and understanding must be conveyed through these Leelas of “consideration” from the Teaching years.
And there is obviously a lack of clarity and understanding. Almost none of My Wisdom-Teaching is in print anymore. All My Words have been buried in archives. You cannot even afford to publish My Wisdom-Teaching anymore, beyond a few things. The books that have already been Written and prepared for publication cannot be published. You cannot afford to do it, you have so undermined the organization. The resource is not there even to distribute them properly. Even the books already Written, there to be published-most of them cannot be published at the present time. And on top of that, the entire history of all My Work to now is almost entirely untold, and all the “considerations” of all those years are almost totally unknown. This is also part of your betrayal.
What do you suggest? Am I supposed to do the whole thing all over again because you were too lazy to keep this real and alive for the sake of others? That was your obligation. That was your promise to Me, that you would do all of that. And you have done nothing of the kind. Am I supposed to Teach again? Make that same Submission? And if I do not, you will just continue to suppress and victimize Me? Is that the deal here? Are you going to continue this suppression until I agree to patty with you? Is that what this is all about? Shall I agree to Teach again in that way?
I am here now to relate to you in the context of your real practice. The Teaching years are over. The “consideration” is complete. My Teaching- Revelation is utterly summarized. It is there for you to practice. And I am here to relate to you in the context of that practice, in response to your real devotion. My Activities can be many in that context, but you are not doing anything but holding Me up in My House and oppressing Me with bad news and every kind of manipulation. Your reluctance to communicate the Leelas of the Teaching years and your failure to do so has been clear for some time.
In some sense, then, I have in these last few years Given you a replacement for the Leelas. I have Given you the summary Source-Teaching, in the form of The Dawn Horse Testament and several other books – The Love- Ananda Gita, and so on. Even without an extensive telling of the Leelas of the Teaching years, you do have My summary Word, and it is sufficient. It is just that it would be good if you also told the Leelas. As I say over and over again in The Dawn Horse Testament, you should communicate and make full use of My Word and My Leelas-not only My Leelas generated now in present time, but those that have already been Given and that must be remembered by you, told again and again, and kept on record for others.
To do that is part of your sadhana. And you have done very little of it so far. I do not even know what you are doing with that history. There are nearly twenty years of it now. I do not know how much of it is actively being recorded. I ask about it again and again. I keep being assured some people are doing something about it, but how much and what I do not know for sure. You certainly have not produced very much of it in the form of literature, or something tangible that can be used by others. In any case, you have only the barest outline of My Life to date.
The Dawn Horse Testament is enough. The Dawn Horse Testament itself gives at least a bare outline. It is altogether enough. The rest would be good to add. You should make The Dawn Horse Testament, then, the focus of your study. Study it intensively. And, in support of it, study The Love-Ananda Gita, including the “I Am What you Require” section-the entire book, in fact, in which the foundation element of the Way of the Heart described in The Dawn Horse Testament is addressed.
Then, in The Da Avabhasa Upanishad, the Essay “The ego-I is the Illusion of Relatedness” is another summary that contains some details that elaborate on subjects discussed in The Dawn Horse Testament-diet, for instance. For the moment, these three-The Love-Ananda Gita, The Dawn Horse Testament, most especially, and “The ego-‘I’ is the Illusion of Relatedness”- these should be the focus of your study.
You should make this your education. I do not know how many courses you need people to invent for you to do this. I have spent My Lifetime producing these books for you. I do not see why you need scholars to sit around and crank out courses for you when you have the Words directly there for you to “consider”. Courses should be helpful in organizing some aspects of it into a practice, fine, but not much should be required. Basically you should just be obliged to adapt to it and be accountable for it.
In addition to these, there is some secondary literature produced by My devotees that certainly I would suggest you use-The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher and Love of the God-Man. The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher is the closest thing to being a Leela of My Life and Work, and Love of the God-Man discusses the Guru-devotee relationship that I have “considered”, and as it has been described in the traditions. And it does so at great length! But in spite of that, it is sufficient summary, for the moment, of what Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga requires in relation to All.
There is practical Instruction, which I have Written in the form of a number of books, and thousands of hours of Talks, and all the rest of the Archives, too, and it does not look like the organization is going to be able to afford to produce very much of that at the present time. I understand that Conscious Exercise and the Transcendental Sun and Easy Death are going to be produced in a few months. The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace, the book on dietary and health practice, is not going to be published soon, so I will be passing on to you all some suggestions of public literature that covers basic dietary practice in the general manner I recommend. Love of the Two-Armed Form is not going to be published now, but I have Given you My complete instruction relative to sexuality in The Dawn Horse Testament and “The ego-I > the Illusion of Relatedness”. Love of the Two-Armed Form is not necessary t the moment, although there is much that could be published about that consideration” and things I have Written about it.
You should concentrate, then, on these books I have described and on adapting to real practice.
By the signs you all have been generating, I have the impression that gives at least a bare outline. It is altogether enough. The rest would be good to add. You should make The Dawn Horse Testament, then, the focus of your study. Study it intensively. And, in support of it, study The Love-Ananda Gita, including the “I Am What you Require” section-the entire book, in fact, in which the foundation element of the Way of the Heart described in The Dawn Horse Testament is addressed.
Then, in The Da Avabhasa Upanishad, the Essay “The ego-I is the Illusion of Relatedness” is another summary that contains some details that elaborate on subjects discussed in The Dawn Horse Testament- diet, for instance. For the moment, these three-The Love-Ananda Gita, The Dawn Horse Testament, most especially, and “The ego-I is the Illusion of Relatedness”- these should be the focus of your study.
You should make this your education. I do not know how many courses you need people to invent for you to do this. I have spent My Lifetime producing these books for you. I do not see why you need scholars to sit around and crank out courses for you when you have the Words directly there for you to “consider”. Courses should be helpful in organizing some aspects of it into a practice, fine, but not much should be required. Basically you should just be obliged to adapt to it and be accountable for it.
In addition to these, there is some secondary literature produced by My devotees that certainly I would suggest you use-The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher and Love of the God-Man. The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher is the closest thing to being a Leela of My Life and Work, and Love of the God-Man discusses the Guru-devotee relationship that I have “considered”, and as it has been described in the traditions. And it does so at great length! But in spite of that, it is sufficient summary, for the moment, of what Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga requires in relation to Me.
There is practical Instruction, which I have Written in the form of a number of books, and thousands of hours of Talks, and all the rest of the Archives, too, and it does not look like the organization is going to be able to afford to produce very much of that at the present time. I understand that Conscious Exercise and the Transcendental Sun and Easy Death are going to be produced in a few months. The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace, the book on dietary and health practice, is not going to be published soon, so I will be passing on to you all some suggestions of public literature that covers basic dietary practice in the general manner I recommend. Love of the Two-Armed Form is not going to be published now, but I have Given you My complete Instruction relative to sexuality in The Dawn Horse Testament and “The ego-I is the Illusion of Relatedness”. Love of the Two-Armed Form is not necessary at the moment, although there is much that could be published about that “consideration” and things I have Written about it.
You should concentrate, then, on these books I have described and on adapting to real practice.
By the signs you all have been generating, I have the impression that there is very little real or right understanding of what practice of the Way of the Heart involves. The whole process of communicating it in educational terms and being held accountable for it has been utterly chaotic, from what I gather, and not very productive. People are still not moving forward in practice. They are professionalizing student-beginner practice and making it into a nominal, institutionalized way, an alternative to the Way of the Heart, in fact. Student-novices seem to take forever to become formal practitioners of the Way of the Heart.
I received some report today about people in the earlier levels of student- beginner practice, region by region, which said things like, “There are fourteen people here in this region, and five of them will become fully established adapting practitioners in the next two to four months. Of the other nine, seven of them will make the transition by the end of the year, and the others will make the transition within a year.” This is only the transition to fully established adapting practitioner. Once someone has shown stable adaptation to the basic disciplines, it is supposed to be an automatic matter that he or she becomes a fully established adapting practitioner. No significant further requirement is added to the practice of a mature student-novice. Basically the same thing you had to qualify for to become a formal practitioner of the Way of the Heart is what you had to qualify for to become a so-called fully established adapting student-beginner. And here we have people planning to take a year or more to do it! What exactly are they resisting? What is going on?
This is the kind of cultural sign you all present to Me. All these different slices of student-beginner are “boobery” as far as I am concerned. You should become a student-beginner and move on to prepared practitioner in a finite and essentially short period of time. The reason to become a member of the Free Daist Communion is that you are committed to do this sadhana in My Company. The first step is to establish the student-beginner discipline. And, to become a student-beginner, you must have made a basic demonstration of these disciplines as a student-novice. Just some details, a few more aspects of the technicalities of the practice, need to be generated for the transition to prepared student-beginner.
Of the eleven hundred people practicing the Way of the Heart, including formal practitioners and student-novices, there must be five or six hundred who are not even demonstrating practitioners yet. Most are either student- novices, or eternally adapting. You can talk forever about the failures of the administration, the management, and the leadership, who are supposed to be representing you, but this is the story about every practitioner, these failures of practice, failures to seriously do the sadhana with a real culture of practice and to cultivate right relationship to Me, and, in addition, the failures of people to accept real responsibility in their personal lives, in their collective association with others in cooperative community, and in their responsibility fee the Mission of the Free Daist Communion.
So-you must know that you have many things to do, including repairing the failure of the Free Daist Communion, the Free Daist Community Organization, and Sri Love-Anandashram. And it also involves everything relative to individual practice.
In this conversation with you all, I am basically addressing your failures of practice. Your practice is failing not because you are egos. The whole world is made up of egos. Egos are the ones who do religion. There are religious organizations all over the world, many with large numbers and succeeding in various kinds of ways. You all are failing! Utterly and in every way.
Your failure has nothing to do with egoity in itself. You all have come to some kind of collective agreement to fail, to resist, to make this process collapse. You must come to a new agreement with one another. Eliminate the neurotic agreement that you all have been working on, and this depressed point of view, this resistive point of view, this devotionless point of view.
You must make a different agreement, altogether. Make a culture of expectation and inspiration for real. Make a gathering of practitioners of the Way of the Heart who are truly My devotees and not some strange bunch of abusive keepers. I suggest that you do it in the form of this great practice, and as a true community of My devotees.
I told you even in the earliest years that the Way of the Heart was a life of celebration. And it is so. You all have been refusing to celebrate My Company and refusing to celebrate in My Company for years now, at least six. You have become a total bore. You know Me-I only like celebration. I do not like ceremonies. I do not like boredom. I do not like people being lifeless around Me.
Therefore, whenever I have been with you over all these years, we have always celebrated in one fashion or another. And I expect you to continue to do so. Those forms of celebration were, for you, not really celebration, because they were not productive in relation to all we “considered”.
Now I have Given you a Way of life that can be utterly celebrated, that is only about celebration, if you would understand what I am talking about and enter into this relationship with Me rightly, and really do it. It is not boring. It is not depressed. It is not mechanical, mediocre, conventionally pious, puritanical, or obnoxious in any way. The Way of the Heart is a self-transcending and really God-Realizing Way of life, fulfilled by Grace.
You cannot fullfill your Mission if you cannot celebrate Me. There is no Mission if you do not celebrate Me. You cannot happily make community with one another, you will not effectively do all the things necessaiy, if you do not celebrate Me. You will not administer or manage or do any form of cultural service rightly if you do not celebrate Me. You are not celebrating if you continue to exploit and abuse and oppress Me. And you are not celebrating if you do not change My Circumstance and set it right. You are not celebrating if you do not handle your business with the Free Daist Communion and the Free Daist Community Organization and make this Mission and this community succeed. These are the ways whereby I will know that you are celebrating, when you make these positive changes.
Tripura
Rahasya,
Chap
XX, 128-133