The following essay is a composite from a number of talks and essays over many years by Adi Da Samraj complied by Beezone.
nonsense out of My Life.” –
Adi Da Samraj
“I have not Come here merely to …suffer…to be coddled and ignored in a little corner of religious “cultism””
The “cult” is a dramatization of egoity, of separativeness, even of the entrapment and betrayal of the “center” (or the “middle”), by one and all. Therefore, I have always Refused to assume the role and the position of the “man in the middle”—and I have always, from the beginning of My formal Teaching and Blessing Work, Criticized, Resisted, and Shouted About the “cultic” (or ego-based, and ego-reinforcing, and merely “talking” and “believing”, and not understanding and not really practicing) “school” …religious and Spiritual life.
I do not Call My devotees to become absorbed into a “cultic” gang of exoteric and egocentric religionists. I certainly Call all My devotees to cooperative community (or, otherwise, to fully cooperative collective and personal relationship) with one another—but not to do so in an egoic, separative, world-excluding, xenophobic, and intolerant manner. Rather, My devotees are Called, by Me, to transcend egoity—through right and true devotional relationship to Me, and mutually tolerant and peaceful cooperation with one another, and all-tolerating (cooperative and compassionate and all-loving and all-including) relationship with all of mankind (and with even all beings).
(But) any organized gathering of people associated with a common source of enthusiasm and commitment may be called a “cult”. The negative tendency in cultism is the tendency to forget that mere enthusiastic association with an object, an idea, a person, or whatever, is basically a superficial (or “beginner’s”) state of mind.
The error of conventional cultism is precisely (a) childish, and (otherwise) adolescent, and (altogether) ego-based orientation to fascination with Spiritual Masters, Wisdom-Teachers, “God”-Ideas, myths, sacred lore, inherited beliefs, traditional propaganda, and psycho-physical (or merely body-mind-based) mysticism. And the cultic tendency in “religion” and Spirituality is the essence of what is wrong with conventional “religion” and Spirituality.
All mere enthusiasm, or belief, or ritualized consciousness is at the novice level of human existence – and, if enthusiasm, or belief, or ritualized consciousness persists beyond its appropriate term, it inevitably becomes an expression of either childish or adolescent neurosis. (Such is true of individuals, and also of human groups, including entire cultures and nations.)
When participation in the “outer circle” of life is prolonged, and the more advanced (or esoteric) culture (the “inner circle” of life) does not begin, then all the classic signs of human failure are (inevitably) in evidence. Human beings need their childhood, and even a kind of adolescence—but they must eventually “put away childish things”, and enter into the mature and more advanced domain of human possibility.
This transition to human maturity requires profound and self-critical understanding on the part of the individual. And, if such a crisis of self-understanding does not characterize the greatest number of human beings alive at any one time, the social order of humankind tends to be more or less childish and adolescent, expressing all kinds of irrational dependencies and equally irrational needs for ambivalent independence.
But this is precisely the situation…at the present time. Everyone is clinging to the “outer circle”.
In the domain of religion, the cults…claim exclusive possession of the absolute Revelation (or ultimate degree) of Truth.
It is time for everyone to awaken from the spell of childish, subhuman, ego-possessed, subjective (mental, emotional, and physical) obsession. It is time to grow up!
The Truth can become obvious to human understanding, and the cultural situation of humankind can become harmonious and benign. It is a matter of entering into…domain of awakened intelligence.
The problem of religious cultism is prolonged exotericism, which produces fanaticism, delusion, and exclusivism. Freedom from false cultism depends on human growth, from the exoteric (or superficial levels of understanding) to the esoteric (or Spiritually Awakened levels of understanding).
The sadhana of the Community is no more a matter of concern for what appears than personal sadhana is a matter of concern for the qualities that arise in meditation. The Community can only become schizophrenic, righteous, self-conscious, and peculiar by thinking that the realization of the Community, as I have described it, is identical to a certain exterior manifestation that is perfect, non-cultic, brilliant, and all of the rest. Then the Community will always be looking at itself to make sure its ass is not hanging out. All of that is itself cultic concern.
As long as human individuals are the substance of the Community (and that is forever!) the tendency will be present in each person every hour of every day to manifest the conditions and dramas of Narcissus. The tendency will always be to assume separation and to act separatively, exclusively.
So the intelligence of the Community is not properly directed toward perfection in that outward sense of conformation to a certain image. Rather, the Community must always and actually do sadhana. In other words, it must live that process in which all tendencies and concerns are broken down, from hour to hour. And that requires everyone to meet directly, to deal with one another directly, to deal with themselves directly, and always to overcome this negative destiny that is appearing in both new and old ways from day to day. That sadhana is the sign of such a Community. It is not a matter of its concern for outward perfection, but of its adherence to the real process of sadhana. In that case the outward manifestation of the Community remains free to assume always more appropriate and effective forms in every moment.”
The “cult”…is a dramatization of egoity, of separativeness, even of the entrapment and betrayal of the “center” (or the “middle”), by one and all. Therefore, I have always Refused to assume the role and the position of the “man in the middle”—and I have always (from the beginning of My formal Work of Teaching and Blessing) Criticized, Resisted, and Shouted About the “cultic” (or ego-based, and ego-reinforcing, and merely “talking” and “believing”, and not understanding and not really practicing his formal discipline of right devotional approach to Me to have been freely and happily embraced by every one who would enter into My physical Company.
The natural human reason for this is that there is a potential liability inherent in all human associations. And the root and nature of that potential liability is the ego (or the active human presumption of separateness, and the ego-act of human separativeness).
“Do Not Misunderstand Me,
I Am Not a Mere “Man” in the “Middle” of Mankind”
The Guru is not simply a human individual, a cultic figure. The Guru is a special Function in God. It is not a form of status, nor is something to be achieved. The Guru is not a big guy, a superman or super hero who appears among a lot of little guys in some form of Superiority or narcissism. He must always become nothing so that the Divine power becomes active.
The true Guru is not the fascinating initiator of experience in men, but one who has died in the Heart, who has become empty of powers and without self, who has found that fullness is only, always and already God. The Guru is an agent of the Divine work, not because he has all kinds of heroic accomplishments in his psyche, but because he has become nothing. He has attained nothing, he has been undone. The Guru is not identical to a person. The only reason an apparent human individual can function as Guru is because he has consciously ceased to be identical to a human individual in limitation. There is no longer any sense whatsoever.
There is no longer any sense whatsoever in the human Guru of separate existence. None. The Guru is not a personality. The only reason he can perform the function of Guru is because he is dead. He is finished with all the cults and conventions of human life. He has already wrecked himself, so you don’t have to worry about him. He is finished, the Guru in the world is a paradoxical event. He is always a paradox, like the universe itself. The Guru is not an idol or a form of fascination.
The Guru is not just a human person who can have human effects on you. The Guru is active, Present as that Divine power, dead or alive. The Guru is communicated to you under all conditions, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, winter, spring, summer or fall, in good times and in bad, The Communication is always being given.
Truth must confront a man, live him and meditate him. It is not your meditation that matters, Truth must meditate you. The matter of Truth is entirely academic until it communicates itself to you and takes you over. Then it creates sadhana and creates the conditions for transformation. So the Truth must find some way to communicate itself as a function in specific relationship to you. Therefore, the human Guru as an appropriate means and that is why he exists. Truth itself must become the process of life and communicate and create conditions in life, and make demands which restore the conscious participation of the individual.
Individuals are terrified in the face of the Divine. Because in the Face of the Divine there is the Demand and The Revelation. The Demand is The sacrifice of self and the Revelation is there is only God, your present state. If the Demand is not made there is only separate existence – ego – and fear, contraction. The more subtle the realization the more obvious the contraction and separation.
Just as in every other area of human life, the tendency of all those who (in the modern era) would become involved in religious or Spiritual life is also to make a “cult”, a circle that ever increases its separate and separative dimensions—beginning from the “center”, surrounding it, and (perhaps) even (ultimately) controlling it (such that it altogether ceases to be effective, or even interesting). Such “cultism” is ego-based, and ego-reinforcing—and, no matter how “esoteric” it presumes itself to be, it is (as in the ancient setting) entirely exoteric, or (at least) more and more limited to (and by) merely social (and gross physical) activities and conditions.
I have already done everything that you can do. In a short span of time I have seen every universe, every world, every vision, every part of the body. I have loved man, every woman. I have done everything. (Laughter) am only relieved that I have done it all. You could all too, but it would take eons of time, with many is in between. It would be a torment for you to uncover our potential experiences. For me it is nothing, which a reflection on me as an individual. It is the Law of nature that from time to time some apparent individual appear in the scheme of things who may, without effort, experience everything and be without consolation so that the may be expressed through that individual. It is not a action on that individual in any cultic personal sense. It’s about God. And it serves you. It occurs so that you can be happy. If you are without a witness in your company, about what is is when you have done it all, how could you be free? You could not be free without such a witness. But not only witness in the form of a verbal communication, but also in the form of the most absolute communication, which you may realize only in the form of Divine Communion.
Powers and visions may appear through me in your experience, but that is not my position. I see nothing, I hear nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing!. Yes, have have I said it, there is nothing to be attained. You pass through everything to nothing.
For lovers, you see, nothing is necessary. That is why to be a devotee is the secret of life. Once you realize the disposition of the heart, no powers, no miracles, no worldly experiences or attainments, absolutely no great thing is necessary. It is not that you become satisfied with the ordinary contemplation of life, even that is emptied. There is nothing, except absolute joy, absolute bliss without the slightest trace of anything.
To swim in Infinity, free, without objects, and without a center is a bliss beyond comprehension. It is the seventh stage of life wherein our sacrifice is perfect, wherein every knot of the being is released to Infinity and there are no consolations, there are no visions, no more technical elaboration’s of the great Goddamned stupid plan! And that is my position. That is why I can speak. I am not like those other boys. I am God. Yes, A remarkable occasion, and true enough. Not only just true enough to be said, it is absolutely true and absurd, ridiculous and humorous. But it is happiness. And I recommend it to you.
You Must Not Believe in Me!
You all have heard me speak a number of time over the years about cultism in negative terms. I’ve criticized the cult of the spiritual master and cultic attachments that people create with one another. I myself have used this word as a negative term to criticize certain aspect of your own approach to spiritual life.
One of the primary aspects of the negative meaning I gave to the word ‘cult’ was this exclusive, exclusiveness of the cult. Married people sometimes create a cult with one another. They get married and they go off together and they are never heard from again (laughter) except in superficial TV language with people they happen to bump into for the rest of their lives.
The same is for people who join groups that are cultic in nature. In other words, there is a certain kin of hyped enthusiasm and people gather together attracted to the enthusiasm itself. They accept all the dogmas with which that group makes themselves enthusiastic and then they create themselves an enemy of the world and lose communications with the world and the process of life. We have seen it here throughout all the years again and again and again. The cultic quality, the kind of gleefulness, gleeful enthusiasm for have found “it”, you see. And that’s NOT it! That has got nothing whatever to do with this teaching and the value that I can have for you personally, nothing do do with it!
Somehow or other, even in the midst of this serious attempt to develop real practice in people this quality constantly reincarnates, reappears. It distorts the practice, distorts your understanding and makes you into a cult of enthusiastic people. Enthusiastic for the sake of enthusiasm itself, just gleeful people.
Having found ‘it’ and protected by one another you are able to be put into a good mood by one another, able to believe there is something true you all are associated with. Just by being associated with ‘it’ you feel glamorized by the energy of it all.
People today just read spiritual books and believe they are enlightened, just by reading books! In this community you can not only read books you can be with me, live in this community, you can practice devotional practices and so forth. You can really begin to believe you are enlightened just by your association. You can believe you’re enlightened for no reason what so ever! You must be very mindful of this kind of cultism which I have criticized again and over these years.
So much of my work with you has been to undermine this childishness in you. For many of the years my work with people was spent trying to deal with this childishness. The failure of people to truly live the spiritual process. That’s significance of why I had to work with people for several years. I had to uncover all these methods, these strategies that are simply childish. These qualities must be uncovered and they must become a matter of responsibility in you before you can truly live this practice.
This tendency of childishness which is in you is present is in all members of every group not just religious groups but in political organizations and begonia fanciers! Every time there is a organization of people associated with something about which they can become enthusiastic you will wee the qualities of the cult…..and I’m not kidding about begonia fanciers! If any of you have ever belonged to a sort of hobbyist organizations, you’ll see precisely the same kind of mentality, that appears in what now is being called cults.
As you watch political organizations, do you ever notice what happens during presidential campaigns and such? Watch what happens in those great auditoriums with candidates running for nomination. That is cultic insanity!
One of the primary cults in our time is TV cults. Do you know how many people are watching television at this very moment? Millions! Millions and millions of people all over the world watch that insane tube everyday. Something’s about it are entertaining and so forth but it becomes their entire world. It becomes their entire source of their understanding, their intelligence. It dictates their moods and what they can know about. For most people it’s their only source of information apart from gossip. It’s a form of brainwashing. If anywhere, you’ll see it in the TV game. The repetitive messages of subhuman existence. People are fragmented by television into single individuals and they lose their intelligence. They become helpless and they by being secluded in their homes, fail to create community. They then become exploited by greater powers, state powers and so forth.
The roots of this kind of negative cultism are present in the childish mentality of every man and every woman. It is the need to depend on parental energy, parental attention and so forth in order to be sustained and feel good. The need to be loved. While at the same time not wanting to be responsible to be love.
This tendency is not only present in our childishness virtually, this tendency is dogmatically justified by specific cultural influences in which we’ve all come in contact with. Consider this examination of cultism to the areas of religion, the downtown religious you probably became associated with when you were a child. For most of you it was some Christian or Jewish organization that influenced you.
What kind of mentality or approach to life was communicated to you in those cults, and they are cults you see. Cults are not just groups of a hundred or a thousand people in California. Cults are all religious, all religions are cults. Some positive in their quality and some negative. But what were you taught, how were you instructed to live?
What you were fundamentally indoctrinated to be was a child. A believer in a parent God. You were taught to be in awe of certain individuals who were great prophets, great saints or great saviors. To believe in them to the point of ascribing to those individuals exclusive power, exclusive intimacy with the Divine. The extreme examples of that are with Christianity itself in which Jesus is exclusively regarded to be God and is worshipped as such. In other words, the worship of Jesus and other cultic figures is dangerous when it becomes exclusive. Just as cultism in general tends to exclude certain things in order to confine attention to certain other things in order to confine attention to certain other things to become enthusiastic about them.
We see it in the principle, the very center of the cult itself, the principle of worship or admiration. In other words we are taught to assign the truth and the realization of truth exclusively to certain individuals, usually to one individual. This is one of the primary signs of a cult in that the message is exoteric, meaning ‘outer’. It’s a message for children who merely believe and they are taught to be children, just believers. The center of the cult, the worshipped figure, image, ideal or whatever, is considered to possess a certain status that no one else can attain. We assign this status to our notion of the deity. We regard the deity to be unattainable, unrealizable, totally external to us. We regard human individuals whom we deify to represent an unattainable status. This is typical of exoteric teachings, exoteric cults.
People are made to be in awe of or to worship someone or some concept that is divine with the feeling they themselves can never attain that status. But if they worship that reality they will get benefits for doing so. In other words, if we enter into the childish relationship to God or to Jesus and believe, do what ever few mechanical things, your suppose to do, if you belong to that cult, then you will go to heaven. If you believe then when Jesus comes back again you will be a part of his organization (laughter) and he will….wipe the hell out of everybody else…all those goodies, you will get….just for being good. Be good and don’t try to become divine and you will get the blessings.
The exoteric or outer teachings is directed to children and it obliges people to remain children. The result of such a message is the inevitable creation of a cult in negative terms. In other words, in such a religious message it must produce a childish cult because nothing but the mood and practice of the child becomes the matter of instruction in such a cult. The cult is exclusive in nature. “We have only one truth” and the “Only One”. Everybody else is wrong, everybody else can be destroyed. That is the mood of middle eastern religions quite often. Everyone else is an infidel. Everyone else becomes an infidel according to your cultic beliefs simply because they do not have in mind a few simple minded childish ideas which you believe in. It’s not that you, that they become the infidel because you represent a superior moral force, a superior and transcendental power, that you radiate with the love of the Divine, it’s not that that make you superior, it’s the fact that you believe a bunch of nonsense that nobody else believes. And believe Me, that, don’t believe Me! (laughter).
That’s all it is, is nonsense. Consider it for your self. Consider the childish message of your own religion and you will see that is is nonsense.