Telling Leelas, Telling Stories
The Free Daist
Vol 2 Number 3 & 4
Special Double Issue, 1991
(This is an edited version of a talk Adi Da was having with a group of his devotees at Adidasamrajashram. To see the original talk click here.)
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.
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.
“I would say…no single individual can properly tell (a leela)”
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.
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.
You cannot fullfill your Mission if you cannot celebrate Me. You are not celebrating if you do not handle your business. These are the ways whereby I will know that you are celebrating, when you make these positive changes.
Principles Given by Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj for the Right Telling of His Divine Avataric Leela
1. The process of telling and listening to My Leelas is fundamental to the culture of Adidam. This should be constantly done. There is a Vast Body of Revelation to be told by My Leelas.
2. The Telling Of My Divine Avataric Leelas Is Always A Living Recounting. The True Telling Of My Divine Avataric Leelas Is A Means Whereby My Devotees Become Turned, Not Merely To their Memories Of Me, but To Me—Through their present-time Feeling-attention.
3. The fundamental purpose of Listening to My Leelas and My Words is the magnification of the tacit devotional recognition-response to Me.
4. It is always My State that is being Shown and Revealed.
5. Tell My Leela and not your story. Leelas are not about your adventures or your insights.
6. Do not merely reminisce about extraordinary “experiences” and amusing remarks or exchanges.
7. Leelas are not about some encounter you had with Me that brought about some change in your practice. The fundamental form of Leela is simply telling about the Guru—just that, describing the Divine Avataric Play Itself—not combined with you, but just As It Is, just As I Am, just As I Do.
8. Leelas that are simply about My so-called “effect” on you are ways for you to refer to Me while still talking about yourself. There can be some usefulness in that, but it is not the greatest form of Leela-telling.
9. You tend to talk about yourself and then try to interest others in how something similar can happen to them. What you should be interesting people in is transcending themselves in My Divine Avataric Company. If you do that, you will be telling them about Me.
10. You must tell the entire story of any Reality-Lesson. Thus, in the telling of My Divine Avataric Leelas, you may describe particular incidents, but you may also need to give a more summary view of many incidents over a long period of time. A Reality-Lesson may not have been learned until present time, and over the years you may have realized many moments of “self”-understanding. You may need to collect more material as you understand the kinds of Reality-Lessons that need to be communicated.
11. Sometimes a collection of people, rather than one individual, may represent a basic Reality-Lesson. Therefore, over time many hundreds of people may participate in the creation of the Adidam Leela Literature.
12. The Leela should be a story that brings people to Me on the basis of knowing what I am all about altogether.
13. The Leelas of Mine are about Me and not about you. Leelas are about My Play, My Activities, My Work with people.
14. True Divine Avataric Leelas are told in devotional recognition-response to Me.
15. True Divine Avataric Leelas are intrinsically ego-transcending tellings of My Stories.
16. My Devotees Must Never Make a “cult” Out Of My “remembered” Self.
17. Now, and forever hereafter, My devotees must rightly understand and freely tell This Divine Avataric Leela of Me so that everyone will understand:
What the Process of My Divine Avataric Incarnation here has Been
Why the Process of My Divine Avataric Incarnation has Been What It has Been
What the Meaning of the Process of My Divine Avataric Incarnation Is
What the Great and Perfect Significance of the Process of My Divine Avataric Incarnation Is
How the Process of My Divine Avataric Incarnation Is Proof and Demonstration of the Divine Avataric Intervention on Earth.
18. The right telling of My Leelas acknowledges:
My State
My Manifestation
My Demonstration
My Nature
My Avataric Person
the Divine Nature of My Life
My Transcendental Spiritual Demonstration
My supernormal characteristics
19. When you speak of the Ultimate Parama-Sapta-Na Sannyas circumstance and context of My Work, you must also see it in relation to the beginnings of My Work, and the whole context of My Divine Avataric Lifetime, so that you understand what all that Submission-Work was for and what the result of that “consideration” was.
20. Speak of how I did My Submission-Work without limitations, without prejudice, without formulas, without expectations, and how there were no puritanical, moralistic, or conventional social views communicated.
21. Tell the Leela of how My Submission-Work was entirely straightforward, how I related to people just as they were in their conventional lives and patterning relative to money, food, sex and social ego.
22. Tell the Leela of how I was reflecting to devotees the nature of all the different modes of their illusions and addictions, especially in the context of the first three stages of life, and otherwise relative to everything about Real Spiritual life and Realization.
23. Speak of how the actions I Manifested during the Submission-Years were only reflections of those who approached Me, not a reflection of Who I Am.
24. Tell the Leela of how I dealt with and suffered the human bondage to egoic sexuality, what that process was about, what I was dealing with in devotees, and how it was straightforwardly presented to cut through all the conventional absurdities and resistance in human cultures to dealing with emotional-sexual issues.
25. Present the emotional-sexual Leela in such a way that it does not become focused in any way in merely emotional-sexual “issues”, but always makes the point that I was always and only serving the capacity for Divine Realization in devotees.
26. Speak about your observation and understanding that I was only reflecting and addressing people relative to their bondage. Communicate your understanding that I became associated with the characteristics of the bondage, the addictions, the illusions of devotees because of the nature of such Perfect Submission. Speak of how My entering into your world of bondage was entirely for the sake of your Perfect Divine Liberation.
27. Speak of your experience and understanding of how it was necessary for Me to Work in this Way because no “technique”—nothing in the mind, no formulas, prescriptions, idealisms, or ceremonialism could deal with human bondage.
28. Tell My Leelas in order to culturally transmit the lessons of the epochs of My Revelation-Work, so that devotees now and forever will be integrated into the real practice of the Reality-Way of Adidam. Through the communication of your Leelas, undermine the false options that would occur without the hearing of My Divine Avataric Leelas, without the understanding of My Reality-Demonstration that is made possible through the right telling of My Leela.
29. The Leelas are for devotees to animate among themselves forever. Devotees in the future will get the same lessons, the same points of Instruction, not by repeating the history of those “considerations”, but by feeling the lessons in it, by understanding the Reality-Revelation of the “consideration”.
30. Communicate the Profound Act of Work that was the unique period when I Talked a great deal, acted unconventionally, and associated with people in a very free manner in My Submission.
31. Communicate the context of My Submission-Work
the circumstance of the Submission-Play
the circumstance of My Submission-Work
how I was Doing My Submission-Work
the Divine Avataric Purpose of My Submission-Work
what people were like at that time—what the approach, the disposition of devotees was to Me
32. Tell your story completely in all of its details, including speaking about things that Westerners do not know anything about. Do not merely give “reasonable” Teaching messages that are acceptable to the usual Western mentality—speak of your experience that goes far beyond the usual mentality. Speak of the Great Experience, the Great “Consideration” in which you are a participant.
33. Tell the Leela of My Orpheum Revelation that Reveals the nature of the world-mummery and of cultic “religion”, and how conventional “religion” inevitably plays the “man in the middle” scapegoat game.
34. Remember that your Leelas are not purposed to change anyone’s belief. Simply tell your stories, what is actually your experience.
35. Do not transform My supernormal functioning into something conventional in order to speak to the public about it.
36. Put the public in touch with My Divine Avataric Happening, which is not merely conventional, and That is a Direct Revelation of how Reality Works.
37. The Leelas of My Teaching-Work are to be told such that they are Instructive. Thus, you must understand My Play and communicate what I was pointing out. There is always a Divine Lesson to be communicated from recounting My Revelation-History, and you should present the evidence of your Leela with understanding of what was occurring.
38. Speak about what the Lesson, the Instruction, was—in each of the periods of My Revelation-Work. You must make sure that the Point of the Leela is made surely, strongly, undeniably, unambiguously.
“The perfect among the sages is identical with Me. There is absolutely no difference between us”
Tripura Rahasya, Chap XX, 128-133