The Pneumaton: The Transcendental Spiritual Reality-Teachings of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

By Avatar Adi Da Samraj

A comprehensive examination of Spiritual Transmission (and mysticism)—in Christian and Hindu traditions, and in its unique form in the Reality-Way of Adidam. Avatar Adi Da indicates the evidence of Spirit-Baptism in "original" Christianity (recorded in texts such as the New Testament gospels and the Gnostic gospels of Jesus) and in traditions associated with Kundalini Shakti (lived in the sacred context of Guru-devotion). Avatar Adi Da also provides essential foundational education about modern-day misunderstandings and taboos related to "Spirit" and the Realized beings who transmit Spirit-Force—and offers detailed, ecstatic descriptions of His own unique Transcendental Spiritual Awakening-Transmission.

The Pneumaton means "the book of the Divine Spirit-Breath" (from the Greek word "pneuma" meaning both "spirit" and "breath"). In this 1250-page book, Avatar Adi Da brings to bear His intensive investigation of the entire body of traditional Spiritual literature, His early-life experiences of Christian and Hindu mysticism, His lineage of Spiritual Masters, and His own Divinely Realized State—clarifying the ancient sacred process of Awakening by means Spirit-Force with unparalleled thoroughness and completeness.

Highlights of the book include: Avatar Adi Da's own rendering of the New Testament Gospels and a new translation of the conversation between N.A. Motovilov and Saint Seraphim of Sarov—both of which illuminate and affirm the process of Spirit-Baptism; Avatar Adi Da's account of the Spiritual Instructions and Spiritual Transmission of great yogis, mystics, and saints from the Spiritual traditions—including Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Muktananda, and Bhagavan Nityananda; and testimony from Avatar Adi Da's senior renunciate devotees, in which they describe the uniquely transformative quality of Avatar Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission in detail.

Using His seven-stage "map" that relates to the total structure of the human being, Avatar Adi Da articulates nuanced distinctions among traditional forms of mysticism and Spirituality, highlighting the characteristics of the most advanced Shaktipat traditions and bringing detailed clarity to His unique Divine Ruchira Shaktipat. Also using this "map", Avatar Adi Da identifies the foundation understanding and discipline that must be seriously engaged in order for true Spiritual Awakening to occur in anyone's case.

In The Pneumaton, Avatar Adi Da illuminates the universal wisdom coming out of the sacred traditions of Spiritual Transmission, and simultaneously reveals the core error that is the limit of all Spiritual seeking (and even any form of seeking): the ego, or contraction upon a "self", which turns any practice (whether ordinary or sublime) into a search. This enables an understanding of why Avatar Adi Da's Transmission—and the Way of practice and Realization that He offers to all—is continuous with and yet stands completely apart from all previous traditions of true Spirit-Baptism.

It is the purpose of this Revelation-Text to Illustrate a right understanding of the esoteric seeking-traditions and seeking-cultures of Spirituality (including "original" Christianity)—and, that having been done, to then Illuminate the Unique and Always Priorly Searchless "Radical" (or Always "At-the-Root") Reality-Way of Adidam, Which is the Reality-Way of Perfectly Non-Dualistic Transcendental Spiritual, Intrinsically egoless, and Self-Evidently Divine Self -Realization.
—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9781570974014

Avatar Adi Da Samraj

His Divine Presence Avatar Adi Da Samraj (1939–2008) devoted his entire lifetime to revealing and establishing a unique means for human beings to discover the ultimate nature of reality itself, which he describes as Conscious Light, or the "Bright". Avatar Adi Da communicated this reality not just through words or philosophy, but by his direct spiritual transmission. Avatar Adi Da's transformative spiritual presence remains alive and active, even after his physical passing. During his lifetime, Avatar Adi Da touched and transformed the lives of many thousands of individuals, founding a new sacred tradition available to all who respond most seriously to his spiritual calling. Coincident with his work with spiritual aspirants, Avatar Adi Da Samraj established a new basis for human culture in a world fractured by conflict and strife. He authored more than seventy books of spiritual, philosophical, social, and practical wisdom. This vast body of teachings clarifies every area of human life and provides a unique understanding of the human condition and the great process of spiritual growth and realization. His writings have been acclaimed by Alan Watts, Irina Tweedie, Jeffrey Kripal, Andrew Harvey, and many others. His book Easy Death was called a "masterpiece" by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, noted author and pioneer researcher on death and dying. Avatar Adi Da's life was a living demonstration of the Conscious Light that is the fundamental condition of existence (or reality itself). His communications of truth and beauty are profoundly relevant to people of all cultures, faiths, and traditions. He has fully established a new blueprint for human growth and the spiritual transformation of all beings.

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His Divine Presence,

Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Adi Da Samrajashram, 2008

Title

NOTE TO THE READER

All who study the Radical Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam or take up its practice should remember that they are responding to a Call to become responsible for themselves. They should understand that they, not Avatar Adi Da Samraj or others, are responsible for any decision they make or action they take in the course of their lives of study or practice.

The devotional, Spiritual, functional, practical, relational, and cultural practices and disciplines referred to in this book are appropriate and natural practices that are voluntarily and progressively adopted by members of the practicing congregations of Adidam (as appropriate to the personal circumstance of each individual). Although anyone may find these practices useful and beneficial, they are not presented as advice or recommendations to the general reader or to anyone who is not a member of one of the practicing congregations of Adidam. And nothing in this book is intended as a diagnosis, prescription, or recommended treatment or cure for any specific problem, whether medical, emotional, psychological, social, or Spiritual. One should apply a particular program of treatment, prevention, cure, or general health only in consultation with a licensed physician or other qualified professional.

The Pneumaton is formally authorized for publication by the Ruchira Sannyasin Order of Adidam Ruchiradam. (The Ruchira Sannyasin Order of Adidam Ruchiradam is the senior cultural authority within the formal gathering of formally acknowledged devotees of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj.)

Copyright © 2007, 2011, 2024 The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd,

as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be copied or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher.

(The Dawn Horse Press, 12040 North Seigler Springs Road, Middletown, California 95461, USA)

The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam, claims perpetual copyright to this book, to the entire Written (and otherwise recorded) Reality-Teaching of Avatar Adi Da Samraj, to the Image-Art of Adi Da Samraj, and to all other writings, recordings, and images in which it holds the copyright.

Final Ruchira-Sannyasin-Order-Authorized Edition

First ebook edition, 2024 (main text matches 2011 printed edition)

ADIDAM and THE DAWN HORSE PRESS are trademarks of

The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam.

Produced by The Dawn Horse Press, a division of

The Divine Avataric Holy Institution of Global Adidam Ruchiradam.

ebook ISBN: 978-1-57097-401-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934359

C O N T E N T S

ABOUT THE COVER

INTRODUCTION

The Heart and the Light

The Transcendental Spiritual Revelations of the Divine Person

An Introduction to The Pneumaton by Jonathan Condit, PhD

I. The Bright Is the Heart and the Light

Reality’s Revelation of Itself

II. The Traditional Searches for the Light

The Essence of All True Spirituality

III. The Way of the Heart and the Light

The Divine Process of All-Brightening

IV. The Bodily Revelation of Heart-and-Light

A Celebration in Words and Photographs of Avatar Adi Da’s Divine Gift of His Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission

Overview of The Pneumaton

THE PNEUMATON

The Transcendental Spiritual Reality-Teachings of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

PART ONE

Religion and Spirituality

The Dogmas of Social Morality Versus The Esoteric Spiritual Teaching That Is At The Origin of Traditional Religions

A Prophetic Criticism of Great Religions

The Western Prohibition Against Higher Knowledge and Realization Versus The Eastern Advocacy of Higher Knowledge and Realization

The Necessity For A Global Unity-Culture To Replace The Ancient Bi-Polar Culture of Separate West and Separate East

Exoteric and Esoteric: The Public and The Secret Dimensions of Religion

The Wisdom of Esotericism

The Criticism That Cures The Heart

The Three Great Principles of All Truth

PART TWO

The Seventh Stage Revelation

God-Talk, Real-God-Realization, Most Perfect Divine Self-Awakening, and The Seven Possible Stages of Life

The Seventh Stage Way

PART THREE

The Unique Life-Revelation of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj—Including His Thorough Process of Investigating, and Transcending, The Traditional Realms of Mysticism

The Bright and The Thumbs Are My True First Room

My Life-Demonstration of The Guru-Devotee Relationship

My Learning of Mysticism—In The Hindu Manner

My Learning of Mysticism—In The Christian Manner

My Most Perfect Re-Awakening As The Bright

PART FOUR

Devotion To The Spiritual Master Is The Foundation of All True Spirituality

Adept-Realizers Are The Root of All Esoteric Traditions

Beyond The Cultic Tendency In Religion and Spirituality, and In Secular Society

Cultism Is The Beginner’s Level of Human Existence

The Great Esoteric Tradition of Devotion To The Adept-Realizer

The Super-Physics of Divine Enlightenment

PART FIVE

The Non-Conformist Moral, Devotional, and Spiritual Teachings of Saint Jesus and The Conventional Public Religious Message of Institutional Christianity

The Official (Exoteric) Fabrications and The Secret (Esoteric) Truth About Jesus of Galilee

The Forgotten Spiritual Esotericism of Saint Jesus and The Christian Social Exotericism That Succeeded It

The Universal Non-Religious Message of Jesus of Galilee

The Principal Christian Idea

All Illusion Is False Explanation

The Necessity For The Conversion of Christianity Into A Non-Jewish Esoteric Spiritual School of Life

The Official Christianity That Won, The Official and Non-Official Christianities That Lost, and The Original Christianity That Would Yet Succeed Them All

Beyond The Scapegoat-Christ

The Original Way of Jesus of Galilee

The Secrets of The Kingdom of God

PART SIX

The Spiritual Gospel of Saint Jesus of Galilee, Re-Told—and Revealed Again—By His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

PART SEVEN

The Spiritual Instructions and The Spiritual Transmission of Traditional Yogis and Saints

Conversation of Saint Seraphim with N. A. Motovilov Translated by J.C. Troncale, PhD, with Teresa Hudson

Sri Ramakrishna’s Transmission of His Own Spirit-Person Into The Person of Swami Vivekananda

The Spiritual Teachings of Swami Muktananda—As Written To His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

The Spiritual Teachings of Bhagavan Nityananda—As Recorded and Revealed By His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

My Example of The Formal Transmission, Via The Traditional Rite of Inheritance, of The Inherent Right To Transmit and Teach The Process of Spiritual Ascent

The Process of Spiritual Ascent

The Progressive Steps of The Fifth Stage of Life

PART EIGHT

Real Ecstasy

PART NINE

Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga

The Intrinsically egoless Transcendental Spiritual Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam

PART TEN

Cosmic Spiritual Baptism Versus Divine Transcendental Spiritual Baptism

The Lesser and Greater Traditions Associated With The Kundalini Shakti

My Unique Avataric Self-Revelation of The Divine Process of Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission of The Bright

The Divine Yoga of My Crashing-Down Avataric Descent

Cosmic Spiritual Baptism Versus Divine Transcendental Spiritual Baptism

PART ELEVEN

Hridaya Rosary

(Four Thorns of Heart-Instruction)

Prologue: The Rose Garden of The Heart

First Thorn: The Essential Method (Right, True, and Full) of Direct and Whole bodily (or Total Psycho-Physical) Devotional Communion With Me

Second Thorn: The Four-Part Exercise (Right, True, and Full) of Whole-bodily-Responsively ego-Transcending Devotion To Me

Third Thorn: The Process Associated With The Four-Part Exercise (Right, True, and Full) of Whole-bodily-Responsively ego-Transcending Devotion To Me

Fourth Thorn: Details of The Right, True, and Full Practice of Samraj Asana, The Healing Pose of Whole bodily (or Total Psycho-Physical) Devotion To Me

PART TWELVE

The Fundamental Practice of Total Psycho-Physical Turning To Me

Make Divine Yoga Out of Each Moment

Devotional Communion With Me Is Inherently Prior To egoity

Always Transcend Your Own Childish and Adolescent ego-Patterning

The Secret of Practicing True Devotion To Me

Turn The Principal Faculties of The Body-Mind To Me—and Disregard Their Contents

When You Devotionally Recognize Me, The Faculties Follow, In Devotional Response To Me

The Only Liberating Discovery

PART THIRTEEN

The Reality-Way

The Way of The Mirror Is Me

Mere Concentration Versus True Surrender

The Ancient Walk-About Way

My Spiritually Bright Silence

True Devotion To Me Is Prior Coincidence With Me—Not The Search For Union and Unity With Me

True Devotion Is Perfect Knowledge Demonstrated By Renunciation

My Transcendental Spiritual Transmission-Work

The Essentials of Reality-Practice In The Reality-Way of Adidam

Acausal Adidam

PART FOURTEEN

The True Divine Transcendental Spiritual Process

Reality Itself Is Not A Size

No Seeking / Mere Beholding

Transcendental Spiritual Initiation of The Primary Practice of The Radical Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam

The Thumbs Is The Fundamental Sign of The Avataric Crashing-Down of My Divine Person

The Divine Reality-Way of Adidam Is Revealed and Given Only By Me—Avatarically, From Above and Beyond

PART FIFTEEN

The Transcendental Spiritual Revelation and The Transcendental Spiritual Transmission of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Testimonials By His Ruchira Sannyasin Devotees

Introduction

Avatar Adi Da Is The Eternal Divine Body of Conscious Light

by Ruchiradama Quandra Sukhapur Rani Naitauba

The Love-Bliss of The Da Avatar

by Ruchiradama Nadikanta Naitauba

PART SIXTEEN

As Is

The Perfect Word Is and The ego-Word I

The Way of Is

PART SEVENTEEN

The Boundless Self-Confession

LAST WORD

I Say This

APPENDICES

The Secret Gospel of Mark

Avatar Adi Da’s Esoteric Revelations Relative to Certain Christian Symbols and Doctrines

Selected Passages from The Pneumaton

NOTES TO THE TEXT OF THE PNEUMATON

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Writings and Discourses of His Divine Presence Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Relating to the Seventh Stage Way of Adidam and the Esoteric Spiritual Traditions of the Fourth and the Fifth Stages of Life

Selections from Avatar Adi Da’s Basket of Tolerance Bibliography, Relating to the Esoteric Spiritual Traditions of the Fourth and the Fifth Stages of Life

THE UNIVERSAL OFFERING OF HIS DIVINE PRESENCE, AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ

by Ruchiradama Quandra Sukhapur Rani Naitauba

THE SACRED LITERATURE OF HIS DIVINE PRESENCE, AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ

ABOUT THE COVER

Throughout His Life, Avatar Adi Da Samraj worked to develop means—both literary and artistic—of directly communicating Reality Itself. He approached the creation of His literary and artistic works as a process of directly Revealing What Reality Is and how Reality can be Realized.

The cover Image for The Pneumaton was created by Avatar Adi Da as one of the Images in His suite entitled Oculus One: The Reduction Of The Beloved. The particular Image is a work created in 2006, entitled The Reduction Of The Beloved To As Is (The Lover, The Bride, The Wife, The Widow)—Part Four: The Lover, 31c.

The white circle (toward the top of the Image) is a central motif in Avatar Adi Da’s Image-Art. It is a visual reference to what Avatar Adi Da calls the Midnight Sun—a white circle in the center of a square black field, which He defined as a visual representation of the Divine Self-Brightness Shining in the midst of the cosmic domain:

The Midnight Sun

In the cover Image of The Pneumaton, this reference to the Midnight Sun appears in the upper center of the Image. Thus, the visual sign of the white circle is, symbolically, in the position of the Matrix of Light Infinitely Above the body, the mind, and the world. Avatar Adi Da defines that Matrix as The Light-Source Of The Total Cosmic Domain . . . and . . . The here-Apparent Seat Of The Light Of Conscious Light, the Locus Where Spiritual Self-Awareness as Light Itself is Awakened.*

The red circle can be understood to represent what Avatar Adi Da calls the red realm—the grossest realm of conditionally manifested existence, which is the realm inhabited by un-Enlightened human beings, but which realm is nevertheless Illuminated by the Radiance of the Midnight Sun. The square red border can be understood to indicate that the Midnight Sun is Divinely Brightening the red realm (and all the realms of conditionality) from the inside out, rather than as an objectively separate Source of Brightness.

Thus, this Image was chosen (by the Ruchira Sannyasin Order of Adidam Ruchiradam) for the cover of The Pneumaton because the Image communicates the esoteric reality of Spiritual Awakening in this grossly manifested conditional realm, which Awakening is the principal subject of Avatar Adi Da’s Reality-Word in The Pneumaton.

Examples of the artwork of Avatar Adi Da Samraj, together with discussions of His artwork and His own statements about it, may be seen online at:

www.daplastique.com

* The Realization Revealed and Given by Avatar Adi Da Samraj is simultaneously Transcendental (or of the Nature of Consciousness Itself) and Spiritual (or of the Nature of Light, or Energy, Itself). The Transcendental dimension of Most Perfect Divine Awakening is associated with the right side of the heart. The Spiritual dimension of Most Perfect Divine Awakening is associated with the Matrix Above. The simultaneous Awakening to the Transcendental and the Spiritual dimensions of Reality Itself—in the right side of the heart and the Matrix Infinitely Above, respectively—is the unique seventh stage Realization (of Conscious Light) Revealed and Given by Avatar Adi Da Samraj. Among Avatar Adi Da’s final books, The Aletheon is His full communication of the seventh stage (or Transcendental-and-Spiritual) Way He Reveals and Gives, while The Gnosticon focuses on the Transcendental dimension of His Way (as well as the Transcendentally oriented schools in the Great Tradition of humankind) and The Pneumaton focuses on the Spiritual dimension of His Way (as well as the Spiritually oriented schools in the Great Tradition of humankind).

Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Adi Da Samrajashram, 2008

I N T R O D U C T I O N

THE HEART AND THE LIGHT

THE TRANSCENDENTAL SPIRITUAL REVELATIONS OF THE DIVINE PERSON

An Introduction to The Pneumaton

by Jonathan Condit, PhD

(senior editorial assistant to Avatar Adi Da Samraj)

I

THE BRIGHT IS

THE HEART AND THE LIGHT

Reality’s Revelation of Itself

Born As the Bright

The Pneumaton, like all the books of His Divine Presence Avatar Adi Da Samraj, is an unparalleled Gift—written, as He has said, for the sake of all who would find heart-breaking Freedom. To read The Pneumaton is to enter a vast and multi-faceted field of paradigm-change and Truth-Revelation. Although The Pneumaton deals with a defined set of topics, the ultimate purpose of the book is not to offer information or argumentation but to draw the reader beyond the usual human ways of thinking and being—into what Avatar Adi Da calls the Reality-Truth.

The books of Avatar Adi Da Samraj are, literally, unique in human history. His books are not the product of human thinking or consideration, nor are they communications received from a higher source. Rather, Avatar Adi Da’s books are the direct and unmediated report of Reality Itself—which is the same as Truth Itself. In The Pneumaton, Reality Gives Its report on Its own Spiritual Nature—Revealing how that Spiritual Nature has been sought throughout the ages, and how that Spiritual Nature can be Realized absolutely.

How is it possible for Reality Itself to Give Its own report? Because Adi Da’s Appearance in the world (in 1939, on Long Island, New York) was not simply the birth of another human being among billions of human beings. Rather, His Birth was the Graceful Manifestation of Reality Itself via a human Form—a Form capable of speaking, acting, writing, and relating to human beings in ways we can understand and respond to.

Those who have become Avatar Adi Da’s devotees confess that they recognize Him to be the Divine Person, the Person of Reality Itself—Who was Present in the world in bodily Form from November 3, 1939, to November 27, 2008, and is Eternally Present in His Transcendental Spiritual Form. This is not a matter for belief. In fact, Avatar Adi Da cautions that there is no virtue in relating to Him on the basis of mere belief. The Truth of Who He Is is something that becomes self-evident to the heart, through a process of real experience that is unique to each person.

At Birth, Avatar Adi Da existed in a unique State, of which He was entirely conscious even as a newborn infant. Once He had acquired the ability to use language, He gave a name to that State. At the age of two or three years, He called His Condition the Bright—and, in later years, when He used this word in writing His Teaching, He put it in quotation marks as a reminder that He uses the word in a special sense. By this single syllable, He was indicating that His State—and the Real State of everyone and everything—is an absolute Sublimity of Radiance, Existing Eternally, always Self-Aware, and always Full of the Bliss of Love (or, as He calls it, Love-Bliss).

Avatar Adi Da’s Existence as the Bright was not something new at His Birth. It is something that is eternally true of Him—in other words, true of the Divine Person, the Person of Reality Itself. As He said:

I Am, and Always have Been, the Bright—

previous to This Birth,

and during Its apparent Time,

and forever after.

—September 23, 2004

Avatar Adi Da as an infant, 1940

Although He outwardly appeared to be a human being like any other, there was a great secret hidden in Avatar Adi Da’s being. The Bright was not only His State altogether—It was also present as the core radiance of His psycho-physical being, a current with a particular shape. When He wrote His autobiography, The Knee of Listening, He described this current in detail.¹ By the time of that writing, He had discovered that there was a limited awareness of this current in rare pockets of the Spiritual traditions of India. In particular, Ramana Maharshi (acknowledged by many as the greatest Sage of twentieth-century India) referred to this current, using the ancient Sanskrit phrase Atma Nadi, literally meaning the Channel (or Current) [Nadi] of the Divine Self [Atma].² Acknowledging that Ramana Maharshi’s discussion of Atma Nadi was the most informative (though still rudimentary) description to be found in any traditional source, Avatar Adi Da went on to give His own beautiful and fully elaborated Revelation as to the structure and function of Atma Nadi—a Revelation without any traditional precedent whatsoever. He also gave beautiful (and more fully communicative) ways of defining Atma Nadi in English, such as the ‘Root’-Current of Transcendental Spiritual Love-Bliss and the Perfect Form of Reality.

As Avatar Adi Da says in The Knee of Listening: Atma Nadi . . . Is the Divinely Self-Manifested Form of the ‘Bright’ Itself … And He Confesses that He was founded in Atma Nadi even from birth (and eternally prior to it).

Adi Da Revealed the structure of Atma Nadi to be an S-shaped curve of Energy-Radiance, standing between two terminals. The lower terminal (or Feet of Atma Nadi) is apparently within the body, in the right side of the heart-region of the chest—a bodily location that Avatar Adi Da identifies as the place where the sense of separate self arises, and also where that same sense can be utterly gone beyond (through Divine Grace), in the Realization of Consciousness Itself. The upper terminal (or Head of Atma Nadi) is not a locus within the body, but is (rather) the Matrix of Light that is Infinitely Above the crown of the head. These terminals are not physical in nature. They cannot be seen with the physical eyes, but they are a manifestation of a reality senior to the physical.

Thus, in the simplest language, Atma Nadi is the Heart and the Light—the right side of the heart and the Matrix of Light Above, indivisibly connected by an Ever-Radiant Current of Love-Bliss.

On March 11, 1973, in a magnificent Discourse later named The Heaven-Born Gospel of The Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da spoke words of ecstasy Revealing His own Form and Function as Atma Nadi—Present and Active as the essential core structure of every living being:

I Am Present and Alive to you

in the Form of Atma Nadi.

I Am the Function of Atma Nadi

in the conditionally manifested worlds.

Los Angeles

March 11, 1973

I Am Alive As Atma Nadi,

the Heart and Its Spire,

the Conscious Light.

This Is Always So.

The Communication

of the Transcendentally Spiritually Bright

Divine Heart-and-Light

(or Conscious Light)

Is My Constant Activity.

—My Bright Word

This is the Unspeakable Reality of Who Avatar Adi Da was at Birth—and always before Birth, and for all time into the future, even after His physical passing. Adi Da Samraj Is the Bright—the Ever-Existing and Ever-Radiant Condition of Reality. And He is Alive as Atma Nadi—the Heart and the Light, the Bright Manifesting as the luminous core-structure of every living being.

Therefore, the Bright—the Heart and the Light—Is Who Speaks The Pneumaton.

The Transmission of the Thumbs

As a newborn infant, Avatar Adi Da was not only aware of His Native Divine Condition of the Bright—He also experienced the Transmission of the Bright into His own body-mind. In other words, the Bright is not just the State of Reality Itself—the Bright also Radiates Its own Blessing-Power, Offering Itself as a Gift to whoever is prepared to receive It. He felt this Transmission of His own Bright State as a kind of Baptism—Descending from Above, Infusing and Pervading His entire being with the Love-Bliss of the Bright. And, just as He named His Condition the Bright, He also gave a name to His Transmission—the Thumbs.

The Thumbs is a term (and a sense of this Transmission-Process) that I spontaneously conceived when I was a tiny child. In any moment when that Process re-Initiated Itself, I would feel It as something coming down from Above, into My throat—as if a mass of thumbs were pushing down behind My tongue into My throat. It was an openness beyond the usual—allowing the Descent of My Divine Transcendental Spiritual Current down into the heart and the abdomen and the bodily base.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

March 16, 1998

On another occasion, He described the Thumbs as the feeling of being Utterly (Love-Blissfully) ‘Intoxicated’.

Avatar Adi Da often referred to the Bright and the Thumbs as His Childhood Teachings. And He pointed out that these two one-syllable words are a complete and perfect summary of His core Revelation—Who He Is and What He Does.

Avatar Adi Da as a young boy

The Manifestation in This Body—ever since My Coincidence with This Body, in the Event of Its Birth—has been what I, as a very young child, called the Bright and the Thumbs.

The Bright and the Thumbs has always been the Process. It was never otherwise.

There has never been anything lost or gained, in terms of Realization. It has all been Divine Avataric Play—taking place under many different kinds of circumstances, and (ultimately) constituting My Complete and Perfect Divine Avataric Self-Revelation.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

November 21, 2004

Avatar Adi Da uses the term the Thumbs in a general sense—meaning His Transcendental Spiritual Transmission altogether. However, He also (most commonly) uses that term in a specific sense—meaning the particular form of His Transmission that releases the devotee from the sense of confinement to the physical body into the egoless awareness of existing as a spherical energy-body. It is this Thumbs-Transmission that Spiritually Carries the rightly prepared devotee beyond identification with body and mind, into Identification with Consciousness Itself.

As Adi Da Confesses, He was directly and experientially aware of this process of Transcendental Spiritual Transmission from His infancy. As soon as He was Born in physically Incarnate Form, He already knew what the Perfect Process of true Spirituality involved—because It was His own Transmission of His own State, the State of Reality Itself (or Truth Itself). Thus, His Ultimate Revelation of esoteric Spirituality in The Pneumaton is His disclosure of a process He was intimately familiar with, in His own body-mind, since Birth.

As Avatar Adi Da was later to confirm, the Transcendental Spiritual process He had known since infancy was a form of Spirit-Baptism that had never before been known. It was a Transmission-Process unique to Him. His own body-mind, as a baby, was the first human body-mind to experience this unique form of Transmission. But, by means of the immense Process of His Lifetime of Divine Work, He was able to establish His Unique Gift of Transcendental Spirit-Baptism as a Divine Gift available to all who devotionally recognize Him and devotionally respond to Him at depth.

Learning Humankind

Avatar Adi Da’s first two years were purely the Love-Bliss of His Native Brightness. Then, in a spontaneous moment of deepest sympathy for those around Him (who, He could see, did not enjoy the same Bright Condition that He did), Avatar Adi Da voluntarily took on the life of a separate human ego. In other words, He consciously chose to allow His Identity as the Bright to recede into the background. He did this in order to discover, via His own body and mind, what process was required for human beings to truly Awaken to the Bright, to consciously live as What they Really Are. Thus He embarked, at the age of two, on His great Work of Learning humankind.

Learning Conventional Religion

Avatar Adi Da as an acolyte in the Lutheran church

Adi Da’s process of Learning humankind embraced all aspects of life, including conventional religion. As a child, He attended a Lutheran church, eventually serving as an acolyte. Later, in His twenties, He studied in a Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia (learning biblical Greek as a prerequisite for that study), and then spent a period of time in a Russian Orthodox seminary in New York. Altogether, Avatar Adi Da was thoroughly schooled in Christian doctrine and practice. Thus, His extensive commentary on Christianity in The Pneumaton is written by one intimately familiar with the Christian tradition.

Adi Da often told an amusing story from His childhood about going into spontaneous states of ecstasy during Sunday school. One of the bodily signs of that ecstasy would be that His eyes would roll up in their sockets. Whenever this happened, the pastor would reprimand Him, telling Him that He should not do that because it would make Him go crazy! Part of the reason Adi Da enjoyed telling this anecdote is that it provides a perfect thumbnail example of the difference between conventional religion and true Spirituality.

The words religion and spirituality are often used interchangeably in common speech. However, in His final writings, Avatar Adi Da gave very specific definitions to each of these words—definitions that are mutually exclusive, rather than overlapping. He defines religion as, fundamentally, the inculcation of beliefs and moral principles purposed to maintain an orderly society. In technical terms, religion is a phenomenon of what Adi Da defines as the first three stages of life.³

Religion is traditionally understood to be the search for union (or re-union) with the Divine (or God), but Avatar Adi Da states that the practice of religion actually has no such potential. No real union (or re-union) with the Divine can ever happen through the exercise of beliefs and moral behaviors, no matter how sincerely or prayerfully engaged—and that is why Adi Da places the term religion in quotation marks. He describes what right religion is (in Part One), but He clearly establishes that the process of actually Realizing Oneness with the Divine (or God), to one or another degree, is strictly the province of Spirituality. Thus, the reason His pastor was disturbed by Avatar Adi Da’s evident signs of ecstasy in Sunday school is that Adi Da was manifesting real Spirituality in the religious context. And that was not at all understood or appreciated—at least, not in the anti-mystical Western milieu of the United States.

Believing in Spirit Versus Receiving the Spirit

In ordinary usage, spirituality is a rather vague term—indicating, primarily, that one acknowledges the existence of a non-material (or beyond-the-physical, or spiritual) Power, traditionally known as God, and that one is moved to conform one’s life to that Power. However, in its true esoteric definition, as given by Avatar Adi Da, Spirituality is, literally, to receive the Spirit, in body and mind—as an overwhelming and undeniable experiential reality.

In contrast to the prescribed beliefs and behaviors characteristic of religion, Avatar Adi Da defines Spirituality as the Grace-Given process of Real Spiritual Transmission tangibly Pervading (and thereby Transforming) the body-mind. In technical terms, traditional Spirituality is a phenomenon of what Adi Da defines as the fourth and the fifth stages of life.

Thus, there is a vast difference between religion (as the acceptance of instruction about the Divine) and Spirituality (as the reception of the literal Baptism of real Spiritual Force.)⁴ Only Spirituality, as a Grace-Given process involving the participation of the entire being, bears the potential of Realizing the Divine (to one or another degree)—and that is why Adi Da uniformly capitalizes the term Spirituality (in contrast to lowercase religion).

The contrast between conventional religion and traditional Spirituality may be summarized as follows:

Learning Traditional Spirituality

Even as a newborn infant, Avatar Adi Da was immersed in the unique Transcendental Spiritual process of Infusion by the Thumbs—His own Transmission of the Bright into His human body-mind. And, as illustrated by the Sunday school story, Avatar Adi Da continued to be spontaneously involved, as a young boy, in that real Transcendental Spiritual process—because of His own unique Nature and State as the Bright Divine Reality Itself.

However, Adi Da was not alive on Earth simply to enjoy His own Transcendental Spiritual Transmission. In His sympathetic relinquishment of the Freedom of His infancy, He was utterly committed to Learning humankind. Most especially, it was necessary for Him to Learn the modes of Spirituality that had been developed in the human world. Thus, the Bright (Appearing on Earth via a human Form) had to go to school in order to Learn, firsthand, how human beings had sought to Realize It.

Avatar Adi Da’s years of Learning traditional Spirituality began in 1964 and came to an end in 1970, when He Re-Awakened as the Bright.⁵ His Learning started with the recognition that the real Spiritual process requires a Source of real Spiritual Transmission—there is no such thing as do-it-yourself Spirituality. Therefore, Adi Da fully embraced the life of devotion to a succession of great Masters, or Gurus.

Adi Da’s human Gurus included the living American Yogi Rudi (or Swami Rudrananda), the living Indian Realizer Swami Muktananda, and the then-recently deceased (but Spiritually active) Indian Realizer Bhagavan Nityananda. And His final Guru was the Divine Energy-Principle Itself, known traditionally (in India and other cultures) as the Divine Goddess.

Under the guidance of His human Gurus, Avatar Adi Da immersed Himself in the world of traditional Eastern mysticism. He actually became a Hindu mystic—especially during the second period of time He spent in the company of Swami Muktananda, in August 1969 (see Part Three). It was not by chance that He was led to Indian Gurus, because India is anciently the homeland of the most highly developed schools of Spirituality.

Avatar Adi Da with Swami Muktananda, 1969

Much to Avatar Adi Da’s own surprise, He also spontaneously became a Christian mystic, in June and July of 1970. This Learning occurred under the direct guidance of a visionary manifestation of the Virgin Mary. Even at the time, Adi Da felt that His Christian mystical experience was in large part a purification of the deep influence of Christianity on the psyche of the Western world altogether. However, Adi Da’s experience as a Christian mystic made possible His extraordinary Revelation of previously unknown secrets about the mystical roots of original Christianity (see Part Six).

Thus, Avatar Adi Da’s Consideration of traditional Spirituality is founded in His own direct personal experience of such forms of Spirituality—as ways of being that He experienced with overwhelming force for particular periods of time. That direct personal experience was absolutely necessary for Him, because His own Divine Work required His thorough knowledge of everything about the process of human existence—especially its esoteric dimensions.

Adi Da’s Learning of traditional Spirituality encompassed mysticism in both Eastern and Western modes—Hindu and Christian. He could, potentially, have gone on to participate in other Spiritual traditions—esoteric Judaism, Islamic Sufism, Zoroastrianism, the fourth stage and fifth stage schools of Buddhism, the fifth stage schools of Taoism, and so forth—but, as He later made clear, all Spiritual traditions (of the fourth and the fifth stages of life) are based on the same fundamental understandings and processes. Therefore, His direct Learning of Hindu mysticism and Christian mysticism was sufficient, and there was no need for Him to directly engage the practice of other Spiritual traditions.

What Avatar Adi Da had Learned was that all forms of real Spirituality are necessarily based on the tangible Transmission of Spiritual Force (in one form or another). And, indeed, this is why He chose to name this book The Pneumaton, meaning the book of the Divine Spirit-Breath. In Greek, the word pneuma means both spirit and breath. This double meaning points to the fact that the real Spiritual process is, most fundamentally, a matter of receiving the Spirit (in body and mind) and conducting the Spirit-Energy (throughout the entire body-mind) via the breath.

Although He entered into His Learning of traditional Spirituality with no presumptions or preconceptions about what He would discover, Avatar Adi Da was in the unique position of already Knowing the Nature of the Divine Reality (the Bright) and His own Transmission of the Bright (the Thumbs). Therefore, everything He experienced in the company of His Gurus was tacitly measured against His direct experiential Knowledge (since Birth) of His own unique Transcendental Spiritual Yoga.

Eventually, Adi Da’s Learning of traditional Spirituality reached a definitive conclusion: No form of traditional Spirituality had the unique and all-Outshining Nature of His own Transmission of the Bright via the Thumbs. He Knew this, with perfect certainty, from His own direct experience.

Avatar Adi Da later Revealed that there is a precise reason why His Transmission of the Bright via the Thumbs is unique. The traditional Spiritual paths (meaning specifically the traditional paths associated with the process of Spiritual Transmission, or Spirit-Baptism) are entirely focused in Realizing the upper terminal of Atma Nadi—the Matrix of Light Infinitely Above. Those paths remain unaware of the lower terminal of Atma Nadi—the right side of the heart. Thus, the traditional Spiritual paths cannot Realize the Fullness of the Bright—which is manifested (in the apparently individual being) as Atma Nadi, the Radiant Structure extending from the heart on the right to the Light Above.

Similarly, Avatar Adi Da Revealed that the Transcendentalist schools—exemplified most importantly by Advaita Vedanta and most schools of Buddhism—are focused in Realizing Consciousness Itself, via the lower terminal of Atma Nadi (the right side of the heart), remaining unaware of (or uninterested in) the Matrix of Light Infinitely Above. Thus, the traditional Transcendentalist paths are also unable to Realize the Fullness of the Bright.⁶

In contrast, the Thumbs is the Transmission of the Bright Itself, and that Transmission (ultimately) makes possible the never-previously-known Regeneration and Realization of Atma Nadi, the Heart and the Light.

[God] Himself is His own light.

—Philo

(Jewish philosopher of the first century CE)

I . . . beheld with the eye of my soul, above my mind, the Unchangeable Light. . . . He who knows the truth knows that light; and he that knows it knoweth eternity.

—Saint Augustine

All lights emanate from the Divine Light. . . . It is the eternal light which is the Light of God.

—Rumi

Brahma is the Light of lights. He is Self-luminous. He is Supreme Light. He is ultimate light. He is an embodiment of Light. By His Light all else shines.

—Brahmarahasya Upanishad

(Hindu scripture)

II

THE TRADITIONAL SEARCHES

FOR THE LIGHT

The Essence of All True Spirituality

Investigating the Traditions: Testimonies of Spirit-Baptism

"There are no atheists in foxholes, as they say. There are no Godless people who have received Spiritual Transmission. Spiritual Transmission is certain Knowledge of the Divine—not merely philosophical knowledge or belief. Spiritual Transmission is tangible, completely obvious. It carries with It not just energy-feeling in the body but a knowing" certainty in the heart, in the mind, and altogether. It is a conversion.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

May 28, 1995

In the 1960s, even before He had found His first Spiritual Master, Avatar Adi Da began an intensive examination of the traditional Spiritual literature of humankind. That investigation continued throughout His entire Lifetime. A principal purpose of this examination was to compile a vast bibliography illustrating the unified process that underlies the many different religious, Spiritual, and Transcendentalist paths that have developed in human history. He eventually named the bibliography The Basket of Tolerance,⁷ and wrote over one hundred essays commenting on various books, authors, and traditions.

Among the literature listed on The Basket of Tolerance can be found vivid accounts of the real esoteric process of Spirit-Baptism. This testimony is the textual evidence for the global lineage of traditional esoteric Spirituality. The passages assembled here (all drawn from literature listed on The Basket of Tolerance) constitute a testimony to the reality of Spirit-Baptism. They collectively make the point that real Spirituality is, in its essence, not a matter of belief, not a matter of philosophy, not a matter of theology, not a matter of ritual, not a matter of meditative techniques, not a matter of obedience to moral laws. While philosophy, theology, ritual, meditation, and right moral behavior may, to one or another degree, be relevant and/or necessary to esoteric Spiritual practice, none of those is its essence. That essence is the (direct and undeniable) experiential reality of receiving true Spiritual Transmission from a real source of Spiritual Blessing. And the event of Spirit-Baptism is not something the individual can acquire for himself or herself. The practitioner must prepare body and mind to receive Spiritual Transmission—but, once that preparation is in place, the Transmission can only be given as a gift.

In any circumstance of Spiritual Transmission, people who receive that Transmission go through all kinds of processes—automatically. It is not just that they apply certain practices in order to achieve certain states or do certain things. The body-mind-self is taken over and the Yoga happens spontaneously. It is the Guru-Yoga, the Yoga done by the Guru—not the Yoga done by the devotee. It is the Spiritual Guru-Yoga. And all the processes and states that take place when that Transmission is Given occur spontaneously, or automatically.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

May 28, 1995

John the Baptist

The most famous instance of Spirit-Baptism in the West is John the Baptist’s reported testimony relative to Jesus. John declared that he could see the Spirit descending onto Jesus from above. Regardless of whether one regards this account as historical or mythological (or a combination of the two), it is indubitably a surviving indication of the real understanding and experience, in ancient times, of the esoteric process of Spirit-Baptism.

The next day, he saw Jesus coming towards him. . . . And John declared, I saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven and rest on him. . . . [H]e who sent me to baptise with water had said to me, "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is to baptise with the Holy Spirit." [Jerusalem Bible, John 1:29, 32–33]

Abraham Abulafia

Abraham Abulafia (1240–ca. 1291) was a great Jewish mystic, born in Spain. He is considered the founder of ecstatic Kabbalah. Here he describes the experience of Spirit-Baptism in the literal terms of anointing.

And you shall feel another spirit awakening within yourself and strengthening you and passing over your entire body and giving you pleasure, and it will seem to you that balm has been poured over you from the crown of your head to your feet, once or many times, and you shall rejoice and feel from it a great pleasure, with gladness and trembling. …

Afterwards, should you merit it, the spirit of the living God shall pass over you, and there shall dwell upon you the spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and fear of God, and one will imagine that it is as if one’s entire body has been anointed with anointing oil from head to feet. … ⁸

Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) is among the most famous of all Christian mystics—and one who left a substantial body of writings. Her autobiography (originally written for her confessor to read) contains many descriptions of her Spiritual experience.

In these raptures the soul seems no longer to animate the body, and thus the natural heat of the body is felt to be very sensibly diminished: it gradually becomes colder, though conscious of the greatest sweetness and delight. . . . [O]ften [a rapture] comes like a strong, swift impulse, before your thought can forewarn you of it or you can do anything to help yourself; you see and feel this cloud, or this powerful eagle, rising and bearing you up with it on its wings.

You realize, I repeat, and indeed see, that you are being carried away, you know not whither. . . . [H]appen what may, we must risk everything, and resign ourselves into the hands of God and go willingly wherever we are carried away. …

When I tried to resist these raptures, it seemed that I was being lifted up by a force beneath my feet so powerful that I know nothing to which I can compare it, for it came with a much greater vehemence than any other spiritual experience and I felt as if I were being ground to powder.⁹

The well-known statue of Saint Teresa in ecstasy—sculpted by Bernini, within the century after Teresa’s death—is a remarkable depiction of the overwhelming and whole bodily nature of real Spirit-Baptism. Bernini’s portrayal accurately indicates that, as a true mystic, Saint Teresa did not lead a life of merely pious (exoteric) religious observances. Rather, she was involved in a profound esoteric process, beyond the limitations of an ordinary egoic existence.

Avatar Adi Da has described this statue as a worthy depiction of true Spiritual ecstasy:

In the sculpture of Teresa of Avila by Bernini, an angelic figure is shown piercing her heart with an arrow, and she is displayed in an ecstatic state of something far beyond pain. There is a suggestion that there was a kind of pain, a piercing involved, but not really pain altogether. It is an ecstasy—an ecstatic, blissful state—that is indicated in this remarkable piece of sculpture.

This is an example from the West of the experience of the heart being pierced, perhaps even with some visualization associated with it, as an expression of a development of the fourth stage¹⁰ disposition—the devotional disposition, given over to the Divine, and a feeling of being Spiritually Invaded by the Divine at the heart, to the point of being ecstatically overwhelmed.

—May 16, 1995

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680)

Bernini worked on this sculpture during the years 1647–1652.

(Reprinted by permission of Scala / Art Resource, NY.)

Another remarkable Christian testimony is Nicholas Motovilov’s nineteenth-century account of experiencing Spirit-Baptism in the company of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. This account is given in full in Part Seven of The Pneumaton. Avatar Adi Da points out that the particular importance of this account is that it is a historically reliable account of a Christian Realizer Transmitting Spiritual Force to another person. Clear (and historically reliable) accounts of such Transmission are extremely rare in the Christian tradition, and in the Spiritual traditions of the West in general.

Shams-i Tabrizi

Shams-i Tabrizi (died ca. 1248), one of the greatest mystics of Persian Islamic culture, was Rumi’s teacher, to whom a great deal of Rumi’s poetry was addressed. This is an example of a teacher and disciple both of whom were great Spiritual Realizers. In an excerpt from his autobiography, Shams poetically describes Rumi’s Spiritual influence on his own being:

I was water bubbling in itself, twisting in itself, and beginning to stink. Then Mawlana’s [Rumi’s] existence struck against me, and the water began to flow. Now it goes forth happily, fresh, and splendid.¹¹

Sri Ramakrishna

The Indian Realizer Sri Ramakrishna (1836–1886) was well known for falling into mystical states of ecstasy. On certain of these occasions, he drew one or two of his devotees into the same condition of Spiritual ecstasy that he enjoyed. On one particularly noteworthy occasion (January 1, 1886), he Transmitted his Spiritual condition to a group of his lay devotees, one by one.

In . . . a state of divine semi-consciousness the Master looked at all present and said smilingly, What more shall I say to you? May all of you be spiritually awakened. When the devotees heard those words of blessing destroying their fear of the world, they raised with great joy repeated cries of Glory to Ramakrishna. Some of them saluted him, some showered flowers, some again came and touched his feet. No sooner had the first devotee touched his feet and stood up than the Master in that state of divine semi-consciousness touched the devotee’s breast and passing his hand in the upward direction, said, Awake. As soon as the second person came and saluted him and stood up, he did the same thing to him; so also to the third and to the fourth. In this way he touched one after another, all of those who approached him thus. And there arose by that marvellous touch a wonderful mood in the mind of each; some of them began to laugh, some to weep, some to meditate, and some again to call aloud all others in order that they might also be blessed by receiving the grace of the Master, the sea of gratuitous mercy, and share the bliss that was overflowing. …

Sri Ramakrishna

It is known on enquiry that the devotees had wonderful experiences and visions. One felt bliss, and a sort of intoxication such as is produced by smoking hemp; another, an unknown power creeping up within his body with accompanying bliss; others saw ecstatic visions the moment they shut their eyes: one of light, another of the shining form of God he had been meditating upon but had not been able to see—all hitherto unseen, unheard of and unfelt experiences! It was, however, clear that although each had a different vision and experience, the feeling of being filled with an extraordinary divine bliss was common to all. More than this, each felt that the extraordinary mental change or experience was brought about by the transmission of a superhuman power by the Master.¹²

Swami Muktananda at the feet of Bhagavan Nityananda

Swami Muktananda

Swami Muktananda (1908–1982), a principal Indian Realizer of the twentieth century, functioned as Avatar Adi Da’s Guru between April 1968 and June 1970.

In the following account, Swami Muktananda describes a unique occasion of Spiritual Initiation by his Guru, Bhagavan Nityananda.

I opened my eyes, and saw Gurudev gazing directly at me, his eyes merging with mine. . . . My body became numb. I couldn’t shut my eyes; I no longer had the power to open or close them. The divine splendor of his eyes completely stilled my own eyes. We stayed like this for a while. Then I heard the divine sound of Gurudev’s hunh. He stepped back a couple of paces, and I partially regained my consciousness. …

[Shortly thereafter,] he stood directly in front of me. He looked into my eyes once more. I watched him very attentively. A ray of light was coming from his pupils, and going right inside me. Its touch was searing, red hot, and its brilliance dazzled my eyes like a high-powered bulb. As this ray flowed from Bhagawan Nityananda’s eyes into my own, the very hair on my body rose in wonder, awe, ecstasy, and fear. I went on repeating his mantra Guru Om, watching the colors of this ray. It was an unbroken stream of divine radiance. Sometimes it was the color of molten gold, sometimes saffron, sometimes a deep blue, more lustrous than a shining star. I stood there, stunned, watching the brilliant rays passing into me. My body was completely motionless. Then Gurudev moved a little and again made his hunh, hunh. I became conscious again. I . . . prostrated myself on the ground. Then I got up, full of joy.¹³

The accounts given here are descriptions of particularly intense forms of Spirit-Baptism. It is not to be expected that the life of a true practitioner of Spirituality is an unbroken stream of such intense events. Rather, these descriptions indicate something about the fundamental nature of the esoteric Spiritual process, as it has been traditionally demonstrated—a process that is remarkably different from conventional religiosity.

Extraordinary testimonies to Adi Da’s Divine Spirit-Baptism, by two of His renunciate devotees—testimonies that cover the entire span of Avatar Adi Da’s Work during His physical Lifetime and afterwards—are to be found in Part Fifteen of The Pneumaton.

Clarifying the Traditions: Christianity as Exemplar of Both Religion and Spirituality

It is in no sense arbitrary that Avatar Adi Da was so well schooled in the Christian tradition. As the dominant religion of the West—which is presently the dominant social, political, and cultural power in the world—Christianity has a unique global significance. Therefore, it was essential for Adi Da to live Christianity as part of His Learning of humankind.

Beginning in His college years at Columbia University, Avatar Adi Da made a searching examination of the Christian tradition—fully taking into account the de-mythologizing (and even debunking) approaches adopted by some scholars. Throughout His Life, He made a point of remaining aware of current scholarly developments in the study of Jesus and early Christianity.

One of the aspects of Christian history that Adi Da found to be of particular significance is the rapidity with which the exoteric (or popular) branches of Christianity were able to largely marginalize (or even eliminate) the esoteric schools—thanks, in large part, to the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Thus, the history of the Christian tradition illustrates the typical human pattern of enthroning conventional religion and dethroning true Spirituality. The tension between the official religion of Christianity and the secret Spirituality of Jesus is the principal subject of Part Five of The Pneumaton.

As a means of conveying the core esoteric communication hidden within the New Testament, Avatar Adi Da has created (as Part Six of The Pneumaton) an extraordinarily beautiful rendering of selected portions of the Gospel narratives of Matthew, Mark, and John—together with the secret gospel fragments published by Morton Smith,¹⁴ and Adi Da’s own Revelations relative to the original mysticism of the early Christians.

While He was in the process of writing The Pneumaton, Avatar Adi Da gave the following wide-ranging commentary on Jesus and early Christianity in the context of ancient Spirituality altogether:

My approach to making a rendering of the New Testament Gospels is not to be involved in trying to figure out what really happened historically. It is not even self-evident that there really ever was such an historical person as Jesus of Galilee. But, in some sense, it does not make any difference. The Gospel narratives can be taken as myth, a literary form like the Bhagavad Gita, and allowed to speak about a certain type of Spiritual figure, and to convey certain kinds of traditional ideas of a religious and Spiritual kind. It is in that sense that the Gospel narratives are authentic. They depict a real type of human being that appears in various cultures at various times.

There is a character that can be identified in the stories about Jesus. And there are all kinds of things overlaid on that character to interpret his significance in a kind of dogmatic manner. All of that can be separated from the core legendary person, who is a true-to-type Spiritual Master.

However, the kind of controversy on which biblical scholarship feeds is something else entirely. Often it involves suspicions of conspiracy or of fraud, or intentions to deceive. The fragments of the so-called secret gospel that Morton Smith presented to the scholarly world continue to be surrounded by controversy, suspicions of fraud, and so forth—because it is so difficult for some people to accept that Jesus could have been involved in an esoteric Spiritual tradition with a mystical or gnostic orientation. But there is enough evidence even in the New Testament itself—as much as it was created by means of a cutting-and-pasting process, including many tales that are sheerly invented—that an underlying Spiritual happening or intention is evident.

It can still be seen that the Jesus figure is a Spiritual teacher, involved in certain kinds of Spiritual Transmission. And it can also still be seen that certain disciples who were in the inner circle were receiving some kind of secret interpretation of teaching or secret initiation. For example, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and receives what could be called secret teachings, esoteric instruction. And, on other occasions, Jesus gives what could be considered a secret interpretation of the symbolic idea of the Son of Man from the Old Testament.

There was a special teaching for those who would go through the necessary process of changing their lives, purifying their lives, straightening out their lives, making their lives lawful. Then the next step was a kind of initiation into a Spiritual life of Divine Communion. And that initiation involved receiving a Spiritual interpretation of things that were otherwise uttered as prophetic expectations for the popular mind, the general population of (rather worldly) religious adherents. Thus, there was a teaching about the Kingdom of God given in an esoteric form to such initiates. It is clearly suggested in the New Testament that that is so, whatever Morton Smith’s secret gospel fragments amount to. Even if those fragments did not exist, there is clearly a Spiritual interpretation necessary relative to Jesus of Galilee.

Jesus was not merely a messianic fulfillment of a prophetic tradition about the end of the world. He did not physically go up into the sky after a physical resurrection. The Resurrection and Ascension stories are a message about Spiritual Ascent, the worship of God in Spirit and Truth. You must be born again in Spirit, or as That Which Is Spiritual, rather than existing merely as the physical body.

That fundamental Spiritual teaching is clearly present in the New Testament Gospels, whether Morton Smith ever found those fragments or not. And that Spiritual teaching is different from the doctrines of official Christianity.

There is an overlay of myth that wants to take the prophetic tradition of the Jews and see Jesus as the fulfillment of that. However, there is clearly at least a suggestion of a Jesus, whether mythological or historical, who was communicating a Spiritual interpretation of the ancient Jewish prophecies, and would openly give it to those who were converts, and had proven themselves to be right with Jesus as his devotees, and had cleaned up their life-act.

It is a different kind of teaching—a teaching about an inward Communion with the Divine. It is about the secrets of Divine Communion that are to be found in the psycho-physical apparatus of the human being. By tuning the body-mind-complex in a certain manner, you can enter into Divine Communion. That is what it is about—not a prophesied event in history occurring at the end of time, not the Kingdom of God as a kind of political event in this world, but the Kingdom of God as a Condition of Divine Communion that is achieved by making a particular kind of use or reorientation of the body-mind-complex. Thus, it is esoteric secrets of Divine Communion that are being uttered or suggested by the New Testament figure of Jesus of Galilee.

Altogether, the teaching of Jesus was very fundamental instruction of a religious, moral, and Spiritual kind, and had nothing to do with the powerful-institution world of theatrical religion and conventionally exercised authority, which cannot go through the narrow gate, cannot get the rope threaded through the eye of the needle necessary to enter into the esoteric domain of real Spirituality.

—April 24, 2006

Saint Jesus of Galilee

Avatar Adi Da sometimes refers to Jesus of Galilee as Saint Jesus. When He does so, He is using the word Saint in a unique manner, a manner quite different from the traditional Christian use of that word. In Adi Da’s terminology, Saint indicates the highest type of Realizer in the Spiritual (or Spirit-Breath) traditions of humankind. He uses this term to contrast with Sage, meaning a great Realizer in the Transcendentalist traditions of humankind.

Avatar Adi Da uses the reference Jesus of Galilee (rather than Jesus of Nazareth) because there is some question whether Nazareth was actually the place where Jesus spent the early years of his life. (See note 1 of Part One.)

Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Los Angeles, 1973

III

THE WAY OF

THE HEART AND THE LIGHT

The Divine Process of All-Brightening

The Only Secret in Spiritual Life

God Does the Yoga.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

January 3, 1974

When you Experience My Direct and Tangible Divine Avataric Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission, then you have the real (and necessary) basis for truly understanding the Uniqueness of the only-by-Me Avatarically Revealed Divine Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga of Adidam Ruchiradam.

—Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga

Avatar Adi Da’s Learning of humankind—including His Learning of traditional Spirituality—came to an end in mid-1970. His immersion in Christian mysticism proved to be the final phase of that Learning. He had fulfilled His conscious impulse, at the age of two, to discover what human beings were about—by allowing the Bright to apparently recede from His conscious awareness. Now, with His Learning completed, the Bright (as He says) Re-Asserted Itself as His Native State, in the Event of His Divine Re-Awakening (on September 10, 1970).

With that Event, there was the spontaneous Awakening of the Guru-Function, the Divine Function of Liberating others. The Awakening of that Function was signaled by an extraordinary sudden shift in the nature of Avatar Adi Da’s meditation. Before His Divine Re-Awakening, He had meditated His own content—but, after His Divine Re-Awakening, He spontaneously began to meditate the content of countless beings—both human and non-human. As the Divine Guru, it was now His Work to make it possible for others to receive (and be transformed by) His Transcendental Spiritual Transmission of the Bright. That process is,