A Tour of Human Possibility

Avatar Adi Da began His effort to "learn" and understand human existence by engaging intense academic studies at Columbia College and Stanford University. Simultaneously, He was developing His own unique method of investigating the nature of consciousness.

Later, He was drawn to a series of highly accomplished Spiritual Masters in the United States and India — Rudi (or Swami Rudrananda), Swami Muktananda, and (on the subtle planes) Bhagavan Nityananda (who had left the body in 1960).

In their company (and, also, through unique processes that spontaneously occurred in Him, without the involvement of any human teacher), He experienced every form of mystical or transcendental attainment that has ever been sought by human beings, in the East or West.

When that great tour of the human Spiritual quest was complete, He knew that none of the traditional "answers" were "It" — because none of them were equivalent to the egoless state of Perfect Divine "Brightness" He had known at birth.

What He had discovered is that all forms of Spiritual realization that had ever been sought and attained were still based on an effort of the ego — whether the effort to surrender to the Divine or the effort to mystically ascend to the Divine or the effort to detach oneself from "self" and "world" in order to enjoy the Bliss of Pure Consciousness. Even if only in the subtlest manner, it was always still the ego that was making the effort.

Finally, on September 10, 1970, Avatar Adi Da spontaneously Re-Awakened to His own "Bright" Divine (and inherently egoless) Self-Condition. He perfectly "regained" what He had (at two years of age) volunteered to "lose".

He had learned everything there was to learn about the human process, in all of its dimensions — from the most basic matters (such as diet and sexuality) to the most esoteric pursuits of the saints and sages. He had seen the fundamental fault of ego (or the presumption of separateness and the activity of separation) at the core of everything human beings do — even the most exalted Spiritual attainments.

Thus, Avatar Adi Da's Re-Awakening to His own egoless Condition was an Awakening that had never occurred before in human history. It was the first time that pure egoless Divinity had perfectly manifested via a human body.

He had been that pure Divinity since birth, but now He was equipped with the fullest possible experiential knowledge of the human condition and the process of Spiritual growth. Therefore, Avatar Adi Da could now begin His Work of Teaching others.

And the ultimate purpose of that Work was to Awaken others to the same "Bright" Divinity that was His constant state of being.

Next: Birth of a New Culture