Adi Da Samraj’s (Da Free John's) call to cultic worship of him personally
Drop everything
and cling to me. Be fitted to the overwhelming heart-Purpose that is attracted
to Me, committed to Me, will give up everything to be with Me and to Realize Me.
Worship Me by surrendering your separate self to Me. Surrender to Me in order to
forget and transcend your separate self in Me.
I Am the Sign and the Revelation and the Proof of God in the world. I am the Way
up from the pond. In your egoity, you only want to stare at yourself in the pond
and apply some techniques and some disciplines to yourself. Without devotion to
Me, without Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga, disciplines are fruitless nonsense,
realizing nothing but Narcissus. All of life is self-meditation unless life
itself becomes meditation on Me.
You want to look at yourself, not at Me, but I Am the Way up from the pond. I Am
the Way out. This is My Message.
~Franklin Jones (Adi Da)
Comments: Some Daist apologists try to explain quotes like this as “ecstatic speech” wherein Adi Da is using Me or I in the transpersonal sense, as the voice of God. They would say he is not referring to himself personally, and would have various explanations for what he "really means," even though in practice devotees just flat out worship Adi Da as God. Those of us who lived with him as devotees know this is true, but for outsiders the Daists are always careful to put extra spin and qualifications on Adi Da’s claims to Divinity. Even inside Adidam, people are caught up in the fog of cognitive dissonance that results when Adi Da criticizes them for being cultic and wanting him to be an exclusive god-figure, but then makes claims like the one above and requires devotees to adopt a life and practice that absolutely treat him as a cultic God-in-the-flesh.
I would like to hear someone explain how the selection above is just "ecstatic speech" and not a personal claim to Divinity by Franklin/Adi Da. When Adi Da says “I Am the Sign and the Revelation and the Proof of God in the world,” who is the “I” if not Franklin Jones/Adi Da personally?