Statements from early and later career by Adi Da (Franklin Jones) on Guru’s claims to Divinity
Posted by One Love on Mar-9-05 9:53am
In The
Guru, His Sources, and His Devotees” (an excerpt from a talk given to devotees
in Los Angeles on Prasad Day, April 8, 1973), Adi Da (then Bubba Free John)
says:
"So it is inappropriate for someone who is the
immediate instrument for spiritual life among his devotees to appear in any
sense as an exclusive, independent source, because there is no such source.
Everything is only instrumental. The Guru is not Guru by virtue of being
independent, some guy who made it. He is Guru by virtue of his function, which
is to present no obstacle to Truth, and to maintain a radical connection to
Truth."
What a difference between this and his 1999 prepublication edition of The Knee
of Listening, in which he says:
"This Divine Perfection is Uniquely My own. And
I Alone the Hridaya-Siddha, the Divine and True Heart-Master and World-Teacher,
Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj Am Its First and Great Example, and
(now, and forever hereafter) Its Only and Sufficient Means...I Am the First (and
the only One) to Realize and to Demonstrate This, the Divine, seventh stage
Realization and My Revelation of It Is therefore, New."
How do his long term and/or 'inner circle' devotees reconcile this critical
contradiction, either to themselves or to others.
Let this be a warning to those who may consider Adi Da or Adidam...a warning of
the radical revisions that occur in relation to the 'beloved one' and his
organization.
Adi Da criticizes hyperbole about Guru rankings and then does just what he criticized
Posted in 2004
In the early days, Adi Da (then Franklin Jones) was critical of the idea that anyone would claim a particular Guru was the best that ever lived. Here is what he said:
God manifests as the Guru for specific purposes, to form a specific function. And each Guru, true Guru is a manifestation of the Divine function appearing in a particular way and a particular time and place. And God is not Exclusively identified with that function, so that he can only be recognized in the form forever, or that particular Guru is the only Guru who ever lived, or the best who ever lived and all that sort of nonsense. The Divine is continually operating, and the Guru is a peculiar form of his operation.
Twenty five years later, however, he himself claimed to be the First, Last and Only perfect Seventh Stage Adept that had ever been born, and would ever be born in the future. In this and many other ways, Adi Da became what he originally criticized.