Adi Da Samraj
Adi Da (born Franklin Jones, 1939) is a modern religious guru and the founder of a new religious movement. Jones was raised in Brooklyn, New York and attended Columbia University, where he received a degree in philosophy. In the 1968, Jones became a disciple of Swami Muktananda, a controversial Indian guru. Jones broke with Muktananda after a meeting in 1973 and founded his own group at approximately the same time. Some of Adi Da's teachings are novel, while others are derived from Hinduism, Buddhism, and arguably from Scientology. His claims about himself are dramatic, even by the standards of independent gurus. For instance, Adi Da asserts that he is the unique incarnation of God. He further argues that there are seven levels of enlightened consciousness, but that he is the only being in the universe, past, present, or future, who reaches the seventh level. Adi Da's authorized biography is entitled The Promised God-Man is Here (2003).
The movement Adi Da founded is now known as Adidam or less formally as Daism; it was previously called the Dawn Horse Communion and the Johannine Daist Communion. It has been the target of allegations by journalists and anti-cult activists, who charge that the organization engages in typical cult-like behavior. Specific allegations have included milieu control, severe emotional manipulation, financial exploitation, casual violence, and sexual abuse of members. Since 1986, partly in response to these scandals, Adi Da has lived in near seclusion on a private island near Fiji, for the most part dealing only with his nine wives and a small group of close disciples.
Adi Da is noted for his frequent name changes in the past. As a student of Muktananda, he was given the name Dhyananda. Upon becoming an independent teacher, Jones dubbed himself Bubba Free John, "bubba" being a colloquialism for "brother" and "Free John" a lose translation of "Franklin Jones". In 1979, he began calling himself Da Free John, "Da" meaning approximately "giver". From 1986 to 1990, he was known primarily as Da Love-Ananda, "Ananda" meaning "bliss". From 1990 to 1991, he was known as Da Kalki, in reference to the Hindu avatar kalki, and from 1991 to 1994 as Da Avabhasa, "Avabhasa" meaning "brightness". The title his followers currently use for him is the Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj, literally "the radiant avatar, primordial giver, universal ruler".
Selected writings
- The Knee of Listening (1972)
- Garbage and the Goddess (1974)
- The Paradox of Instruction (1977)
- Enlightenment of the Whole Body (1979)
- The Dawn Horse Testament of Heart-Master Da Free John (1985)
- The Method of the Siddhas: Talks on the Spiritual Technique of the Saviors of Mankind (1995)
- Beyond the Cultic Tendency in Religion and Spirituality and in Secular Society (2001)
- The Way of Adidam (2003)
