The Wind In The Willows

              Beloved Adi Da Samraj has many times used children’s stories as a vehicle to Reveal Himself to me or make lessons of how I should relate to Him. One such was in 1985 as I was in the process of becoming a formal devotee. One night a shiver

Irina Tweedie – Sufi Mystic

  Before I came to Adi Da in my early twenties I visited Irina Tweedie many afternoons in her living room in Willesden Green, London. The first day I went she asked me in front of the others present, ‘why have you come to see me?’ I answered ‘Because I am suffering’. She went into

Barry Long

              In my early twenties I regularly went to Barry Long’s talks and seminars in Highgate, London. The first time I met him I told him I was feeling I wanted to commit suicide that evening and was it a good idea. He said if I really wanted to

Unreasonable Happiness In Gotham City

                      Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: The Unfulfilled Reach For The Eternal It was the mid 1990s. I was living in Adi Da Ashram in Norfolk UK. My friend Colin Boyd is a very talented mime artist. One day he told me he had been offered

How Adi Da Samraj Healed My Relationship with my Father Edward Pritchard And Directly Served My Dad’s Death Transition

Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: Death Of My Father   I guess many of us feel our father is the most lovely, wonderful, beautiful father there is so please forgive me for saying so about my dad! I didn’t always appreciate him. Once in my teens, and I never physically hit another being, before or since,

Retreat Story: Samraj Mahal – Adi Da Samrajashram – 1997/1998

Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: Crazy Da Must Sing I arrived on Naitauba at the beginning of December. I was so much looking forward to dropping out, and having extended time to meditate. In the world there seems to be endless pressure to function and ‘get things done’. Wow did I need a meditation retreat! A

Whiplash

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: She Protector Of My Heart   Floor and I catching up with movies we missed from 2014 and 2015 Watched Whiplash last night – brilliant I played cello in my school orchestra and the orchestra leader and music teacher was Mr Swinburne, a mental sadist. A scene here in this

True Water

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: My Mother Rowing Home On Streams Of True Water Beloved Adi Da Samraj is so cool and funny. Finds all kinds of ways to reflect to me when I am getting a little uptight. Always straightening me out. A devotee in Asia Pacific was messaging me this morning about buying

Ordeal Bath Lodge

                      Artist: Nicholas Roerich   It was winter time at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary. Snow all around. Beloved Adi Da Samraj was in the bath house, which is called Ordeal Bath Lodge. We chanted on the lawn just four of us for what seemed

House Of Love

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: Moonlight On Vermont   Serving around the Guru’s House on the island so remote yet so intimately close to the hearts of all beings everywhere, alone serving here, noone in sight, I am shown a Divine Revelation. Maybe I should not be exactly here in this moment but nowhere to

In The Manner Of Flowers

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: Bhagavan Da   I can’t remember what year it was. The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, California. Beloved Adi Da Samraj was giving Darshan in His beautiful yet simple house, The Manner of Flowers. Thirty or so of us at a time would sit with Him just for about ten minutes

Dream, The Blissful Beast, November 18, 2015, Mansle France

                  In the wake of the ‘Paris attacks’ I spent the whole of yesterday, here in Mansle, France, consciously immersing myself in the ‘atrocity exhibition’ – research and education in terrorism, ISIS, chemtrails, global warming, genetic modification and on and on via the Internet and American and

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe 1985 – London, England and Laugharne and Pendine Sands, South Wales

It was 1985 and I had just transitioned to become a devotee. My minister, Donovan, who did my ‘transition interview’, and made the decision to accept me into the fellowship, ‘The Laughing Man Institute’ as it was called, told me many years later he had wondered at the time if it was the greatest mistake

‘I I know You Are God, I am going to Tell Everyone that You Are God, that You Are Here’

  Atman: The essence that is eternal, unchanging, and indistinguishable from the essence of the universe When I was 8 years old my mum and dad told me that Batman (Be Atman) was coming from Gotham City to visit Orpington in Kent where I lived. My dad took me to see him. We walked across

A Huge Whaty?: Gardening Story as told to Adi Da Samraj at Adi Da Samrajashram

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: Magickal Rose   As a lover of comedy and comedians and as a sometimes comedic writer, for me the funniest person, the best comedian who ever lived was Adi Da Samraj! Noone has made or makes me laugh as much as Him. Now He has passed away in His bodily

New Year’s Eve 1997/1998 – Adi Da Samrajashram

  ‘The One before you now is that Uncaused Space, Self-Radiant without limit. This is why you find me Attractive, if you do. Even without knowing altogether why, this is your intuition. This is what you are responding to. This Body is a unique Signal, a unique Sign, the Doorway to Who I Am and

Maria Hoop, 1986, Netherlands

  On Sunday July 20th Avatar Adi Da Samraj left the Doelen Crest Hotel for the former monastery at Maria Hoop, now The European Danda. The previous day He had been quietly relaxing in his hotel. I was seated with some others in the garden at the back of the monastery, the lawn in front

The Rock Of Naitauba Picture Show

  Artist: Simon Pritchard   I was on Naitauba on retreat so looking forward to dropping out, dropping into contemplative ecstasy. ‘Simon’ Michael said, ‘Beloved Said He wants a skit night on New Year’s Eve. There is a meeting of the comedy guild tomorrow evening can you make it?’ Hmm I wasn’t sure I wanted

That Is It. Do Not Leave

            I guess all of us have experienced occasions when we saw something or someone whose beauty or attractiveness or some other special quality or intensity hit us all of a sudden and unexpected. My first retreat at The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary in late 1980s a few of us

Retreat Letter Home: From Adi Da Samrajashram, 1996

              Sublime, dreamy days, hot and sticky, confronting, difficult, blissful, exciting, uncomfortable – yet essentially Happy! – everything seems to come up on retreat on Naitauba! On my first retreat in 1990 I well remember the opening orientation given by our retreat manager Dennis. He said that coming on

I Stand At The Door And Knock

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Drawing: The Man Of Understanding   I have three stories of Adi Da Samraj related to ‘doors’ In 1986 I was in Amsterdam when Beloved Adi Da was staying in the Adidam Centre in Prinsengracht. One time He was on an outing and I was asked to be ready to open

The Froggy Hat

Spring 1996, I was living in a tiny apartment Abbey Road, London, with my intimate partner at the time, Lenie, just down the road from the famous Beatles’ zebra crossing. One day I heard some shocking news – a medical prognosis that subsequently turned out to be a bit off the mark, though ultimately we

Da Nataraj

In the middle afternoon of New Year’s Eve Beloved Adi Da called the male retreatants to have a dance party in the Village square (where were the women? I can’t remember!). It was a time of Celebration and so we were not on our usual ‘no alcohol, no cigarettes’ discipline! We had a stack of

Exhaust Yourself Through Love

Painting by Simon Pritchard: a Darshan occasion with Adi Da Samraj, at Samraj Mahal, at Adi Da Samrajashram, 1998   This Darshan occasion next to the ocean at Samraj Mahal had an incredible and very strange intensity. Adi Da was leaning forward and, it seemed to me, was almost ready to explode. Maybe the photograph

The Mahasiddha Avatar Adi Da Visits Glastonbury

                                          Photo: Adi Da Samraj: at Glastonbury Tor (1986) When Adi Da was in London many of us, especially newer devotees did not see him. Some devotees were invited to travel with him to places

‘Why has Simon got hair hanging down to his tits?’

When I was a young boy I liked my hair to be a bit long, like the Beatles! But my mum had different ideas. She would drag me, literally screaming, to the hairdressers ‘Jons’, in Orpington High Street. When I was much older I went through periods of having a ‘number one’ tennis ball cut

The Miracle Of Naitauba (1995 – my second retreat at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji)

I was 34 years old. I had been Avatar Adi Da’s devotee since I was 24. I was visiting Fiji on the remote island of Naitauba, where lived The Da Avatar. He called for a gathering at Hymns To Me. They said it was a very special time and that He may want to speak

A Horse In The Wild Is Always Already The Case

Photo: Horse, 2.5 inches wide, 2 inches high, red-brown.   Many years ago now Adi Da invited His devotees to send Him objects for Him to Bless, which He would then return. I sent him a Chinese prosperity frog and a horse. Both objects came back to me from The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in

He Transmitted His Ecstatic State – Adi Da Samrajashram 1995

  Frank Hayes and I had dressed up as Kanyas for a New Years skit. It was for fun, but the bhakti, the love, the attraction, the devotion kept growing. Beloved Adi Da was driving us crazy making us into His gopis. We were so filled with adoration of Him. It was hard to contain

‘Because My Dick Is Bigger Than Yours’ – Los Angeles, Worldwide Mission HQ, Year 2000

A leela (story) of Adi Da’s fierce, passionate, Divine Love-Play with Jeff Forrester and myself in year 2000 in our function as managers of the Adidam Global Mission It was another day, religion business as usual in the L.A worldwide Mission Headquarters on the other side of the Valley. The sun was darting rays of

‘You are holding it upside down’: Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji,1995

Earlier in this gathering Adi Da had hugged me and kissed me all over my face and on my lips, and slapped me on the cheek of my face when my mind got in the way, to bring my heart-attention back to Him, and since then the devotees present had either been dancing or huddled

Winston and the Guru

When I became a devotee of Adi Da Samraj in 1985 I already knew He loved me and I already knew I loved Him. How this occurred is a Mystery, the Great Happiness of my life, and it was a complete surprise, to fall in love with a man, and not just that, but a

The Mind Of The Psychic Deep In The Crisis Of The Heart at Battersea Town Hall, London

Painting: The Cyclops by Odilon Redon   Many years ago now I went to a mystics and psychics fair in Battersea Town Hall, London. Gavin Brown had organized an Adidam stall selling Adi Da’s books. My help was not needed so I wandered around the hall. Nothing interested me, except one stall, which had a

November 3, 1999, Ruchira Da’s 60th Birthday Celebration at The Mountain Of Attention, USA

                                          We were at The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, Northern California. Adi Da was there too! A Beautiful Coincidence! Later in the evening after this photograph you can see here (that was taken this very

‘I Have Made You Each A Cookie’ – December 1997

  Artist: Simon Pritchard In 1995 and again in 1997 I was extremely graced, like all devotees on the Island on these occasions to have Avatar Adi Da’s ‘Cookie Day’ Darshan. This tradition began in the late 1980s and became a regular event, usually in late December, as part of the Danavira Mela Celebration. On

The Goblin and the Cosmic Horse – (London 1985)

Artwork: The Chimera Gazed at all Things with Fear, from Night, 1886 by Odilon Redon   It was sometime in September 1985. I was 24 years old and living with my parents just outside London. On this particular night, I was staying at a friend’s apartment in Earls Court in West London. I had only

‘Holy Shit!’ – A Gathering with Adi Da and His devotees at Samraj Mahal February 1st 1988

February 1st, 1998 devotees are gathered with Adi Da Samraj at Samraj Mahal in the evening beside the ocean. Adi Da is speaking about how the ego murders love: ‘The implications of love are terrible, terrible. And the ego or the egoic disposition, uses every kind of means, to get out of that circumstance, to

1984 London – Never Let Me Go – My Journey To Adi Da

Painting: Remember by Nicholas Roerich (1924)   It was 1984. I was walking along Hampstead High Street. London. Many years earlier Swami Vivekananda, (of whom Adi Da Samraj has Said: ‘That Deeper-Personality Vehicle of My present-Lifetime Incarnation was (Itself) Incarnated as the Great Siddha…Swami Vivekananda’) lived in Hampstead for a time and would walk along

Adi Da In London 1986

  Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: The Light Pours Out Of Me It was 1986 London, grey overcast skies and raining. Everything changes except Consciousness Itself and the weather in England which are Eternal! Adi Da and a vast travelling party of devotees all dressed in orange, some with (temporary!) spiritual names like ‘Arjuna’ had arrived

I Wanted To Crawl And Slither After Him Forever! (My first retreat in Fiji – 1990)

  On my first visit to Adi Da Samrajashram in 1990 I was in a dissociative state. Even though I had been madly in love with Adi Da since 1984, even though I had seen him at Mariahoop, Netherlands in 1986 and even though He had already given me many revelations that He was God

Samraj Mahal – Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji, 1998

          Lord Ruchira Da In His Jacuzzi Bathing in the Bliss of His Samadhi… His Pleasure Dome of Delicious Sublimity Where Only Beauty Is. Breathless with longing We Stream to the beach To gaze on His Glorious Form That dissolves all the mind’s dilemma We tread with steps sandy soft Not

Dream – This is The Moment (2015)

                                          Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: Wigwam Powerful dream woke me up and I immediately went downstairs and painted for a few hours very concentrated. A short time after I finish – an hour or so

Dream Experience – The First Day On Earth (2010)

                                            Artist: Simon Pritchard. Painting: William Blake And A Mind On Fire   I had an unusual dream- experience – happening on Saturday night The world was in view as a whole as one

Love’s Point (July 2001)

  Artwork: Sahaj by Simon Pritchard   A love letter home to my Gurubhais in England – sent 25 July 2001 – after Darshan of Our Beloved Guru at Love’s Point, Northern California Dear Gurubhais, In the night at Love’s Point I was Graced once again with Exquisite Darshan of our Most Beloved Lord… We

My Beloved Guru Adi Da Samraj

            This page is dedicated to my spiritual teacher and Guru, Adi Da Samraj. Adi Da is the love of my life and the apple of my eye. In my experience He is not separate from anyone or anything, including what I call my ‘self’. Adi Da Samraj is my

Red Sitting Man (Year 2002 at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, Northern California, USA)

    I was there at Red Sitting Man at this incredible Darshan occasion (sighting of the Guru) at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, Northern California. I was manager of the Celebration, responsible for so many things it was beyond intense. In the midst of the overwhelming seva (service) demand I had to fight to

Fuck You (Adi Da Samrajashram, my second retreat in Fiji – 1995)

  1995 I was on retreat on Sri Loveanandashram, Fiji with my Guru, Adi Da Samraj. Many days He Sat with us in Darshan (a Sanskrit word referring to the sacred devotional sighting of the Guru or of images of the Divine (http://adidaupclose.org/glossary/index.html) for about an hour or so in an exquisite Fijian bure-style Temple,

His Bliss-Filled Eyes Met Ours – 1988 Mountain of Attention

                        An old diary entry from my first spiritual retreat at The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary in 1988 – a few of us were doing some Guru Seva (service to the Guru)- sweeping and moving crates around – at one of the buildings ˜Huge