This site is not officially associated with Adidam. ...The perspectives or commentaries that you find on this site represent the viewpoints of the individual authors or our editorial and review staff. They should not be taken as an official viewpoint.
Then, addressing the question of the "Murti Guru", the editorial staff makes the following statement:
Traditionally, an esoteric spiritual tradition like Adidam is perpetuated from generation to generation, in perpetuity, through a lineage of Gurus that can be traced backed to the Founder of the tradition. Like one candle lighting another, each lineage-Guru passes on the Transmission to the next. Furthermore, each trains the next in the function of "Spiritual Transmitter". To the extent that the lineage preserved its integrity, the original Transmission would still be accessible to future devotees, hundreds or even thousands of years down the line, via the Guru lineage.
For a time, Adi Da considered a similar notion as one of many means for preserving His Spiritual Transmission here in perpetuity. He used phrases such as "Murti Guru" or "Living Murti" to refer to the Adidam form of "lineage" (properly qualified — see below):
[Adi Da] will not have "successors" in the usual sense of a lineage of Gurus. But He will have the Instrumentality of His Spiritually Awakened formal renunciate devotees, and, always, in every generation, there is to be one among His Divinely Self-Realized devotees . . .who will function as "Murti-Guru", or as His human Agent, perfectly transparent to Him. The "Murti-Guru" will grant Darshan (just as Avatar Adi Da Himself does in His human Lifetime), and will be His principal human Agent of Spiritual Transmission. By this means, Avatar Adi Da Samraj will always have a human vehicle through which the Force of His Spirit-Blessing will Flow perpetually. Thus He will never be absent, either Spiritually or humanly. -- Carolyn Lee, The Promised God-Man Is Here
However, as those familiar with how He works know, Adi Da constantly evolves, tests, and refines the structure of Adidam; His ongoing consideration about what would constitute the "Pattern" that functionally would replace Him after the passing of His human body was no exception. As He further clarified and elaborated on the uniqueness of His Guru-Function — as First, Last, and Only Seventh Stage Adept, etc. — it also became increasingly clear to Him and all His devotees that no single human being could perform His Function — unique to the His Divine Incarnation — and that it would be more accurate to describe the entire collective of devotees (including any and all advanced practitioners in the Way of Adidam), along with all His Sacred Treasures and Empowered Places, as what would, together, replace His Function in perpetuity. Indeed, in reaching this final conclusion — that the collective of devotees would be serving as His "Instrumentality" — He was returning to His original vision that He described in the early 1970's; "Murti Guru" was thus simply an alternative He temporarily considered and ultimately rejected in the ongoing consideration.
So here we have a little extra-communal group claiming to speak with authority on the matter of the 'Murti Guru'. I wonder if they are aware that they are committing heresy, not having been empowered by the Official Church to deliver canonical declamations?
Adi Da said so many things, over the years, contradicting himself, changing his mind, even advocating opposing points of view as a way of testing his devotees. Who is to know what the final and absolute truth is relative to "His Law"?
Surely there will have to be a committee formed, within the Institution -- a kind of Vatican Curia -- to make a determination of what can be published and promulgated as The Articles of the Faith. And from where will they draw their power? Were they appointed by Da...or self-appointed? Will they be a product of a political struggle just now beginning among the core devotees?
At the same time, suppose one among them sees Da in a vision and Da says "I appoint you my Murti Guru". Yeah, I know that's unlikely, but stranger things have happened. Speaking of stranger, suppose Bill Stranger gets up one day and tells everybody he is the new Murti of Da. What happens then? Well, those who believe him, or those who long to have a figurehead rather than milling around like a bunch of bereft souls, will accept him as their Da Murti and go off to form a schismatic community, claiming to uphold the true lineage!
The "non-official" article on Tong's "non-official" website already sows the seeds of that kind of dissension, imho. It presents itself as stating real deal Daism, when in fact all it can do is "express a viewpoint of an individual author or editor".
And I can disagree, both as an individual and as an author-editor. For instance, I think there is a legitimate question whether the last thing Da said is necessarily the absolute and ultimate word that should be referred to for authority. One might make the case that he spoke closer to the truth in all or many matters at an earlier stage of his career. Or, one might make the case that as trans-temporal Consciousness his thoughts can't be arranged chronologically, but must be viewed in a circular or spiral fashion, with validity present across the spectrum. I mean, it is so Newtonian to assume that the Murti Guru concept is a dead fish because of something Da said later about "returning to his original vision of the 1970s."
The 1970s -- that would mean Radical Understanding, owl sandwiches, and a kind of mass enlightenment. There's no sign of that occurring in this community, so why shouldn't his daughter step forward, claim the Chair, and get on with it?
Elias the Exegete
