Dissing the Da Avatar, Part 1

Over the years, I’ve received numerous complaints about my “love affair” with Adi Da (a.k.a. Franklin Jones, Bubba Free John, Da Free John, Da Love-Ananda, et al). People cannot understand how I can unabashedly recommend the spiritual teachings of an “abusive,” “megalomaniacal” guru like Da.

First off, my “love affair” is not with Adi Da; it is with much, but hardly all, of his teachings. Secondly, I think his “abusive behavior” has been grossly exaggerated and that his “megalomania” is partially justified (which I’ll explain in Part 4 of this article).

Although I could not have “cracked the cosmic code” without Da’s teachings, and though I highly recommend most of them, in no way do I think Da is the final word on everything. In fact, if he was still trucking and I could meet with him, here are some of the things I would confront him with:

1) In the original “The Method of the Siddhas” (published in 1973),” Da writes: “the Process I describe as understanding is ultimately the same that Ramana Maharshi was describing. The same state or enjoyment is being communicated or served. It is the same Force or Truth. It is all absolutely the same.”

Then, in “The Paradox of Instruction,” (published in 1977) we find: “In the summer of 1973, Bubba approached the Presence of the late Sage, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, at his place of burial in Tiruvannamalai, South India. It was only there and then that the Revelation of Truth to which Bubba’s [Ada Da’s] whole life has been oriented was tested and confirmed as it is... The benign workings of this Grace culminated in the spiritual confrontation at the tomb and former places of residence of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, where Bubba found the undeniable Realization of his life to be confirmed most directly, beyond all doubt.”

In 1988, I spent a week in the house William Tsiknas was sharing in Kauai Hawaii with my close friend Ritch McBride, also an Adi Da devotee. William was considered Adi Da’s closest male disciple, and I found him to be a nice guy with no pretenses whom I got on well with. William told me various stories about Adi Da, and I asked him about his 1977 trip to Sri Ramana Ashram with Adi Da. William said that Da told him, based on his his interaction with Ramana’s Presence at the ashram, that their Realizations were identical, that Ramana was like his twin. In other words, according to William, there was no difference between Da’s 7^th-stage Realization and Ramana’s.

So Da went to Sri Ramana Ashram twice – in 1973 and 1977 –and both times he found no difference whatsoever between his Realization and Ramana’s. Moreover, Da claimed that his 7^th-stage Realization was confirmed by Ramana’s Presence.

Now fast-forward to the mid 1990’s, when I, shockingly, learned that Da had changed his mind about Ramana Maharshi and Gautama Buddha. I can’t remember the Adi Da book I read it in, but Da “demoted” Ramana Maharshi and Gautama Buddha, formerly his 7^th-stage peers, to 6^th-stage realizers. When asked by a disciple why he originally had them as 7^th-stage masters, Da’s terse three-word reply was: “I was naïve.”

Even if we accept Da’s audacious claim that Buddha and Ramana weren’t fully-enlightened spiritual masters, his statement raises a few questions. First and foremost, how could Da’s 7^th-stage realization have been confirmed by Ramana Maharshi, a “6^th-stage master?” If Da, the self-proclaimed 7^th-stage Avatar, was wrong about the spiritual status of Ramana and Buddha, what else might he have been wrong about? Finally, exactly how and when, after a couple of decades, did Da overcome his naivete?  Da never answers these questions. As Rand would put it: Blank out.

In Part 2 (which will be posted within a couple of weeks), I will consider Da’s 180-degree shift regarding Avatars. When Da began his career as a spiritual guru, he mocked the concept of Avatars, but then, years later, he proclaimed himself as the First, Last and Only 7^th-stage Avatar. This is another bizarre twist in what has been termed “ the strange case of Franklin Jones.”