Mount Abu is a small peak (some 4,000 feet high) in the southwest of the Indian state of Rajasthan that figures in Hindu legend. It is especially holy to Jains (see JAINISM), who built beautifully adorned temples there. It was once a British hill station for retreat from the summer heat.
According to one legend, the sage Vasishtha’s cow Nandini was once trapped in a deep gorge and could not free herself. The sage appealed to Lord SHIVA for assistance. The Lord sent SARASVATI, the divine stream, to help flood the gorge so that the cow could float up. Vasishtha then decided to ensure that such mishaps would not occur in future. He asked the youngest son of HIMALAYA, the king of mountains, to fill the chasm perma- nently. This he did with the assistance of Arbud, the mighty snake. This spot came to be known as Mount Arbud, and the name was later changed to its present form—Mount Abu.
It is said that this mountain was visited and blessed in the sixth century B.C.E. by MAHAVIRA, the 24th and last Jain TIRTHANKARA of this half of the cosmic era. It is known for its marble Jain temples, two of which are famous. The first, built in the 11th century, is devoted to RISHABHA, the first Tirthankara of the line leading to Mahavira, The other, from the 13th century, is dedicated to Neminatha, the 22nd Tirthankara in the line.
The temples are not large but are known for their K 4 Abu, Mount
stunning and intricately carved statuary and ornamentation.
Further reading: Lothar Clermont, Jainism and the Temples of Mount Abu (New Delhi: Prakash Books, 1998); Sehdev Kumar, A Thousand Petalled Lotus: Jain Temples of Rajasthan: Architecture and Iconography (New Delhi: Abhinav, 2001); Jodh Singh Mehta, Abu to Udaipur (Celestial Simla to City of Sunrise) (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1970); Muniraj Jayanta Vijayi, Holy Abu: A Tourist’s Guide to Mount Abu and Its Jaina Shrines (Bhavnagar: Shri Yashovijaya Jaina Granth- mala, 1954).
Acharanga Sutra
(c. 300 B.C.E.–400 C.E.) The Acharanga Sutra is the first of the 12 texts accepted as canonical by SHVETAMBARA Jains. The DIGAMBARA Jains believe that the original version of this sutra was lost and reject the text held sacred by the Shvetambaras. The sutra outlines, with some details, the rigorous limitations that Jain monks must observe and answers difficulties that might occur in their struggle to prevent injury to any creatures, including microscopic ones.To cite some examples, the Acharanga Sutra prohibits monks from digging in the earth (to prevent injury to any earth being); bathing, swim- ming, wading, or walking in the rain (to prevent injury to any water being); kindling or extin- guishing any flame (to prevent injury to beings that live in fire); waving the arms or making any other sudden movement (to prevent injury to air beings); and walking in any greenery or stepping on any plant (to prevent injury to beings living in plants). The sutra also demands the strictest vegetarianism.
Further reading: Hermann Jacobi, trans., Jain Sutras, Part 1, Sacred Books of the East, XVL (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1964); P. S. Jaini, The Jain Path of Purifica- tion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979);
Bimala Churn Law, Some Jain Canonical Sutras (Bom- bay: Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society, 1949).
acharya
An acharya is any spiritual guide or teacher. In ancient times the term referred specifically to the one who initiated a student and taught him the complete VEDA or sacred literature. In later times it became a general honorific indicating great learning and/or spiritual accomplishment. The term was, for example, appended to the names of all the great VEDANTA teachers: SHANKARA, RAMANUJA, MADHVA, and NIMBARKA, become Shan- karacharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, and Nimbarkacharya.
This practice is followed in the JAIN tradition as well; for example, GUNABHADRA will be called Gunabhadracharya. Furthermore, Jains honor acha- ryas in the panchanamaskara MANTRA, the central mantra of the Jain faith, immediately after the ARHATS
and SIDDHAS; this indicates their exalted status.
Further reading: Brian K. Smith, “Ritual, Knowledge and Being: Initiation and Veda Study in Ancient India,”
Numen 33, no. 1 (1986): 65–89.
achintya bhedabheda
See CHAITANYA, SRIKRISHNA.
adhvaryu
The adhvaryu is the priest of the YAJUR VEDA at the traditional Vedic public ritual. He oversees all the ritual activity, carrying out most of the actions himself. He prepares and uses the implements, pours clarified butter, kills the ritual animal, and recites the appropriate verses (of either the Black or the White Yajur Veda) as the ritual actions are performed. The priests of the RIG, SAMA, and ATHARVA VEDAS are usually much less active on the ritual ground.
Further reading: Julius Eggeling, trans., The Satapatha- Brahmana, Part I, According to the Text of the Madhyan- dina School (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982); Jan Gonda, The Ritual Sutras (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassow-
adhvaryu 5 J
itz, 1977); Arthur B. Keith, trans., The Veda of the Black Yajus School (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1967); J. Frits Staal, The Science of Ritual (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1982).
adhyasa
Adhyasa, or “superimposition” of an unreal thing upon a real one, is an important concept in the
ADVAITA (non-dual) philosophy of SHANKARA, the renowned teacher of VEDANTA.
A pedestrian example would be a person look- ing at a rope in a dark place and briefly seeing a snake. This sort of superimposition involves two physical objects, but the central superimposition or adhyasa in Shankara’s system is the ignorant superimposition of the empirical world upon the attribute-free BRAHMAN or ultimate reality.
Humans imagine that the empirical world is real, but, just as the rope is not the snake, so is the empirical world not the brahman. Shankara holds that the phenomenal world is false (mithya) and illusory (MAYA). Ignorance (AVIDYA), leads us to see the world as real, but when knowledge (VIDYA
or JNANA) dawns, we see the truth: that the only existence is brahman, the actionless, attribute-free ground of being that can be described as SAT-CHIT-
ANANDA, being-consciousness-bliss.
Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, History of Indian Phi- losophy, Vol. 1 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975); ——
—, History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 2 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975); Daya Krishna, New Perspectives in Indian Philosophy (Jaipur: Rawat, 2001); Karl Potter, ed., Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, vol. 3 (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1981).
adhyatma
See VEDANTA.Adi Da Samraj
(1939– ) teacher of “Crazy Wisdom”Adi Da Samraj, a U.S.-born guru, teaches his idiosyncratic philosophy and discipline to a small
but devoted international following, mostly in English-speaking countries.
According to Adi Da Samraj’s autobiography, he experienced a state of perfect awareness of ulti- mate reality from the day of his birth as Franklin Jones on November 3, 1939, on Long Island, New York. At age two he relinquished that state in order to experience human limitations completely. From 1957 he studied philosophy at Columbia Univer- sity in New York. Beginning in his college years Jones engaged in a spiritual quest that led him to Swami RUDRANANDA in New York City and eventu- ally to Swami MUKTANANDA, the famous practitio- ner of Shaivism and siddha yoga. From childhood, Jones reported many experiences of KUNDALINI
(awakening divine energy), mystical revelation, astral travel, and superconscious identification with higher beings, but he found that these powers were not valuable because they were not expres- sions of his real nature. In 1970 at the Vedanta temple in Hollywood, he experienced a reawaken- ing and realization of his ultimate nature; he knew his oneness with SHAKTI, divine energy. He left Muktananda and became a devotee of Shakti.
In 1972, Jones began to teach his “radical”
understanding of a spiritual path that includes devotion to a guru and self-observation. He opened a small ashram in Los Angeles and began to attract devotees. During a trip to India he adopted the first of what would become many new names for himself, Bubba Free John. At first he worked with students in a traditional way, but in the late 1970s he adopted the “Crazy Wisdom” approach to spirituality. In 1979, he changed his name to Da Free John. In 1986, his name became Da Love-Ananda. In the late 1980s he became Da Avabhasa (the Bright), in 1990 Da Kalki, and finally, in 1995, Adi Da Samraj. The completion of his work of revelation, he says, is signified in this last change of name and his title of AVATAR.
In 1983, he acquired an island in Fiji for his community, then called the Johannine Daist Communion. Today Adi Da’s spiritual movement is named Adidam, or the Way of the Heart. A K 6 adhyasa
central teaching of this path is that all seeking requires constant activity, a factor that, in itself, prevents conscious realization and perfect hap- piness. Because the means used on any path are always changing, no method of seeking is ever permanently successful. Adi Da asserts that he has attained the Most Perfect Happiness and can transmit this divine Self-realization to others.
Thus, a devotional relationship with Adi Da is the source of divine Self-realization. The Way of the Heart employs meditation, study, worship, com- munal living, and dietary and sexual disciplines as means for “radical” understanding and com- munion with Adi Da.
The educational organization of Adidam is the Laughing Man Institute, which propagates the teaching of Adi Da around the world. Adidam also has a publishing vehicle, the Dawn Horse Press, which publishes The Adidam Revelation Magazine and books about and by Adi Da.
At the turn of the 21st century Adidam reported over 1,000 members worldwide, the majority of whom live in the United States. Centers have been opened in New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, and Fiji. Ashrams currently are located in Fiji, Hawaii, and northern California.
See also BONDER, SANIEL.
Further reading: Saniel Bonder, The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher Heart-Master Da Love-Ananda (Clear- lake, Calif.: Dawn Horse Press, 1990); Adi Da Samraj, Avatar Adi Da Samraj and the First 25 Years of His Divine Revelation Work (Middletown, Calif.: Dawn Horse Press, 1997); ———, The Knee of Listening (Clearlake, Calif.: Dawn Horse Press, 1973); ———, See My Bright- ness Face to Face: A Celebration of the Rachira Buddha (Middletown, Calif.: Dawn Horse Press, 1997).