Despite what some people are claiming, Robert Adams never appointed a successor. He often said, "What is the point?" Ramana, the great teacher who brought Robert to full understanding, did not choose any successors and neither did Robert. I do know that Robert told two people, that if they wanted to, they could start a satsang. One was me, when I was in Santa Monica, before I moved to San Fernando (Death) Valley, and the other was his wife, Nicole in Sedona. Nicole has now turned her Satsang into the family business, which is often what happens
with spiritual teachers.
This is understandable. They took care of him and he took care of them. Ramana and Robert both knew that those who have awakened didn't need anything from him, including authorization, an imperial seal, or even a stick of chewing gum. But Nicole et al claims to be the true heirs of Robert's wisdom. They can claim all they want. I don't care.
What I offer on this site is my own understanding of Robert’s teachings, as well as some stories about my eight year relationship with him. Robert changed me and brought me to an awakening from the sickness that is this world. This is what this site is about. I failed to find it with a dozen other teachers and paths, including Zen; but through him, I went home. After coming home, there is no need for approval or a stamp of authenticity. One is done, finished.
If we were to judge attainment based on an analogy, if there were a hundred story building, his attainment would be the hundredth. He was and is so far greater than I, that comparison is not impossible. On that same scale, I would be a ten-story attainer. What I say in 50 words he'd summarize in five. Unlike Nisargadatta, whose every phrase was like a hammer, every sentence Robert spoke was like a cold glass of water on a hot day, soothing and refreshing.
No claim that it takes ten or thirty years to be around someone like Robert to get free or to understand what he had to say, is credible. If one were spiritually mature, only ten minutes in his presence would be enough to awaken. I am embarrassed that it took me six years. It shows how poorly prepared I was to receive his teachings even after 20 years of searching before I found him.
Robert alwys said that once you are awake, that's it, you are always awake. But, as with the pigs in Animal Farm, some are more awake than others. Ramana himself made the distinction between those who have awakened and those who have matured in it for three "higher" levels. I know nothing of these levels or how they would be applied to a Self that has no characteristics. But if anyone were a level seven, it was Robert. I cannot repeat often enough, Robert was a spiritual teacher of the highest rank and order. No one else touched him, in my opinion.
For whatever reasons, there are some who claim I never was a student of Robert, or was close to Robert, or that the transcripts on this site are not "authentic." In fact, they have actually contacted me and said that I was not "authorized" to publish Robert's picture on the Web. They also informed me that I not authorized to publish their letter that said I was not authorized.
Which brings up the subject of authorization. Who "authorized" what?
What do they, who claim to be authorized, bring to the table of proof? Do they have pictures with Robert? Do they have voice files of Robert talking to them? Are they mentioned in any newsletters, books or transcripts of Robert's talks? Perhaps they can claim to be the authorized successors of Nisaragdatta and Mother Teresa while they are at it.
For the purpose of "authorization," below are several pages:
1. A sound file of Robert's wife, Nicole, telling me that I have captured Robert better than anyone before, so well, in fact, that she never need say another thing. She also urged me to publish it.
2. The first few pages of the original "Silence of the Heart" published in 1992, which lists me as one of those who prepared transcripts and who wrote the introduction. Note these is no mention in the acknowledgment or any thirty years students or of Nicole.
3. There is a picture of me in Darshan with Robert.
4. There is a voice file of one of Robert's talks, where he and the entire Satsang, sing happy birthday to me.
5. On another part of this site, under "Photos," there is a picture of Robert with my wife taken in 1993 or so.
6. On this site are copies of publications about Robert which I wrote or helped write: Inner Directions; Yoga Journal; the Mountain Path. There is yet another one which I wrote called, "There is no suffering, there is no death," which is alreay up on this site as one of his talks.
7. The many transcripts on this site, which, I might say, were copyrighted. Did I make these up as Nicole claims? If I did, would I need ever need mention Robert's name? I could say they were my own.
8. Most of the rest of the site is dedicated to Robert, his teachings or my life with him. How can anyone in his/her right mind expect that anyone but a professional fiction writer could make all of this up and be consistent?
There are many more voice files that I could have included as well as more transcripts and dozens of Robert's taped talks.
For the life of me, I do not understand why anyone would seek to stifle the messages of those who were taught by Robert. A thousand voices and different expressions of how Robert impacted each of their lives and the understanding they got from Robert, would not be enough to portray his eloquence and power.
This is like saying no one can talk about Christ or his teachings, unless they were one of the original tweleve disciples, or no one can talk about Buddha and his teachings unless one were a Patriarch of some branch of Buddhism of another.
That gives me an idea. I now name myself the Patriarch of the Muzika branch of Robert Adams Jnana Marga.
I would say that Robert did give me a spiritual name as an induction to his linneage, and that was Gopala Swami. But neither of us made a big deal of it, except that for the next six weeks we both wore identical orange shirts to Satsang. He said, "This will keep them guessing."
