A Devotee of
Adi Da Samraj
The Danavira Mela Celebration
This celebration is not just a day, it is a whole period of time every year. For Me, it is the most beautiful time of every year, because it is filled with this ritual of giving.
This is not unusual to Me, however. To Me, the entire year, all of life, every moment of living in every relationship is a matter of the Granting of My Divine Gifts to all-and-All. However, there is a particular time of year in which people engage in that ritual tangibly, and therefore you should set aside this season of celebration each year for everybody to give everybody else gifts. It should be a very delightful and happy time, an extraordinary time of gift-giving, an extraordinary celebration without any worldly or negative connotations at all.
You may have so many friends that you cannot make or even buy gifts for them all, and you should not feel obliged by the materialistic ritual that exists in the larger society, but you should make celebration for all of your friends and intimates during this period each year. The entire time should be filled with ritual, tangible gift-giving, not merely or solely in the physical sense of giving somebody a physical object, but emotionally and altogether.
It should be a time of great celebration. It should be the fullest celebration throughout the human community, at least equal to the passion of any other celebration.
--- Adi Da Samraj
(Excerpt from “The Danavira Mela Book”)
As a child I always loved the holiday season in December. Growing up in South America, I really enjoyed the traditional customs we have for celebrating this time of year and sharing time with family as well as neighbors and friends.
I remember spending this holiday at my grandmother’s seeing so many happy faces, people around me dancing, my cousins, sisters, friends and me playing and lighting fireworks, eating traditional dishes - and at the stroke of midnight on December 25th opening our gifts!
As I grew older and having moved to the United States, my sisters, parents, and I continued the tradition of opening gifts at midnight on the 25th around a very fully decorated tree, as well as enjoying my mom’s traditional dishes for the holiday. It has always been a happy celebration for us and buying or making gifts for one another has always been a joyful occasion we still fully cherish.
Since I became a devotee of Adi Da Samraj, this holiday celebration has been magnified and made even happier in my life. Those of us who are devotees of Adi Da call this season “Danavira Mela”. In Sanskrit “Dana” means Giving, “Vira” means Hero and “Mela” means Celebration. So for us, it is the Celebration of the Hero of Giving because my Heart Master has given so many gifts to me, all His devotees and to the world. For me His Teaching, His Art and His Revelation of who He Is, have been amazingly wonderful Gifts. They are my constant reminder or means to turn to Him, be happy, and share His gifts with everyone I love and with everyone that responds and recognizes Him.
A devotee of Adi Da, whose name is Naamleela, wrote a book called “The Danavira Mela Book”. I really love this book because I have learned so much about this season and how my Heart Master has always celebrated it with all His family and devotees. For instance, I learned a lot more about the sharing of “leelas” or stories about our Heart Master during this celebration. So we also refer to this season as the “Love-Ananda Leela” celebration where we spend time together retelling the incredible stories of Adi Da’s life and the play of Him in our lives. “Love-Ananda” means “Love-Bliss” and “Leela” means "play" in Sanskrit, so the stories are the Love-Bliss play of our lives in relationship to Him.
Another thing I have learned from her book is how this season is also referred to as the “Light-in Everybody” celebration because of how light is such a universally and intuitively understood word-symbol for “spirit” or “holy” - and because it is often seen as the celebration of enlightenment or the celebration of light rather than darkness.
Another wonderful tradition we have is the trimming of the Giving Tree or the “Divine Spirit-Tree of Light” - which my Heart Master named the traditional Christmas tree we decorate during this season. In reading “The Danavira Mela Book” I learned about the symbol that the tree represents – it represents the human nervous system and the Light shining from above. Adi Da has spoken of it as a Tree of Life kind of a form. So decorating the tree has become an even happier occasion because of what it means to me in relationship to my Heart Master.
So now in celebrating this season through these and other traditions that I observe as a devotee of Adi Da Samraj, I feel very grateful for the happy, ecstatic and beautiful relationship I have with my Heart Master and Beloved Friend, Adi Da Samraj; the loving and wonderful family I have, and my great friends here and everywhere.
May you all have a happy holiday season!
