Divine Distraction: A Guide to the Guru-Devotee Relationship, the Supreme Means of God-Realization, as Fully Revealed for the First Time b

Divine Distraction is very well written book by James Steinberg about Spiritual Life in the Company of a True Spiritual Master, it is both educational and informative for those with an interest or response to this subject. The matter of Divine Distraction is not something that just happens to You, it is a response to something perhaps more profound and heart opening than you have ever experienced before. Adi Samraj is the source and object of such distraction, by reading his words and feeling James Steinbergs relationship to Adi Da Samraj it is very clear that there is something to be cherished between a spiritual master and his devotee, something also very profound which strikes at the core of our very existence. What this book reveals is the essence of such a relationship and what it is to truly recognise a true spiritual master and how to relate to such a one in the traditional manner. This book is particularly informative for the westerner in everyone, giving information that may be completely unknown or nievely mis-interpreted. I thoroughly recommend this book if you have aspirations in this field and even if you do not.

This is a well-written book that is both moving and detailed, providing all the essentials of the Guru-devotee relationship. We often think of great Spiritual Masters and the religious traditions that formed around them in terms of teachings, rituals, and disciplines. This book makes crystal clear that, in fact, the heart of the relationship between the disciple and master has always been the reception by the disciple of a tangible, ego-dissolving Spiritual Transmission from the Master. Words alone (and even merely human charisma) could not account for fisherman walking away from their families and professions to follow a man who said only, "Come, follow me." Nor could the merely visible account for the gopi women instantly leaving their cattle to follow Krishna. No! These ordinary people were overwhelmed and utterly distracted by tangible Spiritual love. The possibility of such a genuine Spiritual Master being alive today - the primary communication of this remarkable book - is enough to make one's hair stand on end!Sadly, the materialistic cult of our time tends not only to rob us of such opportunities, but to make taboo even the very conception of such possibilities. When the very existence of God is denied, obviously a Spiritual Master can only be interpreted as a charlatan (as suggested by the earlier, misinformed comment). . . religions can only be viewed as having merely social benefit . . . and spiritual books can only be read for new, ego-stimulating information (a kind of spiritual pornography, dismissed if not sufficiently new and stimulating), rather than as a guidebook for real practice of the Way of God Realization (not self-realization = ego-realization) that never changes.Were Jesus to return today, He would not be crucified. He would either be ignored (unable to stand out sufficiently in the crowd of New Age "spiritual" offerings with which He would have to compete); or, He would be "nailed" by lawsuits or by character defamation as a "cult leader", triggered by His unusual behavior (e.g., forming a religion around Himself, whipping merchants in temples, having close relationships with whores, suggesting His own Divinity, instigating anti-government activities, etc.) The only thing saving the historical Jesus from this fate right now is the fact that we are a historically (and nominally) Christian culture.May all of us who intuit the existence of the Divine, and who respect the work of the great Spiritual Masters as Agents of the Divine, actively counter all mean-spirited attempts to perpetuate the centuries-old taboo against Spiritual Masters!