"On November 3, 1939, at 11:21 a.m. in Jamaica, New York, I was born Franklin Albert Jones." With this prosaic sentence begins [The Knee of Listening,] one of the most fascinating autobiographies of our time. Its author, who now goes by the name of Da Love-Ananda, is revered by his followers as an avatara, an incarnation of the Divine. They and some readers of Da Love-Ananda's works see in him a genuinely enlightened adept—perhaps even the first fully enlightened being to appear in our Western civilization. They share Alan Watts's sentiment, as expressed in the forward to the autobiography, that "he has simply realized that he himself as he is, like a star, like a dolphin, like an iris, is a perfect and authentic manifestation of the eternal energy of the universe, and thus is no longer disposed to be in conflict with himself." Yet even for those who remain skeptical about Da Love-Ananda's authenticity and stature as a spiritual teacher, he is a larger-than-life figure. David Christopher Lane, who is critical of many of Da Love-Ananda's actions, has made this comment: "There are very few spiritual teachers in the 20th century who could be termed religious geniuses. Da Free John is one of them. Since the beginning of his formal ministry in 1972 in southern California, Da Free John [Da Love-Ananda] has produced a body of work which is unparalleled amongst Western philosophical thinkers for its radical insight, comparative depth and force of expression."

Da Love-Ananda began to teach shortly after his enlightenment in September 1970. At first, he met relatively informally with whomever expressed an interest in spiritual life. Gradually, however, he insisted on certain formalities, including abstinence from illegal drugs, as well as certain dietary and health disciplines. Casual visitors became rarer as the conditions for seeing and meditating with him became tighter. He opened his own school (ashram) in 1972, complete with elevated chair, carpets, and an abundance of flowers—the style adopted by most Indian gurus. This was also the inaugural year of his church, The Dawn Horse Communion, which is now known as The Free Daist Communion. In the beginning, he was addressed as "Franklin," but after his visit to Swami Muktananda in the summer of 1973, he asked to be called "Bubba Free John."

As "Bubba" he enacted the role of spiritual friend toward his growing group of disciples. However, at that time his "friendship" was already interlaced with formality—a formality that would, in the course of time, grow into a somewhat stilted and almost formulaic affair, making a simple, personal approach to him virtually impossible. He felt that his Western contemporaries had little or no understanding of the role of the spiritual teacher and, step by step, had to be taught the fine art of guru-yoga, submission to the Divine by means of surrender to the teacher.

When he first started to teach, Da Love-Ananda good-naturedly but naïvely presumed that others would attain enlightenment simply by grasping and applying his teaching argument and by occasionally being exposed to the spiritual presence of his own awakened body-mind during sat-sanga. Gradually he acknowledged that few people possess the necessary qualifications for this shortcut and that most are in need of a prolonged period of intense preparation in which they must learn to discipline their attention and energy. Thus, partly in consideration with his students, he developed an entire way of life, comprising physical exercises, sexual practices, meditation techniques, religious rituals and much more.

In December of 1973, Da Love-Ananda's teaching work acquired a new dimension. After demanding from his students strict adherence to a fairly ascetical lifestyle, he suddenly initiated a cycle of "celebrations." These celebrations were comparable to Tantric feasts, where a small group of initiates, always under the guidance of the guru, break major taboos of the traditional Hindu society as part of a ritual intended to bring about a change of consciousness in the participants. From my many conversations with longtime devotees, it appears that for several months Da Love-Ananda did indeed use his yogic abilities to affect the psychic lives of literally hundreds of students in often very dramatic ways. They experienced visions, spontaneous body movements known as kriyas, bliss states, heart openings and kundalini arousals. Several were ostensibly drawn into the mystical unitive state or even into temporary sahaja-samadhi. This important phase in Da Love-Ananda's teaching history is recorded in a long-out-of-print book entitled Garbage and the Goddess.

In March of 1974, in what has come to be known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," Da Love-Ananda initiated a "consideration" about sexuality, marriage, and emotional attachment that left his disciples reeling for months, sometimes years. Commenting that relationships like marriage are generally entered into in order to create a sense of security and immunity for the ego-personality, he called on his students to disrupt their cultic association with one another. In particular, he challenged them to break through their marriage cults and discard their sexual attachment and jealousy. "One of the ‘secrets' of spiritual life," he observed, "is continually to violate your own contracts."

He reminded them that the guru is, by virtue of his function, a "dangerous person." He has reiterated this caveat many times during his teaching career. The danger of the guru lies in his or her commitment to the disciple's radical psychospiritual transmutation. The guru is forever on the disciple's case. As Da Love-Ananda explained: "The Guru is a kind of irritation to his friends. You can't sleep with a dog barking in your ear . . . The Guru is a constant awakening sound. He is always annoying people with this demand to stay awake, to wake up . . . Therefore, he doesn't satisfy the seeker. Those that come to be satisfied are offended. They are not satisfied."

In 1974 he started his "sexual theater," involving the switching of partners, sexual orgies, the making of pornographic movies and intensified sexual practices—all of which led to the temporary or, in some instances, the permanent breakup of relationships. As "contracts" were voided, emotions ran high in the community. Some people were unable to handle this emotional roller coaster and left; a few still bear the wounds today. Most stayed and braved the upheaval, and subsequently learned to live with their traumas or, perhaps more rarely, truly go beyond them.

The "Garbage and the Goddess" period ended on July 7, 1974, leaving in its wake a debris of emotional confusion. This is how Da Love-Ananda explained that period of teaching theater and his participation in it: "What I do is not the way I am, but the way I teach. What I speak is not a reflection of me, but of you. People do well to be offended or even outraged by me. This is my purpose. But their reaction must turn upon themselves, for I have not shown them myself by all of this. All that I do and speak only reveals men to themselves."

Da Love-Ananda then charged his devotees with using the lessons learned during the preceding years and assuming responsibility for themselves individually and collectively. He declared his intention of retiring from his teaching work; he said he hoped that his disciples had the maturity to make use of each other and the cultural disciplines he had given them and to resort to his spiritual presence rather than crave his physical company.