egetable Surrender was conceived spontaneously in 1978, in a moment of playful interaction between Adi Da Samraj and his two eldest daughters. The children had memorized the classic fable of “Chicken Little”, which they recited to him. When they finished, Adi Da Samraj smiled and proposed a radical revision: “What if the sky were rising?” Then he began creating humorous vegetable characters, giving them names that not only rhymed but that also suggested particular personality types.

His first creation was Onion One-Yin, a seeker after spiritual experience. Soon the children and other adults present were joining in and suggesting names, amidst much merriment.

Sometime later, a first complete draft was developed with the help of a devotee schoolteacher, and Adi Da Samraj finalized the tale in a few rounds of revisions. In addition, illustrators offered sketches, and Adi Da Samraj guided them to capture the unique quality of each of the vegetable characters.

The characters in Vegetable Surrender help us understand and have humor about the patterns of unhappiness that we tend to enact—so that we too can remember the secret of happiness. As Master Foody-Moody says to the vegetables: “Haven’t I always told you that you must LOVE EVERYTHING more than you like anything if you are going to be Happy just like me?”



2020, 10-3/4" x 8-3/4" hardcover, 64 pages
ISBN: 978-1-57097-384-0