Rose, Stephen C. "The Guru on Fourteenth Street" the christian CENTURY January 19, 1972, pp 67-69
JUST SOUTH of Fourteenth street on Manhattan's Avenue of the Americas there is an ashram called the Divine Light Mission, one of some ten such outposts in the United States dedicated to a messianic faith which claims that the true pathway to God today is illuminated by a 14-year-old guru named Ma-haraj Ji. The Manhattan ashram sprouted up this past fall in the wake of Maharaj Ji's visit to New York last summer, part of a European and American tour which is said to have netted him some 4,000 followers. [...]
The Divine Light Mission occupies the top two floors of one of those small old New York buildings that have been refurbished into townhouses. The mission bore the marks of inspired renovation on a low, low budget. We doffed our shoes on entering the main room, where a TV set was showing tapes of the young guru in full discourse. Eventually the tapes — virtually incomprehensible but impressive to me because of the foot-kissing that attended the guru's departure from the rostrum — gave way to a session of "satsang" by one of the residents of the ashram. [...]
On the appointed day I trekked once more to the ashram. There I waited, off and on, for seven hours for the arrival of the Mahatma. I was told that I could "take knowledge" if I were granted admittance to the "knowledge room" (which had a sign on its door: "ADMITTANCE ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE KNOWLEDGE"). During the wait everyone was excited that the guru's chief apostle was coming. There must have been 120 people crowded into the two rooms — the outer room and the "knowledge room" — by the time Mahatma Fakirand, white-robed and 5oish, bounded up the stairs. He then withdrew for the preparation necessary to "give knowledge."[...]
"Oz in the Astrodome" Ted Morgan, New York Times 12/9/1973
Today between 44,000 and 50,000 premies belong to the guru's Divine Light Mission, which is incorporated as a tax-exempt foundation in the state of Colorado and has an estimated annual budget of $3 - million. Four thousand premies live in 54 ashrams (an Indian word meaning shelter), and have taken vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience.
du Plessix Gray, Francine. Blissing out in Houston. The New York Review of Books. vol.20, no. 20 (December 13, 1973) [3]
As for sex, it's only forbidden in the ashrams; otherwise Mata Ji, the Perfect Master's mother, says it is better to have sex just for procreation. 'Christ, Rennie,' I say, 'do you think there's any fifteen-year-old whacking off between here and Scarsdale whose mother doesn't tell him that?' I regret the words, feeling uneasy with this new Puritan, but no matter, he doesn't seem to have listened. As we walk out of the restaurant he is staring at the sky, saying, 'One of the most beautiful things about Divine Light is its cleanliness, the purity….The ashrams are always kept impeccably clean in case Maharaj Ji drops in….Wow, after the filth of the Sixties' communes, the loose living….'
There are some twenty Divine Light ashrams in New York City. This afternoon I have been asked to one to hear satsang—spiritual discourse or truth-giving, several hours of which are prerequisite to receiving Knowledge—from one of the Divine Light mahatmas. This particular ashram is in a large, prosperous apartment building on Shrink Row, at the corner of 85th Street and Central Park West. A pile of shoes lies heaped on the elevator landing. The scrubbed living room is dominated by a stuffed chair upholstered in white satin, set high on a dais like a throne, and surmounted by a photograph of the chubby, lotus-positioned Guru. In front of the throne premies—the Indian word for 'lovers' or devotees—have deposited offerings: a grapefruit, some chrysanthemums, an enormous stick of cinnamon candy. The ashram is mostly populated by gentle, serenely smiling young women in long flowing robes. Mata Ji encourages floor-length garments because they are more modest.
12 noon: Rennie Davis is holding a press conference in Houston's Rice Hotel.
'And who does the cooking in your ashrams?' a woman reporter is demanding. 'Who does your goddamn cooking?'
'En el ashram de Buenos Aires es un hombre que hace la cocina,' a premie's voice shouts.
'Many men do the cooking in ashrams,' Rennie answers gently, 'but that's so irrelevant….'
'Whadda you mean it's irrelevant?'
'After you've received Knowledge attachment to your man or woman role is transcended, we transcend our sex after Knowledge, we really do.'
Early on the third day of the Maharaj Ji's thousand years of peace, I go to an ashram in a quiet, wooded back street of Houston where some four hundred young people have come this morning to receive Divine Knowledge. It could be any shrine, at any moment of man's history. Before a ramshackled, colonnaded white mansion the pilgrims stand in droves, waiting for their turn to enter into the presence of fifteen mahatmas officiating inside. A few are reverently prostrated on the ground, a few others advance toward the mansion on their knees.
Levine, Richard. "When The Lord of All The Universe Played Houston: Many are called but few show up" in Rolling Stone. Issue No. 156, March 14, 1974, pp 36-50:
The 50,000 premies in the United States have a choice of lifestyles, depending on the depth of their devotion to the guru. Some live monastic lives in the ashrams (50 or so in the U.S.), where they eat vegetables, walk around barefoot and meditate a lot. They work only for DUO, DLM or one of its special projects. They receive no money for their work, but all their physical needs are provided for. Others live in centers or in the even less strict premie houses; many of these people also go to school or work at outside jobs (in which case their pay usually goes to the mission) and some are married. It's a secure life; they never seem to worry about the money to pay the rent. Most devotees do not smoke pot, or anything else for that matter, and most of them don't indulge in sex either. "We're so high on Guru Maharaj Ji," says Rennie, "that sex just brings us down." Divine Light ashrams are already acquiring a reputation for their prosperous appearance. The ashram in Miami is an elaborate mansion on the shore of Biscayne Bay. In New York there are two main ashrams, one in a hotel just off -Central Park and another, a plain but spacious loft, near New York University. (The DUO office, which also counts, is a fashionable brownstone just off Park Avenue.) The devoteesthemselves are notable for their conservative clothes; most of them look like bank tellers did five years ago. In spite of appearances, however, they live anything but middle-class lives.
Shri Guru Maharaj Ji, Lord of the Universe, is hot stuff these days. He claims six million followers, all members of the Divine Light Mission, with hundreds of ashrams in almost every country in the world.
Scheer, Robert. "Death Of The Salesman" Playboy June 1974
Following the Berkeley event, I tracked Rennie down to the ashram in Mountain View, California, a typical stucco affair, where he and a handful of devotees were meditating out by the swimming pool. The only one awake was a very smily young man (all the guruites have a particular smile, something like that on HAVE A NICE DAY buttons. "It comes with knowledge," I was told.) in a front office that reeked intolerably of incense. He quickly informed me that he was "blissed out" and also doing his "service," which meant watching the telex machine. Being new to all this, I asked him what he was onand he said, "Guru Maharaj Ji." The guruites hardly ever inter a sentence that does not include his name. "This soup is fantastic by the grace of Guru Maharaj Ji"; "Guru Maharaj Ji is in the ceiling, in my heart" would be typical repartee.''
Robbins, Thomas; Anthony,Dick; Curtis,Thomas Youth Culture Religious Movements: Evaluating the Integrative Hypothesis , The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, (1975), p. 12
Some groups appear to be able to operate simultaneously as adaptive and marginal groups. Morgan (1973) reports that four thousand premies or devotees of Guru Maharaj-ji live in strictly celibrate monastic lives in ashrams. On the other hand, the same article reports that there are 40,000-50,000 premies in America, who, presumably, do not live permanently in ashrams. A meeting attended by the senior author was presided over by a full-time advertising executive.
Khalsa "New Religious Movements Turn to Worldly Success", Kirpal Singh Khalsa, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Jun 1986), pp. 233–247
In 1974, DLM maintained ashrams in most major cities in the United States; organized their activities; coordinated the itineraries of Maharaj Ji, his family and the Mahatmas (initiators); and published and promoted the organization's various magazines.
In contrast to 3HO Foundation and Vajradhatu, Divine Light Mission (which is also approximately 14 years old) ashram residents were found to be rarely involved in entrepreneurial or professional activities. They usually hold jobs for a year or less in unskilled or semi-skilled areas and often work for close to the minimum wage. We did find committed "premies" (disciples of Guru Maharaj Ji) living outside the ashrams who were business and professional people, some of whom were fairly successful. However, our research on DLM revealed no stated group goals in the direction of material success and very little activity toward accumulation of wealth or worldly goals. In the words of the director of DLM in Denver: "I don't see a group effort toward making it in the material world. Toward making it big. There are premies who are business men. But if they had never received knowledge they would probably still be business men."
Espo, David. AP "Followers Fewer, Church Retrenching for Maharaj Ji" The Charleston Gazette, Friday, November 26, 1976
Large numbers of followers no longer live in aesthetic church-owned buildings known as ashrams. "As people grow and mature ... they are encouraged to leave the ashram and continue their normal lives," a Divine Light Mission newspaper proclaimed in September. "The people in international headquarters live in apartments," said Anctil, a former television talk show host in Houston. "They can live just as cheaply in an apartment." AS DEVOTEES MOVED out of ashrams, their weekly paychecks, previously turned over to the guru's treasury, were missed. Donations fell from more than $100,000 a month to 70 per cent of that, although Anctil said 3,000 regular donors remain. The declining income forced a decision to change operations.
Messer, Jeanne. "Guru Maharaj Ji and the Divine Light Mision", in The New Religious Consciousness by Charles Y. Glock and Robert N. Bellah, editors. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1976, pp. 52-72
All Mission activities depend entirely on volunteered labor and funds. The knowledge itself, the primary source of satisfaction to devotees, is independent of the Mission proper, and DLM has no power to discipline or enforce agreements. Devotees move in and out of service roles or financial commitments, and DLM has little chance to predict or control income or staffing.
Parke, Jo Anne; Stoner, Carroll (1977). All gods children: the cult experience--salvation or slavery?. Radnor, Pa: Chilton. ISBN 0-8019-6620-5.
Some of the communal houses where premies live have been closed, but five of the largest and most successful remain open. Many of today's young premies are scattered about cities in communal apartments, rather than together in one large communal house. However, their physical dispersion seems in no way to have altered their communal dedication to the Mission. But a whirlpool of controversy swirls around the system of ashrams (the communal houses where devotees live together).
In the beginning the group looked for followers who wanted to devote all of their time to Mission work and their newfound meditative techniques. Complaints began, charging that the group was a religious cult out to capture the minds and spirits of unaware young men and women who had wanted only to expand their minds and improve their psyches, but instead fell into a full-time premie trap.
Enthralled by the guru's meditative techniques, young people by the score succumbed to the entreaties of newfound Mission friends to move into an ashram and devote their lives to Mission work. Once inside an ashram, they often became as fanatical and as single-minded as members of the most extreme religious cults. It wasn't long before the Guru Maharaj Ji's Divine Light Mission was being called a pernicious religious cult on the order of the Unification Church, Love Israel's Church of Armageddon, the Krishna Consciousness Movement, and others around the country that persuade converts to give up everything for lives of sacrifice and concentration on new group goals.
To get the most out of being a premie, a follower is encouraged to practice vegetarianism and celibacy as well as abstention from the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Premies will say that nothing is forbidden in Divine Light, but they will also emphasize that each follower ought to give his first allegiance to the Mission. Consequently fervent believers form new friendships with fellow believers, eventually cutting ties with disapproving friends outside of Divine Light and ultimately breaking with their families who do not condone or endorse their new lifestyles. A college student who sets up an altar to Guru Maharaj Ji in his dormitory room and sits quietly meditating may be the subject of derision and scorn. He can be no more comfortable with his practices while living at home with parents who are obviously antagonistic toward his new beliefs. The final step in disassociation with the outside world often comes when a premie leaves his home and friends to move into the communal living structure provided by the Mission. Here, with other likeminded premies, he can practice "knowledge" fulltime and devote his life to the service of his guru and the Mission.
While the ashrams have often been self-supporting they have not been a good source of income for the Mission. Unlike the Moonies, the Children of God, or the Hare Krishnas, Divine Light Mission members do not sell anything. They do not solicit on street corners, selling candy, flowers, peanuts, or literature. And unlike the Church of Scientology, Guru Maharaj Ji's group does not charge for the courses or the teaching of the techniques of "knowledge." The group gets its money through gifts and the tithing of its members. The more gainfully employed a premie is, the higher the tithe the Mission receives.
The Divine Light Mission knows that to close all the ashrams, which are not only communal residences but also serve communities as a central meeting place where premies can come for nightly satsang, would seriously disrupt the group's cohesion. Instead, today's premies, whether they live in ashrams, communal apartments, or in their own homes, are encouraged to come regularly to the ashram for satsang or reinforcement of their beliefs. They are encouraged to remember what Mission spokesman Joe Anctil told us, "The ashram is a state of mind, not a place to live."
However, the Divine Light Mission is still feeling a financial squeeze. In selling real estate around the country the Mission has closed ashrams. With the closing of ashrams came a decline in income. Where premies move out of the ashrams they no longer turn over their weekly paychecks to the Mission. It must then rely on their voluntary contributions. In December 1976, Anctil said the monthly income from contributions had dropped from a high of more than $100,000 a month to $80,000.
On one side of the enormous wainscoted entry hall is a staircase that leads to sleeping rooms for the fifteen permanent ashram dwellers. Premies, we are told, sleep two to a room here. On the other side of the hall are floor-to-ceiling carved-oak sliding doors that lead to the living room where nightly satsang is conducted. Here, premies meet to discuss their experiences with Maharaj Ji's knowledge to reinforce their own practice and to convert visitors to the practice of Divine Light meditation.
Beyond the hall is a dining room, with tables set for far more than the handful of premies who live here. Food is important to premies. Vegetarianism is a way of separating them from their previous lifestyles and their families. It is a factor that gives them a sense of commonality. Nearly all the meals here are prepared by Alice, the ashram housemother, and Carol, her assistant. The two are sisters. Alice is in her mid-to-late twenties and says her life as cook and housekeeper is the most satisfying she has ever had. She devotes full time to directing the housekeeping, the grocery shopping, and running the kitchen. The quality of the diet in the ashram is dependent on her skill, and one suspects the kitchen is a gathering place because Alice encourages it. Alice says that as housemother she feels appreciated and important in this group she needs and loves. According to her, the life she led before Divine Light was not a directed or purposeful one. In and out of schools, Alice says she was not the daughter her mother wanted. Although Alice and Carol's mother does not approve of the "religious part" of their premie existence, she does profess to approve of the newfound order the two young women have instilled in their lives.
Foss, Daniel A. and Ralph W. Larkin. "Worshiping the Absurd: The Negation of Social Causality among the Followers of Guru Maharaj Ji" in Sociological Analysis. Summer 1978, Vol. 39 No. 2, DOI 10.2307/3710215, pp. 157-164.
For instance, Guru Maharaj Ji's enjoyment of lavish material luxury (when celibacy and poverty were enjoined upon ashram residents) has from time to time been taken for an enormous lila.
Pilarzyk, Thomas, "The Origin, Development, and Decline of a Youth Culture Religion: An Application of Sectarianization Theory", Review of Religious Research, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 23-43
Like some of its youth culture counterparts, the Divine Light Mission movement experienced rapid growth from its inception in the United States in 1971. By the summer of 1974, the American movement had grown to a total of 27 ashrams which housed over 1200 of an estimated 50,000 members or "premies." However, its development was not as simple, gradual, consistent, nor as long-lasting as changes within other "Eastern imports" such as the Hare Krsna movement. [...] By July of 1972, the first national conference of DLM leaders took place, and guidelines were laid down which specified certain rules and regulations for U.S. ashrams. DLM officials note that this led to an initial departure of followers who viewed ashram life more as an economic convenience than as a step toward the enhancement of the spiritual path to God-realization.
Price, Maeve, The Divine Light Mission as a social organization. Sociological Review, 27(1979)
From the small beginning of one mahatma in London and a handful of premies, the mission grew, with up to half a dozen mahatmas at any one time giving knowledge, the establishment of Divine Information Centres in most major towns and cities and the setting up of about forty ashrams (designated premie households) throughout Britain by the end of 1973. (9) Ashrams played an important part in the mission's structure. Here premies had chosen to live in small communal households, under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. In practice they were under the direct supervision of head office and acted as cadres for the whole movement.
The ashrams which should have provided a sound financial basis for the mission's operations were not even self-financing and had to be supported from funds. The mission moved into a recessionary phase which lasted until the Autumn of 1975. It gradually contracted its public activities, shed its unprofitable and burdensome possessions and even disbanded the ashrams, the last of which closed down in September 1976.
This marriage brought about an exodus from the ashrams, the stable core of the mission which had been a vital means of social control, as premies flocked to get married and began to produce their own children, within customary marriage structures. It was an important turning point for the mission. The followers seemed to grow up overnight into adults with normal family responsibilities and ties. The base of support inevitably shifted from the ashrams to the wider premie community. This meant that central control was very much weakened and that the ordinary, non-ashram premie began to play a more important role in determining the mission's fortunes. At the same time, many premies were shaken by the marriage and felt almost betrayed by their leader. It is apparent that the marriage was responsible for a loss of morale and therefore of support for the mission by many premies. (26)
A further example of erratic policy changes is Maharaj Ji's attitude towards the ashrams. In 1976, Maharaj Ji suggested that ashrams were retreats, or hothouses for premies who could not cope with the rigours of living in the everyday world. It was time, he said, for asharam premies to face the world and live as ordinary premies in the community. The direction was part of a policy which had been slowly developing for a long time, of weakening the powers of the National Office and the privileges of ashram premies (who received free passage and entrance to festivals) and putting more, albeit diffuse, power into the local premie communities.
The leader now appears to be changing his mind. In Britain, plans are being made to open a few ashrams for premies who wish to live a devotional life and it is intended that an initiator will reside in each ashram and look after the spiritual welfare of the local community. It would seem in fact that the ashrams acted as a pivot for the mission's stability and this is now being appreciated. At the same time the stress on the community premie, which had led to what was now viewed as excessive democratization, which was strongly repudiated by Maharaj Ji at Frankfurt, has now been controlled by the simple device of blocking public communication channels upwards to the head office. For more than twelve months now, the national publication which carried letters from premies, often extremely critical of other premies and the head office, (but never of Maharaj Ji), has not been printed. Instead premies receive an exclusive diet of full transcripts of Maharaj Ji's satsang at various festivals across the world. Maharaj Ji made it known that he disliked his satsang to be edited and only extracts of it published. At present then, premies have neither a public platform for discussing the mission's policies nor a vehicle for receiving an interpreted policy via the mission's officials. Such a situation, though increasing Maharaj Ji's control over the movement, does so at the cost of expansion and middle-management confidence. It is not likely to succeed as a long-term policy As Beckford has suggested, in order to prosper voluntary organizations must secure a continuous supply of human and material resources through their members' voluntary endeavours, their financial contributions and their readiness to obey organizational rules. This means that not only must leaders adapt their strategies to the requirements of the members but also that organizational objectives 'can only be achieved … if objectives can be explicitly defined and unambiguously operationalized'. (29) In the case of DLM, confusion over organizational goals and lack of firm leadership control at the intermediate and grass root levels, combined with a following who are being pulled in one direction after another without structural channels of two-way communication, all lead to confusion and lack of desire to recruit new members. What is surprising is not that the mission is no longer expanding significantly, but that it manages to survive at all. This answer to the second issue must lie in the mission's continued ability to satisfy fundamental psychological and social needs of its adherents
The Cultural Context
The effect of the cultural environment within which the mission functions has been implicit in the above discussion. The basic problem arises through attempting to establish a 'radical' meditation sect, with loosely formulated objectives and unspecific demands upon the following, 'within the world'. Evidence from other newly established religious sects suggest that very strict control over members, through explicit roles, is essential for organizational strength. Wallis has shown how the Scientologists carefully control the behaviour of their adherents both through a highly complex hierarchical bureaucratic structure and through its systems of rules to cover almost all contingencies. In the case of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, control over members is exercised through a thorough-going process of resocialization within the temple, which effectively insulates the devotees from outside, societal pressures. On the other hand, different strategies have been employed by the Children of God which have varied from cutting the following off from contact with society in rural colonies, to the more recent emphasis on the 'cash nexus' whereby the members are encouraged by actual cash incentives to sell the group's literature to the public. According to Wallis, at the time of his study, it was going through a phase of 'colportage and routine proselytization'. From the point of view of this thesis, however, the organization still had clear cut goals with strict control over the membership and its contact with the wider society. Another example is that of the United Family, which retains its organizational strength through a thorough induction and training into Family life and careful regulation of the members' contact with the outside world. In all the above cases, the goals are explicit and members' relations with the wider public are constrained by explicit rules of conduct which are legitimated through established authority structures.
In the case of the DLM, there are no regulations governing behavior towards the public at large, nor are there explicit proselytizing procedures. Nor are premies protected from wider cultural influences through any form of insulation from the world. In the early days, the life of an ashram premie, apart from time spent in employment, revolved round the ashram. There were very few books, no television and no visits to the cinema or recreational centres. The ashram premie's life was strictly controlled. Following the closure of the ashrams, premies have a choice of how often, or even whether or not, to attend satsang, to meditate and to do service. Wider influences constantly impinge on the premies' devotional life and there are still no clear guidelines for regulating behaviour in relation to the world. It must also be stated however that the ashrams, situated as they usually were in terraced houses in urban areas with premies expected to earn their living in the secular world, were not ideally placed as the devotional centres of an introversionist sect.
Kemeny, Jim On Foss, Daniel A. and Ralph W. Larkin. 1978. "Worshiping the Absurd: The Negation of Social Causality among the Followers of Guru Maharaj Ji." "Sociological Analysis" 39, 2: 157-164, Sociological Analysis, Vol. 40, No. 3, (Autumn, 1979), pp. 262-264
The diversity and complexity of the DLM is not at all apparent from Foss and Larkin's description. The emphasis in the study upon young ashram dwellers plays down the wide basis of recruitment to the DLM among more mature (especially middle class) elements, including professionals, housewives and other social groups who essentially retain their normal lifestyles and restrict their participation to weekly evening satsang meetings and the occasional festival.
DOWNTON, JAMES V., JR. An Evolutionary Theory of Spiritual Conversion and Commitment: The Case of Divine Light Mission. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1980,19 (4): 381-396
Step 17: Initial socialization into the premie community's frame of reference. Those who accepted the Mission's beliefs and were eager for community began to show signs of conformity quite early. As a prelude to surrender, they responded positively to the urging of Guru Maharaj Ji and premies to attend satsang and to do service in the ashrams. Increasing their contact with premies in this way, they became more familiar with the premie frame of reference. Thus, their transition into the social identity of "premie" or "devotee" was made gradually.
Step 26: Increasing social communion with members and decreasing interaction with the outside world. Social enclosure occurs when converts have become separated from people who oppose their spiritual direction and have become dependent on the movement for the satisfaction of needs. As these premies moved deeper into the Mission, they spent more and more time with premies, at satsang, while performing service, and, for many, while living in the ashrams. In fact, they found themselves wanting to associate primarily with other premies. They discounted the opposition of their parents as based on a lack of real understanding, and sometimes broke off friendships with nonpremies on the pretext of a conflict of interests. The extent of their social insulation over the last five years (although not very great) is revealed in the fact that close friendships and marriages were always with other premies. Even now, many are living communally with other premies in ashrams or loosely-structured cooperatives, called "premie houses."
RICHARDSON, JAMES T. "Financing the New Religions: Comparative and Theoretical Considerations". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1982, 21 (3): 255-268
Messer notes that the DLM receives many large donations from members and outsiders, but most funding comes from more regular smaller donations by communal members who work outside the ashrams (communes) or who live noncommunally and work at outside jobs of one type or another. Funds are also received from service-like businesses (such as janitorial services) operated by individual ashrams, but these usually are not large moneymakers. The only public solicitation used by the DLM seems to be asking merchants or other people for old possessions to sell in rummage sales and small secondhand stores. A DLM former member in the Netherlands claimed that the group there gathered and sold over five hundred thousand dollars worth of such goods in their most fruitful year.5
Bromley, David G. and Anson D. Shupe, Jr. Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare Beacon Press, Boston 1982
Since Ji had earlier advocated strict celibacy for his followers, his marriage obviously came as a shock to them. Thomas Pilarzyk estimates that between 40 and 80 percent of the ashram premies (the core of the movement) defected over this issue. p. 45
McGuire, Meredith B. Religion: the Social Context. Belmont California : Wadsworth Publishing, fifth edition, 2002, ISBN 0-534-54126-7, Ch. 5 "The Dynamics of Religious Collectivities", section "How Religious Collectivities Develop and Change", sub-section "Organizational Transformations", p. 175 – first edition of this book was 1981, ISBN 0-534-00951-4
The early years of the Divine Light Mission in the United States were characterized by rapidly growing, loosely affiliated local ashrams, united mainly by devotion to the charismatic figure of Guru Maharaj Ji. As the DLM became increasingly structured and centralized, leadership and power focused in the Denver headquarters. According to scholars, Prem Rawat's desire to consolidate his power and authority over the movement in the United States resulted in greater formalization: rules and regulation for ashram living, standards for recruited "candidates," and pressure toward certifying the movement's teachers.
Khalsa "New Religious Movements Turn to Worldly Success", Kirpal Singh Khalsa, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Jun 1986), pp. 233–247
In 1974, DLM maintained ashrams in most major cities in the United States; organized their activities; coordinated the itineraries of Maharaj Ji, his family and the Mahatmas (initiators); and published and promoted the organization's various magazines.
In contrast to 3HO Foundation and Vajradhatu, Divine Light Mission (which is also approximately 14 years old) ashram residents were found to be rarely involved in entrepreneurial or professional activities. They usually hold jobs for a year or less in unskilled or semi-skilled areas and often work for close to the minimum wage. We did find committed "premies" (disciples of Guru Maharaj Ji) living outside the ashrams who were business and professional people, some of whom were fairly successful. However, our research on DLM revealed no stated group goals in the direction of material success and very little activity toward accumulation of wealth or worldly goals. In the words of the director of DLM in Denver: "I don't see a group effort toward making it in the material world. Toward making it big. There are premies who are business men. But if they had never received knowledge they would probably still be business men."
Melton J. Gordon Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. New York/London: Garland, 1986 (revised edition), ISBN 0-8240-9036-5,
Many were initiated and became the core of the Mission in the United States. Headquarters were established in Denver, and by the end of 1973, tens of thousands had been initiated, and several hundred centers as well as over twenty ashrams, which housed approximately 500 of the most dedicated premies, had emerged.
Saliba, John A. "THE GURU: PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN DEVOTEES OF THE DIVINE LIGHT MISSION", HORIZONS 7/1 (1980), 69-81
This same attitude of adoration is expressed vividly in ARTI, a devotional prayer sung to Guru Maharaj Ji first thing in the morning in the Ashram and in the evening after satsang.
The D.L.M. has continuously shunned impersonal organization, even though it now shows pronounced tendencies to institutionalization. Members of the Mission have the option of a variety of life-styles, including communal living. Some movement from one life-style to another is also possible. Besides, there are very few specific regulations. Meditation, satsang, and service are the three musts for a devotee. But, aside from the somewhat rigid schedule of those who live in an ashram, it is left to the individual to determine the amount of time allotted to these obligations.
Galanter, Marc (1999). Cults: faith, healing, and coercion. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512370-0.
Initial Encounters (Pages 22 - 28) My first encounter with the Divine Light Mission came when Beth invited me to visit an ashram at the time the group was expanding. She thought the sect would be interesting for a psychiatrist to observe because some members had experienced a relief from serious emotional problems when they joined. She felt her group had tapped a large area of mental function psychiatry was unaware of.
The atmosphere in the ashram was indeed quite striking. On entering a large apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I was greeted in a friendly, even intimate fashion by people who were complete strangers. The intense communality of the members was immediately apparent, a quality that 'as clearly an important aspect of the group's function. One could sense a closeness among those present, and an absence of the minor tensions that would be expected in a setting where two dozen people were living in tight quarters. A college dormitory, a military barracks, or a summer camp soon weal a certain amount of hostile banter or argument. These appeared to be absent in the ashram. Caring and intimacy, reflective of the group's cohesiveness, seemed to mute any expression of animosity.
There were kind words, offers of food, expressions of interest, and warm smiles, all from people I'd never met before. Any question was soon answered, sometimes even anticipated. Having been invited by one of their members and defined temporarily as one of their own, I was made to feel as if I were entering a supportive envelope, to be protected from the rough edges of relationships in the outside world".
Premies could live in ashrams to devote themselves more full to Service. Premies often worked part or full time outside the ashram and gave a sizable portion-sometimes all-of their income to the movement. They also practiced celibacy, vegetarianism, and frequent meditation. The focus of this ascetic existence was their religious mission rather than personal pleasure or gain.
Geaves, Ron, "From Divine Light Mission to Elan Vital and Beyond: An Exploration of Change and Adaptation", Nova Religio The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, March 2004, Vol. 7, No. 3, Pages 45-62.
Centers of activity, focused around ashrams consisting of highly committed celibate followers, appeared in most large population centers in western Europe, Canada, the United States, and even South America.
In the early 1980s, the community houses or ashrams were closed and the Indian mahatmaslzrgeiy disappeared from the West.
Thomas Pilarzyk argued in 1978 that the decline was caused by a number of factors: ... the loss of fully committed volunteers after the mass exodus of celibate ashram members following Maharaji's marriage;...
The final closure of the ashrams in 1982 meant that there was no longer a pool of full-time volunteers to draw upon. Democratization followed closure of the ashrams, and the status of full-time mahatmas was demystified as they became instructors showing interested people the techniques of self-knowledge.
Geaves, Ron. "Globalization, charisma, innovation, and tradition: An exploration of the transformations in the organisational vehicles for the transmission of the teachings of Prem Rawat (Maharaji)" in Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies - Volume 2, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4196-2696-5, pp. 44-62.
Many of the characteristics of the Indian movement founded by Prem Rawat’s father, who had died only in 1966, were imported wholesale into the western environment. Ashrams were established with a lifetime commitment of celibacy expected from those who joined. Members were expected to forswear drugs and alcohol, and adopt a strict vegetarian diet. [...] The closing of the ashrams took away the possibility of a committed workforce and instead Prem Rawat’s activities to promote his teachings became more dependent on part-time volunteer assistance from individuals who were now raising families and creating careers for themselves. [...] As early as 1975 the ashrams were disbanded... [...] The period 1977 to 1982 was marked by a re-opening of the ashrams... [...] In 1982, the ashrams were finally closed,... [...] The closing of the ashrams took away the pssibility of a committed workforce... [1971 charter of 747- 300 western seekers stay at Hardiwar and Delhi ashrams]
