Talk:Divine Light Mission/History draft

Founding and early years in India
Shri Hans Maharaj Ji, initiated by the Sant Mat guru Sri Swarupanand Ji, began teaching in the Sind and Lahore provinces of India in the 1930s. In 1950 he began initiating Mahatmas, followers who could themselves initiate devotees, and formed a magazine called "Hansadesh."

In 1960 in the city of Patna, Shri Hans Maharaj Ji founded the Divine Light Mission (Divya Sandesh Parishad) to organize followers across Northern India. At the time of his death on July 19, 1966, the Divine Light Mission had a following of six million with a claimed formal membership of 100,000 in 1970. Shri Hans Maharaj Ji was succeeded by his youngest son, Prem Pal Singh Rawat (b. 1957), as leader of the Divine Light Mission and as the new Satguru to millions of Indian followers. According to Melton, although officially the autocratic leader of the Mission, because of Prem Rawat’s age, authority was shared by the whole family.

International Presence
During the 1960s, a number of Westerners travelling in India became initiates in the Divine Light Mission and in 1969 a Mahatma was sent to London. In 1970, Western followers were present at India Gate, Delhi, were the 12 year old Prem Rawat delivered an address known as the "Peace Bomb," and in 1971, still known as Guru Maharaj Ji, Rawat travelled to the UK and the US. In September 1971 a non profit Corporation called Divine Light Mission was registered in the US and in 1972 a Charity of the same name was registered in the UK

Divine Light Centres were established many US cities and a National Headquarters was established in Denver. Staff at the US headquarters in Denver grew to 125 and Telexes were installed to connect the headquarters with ashrams that had also been established. Social service facilities, including a medical clinic in New York City, were opened. A Women's Spiritual Right Organization dedicated to reaching out to persons in prisons, mental institutions and hospitals, was organized. The U.S. DLM published two periodicals: And It Is Divine (AIID), a monthly magazine with a circulation of 90,000; and Divine Times, a biweekly newspaper with a circulation of 60,000. The cover price of AIID was $1 but most were given away free, as were the advertisements. The World Peace Corps (WPC) was established as a security force to provide protection for Rawat. Bob Mishler, the DLM President from 1971 to 1976, was later to say that Rawat got the idea to start a bodyguard unit after watching The Godfather. The WPC became the organizing agent of meetings and businesses. A variety of businesses were founded under US DLM auspices including laundromats, used clothing stores, a plane charter agency ("Divine Travel Services"), a repair service, and the "Cleanliness-is-Next-to-Godliness" janitorial service. In 1973, Divine Light Mission was reported to be operating in 37 countries and to have 54 ashrams in the US and 40 ashrams in the UK; in the same year Guru Maharaji claimed to have some 7 million disciples around the world, including 60,000 in the U.S.

Detroit incident
On August 8, 1973 while Rawat was at the Detroit City Hall to receive a testimonial resolution praising his work, Pat Halley, who was at the time a reporter from Detroit's underground periodical Fifth Estate, slapped him in the face with a shaving cream pie. Rawat responded by saying that he did not want his attacker arrested or hurt, but the reporter was attacked by two men a few days later and seriously injured. When local members heard of the incident they notified Rawat in Los Angeles who extended his regrets and condolences to Pat Halley's family, and requested that the DLM conduct a full investigation. The assailants, one of them an Indian mahatma, were identified. They admitted their part in the incident and offered to turn themselves in. The Chicago police were immediately notified. The Detroit police declined to initiate extradition proceedings, variously claiming that they were unable to locate the assailants, or that the cost of extraditing them from Chicago to Detroit made it impractical. The arrest warrant remained outstanding. This lack of action by the Detroit police was attributed by some to Halley's radical politics. A spokesman later stated that the Indian national had been "shipped off to Europe".

Festivals
Festivals were a regular part of the Divine Light Mission's activities and a source of revenue. Members would pay from $50 to $100 to attend, and Darshan events would generate considerable donations. The DLM celebrated three main festivals: Holi, which is celebrated in late March or early April; Guru Puja, which was held in July; and Hans Jayanti, which falls in November. Hans Jayanti marks the birthday of the DLM's founder. According to Marc Galanter, the members at a festival in Orlando, Florida "looked as though they had been drawn from the graduate campus of a large university&mdash;bright, not too carefully groomed, casually dressed. They were lively, good-tempered, and committed to their mutual effort. There was no idleness, brashness, marijuana, beer, loud music, or flirtation&mdash;all hallmarks of a more typical assembly of people in their twenties". Other festivals were held nationally and locally, and sometimes organized with little advance notice. Attending as many as ten festivals a year meant many members were unable to hold regular full-time jobs, and required sacrificing leisure and community activities in order to devote time to earning the money needed to attend.

In 1972 seven jumbo jets were chartered to bring members from the U.S. and other countries to the Hans Jayanti festival held at the main ashram near New Delhi. 2500 foreign members camped out at the mission's "city of love" for a month. The event attracted a reported total of 500,000 attendees. When Rawat flew to India to attend he was accused of attempting to smuggle $65,000 worth of cash and jewelry into the country, but no charges were ever filed, and the Indian government later issued an apology. The accusation led to negative coverage in the Indian press and hard feelings between Rawat and his mother, who had persuaded him to return to India for the festival.

In June 1973 the British DLM, with Prem Rawat's mother acting on behalf of her son, organized the "Festival of Love" at the Alexandra Palace in London. While it drew thousands of attendees, Rawat began receiving hostile press coverage, partly due to his showing up late, or not at all, at scheduled appearances. The large membership had grown up very rapidly but the organizers had no clear idea where to lead the following, nor did they have the financial resources to maintain so many full-time workers.

Millennium '73
The 1973 Hans Jayanti festival was held at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and publicized as "Millennium '73". The free three-day event was billed as "the most significant event in human history" that would herald "a thousand years of peace for people who want peace", the idea being that peace could come to the world as individuals experienced inner peace. To promote the event Prem Rawat's 20-year old brother, Bhole Ji Rawat toured with a 60-piece band, "Blue Aquarius" for two weeks giving free concerts. The 500-member tour was dubbed "Soul Rush" and traveled to seven cities on the way to Houston.

Rennie Davis, well known as one of the defendants in the Chicago Seven trial, attracted extensive media coverage as a spokesperson for Rawat. At the event Davis declared that "All I can say is, honestly, very soon now, every single human being will know the one who was waited for by every religion of all times has actually come." In a press conference at Millennium, Rawat denied being the Messiah, and when asked by reporters about the contradictions between what he said about himself and what his followers said about him, Rawat replied, "Why don't you do me a favor ... why don't you go to the devotees and ask their explanation about it?" While Rawat's brother Satpal was nominally in charge of the festival, Davis was the "General Coordinator" and handled the details.

Expectations for the event were very high, with predictions that it would attract more than 100,000, or even as many as 400,000 people from Satpal. Davis privately said he thought 22,000 was a more realistic estimate and reserved 22,000 hotel beds. There was even talk about a space in the parking lot reserved for a flying saucer to land. When Satpal heard about the flying saucer he said, "If you see any, just give them some of our literature". The actual attendance was estimated at 35,000, and at 10,000 by police.

The event featured spectacular staging, a 56-piece rock band and a giant video screen that showed a barrage of shots from the tumultuous 1960s. Though it was not covered by the national television news, it did get extensive coverage in the print media. The premies were reported to be "cheerful, friendly and unruffled, and seemed nourished by their faith". To the 400 premie parents who attended, Rawat "was a rehabilitator of prodigal sons and daughters". Media people found a "confused jumble of inarticulately expressed ideas." It was depicted in the award-winning U.S. documentary "Lord of the Universe" broadcast by PBS Television in 1974. The event was called the "youth culture event of the year". Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III visited the festival and later remarked that while the premies inside were looking happy the ones outside were arguing with Jesus Freaks and Hare Krishnas. Wainwright's song "I am the Way" was partly inspired by Prem Rawat.

At the festival, Larry Bernstein, a prize-winning, 41-year-old architect described a "Divine City" to be built from the ground up starting the following year. It was to feature translucent hexagonal plastic houses stacked on concrete columns and connected with monorails. Polluting vehicles would be replaced by electric vehicles, and solar power would be used to provide energy. Cards would replace cash. The use of advanced technologies to ensure pollution-free air, Rennie Davis told a journalist, would be a practical demonstration of what it means to have Heaven on Earth. Two sites were suggested: either the Blue Ridge Mountains or somewhere near Santa Barbara, California. The former president and vice president of the DLM later said that Prem Rawat had spoken frequently of building such a city. Plans for the city were delayed amid the fiscal crisis following the Millennium festival. Incorporation papers for the formation of the "City of Love and Light Unlimited, Inc." were filed in Colorado in 1974, and there was a failed attempt in 1975 to build the community near San Antonio, Texas.

The DLM incurred a debt estimated between $600,000 and over $1 million, attributed to be due to poor management and low attendance. The debt severely damaged the DLM's finances. Event-related expenses were covered by short-term credit based on the expectation that contributions would pour in following the free festival. DLM's post-Millennium financial troubles forced it to close ashrams, sell its printing business and real estate, and to drop the lease on its IBM computer. Monthly donations fell from $100,000 to $70,000. According to Messer, "to pay the debts remaining from the Houston event, devotees all over the country turned over their own possessions to Divine Sales, which had crash garage sales, attended flea markets, and invented numerous activities to dispose of the goods." By 1976 it was able to reduce the debt to $80,000. Consequently, the festival necessitated policy shifts within the movement organization.

Marriage and rift
Because of Prem Rawat's age, Mata Ji, his mother, and her eldest son, Satpal Rawat had managed the affairs of the worldwide DLM. As Prem Rawat approached sixteen he wanted to take a more active part in guiding the movement. According to Downton, "this meant he had to encroach on his mother's territory and, given the fact that she was accustomed to having control, a fight was inevitable". In December 1973, when he turned 16, Rawat took administrative control of the Mission's U.S. branch and began to assert his independence from his mother who returned to India with Satpal.

In May 1974 Prem Rawat applied to become an emancipated minor and, in direct defiance of his mother's wishes, married Marolyn Johnson, who was a follower and his secretary. Several sources say that Rawat declared her to be the incarnation of Durga. Rawat's biographer Andrea Cagan writes that Rawat, following Indian tradition, gave her the Indian name Durga after a goddess seen as the embodiment of feminine and creative energy.

Rawat's decision to marry a Westerner, rather than the Indian woman his mother had planned on, precipitated a struggle for control of DLM. His mother claimed that Rawat had broken his spiritual discipline by marrying, and had become a "playboy". She appointed Satpal as the new head of DLM India, but the Western premies remained loyal to Rawat. The marriage led to a permanent rift between Prem Rawat and his mother, and was also credited with causing a profound disruption in the movement. Many followers left the ashrams to get married, and the base of support inevitably shifted from the ashrams to the wider premie community. Others felt "almost betrayed", in part because he had championed celibacy, one of the requirements of ashram life, before getting married himself. The bad press from the festivals and the rift caused by Prem Rawat's marriage in 1974 marked the end of the movement's growth phase.

Two Movements
The family rift was followed by a schizm within the global Divine Light Mission. In 1978 a court-ordered settlement confirmed the eldest Rawat brother (Satya Pal, also known as Bal Bhagwan Ji, now Satpal Maharaj) in the leadership role of the Indian DLM, while the youngest brother (Prem Pal) retained the DLM following outside of India. In 1983 the US Divine Light Mission was renamed Elan Vital and this progressively became the corporate name of the organisations that supported Prem Rawat. In India, Satpal Maharaj (previously known as Bal Bhagwan Ji) founded two new entities  Manav Utthan Sewa Samiti and Manav Sewa Dal, the latter being registered in 1985. M.U.S.S and M.S.D became vehicles by which Satpal Maharaj has promoted his ideas and supported “disseminating the practical knowledge of the soul”.

Movement loyal to Prem Rawat
Following the rift with his mother, Rawat announced that he was replacing the predominantly Indian image with a Western one and began to wear business suits instead of his all-white Indian attire. The Indian mahatmas were replaced with Westerners, and Indian terminology fell from use. Rawat encouraged premies to leave the ashrams. According to one estimate, the worldwide membership had declined from 6 million to 1.2 million by 1976, and in the U.S. the 50,000 claimed initiates had dwindled to 15,000 regular contributors. A spokesman for the Mission explained in 1976 that the higher numbers had been inflated due to poor record-keeping. One estimate had from 500 to 1200 members living in ashrams in the mid-1970s. By the end of the 1970s, the movement had lost an estimated 80% of its followers in the U.S. Bromley and Hammond attribute the decline of groups including the Divine Light Mission to internal factors, but also in part to the news media's "discrediting reports about their activities", accounts which created a "wide-spread public perception of 'mind control' and other 'cult' stereotypes."

The Divine Light Mission also attracted the attention of the anti-cult movement. Some members were violently kidnapped and deprogrammed. Some former members became outspoken critics of the organization and attacked the group with what Melton calls "standard anti-cult charges of brainwashing and mind control". In reference to ex-followers, DLM spokesman Joe Anctil said that "A lot of people were just on a trip in the beginning. They felt they had to be 'hyped', and some didn't stay long enough to get beyond that. But we've changed as our understanding has changed." Bob Mishler, the founding president of the DLM in the U.S., was removed by Rawat in 1977 and gave an interview in 1979, along with the former vice president, in which he said he was concerned that the DLM was becoming a "tax evasion for the guru", and said he feared a repeat of Jonestown. They also accused Rawat of engaging in inappropriate behavior. Mishler's charges found little support and did not affect the progress of the Mission.

In the 1980s, Prem Rawat removed the Indian trappings from his message, and adopted a more Western style. Melton said the mission was disbanded [when] Prem Rawat personally renounced the trappings of Indian culture and religion, to make his teachings independent of culture, beliefs and lifestyles. Prem Rawat was no longer to be venerated as a god or regarded as a Perfect Master. and ashrams were closed.[86][94][95]

According to Ron Geaves, a religious scholars who has been associated with the teachings of Prem Rawat for the last thirty years: "Maharaji has chosen a route of perpetual transformation in which organizational forms are created and utilized and then destroyed, thus providing flexibility to deal with rapidly changing social attitudes, to provide pragmatic solutions to internal problems, and above all to keep his students focused on the core message rather than the peripheral requirements of organizational forms." Since then the Elan Vital has been "virtually invisible." Rawat stopped granting interviews and making public announcements of his visits. As of 2008 he has continued to write, lecture, and tour with the support of the Elan Vital and the Prem Rawat Foundation.

DLM in India
In 1975 Mata Ji took control of the DLM in India as a result of the rift and installed her eldest son, Satpal Rawat, as its head. A lawsuit in India resulted in his brother Satpal gaining control of the Divine Light Mission in India, and Rawat continuing to lead DLM in the rest of the world.

Satpal Rawat, now known as Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj, teaches  "Manav Dharam" (the "Dharam [Religion] of Mankind"). He is also a politician and former Union Minister in India, and founded Manav Utthan Sewa Samiti, which he describes as "an all-India registered voluntary social welfare and charitable organization", that is also "making freely available the spiritual Knowledge which is the essence of all religions." Satpal Rawat's supporters now assert that he is the rightful successor to his father, Hans Ji Maharaj. Scholars that have written about the succession report that Satpal and the rest of the family accepted and supported Prem's declaration of succession for eight years.

The Divine United Organization (DUO) was an organization registered under the Societies Registration Act 21 of 1860 with the Registrar of Delhi in 1977, to disseminate the teachings of Prem Rawat in India. According to Geaves, DUO remained in India until it was replaced by Raj Vidya Bhavan [sic]. Raj Vidya Kender (Center for the King of Knowledge) states on its website that it was registered under the societies Registration Act in 1977, with registration No. 8845/77, "by individuals eager to help in the dissemination of Maharaji's message of hope and peace."

Edit Sequence and edit notes

 * para two: Hinduism Today link updated. Addressed issue of "following" (6 million) versus "membership" (1 lakh/lac = 100,000). --Nik Wright2 (talk) 08:39, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * para 3: Recast. removed confusing referencing (though Aagard may warrant reinstatement). removed material about succession which is more appropriate to a 'beliefs' section, if references support it.--Nik Wright2 (talk) 12:43, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * International Presence Section: changed to read International presence as the term Expansion is too relatavistic. Overall growth outside India was less than 5% of the Indian adherence levels, what was measurably achieved between 1969 and 1974 was 'presence'. New text added and references firmed up. --Nik Wright2 (talk) 11:44, 6 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Two movements paragraph as version 3 talk page.--Nik Wright2 (talk) 12:19, 10 July 2009 (UTC)


 * International Presence Section: resolved confused editing of sources/numbers/ashrams for 1973. Replaced Melton with Peterson as reference. --Nik Wright2 (talk) 10:05, 16 August 2009 (UTC)


 * International Presence Section: restructured for better chronological flow/presentation. Also included intermediate reference (Petersen) for growth - 72/73. Reference for creation of the Denver headquarters still needed. --Nik Wright2 (talk) 10:39, 16 August 2009 (UTC)