Talk:Prem Rawat/journalists

1970

• Navbharat Times, 10 November 1970 (from Hindi original)
  • An estimated 1 million people participated in what is considered the largest march in the history of New Delhi, India, on 8 October 1970, in commemoration of Hans Ji Maharaj, lead by his son Maharaji (now Prem Rawat), who was 12 years old at the time.

• Hindustan Times, 9 November 1970 (English) "Roads in the Capital spilled over with a 1,000,000 processionists, men, women and children marched from Indra Prasha Estate to the India Gate lawn."
  • "A three-day event in commemoration of Sri Hans Ji Maharaj, the largest procession in Delhi history of 18 miles of procession; it culminated in a public event at India Gate, where Sant Ji Maharaj addressed the large gathering"

1972

• "Junior Guru", TIME Nov. 27, 1972 [1]
• "Some feel the youth is a fraud" Long Beach Press Telepgram, Dec 10, 1972, p. A27
  • The fact is that some Indian leaders - religous and lay- consider Maharaj Ji a fraud and his mission a gigantic ripoff. A group of religious leaders met in New Delhi to demand that the boy guru be examined by a panel of doctors to determine his true age, which they claimed is at least 22.

1973

• "There are many evaluations of Guru Maharaj Ji" September 26, 1973, Greeley Tribune (Colorado) p. 5-A
  • But his personal physician and disciple, Dr. John Horton, attributes the boy's weight to a sedentary life of making decisions".

• "Throngs To Seek 'Peace'", AP EXPRESS/NEWS—Sunday, November 4, 1973
  • His followers say they expect anywhere from 20,000 to 135,000 people in Houston for the Thursday through Saturday "millenniiim '73" at which Maharaj Ji promises to offer a practical way to bring peace to the world. Thirty chartered jetliners will lift the Guru's followers in from all over the world for the festival which 400 staff members of the Divine Light Mission have been working on since summer.

• "The guru who minds his mother" Malcome N. Carter, AP THE STARS AND STRIPES, November 4, 1973
  • It has budgeted $500,000, and expects to spend twice that, for a three-day climax to the guru's world tour in November, "Millenium 73." The mission has rented the Houston Astrodome for $75,000 and booked 35,000 beds in hotel rooms. To help finance the convocation, disciples have been visiting 400 millionaires. Each receives a lush, vinyl-covered looseleaf notebook as a fund raising proposal.

• "Houston's Version of Peace in Our Time" GREGG KILDAY, Los Angeles Times Nov 25, 1973 pg. S18
  • The fact that he has found an audience, albeit a small one--early promises that 100,000 devotees would be on parade in Houston were hasitly decalred inopterative when only 20,000 actually appeared--suggests that the search for peace, both individual and collective, beguin in the 1960s, has yet to be satisfactorily resolved.

• "Oz in the Astrodome" Ted Morgan, New York Times, December 9, 1973
  • When word was passed that extraterrestrial creatures in U.F.O.'s would be visiting the Astrodome, it was Bal Bhagwan Ji who said, "If you see any, just give them some of our literature." A space was left in the Astrodome parking lot in case any flying saucers wished to land.

• "BLISSING OUT IN HOUSTON", Francine du Plessix Gray, New York Review of Books December 13, 1973.[2]

1974

• "TV: Meditating on Young Guru and His Followers" John J. O'Connor, New York Times, February 25, 1974
  • In fact, "Millenium '73" turned out to be a bust. Contrary to expectations of some communicants, the Astrodome did not take off into outer space. On a more practical level, the cost of the event was estimated at $1 million, and it attracted an audience of fewer than 20,000.

• "Guru, 16, marries secretary" AP Greeley Tribune Tues. May 21, 1974
  • Guru Maharaj Ji, the 16-year-old self-styled "perfect master" who is spiritual leader of the Divine Light Mission, married his secretary Monday night... The guru married Marolyn Lois Johnson, 24, and held an elaborate reception at his $80,000 house here, .... [..] The guru needed a court order to obtain a marriage license since he's too young to be married in Colorado without parental permission. Juvenile Court Judge Morris E. Cole issued the order and the license was obtained Friday from the city clerk's office. Cole interviewed the couple for 15 minutes in his chambers before issuing the court order May 1. The guru's father is dead and his mother couldn't be reached in India to give her consent. Cole said the boy "makes quite a bit of money and he seems quite mature—much older than 16."

• "$22,000 From Guru Still Sought", AP CORPUS CHRISTI TIMES, Thurs., May 30, 1974
  • A Houston photographer and film producer said Wednesday that the Divine Light Mission, headed by the 16-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji, still owes him $22,000 for a film produced last year. A spokesman for the mission disputed the producer's allegation...Producer Don MrClendon said he has received nothing but negative responses to his claims that the mission still owes him money for the film. However, Carole Grcenberg the mission's director of information services, said McCIendon actually owes the mission $3,000 in unreturned overpayments. She called McCiendon's accusations "unjustified" and "completely unwarranted."

1975

• "Growing Pile of Unpaid Bills Beneath Guru's Spiritual Bliss", Deborah Frazier, UPI, March 23, 1975, Lincoln, Neb., Sunday Journal and Star
  • Beneath the spiritual bliss of the guru Maharaj Ji's Denver-based Divine Light Mission lie more than $300,000 in unpaid bills and a never ending fund drive, according to the guru's former financial analyst...Meanwhile, other mission bills go unpaid. For example, Millenium '73, the mission's huge festival at the Astrodome, was paid for only after mission equipment and files were repossessed....He said donations, averaging $100.000 a month at the height of the guru's 1973 recruitment, now struggle to reach $40,000. The deficit, according to Garson, has resulted in a form of check kiting where checks are written on funds not necessarily available at the time.

• "MOTHER OUSTS 'PLAYBOY' GURU" Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File); Apr 2, 1975; pg. 6A
  • [Rawat's mother accused him of living like a "playboy" and "adopting a despicable, nonspiritual way of life".] [Susan Butcher, speaking on behalf of Shri Mataji, said,] "He has not ben practicing what he has been preaching....He has always preached and recommend to his devotees to live a life of vegetarianism, celibacy, and abstention from alcohol, and all excessive forms of materialism. Now he himself is indulging and encouraging his devotees to eat meat, to get married and have sexual relations, and to drink. He's not living a spiritual life. He's being a playboy."

• "People", TIME Apr. 7, 1975 [3]

• Guru Tries to Take Control of Mission" in The Ruston Daily Leader, April 9, 1975

• "One Lord Too Many" TIME, Apr. 28, 1975[4]

1976

• "Declining donations dim Divine Light Mission" AP Nov. 22, 1976
  • DENVER (AP) - His organization claimed 6 million followers when Guru Maharaj Ji was 15...That was four years ago, and times have changed. The faithful now number 1.2 million, according to a spokesman for his Divine Light Mission. Donations have fallen off and the Church is retrenching. Its printing business is gone and some of the property in Denver and other American cities has been sold. The lease has been dropped on the computer that once kept track of the pudgy teen-ager's following. Some of the more extravagant claims about the guru's divinity also have been dropped. Once, Maharaj Ji was known as "Lord of the Universe" and "Perfect Master" to his devotees. Now, Joe Anctil, the 43-year old spokesman for the guru, describes him as "the point of inspiration for all of us." ...As devotees moved out of ashrams, their weekly paychecks, previously turned over to the guru's treasury, were missed. Donations fell from more than 1100,000 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.

1978

• "Two ex-cult officers see possible Guyana repeat", UPI, Newport Rhode Island Daily News November 25, 1978. p. 8
  • DENVER (UPI) – Two former top lieutenants of the Guru Maharaj Ji's Divine Light Mission have warned the estimated 15,000 American followers of the 19-year-old spiritual leader that they risk a plight similar to that of devotees of the Rev. Jim Jones in Guyana ... "After seeing the similarities of behavior of Jones are so strikingly like Maharaj Ji's, it's possible something like what happened in Guyana could come about as a result of him being threatened," Hand said. "He has two types of followers – the ones who have to be told to do something and those who would respond to just wishful thinking. Those (the latter group) are the ones I'm concerned about." ... In an exclusive interview with UPI, the two men said Maharaj Ji had spoken frequently of building a city similar to Jonestown and was infatuated by weapons and gangsters. "He fantasized about building such a city," Hand said. "And there is evidence everywhere, he is capable of doing it." ... Mishler and Hand, who were two of only about 15 members that saw the guru's private behavior, said Maharaj Ji was excited by the crime underworld and after viewing the movie "The Godfather" formed a security unit called the "World Peace Corps." "He is infatuated with the mafia and even tried to arrange a meeting with a New York don," Hand said. "The mission now has secret stockpiles of weapons." The two former Mission officials said Maharaj Ji's private behavior included physical and sexual assaults on followers by stripping them, pouring abrasive chemical on their bodies, administering psychotropic drugs and having them beaten with sticks or thrown into swimming pools. "I've been punched and kicked in the groin by Maharaj Ji, and I've seen toxic chemicals poured in the mouths of followers," Hand said. "He does this laughingly." Mishler said he resigned as Maharaji Ji's top aide following a "power struggle" in which he attempted to redirect the followers' faith from the "pretender to the throne of God." He said Hand was forced to resign in 1973 for making similar attempts to deprogram Mission members."

1979

• "Malibu Guru Maintains Following Despite Rising Mistrust of Cults" MARK FORSTER Los Angeles Times Jan 12, 1979; pg. 3
  • In 1973, the mission sponsored a festival designed to attract 100,000 faithful and signal 1,000 years of peace. Only 20,000 showed up and the group felt it was being portrayed poorly in the media.
  • Mishler, the organization's former president, said tight security surrounding the house is part of 'elaborate precautions' Maharaj Ji has taken to hide his private life from followers...Mishler said Maharaj Ji's ban on alcohol and marijuana for his followeres was ignored at the estate.
  • Mishler said he left the group because 'there was no way of accomplishing the ideals expounded by the mission.' In addition, he said more and more of the church money began to go for personal use and he was concerned that the Divine Light Mission was becoming a 'tax evasion for the guru.'

• "A LOOK BACK AT THE '70S" HENRY ALLEN, Los Angeles Times Dec 16, 1979; pg. K30
  • The same year, the Guru Maharaj Ji rented the Houston Astrodome for a rally, setting aside parking-lot space for flying saucers. They didn't show. So didn't 80,000 of the up-to-100,000 people the 15-year old Perfect Master had expected.

1980

• "Maharaj Ji's Helicopter Plans Stir Furor" Jan 17, 1980.

1981

• "1-Year Trial OKd for Sect's Helipad" Los Angeles Times May 22, 1981; pg. F6
  • The county Board of Supervisors Thursday approved a one-year trial for a controversial helipad at the Malibu estate of Maharaj Ji, spiritual head of the Divine Light Mission sect. Gary Hoffman, president of the West Malibu Homeowners Assn., called the board's action "ridiculous" in the face of community opposition. In August, 1979, the county Regional Plannng Commission denied Maharaj Ji's application for a conditional use permit for 180 landings a year. In appealling that decision to the supervisors, Ji reduced the number of flights to six a year.

• "Interest Conflicts: Planning- Door Open to abuses?" VICTOR MERINA Los Angeles Times; Jul 22, 1981, pg. A11
  • One person he helped was the Guru Maharaj Ji, head of the Divine Light Mission, in his successful bid to oopbtain a conditional use permit to build a controversial helipad on his Malibu estate. The religious group obtained a one-year trial despite intense opposition from some homeowners when Deane Dana, the new 4th District supervisor, led the board in granting the permit.

1982

• Brown, Chip, "Parents Versus Cult: Frustration, Kidnapping, Tears; Who Became Kidnappers to Rescue Daughter From Her Guru", The Washington Post, February 15, 1982
  • Suddenly there were new reports from people who'd actually managed the Divine Light Mission—Robert Mishler, the man who organized the business side of the mission and served for 5 1/2 years as its president, and Robert Hand Jr., who served as a vice president for two years. In the aftermath of Jonestown, Mishler and Hand felt compelled to warn of similarities between Guru Maharaj Ji and Jim Jones. They claimed the potential for another Jonestown existed in the Divine Light Mission because the most fanatic followers of Maharaj Ji would not question even the craziest commands. As Jim Jones convincingly demonstrated, the health of a cult group can depend on the stability of the leader.
    Mishler and Hand revealed aspects of life inside the mission that frightened the Deitzes. In addition to his ulcer, the Perfect Master who held the secret to peace and spiritual happiness 'had tremendous problems of anxiety which he combatted with alcohol,' Mishler said in a Denver radio interview in February 1979.

• "Guru's Heliport Backed as Fire Aid", Los Angeles Times 25 March 1982, ROBERT W STEWART, pp. WS1, WS14
  • According to Linda S Gross, a San Diego attorney who represents the applicant, the property is owned by Anacapa View Estates, which in turn is a legally registered fictitious name for the Seva Corp. of Nevada.

1985

• "Ex-Guru Seeks to Expand His Heavenly Rights" JUDY PASTERNAK, Los Angeles Times Apr 11, 1985; pg. WS1
  • The argument centers on how many times each year the one-time guru can descend from the skies in a helicopter to a landing pad at his Malibu mountain-ridge estate, 600 feet above Pacific Coast Highway. Maharaji is seeking county permission to increase the number of landings to 36 each year, triple the number he is currently allowed. Until last spring, Maharaji was seldom at his mansion, called Anacapa View Estates, said Linda Gross, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents him. He and his family stayed there a few times a year, but they also spent time in Miami and abroad.
  • Until last spring, Maharaji was seldom at his mansion, called Anacapa View Estates, said Linda Gross, a Los Angeles lawyer who represents him.

• "Maharaji Denied in Bid to Triple Copter Landings" JUDY PASTERNAK, Los Angeles Times; Jul 7, 1985; pg. WS1
  • The one-time "perfect master" of the Divine Light Mission has been denied permission from the county's Regional Planning Commission to triple the number of helicopter landings annually at his Malibu mountain-ridge estate...Until the spring of 1984, the one-time guru was seldom at his mansion, called Anacapa View Estates, off Trancas Canyon 600 feet above Pacific Coast Highway...He and his family visited there a few times a year but they also spent time in Miami and abroad. Then Maharaji dropped his ties with the Divine Light organization and settled full time at the Malibu estate, Gross said.
  • Maharaji-the professional name now used by Prem Pal Singh Rawat, formerly known as Guru Maharaj Ji-can continue descending from the skies to his landing pad 12 times a year, the annual limit imposed for five years in April, 1983. Six landings were originally allowed in 1980 because Maharaji agreed to install a 45,000-gallon emergency water storage and pumping system that would be available to county Fire Department helicopters.
  • Maharaji's need for more flights "has to do with a change in circumstances", Gross said. Until the spring of 1984, the one-time guru was seldom at his mansion, called Anacapa View Estates, off Trancas Canyon 600 feet above Pacific Coast Highway. He and his family visited there a few times a year but they also spend time in Miami and abroad. Then Maharaji dropped his ties with the Divine Light Mission and settled full time at his Malibu estate.

1999

• Wheen, Francis (July 14, 1999). "Wheen's world: The Mail man, the Maharaji and the exploding love-bomb: Francis Wheen on: Divine intervention at the Daily Mail". The Guardian. pp. Page 5. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  • The object of Cainer's veneration is the Guru Maharaj Ji, who came to the west as a tubby 13-year-old in the early 1970s and persuaded thousands of ex-hippies to join his Divine Light Mission. Such was his appeal that by the end of the decade he owned 93 Rolls-Royces and had run up a $4m bill for back-taxes. In those days the guru described himself as the Lord of the Universe and the Exploding Love-Bomb.

• The Guardian, Corrections and Clarifications section, July 22, 1999
  • In an item headed The Mail man, the Maharaji and the exploding love bomb, page 5, G2, July 14, we said Guru Maharaj Ji (or Maharaji) once owned 93 Rolls Royces and had run up a bill in unpaid tax of $4m. Those statements were incorrect and referred to a different guru, unconnected with Maharaji. We were also wrong to say Maharaji had described himself as the Exploding Love Bomb. The photograph used to illustrate the piece showed the wrong person, again unconnected with Maharaji.

2003

• "Guru Offers Message to Attentive Audience " BY TAMI ABDOLLAH the Daily Californian, May 1, 2003 [5]

Undated

• "Guru's church sued for unpaid rent" AP
  • The Devine [sic] Light Mission Inc., church of the Guru Maharaj Ji, has been sued by the Astrohall Stadium Corp, which claims the misions owes it $14,500 in unpaid rent...Joe Anctil, spokesman for the Denver-based mission, said the church has tried to pay $14,500 amount by monthly installments of $3,000.

• • The move to Malibu in part was to find more secluded surrounding for the guru, his wife, and entourage. Non-members sometimes would seek out Maharaj Ji at odd hours, including one who stood outside the house at 2 a.m. one night yelling, "Maharaj Ji! Maharaj Ji!" Spokesmen, citing security reasons, would not disclose the exact location of the new property.