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editorial

INDIA IN RETROSPECT

THE LORD RETURNS

A long time ago, we ran across a tape some inspired premie had made interviewing an aged devotee of Shri Hans Ji Maharaj. It was very enlightening. The man had received Knowledge from Shri Hans Ji's Guru, Shri Sarupanand Ji. He had watched the transition of power of Perfect Master from one to the other.

When Sarupanand Ji died, it had been traumatic for the premies. Many got lost along the way, incapable of recognizing their Father in another form. Confusion was rampant in the minds of those who had not connected themselves firmly and forever with the Knowledge.

Prem Rawat aka Guru Maharaj Ji with Mahatrma SampuranandOur Guru Maharaj Ji has said that history is a pendulum. Now that pendulum has swung and Guru Maharaj Ji is in the same situation as his father before him. He has allowed the old order to decay. There is nothing to the Knowledge but the experience of it - no mythology, cosmology or catechism. And the experience only comes through dedication and the grace and guidance of the Perfect Master.

Not having realized Shri Hans Ji Maharaj during his life, Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji assumed that what had been passed down from him was worldly power and a worldly kingdom. Much in the same way monarchs once thought they ruled by "divine right;', they intended to rule their little world as divine potentates, and hoped to expand it. Guru Maharaj Ji commented that, "they never really understood that the power of the Perfect Master is not a worldly power of dominion over people but simply the power to bring peace and fulfillment to people's lives."

In 1971, when Guru Maharaj Ji came to the West at the age of 13, he began to actively control the functioning of the Mission. More and more he began to manifest as the time had come for him to do the service his father had given him. This upset the plans of his family. Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji became worried as Western disciples followed Guru Maharaj Ji and didn't respond to the orders of the other "Holy Family" members. Still they propagated the myth of the Holy Family as "Five Perfect Masters" with such persistance that some premies began to wonder about their role in the service of Guru Maharaj Ji.

In late 1972, when Guru Maharaj Ji formulated plans for the Divine United Organization, he met with open resistance from Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji as they feared it would make their authority obsolete. DUO would obviously be a well-organized structure under Guru Maharaj Ji's guidance, a structure with the sole purpose of facilitating the spreading of Knowledge by allowing Guru Maharaj Ji's agya to be known to all premies.

Guru Maharaj Ji stayed in the West for two years establishing DUO around the world. He succeeded despite continual opposition from Bal Bahgwan Ji and Mata Ji, who were busy attempting to corrupt the work he was doing. Their interference, however, has been ineffectual and Guru Maharaj Ji has created an effective international structure. During that time, Guru Maharaj Ji never publicly denounced their actions, but tried to make them understand what they were doing and that if they never really practiced Knowledge, they would never realize the aim of their lives.

Meanwhile, Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji could only see Guru Maharaj Ji as a threat to the concept of their own prominence. This was brought to light when, in May 1974, Guru Maharaj Ji was forced to issue a letter to the premies explaining that there is only one source of agya, the Perfect Master. By the time of Raja Ji's marriage, the split became known. He had married against Mata Ji's wishes, to a Westerner, not of his caste; yet by permission of Guru Maharaj Ji who is not concerned with maintaining religious or racial concepts that divide people, but only with propagating the Truth which can unite all peoples. Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji hastily returned to India to tighten control of the Mission properties while trying to assure everyone they were only preparing for Guru Maharaj Ji's return. At the same time they tried to convince Guru Maharaj Ji that his visit to India should be postponed indefinitely.

Finally, Guru Maharaj Ji was forced to act. As he said in one satsang in India, "I have come for the premies. I was told that their condition was bad. So I have come for them, and nothing else." When he announced his intentions to come, Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji panicked. They had threatening telexes sent to discourage him, and finally when they saw he would not be frightened, they made a public denouncement of Guru Maharaj Ji and began a slur campaign to defame him.

When the Associated Press asked Guru Maharaj Ji in an interview why these people attempted a public character assassination through their false allegations, he replied paraphrasing a story of King Richard the Lion-hearted, who left his brother as the guardian of his throne while on a mission to foreign lands. The brother then began to think of himself as the King and when the true king was due to return, attempted to seize the throne. A more spiritual rendering of this same old story is found in the example of the fallen Archangel, Lucifer, who, being at the right hand of God became jealous and sank into the bottomless depths.

When Guru Maharaj Ji went to India, Mata Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji attempted to prevent him from seeing the premies - sometimes through the courts and sometimes through bribery - but when he and his devotees came together, their love multiplied. In Bihar, Bombay, Nepal, Delhi, Jaipur and Calcutta, for the first time in two years, premies received darshan. In Jaipur, where the scheduled program was stopped by a court order, the premies walked beyond the city limits and into the desert to be with Guru Maharaj Ji, who rode out into the desert in a jeep to give them darshan.

When Bal Bhagwan Ji filed a law suit against Maharaj Ji as a last effort to defame him, the judge unexpectedly turned the courtroom into a satsang hall. With both Maharaj Ji and Bal Bhagwan Ji before him, he asked, "What is the greatest sin?" "Jealousy," said Bal Bhagwan Ji. As if repeating some age old lesson to himself in front of the perfect mirror, the judge then replied, "Jealousy? You were the one who was jealous; he was the Balyogeshwar, you were nothing. You were the one who was jealous." He then turned to Maharaj Ji with the same question. "Not to realize the God who created us," Guru Maharaj Ji replied. Subsequently, the judge declared that Bal Bhagwan Ji's case was baseless and threw it out of court. Guru Maharaj Ji withdrew his case unconditionally as he had only filed it because he was under attack. After some chiding by the judge Bal Bhagwan Ji withdrew the further applications he had filed.

Then Maharaj Ji tried one more time to bring Bal Bhagwan Ji and Mata Ji back to their senses. He went to Punjabi Bagh where they had challenged him to come, but they had already left for Dehra Dun. He then sent them a letter to Dehra Dun saying that if they would even now put themselves under his agya, they could be forgiven. They did not respond. The mind is such a thing, that even though love is what we need, we can't always recognize or accept it when it is offered.

During his remaining time in India, Guru Maharaj Ji established a DUO administrative structure and appointed premies to oversee it. Mahatma Sampuranand, the vice-president of the India DLM, who had been faithfully and skillfully keeping premies informed of the truth during the difficult months before Guru Maharaj Ji's arrival, was named the National DUO Director to head the executive office which was opened in Delhi.


next issue …

Love is Taking Over - Guru Maharaj Ji, coming to Denver after nine months away, has spent a week meeting with the international staff. His message? He's ready to come in and take personal control of his Mission on all levels.

Mahatma Ji! - As a first step, Maharaj Ji held a conference with his mahatmas, and formally appointed four new Western mahatmas: Former Arthur Brigham, now Mahatma Parampremanand; former Ira Woods, now Mahatma Gurupujanand; former Bill Patterson, now MahatmaSatchitanand; and former Kathy Sullivan, now Pranam Bai.

Why Kid Ourselves? - With Guru Puja only weeks away, Guru Maharaj Ji gave the premies in Denver a "picnic" in the country. "Why kid ourselves, said Ted Tannenbaum, Denver's DUO director, "This is our Guru Puja!"

"I am you." - Durga Ji holds a garden party and gives some of her most beautiful and inspiring satsang about her - and our - relationship to Guru Maharaj Ji. In full, next issue.