Miracle At Amaroo / IRCC

I was going for a nice, relaxing Sunday Drive in the country when I saw what, at first, I thought was a miracle. Thousands of people had gathered at Amaroo aka Ivory's Rock Conference Centre to enjoy life. No, not the usual oldies in a boring September get-together to listen to the Speaker speak another series of interminable speeches making promises he couldn't keep. Stuck for days in the dust, heat and insects for $1,000 a night in a tent.

There were young people. Not the token young person. Not pictures of young people on a Rawat Website posed by professional models but actual young people in their hundreds and looking as scruffy as the 1970s premies before Guru Maharaj Ji told them to cut their hair and wear straight, second-hand clothing. I thought I'd been returned to 1970 at Prem Nagar. It had to be a Maharaji Miracle - young premies at Amaroo.

I joined the throng and I was quickly set straight. "Prem Rat who?" "Margie who?" Rawat's minions were renting out the Holy Ground of Amaroo to make some money. Those pents won't pay for themselves, you know.

So I stayed a while to be amused and bemused. What a commentary on the lost dreams of Divine Light Mission.

An audience of Prem Rawat's devotees at a Divine Light Mission Holi festival in 1979 - photo sourced from official DLM publication

An audience of Earth Frequency Festival Freaks at a Prem Rawat's Cult Compound in 2017

I stayed on until after dark and a pretty good light show started. It reminded me of my Knowledge Session and Guru Puja in Miami in 83. Halfway home I realised I was singing "Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end …"

2 pictures tell 3,400 stories of aging and dying premies that are becoming a footnote in the history of religion as part of a once exciting and thriving cult that failed. There are thousands of such stories of fakery and stupidity but this is the one I know best.

Click here to see everything you always wanted to know about darshan at Amaroo - the "Greeting Line".