The following is a report from Chris Shorter, who accompanied Mahatma Rajeshwar on his whirlwind tour.
The same shining new premies who saw Mahatma Rajeshwar off at the airport last May were there to meet him again in Tokyo on March 7 when he flew in ??? en route to ??? sending all twenty-four would-be premies four hundred miles south to Okayama where his favourite Zen temple was acquired for its true and original purpose - the realization of Truth.
On March 16, Mahatma Ji winged his way on to India, stopping for three days in Hong Kong where he revealed Knowledge to six people, all but one of them Chinese.
By chance, we were in India for non-darshan reasons when Guru Maharaj Ji decided to come to see his Indian devotees. So many beautiful things happen when you are near to Maharaj Ji, and to enumerate our experiences would be to fill the whole page. However, not only did he come to India at the same time, "by chance" he checked into the same hotel, flew in the same plane, slept under the same roof and gave us his blessing for the trip through the Middle East and Africa. Having shared the joy and excitement of the Indian premies, Mahatma Ji flew out of Delhi on the next leg of his tour, bound for the strongly Muslim countries of Iran and Egypt.
Teheran is a modern, westernised four million strong city, flanked on one side by mountains reaching up to 20,000 feet and on the other by seemingly endless desert. Despite its role as the business centre of the Middle East, its people are devoutly Muslim and are therefore fundamentally opposed to any prophet or seer after Mohammed. But bearing the blessings of Guru Maharaj Ji, together with his comprehensive knowledge of the Koran, Mahatma Ji brought three adherents of Islam to Knowledge. Two of these new premies, man and wife, are highly educated PhD economists and their initiation into Knowledge is very signif- icant in terms of how the Muslim government will view the activities of the Mission.
Deprived in Iran of his favourite recreation - cooking - Mahatma Ji spent about half of each day in Cairo in the kitchen, concocting kitcheri, dahl and subji, not only for the three premies' breakfasts but also for the fifteen brothers ??? each evening! Duncan, the only active premie In Cairo, had been propagating in much the same way as the Irani premies, amongst family, friends and work associates, and experiencing the same difficulties. However, four people, including one Islamic scholar just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, received Knowledge of Divine Light, or "Noor Elahi" as it is known in the Koran.
Between his culinary activities and nightly satsangs in Duncan's flower-bedecked villa, Mahatma Ji found time to visit and climb to the top of the Great Pyramid. And deep inside the pyramid we all feel into deep meditation by one accord, drawn by the Divine Music which rang out so clearly.
At sunset on the last evening of our stay, we rented an ancient Nile-going sailboat (a faloukah) and shared satsang and songs amongst fifteen people. Mahatma Ji hypnotised us all by singing "Guru Charanaka" under a full moon, accompanied by the wizened old tillerman, who blissed out completely, beating out a rhythm on the side of the boat.
Before departing, Mahatma Ji was anxious to see the 3,000 year old corpses (mummies) in Cairo museum. Upon setting eyes on them he screeched with laughter, full of amazement, also full of doubt that the people of those time had Knowledge of God, since they expended so much time and energy in preserving the unpreservable. Mahatma Ji has little time for such fruitless activities and not really the mind for absorbing and respecting the pyramid's niceties as a cosmic calendar, although he said his meditation inside it was fantastic!
And then to Nairobi, Kenya, the only place in the world where the travel brochures and the actual place are the same. In Nairobi sixteen African brothers and sisters received Knowledge.
The financial difficulties experienced by the local Mission should now be considerably resolved since after the Knowledge session all came forward and pledged a monthly support for the ashram, despite their evident poverty. Furthermore the centre will now assume ashram status and be run by Kenyans, whereas until now an English sister, Tess Davies, had been wholly responsible. A big boost was also given to propagation by Mahatma Ji's appearance on a nationally televised talk show. The broadcast lasted fifteen minutes and the interviewer gave Mahatma Ji full opportunity to explain the essence of Guru Maharaj Ji's mission.
After a visit to the National Game Park, and another of Mahatma Ji's "meeting without eating is cheating" parties, we flew out of Kenya at dawn on May 1, bound for the Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) and the most beautiful surprise so far on the tour. Two hundred people were at the airport (only twenty of them premies), filling the skies with songs and chants. The national press were also there, providing very clear, factual information in the following day's papers. Altogether four hundred were waiting for Knowledge, all of them having listened to satsang consistently for at least six months, and some as much as a year. By their efforts two beautiful ashrams were fully prepared to receive Mahatma Ji and to cater for the PremNagar-type eating operations sure to arise. We were only scheduled for a four day stop!
All of the satsang and Knowledge sessions centred around a white, ranch-type house with thatched roof, set in flowering gardens and lawns on the outskirts of Tananarive, ancient and colourful capital of Malagasy. Mahatma Ji had no cause to refuse anyone receiving Knowledge - everyone was so simple and open-hearted, their devotion reflected so clearly in their songs and service. A whole community had been created; social services had been started and fifteen children from the city's prison for delinquent children were among the three hundred and thirty-eight who received Knowledge.
One month prior to Mahatma Ji's visit two premies had travelled three hundred miles south to another large town called Fianarantsoa. In that month an ashram was established and eighty-three persons prepared and waiting for Knowledge. Mahatma Ji had to extend his stay ten days to give the necessary eleven Knowledge sessions - on one occasion three in one day. Things are moving fast in Malagasy!
On the last day of our stay in Tananarive Mahatma Ji staged a huge satsang and feast for all of the new premies, preparing the delicious kitcheri and dahl for the gathering of two hundred. The housemother's eyes bulged on seeing two kilos of ginger root thrust into the subji, along with handfuls of red chili and a host of other obscure Indian spices. Mahatma Ji delights in astonishing housemothers with his cooking but no-one can deny that it always tastes excellent. After satsang, held on the lawns under a starlit sky, Mahatma Ji answered questions and told stories. We then sang arti and Malagasy devotional songs, finishing at 1.30 in the morning with Mahatma Ji playing his tapes of the Holi festival celebrations and singing held last year in India.
One very inspired idea for propagation here has been the mass production at the ashram of large rolls of printed handkerchieves, which are then taken out to be "made up" at the villages, where the people are very poor and often unemployed. In this way work and money is being provided in the poor, outlying areas. With a minimum of words, this practical satsang has drawn many souls to Guru Maharaj Ji, Through Mahatma Ji, Guru Maharaj Ji is making a garland of fifteen African countries, and each day the Dark continent comes closer to being a Continent of Light.