"Smuggling" Guru Hits the Headlines with Diamonds and Dysentery
The Jumbo Jets Publicity "Lila" of 1972

The years 1971 and 1972 were astonishingly successful for Prem Rawat, then calling Himself Guru Maharaj Ji, with exponential growth (from an initial 5 or 6) as disillusioned youth from the so-called counterculture succumbed to the promises of instant peace and bliss through secret meditation techniques taught in mystic Eastern ceremonies by supposedly celibate, enlightened Indian "Great Soul" Mahatmas and monks. It was a winning combination, but the pool of ex-hippies was drying up and to keep up the flow of possible converts word must be got out to the general public, especially as more sophisticated counter-culture figures and publications were extremely critical of the young guru and his goons. So obviously one of Guru Maharaj Ji's famous Lilas was required and so began the eight chartered jumbo jets full of Westerners flying to India free publicity campaign. This was reported in newspapers everywhere thanks to Associated Press, United Press International and Reuters.

Hans Jayanti 1972 - Peace on Earth

In 1972 it was announced that the 14-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji, Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe was inviting "the premies outside of India to come and live with him and participate in the annual Hans Jayanti Festival which take takes place in Delhi to honor Shri Maharaj Ji. News that eight jumbo jets were being charted to fly the young Guru Maharaj Ji and 3,500 of his Western devotees to India was spread to all possible media outlets. This was so unusual that it was widely reported in the Western and Indian press.

Before they left the earnest, young and perfect guru explained the need for neatness and tidiness so their Knowledge sparkling would impress everyone in Indian:

So just fry to be holy and try to be a good devotee, a perfect devotee of that Guru who is Himself perfect, who is really perfect. So, I think you all understand what I want to say and I hope that you will all come with your friends to that satsang which is going to take place in the Central Hall, Westminster, and if you are going to join that Jumbo Jet just see how you enjoy it. You will just notice in the Jumbo Jet how you are enjoying it. Because it is going to be really fantastic in the Jet and I would like to say something to you that is really important. And that thing is this. Please, if you are going on the Jumbo Jet or not, try to be neat and tidy. Try, try to be as neat and tidy as you can be. Because you have got this temple and it should be as neat and tidy as you can keep it. Because it is a temple. If it was a little box you could keep it dirty. But it is not a little box. It is a very precious thing, you know. And this is the thing which you have given to me. Now I will be concerned with you. I will order to you to keep it neat and clean. And you know, this is something where you know the result practically of being neat and clean. If you are neat and clean it will impress all of us in India. And how will it impress? Just be neat and clean and see how this impresses people in India. If you are neat and clean this Knowledge will sparkle out of you. This Knowledge will sparkle and when it sparkles out of the windows of the Jumbo Jet people will say, "Yes, a divine thing is coming". If not, the crowd will only say, "Oh, a 747 is coming! What is there in the 747? Nothing. It's only a 747". But if you want to make it a divine trip, be divine. How to be divine? Be clean. You are clean from the inside, so just be clean from the outside. That's all.

At that time, nothing was more prestigious to an Indian guru than Western followers. The whole thing was stage managed with devotees being shocked to discover that he was not flying with them but they were going on ahead. They would be part of a parade through the streeets of Delhi to the airport where they would line up to greet him on arrival before as many reporters, cameras and onlookers as possible and wait and wait and wait.

Hans Jayanti 1972 - Peace on Earth

In an unexpected stroke of luck, all the premies' cash had been confiscated and collected and was found by immigration officers and charges of smuggling were made. Many premies explained this as the Lord's Lila, he was playing the media and getting all the free publicity the hottest Guru on the circuit could wish for. To the premies, this was not a stroke of luck bur a Lila, a play that had been manifested to maximise the publicity. After all, Guru Maharaj Ji had been regularly claiming he was a smuggler, a smuggler just as Jesus had been, Lord Rama had been and Krishna had been. Guru Maharaj Ji could even use accusations of smuggling and of weeks of his devoted followers wading through fields of shit for propagation to bring new devotees to His Lotus Feet.

Premie Processions in Delhi
Premie Processions in Delhi
Premie Processions in Delhi

Decades later, one of the earnest but weak and weary premies spoke about the first 3 days in Delhi and the daily processions:

I walked for miles and miles still sick. I felt that I was obliged to. For certain we walked at least 10 miles, probably more. We walked for I think 4 or 5 hours at a fast pace, most of the time yelling the chants we had learned. The picture of me, sick, walking with this group through old India streets is a strange image that stays with me today. The first day of the premie procession, most of the Western premies went. The second day only about half and the third day just a few. Many Westerners weren't up for the march and there were several remarks and blasts of 'get outta here' and 'fuck you' when the Indian premies woke us and attempted to persuade us to join the procession.

Argosy magazine even sent a reporter to Prem Nagar:

In September of 1972, I was assigned to cover Maharaj Ji's return to Mother India. The Divine Light people had rented 18 jet planes to ferry some 3,500 premies to India to be on hand for the Guru's touch-down, a kind of modern replay of the old Ark trick. Maharaj Ji's return was to signal the beginning of a five-day celebration at the Ram Lila grounds, a dusty No-Man's Land that separates "Old" Delhi from "New" Delhi. The flight was long and uneventful--except for one thing. DLM officers came marching down the aisles collecting all the money and valuables the Premies were carrying. Reasons were given. "It's the Perfect Master's will, man," was the one I heard most often. Nonetheless, a number of noses began sniffing the air. Their faith was getting a test from their common sense.

Prem Rawat and Mata Ji at Hans Jayanti 1972

The Guru's faithful ran into problems as soon as the plane had landed in New Delhi. Joan Apter-a super Premie and one of the five original U.S. converts-had her suitcase opened by Customs inspectors. It contained $28,000 in cash, travelers checks and jewelry. When the officials had finished with the rest of the bags, the figure stood at $65,000. Indira Gandhi's government had a stroke. Bringing that kind of wealth into the country-undeclared-was deemed to be smuggling, and a minor international incident was under way. The Customs people confiscated everything in sight, including Maharaj Ji's passport. Indira Gandhi flew to New Delhi to hold a special session with her ministers to decide whether or not to clap the Perfect Master in jail. The Holy Family, holding a special session of their own, decided that they had had all they wanted of New Delhi. They loaded all the faithful aboard buses and trucked them the 100 miles to Hardwar.

A premie recalled the airport wait and the three days sitting in the sun at the Ram Lila grounds in a memoire:

The first time in my life I was in an airplane, was about half a year after I got that half a shelf and a place to roll out my sleeping bag at the ashram. Just like a few thousand other followers from Europe and the United States I was in one of the five chartered Boeing-747's, on my way to a big festival in New Delhi to see the guru for the first time in person and then stay at his ashram in Hardwar on the Ganges for a few weeks. It was hot, there on that concrete plain right next to Delhi Airport where we were told to assemble and wait. Maharaj ji himself was going to welcome us, a whisper said. After about four hours in the burning sun, it was clear that we weren't ready for that. Too little meditation and too much 'mind and illusion', no doubt. So we left in rented buses to a campsite that the Indian followers had put up on a dusty plain outside Delhi. The tents were basically wooden poles affixed with ropes. On those poles sat a roof of colored pieces of fabric. The sides were open for wind, dust and warmth. Next to the campsite were the festival grounds - a wide open field with a stage at the far end that had microphones on it, a throne decorated with flowers for the guru and embroidered pillows for the mahatmas. After his father's death, Maharaj ji was chosen to succeed him as guru and religious teacher at the age of six. A daunting position, because the Divine Light Mission of his father had almost ten thousand followers in India. A few thousand of them sat on the festival grounds in red, purple, yellow and golden saris and white 'Indian pajamas', that were also quite popular among the Western followers. They had a red dot on their foreheads, put flower leaves on each other's heads and sang songs that seemed to turn around over and over in the same intonation. On the stage the mahatma's took turns giving 'satsang': an improvised speech, directly from the meditative experience, about the virtues of the holy master and his divine knowledge bringing enlightenment for the true devotee. Again and again similar words in repeated circles, just like the songs. The microphones cracked, the followers sang, the sun burned and the mahatma's praised our luck because the road to eternal bliss was right in front if us. For three days without end, sometimes in English but mostly in Hindi.

especially after charges were made of smuggling jewellery and cash. We know from David Lovejoy's memoire "Between Dark and Dark," that the early 1970s "hippie" premies in India did not slip into a regulated, meditative, drug-free lifestyle quickly and easily. Local entrepreneurs began servicing their needs not met in the ashram. When 3,500 premies with no experience of living in India arrived for this extended satsang and meditation retreat at Prem Nagar things did not go as well as hoped. Their experiences were not as blissful as promised. There was a lot of sitting on theground waiting, there were interminable Hindi satsangs, there was boredom, there was sickness, there was emotional distress. In fact, things were so bad that they were even reported in the press.

In November 1972 2,500 young foreigners recently initiated arrived at Prem Nagar. Things got so bad they were even reported in the straight press

"He's having trouble with his liver," Dr. Edward Hanzelik of Brooklyn, one of the camp physicians, said. As for the guru's followers, "We've been treating a lot of dysentery and colds," Hanzelik said, "and there have been some emotional problems." He said the problems occurred "mostly in people who want to get closer to the perfect Knowledge. When they are not close to the Knowledge, they get depressed and unhappy," he said.

Miss Jean Obert, 23, of Villa Grande, Calif., said "it's been good and bad. The bad things have been my own little freak-outs." She explained that she had at times been depressed when she did not feel in complete tune with Maharaj Ji.

Hanzelik is long-term devotee and personal physican to Rawat and Secretary of The Prem Rawat Foundation in 2012. His idea of treatment was to tell them they needed "More faith, brother, more faith". He obviously did not see the irony in the Perfect Knowledge creating emotional problems.

There was publicity galore. The Lila was a great success. At this time the young Rawat believed all publicity was good publicity. This changed one year later after the Millenium '73 Festival when he discovered just how bad publicity could get in the mainstream press and in the large circulation major magazines.