Life Magazine Cover June 1979 This short article with photos of the Divine Light Mission Holi festival at the Orange Bowl was surprisingly well informed on Rawat's life style. Unbelievably the administrators of DLM and presumably Prem Himself thought Life was going to do a laudatory article on the guru and themselves and there were repercussions when the article was published though Rawat had been forewarned and tried to laugh it off:

I don't know what these guys (the press) are going to think about it. 'Squirting Water'. Now, wait a minute. That's wrong. 'Playing With Water?' Nah, that's wrong. 'Throwing Water?' Nah, that's wrong. I mean, how do you even write an article like that? How do you even imagine? You can see it, but that's a different thing to then to sit down and write it. "Ten thousand people come … Orange Bowl … And then this one guy squirts them all." I mean, it's not going to make any sense to any of the readers.

Divine Light Mission published a large booklet of photos of the "sexy guru."


The Perfect Spurter Squirt-Gun Guru Sprays
His Followers in Miami

When last in the public eye. in the mid-seventies, guru Maharaj Ji was feuding with his mother, who disowned him for being corrupted by Western ways. Since then the pudgy Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe, now 21, has been running his Divine Light Mission (which claims 15,000 followers in North America), driving his Maserati, Jensen and Rolls-Royce and watching a lot of TV at his $600,000 Malibu estate. Two years ago he became an American citizen, a process accelerated by his marriage at the age of 16 to his blond secretary. Their only child, a daughter, is four. Recently the Maharaj Ji moved his mission control center from Denver to Miami, where this flashiest of Indian gurus rented the Orange Bowl for a love festival. Later he got down to serious preaching at the Miami Beach Convention Center. where for $35 initiates got to kiss his feet and donate gifts.

An estimated 10,000 disciples soak up love and thousands of gallons of colored water from spurting cannons manned by the guru himself (left), while the Rod Stewart song "Do You Think I'm Sexy?" blares over the Orange Bowl's speakers. The guru's most devout followers hand over their worldly goods to him, live in communes and give up meat, alcohol, tobacco and sex.

The Perfect Spurt The Perfect Spurt


The Life article was remembered by many apostates and was commented upon in the Ex-Premie Forum. In 1979 Michael Bergman, formerly Executive Financial Director of Divine Light Mission, who had started life as a devotee when he was Public Information Officer for the New York City Sanitation Department (something that should have served him well when working for Prem Rawat) was in charge of publicity at IHQ (the grandiosely named International Headquarters) in Miami Beach and was working with Life Magazine to do a very 'positive' story about the Holi Festival. It was reported that Bergman then had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a "premie house" in Michigan or Manitoba "to recover." There were a few references to his role in DLM in the media:

One has to wonder just what Rawat was thinking when he displayed his ugly body to the world while his theme song was playing:

 

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
(Rod Stewart / Carmine Appice)

Sugar, sugar
She sits alone waiting for suggestions
He's so nervous avoiding all the questions
His lips are dry, her heart is gently pounding
Don't you just know exactly what they're thinking

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy
come on sugar let me know.
If you really need me just reach out and touch me
come on honey tell me so
Tell me so baby

He's acting shy looking for an answer
Come on honey let's spend the night together
Now hold on a minute before we go much further
Give me a dime so I can phone my mother
They catch a cab to his high rise apartment
At last he can tell her exactly what his heart meant

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?If you want my body and you think I'm sexy
come on honey tell me so
If you really need me just reach out and touch me
come on sugar let me know

His heart's beating like a drum
'cos at last he's got this girl home
Relax baby now we are alone

They wake at dawn 'cos all the birds are singing
Two total strangers but that ain't what they're thinking
Outside it's cold, misty and it's raining
They got each other neither one's complaining
He say's I sorry but I'm out of milk and coffee
Never mind sugar we can watch the early movie

If you want my body and you think I'm sexy
come on sugar let me know
If you really need me just reach out and touch me
come on honey tell me so

If you really need me just reach out and touch me
come on sugar let me know
If you really, really, really, really need me
just let me know
Just reach out and touch me
If you really want me
just reach out and touch me
come on sugar let me know
If you really need me just reach out and touch me
come on sugar let me know
If you, if you, if you really need me
just come on and tell me so