The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) ยท Fri, Feb 15, 1974 - 47
Religion
Guru Maharaj Ji worshippers believe he is God
By Erwin Block
of the Gazette
It's functional for them to turn to this thing which promises them the Second Coming of Santa Claus
- Paul Krassner., editor of the realist
Guru Maharaj Ji is the Lord not Santa Claus
Rennie Davis, Chicago 8 co-conspirator
The hall on the second floor of a Rachel Street East storefront building is painted white and is sparsely furnished with a few rows of wooden chairs. You stub out your cigarette and remove your shoes, as instructed,and join about 75 men and women, mostly in their 20's, who are sitting and chatting quietly. Some are giggling.
The scent of sandalwood incense begins to fill the air as you approach the altar at the front of the hall. There you see a large blow-up of a young Indian boy with a curious half smile on his face, his left palm raised in the Asian sign of peace. A rock band sets up its instruments and starts playing a gospel like tune. The refrain says 'O Lord, we've been waiting so long. We thought you would never come.'
And they begin another meeting at the Divine Light Centre, one of nine such places across Canada where the message of a new spiritual phenomenon is beginning to take root among alienated and dissatisfied men and women. The converted believe that the Lord has come and he is the same chubby Indian boy whose face adorns the altar. Guru Maharaj Ji, the 15-year-old Perfect Master worshipped by some 2,000 Canadians and up to 6 million around the world .
His followers say they have received a precious gift of knowledge from Him and when they enter the hall and approach the author they clasp their hands to their foreheads and prostrate themselves in front of his picture.
Most of the people in the room have come to receive this knowledge from a visiting Indian Mahatma, a learned disciple who makes regular forays into Canada for this purpose. They have already heard the message 30 or 40 times from "premies" (Hindi for lovers of God) as devotees are called. They have all seen a movie on the guru at least three times and they all read the many publications of the Divine Light Mission, the organisational arm of the Guru Maharaj Ji movement and so they are ready.

Guru God?
Fifteen-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji also has his
followers in Montreal, who meet in
a Divine Light Centre.
WE'RE VEGETABLES
The warm-up speaker begins "We're not alive," he exclaims. "We're walking, talking vegetables. We're all missing something deep … But there is true knowledge, knowledge of the truth, and its inside us. Guru Maharaj Ji gives us this knowledge. He lets us drink from the fountain of pure nectar within us ."
Next is Mahatma Trivenanand, the visiting disciple who has come to Montreal to induct new believers into the faith. he speaks of the guru's affluent lifestyle, his Roll Royce cars and his numerous dwellings in the United States and says those people who question it are "confused."
Those who serve Guru Maharaj Ji don't have this confusion. Mary Magdalene served the Lord Jesus by washing his feet. Those who serve Guru Maharaj Ji offer Him gifts. It is the same thing.
"Guru Maharaj Ji is no ordinary man," he continues. He is the supreme power, the light of the world. He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He is Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha and Socrates: the Supreme Personality.
This is the same kind of talk that the young initiates have been hearing over and over again for months. Many followers have said that at first they thought it was trivia. But after constant repetition they begin to believe fervently that this is The Answer, The Way.
Following his talk the Mahatma questions each prospective devotee. He asks them how many times they have attended such sessions, called "Satsang" (Hindi for Company of Truth) and how many times they have seen the movie. Then premise must vouch for their answers and those selected for receiving knowledge are moved to one side of the room.
WOULD YOU CUT YOUR HAIR
Just to prove that not anyone can partake of his privilege one boy with long hair is asked if he would cut his locks. He objects and he is told to leave. The Mahatma comments that is obviously not ready to receive knowledge. "You have to be ready to offer your head on a plate," he says. Like most Indians he doesn't like long hair and comments that "these days you can't tell the difference between boys and girls."
This doesn't seem to bother anyone in the hall. In fact they consider themselves fortunate not to have suffered the same fate as the long-haired boy, who had been going to satsangs for more than a year. They are ready to receive knowledge.
The actual knowledge-giving session lasting 5 to 8 hours, was performed the next day for about 30 devotees. An equal number were asked to go to Ottawa for this purpose, since the number who can be converted in one session is limited.
The ceremony began at five the next morning and it was held at the Divine Clinic on Harvard St., a medical centre run by a devotee of Guru Maharaji. Dr. Stephen Ayre describes the sessions as somewhat akin to an acid trip. "Everyone gets high. The Mahatmas turn you on. They tell you what you already know, about your feelings."
"When you receive knowledge you are 100 percent with God. You get true peace and true love and this leads you to devotion and liberation," says Ayre, who used to be a regular worshipper at the United Church in Town of Mount Royal where he was born.
BECOME BRAINWASHED
"About a year after I received knowledge I became brainwashed. In my heart I started to feel love. I said to myself, 'My God I'm in love with a 15-year-old boy'."
Since then Ayre has donated about $3,000 to the movement and he now donates about one-tenth of his earnings as an MD. "I used to give a lot more trying to buy my way into the Kingdom of God. The whole idea is get free from attachment to money. This is one aspect of serving Him ."
Ayre and other premies talk about seeing the inner light of God during their knowledge sessions and subsequent meditations. Some say the light they see inside is like a perfect diamond, large and glittering. Ayre said it is real but another physician, Dr Larry Brilliant who has been involved in the San Francisco underground for years, calls it a "parlour trick" having to do with pressure on the optic nerve.
He has explained that when someone meditates for two hours a day and has the will to believe in the first place, when he has found a family of fellow believers, pressure on the optic nerve makes him believe he is seeing the inner light of God.
Paul Krasner, editor of the realist and an influential observer of the American underground said in a recent debate that you can't separate the experience from the conditioning that goes with it."
Krassner was debating with Rennie Davis who was indicted with the Chicago Eight for conspiracy to disrupt the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Later Davis dropped out of the protest movement and has since become one of Guru Maharaj Ji's most famous followers. Here's how he describes his first knowledge session.
BLOWING MY MIND
"First thing I saw was a golden circl. My eyes were completely closed, I was in a dark room, and I saw in my head the circle right in the centre of my forehead. I looked in the circle for a while and then there was a diamond spinning right in the centre of the circle. I watched that for a while and it just started getting larger and larger and it fascinated me. I was blowing my mind … "
"You learn to use this knowledge to control the mind; in that control you experience this peace that Guru Maharaji is promising and it really is there. You see by your own experience that this is the way I was meant to be."
This feeling of peace has been the strongest selling point for more than 800 Quebecers who have become followers of the guru in the past two years.
Nancy Marshall, a local devotee, is a former model and Playboy Club "bunny" who by her own description was "bummed out" and looking for something to pull her out of her rut.
Like many of his followers Nancy had been involved in the Church as a teenager in her native New Brunswick. She had taught Sunday school and sung in the church choir but "it doesn't make any sense today."
"I checked out a Sri Chinmoy a(n Indian teacher) and transcendental meditation but none of them were right. I was into drugs a lot but they brought me down."
"Then I met someone who told me about Guru Maharaj Ji and I went to a satsang. I didn't like it at first. I couldn't make any sense of what they were saying. It wasn't sophisticated or cool at all.
"But after a few weeks I began to understand that everything is energy and the centre of energy is in you. Only the Guru Maharaj Ji could take you to that centre .
I FEEL GOOD
"The knowledge has made me relax, above all. I feel good, clear, high and it worked really fast."
Following her conversion, Nancy abandoned her share of a waterbed store, she sold most of her possessions and began a series of trips to the U.S. and England to hear the message from the Guru himself.
Today she lives in an apartment with seven other devotees in a kind of spiritual commune. None of them smoke or use drugs and according to Nancy they follow three basic rules: be clean, be quiet, and follow the Golden Rule.
"We get high through meditation and there are no excesses, no freak outs and no crashes."
Nancy says the Guru's message has worked wonders for junkies in Montreal who have stopped using heroin and have turned to the spiritual life as a replacement.
Seeking divine light
Judy Wong, Jan Moras, and Nancy Marshall, followers of the Guru Maharaj Ji, live in a Premie (lover of God) house on Milton St., a spiritual commune. The guru promises knowledge and unity with God.
"One guy's methadone treatments ended the day that Mahatma came to Montreal and he went to meet him to receive the knowledge … Guru Maharaj Ji is getting awards in the U.S. for junkie treatment programmes and that is important."
For her, as for the other devotees, questions of Guru Maharaj Ji's affluent life style are not important.
"God is beyond ideas and possessions. There are a lot of premies around with a lot of money and they want to give it away. To have it accepted is a great honour."