Thursday, March 8, 1979 * The Miami News * 3A

Young guru's followers,
members of Miami chapter
spruce up gray mansion

Maharaji's Divine Light may shine on Palm Island

Eliott Rodriguez
Miami News Reporter

Is the Guru Maharaj Ji, known as the "Divine Master" to his four million followers around the world, moving to Palm Island?

"I've heard a lot of rumours about it," said Ben Kanner, president of the Palm-Hibiscus Star Island Property Owners' Association, "I'm going to check into it."

"I can't comment on that," said a member pf the guruu's Divine Light Mission, now based in Denver, but planning to move to Miami soon.

He gave "no comments" to several of the questions about the church and told a reporter to "have a wonderful night" before hanging up.

For the past few weeks, workers who said they are members of the Miami chapter of the Divine Light Mission, located at 4029 Le Jeune Rd, have been refurbishing a two story home at 94 Palm Ave, on Palm Island. They refused to say whether the work is being done for the guru.

About a dozen "premies," as followers of the guru are called, have painted, put fences, installed carpets and moved furniture around the elegant, gray-colored mansion, which has an enormous royal palm tree growing out of its circular driveway.

The 50,000 member Divine Light Mission, led by a 22-year-old Indian known as Guru Maharaj Ji, announced yesterday that it is moving its headquarters from Denver to Miami.

A church spokesman in Denver said it has not chosen a location in Miami, but that the guru, his wife and three children have outgrown their estate near Malibu Beach, Ccalif., and are looking for a new home. Before moving to California they ourgrew a $250,000 home in Denver.

The mansion is across the bridge from another mansion, located on Star Island and home to members of the Zion Coptic Church.

The decision to move to the church in Miami "has something to do" with the refurbishing said a young man standing behind the mansion's iron gate last night. He insisted, however, that the guru is not moving to Palm Island.

He also insisted he was not a member of the church. But when pressed to be more specific, he pulled out the business card of the church's press secretary in Denver. He later admitted that the handful of men and women working on the mansion were church members.

The owner of the mansion, Mrs Harald Darragh, could not be reached for comment.

Church spokesman Joe Anctil said the guru decided to move his church as part of a decentralization program. Miami was picked because of its accessibility to overseas flights and the increasing number of mission festivals held in Florida, said Anctil.

One of those festivals, a worship convention in honor of the guru, will be held next month at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The refurbishing of the Palm Island mansion is imilar to the one conducted July 1977 on a home on Rivo Alto Island off the Venetian Causeway. The same painting, hammering and sawing was done by a similar group of young people at that $500,00 home, and the guru spent 120 days at the mansion while here for a convention, which drew 10,000.

"They turned our neigborhood upside down and shook it," one Rivo Alto resident said at the time. Another resident described the cult members as "exceedingly kind and gentle."

The guru,who says he has 50,000 follwers in the U.S. and four million worldwide, became head of the Divine Light Mission after his father's death. He moved to the United Stae when he was 12 years old. He is married to a former airline stewardess, who was one of his premies.

Asked how he felt about the guru's possible move to Palm Island, Kanner, president of the property owners association, said he had mixed emotions.

"If it's not going to cause any problmes on our island, fine," said Kanner, who lives at 287 Palm Ave. "But if there will be problems, that's another story."

Kanner said he does not foresee any problems as long as the house remains a single family dwelling, which it is zoned as. But he said neighbors would object to holding meetings at the thouse because that would cause traffic problems.

"I don't know anything about the cult itself so it's pretty hard for me to say whether I object or not," said Harry Shubin, who lives at 150 Palm Ave. "I would presume the zoning laws wiould have to be considered and obeyed."

If the guru does move to Miami, it probably means he will bring along his two Cessnas, a Rolls Royce, two Mercedes-Benzes and his boat, all given to him by his premies.