PMT #023: Premie Satsang, Guru Puja Festival, Amherst Massachusets, 7th July 1974
This page contains lyrics of songs and excerpts of speeches by various premies involved in administering Divine Light Mission in 1974 including Bob Mishler the President of Divine Light Mission from it's inception in the USA until 1976 when he apostasised and revealed some of Prem's dirty secrets and Rick Berman, Executive Financial Director of Divine Light Mission.
Song: Talking Blues
It was back in December of '57
A child was born, it was a gift from heaven
His mother was holy and his father was already the satguru
So we asked for the Knowledge, what else could he do?
Well he sat right down and lo and behold
He realized God before he was eight years old
And the voice of life said you are he
And asked him to begin for you and me
Balyogeshwar: born Lord of the yogis that Guru Maharaj Ji
The world it was dark and illusion was thick
The young guru knew he had to get on the stick
If he was gonna bring peace he'd need no rest
So he grabbed his Mahatma's and headed out west
It's a good thing for me and you he did it too
Now about this time I don't know about you
I was sinking real fast I didn't have a clue
I was trying to escape like it was going out of style
I'd go weeks on end without cracking a smile
I was bummed out
When I saw his face on a poster at school
I read the message and thought that's no fool
He said come to me and I'll show you the light
So I checked it out and by God he was right
There it was brightest light I'd ever seen
Burning, sizzling, crackling, carry on
Now the months have gone by and it's plain to see
Premies are popping up like pears on a tree
So grab your beragons and hold on tight
Everyone's diving into the light
Divine noises and that good old Mountain Dew
Name by day, week by week
All the folks without Knowledge are getting a little more freaked
Now don't get mad I'm not trying to judge
Just trying to say without grace it's hard to budge
Even when you've got Knowledge
You know what I'm talking about
So if you think there's a real end to this song
Don't try to think just feel the satsang
If you don't got knowledge, you get it now
If you know the secret it helps somehow
I guess it's all down to just meditation now
We're going to hear from Bob Mishler who is the president of Divine Light Mission and uh Bob's going to give some satsang and soon after that we're expecting a visit from the divine personality so Jai Sat Cit Anand brothers and sisters
Bob Mishler:
Jai Sat Cit Anand brothers and sisters,
Wow, it's really incredible to be here with everyone as you've probably already noticed and uh what we're going to do now is, we're going to have a divine community workshop and this really is of interest to every premie actually, because what that means is asked, you know, all living together and we can see, you know, when we come together as a big festival like this what the potentialities are, you know, if brothers and sisters find ways of being able to live together because that love, you know, that we feel in these festivals, that love that we have for Guru Maharaj Ji it's possible for us to share that all the time and to help each other remember, you know, the point that were all coming from and be able to, to express that love which is the only feeling that's worth having in our lives all the time. If we really, you know, put some energy into getting ourselves together because really, Guru Maharaj Ji is like our father, we're all brothers and sisters, we're all the kids and we have to learn to get it on together and it takes a while, you know, to work out all of the difficulties that that implies and that's the job of Divine United Organization and a divine community is our goal but, you know, this divine community is not just limited to, to the premies that are here today, this is the kind of thing that we have to develop and expand until it can acute-include all the brothers and sisters who live on, in this world because when Guru Maharaj Ji first came to the United States there were only about 10 people, 10 Americans who had received Knowledge and only like about a half a dozen of them working to, you know, to get that first visa you know, to, to get that first ticket together and, and find a place for Guru Maharaj Ji to stay and invite him to come to the United States to spread the Knowledge and when Guru Maharaj Ji came really he did everything himself.
You know it's like we really didn't know what to do and we have to be told everything and we made a lotta mistakes. We created a lot of confusion but in spite of all the mistakes we made and all the confusion we created many people received Knowledge. Many people came, you know, to experience the grace of Guru Maharaj Ji touching their lives and opening up their hearts and really making it possible for them to experience a deeper love, a deeper appreciation for life that they had ever had before and so consequently Divine Light Mission began to grow in spite of itself, you know, and, and during the course of those first years of development of the Mission, you know, Divine Light Mission became synonymous with a particular structure that we imitated that was brought over from India which was the ashram structure so consequently a lot of people just got left out altogether and, and there was no instructions given to the bulk of premies as to what they would do, what they were to do in order to uh to really, you know, get their life into a flow of dedication, to be able to serve Guru Maharaj Ji and his movement and so consequently we found that a lot of people who took Knowledge in the beginning never really experienced a way to practically implement it into their lives and consequently many of them fell away and, and never practiced the Knowledge at all.
And, and then we realized upon him, you know, repeating the same mistake over and over again that if people receive Knowledge and they don't practically utilize it in their lives there's gotta be something with our program, something wrong with our program that isn't, you know, facilitating people and at Millennium in Houston could Guru Maharaj Ji called the first international meeting of Divine Light Mission and he said that our priority now wasn't on doing prachar, wasn't on the outreach to bring more people in to receive Knowledge but it was on taking care of the people who had already received Knowledge, that we have to put our priority on working with the organization to develop a social structure that could actually serve the needs of the premies because it, otherwise it's like a farmer who goes out and plans a field, you know, and he plans 15 acres and he only has the capacity to take care of one, you know what's the point of planting being the other 14? Cause if he doesn't take care of them, nothing is going to grow anyway and if we, if this Knowledge is the Knowledge of our common unity then we have two come together as a community.
We have to come together, we have to live together and work together in a very cooperative and divine way, you know, a way that manifests that love that we all know to be at the essence of life, to be the truth of this life and so during the last few months we've really put a lot of emphasis on developing the communities throughout the country and everywhere where there was a Divine Light Mission ashram we put a lot of emphasis on, you know, working out all of the difficulties that come as a result of our personalities, that come as a result of our, you know, the trips that we're constantly laying on one another and to try and find a real means of being able to coordinate our activities and come together and to expand the scope of what the Mission means so it's not any longer just synonymous with uh the ashrams but that the Mission is really understood as that, that purpose Guru Maharaj Ji has come into this world for, that this is his mission and as devotees of Guru Maharaj Ji, you know, we, it's also our mission and that that mission is to establish peace on earth.
Upbeat instrumental with some lyrics
oh love is everywhere (repeated)
oh love is in your hands
oh love is in the air
oh love is at his feet
oh love is guaranteed
oh love is really neat
oh etc
Male
And now all we have to do is expand our whole you know consciousness. Beyond this, beyond, you know, the box that we have put around the divine community of, you know, a project of communal living to seeing that actually the divine community extends to each and every premie that wishes to plug-in and wishes to dedicate himself and we have to break down all the concepts and barriers and all the wedges that were driven through each and every premie and Divine Light Mission because every premie has to see that actually he is Divine Light Mission and that whether he's living in an ashram, in an applicant ashram, in the Divine Information Center or in a Divine Light Center, just raising his family or going to school and living with his parents, whatever, you know, that premie, you know, is part of the divine community if he so wishes to dedicate his his life in that way no matter what his living situation and, you know, we mustn't like, we mustn't like box ourselves and, you know, limit, limit ourselves by our own conception of what the divine community is.
You know because we've held ourselves back a lot by the boxes we've put around ourselves and a lot of people, a lot of people don't matter what their situation is still see a separation between themselves and the, and you know, the overall organization of Divine Light Mission. But this is really something that we have to see beyond now. We have to get beyond our concepts of Divine Light Mission as being those, you know, monks and nuns who are living in an ashram. We have to get beyond our concepts of Divine Light Mission as being a group of people, you know, wearing suits on the sixth floor of a building in Denver and we have to get beyond Divine Light Mission but Guru Maharaj Ji's family on this planet and we see, you know, our role in that and not lose sight of the fact that, you know, each and every one of us no matter what we're doing in this world has a role, a distinct part to play in the development of, you know, the divine community and, and in the development and growth of Divine Light Mission.
Male, loud, macho voice
I've been hanging out with Guru Maharaj Ji in my heart for a couple of years now and I really feel at this festival that like, like Guru Maharaj Ji said we have become a family. For a long time I couldn't plug-in to Divine Light Mission and now, you know, after a couple of years it feels like, you know, Divine Light Mission is uh is no longer them and you know, hahaha, it's us, you know.
Male
It's like uh and it's coming together and it's a family and it's warm and it's love like uh I don't know, some brother was saying to me the difference between Millennium and this festival is that like all the other festivals we, at least I know I did, I went to the festivals feeling like I was lacking something and that getting near Maharaji, getting together with all my brothers and sisters was going to give me a buzz, was gonna boost me up a little higher, awaken me to something you know and like since Millennium you know Maharaji said Millennium is here, you know, it's a reality, you know, and like we all got brought up there and, and like coming into this festival felt like "Yeah, everything's all right" you know and then the festival took place and it's still all right, you know, and right now it's all right and tomorrow it's going to be even better, you know, and it's like we've all, we've all become a family of love and it feels, it feels really really good and like I don't know I just uh it feels like, I feel like it's gonna manifest now, I feel all the grassroots premies that have been hanging loose out there that they couldn't respond to systems and all that are gonna, I gonna find lots for themselves, I gonna, I really gonna come together and be one unit. Jai Sat Cit Anand.
Female well spoken, light high voice
In the past there really hasn't been a place for every premie to plug-in and do service and now what we really realize is that every single premie as to be able to actively devote his life to Guru Maharaj Ji and during the past months we've been writing all these manuals, we've been sending out propagation, guidelines and all these different things and what has been created is a place where every premie, the householder, student, uh who ever you are you know you can just really plug-in and be a part of the Mission, really a part of that thing that is really going to bring peace to the whole world and there are Divine Information Centers springing up all over the country and really you know you can become our Divine Information Center just one person living in a city somewhere, living out in the boonies, wherever you are too can be a Divine Information Center and all that, all you have to do is communicate, that's all we want you know to have that communication flowing so that, you know, National Headquarters can help you in every way and you can help us. We have to help each other.
Let me tell you about a Divine Information Center. It's really, it's just, it's really simple way of life, you know, all you have to do is just do that service to Maharaji that propagation of this Knowledge as, as much as you can do it. You know if you can just have a program once a week, do that. If you can hold satsang every night, do that. If not, that's okay too, you know, just be that vehicle to tell people about Maharaji's Knowledge. You don't have to do social service programs, you don't have to uh contact the media but if you want to, you can and it's just that will help you in every way to do what you can do. Whatever you're capable of all the help is there that you need to do it the right way, to do it the best way, to be representing Guru Maharaj Ji in the most beautiful way.
Excerpt of a speech by Guru Maharaj Ji (aka Prem Rawat) 7th July 1974
Folk Ballad
After too many years of searching
To see what this life's about
I finally been set free by a child
Who has taken away my doubts
He gave me his eye of Knowledge
And opened my ears to the sound
That creates all the beauty that's in the world
While he keeps it spinning around
While he keeps it spinning around
After too many years of learning
I've finally come to know
Of a love that will never stop growing
And the reasons the rivers flow
The reason is right here among us
He's dwelling here in our midst
He's revealing his ancient Knowledge
Cause it's something he thinks that we missed
It's something he thinks that we missed
How long will it take till you find out
How blissful your life can be
In the Kingdom of God in your very own hands
Lie the key to eternity
The lepers are cleansed in the river
And their sins washed away in its glow
And the lion will gently lie down with the lamb
And the family of God will grow
Yes the family of God will grow
la la la la la la la
Side 2
Rick Berman (?)
So I'm going to speak briefly you know to you about some of the things that are going on in the Mission financially and then sort of very simply and practically include you into it. Now where we stand actually is that the Mission is pretty much stagnant in its activities due to a lack of financial support. There's about, I'd say about 800 premies over the past year that have worked themselves pretty much crazy trying to support the Mission. You know we can stay where we are, we can support ourselves, we can continue to meet our overheads each month, we can chip away at the bills we've incurred from other festivals and so on but actually that's not what we want to do. We want to go forward, you know we want to move ahead, you know we want to do, we want to do what Maharaji has requested. Maharaji has requested that the premies do service and the practicality is that at this time to serve Maharaji's Mission because Maharaji's mission is nothing other than the extension of his body. You know we have to understand this, Maharaji has started this Mission, Maharaji has put it into motion, Maharaji has given it direction, Maharaji has given it projects to work on, Maharaji has given us the Grace to be able to do the things that have been done in the past but in order to move ahead it's going to take the dedication and it's going to take the, the desire on behalf of all the premies, on behalf of all of Maharaji's devotees to get behind it and to push and to work.
You know and at this point what's most practical is for people to be sending in a fixed amount of money on a weekly basis. You know we were talking about a figure like 10%. You know 10% of whatever you earn each week should come off the top and should go to Maharaji's Mission because that's what's needed at this point. You know that's what, that's what has to come about, you know, and I know it's going to happen, you know, because Maharaji has graced us with his darshan, has graced us with his love and there's no way that anybody can turn their back on that, there's no way that anybody can't realize, you know that at this point as his devotees we've got to take that step that first step in committing our lives to His movement. His movement at this time has been defined as Divine Light Mission. It needs your support because the fruits of that action are dedicated at Maharaji's feet. You know and what more can Maharaji you know do for us, you know, and it's time that we started doing for Him. Starting, putting into action all the plans that he has laid out for us.
Guru Maharaj Ji (The grass is always greener)
And it's like we just had Guru Puja in Copenhagen and it was fantastic, it was completely fantastic but it's like everybody just came together ??? And they were realizing and it's like nobody has any ideas on how much happened as I've felt from seeing the premies happy, from seeing the premies realizing this Knowledge more and more because I know how beautiful, how important this Knowledge is. And it's like this is why there is this whole Mission.
Bob Mishler
Here we are this great big family and now how, what are we supposed to do, how are we going to get it on? We got to find a starting place, you know, and the starting place usually is the place where we take the first step and the first step in practical dedication and I hope that at this sick, this festival is successful it's successful in communicating one thing and that one thing has to be communicated over and over again until we really all understand it and do it and that is to take the first step of practical dedication to assume the responsibility for the success of Guru Maharaj Ji's movement to bring peace on this earth on our own shoulders and the first step of practically manifesting our devotion to support Guru Maharaj Ji's mission and the most tangible way to do that is to support it financially and like the formula that we arrived at that seems to be pretty much the traditional one and and pretty much the applicable one in this case that all the premies should use you know to take that first initial step, that shouldn't be the limitation of how we involve ourself but it should be the first step in if we take that then we can take more in supporting this Mission of doing the work of Guru Maharaj Ji is to constantly, you know, dedicate 10% of our earnings to His work, to His movement.
You know and in the past lots of times we felt uh those of us who were living in guru of Maharaji's ashrams we felt, you know, a little insecure about asking premies to, to uh give money to the Mission but the point is if everybody takes that first step and continues to take it then their dedication is complete in the fact that it's constant, it's constant and once a person is constantly dedicating his life then he's facilitated in constantly being able to do meditation, he's facilitated in constantly being able to give satsang and he's, because he's doing service and additional programs that serve the needs of the premies that really have to establish facilities in our communities that, that we need to come together as a family can be developed. You know Guru Maharaj Ji was talking about in each community we should have what we call the DUO community club, you know it's sort of like beyond the scope of the ashram, the DUO community club, a place where all of the premies come together and not only have satsang but if you have it together enough you can create a complete facility to meet the needs of all of your, you know, aspects of your community. You can have, you know, training programs for your children, you can have recreational activities for the premies, you can have meditation rooms to get together in, you can have, you know, like workshops to learn yoga and the things together, you know, Guru Maharaj Ji wants us to be together as a family, he wants us, you know, to come together and create centers of activity where we do come together as a family whether that's one single-family unit living off alone somewhere or that's a whole group of hundreds of premies living in the same city. The point is that we have to take the first step and once that first step is taken that we continue in this path of dedication in the service of Guru Maharaj Ji.
Macho Male Voice
Now Bob about dedicating 10% of the income um it's the kind of thing that I want to do because I can handle, I can grasp that. I have one fear that it'll go for a third or fourth car for Maharaji instead of say the carpeting he needs in his bedroom right now.
Bob Mishler
This is the kind of thing that I guess uh really comes from uh not having enough trust, you know, in each other, uh and we have two you know earn that trust and we also have to work to develop that trust and part of the way that we work to develop that trust is to, is to work together, you know and that I don't think we'd be so stupid if Guru Maharaj Ji needed carpeting in his room, you know, to, to go out and spend it on another car but, you know, quite often out of just immaturity on a lot of different levels we do, we have spent money unwisely but I'm just standing on this stage before I was realizing at the first Guru Puja in 1972 we built the whole stage instead of building it out of scaffolding and putting the top on it we built it all out of wood, out of lumber, you know, and of course we had to pay a lot of money for that lumber, you know, and then when we sold it we didn't get very much in return and the price difference that we lost uh we could have easily rented scaffolding and save some money had we known that that was the correct way to build a stage but like you learn a lot from your mistakes, you know, and we've made enough mistakes to have learned a great deal you know and uh and I would hope that uh nobody would you know hold back you know in terms of their own personal dedication for fear of how it's going to be used because first of all with that initial 10% that's up to you man, that's up to you, that's for your dedication and you shouldn't have any attachment to it with your mind (getting a bit defensive and passively agressively holier than thou, you're in your mind) of how it's going to be utilized because it's gonna be utilized to continue the existing programs of Divine Light Mission which currently even to run at the level they're running are running at a deficit you know and, and to expand those programs, to be able to facilitate you know the spread of this Knowledge and of the realization of this and Knowledge by building our communities and the overall direction of this movement is at, you know, it is the responsibility of Guru Maharaj Ji and the people there in the positions of you know trust and responsibility in the Mission out there you know by the Agya of Guru Maharaj Ji and by his permission with his, with the awareness, his awareness of their limitations and so even if we do make mistakes we have to learn from where not going to make such serious mistakes because Guru Maharaj Ji is keeping an eye on us.
Young woman singer, finger-picked guitar
Do what you realize to be true
Follow your heart my love and soon you will begin to see his glory
A silent story of creation unfolds before your eyes
Silent miracles of life to see
Behold the beauties of the land and seas
Days of play amazes me
Contained within his glory lies a simple story
But only those who listen will understand
Sparkles of light, feeling delight
The music of truth, the mountain of youth
So open your eyes and you'll be surprised
At the beauty you'll see in your soul
Open your real eyes to see, to see
The kingdom of heaven waits to be explored
With silent words you'll know the Lord
(repeat)
Durga Ji (Mrs Marolyn Rawat) excerpt from speech
So premies, when you all go back to your communities and ashrams,the one thing that Maharaj Ji requests at every satsang, his primary agya, is to do meditation. If you do meditation, the service and the satsang will come naturally. The meditation brings this. When you meditate, you really start to know Guru Maharaj Ji. The more you know him, the more you love him. And the more you love him, the more you want to serve him. And the more you serve him, the more you know him. This goes on, continuously, forever.
And so premies, today in the darshan line it was just so, so beautiful to see all of you having the holy darshan of our Lord. And I want you to know that every day, when I am with Maharaji and I do pranam, it's for all of you. It's for every one of you. Because you and I are one. (Bolie Shri Satgurudev Maharaj Ki Jai. Bolie Shri Satgurudev Maharaj Ki Jai) And so now premies, I ((Bolie Shri Satgurudev Maharaj Ki Jai. We love you Durga Ji) I love you too.
Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) excerpt from speech
… and we have to understand that we are all a big family now. And you know like, if somebody asks question, "Well, why are you doing that? Why are you doing that?" All you can say to them is, "Listen. You mind, this is a big family. (Laughter) And we are doin' it. If a family does something, you mind?" We are a big family.
And it's like, we are a big garland. And we have been sewn together by this thread of love which everybody dreams of but we don't because we already have been, we are a big, beautiful family and it's, it's just gonna be all beautiful because if it is night now, it's gonna be day tomorrow and so just don't bother, just let it flow. It'll be there.
And blessings to all the premies, and try to do as much prachar as much-because it's so beautiful. And this is what we want to tell to the other people. Thank you very much. (We love you Maharaji.) Love you too. (Bolie Shri Satgurudev Maharaj Ki Jai)
Heavy rock band song
I was drowning in a sea of illusion …