Word: guru
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Concentrating on the knowledge itself "brings clarity to our minds and our lives. It helps us to become selfless people--and that is what the earth needs, a world of servants," said another Harvard devotee. "The Guru's only claim is personal peace, and the rest is going to happen. The role of Divine Light Mission in world peace is questionable, but personal knowledge can unify people...
...Guru has been able to incorporate many of the characteristics of successful mass movements into his doctrine. He has found a meditative technique which brings satisfaction to the "seekers" who are willing to embrace it without question, enabling his followers to display an almost childlike calm. And through the vagueness of his doctrine he has avoided challenging any of the pre-existing beliefs of his devotees...
...FORMULATED a dogma of social change which merely points to society's ills without suggesting specific change. To spread his message, the Guru has created his own media, including And It Is Divine, a monthly magazine (with a centerfold picture of the Guru in every issue), a new book entitled Who is Guru Maharaj Ji?, and a slick 70 minute feature film with the same title. The problems of pollution, war, and poverty provide easy targets for his public relations men who contrast them with the blissful smiles of satisfied devotees...
...What the Guru plays upon are some of the themes that Americans have lived with for so long. He has captured some of those who reacted against American materialism, and supplied them with a new material good--the mental pill that produces bliss. To a nation spanned by identical Holiday Inns he has brought a religion whose one size fits...
...hard to predict great success for the Guru in America. To broaden his nationwide appeal, he must bring older people into his youth-dominated movement. He must also move away from the hard core of people troubled by grave personal problems who have so far staffed his movement, and this will be harder to do. However, for some people, the qualities which most enhance the Divine Light bid for a mass audience--the freedom from questioning and the uncomplicated bliss which total belief in the Guru provides--are the most repulsive and this will hurt recruiting efforts...