An Ex-Unity School Teacher reports Posted on forum V

Date: Wed, Jul 12, 2000 at 04:18:37 (GMT)

From: Unity school ex

Subject: Jagdeo's 'children's satsang'

Dear forum posters - I have only learned abut Jagdeo's sexual abuse of children in the last 6 months or so. I do have something to add; although I didn't actually see him do anything, I do know that he did some of this stuff at the Unity School in Denver during the 1977-78 period.

I was a teacher at that time, and devoted premie. I volunteered to be a camp counselor for the summer at the Unity School, as I had the time off from my regular teaching job, and was very interested in doing service at the school and learning more about the waldorf philosophy as well. I worked there for two summers.

One day I learned that Jagdeo did special 'children satsangs' at the school. This seemed odd to me, and I questioned one of the other teachers about it. She replied that it was so beautiful that Jagdeo took such a special interest in children and regularly did these. He would get all the children in a room, turn off the lights, have them lie down in a circle, and tell them stories. He told them not to talk about it with others. The teacher told me it was 'kids satsang'.

I felt this was very wierd, as I clearly remember that Maharaji gave a number of satsangs about how we should not tell kids what to believe. He used to say that adults always wanted to jam their beliefs down the throats of kids and that he didn't like it. I agreed with this, and remembered numerous times that he had talked about this, so when I heard about 'kids satsang' it immediately raised a red flag.

I asked another teacher about this, but they didn't know about it, and I gave up trying to find out more. But I will tell you this - it's quite likely that he was playing his games with the kids at Unity School in Denver in those days (late 70's) and there are probably kids from that era who were abused by him.

It makes me sick to think of this. How can m stay silent about all this? These are the children of the people who gave their lives to him, lock, stock and barrel. If one of his kids were there, would he be so smug and silent?

You sicken me, Maharaji.

Divine Light Mission publication Golden Age February 1977

http://www.prem-rawat-bio.org/dlm_pubs/goldenage/36/international.html

International: Golden Age No. 36

No. 36, February 1977

MAHARAJ JI ON THE MOVE

Quite a few months back now, Guru Maharaj Ji told some premies in Denver that he was "going to start getting into Divine Light Mission." Perhaps at that

time they wondered what exactly Maharaj Ji meant-how much could one person do? The answer to that question is becoming plainer every day: if that one person is Guru Maharaj Ji, he can do a lot. More, in fact, than one could imagine possible….

Atlantic City

First, there was the Atlantic City festival. Guru Maharaj Ji explained himself in the satsangs he gave, how he came to be there. On his way back to Malibu to rest after his tour of South America, Africa and Europe, he was handed a premie-made brochure inviting him to a weekend meditation retreat being held in mid-December at the New Jersey seaside resort by the communities in the area. Impressed but tired, he said nothing. Then next thing anybody knew, he was in Atlantic City, and so too were 3,200 premies from all over the eastern United States and Canada.

There was a Saturday night

7

The Golden Age

birthday party with Maharaj Ji, complete with what he called "casual satsang", and a huge cake. There was slow, personal darshan on Sunday, and a powerful evening satsang program. The following day Maharaj Ji met with the coordinators of the east coast communities; he also found time to interview about 15 initiator candidates.

Many people who attended the weekend felt it was "really a turning point" for them. Maharaj Ji himself was very pleased with the program - as Bill Patterson

told the Denver staff, "Atlantic City was really significant, Maharaj Ji really felt that. He was very happy with the whole thing that happened there, the response of premies, the love that was there, the sincerity that was there. Something happened that was more than just a satsang program, there was like a change there, it was something …."

New initiators

Then it was back to California, where Guru Maharaj Ji spent the weeks around Christmas personally supervising the initiator training program. The first group

of five North American premies spent a little over a week at Malibu with Maharaj Ji and initiators Jagdeo and Ira Woods, before being sent out on tour in their respective countries. That gave the U.S. communities four new initiators: Sherry Weinstein and Michael Parragon from Buffalo, Richard Neal from Philadelphia, and John Hampton, who has been travelling with Maharaj Ji. Anne Johnston returned to Canada to tour the eastern cities there.

A week later, a second group of premies, including Australia's Julie Collet, arrived at Malibu for a ten-day stay with Maharaj Ji. Once again, Ira and Jagdeo were there to help out, and so too was Bill Patterson on his return from Denver (see p. 11). And once again, Maharaj Ji confirmed five new initiators at the end of this program. Besides Julie, there was Barbara Kolodney, who has been answering Guru Maharaj Ji's mail - Barbara has been touring the Rocky Mountains region of the U.S. since she became an initiator; Francisco Arce, regional coordinator for the mission in South America - Francisco went to Denver at the end of the program at Malibu; Randy Prouty from the U.S.; and Diego de Alzaga from Argentina. Guru Maharaj Ji instructed Randy and Diego to stay at Malibu for the time being. Krishnasukanand, who also participated in the program, has been in Canada since then.

From all accounts, the programs were an amazing experience for all who took part in them. Maharaj Ji played with the premies, gave satsang, urged them to ask any questions they might have, and to top it off, each group received a Knowledge review from Guru Maharaj Ji personally.

Portland

At the end of the second program, Maharaj Ji took his family, Bill Patterson, Michael Dettmers and the premies who normally do service at Malibu, and set off northwards for a camping holiday. Julie, who watched the little caravan of vehicles wind around the hill from the residence, remarked that she wondered what Maharaj Ji would get up to during the two-week journey. She felt sure, from her experience at Malibu, that he'd be doing something - for the premies who went with him at least. But as it turned out, more premies than just the few that travelled from Malibu benefitted from the trip: late in the evening of Wednesday, 26 January, premies all over North America were phoned and invited to a program with Guru Maharaj Ji, to be held on Sunday 30 January at Portland, Oregon, a town in the north-west of the United States. Surprise!

About 2,400 premies managed to arrive in time. On Saturday evening, there was a beautiful premie satsang program. Sunday afternoon, there was a slow, intimate darshan line. At the Sunday evening program, Guru Maharaj Ji spoke about the current situation of the world, and the necessity for premies to have much determination in their practice of Knowledge now. He told everybody the secret of meditation - just do it! After satsang, arti was sung, and Maharaj Ji went backstage to return with Hans Pal in his arms, followed by Durga Ji holding Premlata.

Again, Guru Maharaj Ji said he was very pleased with the program. On Monday, he met with all the community coordinators still in Portland.

When he returns to Malibu early in February, Maharaj Ji will be holding a third initiator training session.

There are ten premies in this group: Loring Baker, national coordinator from Venezuela; Celso Lousada, Brazilian national coordinator; Mattias Bretscher from Switzerland (Mattias, some Australian premies may remember, visited Australia to work as a ski-instructor in 1975); Nadine Le Bas from France; Claire Tremblay and Stuart McDougal from Canada; Judy Osborne from England, who had been doing service at Malibu - Judy was the midwife at Premlata's birth; Canadian Brian McDermott, who has been coordinating Unity School in Denver (see p. 22); Americans Joan Apter, who has been doing service in Los Angeles while Raja Ji was there, Eliot Brye, who has been working in the kitchen of the IHQ offices, and Los Angeles community coordinator David Smith.

Guru Maharaj Ji has also asked all the initiators currently touring in North America to return to Malibu this week. Maharaj Ji said that he had "put the engine in" and now he wants to "tune it up".

RAJA JI

Raja Ji, Guru Maharaj Ji's brother, and his wife Claudia have recently left Los Angeles for Rome. They plan to spend four months in Italy, and will be attending programs throughout Europe.

THE GOLDEN AGE

We had planned to include in this issue a financial breakdown of the costs involved in producing the Golden Age. As most people probably know, the 60¢ charge per issue does not cover our total production costs:the balance has, in the past, been met through AMP.

However all this may soon change. We are hoping that the paper has matured to the point where it can be self-sufficient. This will mean a price increase- probably to $1-00 or $1-20. It will also mean, however, that more AMP money will be available for programs, community activities, etc.

Anyway, we will let you know the financial details next issue-the reason they aren't included here is because we are still investigating the possibility of reducing costs in a couple of areas.

One point that may be worth mentioning is that whatever the price increase now, it is unlikely to rise again in the near future. Increased circulation is a good counterbalance for inflation, and our circulation has, over past weeks, begun to increase once more. We even received an order for 70 copies per month from South Africa recently….

http://prem-rawat-bio.org/dlm_pubs/divinetimes/197803/unityschool.html

Unity: Old and New

by Alan Cunningham

The sun goes up, the sun

goes down,

The whole world keeps spinning 'round. I love you and you love me.

And that's how simple life can be.

* * *

There is something special about the children. If you hadn't noticed. Watch them play. Watch their faces. Listen to their laughter, observe the now-and-then tears and even the fights as they come. Just watch and listen.

The children. They are already here and now.

Build a world that's clean and fresh and nice and new, the way we all wanted it to be all along. Build it gently and carefully. Not too fast, not too slow. Just carefully, with love. Look around for the elements that need to be treated with the most care.

The children, of course. And the flowers.

Take a child. Nurture her. Let him be. Allow her to flow through the wondrous stages of natural growth. Love him. Shelter her, care for him, let the energy work inside. Let stillness surround her. Let him be a flower, a bird, a tree.

Let her be.

Out here, in the Big World, where we Do Things, we pretend to be doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs. And teachers. How do you learn to be a teacher? Thousands of books have been written. Millions of words. College courses and college degrees. Theories. Systems.

Can it be we'll find that the Ultimate System, the Perfect Theory is … just … to let the children grow, inside and outside, without getting in the way?

* * *

It has been more than a year now since the Portland festival, when a sister from nearby Eugene, Oregon, passed through the darshan line and handed a small note to Bill Patterson.

Karen Gottlieb, director of the New Day nursery school in Eugene, had written: "Thanks for the beautiful service. Thank you and I love you."

Premies in Eugene hoped Maharaj Ji would visit the school and the retreat in that city not far from Portland. He didn't, but he responded to Karen's note with one of those offhand-yet-significant comments which can completely alter the course of premier' lives.

"They should just start calling themselves Unity School," he said, "and they should get in touch with Denver and communicate."

Word of this brief exchange got back to the faculty at Denver's Unity School more quickly than it reached Karen Gottlieb and the New Day staff. For reasons probably understood only by Maharaj Ji, Bill didn't get the chance to tell Karen about it until five months later, just before a week-long teachers conference in Denver.

Meanwhile, the Denver teachers were struck with the realization that only Maharaj Ji understands what it takes to make a Unity School. By comparison with the relatively simple daycare project in Eugene, Denver's Unity had become a large and well developed program.

Yet the two had something vital in common: Each was staffed by teachers who were strong in their devotion to Guru Maharaj Ji and their practice of his Knowledge.

Karen got the word from Bill just as she and the other teachers in Eugene were putting the final touches on a detailed report they'd been preparing for Maharaj Ji. Hastily, she prepared to leave for Denver.

Now, she had agya to communicate with Unity School. And, in Denver, this same agya caused the planners of the teachers conference to ask themselves a question: What did they have to share with

The answer came back loud and clear: All they had to share was satsang.

16 Divine Times

Since then, the school in Eugene has come close to completing its first year under the Unity School banner.

So what is a Unity School?

In Denver, it's a program which began in the fall of 1973 with a first grade and sixth grade in a little cluster of cottages. Now, with grades one through five, it operates in a beautifully remodeled apartment house at 1225 Emerson Street.

Early this year, it also took over a nearby building which had been the Denver community center for the past year and a half.

With the purchase of a new and much larger community hall several miles to the south, various Mission coordinators pondered whether to sell the old center or hang on to it.

As always, Grace settled the matter. The school dipped into a reserve fund, arranged a refinancing plan for the building and - with encouragement from Bill Patterson - moved in.

Michael Blakemore, the principal, is delighted. The building needs work, and the school will have to launch a fundraising drive to get it done before next fall, but when the work is completed, the new facility will more than double the amount of room available to Unity.

Its main hall will be an auditorium. And the teachers plan to take their classes there for afternoon projects. They're also hoping to build a science laboratory, a woodworking area and a pottery shop.

Michael envisions the building as an ideal location for classes in drama, speech, music and movement, as well as gym classes in cold weather. It also seems likely that Unity's sixth and seventh graders will be housed there when Unity expands to fill all the space in its present home.

In Eugene, Karen and her six full time teachers, aided by eight assistants, a cook and others who do various forms of service, are learning the same lesson that keeps coming home to their brothers and sisters in Denver: Grace will take care of the physical needs, but something subtler and much more beautiful is what really sets Maharaj Ji's schools apart from all others.

Currently, they're operating under a $21,000 federal grant, and most of the 36 youngsters from ages 2½ through 6 are from non-premie families. The school declares in its literature that it "is not, nor was it ever intended to be, a religious school.

"We do not intend to teach the children meditation. Meditation is not for children. It is a difficult discipline for adults."

At the same time, the Oregon premies explain to newcoming parents that the staff is made up entirely of people who practice Maharaj Ji's Knowledge. The effects of this, they explain, are positive ones. They make the children feel secure, enjoying the company of their teachers and feeling good about themselves.

As members of a community council which brings together teachers from other daycare programs in Eugene, Karen and the others have discovered that their associates speak of Unity School with great respect.

Inside, they know the praise really goes to the one who is keeping it - and them alive.

"It's just our incredible pleasure to do it," Karen says. "We are 15 people, all together, doing service."

Every day, the children in Eugene enjoy an art project and a story. Once a week, the story blossoms into a play or a puppet show. Sometimes, the fairy tales spark a spontaneous discussion among the youngsters about the meaning of life.

The oldest children, who are at the kindergarten level, are encouraged to concentrate their exploding energy. And sometimes the little folks get simple but perfect lessons in such things as sharing.

And, all the while, the premies there see the fruits of meditation flowing into a continuing experience of love.

Michael Blakemore says he gets hundreds of letters from premies everywhere - most of them parents who want to keep track of what the Denver school is doing. He feels his job is to assure that Unity remains "impeccable, with a fine curriculum - and to make sure the children keep on having that beautiful experience."

In another of those offhand comments to Bill, Maharaj Ji

March, 1978 17

said last fall that he hopes, in time, to see a country boarding school developed under the Unity School banner. As he always has, Maharaj Ji continues to send his love to the school in the form of gifts, messages and initiators who drop in from time to time.

Referring to Unity as "a very special place," Michael says Maharaj Ji's directions haven't changed over the years. He simply wants a school where anybody can send their children to get a good education.

Denver's Unity remains unique in one respect.

"It is still the prototype, the only elementary school in the world that exists by Guru Maharaj Ji's agya."

But a funny thing is happening. Premie parents in Eugene have expressed interest in seeing the daycare program grow into an elementary school. And, in Denver, Unity is looking at the idea of setting up a daycare center in the onetime community center.

Last year, soon after learning that the New Day school was going to start calling itself by a beautiful new name, Karen Gottlieb wrote these words from Eugene:

"Being Unity School doesn't change anything. It's not like we are to be like Denver or they like us. Just to share our common experiences as individuals realizing Guru Maharaj Ji together."

She went on to say that, as premier and teachers, "We believe, and experience, love is the most effective method, love that is more than sentiments, concepts or emotions. The love that sustains our lives, breath to breath. The love that sustains all of creation.

"We have discovered there is only one way to nurture this experience in each child and that is to realize this consciousness moment-to-moment, ourselves, by practicing this Knowledge an taking advantage of his Grac and darshan."

In putting together her report for Maharaj Ji, Karen asked parents how they felt about New Day. The parents talked most about the love, the "warm vibration," and the "attitude of peace, calm and responsibility" which they say in the teachers.

To Karen, such comments were only a reflection of the Grace and Love put forth by the one person who really understands what it takes to make a Unity School.

In the end, the kids often have the last word. That also seems to be true at Unity School in Eugene, where the often sing the little song that appears at the top of this article:

The sun goes up, the sun goes down, The whole world keeps spinning 'round. I love you and you love me.

And that's how simple life can be."

* * *

Build a world that's fresh and clean and new. Build it gently and carefully, with love

Especially for the children. Maharaj Ji's children.

18 Divine Times

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"Mahatma" is a term that has been heard and used by all of us since probably the first day we considered asking for Knowledge. The term "'mahatma'" refers to the service of being a channel through which Guru Maharaj Ji reveals the experience of Knowledge. It also refers to the particular premies that Maharaj Ji has assigned to perform this service.

Maharaj Ji has described the service of mahatma by saying "a mahatma is like a microphone." Not the originator of a message, but able to carry that message to listening ears. Without the originator of the message, without the connection with that source, a microphone is useless.

To do the service of mahatma, as with any other service to Guru Maharaj Ji, it is necessary to maintain a strong internal connection with Maharaj Ji, to be open to Maharaj Ji's grace. A premie - whether serving as a janitor, a secretary, a director of Divine Light Mission, or a mahatma - is constantly faced with a

decision: to be in that place of meditation and connection with Guru Maharaj Ji or to be in the illusion of the mind. If we choose to be with Maharaj Ji, then his grace will always guide us safely through whatever trials we face in our lives. If we have difficulty maintaining that connection in one service, often Guru Maharaj Ji will offer us another service, another opportunity to realize something in this Knowledge.

In July, the former Mahatmas Parlokanand, Adharanand and Gitanand met in a private conference with Guru Maharaj Ji. In that meeting, Maharaj Ji removed them from the service of mahatma. Because of the nature of their visas, each of them has since had to return to India.

Last month, another set of circumstances led to the removal of Vijay Kumar Sumar (formerly Mahatma Vijayanand) from the service of mahatma.

Vijay was actually removed from his service by Guru Maharaj Ji some time ago, because he had expressed that he was not experiencing Knowledge. Guru Maharaj Ji assigned him a service at the Rainbow Grocery in Denver in order to give him an opportunity to overcome the obvious difficulty he was having with mahatmaship. Guru Maharaj Ji put him in an environment that could help him concentrate and discipline himself, in a simple responsibility that would allow him to humbly serve and begin to have a real experience with Knowledge again. Vijay, however, did not see this as an opportunity but rather a humiliation.

Last month, Vijay abruptly came to the microphone at a Denver community meeting and announced that he was leaving Divine Light Mission. He said that he had been struggling with his confusion for several months: that he could see the Knowledge as a glorious thing, but he did not understand who Guru Maharaj Ji is or what part Maharaj Ji played in his life. He said that he had come to America to be a "holy man … to be a mahatma, not to work in a grocery." And then he walked out of the meeting. The next day, Vijay slanderously denounced his relationship to Guru Maharaj Ji and the Mission in newspapers and on television. It was subsequently discovered that he had married an American a few weeks before, and he is now attempting to become his own, self-styled guru.

While serving under the agya of Guru Maharaj Ji, Vijay became a popular figure in many communities and may continue to contact premies, hoping to attract them to his new lifestyle.

Our path is long, straight and narrow ahead of us, and, as we have seen so obviously over the last year, anyone can fall from this path. It is only the sincerity and effort of each of us that can insure that we remain steadfast in Knowledge and in faith in Guru Maharaj Ji Without this sincerity, we can easily fall prey to the confusion of the mind that Guru Maharaj Ji has warned us about so many times. Our faith, our dedication, the Knowledge and Guru Maharaj Ji. These are the only weapons we have along this path - no matter who we are or what service we perform.

http://prem-rawat-bio.org/dlm_pubs/divinetimes/197602/gmj_mahatmas.html

Mahatmas

Page 4

If

words are Birds

and thoughts are clouds

then an experience defineable is certainly confineable So don't walk in the footsteps of a past master

Simply seek and see what they were after.

(This question was asked at the recent fundraising conference): Guru Maharaj Ji, a lot of things seem to be changing in the Mission. Like we change the name from mahatma to initiator, things like that…

Guru Maharaj Ji: Some of the approaches we were taking were definitely wrong. they, in fact, were not helping people but were confusing people. Say I am going out on the street and distributing leaflets. Somebody comes up to me and asks me what I am doing, and I give him satsang. He says, "Okay, where can I receive Knowledge?" and I tell him, "Well you go to a mahatma." He says, "What's a mahatma?" By the time you finish explaining everything to him, he doesn't know what he understood at first that made him even ask all the questions. I think that's just crazy. So initiator is a straight word and it tells you what the person does. He initiates.

You see, these changes will slowly, slowly start occurring. I don't know to what extent they are going to occur. I can't tell you. I can't predict that. But we are trying to get rid of the things that were sitting locked up in Divine Light Mission's closet just catching rust, doing nothing to nobody, and putting a heavy burden on us. We are just trying to get rid of all that stuff, so that we can really present ourselves properly.

As you know, people really don't have the right consciousness about Divine Light Mission. They think it's a cult or a religion. But what do we really teach you? Still, those things confuse people, because there are some similarities to be found. Anything that's becoming a burden in the path of Knowledge, I'm just going to eliminate that.

24 December 1975

To All "mahatmas,"

Since our meetings held in Orlando, Florida during the Hans Jayanti festival, I have spent a great deal of time reviewing the progress of our international program to spread Knowledge, while here in Denver. 1975 was a very successful year of growth for the Divine Light Mission and as the times have changed, we have been changing our methods of propagation in order to more properly relate to people. In the past many things which were done were not effective. Much of the way in which we presented Knowledge did not give people the proper association to recognize what the practice of Knowledge entails. We have seen that many of those people who received initiation often had misconceptions. They thought that Knowledge was a trippy thing or a mystical thing, but when it came right down to integrating Knowledge into their life in the daily practice of satsang, service and meditation, they didn't have the proper understanding.

I strongly feel that we should not be presenting Knowledge to people as a trippy thing and that we should not continue presenting Knowledge in a way that sincere people are excluded from being able to receive Knowledge because they can't relate to the manner in which we are propagating. It is for this reason that I have decided that it is best to immediately discontinue some of the practices which have fostered wrong ideas.

When you give satsang it is most appropriate to stand or sit in front of the microphone in the same manner as all other speakers. There is no necessity of covering chairs with cloth and placing flowers around them and sitting on the stage prior to and after you are giving satsang. I have also given permission to some of the mahatmas in the West wearing Indian-style saffron clothing to dress in Western clothes and to allow their hair to grow to a normal length. I am also changing the name "mahatma," which is impossible to translate into other languages accurately because the Hindi word literally means "great soul." When this has been translated it has confused many people and it also has caused devotees who performed this service to be described in a manner which promotes wrong ideas. I have decided to call all "mahatmas," initiators. This word more accurately describes the unique service which is performed by these devotees under my agya, and can be easily translated into all languages. It is my intention that this change of name go into effect immediately and from now on all of you will be known as "initiators." It will take some time to change all of the written material. As of the date of this letter this will go into planning and all materials referring to mahatmas will be substituted with new materials as soon as practical.

My blessings to you,

Signed by Sant Ji Maharaj

Guru Maharaj Ji