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DLM gets one page in this 268 page textbook and if the quality of the book can be judged by the quality of that page then the book is pretty well useless.
Apart from what appears to be an editing error where the Knowledge, mahatmas, instructors and instructions are mistakenly bound into a sentence it is almost DLM as told by Glen Whitaker which actually has been done in another book on New Religions.
The supposed reference to the existence of two gods is a mystery and the 3rd last sentence will be hilarious (or tragic) to those who read here. Exactly when did he have a more ascetic life to leave behind?
116 ALTERNATIVE RELIGIONS
The Divine Light Mission
The leader of the Divine Light Mission (DLM), the Guru Maharaji, was 13 years old when he spectacularly rose to fame in the early 1970s. It was his young age which made him different from other eastern gurus who had established similar Hindu inspired movements at the time. He was the son of Shri Hans Ji Maharaji, who began the DLM in India in 1960, based on the teachings of his own variety of enlightenment through the acquisition of spiritual knowledge. When his father died in 1966, Guru Maharaji announced himself the new master and started his own teaching. His global tour in 1971 helped to establish a large following in Britain and the USA. In 1973, he held what was intended to have been a vast, much publicized event in Houston Astrodome. ‘Millennium ‘73’ was meant to launch the spiritual millennium, but the event attracted very few and had little wider influence.
Perhaps because of this failure, Maharaji transformed his initial teachings in order to appeal to a Western context. He came to recognize that the Indian influences on his followers in the West were a hindrance to the wider acceptance of his teachings. He therefore changed the style of his message and relinquished the Hindu traditional beliefs, and most of its original eastern religious practices. Hence, today the teachings do not concern themselves with reincarnation, heaven, or life after death. The movement now focuses entirely on the ‘Knowledge’ (formerly called mahatmas), which is a set of simple instructors on how adherents should live. This Westernization of an essentially eastern message is not seen as a dilemma or contradiction. In the early 1980s, Maharaji altered the name of the movement to Elan Vital to reflect this change in emphasis. Once viewed by followers as Satguru or Perfect Master, he also appears to have surrendered his almost divine status as a guru. Now, the notion of spiritual growth is not derived, as with other gurus, from his personal charisma, but from nature of his teaching and its benefit to the individual adherents to his movement. Maharaji has also dismantled the structure of ashrams (communal homes).
The major focus of Maharaji is on stillness, peace, and contentment within the individual, and his ‘Knowledge’ consists of the techniques to obtain them. Knowledge, roughly translated, means the happiness of the true self-understanding. Each individual should seek to comprehend his or her true self. In turn, this brings a sense of well-being, joy, and harmony as one comes into contact with ones ‘own nature’. The Knowledge includes four secret meditation procedures: Light, Music, Nectar, and Word. The process of reaching the true self within can only be achieved by the individual, but with the guidance and help of a teacher. Hence, the movement seems to embrace aspects of world-rejection and world-affirmation. The tens of thousands of followers in the West do not see themselves as members of a religion but the adherents to a system of teachings that extol the goal of enjoying life to the full.
For Elan Vital, the emphasis is on individual, subjective experience rather than on a body of dogma. The teachings provide a kind of practical mysticism. Maharaji speaks not of God but of the god or divinity within, as the power that gives existence. He has occasionally referred to the existence of the two gods — the one created by humankind and the one which creates humankind. Although such references apparently suggest an acceptance of a creative, loving power, he distances himself and his teaching from any concept of religion. It is not clear whether it is possible to receive Knowledge from anyone other than Maharaji. He claims only to encourage people to ‘experience the present reality of life now’. Leaving his more ascetic life behind him, he does not personally eschew material possessions. Over time, critics have focused on what appears to be his opulent lifestyle and argue that it is supported largely by the donations of his followers. However, deliberately keeping a low profile has meant that the movement has generally managed to escape the gaze of publicity that surrounds other NRMs.
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