Listen. You can take a dog and beat him up to hell. He won't do what you want him to do. Love him and like him - you tell him to do something and he'll do it. He'll do it like that. That love is the greatest unity. When it combines all of us into one part, it just develops us, just takes us right through. Then we can do whatever we want to do - give this whole world Knowledge in maybe one day. But it takes cooperation, it takes unity of the premies.

Guru Maharaj Ji,
June 14, Los Angeles

CONTENTS August 1974

THE CONSTANT PATH editorial by Tom Gottsleben…. 4

TAKE THE NEXT STEP an interview with Tom Gottsleben 7

GURU PUJA IS FOREVER response from the premies 16

BRIGHT AS LIGHT Denver's divine laundromat…. 18

IN HIS SHELTER the story of the Divine Shelter 20

WORLD WELFARE ASSOCIATION satsang by Alan Imbarrato 23

TELE-PREMIE EXCHANGE voice of the conmunity 28

DIVINE DENVER DIRECTORY community phone list 31

…

since there were many large events such as Guru Puja and India '72 at that time which needed much effort by all of the premies to get together. This we see as a predominant pattern ever since the beginning of Divine Light Mission. Everything that Guru Maharaj Ji has asked to have done always takes the full effort of all the premies working together.

Nationally, Guru Puja Colorado was the first real attempt by us to do something here in America. Then from Guru Puja to India, being the next big step towards cooperation. And a big step it was, 2000 people half way around the world for a month. At that time He began to describe an organization that would be involved in all areas of human endeavor, that would be actively participating in every walk of human life and bringing this knowledge to a practical example in a practical way before all people so they could see a need for peace. We still basically had one standarized life style within the mission and that was the ashram.

C.T.: How has DUO been working to practically manifest its stated ideals?

T.G.: The first effort of DUO was Millennium '73 and that event was such a mammoth effort, it took the fullness of our entire strength as an organization because it seemed so far beyond our immediate ability. We had to use all the resources of every premie, and what began to emerge out of this was a real uniting for the first time in Divine Light Mission on such a large scale. From that what we really began to see was how much we need each other and that there's no way at all that we'll begin to accomplish the goals that Guru Maharaj Ji has set - of bringing peace to the world and uniting all mankind in one brotherhood-without ourselves uniting in the fullness of that effort in the fullness of our capacity all together to do that, and what became increasingly clear was that the ashram structure itself was too narrow for the

8

…

many different types of premies who wanted to serve.

And so after Millennium '73, after this gigantic effort, what we noticed all of a sudden was an incredible reduction in support. Millennium had really boosted our hopes that we had the capacity now to really go on to greater and better things because so much support came from the premies around the country. There was so much money, there was so much effort, there was so much energy, so much talent, so much everything, it seemed like as if the ship had really come in and that was expected of course to continue after Millennium, that the momentum that had been built up would continue. But what we found was that there was an immediate plummet, because there was no means for all of those premies to then plug in. Millennium provided a focus which everyone could come to and be a part of. But after that focus had been taken away, they couldn't go back to their town and get into it, because the ashram was either too exclusive or they as individuals had too many demands to get their own trip together. So because of this they either drifted out of the Mission or became involved in supporting themselves.

Then slowly those really dedicated, like just the diehard premies who could not fit within the ashram structure began to get it together, by donating a part of their income to Divine Light Mission as well as trying to help whenever they could do service, and what happened then was that those premies began to collectively put together their resources. And slowly what has evolved around the country are these secondary structures around the nucleus of the ashram which were tied together in their own sort of financial network which put together their resources in a communal bank account, you could say, by which people could better utilize their earnings and thus serve the Mission. As time went on, again DUO's needs were so large, we began to look at ourselves and see that almost

9

itate more and as our lives mature in the Knowledge, it becomes more and more apparent that consistency in this Knowledge is the most important factor. And that if a premie is not constantly practicing this Knowledge then he can not be constantly experiencing this Knowledge. So consequently his life goes up and down, on again, off again. Thus he is not experiencing the fullness of the grace of Guru Maharaj Ji in his life. So it's easy to see that premies who were not involving themselves in constant dedication to Guru Maharaj Ji were in some way missing a point, were in some way not experiencing the full grace of this Knowledge. So because the majority of the premies were not supporting the Mission, consequently the great burden of that support had to fall on the shoulders of those premies in the ashrams or just outside the ashrams and their lives became much more actively oriented toward service and over the two years' time, many of the premies became just burnt out, became run down with the overbearing weight of so much to do. The ashram premies were failing because they were not realizing the full grace of Guru Maharaj Ji or the experience of Knowledge because their life was imbalanced as well. And we see that now, this uniting of our efforts, this expanding of our awareness so that we can serve Guru Maharaj Ji as one united family, one united family of premies, must come about.

C.T.: What would you say is the most important factor in building and maintaining that unity? What is the next step for premies to take?

T.G.: The point so many premies in their life have missed is the balance, the consistency of their dedication. If the purpose of our life is to really serve the Lord, then we've got to really see that some portion of every activity is aimed at accomplishing that purpose or we're not doing that. If we're trying to go in an easterly direction we've got to see that a cer-

12

tain amount of time is spent going east if we're to get east. You can go north a little bit, and south a little bit, but if you want to go east, you've got to do things that will get you in an easterly direction. And the same way too, if we want to dedicate our lives to Guru Maharaj Ji, then we've got to actually dedicate a certain percentage, a certain part of everything we do, everything we have, to Him, so to insure that we're making progress towards Him. We see that it's not just meditation, it's not just satsang, it's not just service, but it's the consistent practice of all three aspects of the spiritual path that we must develop. If there isn't a consistency and balance in our life, in our dedication, then we're missing the whole point, because this Knowledge is constant, and our practice of Knowledge and our life in Knowledge must be constant if we are to truly experience the fullness of Knowledge. And that just means part of everything we have or do must be dedicated to Guru Maharaj Ji. In this way we can really bind our life to His, we can realize and serve Him. It is so clear when we take a look over the history of events in Divine Light Mission that this is what we must do and that this is what Guru Maharaj Ji keeps moving us towards. All of the premies are a part of the mission and all of the premies must help and support it. DLM is Guru Maharaj Ji's larger body and we are all an inextricable part of that larger body. It is that body that will bring peace to this world. It is that larger body that we must realize.

That is the first step, a step that we have always hesitated in taking and it is fundamental and crucial at this time that all the premies realize their responsibility to support the mission constantly, not just for festivals or once in awhile but constantly. And by this constant state of dedication we can realize the thing thats constant within our life, the thing that is common to all life, the thing we all want. And the com-

13