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DUO AUSTRALIA BEGINS

Guru Maharaj Ji has formed Divine United Organisation to give that needed direction to our service. The DUO community channels are becoming open from Denver International Headquarters, through to local centres in every country, so that Guru Maharaj Ji's agya can flow smoothly into the lives of all premies. In this issue of The Golden Age, we take a look at some of the DUO National staff, their services and their functions. These premies are the servants of DUO Australia, and rely on co-operation and understanding from the state centres to fulfil their duties efficiently.

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"Information services is the means by which we relate to both our premie community and society. But there is really no one place where information begins or ends because we are all playing a role for Maharaj Ji, so we are all his public information officers.

In the development towards world peace we have reached the beginning of the globally organised attempt. As DUO provides the means by which we can earn a good reputation for this Knowledge and cooperate on an international scale, people will see what we mean when we say "World Peace". The point is to see ourselves as part of the world attempt and serve Maharaj Ji, not our own interests, by trying to cooperate with this organisation in the place where we live.

The difference between publicity and real public relations is in what we do. I mean everyone knows that if they do a good job at work then it is good public relations for Knowledge and DUO and if they talk and leaflet incessantly it is like publicity for a cigarette; it is limited. In fact those premie power surveys we all filled in from all over New Zealand and Australia showed that 65% of people come to Knowledge through personal contact with friends and relatives, 15% due to press and television coverage with 20% coming due to leaflet and poster publicity. This means that 80% of people come just because we live and work in harmony. This is real public relations and effective propagation.

If we really want to be like children then we have to be plugged into Maharaj Ji's way of doing things otherwise we are going it alone. We are one and now we have to act like one. So it is time to communicate and cooperate with our local DUO directors as they are plugged into the international direction through Sydney, which is plugged into Denver. In Sydney, for instance, the National staff has work-in-progress meetings twice a week to get directions and to tune into each other's service and it is remarkable how much love and clarity is generated through this cooperation, it is very practical satsang.

We are all part of an information flow which should go between all premies and every facet of society we live in. We have to get into the community consciousness, live like other people, but live a divine life in conjunction with DUO. We can hold satsang at home, do social work, arrange film and dance programs, then we earn the chance of a Mahatma program and if we all do it together then Australia gets darshan."

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Hansagraphics artwork and photography departments provide the layout and pictures for The Golden Age, as well as the preparation of leaflets and brochures, commercial assignments and occasional design work for Divine Sales.

"Hansagraphics is growing quickly in Australia. Premies are realising that the more gentle approach of peace and meditation is effective and want some thing clear and informative to follow up with.

Especially now with Maharaj Ji centering all DUO activities it gives Australia the opportunity to establish one point of production where all skills and capabilities are used rather than the old meth of each state competing with each other.

It's planned for Hansagraphics to start small and grow normally like any little business concern except having devoted premies working and Guru Maharaj Ji's grace. Initially we'll practise with internal work and take outside work brought in by premie contacts, which is already proving substantial.

Also, besides doing direct propagational material, leaflets, posters etc. we hope to produce little booklets like kiddies stories, recipe books (published under the registered name of Golden Age Publications). The scope for expansion is incredible but only if sustained by natural growth So for now the work of Hansagraphics is done on new equipment from start to finish except for the actual printing of larger items like The Golden Age and posters.

Like all other service, Hansagraphics is dependent on meditation. All premies really need to propagae is a high, sincere vibe and our worldly activities are the excuse to confront the public with the thing they can't doubt: love."

"Publications is responsible for the distribution and sale of magazines, newspapers (including The Golden Age), records, posters and photos to all the Divine Light Mission centres in Australia. It provides a two-way service: the premie community is always eager for news, Divine satsang, and pictures of their Lord, while newcomers are able to gain more information about Knowledge and the Mission from the publications they buy to take home. Publications aim to provide portable satsang for people. Inky patches on bits of paper obviously can't show anyone ultimate reality. But they can help people to understand a little of the importance of realising that Truth which lies in their hearts, and explain that it is through meditation on the Word and Light that Maharaj Ji reveals, that this realisation is possible."

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"When we tried to appeal to the public by appealing to the mind and intellect, we soon found that The Golden Age was treading on unsteady ground. We can't compete with large newspapers in terms of money and content.

Instead, it's much more effective to produce a good internal newspaper, so that interested people can learn from our own example of unity and communication. I think the days of hard sell through words are over. It's more giving love through actions. And the duty of The Golden Age is to reflect those actions so that premies and public alike can benefit from inspiring examples of selfless service and group harmony. Hopefully, Golden Age Publications will expand alongside Hansagraphics into producing beautiful publications for DUO Australia and also for the commercial market. You know, craft books, cook books, children's stories, all sorts of good news. Whatever happens. it has to be gradual and natural, like the growth of our own spiritual experience."

The Secretarial department of DUO National oversees the information flow between the different national and state sections of DUO administration. It is also responsible for filing of mail and documents and the typesetting of The Golden Age newspaper.

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"Divine Sales National involves more than the national co-ordination of Divine Sales shops. It also involves Soul Foods, Food Co-ops, and other types of food distribution networks, taxi-trucking, manufacturing of clothes, candles, handicrafts etc., importing from other DLM centres throughout the world and exporting.

National Divine Sales can therefore he broken down to a twofold nature. One involves guidance of new ventures - Divine Sales shops, food co-ops etc. using the experience gathered from the existing ventures and with a general idea where everything is heading. The second part involves the forming of a nation-wide structure which will facilitate the acquisitIon and distribution of goods to centres throughout Australia. This will mean simply those premies who have creative abilities and wish to help the Mission will be able to sell or donate their handicrafts etc. which can be distributed to the Divine Sales/Soul Food shops or other regional centres that have stalls and jumble sales.

National Divine Sales like all other departments in Divine Light Mission involves doing the service that comes at hand under Guru Maharaj Ji's guidance through the DLM/DUO structure. At present I feel that the groundwork for many DUO activities is being laid which will enable premies and non-premies alike to see the physical manifestation of the power of Maharaj Ji's Knowledge, which is the most powerful satsang of all."

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Alternative Technology in Wales

Two Sydney premies, David and Margaret Crossley, have been touring the United Kingdom. Here is Margaret's report on an alternative technology centre in Wales.

Wales seems to be the Nimbin and Noosa of England. It is the only part of the country where land is available in small and reasonably priced portions.

There are woods, streams and windy mountains, and it hasn't seen the plough and saw to the extent that the rest of this small island has.

Consequently it is in Wales that you find communities of young people and organic farming and living. One of these communities has taken the somewhat presumptious step of calling themselves the National Centre for the Development of Alternative Technology, and they are trying hard to live up to the name. There are only four permanent members of the centre - their role is to guide the overall work and direct all the volunteers who come to freely give of their skills and labour, in exchange for free board and tasty vegetarian communal meals.

There seems to be no shortage of recruits for this service. In England there is quite a high level of consciousness of the need for man to develop lower energy absorbing life-styles. It is very common to see e suburban backyard filled with growing vegetables of all kinds, and Dad working hard tending them on the weekends.

There are various groups and universities doing research into alternative energy supplies. There is one house in South London that completely runs on solar, wind and methane energy, and is completely independent of mains supplies. Cambridge University is currently building an eco house, and various students at other universities are working on projects. So with the level of awareness around, the National Centre for the Development of Alternative Technology has no trouble getting volunteers.

The centre is in a valley that used to be a slate mine near Machuncllyth in mid-Wales. Some of the slate still lies around the hillsides. Much of the early work of the centre went into renovating three old cottages in which the miners lived, so they would provide shelter for the inhabitants and visitors, especially in the cold winter months. There is an old railway line, which is being extended so it can be used to transport goods and people within the centre and thus cut out the need for roads and private cars.

The centre, only four months old, currently runs on Calor gas in cylinders. Soon they hope to build the solar collectors on roofs, the methane toilet digesters and windmills on nearby hillsides. One early windmill didn't succeed. Other solar collectors in England seem to be working well despite the doubts of not enough sun, and someone has perfected the methane toilet digester, so there should be little trouble once the initial building of devices is completed.

The National Centre for the Development of Alternative Technology has solved most of their financial problems by applying directly to firms for their products. They have found that most companies are only too willing and interested in their aims, and donate their materials for the cause. Some even come out to the site, and pledge interest and future financial support. Though in some ways it is playing with fire trying to get these companies on side, (especially if they're multi-nationals), it seems to be working. They now have a long list of consultants on whom they can call for help - many of these are academics and leading figures in the business world. The Right Honourable Roy Jenkins M.P. is a patron, and the Duke of Edinburgh has shown a lot of interest and is visiting the Centre in late October.

It does seem that alternative technology is an aim that most people understand, including those in power.

If they don't move with the new inventions, they are probably running the risk of losing their individual empires. Some groups developing alternative technology prefer to try and do it all on their own finance, but the N.C.D.A.T. has chosen instead to co-opt industry and government, and at the moment it is working well.

The perceived difficulty is that too much contact may lead to so many visitors and intrusions that the work

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