Bob Mishler President of Divine Light Mission Articles
Bob Mishler as President of Divine light Mission, the guru's Personal Assistant and confidant was mentioned many times in Official DLM publications. Too many to list all. Here are links to some of the more important articles.
Mishler is short-sighted to say the least. GMJ and DLM have made many people change their lives, so have many other gurus that Guru Maharaj Ji says are false gurus. So have many political ideologies. None are verified by short term changes in peoples' concepts and actions.
Bob Mishler interview: DUO 'An Organization of Love' Divine Times, Millenium Edition, Nov. 1973
Mishler: It was just after Hans Jayanti in 1972 in India, after all the disciples had gone back to America. Maharaj Ji started talking about how we needed to change the Mission so that it could be more effective, and that the way to do this was to start Divine United Organization. … It means that people understand that the aim of human life is to serve God by serving humanity. … Maharaj Ji will go into that much more in depth, but just basically what we've done is to set up support systems that are capable of sustaining the whole community. This is the basic foundation work for being able to provide that exemplary alternative that Guru Maharaj Ji mentioned in the DUO proclamation.
The Weddings of Mishler and Guru Maharaj Ji Divine Times, 2nd Issue 1974
Bob Mishler found himself giving the same advice to premies at a Denver community meeting. He said that what may be right for one person is not always right for another and that timing was an important thing. "Guru Maharaj Ji has said that premies living in his ashram are like his kids. He doesn't want you to get involved in something you are not ready for. This is not to say that some people are not ready for it. But he wants us all to be very mature in meditation so that we are not getting married because of psychological problems. Many times people are looking for something in someone else. It's because they don't understand themselves completely and they are looking for something that is going to make themselves feel complete in someone else."
Interview with Bob Mishler and Mike Donner Denver April, 1974
Our communities will be an example for the rest of the world to see that there is a practical basis for uniting humanity. We need to recognize that it is not going to happen in a sudden flash or cataclysmic occurence. This experience of life is the greatest miracle and meditation is the thing which reveals what this life is all about. I know premies who, because of their expectations of meditation, rather than their practice of meditation, are miserable most of the time. They expect some cataclysmic occurrence within their own being rather than suddenly recognizing and subtly perceiving the miracle of their own life. I think there are some people who are still into hyping things, but those of us who are working in the headquarters have gotten beyond that for the most part. The positive vibration of love that engrossed all those people in the Astrodome marks the beginning of the human race. I was only expecting 20 or 25 thousand, but it was like calming a team of wild horses to stop the predictions of hundreds of thousands and the Astrodome taking off into outer space. To an extent, that sort of thinking is still with the premies, but not nearly as much as before.
Making The First Step - June 10 Divine Times, 7th Issue 1974
Something is lacking in the lives of many premies. What is lacking is a practical means for them to dedicate themselves to Guru Maharaj Ji and without this dedication there will be frustration in their lives … This is the movement for people who participate in it to attain salvation … Part of our instructions in realizing this Knowledge were to do satsang, service and meditation. The point that has to be understood, and doesn't seem to have been understood very well, is that dedication is not, for the moment but for life … If the majority of premies properly understood this then we wouldn't have only a handful of premies supporting the movement … The pure experience of truth is so powerful for most people that even if they don't experience it immediately in the Knowledge session they do feel the grace of Guru Maharaj Ji flooding into their life.
Today 69% of the Divine Light Mission cash flow comes from the Ashrams. They spend about 29% of that to maintain themselves and the rest goes to support the mission. 40% that is left over amounts to over a half of the support of the entire movement. When you see this, you can understand why the people in DUO are overworked and that some of the ashram premies feel really, really tired. They've been carrying the burden - one out of sixty premies - has been carrying the burden for over half of the movement. This has been going on for over a year or so. Without the additional support of maybe ten individuals who gave us large inheritances over the last year we couldn't have made it. What it comes down to is that a relative handful in the midst of a multitude have taken the responsibility for this movement … You don't evaluate a great man by his personal activity but by the effect he has on the world. Maharaj Ji has completely renovated our social understanding.
Bob Mishler's speech July 1974 Guru Puja festival
because that love, you know, that we feel in these festivals, that love that we have for Guru Maharaj Ji it's possible for us to share that all the time and to help each other remember, you know, the point that were all coming from and be able to, to express that love which is the only feeling that's worth having in our lives all the time … this is the kind of thing that we have to develop and expand until it can acute-include all the brothers and sisters who live on, in this world … We have to come together, we have to live together and work together in a very cooperative and divine way, you know, a way that manifests that love that we all know to be at the essence of life, to be the truth of this life … the Mission is really understood as that, that purpose Guru Maharaj Ji has come into this world for, that this is his mission and as devotees of Guru Maharaj Ji, you know, we, it's also our mission and that that mission is to establish peace on earth.
Bob Mishler speech Amherst DUO Community workshop July 1974
At Millennium, Maharaj Ji called the first international meeting of Divine Light Mission. He said we have successfully been able to take the first step in propagating this Knowledge. That is, actually reaching out to people and communicating the fact that Maharaj Ji is here and that there is a possibility of receiving Knowledge. But he said we had not been successful in taking the second step which was to build an organization that could help people in being able to practically realize this Knowledge in their life … The first step is practical dedication. The first step of practically manifesting our devotion is to support Maharaj Ji's mission and the most tangible way to do that is to support it financially. It shouldn't be the limitation of how we involve ourselves but it should be the first step. The first step is dedicating ten per cent of our income to his movement … Guru Maharaj Ji was talking about how each community should have a "DUO Community Club." It would be a place where all the premies could come together and not only have satsang but also have training programs for your children, recreational activities for the premies, meditation rooms, workshops and so on.
Bob Mishler National DUO Conference, Melbourne, October 30 1974
No service is any more significant or more important than any other. The point is to make that connection with service because service is the connection with Guru Maharaj Ji's agya. We have to begin to see ourselves organisationally as just a framework for a movement, and this movement is the movement from one era to the next. It's an actual shift in human consciousness and that change in human consciousness is called the Divine Light movement.
"we got to see that propagation is the most important service that can be done. Because, like, as DUO is just a part of DLM, and WWA is just a part of DUO, the DLM's main purpose and objective, and the reason it was created, was to spread this Knowledge. … "Because even though people don't see it as a social service directly from Divine Light Mission, it is the most important social service that nobody else in the world is capable of performing." - Bob Mishler, Directors Meeting, Jan. 22, 1975
Bob Mishler speaking at the Opera House on 19 October 1975
the very thing that Guru Maharaj Ji was emphasising in his satsang last night, and that is that the fact that he's realized Knowledge doesn't do you any good, because that was an individual experience for him. It's not going to do me any good for you to realize Knowledge because that's going to be an individual experience for you … I remember Guru Maharaj Ji said something a few years back. In 1972 he gave a very strong satsang at a festival where he said things are so bad in this world that if God is really, truly our father, our creator; and he's watching and we're all his children; and things have got to the point where we have the capacity to literally, to completely annihilate life on this planet, don't you think that if he's the father, he's going to do something about it? Isn't he going to take some measure to make sure that that's not going to happen? And in fact, Guru Maharaj Ji stated at the time that he already has.
Bob Mishler National and Regional Staff Conference Australia October 1975
We have to begin to see ourselves organisationally as just a framework for a movement, and this movement is the movement from one era to the next. It's an actual shift in human consciousness and that change in human consciousness is called the Divine Light movement. And those of us who are making that leap, it's not like we can get to the edge and hang there. You've got to make that jump. You've got to make that leap of consciousness yourself … Being in tune with reality and being servants of that life-force which is giving life to all of us. And the natural law of the harmony of the universe will prevail. In that sense, law enforcement will be meditation. Because meditation is that thing which will keep us in harmony with the law of God, and everyone will take the responsibility for maintaining their meditation. It will be a form of conscious anarchy. It's not only possible, it's inevitable.
Message from Bob Mishler Divine Times January 1976
During this period, I would see the incredible patience that Maharaj Ji had to have. To be able to put up with us and really help us keep finding our way. It was then I actually began to experience him as a father. A father so patient with his little children: he can't get angry with a little tiny child for not knowing how to crawl or not knowing how to talk … It was absolutely essential that we became open to Guru Maharaj Ji for him to be able to reveal anything to us - including the fundamental thing within inside us. Many people who participated in initiations did not have much experience at all, either because they had not opened themselves to be worked with, not having really recognized the need, or because they were not ready to accept Guru Maharaj Ji as the guide in their search … Really there is nothing in the world so profound and so incredible as the purpose of life which is being consciously fulfilled by the work of Guru Maharaj Ji and all people who have the awareness of this Knowledge and are taking advantage of his direction. We must choose to put ourselves in a position to work with him, and to let ourselves be worked with.
Bob Mishler Interview with United Press International Wire Service 1976
Bob: I would say that there are a lot of members that we don't see unless Maharaj Ji's in town. In the U.S. we might have 50,000 names on our mailing list but maybe out of that we only have 15,000 who are participating and of that we only have 8,000 or 10,000 that we would classify as active members … The people living in the ashram is a very small number actually. That's a group of maybe 600 in the United States, of which about 250 are here in Denver because of the International Headquarters … We were relating to our experience of something that was an incredible thing in our lives, and we knew that, but in order to be able to share that with others it was as though in the retelling it became more than we were experiencing. You know how a person has a tendency to exaggerate something when he is retelling it. It seems to be second nature for us to get things out of proportion - especially when something is very exciting to us. It got to the point where we were coming off completely out of sync with what we were experiencing. We were coming off self-righteous … I was incredibly awed by the depth of his wisdom when I first met him, when he was thirteen years old. His wisdom was so penetrating, his awareness about human existence went to such depths, that it really impressed me
Cover Letter from Bob Mishler 24 September 1976
Here at IHQ this task of reorganisation is progressing very smoothly. Three months ago the total full-time staff at IHQ consisted of approximately 250 people. Presently there are approximately 150 full-time staff, and it is expected that this number will be reduced to approximately 80 people by the end of October. During this time of transition, many of us are taking the necessary time to look at our lives in a broader context, seeing how we might begin to develop talents or abilities within ourselves which can ultimately be used in the greater service of Maharaj Ji. In this regard, Jos Lammers has decided to return to Amsterdam in order to attend a university there. His position of director of International Operations is being shared by Bob and Michael, with the assistance of of Francisco Arce, Willow Baker, and Ellen Saxl.
Cover Letter from Bob Mishler 27 October 1976
We will expect to hear from you if you have any input or questions concerning these conferences. I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Your brother, Bob Mishler.