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If Maharaji had an
iterest, for example, in Prem Mark, I assume he
made lots of money when it was sold. I think I
heard on the Forum that it was sold.
One thing that has really bothered me about some
of the businesses in DLM is that I believe that
some premies (and of course Maharaji) became rich
off the backs of essentially slave labor. [I
know you have explained the situation with the
aviation company, and I not suggesting that was the
case there.]
One example for me were the Rainbow Grocery
stores in Chicago. When I was in Chicago, part of
the time I was on the Board of Rainbow Grocery,
Inc., a non-profit, Illinois cooperative, and
helped get financing for building a second store.
One store was already operating on the near-north
side, and we opened another one on the far-north
side, near where the ashrams were, in Rogers
Park.
Anyhow, nobody really put any money into these
stores, they just reinvested the earnings to
expand, the store having started out with nothing,
just a cheap lease and free premie labor.
Part of the reason they were successful, is that
a large number of ashram premies worked at the
stores, and considered it 'service.' They were paid
amazingly low wages, I think even below minimum
wage, with no benefits whatsoever, and were
subsidized by those of us in the ashrams (like me)
who held regular jobs. As ashram housefather in
Chicago, it was always a terrible stretch to get
all the premies to festivals, for example, because
the ever-increasing number of premies working for
Rainbow brought in very little income.
It got to the point by 1978, that Maharaji said
the stores shouldn't close during festivals, and I
remember that the ashram premies, in connection
with the Kissimmee festivals, for example, went to
the festival in 'shifts,' each attending part of
the festival only. Also, ashram premies started
being sent to Chicago from other places to work in
the stores. I remember one or two came from the
Denver store, for example.
And it wasn't only ashram premies either. There
were community premies who worked in those stores
for practically nothing at least partly because
they considered it 'service.'
Anyhow, the stores became quite successful, and,
eventually, this expanded into a distribution
company, and at least a thrid sore, and was in some
ways tied into Prem Mark, but I don't think ever
became legally a part of Prem Mark, although the
new store was called 'Prem Mark,' as opposed to
Rainbow. I left Chicago in 1979, so I don't know
all the details.
Eventually, I think the structure changed to a
corporation and the stores and the distribution
company were sold for millions, and the people in
charge, who I guess were the shareholders, and
mabye Maharaji was a shareholder too, by this time,
became quite rich. However, it seems to me this was
partly acheived through cheap, premie labor,
through people who thought they were serving the
living God. Also, it was brought about by those of
us who subsidized those people, who wouldn't have
otherwise been able to survive. Of course, all
those people, including me, got nothing from the
deal.
In retrospect, it is unlikely those stores would
have ever made it, were it not for the extremely
low labor costs, essentially free 'sweat
investment' those stores got for many years.
There are ex-premies who post on this forum who
could tell you more about all this.
There is something that stinks about all this,
and one of the things I would like to see is more
information disclosed about how all that
happened.
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