|
Page 14
Tithes
for the Guru
Within four years alter Indian guru Maharaj Ji brought
his Divine Light Mission to the U.S. in 1971, the pudgy
teenager had acquired 50,000 American followers, a wife who
was once an airline stewardess, a fleet of cars and a
$400,000 retreat in Malibu, Calif. His organization,
meanwhile, was running up a $650,000 deficit, and in 1975
the Perfect Master was nearly toppled from power. His
mother, disgusted with her son's "playboy" life-style,
announced that she had ousted Maharaj Ji as leader of the
movement and awarded the title to one of his brothers. The
family feud is now being fought in the courts of India, but
most of the Divine Light Mission's 1.2 million adherents
throughout the world have remained faithful to Maharaj
Ji.
Fewer
Americans are joining up these days, but more members are
donating 10 per cent of their incomes in the mission's
coffers. Such tithing bas reduced the debt to $80,000 and
kept Maharaj Ji living in style. Now 18 and the father of a
year-old daughter named Premlata, the guru generally keeps a
low public profile, but he turned up in Washington last week
to speak at a luncheon sponsored by the United States
Citizens Congress, whose founder is a controversial
religious leader himself: Rabbi Baruch Korff, Richard
Nixon's die-hard defender.
|
