Price, Maeve (1979): The
Divine Light Mission as a social organization.
(1)
Sociological Review, 27, Page 279-296
The aim of this paper is to analyze the religious
group known as The Divine Light Mission from the point
of view of its organizational structure. It is
apparent that organizational studies of religious
groups require some justification, since fashion
dictates that the focus of concern today is on
'religiosity' or the privatized beliefs of individuals
(2)
Nevertheless, as Bittner has suggested, whatever the
followers of a 'radical' religious group happen to
believe, because their beliefs contradict the
everyday, commonsense view of the world, some form of
organization is required to maintain both the purity
of those beliefs and the integrity of the movement.
(3)
In the case of the Divine Light Mission (DLM) the
beliefs and practices of the followers and the sect's
goals of transmitting a millenarian message and
winning recruits are sufficient cause for at least a
rudimentary organization.
It is proposed that without organization DLM
remains an amorphous constituent of the 'cultic
milieu'. (4)
Whereas with organization it is moving towards the
status of a sect. Given the problematic status of the
concepts 'cult, and 'sect' it is necessary to select a
working definition for the purpose of this discussion.
The term 'sect' is employed, following Roy Wallis's
example to refer to a religious collectivity whose
central characteristic is 'epistemological
authoritarianism' rather than an 'epistemological
individualism' which characterizes a 'cult' .
(5)
Without doubt the beliefs of members of DLM (known as
premies) derive from the dictates of their leader,
indeed the knowledge they possess is his knowledge,
though many adherents hold a more idiosyncratic
position, accepting only parts of the belief system
and choosing the degree to which they conform to
accepted practice. This strain towards
'epistemological individualism' may be one of the
reasons why DLM has not achieved full sect status.
However, whilst there are cultic tendencies in DLM,
further useful implications follow Wallis's
distinction, all of which tend to strengthen the
sect's ability to cope with survival problems: the
vague boundaries of the cult are clarified by an
absolute distinction between those who belong and
those who do not; there is a finite membership; and,
moreover, far from the belief system suffering from
vagueness of definition, 'sects lay claim to possess
unique and privileged access to the truth or
salvation'. (6)
It is because DLM conforms to the definition outlined
above that DLM is regarded as a religious sect.
The kind of organization, however, which emerges
will depend on a number of constraints which limit the
scope of a leader's prescriptions. It is the thesis of
this paper that the Divine Light Mission as a social
organization is a product of a number of analytically
distinct sets of forces which impinge on any 'ideal'
structure which the leader might devise. It cannot be
stated, as Wallis claimed of the Children of God, that
'the development of the movement as a social structure
has been altogether defined and directed by the
leader's specification. . .'
(7)
Judging from what the leader of DLM has declared to
his followers it is clear that he would like the
mission to function without any formal organisation at
all. (8)
At the same time, in order to spread his message and
retain and expand his following he has had to accept
the necessity of organization. Nevertheless it does
not follow that the leader has either a clear
definition of the type of organization he desires or
that he possesses the requisite skills to achieve his
goals. In particular, the leader has to take into
account the social characteristics of his following
who will also have attitudes concerning the existence
of end form of organization. Nevertheless it does not
follow that the leader has determine events and is
frequently having to respond to situations which he
could not have deliberately planned. This is
particularly the case where the mission's financial
problems are concerned. Other social forces, too,
restrict the freedom of the leader to manipulate the
movement as he might wish.
It is thus suggested that the following constraints
have, in combination, determined the kind of
organizational structure which DLM possesses and its
success as a 'radical' religious movement:
1 The beliefs and practices of the
devotees;
2 The social composition and attitudes of the
following;
3 The leader's degree of competence;
4 The wider cultural context within which the
mission functions.
Before commencing a detailed discussion of the
above factors, a brief account of the mission's
history will be presented as it is a factor which is
inextricably linked with the four constraints set out
above. The focus will be on Britain, although the
mission has a worldwide following, with its
headquarters, since 1971, in the United States.
History of the
Mission
DLM was founded in India in the 1930s by the father
of the present leader, who became the Satguru, or
Perfect Master, at the age of eight, 1966 when his
father died. At this time the Indian DLM claimed a
following of millions and was one of many minor Hindu
sects. In 1969 the new leader, Guru Maharaj Ji, sent
one of his mahatmas, or a 'realised soul', to Britain
as a missionary to win converts for his master. By the
time Maharaj Ji, then thirteen years old, arrived in
England with his mother, Mara Ji, and his three
brothers, collectively known as the Holy Family, some
two hundred young hippies had taken 'knowledge' and
become devotees of Guru Maharaj Ji. The year was 1971.
The so-called counter-culture was falling apart and
thousands of young people having experienced
hallucinogenic drugs were now turning to eastern
mysticism and occultism for answers to man's
existential questions and for stability in their
lives. It was an opportune moment for DLM to appear on
the scene and, by the summer of 1973, the mission
claimed to have a following of 8,ooo devotees, or
premies, in Britain.
From the small beginning of one mahatma in London
and a handful of premies, the mission grew, with up to
half a dozen mahatmas at any one time giving
knowledge, the establishment of Divine Information
Centres in most major towns and cities and the setting
up of about forty ashrams (designated premie
households) throughout Britain by the end of 1973.
(9)
Ashrams played an important part in the mission's
structure. Here premies had chosen to live in small
communal households, under vows of poverty, chastity
and obedience. In practice they were under the direct
supervision of head office and acted as cadres for the
whole movement.
The actual formal organization of DLM was set up in
Britain in 1971 and it was registered as a charity
with Mata Ji acting as regent for her son, Maharaj Ji,
who was still a minor, and with half English and half
Indian premies on the board of directors. In the early
days Mata Ji was unquestionably the power behind the
throne. She was supported by her three other sons, who
were all senior to Maharaj Ji, and by a number of
Indian mahatmas who helped to organize the mission in
the West. Among these was Ashokanand who was the main
organizing force in Britain. It was he, together with
self-selected leading British premies, nearly all with
University backgrounds, (10)
who tried to get the mission firmly established,
organize the ashrams as examples of spiritual living
for all premies and seekers and set about the task of
proselytizing the vast numbers of potential recruits.
The mission bought its own printing press and
produced its own newspaper, pamphlets and leaflets.
Meetings were put on in public halls all over the
country in addition to the larger events, the
festivals, where Maharaj Ji and members of the Holy
Family gave holy discourse (satsang). A special branch
of the mission, known as the World Peace Corps (WPC)
was established, initially to provide protection for
Maharaj Ji. However it soon became the main agent for
organizing meetings or 'programmes' and securing
financial support and it ventured into all kinds of
supposedly money-making enterprises such as transport,
building and the distribution of vegetarian food and
certain Indian products such as incense. Many believed
the mission could become self-supporting with these
businesses but they were run by untrained though
enthusiastic voluntary labour and soon accumulated
enormous debts. Many of these debts are still being
paid off. Nineteen seventy-three was the peak year for
the mission's activities both in Britain and the
United States, when two major festivals were organised
to rally the faithful and bring in new recruits. In
Britain there was the Festival of Love at Alexandra
Palace which drew thousands of premies and seekers,
and where the unpredictable behaviour of Maharaj Ji
antagonized the British press who had waited for hours
for his scheduled appearance. In the United States, a
festival to announce the start of the Millennium was
held in the Houston Astrodome, Texas, and from the
financial point of view it was a disaster for which
the American mission is still paying.
(11)
In Britain, Alexandra Palace marked the turning point
of the mission's fortunes. As one leading and deeply
involved premie expressed it,
'For over two and a half years until they had the
Alexandra Palace programme it was a very strong
movement. In that time I imagine 5,000 to have joined
and there must have been nearly a thousand full-time
workers for the mission. It was completely incredible;
it had a staff of a medium to large size company and
was doing amazing things. Everyone was completely
inexperienced and then after that [Alexandra
Palace] there was nothing to do. Everyone was
saying: well, what are we doing? Why are we here?
We've got all this set up; we could build a bridge
across the Thames; we could do anything - I mean there
was just nothing to do. It was just literally - there
were all these people with nothing to do, all set up,
all geared up to, you know, spread the knowledge, to
build this, to build that, but there was nothing to
do. It has grown too quickly and the expansion didn't
really have a foundation."
(12)
A large membership had grown up very rapidly but
the organizers had no clear idea where to lead the
following, nor did they have the financial resources
to maintain so many full-time workers.
(13)
The ashrams which should have provided a sound
financial basis for the mission's operations were not
even self-financing and had to be supported from
funds.
The mission moved into a recessionary phase which
lasted until the Autumn of 1975. It gradually
contracted its public activities, shed its
unprofitable and burdensome possessions and even
disbanded the ashrams, the last of which closed down
in September 1976.
During the next two-year phase of recession a
number of events occurred which contributed to the
weakening of the mission in terms of loss of members
and decline in recruitment.
(14)
The most significant of these events were the marriage
of Guru Maharaj Ji, in May 1974, and the subsequent
'Holy Family Row' when a struggle for control took
place between Mata Ji, supported by her eldest son,
and Guru Maharaj Ji, supported by his Western devotees
as well as by a strong following in India. Details of
this struggle are discussed below to illustrate the
degree of competence Maharaj Ji displayed as a leader.
At this point it is sufficient to state that Maharaj
Ji emerged as the acknowledged leader and satguru
with, ostensibly, complete control over the mission in
Britain and elsewhere outside India.
After September 1975, when Maharaj Ji spoke to a
gathering of British premies in the Bloomsbury Hotel,
London, leading premies claim that the mission began
to revive and certainly there was a marked increase in
morale amongst premies.
The mission's history can be seen as passing
through three phases: the first, one of rapid
expansion when the mission was deliberately seeking
recruits, a conversionist phase; the second, a phase
of conflict and recession; and the third, or current
phase, when the mission has turned away from the world
and is concentrating on the morale of its members and
their salvation. This can be regarded as the
introversionist phase. (15)
The mission no longer makes any attempt to publicize
its activities or to mount recruitment campaigns.
Though newcomers are welcomed the stress is on the
practices involved with being a premie and on
achieving personal salvation within the community of
other premies rather than on any campaign to convert
the rest of the world. This reversal in orientation
from conversionist to introversionist has many
consequences for the organizational structure of the
movement as well as for the possibility of expansion.
In particular, a far simpler structure is required and
the rate of recruitment is likely to be very slow.
Beliefs and
Practices
Essentially, premies believe that the key to
understanding themselves, the gateway to happiness,
love and that peace of mind 'which surpasseth
understanding' lies in meditating on the knowledge of
Guru Maharaj Ji, and that, this knowledge is there
inside each human being. Only Maharaj Ji has the key
to it and only his appointed mahatmas or initiators
may give Maharaj Ji's knowledge. This crucial fact
that knowledge may only be revealed by Maharaj Ji,
legitimates the leader's supremacy to the believers
and ensures that seekers achieve these benefits from a
single source. This immediately creates a bond between
tbose who have knowledge and sets them apart from
those without. This membership bond is an essential
precondition for organization. Two other requisites
cement the collectivity of premies into a social
organization. Not only are all premies enjoined to
practise meditation on the knowledge, they are also
required to do service and attend satsang. Service is
concerned with any kind of endeavour which promotes
the work of Maharaj Ji and his mission. All officials
and volunteers at functions are doing service; any
premie who earns money to donate to the mission or to
Maharaj Ji is doing service; even work done with a
loving and giving heart is so regarded. Satsang
literally means 'holy discourse' or 'the company of
truth'. Satsang takes place whenever a premie speaks
to someone else 'from within his heart' about the
experience of knowledge, the love of Guru Maharaj Ji
or the necessity of meditation. In practice, premies
tend to meditate according to private schedules, to do
service when called upon by those who do the
organizing (a service too) and to hold Satsang
together regularly, several times a week. This is what
is expected of them by Maharaj Ji and the mission
functions partly to bring premies together for Satsang
as often as possible. Premies believe they have the
answer to their own private problems, anxieties and
fears and to those of the world. Meditation on
knowledge brings peace of mind to each individual who
receives knowledge and this is ultimately the way to
achieve world peace. If all people, particularly
statesmen and politicians, had knowledge, wars could
no longer be fought. The emphasis on world peace in
the mission's propaganda was prominent in the early
conversionist days and DLM appeared to be another
millennial sect, predicting that a thousand years of
peace would be ushered in by Guru Maharaj Ji. This
emphasis has almost disappeared today, premies being
far more interested in their own state of peace than
in that of the world. The change probably reflects
both the signal failure to convert the world's
millions and the general counter-cultural shift from a
concern to change the world towards exploration of the
self. It is also in accord with the current
introversionist phase dictated by the leader. Another
change in emphasis has been from extolling the virtues
of knowledge in satsang, to extolling the virtues of
Guru Maharaj Ji himself, not merely as the one who has
revealed this knowledge, but as the source of life,
the guiding force in people's lives, the creator and
Lord of the Universe. This shift has been paralleled
by important changes in organizational structure and
policy which have resulted in a de-democratization of
the movement towards an overt autocracy, or even
theocracy, in line with the third phase of the
mission's history. This development will be discussed
further in the section on the leader. Direct physical
contact with his devotees is arranged by Maharaj Ji
through the organization of festivals several times a
year where premies see their Perfect Master, hear his
message and actually stand in his presence for
darshan, when they pass before him and receive a sense
of his personal and awe-inspiring love.
(16)
These festivals, some of which a large proportion of
the most active premies manage to attend, are
extremely important for binding the movement together,
keeping central control in the hands of Maharaj Ji and
reinforcing the faith and devotion of premies. They
also require planning, deployment of labour,
communication lines between international
headquarters, national headquarters, the premie
communities and the individual premies, and a very
considerable financial outlay. Two other important
gatherings are national and community programmes and
conferences. Programmes, like festivals, serve to
bring premies together and strengthen the message.
(17)
Usually without the presence of Maharaj Ji, they are
occasions when premies hear satsang from leading
members, officials and from Maharaj Ji's own mahatmas,
now called initiators, the majority of whom are now
Westerners. Recently programmes have been held in four
centres in Britain at which Raja Ji has been the
principal attraction, as Maharaj Ji's brother and
personal ambassador. Conferences often follow a
festival and it is here that Maharaj Ji dictates
policy to national representatives. Though policy is
imposed from above, in practice the instructions are
sufficiently vague and flexible to allow for wide
interpretation and for many redefinitions and even
volte-faces on the part of Maharaj Ji as the
consequences of his instructions are revealed to him.
The
Following
The initial support for the mission came from the
ranks of the hippie generation of the late sixties and
early seventies, and at least half of the active
premies even today received knowledge between 1970 and
1973. (18)
From the mission's records and my own research it is
clear that the vast majority of recruits were in their
early twenties. They had participated in the various
phases of the evolution of the counter-culture. They
were 'into drugs', 'into rock' and 'into'
self-realization and exploration. They thought of
themselves as hippies and as drop-outs from
main-stream society, who rejected the achievement
ethic and the work ethic. While a substantial
proportion was highly educated, with a degree or at
least several 'A' levels, almost half came from manual
worker families. (19)
They were hostile to authority, to organization, to
bureaucracy. They believed in 'doing your own thing',
in freedom from constraints and in the supremacy of
the self. At the same time they were seeking something
to believe in, some commitment to a cause, peace of
mind, lasting happiness and above all, love. According
to the mission's claims and press reports DLM
attracted such people in large numbers. It could offer
instant salvation through the knowledge of Guru
Maharaj Ji; it could harness the frustrated talents
and energies of hundreds into the cause of the
mission's evangelical goals and through meditation on
knowledge, peace of mind could be achieved and the
transcendental experienced. For this generation of
'seekers' the mission provided a refuge and a way of
life.
When it is claimed that the social composition and
attitudes of the membership act as a constraint on the
kind of organization which develops, one has in mind
particularly the 'hippie life-style' to which most
devotees are still attracted, which eschews formality,
orthodox timekeeping and rules imposed from above.
(20)
Though enthusiastic individuals can always be found
to run a communication system, keep records, produce a
newspaper, organize meetings and collect money, these
organizers have to work with a membership that is
basically hostile to formal organization and is
unwilling to accept the authority of anyone other than
that of Guru Maharaj Ji. This characteristic of the
membership, its strain towards the individualism of
the 'counter-culture', has always acted as a curb on
the development of a complex bureaucratic
organizational structure. Many lower participants
either ignore or show amusement at the pretensions of
officialdom. (21)
In consequence most officials are very anxious to
impress on the membership that they are only 'doing
service' for Maharaj Ji and are really just ordinary
premies.
But it would be misleading to suggest that most
premies prefer the passive, introversionist phase the
mission is now going through. Of the hundreds who
participated in the frenetic activities of the first
phase there are those who regret its passing and would
like to work in a more active, proselytizing movement.
(22)
What premies are against is not organization as such,
but formal, bureaucratic organization. When Maharaj Ji
announced that he was dissolving the formal side of
the organization, as he did at Frankfurt in 1976
(23)
this could be interpreted as a response to premies'
resistance to bureaucratic structures. However, a
consequence of having only a skeletal formal
organizational structure is that recruitment suffers
and the active, evangelical energies of the movement
are frustrated. Another interpretation is put upon
Maharaj Ji's action in the next section of this paper.
The
Leader
Given the fact that Guru Maharaj Ji was only
thirteen years old when DLM was established in the
West, it is likely that he had little control over the
course of events and that Mata Ji in fact was the
organizing force. (24)
However, during the first two and a half years after
the mission had been established, Guru Maharaj Ji's
habit of arriving late, or not at all, for public
programmes in Britain was doubtless a factor in his
receiving an increasingly hostile press coverage
which, in turn, may have contributed to the decline in
recruitment which took place after the Alexandra
Palace festival.
When Maharaj Ji began to assert his independence
from his mother, both as an individual and as a
leader, the mission entered a period of crises,
internal conflict and consequent recession.
(25)
In May 1974, Maharaj Ji married an American girl,
Marolyn Johnson (now called Durga Ji), in direct
defiance of his mother's wishes and the event shook
the mission to its foundations. This marriage brought
about an exodus from the ashrams, the stable core of
the mission which had been a vital means of social
control, as premies flocked to get married and began
to produce their own children, within customary
marriage structures. It was an important turning point
for the mission. The followers seemed to grow up
overnight into adults with normal family
responsibilities and ties. The base of support
inevitably shifted from the ashrams to the wider
premie community. This meant that central control was
very much weakened and that the ordinary, non-ashram
premie began to play a more important role in
determining the mission's fortunes. At the same time,
many premies were shaken by the marriage and felt
almost betrayed by their leader. It is apparent that
the marriage was responsible for a loss of morale and
therefore of support for the mission by many premies.
(26)
Immediately following Maharaj Ji's marriage a
struggle for power took place within the Holy Family
itself. Maharaj Ji was now sixteen years old. He had
the knowledge that his personal following in the West
was well established. It is likely that he felt the
time had come to take the reins of power from his
mother, who still dominated the mission and had a
strong hold over most of the mahatmas, all of whom
were born and brought up in India. Another factor may
well have been the financial independence of Maharaj
Ji, which he enjoys through the generosity of his
devotees. (27)
Whatever the decisive factors in the struggle for
power, it is apparent that the break came soon after
Maharaj Ji's marriage and though Mata Ji attempted to
appoint the eldest brother, Bhagwan Ji, as the new
Perfect Master, or Satguru, the western premies never
withdrew their loyalty from Maharaj Ji. In Britain a
long wrangle ensued over the legal control of DLM as
Maharaj Ji was not yet of age, but Mata Ji was
out-manoevred by Maharaj Ji's supporters who by-passed
the officially registered Divine Light Mission and
used Divine United Organization (DUO) (which had
already been established in 1973 to co-ordinate the
mission's activities) and this became the mission's
operational headquarters. The most important outcome
of the 'Holy Family Row' was the establishment of Guru
Maharaj Ji as the sole head of DLM, as an
international religious organization, with its
headquarters remaining in the United States. Once
Maharaj Ji became the de facto head of the mission,
various factors, which must include his own
inexperience and lack of long-term policy and his
anxiety not to become a puppet of his officials, led
to a gradual slowing down of recruitment, a falling
away of active support and an almost complete
cessation of organized proselytizing activities.
A turning point in the history of the British
mission occurred on a surprise visit Maharaj Ji made
to England, when he spoke to several thousand premies
at the Bloomsbury meeting. The message appeared to be,
'get yourselves together and organize premie
communities, as the organizational base of the
movement'. The term 'premie communities' refers to
aggregates of premies who live in the same town or
district and give satsang in one another's homes. The
reaction to Maharaj Ji's message apparently went
beyond what had originally been intended, as the
communities organized 'workshops' when the conduct and
content of satsang, and even the practice of
meditation, were analysed and (constructively)
criticized. Premies began to feel so confident there
was talk of electing officers and even community
initiators; democracy had certainly got out of hand.
Paralleling the emphasis on the ordinary premie
communities, Maharaj Ji let it be known that the link
with Indian culture might be an impediment to the
movement's growth. It is very likely that he was so
advised by his western officials and a number of
Indian prayers and chants were dropped from public
rituals and even the term mahatma was replaced by a
western term, 'initiator', or one who initiates into
knowledge. This move also removed some of the mystique
from the mahatmas and after Maharaj Ji had appointed
several Westerners the practice of having mahatmas on
the stage at the feet of Maharaj Ji, while he
delivered satsang, was discontinued, as was also the
custom of having loyal members of the Holy Family
surrounding him at such times. Thus on the one hand
the movement was being democratized in terms of a more
or less equal 'mass' and on the other hand the
individual supremacy of Maharaj Ji, separated from the
mass, was emphasized.
At the conference in Frankfurt in November I976,
Maharaj Ji had announced that the International
Headquarters were dissolved and that henceforth he
would guide the mission, with his brother, Raja Ii, as
his ambassador. In fact what had occurred was the
removal from power of his closest adviser, who had
been the International President since the
headquarters were set up in the United States. It is
apparent that Maharaj Ji resented the advice given to
him by his chief subordinate and dismissed him when a
clash of wills occurred. (28)
The dismantling of the International Headquarters did
not in fact take place, although staff numbers were
greatly reduced, at the national level as well, and
officials are very cautious now, afraid to take
initiative while they try to guess what it is their
Guru really intends.
A further example of erratic policy changes is
Maharaj Ji's attitude towards the ashrams. In 1976,
Maharaj Ji suggested that ashrams were retreats, or
hothouses for premies who could not cope with the
rigours of living in the everyday world. It was time,
he said, for asharam premies to face the world and
live as ordinary premies in the community. The
direction was part of a policy which had been slowly
developing for a long time, of weakening the powers of
the National Office and the privileges of ashram
premies (who received free passage and entrance to
festivals) and putting more, albeit diffuse, power
into the local premie communities.
The leader now appears to be changing his mind. In
Britain, plans are being made to open a few ashrams
for premies who wish to live a devotional life and it
is intended that an initiator will reside in each
ashram and look after the spiritual welfare of the
local community. It would seem in fact that the
ashrams acted as a pivot for the mission's stability
and this is now being appreciated. At the same time
the stress on the community premie, which had led to
what was now viewed as excessive democratization,
which was strongly repudiated by Maharaj Ji at
Frankfurt, has now been controlled by the simple
device of blocking public communication channels
upwards to the head office. For more than twelve
months now, the national publication which carried
letters from premies, often extremely critical of
other premies and the head office, (but never of
Maharaj Ji), has not been printed. Instead premies
receive an exclusive diet of full transcripts of
Maharaj Ji's satsang at various festivals across the
world. Maharaj Ji made it known that he disliked his
satsang to be edited and only extracts of it
published. At present then, premies have neither a
public platform for discussing the mission's policies
nor a vehicle for receiving an interpreted policy via
the mission's officials. Such a situation, though
increasing Maharaj Ji's control over the movement,
does so at the cost of expansion and middle-management
confidence. It is not likely to succeed as a long-term
policy As Beckford has suggested, in order to prosper
voluntary organizations must secure a continuous
supply of human and material resources through their
members' voluntary endeavours, their financial
contributions and their readiness to obey
organizational rules. This means that not only must
leaders adapt their strategies to the requirements of
the members but also that organizational objectives
'can only be achieved … if objectives can be
explicitly defined and unambiguously operationalized'.
(29)
In the case of DLM, confusion over organizational
goals and lack of firm leadership control at the
intermediate and grass root levels, combined with a
following who are being pulled in one direction after
another without structural channels of two-way
communication, all lead to confusion and lack of
desire to recruit new members. What is surprising is
not that the mission is no longer expanding
significantly, but that it manages to survive at all.
This answer to the second issue must lie in the
mission's continued ability to satisfy fundamental
psychological and social needs of its adherents.
The Cultural
Context
The effect of the cultural environment within which
the mission functions has been implicit in the above
discussion. The basic problem arises through
attempting to establish a 'radical' meditation sect,
with loosely formulated objectives and unspecific
demands upon the following, 'within the world'.
Evidence from other newly established religious sects
suggest that very strict control over members, through
explicit roles, is essential for organizational
strength. Wallis has shown how the Scientologists
carefully control the behaviour of their adherents
both through a highly complex hierarchical
bureaucratic structure and through its systems of
rules to cover almost all contingencies.
(30)
In the case of the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness, control over members is exercised
through a thorough-going process of resocialization
within the temple, which effectively insulates the
devotees from outside, societal pressures.
(31)
On the other hand, different strategies have been
employed by the Children of God which have varied from
cutting the following off from contact with society in
rural colonies, to the more recent emphasis on the
'cash nexus' whereby the members are encouraged by
actual cash incentives to sell the group's literature
to the public. According to Wallis, at the time of his
study, it was going through a phase of 'colportage and
routine proselytization'. (32)
From the point of view of this thesis, however, the
organization still had clear cut goals with strict
control over the membership and its contact with the
wider society. Another example is that of the United
Family, which retains its organizational strength
through a thorough induction and training into Family
life and careful regulation of the members' contact
with the outside world. (33)
In all the above cases, the goals are explicit and
members' relations with the wider public are
constrained by explicit rules of conduct which are
legitimated through established authority structures.
In the case of the DLM, there are no regulations
governing behavior towards the public at large, nor
are there explicit proselytizing procedures. Nor are
premies protected from wider cultural influences
through any form of insulation from the world. In the
early days, the life of an ashram premie, apart from
time spent in employment, revolved round the ashram.
There were very few books, no television and no visits
to the cinema or recreational centres. The ashram
premie's life was strictly controlled. Following the
closure of the ashrams, premies have a choice of how
often, or even whether or not, to attend satsang, to
meditate and to do service. Wider influences
constantly impinge on the premies' devotional life and
there are still no clear guidelines for regulating
behaviour in relation to the world. It must also be
stated however that the ashrams, situated as they
usually were in terraced houses in urban areas with
premies expected to earn their living in the secular
world, were not ideally placed as the devotional
centres of an introversionist sect.
(34)
Summary
It will be apparent from the foregoing that DLM is
still very much an evolving social phenomenon whose
structural characteristics have changed several times
in response to a number of crucial events such as
Maharaj Ji's marriage and the 'Holy Family row'. The
social characteristics of the adherents in interaction
with the leadership have also set limitations on the
movement's development and policy orientations. The
mission's following is predominantly composed of more
or less reformed hippies, most of whom still have a
strong attachment to the 'counter-culture' and who are
not amenable to formal rules and regulations and
organizational discipline. Their attachment to the
mission relies on a more spiritual commitment. Even
their leader, Maharaj Ji himself, rarely issues
orders, preferring to suggest, for example, that
premies would have more success in realizing knowledge
if they did not pollute their bodies with drugs,
rather than forbidding premies to take drugs. It was
only the ashram premies who were prepared to take
orders from the mission and they were a small minority
of all premies, who in any case could always leave the
ashram if the life proved too arduous.
At the time of writing, the whole organization has
been reduced to a very simple framework, consistent
with the limited goals of keeping premies actively
participating in satsang, service and meditation and
gathering together to reinforce their commitment at
larger programmes and festivals from time to time. In
Britain, there are about half a dozen full-time
workers at Head Office, four regional co-ordinators
and community representatives in most large towns.
Contact with outsiders through work, friendship ties,
and the 'drug-scene' still ensures a small but regular
supply of new recruits which may replace those who
lapse from the movement. But the movement cannot
expand or hope to bring peace to the world on this
basis. Even with a very much reduced full-time
national staff, the mission is still moving from one
financial crisis to the next and has not solved the
problem of financial stability.
(35)
It appears to be unlikely that the present lack of
emphasis upon recruitment will continue indefinitely.
The seizure of power by Maharaj Ji left the mission
without clear direction. Charisma is not enough for an
organization to prosper. The leader must also learn
how to manipulate the movement to achieve the ends he
manifestly seeks, otherwise a hiatus in activity
results. A new policy with the organizational
structure to implement it has not yet been worked out.
Conclusions
This paper has attempted to show that the Divine
Light Mission as a social organization is a product of
various constraints which stem from the degree of
competence of the leader, the social composition of
the followers, the beliefs and practices of the
devotees and the cultural context within which the
mission functions.
It would seem that if the mission is to solve its
problems, which can be expressed in terms of
recruitment levels, membership commitment and
financial stability, fundamental organization changes
will have to take place. As Beckford has shown,
religious movements may employ widely divergent
strategies for solving these basic problems.
(36)
It would seem, however, in the case of DLM that,
unless solutions are found, long-term decline is
inevitable. This study of DLM as a social organization
adds additional weight to the 'intriguing possibility
that the cultural appropriateness of a religious
movement may have as much to do with its form of
organization as with its set of teachings'.
(37)
Preston Polytechnic.
First received 16th May, 1978
Finally accepted 23rd August, 1978
NOTES
(all of them are part of the original
document)
I should like to express my thanks to the SSRC for
helping in financing my research into the Divine Light
Mission in Britain.
I also gratefully acknowledge the helpful advice I
received on the first draft of this paper from Eileen
Barker at the London School of Economics, John Hughes
at Lancaster University and Professor Roy Wallis at
Queen's University, Belfast, though this final version
is of course entirely my own responsibility.
1/ An earlier draft of this paper
was presented to a Sociology of Religion seminar at
the London School of Economics.
2/ See James A. Beckford: 'Two
Contrasting Types of Sectarian Organization' in Roy
Wallis (ed.): Sectarianism: Analysis of Religious and
Non-Religious Sects, Peter Owen, London, I975a, pp.
70-85.
This essay has been heavily influenced by
Beckford's work on the organizational aspects of The
Watchtower Society, particularly: J. A. Beckford:
'Organization, Ideology and Recruitment: The Structure
of the Watch Tower Movement', Sociological Review,
Vol. 23, No. 4, Nov. 1975sa, pp. 893-908 and James A.
Beckford: The Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological
Study of Jehovah's Witnesses, Basil Blackwell, Oxford,
1975b.
3/ See Egan Bittner: 'Radicalism and
the Organization', American Sociological Review, Vol.
28, No. 6, 1963.
4/ The notion of the 'cultic milieu'
is drawn from Colin Campbell: 'The Cult, the Cultic
Milieu and Secularization' in Michael Hill, (ed.): A
Sociological Year Book of Religion, S.C.M Press,
London, 1972.
5/ Roy Wallis: 'Scientology:
Therapeutic Cult to Religious Sect', Sociology, Vol.
9, No. 1, 1975b.
6/ ibid., p. 93.
7/ Roy Wallis: 'Observations on the
Children of God', Sociological Review, Vol. 24, No. 4,
1976a.
8/ See the report of an
International Conference of the mission held in
Frankfurt in November 1976, entitled 'The Frankfurt
Conference'. It was issued by the British mission. No
publication date supplied.
9/ Factual data have been obtained
either from the mission's records or have been
supplied verbally by mission officials.
10/ Certainly the 'front' men of
the organization, the national director, the editor of
their newspaper Divine Times, the man in charge of
publicity and several regional directors had
university backgrounds and in addition there were many
graduates working full-time or part-time for the
mission.
11/ This statement is based on a
verbal communication from a British official.
12/ This view is representative of
several official comments made to me about that period
of expansion and consequent decline.
13/ It is impossible to be certain
of the size of the membership during 1973. Most
mission officials speak of 8,ooo to 1o,ooo. This
figure had come down to around 6,ooo 'who are fairly
active, by February 1978.
14/ Mission records confirm that
numbers receiving knowledge dropped drastically after
1974.
15/ The terms 'conversionist' "and
'introversionist' are employed, following Wilson's
usage in Bryan Wilson: Religious Sects, World
University Library, London, 1970.
16/ See Maeve Price: 'Divine Light
in a Festive Mood', New Society, June 9th 1977, pp.
500-501, for a fuller account of a recent festival in
Britain.
17/ Festivals often reach a peak of
mindless fervour some might associate with a Nazi
rally. At the festival held in Wembley in 1977 a
'seeker' drawn towards the idea of receiving
'knowledge' told me she was completely put off by the
way in which Maharaj Ji could manipulate his audience.
She saw him to be as dangerous as a Hitler with the
potential of leading his followers to violence and
acts of destruction.
18/ Data on membership have been
obtained from the total sample of active premies on
the mission's records which were compiled in the years
1975 and 1976. Out of the 2,050 who declared that they
were prepared to donate 10% of their incomes to the
mission, 642 filled the mission's questionnaire on
education, occupational skills, age, year of receiving
knowledge and other items. My own questionnaire, put
out to premies at a London programme in January 1978
elicited 177 replies from the 500 forms issued, but
the results tally very well with the mission's data
and the information from each source corroborates the
other. In addition personal observation and over
thirty tape recorded interviews over the past three
years have provided further evidence for the
statements which are made.
19/ The background of premies
appears to be simillar to that of the members of the
Unified Family according to Beckford in Wallis: op.
cit., 1975a, where 'an underlying bi-polarity between
middle class students or educational dropouts and
unskilled youths is definitely visible' (p. 83.) In
DLM males also outnumber females, particularly in
leadership roles.
20/ The literature on hippies and
the counter-culture is now quite extensive. Peter L.
Berger, Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner's The
Homeless Mind, Penguin, 1974, provides a lively
description of the attitudes towards 'mainstream'
society held by the hippie generation.
21/ At a festival held in Leicester
in 1976 many openly smoked cigarettes and cannabis,
drank alcohol and wore 'conventional' hippie clothing,
the men complete with beards and beads. Official
mission policy is oppose d to all these practices.
22/ This statement is based on
comments made to me by premies who had played an
active part in the earlier conversionist phase.
23/ See 8 above.
24/ This is the view of active
members close to the centre at the time. Mata Ji was
assisted by an Indian mahatma, Ashokanand, in Britain
who virtually organized the British mission.
25/ A major conflict arose over the
rôle of the World Peace Corps which was seen as
a threat to the official mission's status. The
conflict involved leading premies and its resolution,
wherby WPC was dissolved, meant that the most
enterprising section of the mission no longer
functioned. It was Maharaj Ji's support for the
official mission's position which was responsible for
the dissolution of WPC.
26/ In the words of an ex-ashram
premie who wrote to me: 'Guru Maharaj Ji's marriage
turned me upside down'. He left the mission and did
not participate again until August 1977.
27/ Contributions from premies
throughout the world allow Maharaj Ji to follow the
life style of an American millionaire. He has a house
(in his wife's name), an Aston Martin, a boat, a
helicopter, the use of fine houses (divine residences)
in most European countries as well as South America
Australia and New Zealand, and an income which allows
him to run a household and support his wife and
children, his brother, Raja Ji, and his wife, Claudia.
In addition his entourage of family, close officials
and mahatmas are all financed on their frequent trips
around the globe to attend the mission's festivals.
28/ Maharaj Ji's version of this
event is recorded in a British publication Six Lane
Frreway printed around March 1977 which deals with a
conference held in Atlantic City in December 1976.
Maharaj Ji denied that he had sacked his international
director but claimed he had changed his 'service' (p.
34). In fact the said official has dropped out of the
mission altogether.
29/ Beckford in Wallis: op. cit.,
1975a, p 74
30/ Roy Wallis: The Road to Total
Freedom, A Sociological Analysis of Scientology,
Heineman Educational Books, London, I976b.
31/ Francine J. Daner: 'Conversion
to Krishna Consciousness: The Transformation from
Hippie to religious Ascetic' in Wallis: op. cit.,
1975a, pp. 53-69.
32 / Wallis: op. cit., 1976a.
33/ See Beckford in Wallis: op.
cit., 1975a and the work of Eileen Barker in an
unpublished paper presented to the Sociology of
Religion Study Group of the B.S.A., September 1977.
34/ Again, some premies have
pointed out the absurdity of the location of ashrams
and some have questioned the cultural appropriateness
of attempting to set up celibate households containing
both sexes in modern Britain.
35/ My most recent query in
February 1978, concerning the financial health of the
mission, elicited the response from an official that
the mission had still not cleared all the debts
incurred in its expansionist phase.
36/ Beckford in Wallis: op. cit.,
1975a.
37/ ibid., p. 83.
Please don't hesitate to send feedback
and suggestions to jmkahn@club-internet.fr