Bob Mishler, President of Divine Light Mission
Bob Mishler 1945-1979, a 26 year old yoga teacher in Boulder Colorado, met the much younger Prem Rawat in August 1971 because a former student of Bob's, Bill Patterson, returned from India as a committed premie and tried to convert him. Mishler was impressed by the young guru's combination of "wisdom and innocence": "when Bob showed him the house, Maharaj Ji asked if he could move in himself and make it DLM headquarters. From that time until late in 1976 Bob was the president of DLM and an intimate associate of Maharaj Ji." In September 1976 the DLM administrators told Maharaji that his $500 a day payments must halve and they were fired but reinstated the next day. The end for Mishler was near.
Mishler with the chubby Guru Maharaj Ji in the darshan line in Great Britain 1972
Mishler was
President of Divine Light Mission and/or Divine United Organisation International Director and during those years, he
acted in the capacity of Prem Rawat's major administrator and later his confidante. He was the first
speaker in the first evening session of Millenium '73 where his theme was the importance of Millennium to America and the world. He made the final presentation of gifts to Rawat at it's conclusion: a plaque depicting a lion and a lamb lying down together and a
gold-plated statue of a swan. According to Sophia Collier, he did not believe that there was going to be any sudden miraculous
millenial makeover of the world. He already knew that Rawat was drinking alcohol and he saw that Rawat was "sloshed" during the
festival. At this time Mishler was working on trying to set up the Divine United Organisation, firstly to
create an efficient distribution system to provide the basic needs of premies cheaply and to create a communication system for Divine Light Mission internationally. Attempts to
create a City of Love and Light failed but he and Rennie Davis attempted to create a social agency "to
do some good work for humanity." This was a forlorn hope with a community that was far too immature, small, disorganised and uncommitted to provide any real help - they did not even adequately support DLM financially.
Mishler did not reveal the news of Rawat's drug taking or secret affair with his "secretary" and future wife to the premie community even though this seems to have been extremely important information that would help them understand their perfect guru. When Matthew Austin, the Divine Times editor, decided to publish a series on Rawat's family situation at the beginning of 1974 Mishler forbade it, saying, "It would confuse the premies; besides, it is not what Maharaj Ji wants." After Rawat's older brother married a devotee and former model, Claudia Littman, Rawat ordered Mishler to send his mother and eldest brother back to India. By this point Mishler was completely enmeshed in hiding Rawat's disreputable secrets and creating a false picture of him to both the followers and to the society in general. He seems to have justified his position by thinking:
"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."
Events would prove that this renovated social understanding did not exist. By April 1974, DLM administrators had to provide a new myth for what was actually occurring in the premies' lives. As they admitted in this "interview" in the Divine times "I know premies who, because of their expectations of meditation, rather than their practice of meditation, are miserable most of the time. … For many premies, hyping was an experience they needed. … Most of us imitated Indian Mahatmas as devotees of Guru Maharaj Ji." After admitting that the first three successful years of DLM had been based on pretense they then confirmed Rawat's new teachings that premies needed organised communities to provide a foundation for their 'experience'. This directly contradicted Rawat's earlier preaching that the "Knowledge" itself was so perfect and powerful that it transformed premies and would usher in a new millenium. They did their best to "practise the Knowledge" and make Divine Light Mission a reality and continued to paint the best possible picture of Rawat and his "Knowledge" despite their knowledge of his dissolute lifestyle, character and behaviour. Mishler lasted 6 years before his final disillusionment and Mike Donner lasted 15 years as a close disciple and servant.
On May 21, 1974 Rawat and Marolyn Johnson were married. Mishler was married by Prem Rawat himself to Eileen Wiesen on the next day in the "Perfect Master's" first marital officiation as spiritual leader of Divine Light Mission. The sisyphean task of managing DLM was apparent when he spoke at a departmental staff meeting on June 10, 1974:
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.
Mishler accompanied Rawat on his trip to Australia in October, 1974. Mishler with the very short, fat and stylishly dressed Prem Rawat on Sydney
Harbour.
The First and Only Time I Saw Bob Mishler Close-Up
I really had very little idea what would happen the first time I saw Bob Mishler, the President of Divine Light Mission, as I didn't know he would be there and I was really going to see Prem Rawat or Guru Maharaj Ji, the Lord of the Universe as he proclaimed himself. This turned out to be the only time I saw Rawat reasonably close-up as well except in a darshan line. It was a smallish meeting room in a Sydney hotel and the Sydney premies had gathered for a surprise birthday party for Rawat's new wife. By the time Rawat and his entourage finally arrived the feeling in the room (as far as I could tell) was flat and the party never got off the ground though that was not how it was reported. Mrs Rawat was charming but Rawat himself was odd: short, fat, badly proportioned, chewing something and definitely ill at ease. Now it was one thing for an inexperienced premie like myself being nervous on such an occasion but as far as I was concerned it was not okay for the Perfect Master, Satguru, Lord of the Universe and the only person alive who had realized the "Knowledge of God" to be nervous and it was here that I failed a, if not the, major test of being a guru's devotee. I found fault in the guru rather than castigating myself for being unable to recognise the Master's glory. I don't recall anything about Mishler himself though his wife (not that I knew who she was) certainly caught my eye.
I can't remember if the guru said anything there that night but I remember the first time I heard him speak in person. Before he began, Mishler or some other American spoke and said something similar to what he said a few days later in Melbourne "that we often become so blissed out that we miss everything profound and meaningful that he (Rawat) says for our own spiritual development. Maharaj Ji puts things so simply, he said, that sometimes it goes right by us; for instance, when he makes a point inside a joke. He then described how the public's reaction makes no difference to the devotee. "That's the way the world probably sees us, as people playing a long shot. Or maybe they think we're completely deluded, but actually we know this isn't a long shot, this is a sure thing. And we know it's a sure thing because he's given us an experience that proves it to us." With hindsight we can see Mishler's public certainty was exaggerated and deluded and I was not then certain about my experience of being initiated or meditating at all. Actually I was nervous and expectant but was mortified to hear that it was considered that the Perfect Master's incoherence and simplistic speeches needed explaining away. And that turned out to be the high point of the speeches that night. At the end I could clearly see why Mishler had made that comment.