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| Journeys: Larry LaCom |
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| Date: November 21, 2005 |
| Email: larrylacom{at}yahoo.com |
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| Journeys: Larry LaCom |
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| Date: November 21, 2005 |
| Email: larrylacom{at}yahoo.com |
| I was an impressionable 19-year-old living the hippie lifestyle
in Northern California, away from my Southern California home, when I
was first exposed to Maharaji. He was billed as the "Perfect Master,"
"Lord of the Universe," and the present incarnation of God on earth, on
par with Jesus Christ. Nothing I ever heard from anyone connected with
him ever denied these labels until much later, after his problems became
too big to handle.
I followed a couple of mahatmas around until I received knowledge in Los Angeles in June of 1974, then went back to San Francisco to live in a premie house, then eventually the ashram. I was there at "Millenium 73" at the Houston Astrodome, as well as every other festival Maharaji held for a long number of years. I left the ashram in 1974, went back to Southern California where I got into a relationship with a premie girlfriend. We were involved in the Los Angeles premie community, going to satsang at Larchmont Hall in LA. I followed her to Portland, OR in 1976, we eventually broke up, and I moved back into a premie house and then the ashram. In 1980 I got called to come to Denver to work for Rainbow Grocery, the natural food store secretly owned by Divine Light Mission. I worked at Rainbow for 4 years, living in the ashram for part of that time and going to satsang every night. At Rainbow, I met the girl who would eventually become my wife, and to whom I am still married happily for 22 years now (this is November 2005). In 1982, one of Maharaji's initiators came around and encouraged me to move out of the ashram. I didn't realize it at the time, but that was a precursor to the entire ashram system being closed down. I moved out, moved in with my future wife, and we got married. Not long after, in 1984, I moved with my wife back to Southern California, and we started a new life together. We followed Maharaji for a while, but with waning interest, until an ex-premie neighbor who had been in Maharaji's inner circle started telling us the straight story on Maharaji. That was about 1994. She told us of his extramarital affairs, and we met Monica Lewis, whose sister was another of our neighbors. Monica was, at least at that time, still Maharaji's mistress. We heard about the drinking, the cussing, the womanizing, and the hypocrisy. My wife and I at that time made a clean break with Maharaji. My own story since then became one of spiritual bitterness for a number of years. I was angry that I had been fooled into believing Maharaji, and that I had wasted so many years of my life following him. My wife eventually became a Christian in 1996, but I wanted nothing to do with anything spiritual at all. I was so damaged that I didn't want to believe in God at all or even discuss the subject. Then, in 2000, after four years of my wife telling me that the real Lord of the Universe is Jesus Christ, I became a true believer in Him. Now I know that all the years I spent as a devotee of Maharaji with no return on my investment from him were to prove to me that it is only in devotion to Jesus that one can find the truth. Now I attend a wonderful church, am a contributing member of society, read my bible every day, and actually have something to offer as opposed to being a "deviodee" of a bankrupt master. If you are an ex-premie and have the same spiritual bitterness, emptiness and hunger that I used to have, I encourage you to seek out a good bible-teaching church or a good bible-believing Christian and find out the real truth about God. And read the bible yourself. If you're like I was and have never read it, you'll be surprised to find out what it says. Read it and study it and the truth will become evident to you too. I pray that God will answer your hunger for Him with the truth of who He really is in the person of Jesus Christ. |
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