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⊗F2Guru⊗F1
By MALCOLM N. CARTER
Associated Press Writer
⊗J
    DENVER (AP) - Guru Maharaj Ji, the 15-year-old ''Perfect Master''
from India, has an ulcer. His doctor says the teenage guru's body
is showing the stresses of a middle-aged executive.

    The guru was discharged from a hospital here Sunday after tests
showed the presence of an intestinal ulcer. He entered the hospital
Thursday, curtailing an his extensive nationwide tour which his
doctor says hurt his health.

    Dr. John Horton said the guru may have had the ''mild post bulbar''
ulcer - just below the duodenum in the digestive track - since he
became ''Perfect Master'' when his father died seven years ago.

    Horton, a 30-year-old graduate of Duke University Medical School
and the guru's traveling physician, said the leader of the Divine
Light Mission may also have suffered a gall bladder attack.

    The guru, who claims six million followers, appeared earlier this
this summer in Boston, New York and Chicago but canceled appearances
in Detroit, Atlanta, Kansas City and Denver.

    He entered Saint Luke's Hospital for tests, occupying a $70-a-day
private room on the fourth floor of the Episcopal institution. His
room was filled withαflowers and a mission security guard sat down
the hall.

    ''His body has become weakened by the pace,'' Horton said. The
doctor spoke of the strain of leading the movement and of the guru's
irregular eating and sleeping schedule because of continual travel.

    He said there was no contradiction between the concept of the
guru's being master of perfection and the vulnerability of his body.
    ''His body obeys physical laws just perfectly,'' Horton continued.

''He's here to show what perfection is, and he's here to show what's
human, too. Some people expect physical miracles in him.''
    The guru has said that the perfection to which he guides
his followers is a unity with the spirit of God. Knowledge
of that experience brings peace ahd harmony, the guru teaches.

    Robert Mishler, the mission's executive director, said that in many
ways, ''this illness is going to make Guru Maharaj Ji more human to
people''

    Horton said the guru's body showed the stresses of a middle-aged
executive. Because of a lack of exercise, the guru is now weighted
with 160 pounds on a 5-foot, 4 1/2-inch frame, Horton said.

    Horton said the guru had been delirious at times since he entered
the hospital, but added that by Friday the pain subsided.

    ''He slept all night for the second night in a row, and
he has no temperature,'' Mishler reported. ''He looks really
good. Today, there's no telling he was sick at all.''

    Mishler said the hospital staff had been ''especially
cooperative.''

    Nurse Lynette Aden said it made her a little nervous to administer
a hypodermic needle under so many watchful eyes, but otherwise
treating the guru has been just like treating any other patient.
    ''I'll look back on it and I'll tell my grandkids and giggle about
it,'' she said.⊗.
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⊗F2Guru⊗F1
By MALCOLM N. CARTER
Associated Press Writer
⊗J
    DENVER (AP) - Guru Maharaj Ji, the 15-year-old ''Perfect Master''
who has a middle-aged executive's ulcer, toured his modern Divine
Light Mission headquarters Monday dressed in business suit and tie.

    The guru, betraying no signs of the illness which hospitalized
him Thursday, talked to 120 staffers at the national headquarters of
the mission here.

    Dr. John Horton, his personal physician, said the teen-age guru
from India was suffering from a mild intestinal ulcer.

    St. Luke's Hospital administered tests on the guru to determine
the cause of what was described as intense abdominal pain. Horton
said that pain may have been from a gall bladder attack. The guru
left the hospital Sunday.

    Horton said the guru's body had become weakened by the pace of
leading the movement and because of irregular eating and sleeping
habits like those of a middle-aged executive.

    The illness has sharply curtailed the guru's nationwide tour.
But Robert Mishler, the mission's executive director, observed
Guru Maharaj Ji also has the recuperative powers of a 15-year-old
and said he was confident the guru would resume his national tour
with appearances on the West Coast in two to four weeks.

    At the mission's headquarters in the Kittredge Building, the guru
met with various of his followers. He claims a worldwide following
of six million persons.

    He also toured the building's 6th floor, where four months
of renovation were being completed. He soon will move into
a corner office there, with a view of the Rocky Mountains.
⊗|⊗⊗JEDITOR'S NOTE - To a swelling number of followers, Guru Maharaj
Ji is ''the perfect master.''Some even call him God. But to
others, he is a pudgy, 15-year-old business titan who processes
his disciples through a personnel department and keeps track
of them with a computer. Here is a look at the guru and his
mushrooming missionary corporation.⊗.

By MALCOLM N. CARTER
Associated Press Writer

⊗JDENVER (AP) - Chants fill the air like smoke, swirling around
an empty, satin-covered throne. Peacock feathers shimmer in
the light. High on the altar stand vases filled with flowers.
Barefoot and beaming, the congregation sings a reverent prayer:

''Guru is the father of us all; the creator of love, he's
the Lord of the universe. Guru is the light of us all; he will
come when you call, if you open your eyes.''

    He is Guru Maharaj Ji, the 15-year-old from India who promises
to reveal God and achieve world peace.

    Playful and pontifical, the guru is a spiritual leader, a
pudgy adolescent with a fondness for sweets, and a business
titan whose mushrooming missionary corporation includes such
diverse activities as film production, education and the Cleanliness
Is Next to Godliness janitorial service.

    His followers compare him with Jesus, Buddha and Krishna.
But this purported modern link to God processes his disciples
through a personnel department, keeps track of them with a
computer and depends upon a public relations staff to shape
his image.

    Titled corporate ''supreme executive'' and spiritual ''perfect
master,'' the boy enjoys the benefits of both, and suffers
the consequences. With status go worldly stresses and worldly
goods - a middle-aged executive's ulcer, three luxury cars and
as many elegant homes.

    His Divine Light Mission teaches an unspecified mystical truth,
experienced in part through tongue contortion and eyeball pressure.
Bliss is the purported result, and the guru's claimed following
is legion.

    Many of them had searched through the war-stirred '60s and
early '70s. In hippie enclaves, mountain hermitages, in drugged
delirium, in encounter groups and the antiwar movement.
Predominantly white, middle-class and educated, many were part
of that past. And most were uncertain about their future.

    DENVER - To a swelling number of followers, Guru Maharaj Ji
is ''the perfect master.'' Some even call him God. But to others,
he is a pudgy, 15-year-old business titan who processes his
disciples through a personnel department and keeps track of them
with a computer. Here is a look at the guru and his mushrooming
missionary corporation. By MALCOLM N. CARTER. With three pictures.
A555 Sept. 9, 7 takes, 2,630 total.

568   1948pt 09-11
  $ADV 23
AGENCIES AND RADIO OUT
ADV SUN AMS SEPT. 23
FROM AP NEWSFEATURES
AP NEWSFEATURES BUDGET FOR SUNDAY SEPT. 23. 400
    SINGAPORE - Life in Asia just isn't what it used to be. The gentle
pleasures of the mysterious East have taken a hard edge as paradise
pays the price of progress. By PETER O'LOUGHLIN. With four pictures.
a548 Sept. 8, 4 takes, 1,270 total.

    DENVER - To a swelling number of followers, Guru Maharaj Ji
is ''the perfect master.'' Some even call him God. But to others,
he is a pudgy, 15-year-old business titan who processes his
disciples through a personnel department and keeps track of them
with a computer. Here is a look at the guru and his mushrooming
missionary corporation. By MALCOLM N. CARTER. With three pictures.
A555 Sept. 9, 7 takes, 2,630 total.

    AGADEZ, Niger - Already threatened by a changing world, the
nomads of Niger may have been dealt a final, mortal blow by the
current West African drought. Today the legendary ''blue men''
of the Sahara sit in refugee camps, living on handouts from abroad.
By LARRY HEINZERLING. With four pictures. A562 Sept. 10, 2
takes, 790 total.

    UNTIED NATIONS, N.Y. - The diminutive Sir Donald Maitland
once said, ''People of my stature don't survive unless they learn
to deal with bullies.'' In his new mission for queen and country
he might well find use for the talent. Here is a look at England's
seventh ambassador to the United Nations. By GEORGE BRIA.
A564 Sept. 10, 2 takes, 750 total. With two phtographs.

    NEW YORK - Tamara Dobson says when she was a little girl her dream
was to grow up and be rich. Well, at 6 feet 2 she's gotten half
her dream and the other half is well on the way. ''Cleopatra Jones''
is turning out to be one of the hottest films of the summer and is
expected to gross $10 million. by MARY CAMPBELL. With one
photograph. a566 Sept. 10, 2 takes, 750 total.

    NEW YORK - Otto Preminger hasn't directed on Broadway since
1962 because he says he couldn't find anything that would involve
him. Not that he dwells on himself. ''Sometimes weeks go by without
me thinking about myself.'' Then came a chance meeting on Madison
Avenue with Paulette Goodard, and Preminger is back on the Great
White Way. By WILLIAM GLOVER. With one picture. A552 Sept.
8, 3 takes, 960 total.

    BURBANK, Calif. - ''NBC Follies,'' the only new variety show
on television this year, is a fast-paced throwback to vaudeville's
musical numbers and comedy sketches. Mickey Rooney has signed
to do 10 of the segments. Why? Most of the sketch comics are
going . . . ''I'm the last of the group . . . this is my ball
park.'' By JERRY BUCK. With one picture. a546 Sept. 8, 2 takes, 880
total.
    
2256pED 09-11


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