But Chadwick liked the people he met, and came back. Soon he did see a dim light during Satsang. One night, when he went back to his room and closed his eyes in bed, his "whole head was full of lights." The initial harshness of the Knowledge was soon transformed into an intense, sweet experience, amenable to being turned on or off at will. "It was like learning to walk," he said. "It improves one's functioning--the mind is more harmonious, you're never confused or thinking two things at the same time. There's no mental static. You have complete control."

Inner light is not the only sensation felt by followers of Maharaj Ji. The second commandment on Chadwick's poster--"Constant Meditation...and remember the Name"--refers to the Holy Name, a subtle vibration felt during meditation throughout the body. With practice, harmonious chords can also fill the ear, and a taste of "nectar" may appear in the mouth. And besides receiving "Knowledge" in these four forms, the believer loses subservience to repressed desires. "You can get rid of your unconscious mind," Chadwick said. "What are we prisoners of? Our unconscious. We [people who "have Knowledge"] don't suppress it--we just lose it."

Over 45,000 Americans have received Knowledge at the present time, as compared to the six individuals in the whole country who had seen the light just a year and 11 months ago. The Guru Maharaj Ji's worldwide following now numbers over six million, with the bulk of it concentrated in India, followed in Western countries by Great Britain and the United States. The religion is, in Chadwick's words, "chameleonlike" in nature. In communist countries, the Divine Light mission operates as the "Raj-Yoga Academy"; in Third World and European countries it acts as a church; and in the United States it is a corporation, the "Divine United Organization, Inc."

Like most heads of American corporations, the young Guru enjoys the perquisites of his office. He dresses invariably in a tailored grey suit and white shirt, drives around in a chauffered Rolls Royce, and commands a small fleet of private airplanes. The Guru serves as Supreme Editor In Chief of the organization's House organ, a slick monthly called "And It Is Divine." And his lieutenants, like executives in the business world, sometimes fall victim to government rules and regulations. One member of the Maharaj Ji's entourage was recently arrested while attempting to smuggle a suitcase full of jewels into India.

None of this makes it easy for the Divine Light Mission to claim that it has inherited the mantle of the "Movement" in the United States, that it is the logical successor to liberal and radical political activism. But the monthly magazine And It is Divine is larded with such statements. In a recent issue, an editorial proclaimed "It is safe to say that until now the 'Movement' as a political and cultural effort has failed." Idealists must come to share the same concept of reality, it stated, or their efforts would fall apart as differing approaches diluted energies and worked at cross purposes. Rennie Davis, a Chicago Eight defendant and recent convert to Divine Light, made the same argument: in a recent world tour, which included a stop this spring at Harvard, he repeatedly argued that political radicalism is dead, and that its goals must now be realized through the Guru Maharaj Ji. "Now it is possible to connect all of us to one source--and food, shelter and peace become a practical reality," he said.

The group is surprisingly generous toward other religions. Chadwick says Divine Light is a complement rather than a competitor to them, and that the founders of virtually all major religions--Buddha, Moses, Christ, Krishna, and Mohammed--are treated with great respect. All are assumed, he said, to have "had Knowledge." Still, the structured ritualism of established churches is a failing, and the newer and less formal sects also miss the mark. "All those other groups says you'll see light in ten years, 20 years," Chadwick said. "The Guru Maharaji says you can see light today."

The Divine Light Mission is also a lot less awed by solemnity in devotion than its competition: the Guru himself spends much of his time reading comic books, and the centerfold of the monthly magazine features him regularly cavorting on tractors and playing with his followers. But the conviction animating the Divine Light Mission is not to be taken as superficial. Two Harvard followers of the Guru Maharaji have already taken leaves of absence to refine their Knowledge on Ashrams--spiritual teaching centers belonging to the Divine United Order, Inc. And Chadwick, plus a friend, Jim Goldman '74, plan to follow their example this fall.

THERE ARE, OF COURSE, other sects at Harvard which would like to rescue your soul. The Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship is a group of largely Protestant fundamentalists, who take the existence of Satan very literally and host weekly open meetings to present the respectable side of what has been termed the "Jesus" movement. A Buddhist group called Nicheren Shoshu offers a chanting technique that purportedly allows one to succeed at whatever is within one's capacity. The H-R Latter Day Saints Student Association is the vehicle through which undergraduates become part of the larger Mormon community here. (Active Mormons at Harvard number about 25, comparing favorably to the four followers of Nichiren Shoshu and unfavorably to those of the Christian Fellowship, which draws about 110 students from Harvard and Wellesley each term to weekend retreats.) According to Scott Birdsall, one of the Mormon activists who served as a missionary in Uruguay, about five Harvard students are now on two-year leave of absences for Church missionary work.

But what is the True Way amid this clutter of sects? The Class of '73 has been exposed to more formulas for salvation than any of its recent predecessors. It has seen the intense spread of conviction through all six groups that each, in the end, is the sole vessel of Truth. It has probably guessed that whatever friendly noises the sects may make about one another, the doctrines cannot be ultimately reconciled. Therefore, it may be suspected that no over-whelming evidence is leading to conversions--how can six groups all give completely compelling proof of a sole monopoly over the final truth?--but rather a felt need on the part of students to join something.

Several tentative explanations for the intensity of belief suggest themselves. The phenomenon of "blissing out" is plenty real to worshippers of the 15 year-old Guru Maharaj Ji--but then, dazzling light can be hallucinated in a realistic fashion if one tries hard enough. The doctrines of the Bahai's and the Christians also seem plausible--if one really wants to believe them. So with the chanting of TM and Nichiren Shoshu; by sitting still and poising the mind on a single subject, determination can be channelled toward achieving previously hard-to-reach goals.

An explanation of the need to join is more obvious. Faiths of any sort make difficult problems go away, especially those pertaining to the direction of one's life. Students are no less eager to rid themselves of the dilemmas of self-responsibility than anyone else. Thus, with increasing frequency, undergraduates here appear to be striking out on all sorts of paths marked with trappings of the supernatural, out of faith that the one they have chosen must lead to an Answer somewhere.

What, however, if each person is the ultimate value of existence--if there is no God or higher purpose? Then religion would become an escape from anxiety and loneliness, similar in many ways to the "Movement" of the late sixties. Harvard would become a testing arena of persons as individuals, rather than group members. In the end, each person would stand alone.

There is reason to think that an ethos of independence continues to prevail at Harvard. Despite the flowering of sects, the great bulk of the graduating class remains agnostic or atheistic, and religion is about as popular as patriotism or political activism. At Harvard, for better or worse, Number One is still Number One, and likely to stay that way