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Lord of the Universe
Video box cover
Directed by	Top Value Television
Produced by	David Loxton, Top Value Television
Edited by	John. J. Godfrey Wendy Appel
Distributed by	Subtle Communications
Release dates	1974 VHS edition 1991
Running time	58:27 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	USD$30,000

Lord of the Universe is a 1974 documentary film about Guru Maharaj ji, otherwise known as Prem Rawat. The documentary was produced by Top Value Television (TVTV) and shown on PBS Television to a national audience in the United States on February 2, 1974, and re-released to VHS on November 1, 1991, by Subtle Communications. The production was the first Portapak video documentary made for national television, and it was also the "first program originally made on 1/2-inch video tape to be broadcast nationally".

According to a review in Electronic Arts Intermix, a cynical Abbie Hoffman comments:

If this guy is God, this is the God the United States of America deserves.

— Abbie Hoffman, 1974

The documentary received the 1974 Alfred I. du Pont/Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism (DuPont Award)]

The group’s work impressed WNET president John Jay Iselin , and he raised additional funds which helped TVTV to produce five more programs, including Gerald Ford’s America.

The back cover of the 1991 VHS release, features an undated statement in the The Los Angeles Times that says: "Those premies who came in private cars can leave now" says a loudspeaker voice. "Those who came in rented buses can stay and meditate until further notice."

Content of documentary

The documentary chronicles Prem Rawat, his followers and anti-Vietnam War activist Rennie Davis, at an event in November 1973 at the Houston Astrodome, "Millennium '73", which was billed as the: "most significant event in the history of humanity." According to the plot description at TVRO, the Video Data Bank, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Art Journal, at the event, the 16-year old Guru promised to levitate the Houston Astrodome. According to Thomson Gale, the event, "ran into trouble", because of their "inability to fill the Houston Astrodome in a highly publicized event."

Rennie Davis became a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji and was was briefly one of the spokespersons and one of the speakers at the Millennium '73 event. His speech is featured in the documentary. He described the arrival of Guru Maharaj Ji as, "The greatest event in history...If we knew who he was we would crawl across America on our hands and knees to rest our heads at his feet." An Op-ed in The San Francisco Sunday Examiner said about Davies "whether had undergone a lobotomy: If not,maybe he should try one."

The trailer was originally broadcast on WNET Channel Thirteen television. TVTV's team utilized graphics, live music, and wide angle lens shots.

Rolling Stone Magazine subsequently wrote an article in 1974 utilizing the term "Lord of the Universe". A compilation of articles of Rolling Stone Magazine, describes a press conference with Maharaj ji on the second day of the "Millennium" event. A reporter asked Maharaj ji about the extraordinary claims made by his followers, to which he responds: "Respect me as a humble servant of God trying to establish peace in the world." The reporter then asks why there is such a contradiction between what he says about himself and what his followers say about him, to which Maharaj Ji responded: "Well... why don't you do me a favor ... Why don't you go to the devotees and as ask their explanation about it?

A later article in 1975 in TIME Magazine reported on the use of the term "Lord of the Universe", by devotees of Guru Maharaj Ji's Divine Light Mission.

Credits

Source

Production

Wendy Appel, Skip Blumberg, Bill Bradbury, John Brumage, Steve Christiansen, Paul Goldsmith, Stanton Kaye, John Keeler, Anda Korsts, Harry Mathias, Doug Michels, Tom Morey, Rita Ogden, Tom Richmond, Van Schley, Jodi Sibert, Elon Soltes, Akio Yamaguchi.

Editors

Wendy Appel, Hudson Marquez, Rita Ogden, Allen Rucker, Michael Shamberg, Elon Soltes.

Producer

David Loxton. A TVTV production in association with the TV Lab at WNET/Thirteen. also: (Hudson Marquez, Allen Rucker, Michael Shamberg, Tom Weinberg, and Megan Williams)

Supervising Engineer/Videotape Editor

John J. Godfrey.

Reviews

• John J. O'Connor, writing in The New York Times: "TVTV came away with a terrific documentary. The visual results created a devilishly appropriate Wizard-of-Oz context After TVTV superbly dissected the guru, his 'holy family' and his followers, more objective viewers might have chosen to laugh, cry, or throw up."

• Bob Williams, writing in the New York Post, calls it it a "deplorable film" and "flat, pointless, television". He writes: "The hour-long program was remiss in not providing some small examination of the available box-office take of the goofy kid guru, much less telling prospective contributors how it got involved in spending how much of its foundation grants and viewer subscription money in such a questionable venture without more inquisitive journalistic endeavor, or ignoring gurus."

• Katy Butler writing in the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "The TVTV style has smoothed out considerably since the group first won national recognition for programs on the 1972 conventions: This show has fewer interjections from TVTV personnel, fewer moments that drag, more technological razzle-dazzle (color footage, slow motion, stop motion, tight and rapid cutting) But the guru's entourage is an easy target, anybody can look like a fool when a smartass wide angle lens distorts their face, and teenage ex-dopers who think a fat boy is God don't stand a chance. Time now for TVTV to move on to subjects with more ambiguity, more challenge."

• Ron Powers writing in the Chicago Sun Times: "It is highly recommended viewing, both as an example of skeptical, unimpressed (but never vicious) journalism, and as a peek into the future of television. a clever, ironic and eventually devastating documentary."

• The jurors from the 1974 DuPont-Columbia awards stated that the documentary was: "hectic, hilarious and not a little disquieting. With a heavier and less sure hand, the subject would have been squashed beneath the reporters’ irony or contempt. As it was, cult religion was handed to us, live and quivering, to make of it what we would."

References

1. Wendy Appel, USC School of Cinematic Arts, 2007, The University of Southern California
   Wendy Apple
   As a producer/director for television, her credits include HARD RAIN which starred Bob Dylan, APPEARING NITELY (HBO) starring Lily Tomlin, AMERICAN FAMILIES, FROM THE HEART, TRIAL WATCH, and LILY FOR PRESIDENT. She was a partner in the early guerilla television company, TVTV and received the Alfred Dupont Columbia Journalism Award for their production of LORD OF THE UNIVERSE. She is producing ACE's official documentary on 100 years of editing's contributions to cinema. B.S. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
2. ^ Set in Motion: The New York State Council on the Arts Celebrates 30 Years of Independents: On Television, Video History Project, Leanne Mella, 1994
   It was to the Lab’s director, the late David Loxton, that Michael Shamberg of Top Value Television (TVTV) brought his proposal for The Lord of the Universe, an hour-long documentary on the activities of the Guru Maharaj Ji. At a time when television news organizations had yet to make the leap from 16mm film, TVTV linked the styles and techniques of the New Journalism then in vogue to emerging video technologies, thus pioneering a new means of imagemaking for television...Like other TVTV projects, The Lord of the Universe was produced for about $30,000. WNET’s President, John Jay Iselin, was so impressed with the group’s work, that he raised additional private funds to allow the Lab to commission five more TVTV programs, among them the series Gerald Ford’s America.
3. "All Movie Guide profile".
4. ^ DuPont-Columbia Award, Columbia University, The Journalism School, The Lord of the Universe
   The Lord of the Universe, Subject: RELIGION, News Organization: TVTV, Awarded: 1974, Summary, Silver baton. 16-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and his American following at a three day spiritual festival. Producer: David Loxton., Jurors' Comments, TVTV and WNET/13’s "The Lord of the Universe," a 60-minute report on Guru Maharaj Ji, was, according to the jurors, hectic, hilarious and not a little disquieting. With a heavier and less sure hand, the subject would have been squashed beneath the reporters’ irony or contempt. As it was, cult religion was handed to us, live and quivering, to make of it what we would., Original Air Date: 2/24/1974 Total Running Time: 01:00:00, Archive Number: 1973/74.9.TV
5. ^ "Subject to Change", Deirdre Boyle, Art Journal, Vol. 45, No. 3, Video: The Reflexive Medium (Autumn, 1985), pp. 228-232.
6. Distributed by Subtle Communications, 1208 W. Webster, Chicago, Il 60614, November 1, 1991, Copyright 1991.
7. Top Value Television, biography, 2007, Electronic Arts Intermix.
   TVTV's innovative verite journalism included an award-winning expose on the Guru Maharaj Ji and his followers, The Lord of the Universe (1974), which was the first Portapak video documentary produced for national television.
8. ReelNewYork, Channel Thirteen, Kathy High, retrieved 1/18/07.
   "THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE, for example, a documentation of Guru Maharaj Ji's Millennium '73 revival meeting at the Houston Astrodome by Michael Shamberg's TVTV group, was edited at the TV Lab. This was the first program originally made on 1/2-inch video tape to be broadcast nationally."
9. ^ Electronic Arts Intermix, "The Lord of the Universe", 1974, TVTV, retrieved 1/18/06.
   Awarded the Alfred I. du Pont/Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism, The Lord of the Universe is a forceful expose on the sixteen-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and the national gathering of his followers at the Houston Astrodome -- Millennium 73, billed as the "most significant event in the history of humanity. In the last word on the events, a cynical Abbie Hoffman comments, "If this guy is God, this is the God the United States of America deserves."
10. ^ Lord of the Universe Video Data Bank, retrieved 1/18/07.
11. Back cover, VHS release of 1991.
12. ^ Full video preview, 1974, presented by WNET
13. "TVRO: Lord of the Universe", Plot Description, The New York Times, , retrieved 1/18/07.
14. Cruzcat Catalog, University of California, Santa Cruz, The Lord of the Universe , retrieved 1/18/07.
15. "Guru Maharaj Ji", Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan., Thomson Gale. 2007.
    Through the mid-1970s the rapidly developing movement ran into trouble, beginning with its inability to fill the Houston Astrodome in a highly publicized event, Millennium 73.
16. Kent, Stephen A. Dr. From slogans to mantras: social protest and religious conversion in the late Vietnam war era Syracuse University press ISBN 0-8156-2923-0 (2001)page 52
17. Davis, Rennie in the introdution of the book Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji? Edited by Charles Cameron November 1973 published by Bantam Books, Inc. ASIN B000AQEE24
18. Brown, Mick The Spiritual Tourist' Bloomsbury publishing ISBN 1-58234-034-X Chapter Her Master's Voice' page 197
    "His most celebrated devotee was Rennie Davis. Davis described the arrival of Guru Maharaj Ji as, 'The greatest event in history...If we knew who he was we would crawl across America on our hands and knees to rest our heads at his feet.' The San Francisco Sunday Examiner publicly wondered whether Davis had undergone a lobotomy: 'If not,' an article on the op-ed page declared, 'maybe he should try one.'"
19. "When The Lord of All The Universe Played Houston", Rolling Stone Magazine, March 14, 1974, Pp. 36-50.
20. Levi, Richard M,. Who is your guru in The Seventies: A Tumultuous Decade Reconsidered, pp. 104 Rolling Stone magazine. Little, Brown and Company (2000). ISBN 0-316-81547-0)
21. "One Lord too Many", Time Magazine, April 28, 1975.
    Guru Maharaj Ji is worshiped as the "Lord of the Universe" by devotees of the Divine Light Mission in many countries round the world.
22. O'Connor, John J. TV: Meditating on Young Guru and His Followers The New York Times, February 25, 1974.
23. Williams. Bob, "On the Air," New York Post, February 25, 1974.
24. Kay Butler, Dissecting the Guru on the Tube, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, February 28, 1974.
25. Powers, Ron, Participatory TV Goes to Guru Gala, Chicago Sun Times, March 16, 1974.

External links

• Streaming video, 1974, Media Burn Independent Video Archive (mediaburn.org)
• 3-minute excerpt, Creative Commons License, Internet Archive
• duPont-Columbia Award, 1974

• 1974 films
• Prem Rawat
• American films
• Religion films
• American documentary films
• English-language films
• Films set in Texas
• DuPont-Columbia Award recipients
• Television documentaries