But instead of legitimate teachers, he found people "selling their wares," and he was not satisfied. He had come on a real search, and found nothing. By 1962 he had come to believe that "all these things are bogus, life is really enjoyment." Shortly before that time he had got a promotion, so he now felt himself well-equipped for a hedonistic life, and even made some beginnings in that direction.

But at that point he was visited at his office one day by an Acharya of Ananda Marga. Bihari thought the man must have wanted a grant for a school or something, but the Acharya informed him that he wanted instead to discuss spiritual matters. Bihari told him that this was not the right time or place, that, besides, he was no longer interested, and directed him to someone else. But the Acharya went that evening to Bihari's house, where Bihari finally yielded, and they talked-for ten hours, non-stop. During this time Bihari brought up all the arguments, reservations, and skepticism he could produce-at one point he even offered the Acharya a job-but the Acharya patiently, confidently, and considerately out debated him. The next day Bihari took initiation.

Bihari continued in the practice assigned him, feeling confident in the stature of his teacher. Later, at the suggestion of an Avadhuta, he saw Baha, the Guru, while on a vacation journey. The sight of Baba mystified him at first-here was this apparently ordinary man, clad in simple white clothes, with short-cropped hair and eyeglasses, but dignified adults were breaking into tears and near-hysterics in his presence. But later Bihari began to feel the Guru's presence himself, and after receiving personal contact became devoted to him and Ananda Marga.

Mr. Bihari has taken a week off from his official government work to speak with Americans about Ananda Marga and the solutions it offers tothe problems of the world. He is in Cambridge now, helping members of the local unit make contact with interested adults.

The Boston-Cambridge unit is one of the most active groups on the East Coast. Mr. Bihari's efforts to reach local adults bear witness to one of this unit's main weaknesses: its limited base of membership. Because it is composed almost entirely of students, the local group of Margiis has so far had a difficult time growing and establishing itself.

Of course there are other factors involved. The core of Ananda Magra in Boston-Cambridge consists of about 20 people, but over 125 have taken "initiation" or preliminary instruction. Some people simply aren't interested in spiritual organizations and prefer to meditate on their own; and some newcomers are rubbed the wrong way by the enthusiasm of organizers. One Harvard student, for instance, said he felt put off by the group's intense style of interacting. Hassles have ranged from dealing with male dominance to overcoming the generation gap, from philosophical uncertainty to individual dislikes; and everybody has had struggles in meditation.

But that is only the bleak side. Many people agree with Doug Ravenel, a Brandeis graduate student, who simply says that joining Ananda Marga has "changed my life and made me happier than I ever thought I could be." It has taken struggle, to be sure, but many earlier difficulties have been overcome. From the viewpoint of Ananda Marga, life is struggle, and to avoid struggle is like giving up and dying.

So life on this path can be described more aptly as "pleasantly tense" than as "blissful." And it is full of surprises: about a month ago Ravenel and Lea Hunt, an assistant teacher of retarded children, began to feel an extraordinary attraction to each other. They had only recently met, and the attraction more perturbed than pleased them both, for each had thought of becoming a whole-timer. They went to Yatiishvaranda in Toronto, and, after long moments of suspense, he informed them that they ought to be married-as soon as possible. He married them yesterday, with the assistance of Ravenel's father, an Episcopal minister, in the Currier House courtyard in the presence of their families, Acharya Raghaw Prasad, Mr. Bihari, and Margiis from many units in this part of the country.

THE GOAL of Ananda Marga is not the denial or obliteration of each human personality, but its perfection: Ananda Marga is unabashedly striving to create a one-world society of Universal Men, human beings' each unbound by the limitations of time, space, and person, and yet each uniquely personal. In such a context the Guru, Shrii Sarkar, appears in sharper focus as a model man than as a human god.

Yet the movement is not romantic. It does not look forward to apocalypse. It accepts the necessity of a morally upright police force, and it accepts the necessity and usefulness of science and technology. It refuses, however, to allow the human spirit to be subjugated to these powers. It demands only that each and every human being be allowed to realize what is his birthright as a man: full consciousness.

Still, in lived life, we seem so many light-years away from any such "cosmic society" that even accepting such goals as realistic is a major step. But through their meditation and service, local members of Ananda Marga are beginning to realize these goals in themselves and with others. They are taking the first steps to transform ideology into reality; and it is whether steps are taken, and not how long the road is, that matters.

One of the most important local developments, in this light, is that at least ten Boston people plan to work full-time for Ananda Marga this summer, and many plan brief trips to India. Wendy Jenner, a 3rd year student at Northeastern who plans to work full-time, says that she "earlier doubted that this rather inept group of people could really do much. But now the prospect and responsibility of full-time work have catalyzed in me a new sense of purpose, of reality: that Ananda Marga here is no longer just a 'socializing-spiritual' thing but a live work group, something that can do what it says it's going to do."