Millennium '73 - Afterwards

Afterwards

Two sociologists described Millennium '73 as the youth culture event of the year. Journalists listed it among the notable events of the 1970s. Indian writer Vishal Mangalwadi called the festival the zenith of Maharaj Ji's popularity. The festival did not live up to expectations of establishing peace or world transformation. According to reports, the Astrodome did not levitate, no UFOs landed, and no ETs attended. Journalists and scholars called the festival a dismal failure, a fiasco, a major setback, a disastrous rally, a great disappointment, and a "depressing show unnoticed by most". According to James T. Richardson, the event left the movement "in dire financial straits and bereft of credibility". Religious scholar Robert S. Ellwood wrote that Maharaj Ji's "meteoric career collapsed into scandal and debt" after the event.

Maharaj Ji gave no public indication that he was disappointed, although one reporter said he appeared to be nonplussed by the turnout. He remarked privately on how perfect it was and called the event fantastic. Three months after the event Davis said that it was significant despite the low attendance, noting that only a small number of people were at the Sermon on the Mount or the Last Supper. In a June 1974 interview, Mishler said that the love which filled the Astrodome was the beginning of the human race, and that only those who came to it with expectations were disappointed.

Some members expected world transformation and there were many reports of members being disappointed. According to sociologists Foss and Larkin, some members saw the failure to meet expectations as another example of lila. Downton, who attended the festival, said the followers tried to find nice things to say about the event but that it appeared to him they were trying to hide ruined dreams. One member said that the excitement was over and that followers could not believe that the world had not changed. A member from an Orthodox Jewish background was disenchanted and began to doubt that Maharaj Ji held all the answers, according to his sister's memoir. Janet McDonald, an African American woman attending Vassar College, said that her "faith was brutally dashed to bits" at the festival because of its failure to meet her expectations of miracles and by her embarrassment at lining up for hours to kiss the white-socked foot of Mata Ji. She left the movement soon after. Sophia Collier said that she woke up on the bottling plant floor the next morning wondering why she was there, though she decided to try to repair the movement's public image.