 Book
Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Between Dark and Dark
By David Lovejoy
Echo Publications $22.95
Walk between dark and dark', wrote the poet Robert Graves, 'a shining space/With the grave's narrowness, though not its peace'.
Echo co-founder, David Lovejoy, makes clear that his life, too, has been anything but peaceful, despite a good deal of it being spent in the calming - and arguably narrow - thrall of an Indian guru.
Born in Britain and adept at languages, literature, chess and, as it would later transpire, savouring the pleasures of the counter-culture, he was accepted into Oxford University and managed a BA with minimal effort.
His student days began with beer and graduated into plenty of drugs and rock 'n' roll, although too little sex for his liking, and his tales are highly entertaining, peppered with musings about flatmates, a beloved Jaguar XK-120 roadster and his admiration for the 'three Roberts' - the poet Graves, Fischer, the American chess grand master, and Bob Dylan.
However, this troika was soon replaced in his affections by the singular Maharaj Ji, whom he still follows, perhaps with some reservations.
His first contact with Indian mysticism came in 'a small basement flat in West Kensington' where a visiting representative of the guru held a meeting called 'satsang - company of truth'.
Later he saw a picture of the true master, 'on a little altar with candles and incense', and was amazed to find he was just 12-years-old.
This non-Maharaj Ji believer - despite having travelled extensively in India - finds it hard to see how the insightful Lovejoy became so besotted with the guru and so deeply enmeshed in the sect's Divine Light Mission. Yet he did, firstly in India, where he stayed at their ashram, and later in Sydney where he founded an inner city HQ and helped establish the DLM's once-strong presence in Australia. He even worked with their centres in the US and UK.
Yet amidst a lifestyle both peripatetic and devoted he found time to hone his chess skills to a high level, taking out a state title, before relocating to the Far North Coast in the mid-1980s. Here, with his inimitable colleague, the late Nicholas Shand, he founded the Brunswick Valley, now Byron Shire, Echo, and later, the Lismore, now Northern Rivers, Echo.
Amidst the wry, often valuable, perspectives on hippy culture and the North Coast media, there is detail about his personal relationships that might best have been left unsaid. Painful to read and perhaps hurtful to those involved, they mar what is otherwise a worthwhile account of a life well lived.
- Books available at Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore and at Lismore Shopping
Square.
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