One member, writing in the 1970s said that followers were "nagged to donate funds of their own" and some devotees signed pledges to donate a dollar a day to provide the Mission with some reliable income. One former accountant for the DLM said that new followers were asked to turn over their entire savings, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in several cases their families contested the donations. He was quoted as saying "it takes a lot of money to keep a guru." Bob Mishler, the mission's executive director, talked one person into signing over power of attorney shortly after she joined. Mishler was sacked by Rawat in 1976. Ashrams In India The Divine Light Mission began creating ashrams in India in the 1960s, starting with a small one in Rajasthan and a larger one called Satlok ("Place of Truth") between Delhi and Haridwar. Khushwant Singh, who visited the Mission's headquarters in Delhi in 1973 described it as being like a fortress with -high walls, an iron grilled gate enclosing a courtyard and a complex of buildings capable of housing 100 and with the capacity to feed 50,000 visitors on special occasions. Singh also described "the lavish use of marble, wall-to-wall carpets, chandeliers and modern furnishings" as evidence of affluence. In the West Only a small fraction of the overall DLM membership lived in organized ashrams during its short history but several dozen ashrams were formed in the U.S., Britain, Europe and Australia. Ashrams were run by "general secretaries" appointed by the national office. Each ashram had a "house mother" who oversaw cooking, washing, ironing, and food service but the normal isolation of the housewife and cook became a communal, everyone-pitchin-and-help festival. Followers ("premies") who lived in them often worked part or full time at ordinary jobs and gave a sizable portion – sometimes all – of their income to the movement. Ashrams typically had an associated business, such as a Divine Sales outlet and a Divine Service Company. The ashram premies became the core of the Mission in the United States, but the ashrams themselves were not a source of income, never becoming more than self-sufficient. Followers wishing to stay in the ashrams established by Rawat were required to fill out detailed applications that focused on their trust funds, insurance policies, and other assets. In Australia in the early 1970s, a small percentage of premies lived in ashrams.