The Life and Career of Prem Rawat - (a very young work in progress)

Introduction

Prem as Krishna

Notoriety as the pudgy, teenage Lord of the Universe of the 1970's

Prem Rawat attained brief public notoriety and ridicule as the "Guru Maharaj Ji", the teenage fat boy guru whose apparent skyrocketing following in the early 1970's had journalists in the "West", especially the USA and Great Britain, astonished and eager to write about his Divine Light Mission. This period ended with the failure of the “most important spiritual event in the history of mankind”, Millenium '73. The debts left by this failure and his personal extravagance nearly bankrupted the organisation.

For another few years stories about Rawat became more derisory as knowledge of his bleeding ulcer, his materialistic and extravagant life style, his claims to Divinity and the worship of his followers became common. His marriage to a much older and taller devotee in 1974 was followed by his own mother disowning and disinheriting him in 1975 for his meat-eating, drug abuse and general "playboy" lifestyle. Since the early 1980's, he continued to minister to his core of devotees in self-imposed obscurity until this century when he has attempted to become known as an internationally respected teacher of peace and renowned philanthropist through the use of phony public relations publicity.

Prem Rawat, December 2007

Present Day

Prem Rawat or Maharaji (translation: "Great King" formerly known as "Guru Maharaj Ji") now claims to be a mild-mannered inspirational speaker and wealthy private investor living in well-deserved luxury in Malibu. He claims to work tirelessly to bring people the possibility of inner peace and bliss, a possibility that is completely unique and absolutely "the best thing happening" and that only he can reveal and inspire.

Background

Prem Rawat was born on December 10, 1957. His father's self-proclaimed title was Shri Hans Ji Maharaj. Prem Rawat claims he was a descendant of Indian Royalty, and Hans also claimed to be the living incarnation of God of his time from whom Prem inherited his position. The process of Prem's incarnation, as he described it often, began on July 19th, 1966 when his father left his body in samadhi (died) and ended on August 1st to the ecstatic recognition of him as the new Perfect Master by thousands of his father's followers in the party of the century.

TimeLine:

References:

The full text of many public speeches or "satsangs" of the young Prem Rawat and much background material is available at www.ex-premie.org. There are many relevant quotes of Prem Rawat's on The DLM / EV Gallery which includes material on the tapes and CDs of devotional music sold by Prem Rawat's organisations and a comprehensive collection of newspaper articles about Prem Rawat and there is a collection of newspaper and magazine articles here.
Excerpts from the book "Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?" Published in November 1973 by Bantam Books, Inc. © 1973 by Shri Hans Productions

Further Information:

Unfortunately Prem Rawat has published very little or no information about his early life since he ordered the 1970's Divine Light Mission publications destroyed. A hagiography called "Peace Is Possible" has been published in early 2007.
However a brief introduction to Prem Rawat's life and career and Prem Rawat's arrival and early activities in the "West" are available. His early childhood is described in the Divine Times Volume II, No. 23 - December 11, 1973, a magazine published by Divine Light Mission.

There are video clips of his father, Shri Hans, on this site and his life and work are detailed in a web site dedicated to him and one of Prem Rawat's eldest brother, Shri Satpal Ji which contains many historical photos and much information. There is much information about Prem Rawat's mother's life and work published by Satpal and even more about his own spiritual work amongst millions of his Indian followers.

Reliable Sources of Information about Prem Rawat are rare, especially about his early life, as most of the Divine Light Mission films, magazines and videos about him were destroyed in the early 1980's at his request/demand. While research is now unearthing material regularly we are eager to hear of any relevant information. Please contact the web site creator on premrawatbio@yahoo.com

Disenchanted one-time followers of Prem Rawat have collected a library of books, magazine articles and newspaper articles about or mentioning Prem Rawat here.

Please contact us if you have any corrections of fact or typing or to provide further information. We'd love to hear from you.