Prem Rawat (Prem Pal Singh Rawat) whose devotees call him Maharaji (meaning Ultimate Ruler) first came to attention in the West as Guru Maharaj Ji, the self-proclaimed Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe ridiculed in the media as a fat, squeaky-voiced God boy. He had inherited his titles and position as the Satguru, The True Revealer of Light and Spiritual Master of the Divine Light Mission, India (Divya Sandesh Parishad) when his father died in 1966. His father, Hans Rawat, was a successful Indian guru, self titled HRH (His Royal Highness) Yogiraj Param Sant Satgurudev Shri Hans Ji Maharaj. As a child the youngest Rawat son was informally called Sant Ji, more formally Balyogeshwar ("Born King of the Yogis") and even more formally Param Sant Satgurudev Shri Sant Ji Maharaj. In the West Rawat dropped these more verbose titles in the early 1980's and instructed his followers to call him Maharaji. He has also changed the names of his organisations many times: Divine Light Mission (DLM), World Welfare Association (WWA), World Peace Corps (WPC) and Divine United Organisation (DUO) became Elan Vital in the early 1980's and in 2001 The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) was created and from 2010 his major orgs are Words Of Peace Global (WOPG) registered in Holland, Words of Peace International (WOPI) in the USA, HDSK (Human Development through Self Knowledge) in Great Britain and Raj Vidya Kender (Royal Knowledge Society) in India. He no longer claims to be an Incarnation of God but an internationally famous humanitarian leader and teacher of peace. He's neither.
The DECA project, begun in 1979 was set up to provide Prem Rawat with a customized Boeing 707 for his personal use. As an adjunct to the ashram system, DECA was reliant on unpaid labour and donated funds; the business model that developed within DECA served as the basis for subsequent projects designed to benefit Prem Rawat.
In 1979 the acquisition and customization of a Boeing 707 for Prem Rawat's exclusive use became a dominant drive within the then Divine Light Mission. A 1961 vintage aircraft was acquired for US$1 million from an American Football Team. A business operation called the DECA Project and based in Florida was set up and ashram residents were drafted in to all aspects of work on the plane itself as well as project management and, most significantly - fund raising.
The headquarters of DLM was moved to Miami and large numbers of the most skilled and dedicated ashram premies were moved to Miami and run-down hotels were rented to accommodate them. This had a significant effect on communities throughout the USA and to a certain extent other countries as many of the most committed devotees were taken to Miami to do unskilled labour. While it was rarely discussed, premie communities required a minimum number of members to keep the nightly satsang meetings interesting and a core of premies, usually in the ashram, to provide a model of dedication and devotion for the majority of premie who lived in nuclear families. Taking such a large number of these ashram premies to one community along with the "inspiration fatigue" brought on by 3 years of living chaotically through constantly attending festivals and responding to Rawat's raising of the devotional bar through his public dancing and demands of "surrender" contrbuted to a lessening of fervour and participation.
Like other expansive projects undertaken by Rawat's followers, DECA had no beneficial impact on the Rawat movement or its participants, however DECA did provide a model for income generation which was free of the costs and other considerations of the ashram system. Although dependant on the ashrams for its existence, DECA, or at least the funding expertise that it generated, can be seen as the development which allowed Rawat to dissolve the costly ashram system in 1982 and 1983, and to still maintain an income flow to his organizations.
Within the DECA facility a range of activities took place that were focussed on Prem Rawat's interests - servicing of his Rolls Royces was undertaken there. The financial structure seems to have lacked commonly expected controls and there have been accusations of inadequate and illegal work practices.
As reported on February March 1982 in the Washington Post, a former premie Maggie Shivers was successfully deprogrammed and when 28 and a student at Yale university gave testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Delegates in Maryland considering a bill, introduced by Del. Ida G. Ruben (Democrat-Montgomery) which would allow a court to appoint a guardian for 45 days when families could produce evidence that a family member was under some kind of "mind control". She had joined the Divine Light Mission when she was 19 and rose through the ranks to become an administrator at the Divine Light Mission International Headquarters in Denver. During her deprogramming she was told "You know Maharaji has a half dozen expensive cars around the country", and she said, "Hell with you, I'm his accountant and he's got 32 of them, if you really want to know!" Nevertheless her deprogramming was successful and she gave evidence about Rawat's gold plated fittings in his Boeing 707 and his teaching that "premies would shatter into a million pieces if they left".
Work on the Boeing 707 was completed in 1980 but inadequate research had been done and its emissions exceeded legal limits so the plane was soon sold to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who had it flown to Malaysia where it rapidly fell into disuse because of it's environmental problems. The plane was used for a US tour and a trip to Australia and New Zealand and a holiday in Tahiti.
The DECA business sought development as a corporate jet customization operation but proved unviable and was soon sold, being renamed Aircraft Modular Products(AMP). Some of Prem Rawat's followers gained employment with AMP but the company had no other links with Rawat or his organizations. AMP prospered and was sold in 1998 by it's then owner Roger Koch for over US$ 100 million.
It is unclear what happened to the receipts from the sale of the Boeing 707 and the DECA business. There appears to have been a chronic incapacity within Divine Light Mission to protect either its interests as a charity or the interests of those who voluntarily assisted it. Numerous business operations started by Prem Rawat's followers seem to have become absorbed into a quasi corporate structure ostensibly to the benefit of Divine Light Mission, only to be 'demerged' to the sole benefit of subsequent owners.
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This was written by Cynthia Gracie, who worked as Prem Rawat's secretary at DECA, and whose duties included cleaning his personal toilet:
"I spent a great deal of time with Prem Rawat personally in 1979 through 1980. This was during a period of time when Prem Rawat was known as "Guru Maharaj Ji" and I lived in an ashram in Miami Beach, Florida.
The project I worked on was a shell corporation called "DECA" and it had no real employees or safety guidelines. There was no payroll except for the few staff members who happened to be married. Because of Prem Rawat's greed and desire to have a jet aircraft of his own, he created this bizarre project and hundreds of his followers were called from all over the world to work for free. Many got very ill from chemical exposure and from sheer exhaustion.
Some followers were exposed to a toxic soup of chemicals without any protection. Some spent ten+ years afterwards without any acknowledgement or financial assistance from Prem Rawat for their health care. So many abuses took place during that project and within the "premie" (hindi for "lover of truth") communities there was great pressure for devotees to donate large sums of money during that time. Some people mortgaged their homes, some took out loans, and the rest of us worked in Florida for no pay. Millions and millions of dollars when into that project and Prem Rawat never even liked the B707 that was completely reconfigured inside and out by his devotees. He sold it! Now he has Gulfstream V (information accurate at time of writing), the best private jet available on the market. A $40 million+ jet that is provided for his exclusive use because he always wanted to be a pilot and now is one."
Further Information:
Prem Rawat's "Knowledge" has three parts: regularly listening to his speeches, doing voluntary work for organisations serving him or donating money and daily meditation correctly practicing the four techniques he recommends. The techniques are so simple it's hard to see how they could be practiced incorrectly. First technique ("Divine Light") involves sticking your thumb and middle finger on your eyeballs (NB: with eyes closed) and your index finger between your eyebrows. Second technique: ("Heavenly Music") poking your thumbs into your ears and listening. Third technique: ("Holy Name") thinking about your breathing (NB: continue to breathe). Fourth technique: ("Nectar") curling your tongue backwards and tasting. Rawat's father taught slightly different techniques but either way it's difficult to see how these could produce the benefits claimed for them especially as Rawat claims His Knowledge is the only method of attaining real happiness and love in this life.