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.

Many people keep talking about love. But you see, that's a very tricky thing. The most important thing about love is that you've got to practice it. I mean, you can speak about it as much as you like, but you've got to practice it.

True love can only come if the premies are really trying to realize this Knowledge. Because you see, it's like, you want to have a tree in your back yard or in your front yard. And you go and get a leaf from one tree - like, say you want to grow a guava tree. So first you go to one guava tree, you find somebody, and say, "Can I borrow one leaf?" Then you go to somebody else and you say, "Can I borrow one more leaf?"

You keep going from one house to another house, trying to borrow these leaves, and you get all these leaves, and then you go to somebody's house and say, "Well, if you don't need your guava tree, can I have it?" You take it, and chop off the stems of it, and then go to somebody else and get the stems, and start sticking those leaves in that tree. Then you go to somebody else and say, "Can I have your guavas?" and start sticking them up in your tree also.

You might end up with a tree, but that's it. It'll start rotting away after some time. And this is what this world does. It gets a little bit of love from here, gets a little bit of love from there, puts it in the blender, whatever it comes out - and the love doesn't even last for two and a half days!

What we are trying to shoot for, what we are trying to get to is the seed of the guava tree. If you can get that, then there is no problem. Of course, it'll take a little time, and of course it'll take a lot of care, but there it'll be, the guava tree - and giving fruits one right after another. Just really beautiful.

When we talk about this love, when we talk about this realization, this is what people try to do: go there, get a little bunch there, and go there and get a little piece from there, and try to stick it together. But when that realization is inside of us, that's what we have to try and open up. And really, it becomes so simple. Because man is filled, completely filled, with this realization. But if he is not going to open himself up to it, and let it flow outside, just let it flow, he is not going to get there where he wants to get.

If a person is always going to keep back, saying, "Oh no, maybe this is too much for me," "Oh, I am confused," or "Oh, this is this," those kind of people are not actually shooting for Knowledge. They are shooting for something else. They are shooting for, say, ashram life; "Oh, the ashram life is no good, and I am confused by that." Or, "How come this has to happen that way? I am confused by that."

Or they don't see love in other premies. You know, sometimes premies don't see love in other premies, and they get confused and they quit. The thing is, yesterday we were driving from Los Angeles to San Diego. And right on the beach it was cloudy, fog here and there, so we got out of there, went past Los Angeles downtown, to where it was sunny.

It's like, it was our choice. We could've gone back - right to where it was cloudy, and no sun, fog, and all that stuff. Or we could've stayed where it was sunny. It's completely up to us.

We can see two aspects of man. We can see him from the front side, or from the back side. And he will be completely different. Premies, this is how we have to be. If we are looking for love, then we are looking for love. There are many premies who say, "Oh, we are picking up negative vibrations." The thing is, when the positive is inside of you, and that's what you're trying to search for, why look outside?

I mean, a person is searching here and there, he comes to a satsang meeting, and that's where he hears, "Well, God is inside. Search for Him inside; not outside." And he says, "Yeah, that's right. You know, God is inside, I that love is inside, the truth is inside." He moves into an ashram, he ends up the same place he started.

This is what we have to understand. That love, when that realization comes there, is so simple, is really so easy. But we make it hard. What we have to understand is the message, the main message. Don't just start singing a beautiful song about love. The thing is, we've got to practice that love now. Talking has always been going on for a long time, I tell you a pretty long time. And it's still going on. And it doesn't do much. We've got to practice something that has done a lot, and that will do a lot - and that is this Knowledge. You know how? Meditate on this Knowledge.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

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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.