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.

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Mr A and Mr B:

Guru Maharaj Ji's Satsang, 19 December 1975

You see, let me tell you. This is just one factor of satsang and understanding: one premie, Mr. A, goes out and gives satsang. (This is an example; I'm telling you what the consequences of that spacing out can mean.) Mr. A goes out and gives satsang to Mr. B. Mr. B is a Joe Blow, totally off the streets, and he doesn't know anything about anything. He has heard about Divine Light Mission as the biggest rip-off people, and that's about all he knows.

So Mr. A goes and gives satsang to that person and says, "Yes, you should dedicate your whole life to Guru Maharaj Ji, you should dedicate everything you have to Guru Maharaj Ji. Just give up everything because this world is not good." Well, what exactly is he saying wrong there? I mean, that's a fact. He's not saying too much wrong there. We come into this world and we think this belongs to us and this belongs to us and this belongs to us, the whole world is fighting with it, and what good does it do the whole world? It all belongs to Him anyway. So Mr. A says, "Just be one with Guru Maharaj Ji, just surrender your life to Guru Maharaj Ji, and you will get what you want."

Well, that's true. But that confuses that person so much, because he doesn't know how to surrender to anybody. He's probably one of the guys who never got drafted, he has never been to Viet Nam, and since America didn't exactly lose the war there, they don't know what surrendering means. For people who did surrender, they're up there now, you know. So people really don't know what surrendering means, and all of a sudden you come out and tell them to surrender their lives. It's like, "Wait a minute!" A man, especially if he is forty or fifty years old, has worked so hard for what he has got. He has worked all that time, he has built up what he has got, and here you are telling him to dedicate everything, to be a devotee. And it confuses him.

So Mr. A just confused Mr. B. No harm done. That's okay. That Mr. B probably doesn't have more than two years to go, and I don't think in two years you are going to give this whole world the Knowledge. So no harm done. But then Mr. B goes to Mrs. B and tells her how crazy this organization is, that they wanted him to give up everything. And she says, "Yeah, yeah, I know. They are just crazy. These people are fanatics." Well, they can say whatever they want to, because we can't exactly go bugging people's house and suing them for calling us wrong names. They can say whatever, so whatever comes first in their mouth, they say it. "Fanatics," "crazy," "cuckoos," "robbers," you know? Whatever they want to say, they say it, right out loud.

It just so happens that their twenty-one year old son is sitting right next to them, who is a big blabbermouth, and he goes out and tells the whole university about it. That Mr. A didn't do very much harm telling it to Mr. B, but then answer me, did he not? He just confused the whole university. And that whole university goes and tells it to their parents, and then their parents go and tell it to their friends, and then their friends do the same. You see, rumors spread faster than anything else in the world, so within no time, forget it. All those people are confused. And sometimes, the first impression is the last impression.

This is why we have to work so hard with non-premies to convince them, "Look. This is not a rip-off party. We are not a bunch of robbers. We are just trying to give you Knowledge. And believe us or not, you want Knowledge." It becomes very hard for us, simply because the right approach was not taken. And it's because the right understanding was not there, that the right approach was not taken. That premie was not synched up properly with the organization, and to his understanding, which then resulted as what it resulted as, confusing just about everybody.

So when Mr. A goes out to the street and confuses Mr. B, that's the consequence. If you are that spaced out, if you are not synchronized, and if you do not have the proper understanding, you can confuse this world.

- Guru Maharaj Ji

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.