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.

Divine Times - Volume 5, Number 2, February 29, 1976

Divine Times Cover

Divine Times Magazine About Prem Rawat (Maharaji)

Planning

Planning

North American News

Based on the amount of funds which the conference participants determined would be available throughout the year, many of the special activities planned for 1976 have had to be reconsidered. We've learned not to take on more than we can financially handle, so Maharaj Ji's tour of North America was cancelled, while his South African tour has been indefinitely postponed, meaning also that the dates of his European tour have had to be changed. A North American Guru Puja is still being planned, but no definite arrangements have been made as yet.

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Mahatmas

Say I am going out on the street and distributing leaflets. Somebody comes up to me and asks me what I am doing, and I give him satsang. He says, "Okay, where can I receive Knowledge?" and I tell him, "Well you go to a mahatma." He says, "What's a mahatma?" By the time you finish explaining everything to him, he doesn't know what he understood at first that made him even ask all the questions. I think that's just crazy.

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It Takes A Lot Of Grass Roots To Make A Lawn

The workshop approach got off to a good start in Minneapolis last summer when Allan Imbarrato, the community director there, started looking at what was necessary to help that community share Guru Maharaj Ji's message. A series of meetings were set up to see exactly what premies understood about Knowledge. You have to be clear about something before you can tell anyone else about it; and with something as beautiful as Knowledge, you'd want to be sure the person could understand what you are saying as well. In the first few meetings it was apparent that there was a lot of controversy surrounding what seemed to be even the simplest points. The group discovered that, separately, they didn't know much, but through the process of honest satsang and sharing together, they could know a lot.

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Lima Guru Maharaj Ji's Satsang in Lima, Peru on January 14, 1976 during his recent tour of Latin America

But we have to understand that there is no point in our lives when we can say we are mature. We cannot really mature, we cannot really understand, because understanding is infinite. Therefore, even if we are a hundred years old, or two hundred years old, we are still babies. And considering the fact that we are two hundred years old and we are still babies, who is the person who keeps checking on us? Who is the person who keeps telling us not to do these things because these things are wrong? I don't mean just a box of tissues or a flowerpot. I mean, man goes out and does all these crazy things, really, if we look at it from a really, really clear point of view, it's childish. He's really like a baby. He is always like a baby.

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Our major concern right now is "why Divine Times?" We've been putting out this paper for years, but most of us have never really sat down and thought or talked about what we're doing. What is it we're trying to accomplish here? And what's the best way to do that? And where did we ever get that funky name, anyway? Over the next several months, you may see a lot of changes in this rag. We hope you will. Sometimes it feels like we're trying to cramb 21st century consciousness into a 19th century format.

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So really realize and understand. What I am saying may mean nothing to you right now, but maybe somewhere along in your life you will feel the necessity of it and then you'll remember my words, you'll be able to really see what I am talking about. Really understand and open yourself up to this Knowledge, because it's really beautiful. Just open yourself to serve.

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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.