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.

On November 15, live minutes before the bus ride home, a familiar voice came over the paging system at DLM international headquarters, Denver. It was a remarkable sight; people dropped their work and stood in silent groups around the P.A. speakers. This is what they heard:

Dear premies,

This is Guru Maharaj Ji here. I just wanted to give you a few words of information about what I have been doing since I have been here in Denver. It's really been good. It's really been beautiful to come here and do what I have accomplished. I have taken IHQ and its function, and defined it to where IHQ only handles the spiritual aspects of Divine Light Mission around the world, which I'll be supervising personally. I've also put together a staff of premies who are going to be working with me.

Just looking at the growth that's happening around the world in this Mission, I feel that it's about time there was a more direct participation on my part than there has been in the past. I feel very positive about the Initiator Development Program coming up at the end of December, and I also feel it will give a great boost to propagation all around the world.

It still comes down to the same old story where satsang, service and meditation is always going to be the key, the true key for our personal development in the process of Knowledge. We all have to understand our purpose because when we start to forget the purpose we are here for, we become very lost. The more and more we lose that perspective, the more lost we get. The more lost we get, the right reason for us being here - to serve Maharaj Ji, to help Maharaj Ji spread this message also becomes very vague. It becomes completely different. More and more confusion comes; it's just like a chain. Right down the line things keep on happening.

It's too important. We just can't forget what the reason is, what this is all about. There are a few people who have forgotten this. The more lost they have become, the more they have slowed down the potential of their service. So, I'd just like to tell you that everything is really going beautifully. Things are happening in a way that the only legitimate explanation for it is grace. That's another area in itself. It's our engine; it always pulls us through, no matter what.

It's great to be able to come and see the enthusiasm of premies. Everything is slowly starting to come to a higher consciousness. I just pray it keeps on developing to a higher and higher and higher consciousness, to where the true motives of this organization can be fulfilled. So premies, it's really beautiful. I just wanted everybody to understand why we are here; we just cannot lose sight of that.

If we lose sight of that, we might as well make our sight lost from this office building, and from wherever we are in the whole world, serving Maharaj Ji. So, stay in touch, and that is, stay in touch with your perspective of why you're here. I'll be participating more and more because the things I want to do are so beautiful and so important for the whole growth process of this organization that I, personally, take a great pleasure in supervising them.

That's about all; I can keep on going and going, but that's the gist of the matter. I just want you to keep on truckin', and everything is beautiful. Bless you all.

Divine Times, December 1976    3

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.