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 - January 1977 Volume 6, Number 1

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Contents

Atlantic City A weekend meditation retreat/ Birthday Celebration for 750 Jersey/ Philly/ New York area premies turned into an old fashioned, all-out, puja festival with Maharaj Ji's Birthday Celebration and "casual satsang," as he prefaced it, Saturday night; a satsang program to be internationally distributed, Sunday night, as well as the opportunity to do pranam and later watch Maharaj Ji (shining in Krishna outfit and crown) and Durga Ji play and dance and laugh to "Take My Love."	3
Guru Maharaj Ji's World A lot of people suddenly decided to move out of the ashram. Well, that is up to them, but a lot of people also started to feel stranded in this world, because maybe they weren't quite ready to move out of the ashram. Besides the fact of ups and downs and highs and lows, there's only one very important thing that we all have to understand and recognize, and that is that we have to come back home again. If we cannot come home again, if we have gone too far off, it's just not worth it. We have to come back home again, we have to come back to satsang, service, and meditation, and we have to come back under the shelter of Guru Maharaj Ji, because that's about the best shelter there is.	4
Unity In a manner characteristic of his terse instructions on many things in that period, he told her simply, "Start a school." The details were up to her, and to the small circle of brothers and sisters who quickly gathered around her as the project began. In fact, a key quality of Sharon's young faculty at that point was its gritty determination to avoid the pitfalls which were being experienced by many projects in Divine Light Mission at that time. Like skyrockets, some of these grand schemes soared into the sky with great expectations. Every couple of months, premies would find another bold way to change the world overnight. Maharaj Ji never got swept up in such things, and he usually just smiled as his devotees watched the rockets fizzle and learned the appropriate lesson which went with each one.	8
Communities About a year ago we were into workshops and had an encounter night. Many of us realized then that we needed to see and know each other as whole individuals. Some of us had fallen into playing "premie roles" with each other and related only in situations of formal satsang and service. One of the nice things about being premies, however, is that with Knowledge we suddenly have a basis of relating to other people on a level more fundamental than the interplay of personalities. All of these things make it very easy to get distracted from our main priority - practicing this Knowledge. So what I have realized is that I am happier and my life flows the smoothest when I do meditation, service and satsang. To be made aware of the center of my being is such a beautiful gift.	16
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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.