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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God is present in everyone's heart. So God is within, 'heart' is within.
To fix our attention within ourselves, upon God, is devotion. And then we become a devotee,
If we don't fix our attention there, then how could we be a devotee? |
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Pictures Of God - Guru Maharaj Ji / Guru Puja Festival, London, England / June 21, 1979 "There's these people who are called intellectual. Mr. Know-'em-alls, you know. What they think is right, correct, true. They don't care about the other person at all. Even if the other person is saying exactly the same thing that they are saying, still they are right and the other person is wrong. And sometimes, this is the kind of wheel that we get caught in. Sometimes this is the up and down and up and down of this mind that we get caught in.
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Realize This Secret Guru Maharaj Ji / Miami Beach, Florida / June 16, 1972 "Religion" has come from the word "realization," and the realization of God is the true religion. If you have realized God, if you have seen God, practically, then only are you really following a true religion. Otherwise, you are trying to follow in someone's footsteps, but you don't know whether they are of a man or of a lion or of an elephant. You are trying to follow in some footsteps. What is that Knowledge? If we have received that true Knowledge, then we will be completely satisfied. God is the embodiment of perfectness. God is the embodiment of satisfaction. And if we have understood God, if we have realized God, then we will be completely satisfied. We won't run as we run today after these materialistic desires which have no limit to them. |
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The Source Of Peace - Guru Maharaj Ji Lima, Peru November 19, 1976 Then I remember I was really excited. We got this turntable which had a little switch on it and it took a 90-volt battery and you wouldn't have to crank it or anything. It even had a speaker built into it. It even had a volume control and a tone control. It went on and on and then I came to America and I looked at these things called record changers. It was fascinating for me. You stack up all your records, turn it on, play one side, it drops the record, plays the next one, and drops the next record. Great. I took one to India with me. (It blew up, didn't last very long.) |
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The Omnific Word - Guru Maharaj Ji Answers Questions / Hollywood, California / August 11, 1971 You were talking about how things are hurrying up now. You're giving Knowledge to anyone who asks, where before it would have taken years. Why are things hurrying up now?
Because God has to come and rule this entire world. If there will be only two or three people who know that Knowledge, how will God be able to rule? There should be lots and lots of people, so God can do that.
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"You can get me whatever you want to. Sure. I'll accept. But for one time when you do what I ask you to do, that's what makes me really happy." |
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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.