Special Issue
A Divine Union
Guru Maharaj Ji Weds
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.
| Saturday, June 8, 1974 | THE GOLDEN AGE | Page One |
On May 20 the Perfect Master, Guru Maharaj Ji was married to Marolyn Johnson, much to the joy of Divine Light Mission and his six million followers around the world.
The small ceremony was held at sunset in the Rockland Community Church, Lookout Mountain, Colorado. The bride's family had come from San Diego, California, to attend the wedding along with forty other guests. Also in attendance were Guru Maharaj Ji's brother, Raja Ji, and his wife Claudia, whose recent marriage was correctly announced in issue No. 4 of The Golden Age.
Music composed and sung by devotees of Guru Maharaj Ji was performed during the ceremony, which included scriptural texts from the Gospel of St Matthew and a passage by the Lebanese poet, Khalil Gibran, on the meaning of marriage. Following the wedding, a small reception was held at the Divine Residence in Denver, where Guru Maharaj Ji, now a permanent resident of the United States, has established the headquarters of Divine Light Mission, which is dedicated to spreading world and personal peace through a practical, inner experience of meditation called Knowledge.
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For his devotees Maharaj Ji has acted as a bridge to cross all barriers that separate them from realizing perfection. Through marriage he has perfectly reconciled the conflicting traditions of East and West, and raised the consciousness of his followers onto a new and higher level of understanding. - Divine Times, London |
Guru Maharaj Ji was born in Kankhal, India, on December 10, 1957. He attended the St Joseph's Academy in India until 1971, when he began teaching meditation in the West, where he now has 80,000 followers.
Marolyn Johnson, now Marolyn Singh Rawat, was born in San Diego, California, on October 25, 1949. She graduated from Southwestern College, California, in 1970 and received Knowledge in September 1973. She has known Guru Maharaj Ji for about a year, and they developed a close relationship during the time Marolyn served as Guru Maharaj Ji's secretary.
At last report, the couple have travelled to Los Angeles, California, and will soon be en route for Copenhagen and the Guru Puja festival.
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.