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.

It's No Secret

On 7 December, 1975, Denver premies who had gathered together for their Sunday community meeting were delighted to find that Durga Ji had come to visit. As she started to give satsang, strange electronic noises, heartbeats and whispers were heard from backstage. No one was in much doubt as to the originator of these sounds. Sure enough, when Durga Ji finished speaking, Guru Maharaj Ji appeared on the balcony and gave satsang.

I just happen to have a message to relay to all the premies. See, I came here earlier than most of you did. And I just happened to notice that there were not all those premies here that were supposed to be here. Not that I am naming any individual premie.

You see, the premies have got five very important things in their lives which every premie is made of. One is darshan, and what darshan can really do to us is just amazing and incredible. Then there we three more things - satsang, service and meditation. That makes it four.

So every premie consists of something, and that's why he is called a premie. And one thing that he consists of is satsang because satsang gives a premie a constant guidance through which he can channel himself through the proper energy, through which he can channel himself to the right way that he is supposed to be.

See, we receive Knowledge for just one reason, because we are lost in this world. It's like we need a proper channel to channel ourselves through. We lose ourselves all the time. I mean, we have tried in this lifetime to channel ourselves, through some media, through some means, but we always lose ourselves. And that's one reason why we come to this Knowledge. Then we realise that this Knowledge is what can provide us with that true experience that we really need.

So satsang is one of the things. Like right now, fifty percent of you guys could have been sitting back home, and I could have been sitting in this balcony just about ready to give satsang like I am right now, and a lot of premes would have missed it. So this is just to tell you how important satsang is.

You know, you really can't say to yourself that there is a fixed policy on satsang. Satsang is always infinite, because it's a description of something which is infinite which we all feel within our hearts. So I hope you come to satsang regularly, and do meditation and service, and have darshan. And really realise what's going on.

The last thing, the fifth thing that all the premies have to share amongst each other is the understanding of what we are doing here. It's like, I went on this big tour in the Pacific and then I came back and went to Hans Jayanti. Now, I have a residence in Malibu, and premies have been working in that residence for such a long time. But the reason why I am here, in Denver, is because I want to give all the premies an understanding that there is something that we all - not just me, but all of us - are sharing. And that's the understanding that we all have to bring forth - that we have really experienced the Truth within inside of us, and that we want to give this whole world this experience that we have experienced. This is why we work. We do this service that Guru Maharaj Ji has appointed to us so that we can give this whole world the experience, the Truth, the realisation that we have experienced. That is a very important factor.

It's like, by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, I work. I work in the office, whenever I get a chance. And to every premie who is working in the office and every premie who is working in the ashram - I mean, that may be the housemother to the janitor or any premie who is working anywhere - it's a big mystery, "What am I doing?" But it's not a mystery. This is what I want to explain to you, that it's no mystery whatsoever. It's just a very simple thing. We are all trying to understand that we are trying to pass this realisation that we have had, by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, to the other people who have not had this realisation. This is why we have such a big organisation.

So there's a common understanding that every one of us has to have in between each other, and that relationship can only be formed when we have more satsang. Because what am I doing right now? I'm explaining something to you, and I'm putting an idea into you, into your brain: "What is this?"

If you were at Hans Jayanti, you noticed that I call what is not satsang "chitchat" I am not giving you a "chitchat". I am giving you satsang. There is the Truth behind it, and I am trying to bring you into the company of Truth more and more and more and more, as much as possible. So this is no chitchat. I am trying to bring you to real satsang so we can really understand.

It's No SecretI was just imagining how beautiful it would be when the whole world would be like this, when the whole world would understand what we are talking about, when the whole world would really have that Knowledge that we have experienced. We have worked so hard to make this whole world realise what we have experienced, because this world does not understand, definitely does not understand what we have realised within our hearts, what we have experienced within our hearts, what we have really known, what we have waited for. You know? And it's hard. But we are trying to make it easy for this world.

So I hope you realise what I am talking about, because it's very, very vital. As Lou puts it, it's very "instrumental" to our system here that we have so that every premie can understand and share that beautiful secret that we have amongst each other. Because it's really no secret. It's a very, very open thing that everybody already has. We call it a secret just for the suspense. It's really beautiful. That's what makes the suspense come along and people really put themselves open to this Knowledge so that they can really understand what's going on.

Thank you very much.

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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.