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.

Talking about a particular festival is always tricky. Because there's no such thing as this festival as distinguished from that festival. There's just one festival, one program, with no beginning and no end.

Given our degree of appreciation for things Divine, it is amazing that Guru Maharaj Ji even lets us in. "Cast not your pearls before …" -- let's be nice -- "people who won't appreciate them." But there is important work to be done, so it seems that Guru Maharaj Ji has devised a system of on-the-job training for us.

When Guru Maharaj Ji held satsang programs a few years ago, he would give satsang for maybe half an hour. Bit by bit, it seems, he's been increasing the dose, giving longer and longer satsangs, more days in the program, more satsangs in a day. He's been sitting with us and letting us sing to him more and more, soaking up his presence. He now comes in his breathtakingly handsome gorgeousness, in his mala, and … he dances!

Maybe there's some kind of cumulative effect taking place. The whole idea of practicing the disciplines of Knowledge is to be able to surrender, to offer your consciousness to receive that vibration of Guru Maharaj Ji, the love that he is. This is so Maharaj Ji can make us into the kind of people he likes to be around. Something of this nature is definitely happening to me. At this Holi celebration, I was just that much more free, free to enjoy playing with my Lord, free to throw up my hands and shout for the joy of so much love being sprayed all around.

And this was yet another time to be with Guru Maharaj Ji, dancing! Several thousand people disappeared and Maharaj Ji let me dance with him -- far gone -- enraptured in the motion and the sight of him. Wave upon wave of blessings were given with his hands. I sank to my seat, struck dumb by the power of the love that had just been conducted through me. I remember not being able to comprehend how anyone could still be able to jump up and down and sing and shout. I was immobilized.

Guru Maharaj Ji, thank you so much for giving us all these programs, all these opportunities to be with you, to live and breathe Reality for a few days. My dream is that every time we get to come to the program, it will be a little longer -- five days, a week, nine days, a month, a year -- until its borders just push out at each end and we get to live with you all the time.

Yet I can't hear myself say that without knowing that Guru Maharaj Ji says that the program never has to end. He is inviting us into something permanent, unbounded. The program is just a gateway to the infinite …

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Prem Rawat (Maharaji) the Very Blue Perfect Master at Holi '79

Prem Rawat (Maharaji) the Very Blue Perfect Master at Holi '79

Prem Rawat (Maharaji) the Very Blue Perfect Master at Holi '79

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.