Publications of Prem Rawat's Organisations

After the Jonestown massacre of 1978 there was intense pressure on the US government to investigate those cults seen as dangerous to their members and deceptive in their recruitment and indoctrination methods. In 1979 the wife of L. Ron Hubbard the creator of Scientology was jailed along with 11 other Scientologists for conspiracy. In 1981 Reverend Moon, the head of the "Moonies" cult was convicted of tax evasion and was gaoled in 1984 after lengthy legal appeals. It was in this period that Guru Maharaj Ji as Prem Rawat then called himself, the Perfect Master of the Divine Light Mission, directed his followers to destroy all copies of the books, magazines and other media the organisation had published in the preceding decade. Shortly thereafter he closed the "ashrams" containing thousands of his devotees who were living celibate, communal lives with all their finances and time completely dedicated to his organisation and he ended the nightly public testimonial meetings ("satsang") that had been the major focus of his followers and attempts at proselytisation and disappeared from the public eye.

This is surely one of the most audacious attempts at re-inventing oneself ever attempted by a minor (albeit the Lord of the Universe in the minds of his followers) cult leader and has parallels with the criminal attempt by L. Ron Hubbard's followers to infiltrate US government departments to destroy documentary evidence of their leader's life and lies. Rawat had cut short his education in India at the age of 13 to kick-start his career in the West as the Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe and to enjoy the life-style available to a cult leader whose followers believed he was a divine incarnation and so he was probably unaware that copies of much of these texts would be stored in public libraries.

As his current organisations (the Prem Rawat Foundation and Elan Vital) are now trying to publicly present him as a world renowned and respected "Teacher of Peace" I am presenting these texts for anyone who wishes to gain a more complete picture of his career, unsuccessful and venal though it has been.

• Affinity: a color quarterly A5 size magazine published in Ireland in the late 1970's and early 1980's by DLM
• And It Is Divine (Divine Light Mission glossy monthly magazine) including the Millenium '73 Festival Issue
• Divine Light: Some copies of a monthly magazine published in England in the early 1970's by DLM
• Divine Times: monthly magazine published in the USA in the 1970's by DLM
• Elan Vital: a full color quarterly magazine published in the USA in the late 1970's and early 1980's by DLM
• The Golden Age and The Divine Light News were the official Australian Divine Light Mission magazines and were published from 1973 to 1979. My own copies were burnt in 1982 by my more obedient partner after I had packed them up for storage as essential texts that documented important parts of my life in the 1970's. Fortunately copies had been archived at the Australian National Library and these are still freely available.
• IN VIEW: North American A4 size leaflet/magazine infrequently published by Elan Vital in the USA in the 1980's (at least)

Post 1983 Rawat made a nearly complete change of his public persona, dropped most of the Indian terminology (though he simply changed his title to Maharaji (="Ultimate Ruler") and adopted a less hectoring tone and his speeches began to be edited far more tightly in further publications though visual media now dominated his organisations' productions.

• Eleven heavily edited speeches collected and published in 1994 with nature photographs and a few small, carefully Photoshopped images of Rawat.
• Maharaji: 30 Years in the West is a series of short, bland extracts of speeches he made between 1971 - 2001
• Nothing Celebrates Life .. Like Life: Extracts from 9 speeches, 1998

• Read Think And Know A November, 1971 cheap Indian Divine Light Mission English language pamphlet that contains the teachings of Hans Rawat.
  
• Satguru Maharaj Ji A very early Divine Light Mission pamphlet/magazine from the USA that appears to have been published in late 1971.
  
• Reflections on an Indian Sunrise Another very early Divine Light Mission pamphlet/magazine from the USA published in early 1972.
  
• A Pamphlet created for "propagation" in Jamaica in 1972. Possibly it is slightly more quaint and unsophisticated than most DLM propaganda but only just and it conveys the flavour of early DLM.
• Coming Together Part of the August, 1974 issue of a local Denver, Colorado DLM magazine
• For Your Inspiration The first and possibly only issue of an "international premie newsletter"
• On November, 28 & 29, 1976 there was a "conference" held in Frankfurt, where Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) continued his effort to return Divine Light Mission to a simplistic, fundamentalist practice of obedience to his orders and total devotion to him and practice of his "Knowledge" after there had been an attempt by the managers of Divine Light Mission, who were aware of Rawat's dissolute lifestyle, to transform the organisation. In Rawat's presentatinos here was much emphasis on "Initiators" and the absolute need for initiators to be single, to have no outside work and no other interests.
• A "Knowledge Kit". In the mid 1970's Prem Rawat's followers - under instructions from their "Lord of the Universe" then known as Guru Maharaj Ji - tried to "professionalise" their organisation. As part of this process, people who were initiated (in the USA at least) were given "Knowledge Kits": similarly formatted handouts in a special foolscap size envelope.
• An Untitled Booklet that contains four of Rawat's turgid speeches from early 1978.
  
• Geneva Guru Puja, 1978 An untitled publication that contains speeches from the Divine Light Mission Guru Puja (Guru Worship) festival in Geneva, September, 1978.
  
• Light Reading June 1979 A Divine Light Mission booklet from the USA that contains short articles by followers of Rawat's as well as his turgid speeches.
  
• Holi '79 Festival. A 270mm x 355mm 54 page book designed by Prem Rawat himself. Rawat gives full reign to his talents filling the large format publication with pictures of himself dancing and posing as Krishna.
• Light Reading 1980 One of the last times "premie satsangs" were recorded only 2 or 3 years before they were banned.
• Guru Maharaj Ji's World A 1980 English DUO Productions glossy booklet containing a 1979 and a 1980 speech and excerpts from earlier speeches.
• Initiator Applications and Associated Documents Published by Divine Light Mission In the late 1970's there was a lot of pressure put on Rawat's followers living in the ashrams to apply to become "Initiators".
• The Ashram Code - the rules and regulations for living in an ashram as set out by Prem Rawat.
• Miscellaneous Pamphlets usually created for "propagation" ie attemptng to gain new converts. As they usually contained photos of Prem Rawat (then known as Guru Maharaj Ji) and excerpts of his speeches, they were unsuccesful.
• Miscellaneous Proclamations proclaiming His ability to save the world if only everyone will recognise His glory and bow down before Him.
• A Songbook of Bhajans as sung by The Holy Jesters in early 1980's.
• Another Songbook of Bhajans as sung by The Holy Jesters in early 1980's.
• A Collection of Excerpts from Prem Rawat's mostly late 1970's speeches formatted as poetry.
• Life Force Volume 7, Issue 4, October - December 1991 and Volume 8, Issue 3, July - September 1992, an Indian Divine United Organization publication

Many thanks to the people who made these texts available on the internet for their dedication to truth.