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.

Prem Rawat's Drug Abuse

Sophia Collier, who had been a journalist in the Denver headquarters working for Divine light Mission, wrote that she and others were told by Bob Mishler, the President of Divine Light Mission, that the 15 year old boy guru was "sloshed" at the Millenium '73 festival and she reported seeing his brother, Raja Rawat, drunk at first hand.

I could see that Raja was not taking it well. With the lines so clearly drawn he began expanding his existing fascination for guns and violence. Like Maharaj Ji, Raja Ji had started to drink. Though I love to drink from time to time, I never do so before the end of the afternoon. Raja Ji sometimes started much earlier than that. One evening I sat with him and Claudia as they drank. Slowly the conversation turned from an interesting discussion to a series of slurred comments about where do the bubbles come from in champagne. This is spirituality? I thought to myself.

Mike Donner, ex-President of Divine Light Mission, and Mike Dettmers ex-President of Divine Light Mission and personal assistant to Prem Rawat for over a decade both recounted stories of regular marijuana smoking and drunkeness by Prem Rawat in the Malibu "residence" on the internet in the 1990's after they had become disillusioned with Rawat and his "Knowledge".

Sometime in the later 1980's I met an old friend whose "service" had been looking after the audiovisual materials in Divine Light Mission in Brisbane, Australia and he gave me some material that had been overlooked and not destroyed. Unfortunately my then wife,a very committed premie, destroyed most of this before I could digitise it. However on an old audio tape I found this recorded interview with a young Rawat and like most people who grew up in the '60's I immediately recognised Rawat's condition, marijuana induced hilarity and giggling. Rawat's hypocrisy, preaching that drugs, alcohol and tobacco should not be used by his followers and indeed would only detract from the much higher experience they can constantly have by practising his Knowledge, disgusts me but I also wonder about the morals of those members of his inner circle who supplied him with drugs, presumably at his request rather than their urging. He was after all only 14 years old when he started. Click here to listen to Rawat's stoned interview

From the Ex-Premie Forum

Inside, the place was packed. Red lights, two dollars' admission through a turnstile, barn wood, and mounted bullhorns. I thought maybe I could bias out here myself. Wrong! The tequila sunrises were three parts grenadine, one part heaven-knows-what. The country-and-western band wasn't. They were a low-order country band hacking out old Beatle's tunes badly. And the people here were more depressing than the premies. They were all drunken rednecks and they were falling over each other. It was miserable except for one young dude in a white Western hat with a ten-inch brim who was out front and dapper with the ladies. He went from one table to another trying to find a lady who would like to spend the evening with him. I admired his frankness. He didn't go home alone that night, either. But for the most part these cowboys were Missed out themselves, in a grotesque, zombiesque fashion. These were the usual Friday night, cash your pay check, smack your old lady, and go to the bar and get sloshed types. There were no black people in the bar: these racists were content to remain in a state of unconsciousness---a vacuum. I flashed that at least the kids at the Astrodome were striving to get beyond this, and they did-with no stimulants of any kind. They seemed quite beautiful as I thought about them at that moment.
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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.