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.

Drugs and the Knowledge of Prem Rawat (Maharaji)

Guru Maharaj Ji (as the young Prem Rawat called himself in the 1970's) initially taught that the effects of practising his Knowledge were so perfect that the use of drugs by his premies would automatically end. He likened it to a constant LSD stressing the impermanance of altered consciousness through drugs and stressing that his Knowledge made you much "higher" than any possible drug and it was legal. link to Montrose vids and speeches, etc

Professor Ron Geaves in his paper, Globalization, charisma, innovation, and tradition: An exploration of the transformations in the organisational vehicles for the transmission of the teachings of Prem Rawat (Maharaji), 2006, wrote:

"Many of the characteristics of the Indian movement founded by Prem Rawat's father, who had died only in 1966, were imported wholesale into the western environment. ... Members were expected to forswear drugs and alcohol, and adopt a strict vegetarian diet."

Daniel A. Foss and Ralph W. Larkin of Rutgers University carried out the most exhaustive research into Divine Light Mission and they wrote:

"Those who founded the Divine Light Mission or joined it during 1971-72 were former "freaks." As "freaks" they had, during the 1960s, internalized the standard "Movement" conception of the repressive "corporate-fascist-pig-bureaucracy." But now, as "servants" of the Teenage Perfect Master, Guru Maharaj Ji, they proceeded to build and manage an organization which became, during 1972-73, a veritable parody of that conception: The Mission enjoined upon its organizational core a strict regimentation of everyday life. It banned drugs and established an order of celibate-renunciates. It enforced hair and dress codes and fostered servility and obedience in lower-level operatives."

Many newspaper articles mentioned the prohibition on recreational drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

His early 1970's followers were a perfect group on which to test this thesis as virtually all of them had been using marijuana and LSD prior to their involvement with Divine Light Mission. In a study conducted early 1973 with 875 premies, the majority of whom were between the ages of 15 and 29, 840 out of 875 respondents had been using drugs prior to "receiving Knowledge." It's unlikely that the high use of marijuana and LSD improved their critical facilities leaving them open to recruitment into Divine Light Mission and initially they had a dramatic though not total fall in drug use.

• Marijuana: 97% had used marijuana at least once, with 87% using it more than 40 times. 50% were using marijuana more than 20 times per month before receiving Knowledge.
• Hallucinogens: Before receiving Knowledge, 62% were using hallucinogens at least once per month.
• Stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine, etc.) : Half of the respondents used stimulants at least once per month before Knowledge.
• Barbituates, Hypnotics, and Tranquilizers: 43% used these drugs at least once per month before Knowledge.
• Opiates: Before Knowledge, 21% used opiates once per month, or more often.
• Alcohol: Out of 450 respondents, 18.5% drank alcohol at all before Knowledge.

76% of the respondents had been meditating less than a year, and none for more than 22 months so long term effects were unknown.

The official Divine Light Mission book "Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?" claimed that:

The Knowledge of Guru Maharaj Ji is natural and suitable for every human being, but it has had striking effect in eliminating drug dependency because the drug abuser often recognizes that his mind is the source of his suffering, and seeks a means to control it. Meditation on this Knowledge does not bring a suppression of the desire to take drugs; rather it brings a transcendence of these needs as one becomes fulfilled by the highest consciousness of peace available to man. Physically, the body releases its drives towards temporary sensual fulfillment as biochemical changes occur through activation of the pineal gland during meditation on divine Light.

Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) taught:

"If you take this Knowledge, you have no need of drugs. It is internal, very internal, much more beautiful than any outside drugs. Today everyone says, "Sonny, don't take drugs," but see, they have to have an alternative, and the alternative is the Knowledge. So those who have this Knowledge enjoy the normal and natural human experience within them, instead of trying to glean some excitement or happiness from occasional entertainment or pill popping. Taking drugs is not the infinite stage, it's a very finite stage, it has a beginning, it has an end. But this Knowledge does not have an end. What I have is like a built-in LSD which God provided you when you were born. There's no need to come down from it."

Dr John Horton, long-term physician to Prem Rawat (Maharaji) who researched the effects of meditation along with Drs Edd Hanzelik and Robert Hallowitz wrote

"when the current of real life is turned on within us, we begin to glow with the perfectness of our Creator. Those who meditate upon the light experience profound changes in behavior: most of them find no more need for drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, and begin to rise above the drive for ego-fulfillment"

This was something commonly claimed by premies, see Through A 'Third Eye' Comes The 'Divine Light', 15-Year-Old Hottest Star of Guru Circuit & Oz in the Astrodome. Rennie Davis was questioned about this by a reporter at Millenium '73, the most Holy and significant event in human history:

Why did you give up dope?
Rennie: Most people give up dope not because Guru Maharaj Ji says, simply because when we take this Knowledge and meditate on it many of the things we did before drop away, quite naturally. For example, after I received Knowledge, after a couple of weeks back in the United States, I was in a room and a pipe was going round, and I thought, well I shouldn't. Then it passed a second time and so I tried just a little bit and it brought me crashing down. It was the first time that it had ever happened to me and the reason I wouldn't smoke dope now is just because this is a higher place to be and it's a better trip. Really it's the ultimate trip and people give up drugs because they're all downers, compared to this Knowledge.

It was strictly forbidden to use any intoxicants in the ashrams.
Part Three: Rules and Regulations
      B. Household
            6. No meat, fish, eggs, drugs (except prescribed medication), alcohol, or cigarettes should be permitted to be kept in the Ashram.
- The Code of the Renunciate Order of Divine Light Mission

Observers as different as Marc Galanter in his book "CULTS: Faith, Healing, and Coercion"

"There was no idleness, brashness, marijuana, beer, loud music, or flirtation-all hallmarks of a more typical assembly of people in their twenties."

and Marjoe Gortner, the former child evangelist, reporting for Oui magazine observed that there was little if any drug use at Divine Light Mission festivals.

However with the falling off of the initial enthusiasm and the failure of Rawat's early promises about the effects of meditation, drug use became rampant again in 1976 after the ashrams were closed for the first time and many premies were no longer living the ordered, restricted life of an ashram resident. Maeve Price in "The Divine Light Mission as a social organization" wrote

"At a festival held in Leicester in 1976 many openly smoked cigarettes and cannabis, drank alcohol and wore 'conventional' hippie clothing, the men complete with beards and beads. Official mission policy is opposed to all these practices."

In the Atlantic City Conference on December 20th, 1976 Rawat (Maharaji) was explicit about his prohibition on the use of drugs by his premies including alcohol and cigarettes and even eating eggs. He mentioned the "'gerbage' excuses people give" for smoking pot, that

"everybody used to drink bhang in ashram. In India. And all of a sudden they would get just ... somewhere else, in their own little world"

and he knows "that a person who is stoned cannot really do meditation" and that "instead of having brains they just got horsemeat."

By the 1990's the drinking of alcoholic beverages became a normal part of Elan Vital "events" though the extent of marijuana smoking among Rawat's "students" is not easily determined as it is illegal. At that time I observed that most of the volunteers working at Amaroo (Rawat's cult compound in Australia) were smoking cigarettes. By the 1990's, smoking was very much a minority habit in Australia. In 2003 John MacGregor reported that half of Rawat's "students" in Northern NSW smoked marijuana. By then the early promises of transcendant states of conciousness were forgotten and a bartender or two was a necessity for meditation, whoops, weekend retreats at Amaroo, Rawat's major Knowledge Centre in Australia if not the world.

Prem Rawat's (Maharaji) Teachings about Drugs.

Miami, Florida, U.S.A. 15 June 1972 We must reach for that higher Knowledge that is higher than all the scriptures -- a Knowledge that cannot be found in drugs. All the press media and newspapers and television have been coming to me and the most popular question they ask is, "What have you to say about drugs?" I say, "Well, I haven't taken drugs, but I can just tell you one thing. I have got something higher than any drugs. Really higher than any drugs, and I can give you that." What I have got is higher than any drugs. They are artificial, you have to take them from outside. Knowledge is a built-in drug within us. It is hidden inside of us and it is higher than a drug that you have to take with water and so on. If you take Knowledge you have no need of drugs. It is internal, very internal, very beautiful, much more beautiful than any outside drug, it's very great, and that's what I have got. It is built-in. God has provided it as standard, not as optional but as necessary. It is a standard thing that God has given to all of us. So realise this thing. Divine Light, Volume 2, Number 3
Montrose, Colorado, July 25 1972 One premie came to me and asked this question, "Why do you want us to stop taking drugs?" I said, "Well, now you have realized this Knowledge, haven't you?" And he said, "Yes." And I said, "Well, suppose you come to my home and you bring an automobile. Do you bring the automobile right into my room?" He said, "No, leave it outside." And I said, "Same thing here. You used to take drugs and you say apparently these drugs brought you to a point. But then you took Knowledge and that was beyond them. So now stop taking the drugs and proceed purely, proceed naturally." And what is natural? These drugs are not natural because they are taken from outside. They're artificial. The natural thing is within inside us. All the drugs are outside, which means they had to be produced. Whenever a Master came, he never gave drugs to people saying, "Okay, take this." No. He revealed something that was greater. And I am here. I don't claim myself to be Perfect Master, but I am here with a greater thing than drugs. Take it. It's much better. You have to spend money on all those things and then you have to work it out with the sheriff because if he sees you, he will arrest you, right? But you can take this thing twenty-four hours a day and there's no money required. It's within inside you and if the sheriff sees you, he'll be amazed. And that's what has been happening, as a matter of fact. Because with drugs your body goes down and your senses just start bouncing around. But in this Knowledge your body and your senses all elevate and if the sheriff sees you, maybe he will see that you are high because of this meditation. And he will really be amazed. Light Reading, © 1980, Divine Light Mission, Inc.
Imperial College, 9 Sept 1972 First of all we have to get high, and the common way how to get high is with LSD. People say, "I'll take LSD, I'll take drugs and get high," but now there are no drugs here. People come to me and say, "Guru Maharaj Ji, why do you say not to take drugs? Drugs are a very natural thing." But I say, "You drive to this auditorium in your car, but do you bring your car into the hall. Do you? Why not? It carried you all the way from the house to the auditorium, then you leave it outside just standing there. You should bring it with you into the auditorium, because it brought you all the way from your house to here. But that doesn't mean you have to bring it inside, does it?" People say, "Oh, drugs helped us, they have helped us come to you." So I say, "Well if drugs helped you, that's good, but you can leave them now, because you have come to me." You just leave your cars, you get out of them and you come into the auditorium. In the same way you want to take drugs, so I'll give you a better drug. Leave the small drugs and I'll give you this better drug. Because you take one drug and then it goes off then you have to take another one, and that goes off, and all that costs money, but the drug I can give is constantly working in you twenty-four hours a day. It's built inside of you, it's a built-in drug, it's a built-in acid, it works inside you, and it is completely free. The only thing that has to be done is to connect the wire, then it starts working. It's the acid of consciousness, and you get consciousness, and when you get into consciousness you just go up and up and up and up into the stage of infinity. That's very beautiful because other drugs give you external experience, and this one gives you internal experience. You can do anything, you can drive your car, you can sit in your house, you can do anything, it's so far out, and you can still meditate upon it. And this is something that we really need these days, you know, because times are getting very, very strange. Divine Light, Volume 2, Number 3
Lower Town Hall, Sydney, Australia, 6 October 1972 So today we need something, and we are all looking for something. We want an experience. We might not call it a divine experience, we might call it Truth, we might call it bliss, we might call it Knowledge. People are trying to find it in drugs. It is not in drugs. Divine Light, Volume 2, Number 8
A reporter for a Boston newspaper conducted this interview with Guru Maharaj Ji in 1973 Q: The people who have picked up on this movement in this country seem to be the younger generation. Why is that? A: Well, not really - there are other people, too. But there are many youngsters because young people have gone through a desperate search. They have gone to everything - drugs and anything you want to say, you know? They've just gone through the whole trip. And still they have not perfectly realized what that Knowledge is, see? So when they come here, they realize this Knowledge, that it's what they have been searching for. They have to cling to it, and they realize what it was they wanted. Understand? Light Reading, © 1980, Divine Light Mission, Inc.
Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji? 1973 Q: Maharaj Ji, can you get Knowledge from smoking pot? A: See, suppose I am living on the moon. I am not getting any hashish, I am not getting any drugs, not even a cigarette. So suppose God comes to me at that time, and says, "You must receive Knowledge." Do I say, "God, I haven't got any hashish to smoke, so how am I going to get this Knowledge?" There is only one way to receive this Knowledge, and it isn't by hashish or anything like that. Why? I'll tell you. Because hashish is a physical thing. You smoke it into your body and you smoke it out of your body. Its effect is a physical effect. It affects your mind after affecting your body. And any process that must be applied through the body will not take you there. You can't find yourself with hashish, you can only lose yourself. Q: No, man, you're wrong. A: Let me tell you. This hashish smoking has only started here recently. In India they have been smoking it for a long time. These sadhus, if you ever see them, they completely lose themselves. They think about different things, things come into their mind, but all these things are external, it is not the Knowledge. Of course you get an experience, but if your car is going at 90 m.p.h. and it has a power brake and you put it on suddenly, so that you hit your head and you see light and hear music, you might think, "Oh, this is divine light." That's just a physical experience. Q: But when I have a good smoke, I think of love. That's all I think of. A: Then continue to smoke if that is what you want. But thinking of love is not experiencing love. Q: But everybody who smokes, they love, you know? Those who don't smoke, they cannot love. A: Maybe, but I don't smoke. Q: You don't smoke and you still love? Maybe you're special. A: It would be far-out when you get this Knowledge, because it will take you higher than hashish. These plants come from nature, but this Knowledge is nature. By smoking you can experience something, but with this Knowledge you will experience everything, and you don't have to smoke anything. Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?
Satsang of Shri Raja Ji, (Prem Rawat's Brother) Fulham Town Hall, 11 February 1973 In the same way, when we have the Knowledge and if we want to go deep into it with a child's heart, we will meditate constantly, and the more we meditate, the more we merge with God. The really nice thing about meditation is that there is no limit on it. If we think how much more we have to go, it is always infinite. We can meditate for 24 hours every day. So for meditation it is necessary to have Knowledge, and if we have Knowledge it is necessary for us to meditate, and if we meditate it is also necessary to have satsang. Satsang is a kind of injection. Some people inject drugs, but when you inject a drug the injection is only in one place. When I am speaking or when Mata Ji is speaking, it is such a thing that it injects in every place, and the effect goes all over. And this is the object -- to spread peace, and it's the only way we can help. Divine Light, Volume 2, Number 8
Divine United Organisation Announcement Film Suppose like America is a very rich country, and they are flourishing. But then, are they happy? There are so many strikes, so many riots going on in America, and there are so many young people who are in the drug problem, and all these problems, and they have to face those problems. You see, they have to face that drug problem, because they don't have any other solution. But supposedly we can give them a solution. The solution can be Knowledge. And if we can reveal them this Knowledge, because already this Knowledge has been given to so many of those youngsters who have been in this drug problem, and it has proved a fantastic solution and an alternative for them, a high alternative. You see, if I don't know what the alternative can be to what I am doing, and supposedly if I am eating aspirins, I am taking aspirins daily; actually, it's causing me harm. But you see, I am not a doctor, so I don't know what harm it is actually causing me, what harm aspirin can cause me, and I'm just taking it. It's the same thing. But if someone comes to me and says, "Listen, don't take them. Take other pills that don't have that type of effect," then suddenly I realize, yes, it might be true. So today, everyone says, "No drugs. Sonny, don't take drugs. Boy, don't take drugs. Don't take these things, and don't do that, and don't do that." But it's a foolish thing to do it that way, because you are not giving them an alternative. They will say, "This guy is crazy, because he wants us not to do it, but what should we do? We want peace, we want to see Light, we want to have a blessed experience." But if we offer them a practical Knowledge, then it's very, very possible for them. And this has happened, really, all these things. Because they come to one point that they never could have even dreamed of, and that's the infinite stage. Taking drugs, taking shots, is not the infinite stage. It's a very finite stage, it as a beginning, it has an end. If you are taking a two millimeter, or a two c.c. injection, you start and then you end at two c.c. That has a beginning, that has an end to it. If you are taking a pill, it has a limited size to it. But this Knowledge does not have it, so when they get into this Knowledge, it's just very blissful, as those people who have realized this Knowledge, and those people who have experienced the Blissful stage of this Knowledge, know. And that's why, after receiving this Knowledge, we leave all these kinds of things. And drugs are not the only problem, there are other things. But see, they have to have the alternative, and the alternative is the Knowledge. And if we can give them the Knowledge, really I cannot describe it in words. Divine Times, Volume II, Number 6, US Edition - April 1, 1973
Guru Puja, Alexandra Palace, London, July 13 1973 Because God is not like that. God is something that even these eyes can't see. Because these eyes were made to see this whole huge world and God is in a dimension which is beyond this world. Beyond any limits of creation and destruction. And we can realise that form He is in, sure we can. And that is what realising this Knowledge is because that is something that can bring peace to us, that can bring bliss to us. That's the real bliss. Taking drugs and tripping out is not bliss. It's tripping out, you see, and you are totally confused because you cannot make up your mind. The Golden Age, Number 9, July 6 - July 27, 1974
Germany, October 8 1973 The Mirror: Are drugs permitted? Maharaj Ji: We do not want people to take drugs. Der Spiegel, a popular German newspaper
Seattle, Washington, February 12, 1974 And the reason for this automatic computer being given to us is to make the decision and to realize the perfect Knowledge and to meditate upon it and be completely blissful. Because I'll tell you something. If you haven't experienced bliss, you haven't experienced anything. And I don't mean the bliss by dope. I mean the bliss of this Knowledge, which is pure. It's completely, completely pure. And this is what you have to experience, and this is what you have to realize. Elan Vita, Volume I, Issue 1, Autumn 19777
Press Interview of Bal Bhagwan Ji, Prem Rawat's Eldest Brother, Sydney Airport (International Terminal), 21st February, 1974 Q. How many followers, world-wide, would you estimate he has? A. I estimate about five million followers. Q. Isn't it true that many followers have given up because they've discovered that it's all a big con? A. No, not at all. Many followers are coming back actually. They went away in this maya and they're coming back. Q. Why did they go away in the first place? A. Because Western society has a certain idealism, and a certain way of thinking and because of that thinking, they are deluded. There is the world and they try the world and they find it is useless so they go in LSD and different drugs and different things. Finally they come back because they have to admit that what Guru Maharaj Ji is giving is the ultimate Truth. Golden Age, Number 1, Thursday, March 14 1974
Mahatma Padarthanand, Melbourne, Australia, April 20, 1975 That wrong conditioning comes from premies, "You can meditate on this Knowledge when you are smoking dope; that will be push, lift." We are giving this bad conditioning because we are not tryirig to be practical example. When I came in 1973 in Adelaide, I gave Knowledge to more than 100 brothers and sisters, without Knowledge enquiry, without questions and answers, nothing. Because I was so positive, having conditioning of India that anyone who comes for Knowledge is so beautiful, ready, pure. I gave Knowledge on and on and on but after some time I learnt that "Oh actually I am not serving them properly" and then I gave them time for question/ answer, pre-Knowledge satsang and this and that. So some brothers and sisters have received Knowledge after attending satsang for a few days and they are multiplying this idea that "Why do you have to do satsang, why do you have to do service? I have received this Knowledge, still I am smoking. I am doing this crazy trip, still I have Knowledge." Golden Age, Number 20, May, 1975
Questions & Answers, San Francisco, California, February 10, 1979 Q: Maharaj Ji, what would you say to a premie that smokes dope and smokes cigarettes? A: Well, the only thing I can say is that, look. You already have a Knowledge that is far superior to that. It's like this person who has an airplane and is saying, "Oh, I want to go to Los Angeles as soon as possible. Oh, I want to go to Los Angeles as soon as possible. I want to take the quickest means." And he has a jet which is okay. It runs. It's perfect. But all he does is take his briefcase and suitcase and start walking towards Los Angeles. And that's not the quickest means. And it's just like that. Saying, "Oh, I want the realization. Oh, I want that perfectness. Oh, I want this enlightenment as soon as possible," and then still going to something that is completely inferior, when Knowledge itself is superior. Q: Maharaj Ji, sometimes what I like to do is smoke pot. And I know very often I make it a point to meditate and go to quiet places and my meditations are incredible. It's like a Knowledge review. Now, look! It's like this. You want to lose weight and the proper way to lose weight is actually to do exercise and all you start doing is eating dehydrating pills. Now you might lose a little bit of weight, but each time you drink water . . . to what extent can you lose weight that way? Knowledge is something that you have to get into without using any external means. You understand? I'll tell you one thing. And try to imagine this. There was certainly a time when this whole Earth was not yet created and still God was there. And at that time, I'll bet you that there wasn't any pot. And still Knowledge existed. People realized it without smoking pot. I think that's the way you should do it, too. Because by using an external means of actually getting into meditation, you are limiting yourself from that infinite power. You are limiting yourself from actually understanding and getting into Knowledge. Because then, each time you have to do meditation, you have to have that. And if you want to do meditation twenty- four hours a day, that means you have to smoke pot twenty-four hours a day. And that's just not the way to go about it. It's something that is within inside of you and you have to get into it without any externals. And that is why this Knowledge is given. Elan Vital, Volume IV, Issue 4, Winter 1980
Hans Jayanti Festival, Kissimmee, Florida, November 5 1979 And the thing is, we have to ask ourselves the question: Have we dedicated our lives to Guru Maharaj Ji? Have we really given our lives to Guru Maharaj Ji? As simple as that. And are we truly qualified to be a recipient of that Grace, to be a recipient of that shelter of Guru Maharaj Ji? Of course not. Because we get out of one big trip from this world .. . Whatever it is. Maybe it's smoking dope. Maybe it's LSD. Maybe it's something else. And this whole thing becomes another trip for us. Elan Vital, Volume IV, Issue 3, Fall 1980
Hans Jayanti, November, 1979 * Don't bring alcohol or non-prescription drugs on-site. Hans Jayanti '79 booklet

Atlantic City Conference, December 20, 1976 excerpt on the prohibition on the use of drugs

(26:36)

Q: Maharaj Ji I'm not a, um, co-ordinator or anything, but ... about half the premies I know - maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd or something because I hang out mainly with premies - but about half the premies I know are ... really into smoking pot these days. And, some of them are ashram residents, some of them are just normal premies, or just, y'know ... (laughter and applause) ... well, you know what I mean. I just - and, you said different, like, y'know, satsangs about it in the past, but, um ... premies still are really unclear about the whole thing, and I'm just wondering if you had anything to say about that?

GMJ: Did you ever hear a satsang where I said you could have it?

Q: No.

GMJ: Why do you need a satsang where I can say you DON'T need to have it? I didn't say you need to have it. I never said that. So the point is - it is quite understood. Y'know, it's just like - that would be a very ... a very stupid way of doing things. It's like if you had to say the word "the", you said every other word except that one. And that's how you spoke. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that?

Q: No.

GMJ: Y'know, ... in a way, it's completely like you'd go through every word except the word that you wanna speak. And that the point is that ... I haven't said that to the premies. And therefore premies shouldn't do it. You know it's that straight. In the path of realisation they're out looking for a substitute. Y'know? They're really trying to see something. There's a lot of ... "gerbage" (?) excuses people give: "Oh it does this to you, it does that ..." and that's the same thing that Knowledge does ... but ... more in a sense where it's actually lasting.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of people who drink bhang, in India (transcriber's note for those not versed in some of the more, er ... exotic Indian cultural influences that GMJ: occasionally refers to: "Bhang" is a Hindi word for various intoxicating narcotics derived from the plant cannabis sattiva. (OED) The word is commonly used to describe a beverage laced with hashish (cannabis resin), such as "Bhang lassi", a drink of watered-down yoghurt laced with the drug). And I know them, you know? It's just like bhang - y'know, everybody used to drink bhang in ashram. In India. And all of a sudden they would get just ... the eye would, the eyes would be glowing red, and you couldn't even talk to them. Y'know, they would be just ... somewhere else, in their own little world, y'know, diving in some cove or something. And you walk right past by them and say: "Listen. You know what's happening?" Y'know? And people would just sit there and go to sleep, or do this. And it's just like - there's a Knowledge - see, this is Knowledge that's been revealed to us, this has been given to us - it's more fantastic. Whatever can we ever substitute it for? Why don't we do that, why don't we understand that, why don't we progress in that part? Y'know?

Because I know that a person who is stoned cannot really do meditation. For all the (?) every time he sits down for it he'll fall off. When you ... that's when ... all your horses go wild. And that's the way it is. Because it's just like ... there's no control over anything. And I've seen that, I've seen that. Unless, y'know, that's, that's just like: "because I haven't said it - it means it's OK". Y'know? But I'll have to say everthing else except that ...(laughs) - every sentence, every word in the book ... but not say that, and then premies would understand me. Simple.

(29:45)

Knowledge. There it is. Y'know? Same thing with alcohol, same thing with cigarettes, same thing with, with eating eggs and ... all the other stuff. That really influences you. You know I'm surprised that so many people in America don't go "moo" every morning. (laughter) I mean, they eat enough of the cow. They're at least so (?) today. I mean it's like, er, ... (indecipherable, sounds like "I mean he") was telling me his father used to eat some tongue all the way to the tail. (laughter) You know, and it's like at least the thing should go moo. Thing did when it was alive, I mean ... that's the way, y'know, just ... (laughter)

A lot of people are just ... they ... instead of having brains they just got horsemeat. (laughter) They don't understand (laughs).

(Transcriber's note: here M, without a doubt, is saying that people who eat beef/cow products, and who use dope, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and eat eggs all have horsemeat instead of brains in their heads. What he omits telling his premies is that he has indulged in all of those activities himself. From this one can only conclude that being dishonest with the very people who have entrusted their lives to him is evidently part of the role of "Sat Guru". Ah well ... to look on the positive side, maybe that's how premies are meant to learn how to discriminate for themselves ... eventually.

It must be added that, although "judging for oneself" has always been one of the freedoms M touts as being fundamental to the initiate's own personal evaluation of "taking Knowledge" - once you take that "Knowledge", then making personal judgements becomes an indulgence that is virtually taboo within the cult. To judge is to be "in your mind", and any judgements or evaluations are only valid when made by M himself. In all probability he himself would deny this, or at least say, er ... wait for it ... "neigh").

GMJ:

It really does affect you, y'know, it's, it's true. Where you have to be really mellow, y'know? To BEGIN with you don't have everything in your favour. To BEGIN with all - everything ... against you. And then you stick everything ELSE in there to make it against you, it's just like putting a fire in, and .. and that's not good. Feels mellow, to be just relaxed.

And that's just like in the new ashram programme. Then it's (??? - decipherable perhaps, but not by this transcriber) ... y'know, prepare really good food. Good Indian food, and good ... good, just good Mexican food, which is, which turns out to be really good, I mean is just good vegetarian food. (???) ... who's gonna know what's gonna happen to them? And then, then, there's other premies who are, y'know, just sort of putting ... green stuff together - which a ... lot of Indian people call "caspous" (?) that means "grass" (laugher). Grass and dried leaves, putting them together and throwing them across, y'know, give it a little real ... real flavour, and then I dunno what's gonna happen to put together the recipe so ... anybody could cut. And that's that. Because they're really fantastic, I mean - if you would just imagine, y'know ... that they would serve food like that on a aeroplane - everybody would get blissed out. When I was flying, er, from New York to, er ... Los Angeles, everybody went wild ... because of that Indian food, y'know, 'cos the stewardesses came out and there was just a - full of 'em. Very cheap and very delicious. And everybody was just, er ... (laughs) ... er, er, everytime that happens, y'know everytime they see that food, it's still wild out there ... (?)

So the point is that ... (???) and satsang.

In the 1990's Rawat's legal drug taking (Marlboroughs and cognac apparently being his favourites) became public public knowledge amongst his followers and smoking amongst them became common and a "retreat" at Amaroo was inconceivable without an experienced bar-tender.

Downloaded from www.whatcanyoudo-southpacific.com, the What Can You Do The South Pacific SAM Team website on 14th October, 2009. Site now moved to Words Of Peace Global Volunteers

References providing further evidence that the overwhelming majority of young people attracted to Prem Rawat (Maharaji) and his Knowledge and Divine Light Mission were involved in drug taking, mainly but not exclusively marijuana and LSD, and that many of them suffered severe mental and emotional problems:

References:

• Develop a Superhuman Nature The Golden Age, Number 3, April 11, 1974
• People who found Peace: Derek Harper
• People who found Peace: Michael McDonald
• People who found Peace: Neville Ackland
• People who found Peace: Frank Starrs
• People who found Peace: Judith Downes
• People who found Peace: Susie Gardner-Brown
• People who found Peace: Peta Herbert
• The Way Out: A Magical Mystery Tour Of Communal Life
• Utopia UK The Golden Age, Number 7, Saturday, June 8, 1974
• How It Is For Me The Golden Age Number 33, October 1976
• Sacred Journeys: The Conversion of Young Americans to Divine Light Mission James V. Downton, Jr.
• Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji? Charles Cameron (ed)
• High Without Drugs The Golden Age, July 6 - 27, 1974
• CULTS: Faith, Healing, and Coercion by Marc Galanter
• Who Was Maharaj Ji? by Marjoe Gortner, OUI Magazine, May 1974

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.