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.

Early Success in the West

Young Prem Rawat with followers When he arrived for the first time in London on June 17, 1971, Prem Rawat (Maharaji) then calling himself Guru Maharaj Ji had a handful of Western devotees. He gave his first public address in the West at the Conway Hall in London on the 19th June, 1971 and spoke at a large rock festival at Glastonbury where he received a decidely mixed reception. He arrived in Los Angeles on July 17, 1971 and returned to India in time for the "International Congress on Spiritual Peace", Ram Lila Grounds, New Delhi. 500,000 gathered to hear his speeches and celebrate the annual Hans Jayanti Festival. One 747 jet was chartered to carry Westerners to attend the program, about 300 people.

Young Prem Rawat at Montrose, Colorado,1972 Within 18 months it was claimed there were as many as 50,000 US and 20,000 English "premies" and though these numbers were exaggerated, over 2,500 Westerners flew to India for the Hans Jayanti festival in 1972. 15 members flew from Bennington, Vermont?? alone. In November 1973, the Divine Light Mission held the Millenium '73 festival in Houston Texas. Estimates of the number of devotees varies but a figure of 15,000 premies seems probable and while you would expect all the devotees to attend what the young Guru Maharaj Ji billed as "the most holy and significant event in human history" there were undoubtedly many who could not afford to fly to the US. I had just started attending satsang in Sydney, Australia and assumed that the many references to the Millenium I heard were talking about a future millenial event until the night when there were only 5 or 6 premies left in Sydney.

This rapid expansion soon ground to a halt and when Rawat's mother disowned, disinherited and deposed him there was a significant disaffection and defection. This occurred again when the Divine Light Mission administrators (who had grown disillusioned with the Knowledge) began a series of conferences in which premies were encouraged to re-examine their beliefs and leave the the ashrams. Of course there was the normal disillusion that occurs in cults whose recruitment promises of perfect bliss and liberation and enlightenment cannot be attained in real lives. It appears that the number of Western premies peaked under 20,000 by 1980 and has never returned to that number after the final closing of the ashrams in the early 1980's and the ending of nightly satsang meetings in which ordinary premies "gave satsang" extemperaneously. The enthusiasm of the youthful followers waned away and the credibility the obese, luxury loving fatboy guru gained from his exotic renunciate Indian "mahatmas" disappeared when they virtually all returned to India and worked for Rawat's eldest brother who was now declared to be the real Satguru.

Prem Rawat's wife and mahatmas kiss his feet In the early 1970's there was a large group of disaffected "hippies" who were losing faith in the small but significant 60's political and social counter-culture and were looking for spiritual paths to follow. DLM proclaimed they had a Divine Incarnation of God who was at least able to generate publicity due to his age, appearance and non-spiritual proclivities. It had a millenial message and claimed to have the power to initiate interested people in meditation techniques that would reveal God through Divine Light, Music, the Holy Name or primordial vibration of the universe and Nectar of the Gods. It also had a relatively large and organised body of Indian members. The excitement and faith of the early believers, their dedication and certainty provided the inspiration that attracted others and their youth and lack of family ties allowed them to move into communal housing (ashrams) and dedicate all their time, talents, skills, inheritance or income to the organisation and the "practice of Knowledge".

One of the most important factors was that DLM had a large number of Indian 'mahatmas', supposedly celibate men and women who lived in ashrams and dedicated their lives to practice and proselytisation of the "Knowledge".

Mahatma PadarthanandThe idealistic and ignorant young Westerners believed these people to be "liberated", "realised souls", "yogis", "swamis", above normal consciousness and existing on a higher plane. And certainly the few mahatmas that came to Austalia put on a pretty convincing show in this regard. Prem Rawat preached that only mahatmas were able to "reveal Knowledge" ie Guru Maharaj Ji gave them the connection to Him that allowed the grace to initiate people. On a more mundane level, it was a reasonably time-consuming process and many mahatmas were required to indoctrinate and initiate so many people.

Despite all attempts to convince people of Rawat's importance before initiation and during the "Knowledge Session", there was always a large early drop-out of people once they had been taught the Rawatism system of meditation. Many of them were disillusioned by being taught to squeeze their eyes, stick their thumbs in their ears, concentrate on their breath while repeating "soham" and curling their tongue backwards. Others might try the techniques but saw no reason to worship the young Rawat because of that.

There is, at least, no doubt this is how Mahatma Padarthanand was perceived in Australia and without him living there for 3 years there would have been little or no success for DLM here.

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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.