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.
Chambers Dictionary Of Beliefs And Religions
Edited By Mark Vernon
2009
Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd
169
Divine Light Mission
A new religious movement centred upon the work of Guru Maharaj Ji who was born in India in 1958. He moved to London in 1971 at the age of 13, and in the 1970s the Divine Light Mission grew quite quickly in the West. Guru Maharaj Ji was typical of the gurus of some Indian new religious movements who, like Swami Prabhupada of Hare Krishna and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of transcendental meditation, visited and consciously targeted the West, as opposed to others like Satya Sai Baba, who has never visited the West. He was considered to be an embodiment of God, and his movement was centred upon four 'divine' methods of meditation which enable one to enter one's inner world and have an experience of Divine Harmony, Divine Light, Divine Nectar and the Divine Word. In its heyday the Divine Light Mission had thousands of members in the West as well as in India, living monastic or community lives in ashrams where they witnessed to their faith, meditated, and gave service to the community and the world. Another feature of the movement was the holding of large fairs in different parts of the world, where crowds would attend to have audience with Guru Maharaj Ji. Subsequently, disagreements among members of his family weakened the movement, leading to splits. Now known more by his birth name, Prem Rawat, he promotes teachings aimed at self-realization through The Prem Rawat Foundation, which he set up in 2001.
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.