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.
Edited by Ian Harris, Stuart Mews, Paul Morris & John Shepherd
CONTEMPORARY RELIGIONS: A WORLD GUIDE
Divine Light Mission. The Divine Light Mission is a new religious movement of Indian origin and known in the West since the visit to England in 1971 of the "boy-guru" Maharaji. Since the early 1980s it has been known by a different name, Elan Vital.
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Elan Vital. Formerly known as the Divine Light Mission, this new religious movement was founded in the 1930s by Shri Hans Ji Maharaj (d 1966), but only became known in the West when the founder's youngest, 13-year-old son, the "boy-guru" Maharaji, came to England in 1971. The teaching is called "Knowledge", and this knowledge is achieved by training the senses to focus on inner rather than external experiences. Part-time members lead a normal lifestyle and can marry, but contribute 10 per cent of their income to the group. Ashram members are unmarried and donate their salaries.
The movement grew rapidly, until Maharaji fell out with his mother after marrying his American secretary. She took over in India, where his brother is now recognized as head of the movement, but he is still in control in the West. Elan Vital (as the movement began to be called in the early 1980s) then became less Indian, and adopted a lower profile. Numbers, once claimed as hundreds of thousands, are down to about 7,000 in Britain and 15,000 in the USA, but growing slowly.
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CONTEMPORARY RELIGIONS: A WORLD GUIDE
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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.