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.

Who's Who Of World Religions
Editor John R. Hinnells

Maharaji [xix] [Prem Pal Singh Rawat; Guru Maharaj Ji] (1957-).

Founder of Elan Vital, the successor to the Divine Light Mission (DLM). Maharaji's father, Shri Hansji Maharaj, had formally organized the DLM in 1960, although he had been teaching the techniques since the death of his guru, Dada Guru, in the 1920s.

Born Prem Pal Singh Rawat, he is said to have started meditating when two, and given discourses at six. When Shri Hans died in 1966 his eight-year-old son is reported as having told the mourners 'O You have been illusioned by maya. Maharaj Ji [Shri Hans] is here, very much present amidst you. Recognize him, adore him, and obey him.' The boy, thus became known as Guru Maharaj Ji, the Satguru, or Perfect Master.

In 1971 Maharaji made his first visit to England, where the media gave full coverage to the 13-year-old 'Boy Guru'. Soon afterwards, amid further publicity, he settled in the United States.

The Knowledge that Maharaji gives his followers is said to provide the key to self-understanding and self-realization. While the Knowledge is within each individual, it can only be revealed by Maharaji or one of his appointed initiators. The four techniques that comprise the Knowledge enable initiates to turn their senses within and to perceive what were described in the early 1970s as Divine Light, Music, Nectar and the 'primordial vibration' or 'Holy Name'. It is said that taking the Knowledge cannot be described - it can only be subjectively experienced, and initiates are asked not to reveal the techniques.

The movement, which was run largely by Maharaj's mother Mataji, with the help of his older brother, grew quickly, attracting young people from the hippie culture, and by 1973 several tens of thousands of Westerners had become 'premies' (devotees). However, a financial crisis, followed by Maharaji's marrying his American secretary in 1974, precipitated a power struggle within his family, with Maharaji eventually taking sole control of the movement in the West.

Maharaji rejected many aspects of the movement associated with its Indian background and focused on the essence of his teaching The name Elan Vital was adopted in the early 1980s; Maharaji insisted that he was not to be worshipped as a god; the term 'premie' was dropped; and a low profile was adopted, although both Maharaji and his movement have become more visible in the late 1980s. [4: app. 4] (E.B.)

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.