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.
Most of these premies had passed through a period of reorientation and were feeling lost. Those looking for a guru were busy checking out different spiritual teachers or were wondering when a guru would find them. Others, who had not yet come to believe in the necessity of surrendering to God and a guru, continued with spiritual practices and drugs, hoping they would destroy the "veil of illusion" which prevented them from seeing ultimate reality. Some, like Alan and Walt, were just desperate for relief from their feelings of inferiority, alienation, and aimlessness.
The vast majority of these young people learned about Guru Maharaj Ji through friends, acquaintances, or strangers. In only a few cases was initial contact with the movement through a poster or some public announcement in the news media. Yet, it is unimportant how individuals learn about a movement, as long they are prepared for what the movement and leader have to offer.
When Guru Maharaj Ji first came to the United States in 1971, there was no media outcry against him and his materialistic life-style. Instead, positive word-of-mouth advertising brought hundreds of hippies to the mountains to see and hear him. Soon, the first wave of new premies were telling people around Boulder about how "blissful" the Knowledge was and how being in the guru's presence (called Darshan") would "blow them away." It was no wonder that, bombarded with so many positive communications about Guru Maharaj and the Knowledge, these eighteen young people became interseted in seeing and hearing him.
Ready and Willing
Tina's first contact with Divine Light Mission was Robert. He had been heavily involved in drugs, had been spiritually awakened, and had gone to India in hopes of finding a guru. There, he heard about young saint called "Guru Maharaj Ji." He sought him out, received the Knowledge, and returned to the United States to spread the news. "His first night back, Robert gave us satsang, although nobody knew was satsang at the time. He just started rapping and everybody nodded their heads. But, for me, he might just as well have been speaking Russian. I didn't know what he was saying, but it didn't matter because the vibration coming out of him was really strong. He was pulling my soul out, and it felt really good." Satsang means the company of Truth, and Truth is something you cannot see but you can realize. Satsang is also something that you cannot see but you can feel. This feeling when it is expressed outwards is satsang (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 1
Robert promised to bring Guru Maharaj Ji to the United States. "We said 'Far out! Robert's bringing us his guru.' I had no idea that Guru Maharaj Ji could be my guru too, because Robert was so high nd I was much too low spiritually to have that happen to me. He had told us that Guru Maharaj Ji could open our third eye. I'd read bout the third eye, and I thought to myself, 'My God, the third eye, that's everything. What Robert's experiencing out of his third eye must be incredible. He must be so zapped out." These dual eyes are good for seeing the duality of the world, but to see the oneness of God, we need the one eye of Knowledge (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 2
Two weeks later, Tina heard that Guru Maharaj Ji was going to visit Colorado. Her friends had tacked up a picture of him on her door announcing the date of his arrival, which was the first picture she had seen of him. "The news hit us really hard. 'He's coming!' people were shouting, and we were running around and bumping into each other. Then we went out into the yard and said the Lord's Prayer. Afterwards we said, 'God, whatever you have in store for us, thank you. Just help us to be prepared for Guru Maharaj Ji's coming,' even though we didn't have any idea what we meant at the time. "
Intent on seeing the guru, she and a few friends traveled to Colorado to become part of a small group of people who welcomed Guru Maharaj Ji to the United States. "It came time for him to come into the airport. We each held a flower. We were all filling up with an incredibly good feeling. I'd never felt that way before. I was so excited to see the boy who I'd heard so much about. We were told how to greet him and the people in charge told us to kiss his feet if we had a chance. But they warned us that he walked very fast so not to trip him. The only picture I'd seen of him was in a suit, but when he entered the airport he was wearing a sport shirt, plain pants and black patent leather boots. We put garlands of flowers on him. Then I remembered I was supposed to kiss his feet if I could. He walked by at that moment and stopped for just a second. My mind said, 'I ain't kissing anybody's patent leather boots.' But then I heard another part of me say 'Do it!' So I got down and kissed his feet and I just got filled up. I was off and flying after him. From that moment, I had no doubts he was my guru."
When Tina arrived at the Wall Street cabin where Guru Maharaj Ji was staying, her desire to receive the Knowledge was great although she felt unworthy. Word spread that the young guru had come and people from Boulder, Denver, and the surrounding area were arriving. "A lot of people came who were curiosity seekers, and they left fairly quickly. But people who were really into Guru Maharaj Ji came with their sleeping bags and stayed the entire time he was there. Satsang went on twenty-four hours a day. No matter where you were, you couldn't escape it. "
Tina spent three days at the cabin before receiving the Knowledge and during that time, she saw the playful side of the guru. "Guru Maharaj Ji played the whole time he was there. He never got heavy. People would come to his door and he would throw cans of water and paint at them. He played with squirt guns, flashed pictures of himself for us to see, and took movies of everybody. It was just constant play the whole time he was there and he loved it. Love flowed back and forth between him and his devotees."
After watching so many others receive the Knowledge, Tina was more inclined to think that the Knowledge was for anyone who was sincerely ready, and she knew she was. She found herself saying: "If Guru Maharaj Ji will accept me, I'll receive the Knowledge. I promise I will be devoted to him if he will just give me his Knowledge and his love." If you come to me with a guileless heart, you will surely receive this most ancient spiritual Knowledge which, if practiced upon, will give us perfect peace of mind (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1973). 3
By the third day, about 300 people where gathered around the cabin talking and some were crying. "There was a lot of crying because, when you come to your spiritual master, you surrender your life to him. It takes a period of dying. Some people were crying ecause they were preparing to surrender. But there were tears of joy that Guru Maharaj Ji, the Lord, had come to save us. I cried every time Guru Maharaj Ji gave satsang. And some people were crying uncontrollably all the time, guys and girls. But it was such incredible crying. It was like a release from a lifetime of searching. When you find Guru Maharaj Ji, the search is over. There's nothing more you need to do. You just let go because it feels so good to be home." If you want real satisfaction, then it is the mind that has to be conquered; it is the mind that has to be satisfied. And the means to do this is by using a special Knowledge, a special way, a special system. And this is the system that has been described by all the saints. A thousand suns may rise and there will still be darkness. Man will still be in frustration; man will still know, but when a man finds the Guru then he will have the eternal Light. Three kinds of light-sun, moon, and fire-can be seen by everybody. Pigs, dogs, donkeys, and men, they can all see these three lights, but the Divine Light is the fourth light and only human beings can see this, and only those human beings who go to the Master and ask to be shown it (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 4
After three days of waiting, Tina was finally selected to receive the Knowledge. "My heart started beating so hard; I couldn't believe it was about to happen. I had all these expectations of what the Knowledge was supposed to be. But the only thing I could relate to, from my experience, was that the guru was going to open my third eye, and it was going to be like taking 10 million caps of acid. It was going to lay me out flat. I remember thinking, 'Its going to be so heavy because I'm going to see God.' I could barely breathe."
Misgivings
Martha was Walt's first contact with the Mission. He met her one day when he was smoking marijuana and playing his guitar with a group of people in a city park. He had been reading P. D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous, in which the author argues that the key to realization is "self-remembering."
Martha asked him if he had heard about Guru Maharaj Ji. He had, but he was not looking for a guru at that time. "Gurus just didn't interest me at all. If somebody had told me that Guru Maharaj Ji owned a Mercedes Benz, I would have responded then the way some people do now, 'Rip off!' "
Even though he paid little attention to Martha's satsang, he did hear her say that Guru Maharaj Ji could show him the Word of God. He saw a connection between what she was saying and what he had just read about self-remembering. The thought that he might be able to transcend his mind intrigued him, for he saw his mind (ego) as his chief enemy. He was feeling personally desperate and ready to accept anything which promised to end his depressions. "At that point, I was just desperate. I was ready for anything. I really wanted something to come along."
Martha told him about a program at the university where a Mahatma would be giving satsang in two days. Although he had not understood much of what she had said, he was interested in hearing the Mahatma. The night before the program, he wrote in his diary: "This path has been rough, but it is getting a lot clearer and I feel like I'm getting closer to something."
The following evening he went to listen to the Mahatma. "I couldn't understand a word he said. He spoke about love and peace, but I didn't know what he meant, so I left confused. I didn't comprehend what he said, but there was something about his energy which made me think the Knowledge might really be something, so I went away from that meeting very interested. I had the feeling there was something cosmic about the whole thing." In fact, that night, he told his roommate that Guru Maharaj Ji might be the new Messiah.
Although he was not deeply interested in receiving the Knowledge at that point, he decided to drop by the Divine Light Mission office to find out more about the Knowledge. He was told that the Mahatma was going to give satsang again, so he left the office with plans to attend. "I went to hear the Mahatma and there were some Krishna people there who called him a fraud. I watched their egos getting uptight, while the Mahatma stayed spiritually centered. He just kept telling them he was their brother. Something about that moved me so much I knew I had to receive the Knowledge."
Yet, he had grave doubts about his own readiness. "My mind was so crazy then I can't describe it. My whole life had been ruled by feelings of frustration and rejection, and I had been seeking some crazy thing everyone told me did not exist. I was a fraud and all my drug experiences had burned me out over and over again. A lot of people reject Guru Maharaj Ji because they cannot stand the thought of bowing down before him, but I had no trouble doing that. It was the easiest thing in the world for me because my ego was so shattered by all my tripping it wasn't together enough to protest. I just couldn't understand how I was going to receive the Knowledge 'cause I thought I was too deluded and messed up." My knowledge is like a river. Let a lame man come, it is the same water; let a rich man come, it is the same water; let a poor man come, it is the same water; let an enemy come, it is the same water; let a friend come, it is the same water. The same water is flowing for everybody. This Knowledge is the same for everybody. External things do not affect this Knowledge because it is internal (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1973). 5
Like Tina, Walt's first encounter with Guru Maharaj Ji was at the Denver airport. "I saw him and I was disappointed. I thought he was just a pudgy kid. I really got depressed because I couldn't see anything special in him. I thought I was doomed to stay in darkness and loneliness." But for the next few days he stayed in the company of premies, asking them questions and listening to their satsang. A turning point came when Walt went to hear the guru. "He was so clear and perfect. He was totally beyond anything I'd ever seen before. I had no doubts in my mind about him after that."
Yet, he still had serious doubts about himself. "Up to that point, I had a super inferiority complex when relating to spiritual people. I couldn't be around them because I thought they were so high and I was so messed up. I couldn't even stand to look at them because I thought they were filled with light and truth. I was thinking of finding a monastery in India and living twenty years as a humble servant in order to prepare myself to receive the Knowledge."
Guru Maharaj Ji had urged his audience to go to the Denver ashram the next day to receive the Knowledge. Although Walt did not consider himself spiritually qualified, he interpreted the guru's statement as a command. So, the next morning he was among a large group of people waiting to receive the Knowledge, his moods vacillating wildly. One moment he was sure he wanted the Knowledge, the next, he would fall into despair at the thought he was unready.
The Mahatma eventually came downstairs and asked the people congregated there how many were prepared to receive the Knowledge. A large number started toward the room where the Knowledge session was to take place, and Walt was among them, still weighted down by his feelings. "I really felt bad, like the worst piece of shit in the world. I was so ill at ease I tried to shrink into the floor so no one would notice me."
When everyone was seated, the Mahatma asked if there was anyone who was not yet prepared to receive the Knowledge and Walt raised his hand along with five others. They were asked to leave. feeling desperate by then, Walt decided to go to talk to one of Guru Maharaj Ji's closest disciples about his confusion. He was taken to one of the Mahatmas, who assured him that he should receive the Knowledge. But the Mahatma's assurances were still not enough to overcome Walt's lack of confidence, so he spent the rest of the day listening to satsang. "That night I heard a few people give satsang who were my age and had recently received the Knowledge. They were talking about the trouble they had had preparing themselves to receive the Knowledge, when suddenly I realized that they were just like me. They were not really high people but were confused like I was. At that point, I started to think that maybe I could receive the Knowledge too."
About ten o'clock that evening Walt was about to fall asleep when the Mahatma came in and asked if anyone was waiting to receive the Knowledge. Knowing that Guru Maharaj Ji and his Mahatmas were leaving the next morning, Walt decided he'd better move fast, so he and eight others went to the Knowledge room. The Mahatma began asking questions of everyone, and if they did not answer to his satisfaction, they were asked to leave. Walt's turn came. Finally, he came to me and I thought 'Oh, no, here it comes.' But he said, 'You're definitely ready,' and he went on to someone else. That really blew my mind because I thought I was the most unready person in the whole place."
Rejected
While Tina and Walt easily gained the Mahatma's approval to reeive the Knowledge, others had more difficulty. One premie, who I will call Andy, had drifted into Kundalini Yoga through the influence of his roommate, Shawn. They had heard that Guru Maharaj Ji was up on Wall Street, but neither of them were willing to take the time to go see him.
Then, one day, Andy saw a poster on the university campus anouncing a program featuring the guru. His reaction to the poster reflected a genuine lack of interest in finding a spiritual teacher at that time. "I wasn't sure I should tell Shawn because we had decided to have a party the same night as the program. We were going to get all of our old friends together and we'd already made some of the preparations for the party. I didn't want to tell him about the program because I thought he might want to go and he'd probably draw me along with him. And I didn't want to miss the party. But I ended up telling him anyway. As I had expected, he split and went to the program, but I stayed for the party, which turned out to be a real drag."
Shawn was excited when he returned home that evening. "He was very blown away by the experience, by the love he felt coming from the young guru. I became fairly interested because I knew my roommate very well and I realized that it must really be something to get him so excited. He was very spiritually oriented and he obviously saw a lot in the kid, so I found myself becoming interested too. "
Guru Maharaj Ji and his Mahatmas left Colorado the next day. For several days afterwards, Shawn gave Andy satsang, talking about how the guru could open up his sixth chakra, the ultimate goal of Kundalini Yoga. Andy began to develop great expectations about the power of the Knowledge, as Tina had.
In a short time, a Mahatma returned to Denver and Andy eagerly went to hear him give satsang. "When I walked into the satsang room and saw the people involved in the movement, I felt a strong positive vibration coming from them. When I saw the Mahatma and heard him give satsang, I knew something very far out was going on. I was sure I wanted to receive the Knowledge. It seemed obvious to me that those people were experiencing something I hadn't, so I decided I wanted it too. I knew I was moving toward spirituality, but nothing had yet been strong enough to pull me deeply into it. It seemed to me that the Knowledge was possibly what I was looking for." We don't claim that we are the only way, that only we can give this spiritual Knowledge. Instead, we tell you to search and find out what is the best way. But what we do say is that we have the spiritual Knowledge and we also will give it (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 6
Andy returned to Boulder that evening filled with enthusiasm. A Knowledge session was planned for the next day and he, Shawn, and some friends were planning on going. The next morning, Andy was waiting to receive the Knowledge. "I remember the happy smiles of the people there, the sense of a very cosmic thing about to happen, and I wanted to be a part of it." When the Mahatma walked in, he felt awed by him, and he hoped the Mahatma would sense how much he wanted to receive the Knowledge. "The Mahatma proceeded to blow everybody away by going around the room, looking at people, and telling them how many times they had been to satsang. Everybody was saying, 'Yes, how did you know?' He picked out the people who had only been to one satsang, which included me, and asked them to leave."
Andy went outside and sat down to listen to some premies giving satsang. "Those of us who had been asked to leave talked about what we could do to make ourselves ready to receive the Knowledge. That included creating a stronger desire for it, a stronger need for it. I imagine each of us realized that, even though we wanted the Knowledge, we could have had a much stronger desire for it. We finished talking and went away intending to hear a lot more satsang, because we couldn't think of anything more important to do at that moment."
He listened to satsang that afternoon and evening. At the evening program, it was announced that a Knowledge session was going to take place the next day. So, Andy and two friends rose early the next morning and made their way to the Knowledge session. "We were sitting in the back of the room and the Mahatma came in and began to ask people questions. He was feeling out their thoughts and desires to see if they were really ready for the Knowledge. Finally, he sked if anyone had had other spiritual masters. For some reason, I told him I had been doing some Kundalini Yoga through the teachings of Yogi Bhajan. Well, he told me to go away and listen to more satsang."
There were tears in Andy's eyes as he left the room, for he was disappointed and bewildered about what to do next. Having nowhere to go, he decided to return home. On his way to the bus depot, he received some inspiration from an unlikely source. "This drunk started walking along with me, asking me for a quarter every now and then for bus fare. He told me he was a poet and he asked me if I wanted to hear some of his poetry. I said 'Yes,' so he started reciting a poem. It said something like, 'Old man wandering in the darkness, looking for the eternal answer, but not knowing where to go.' I heard that and thought to myself that it was pure satsang. It was Guru Maharaj Ji saying those words to me through that poor drunken slob."
Andy listened to satsang regularly for the next few days. Then he went to receive the Knowledge again, only to be turned away once more. He had had a relatively strong desire for the Knowledge in the beginning, but having been rejected by the Mahatma so many times, his desire was growing. He was more determined than ever and the next morning he was back again trying to get into the Knowledge session. This time, however, the Mahatma allowed him to stay. "I was feeling very meek and I was trembling with tears in my eyes, because I was about to come into such close contact with my life. My heart was opening up where, before, it had been closed."
Curious
Whereas Andy had a strong desire for the Knowledge, but had to overcome obstacles, John had very little desire and faced no obstacles at all. He was curious because he had heard many things about the Knowledge although he had very little idea about what it was. He had quit taking drugs and was not actively looking for a guru.
He and his girlfriend had heard about Guru Maharaj Ji and were intrigued by the guru's age. So, they decided to check out the movement by attending satsang. He had no intention of receiving the Knowledge at that point, yet he left satsang feeling quite positive about what he had experienced there.
A short time later, he and his girlfriend split up, so he was forced to find a new place to live. As fate would have it, one of his new roommates was a devotee of the guru. John had taken up Hatha Yoga through the influence of a previous roommate, as you will remember, and now he was getting ready to enter Divine Light Mission in the same way. "I went to satsang with this girl, my roommate, because she was going and I didn't have anything else to do. I really got high on it because there was a lot of good energy there. I'd never confronted anything like it before. The energy I'd experienced through Hatha Yoga was pretty mellow compared to the energy at satsang. It was something very intense and unique which I'd never encountered before."
John was happy to attend satsang because of the "positive energy" he felt there. But he was unwilling to accept the belief that Guru Maharaj Ji was the Lord. "There were people at satsang who talked about Guru Maharaj Ji as the Lord of the Universe, but I couldn't get off on that at the time. That kind of talk brought me down on satsang. I could never conceive of God coming down to earth in human form. That's why I could never get into Jesus." How are you going to see who is the real Lord? It's simple! First of all, you are going to receive his Knowledge-what he gives you, and then you're going to see. If it is true, you are going to go ahead and bow down to Him and say, right you are my Lord, and if it is false, throw it way. I don't claim myself to be God. I don't claim myself to be any prophet, any Messiah, anything. I just claim myself to be the humble servant of God, and I have brought this message for you - I have brought this Knowledge for you. That's for you, not for me. I have realized it. It's okay with me now. It's for you, and you should receive it. If you don't believe me, okay, many people don't believe me. Maybe they think, "He is a child; he is kidding." But it is before you, and you can test it, you can see. If I am kidding, it's before you, and one million people have received it all around the world. How to receive it? Go to a source, I say I have it. You want? By all means you can take it. What you need is love. And not that love you give externally, but I seek a part of that love you give to God - Pure Love, that's all I seek (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 7
A turning point came for John when he went to hear Guru Maharaj Ji. "Going to that program was the most incredible thing I'd ver run into. I wasn't affected as much by seeing the young guru as I ias by the energy there. It was very intense and it built higher and higher. I still had doubts about God coming down to earth in human form, but listening to Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang, I openly received his vibrations and they just emptied my mind. The words he said didn't strike me that much. All he said was, 'You can search for peace in this world, and if you can't find it, come to me and I will show you how to find it.' My conception of a guru at that time was an old man with a white beard and hair speaking words of wisdom. Yet, Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang wasn't wisdom so much as it was just very light and flowing. When he spoke I could sense something totally different about him. I guess it was his vibration. It just really hit me hard."
During the program, he learned there was going to be a Knowledge session the next day at the Denver ashram. He decided to go if he could get a ride. "If I hadn't gotten a ride, I don't know if I would have made any great effort to go. I did have a slight desire to receive the Knowledge, although I guess I was mainly curious to find out what it was."
Most of that day he listened to satsang. "I got so much satsang my mind was really gone, although not in a positive sense. I just got to the point where I couldn't really grasp what was going on. Finally, the Mahatma began to ask questions like, 'Are you willing to dedicate your life to this Knowledge? Are you willing to cut off your head for it?' I was saying 'No' to a lot of things. The Mahatma had said that people who could not answer 'Yes' to his questions should leave and go hear more satsang. At one point, I did feel like getting up and leaving, but I didn't. I probably didn't want to go because people would have looked at me. Also, I was thinking, 'If this experience will truly show me God, then this is where I should be.' The Mahatma was directing questions to different people, but he never turned to me. If he'd asked me a question, I would probably have said 'No' and left. During that time, I was hoping he wouldn't come around to me with a question. I sort of wanted to stay because I'd come so far."
The chance omission of John from direct questioning was a key factor in his eventual conversion, for he was allowed to receive the Knowledge, having only a faint desire for it, and even less preparation.
Attraction to the Movement
Most of these premies had already broken away from the counterculture and were identified with the emerging' spiritual community. Why they were attracted to Divine Light Mission rather than some other spiritual movement was partly situational: they came into conact with premies and Guru Maharaj Ji when they were between ommitments and thus were free to begin \a new one.
Many were attracted to the movement when they learned that a friend, relative, or acquaintance was interested or involved. As we aw, Tina was drawn to the movement through her contact with (obert, Andy through the influence of Shawn, and John through his ateful encounter with his premie roommate. However, there were a ew, like Walt and Alan, who had no friends, relatives, or acquaintinces in the movement. Their feeling of attraction stemmed largely rom the positive impressions they had of premies and Mahatmas.
"Picking up on the positive vibrations" and "feeling the intense energy" are common phrases in all eighteen stories, as these young people recalled their first experiences of the movement. Even Alan, vho had fallen into a deep depression, reported feeling some relief during his first encounter with premies, an experience which made him think they had something he needed. Feeling "blissful" while experiencing the "positive energy" of satsang was a critical part of their preparation, for it was interpreted by these young people as proof of the Knowledge's power to elevate the human race into a higher state of consciousness. Having experienced this potential themselves, they were more eager to talk to premies, which convinced them all the more that they should receive the Knowledge.
These young people found the beliefs of the Mission generally compatible with their own orientations, a fact which made the movenent all the more attractive to them. Only Alan seemed completely unprepared by his earlier experiences for the movement's appeal, but he was feeling so desperate he was ready to grab at anything which promised to give his life meaning and direction.
One of the appeals of the Mission was the boldness of its claim that Guru Maharaj Ji, through his Mahatmas, could give initiates a direct experience of God. This promise might have been shrugged off as an exaggeration were it not for the fact that new premies were enthusiastically passing the word that they had encountered God during the Knowledge session and had been "blissed out" by the experience.
With its claim that the guru could reveal God, the movement created'a mystery which was accessible only to those who were allowed into the Knowledge session. Since premies vow to keep the proceedings of the session, secret, there was no way these young people could have learned about the Knowledge. When they asked about it, they were told they had to receive the Knowledge to find out. Shrouded in mystery, the Knowledge became all the more attractive to them, which, in turn, increased their desire to be initiated.
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.