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.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Saint Exupéry
Plants need to flower. There's no getting away from it. If there was a strain of roses that just sent up thousands and thousands of yards of rose stalk, and never a bud, never a rose, then the army would buy it up, and use it as organic barbed wire. Roses are intended to flower.
The first stage of a plant's life is the stalk. And then comes rebirth. Something soft, unimaginably softer than the stalk, more colorful, full of the scents of rejoicing, takes over, bursts out. Something hidden in the heart of the stalk makes itself known, in the fullest flowering of that flower.
The saints say that man also must flower, that Fee must go through a second birth. They say that every man contains a secret chamber inside him, which is higher than the mind and the heart, and provides the mind with understanding and the heart with the feelings ings of love. This chamber has been called the Kingdom of Heaven, the Crest Jewel, the Pearl of Great Price. What must be understood is that the great saints open up this chamber in a man just like the sun opens up flowers.
That is why all great saints have had disciples. The job of a disciple is the most wonderful in all the
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world, just as the duty of being a petal is the highest good fortune in terms of plant life. A disciple experiences the nectar, the sweet delicious fragrance of his Perfect Master in the softest and purest part of his heart, a part which cannot even begin to open until he is ready to purify himself, refraining from building more and more defenses, more and more stalk.
To be a disciple, that is, to be truly fortunate, a man needs a Master. And the test of a True Master is the fact that in His presence, the marvelous realm known as purity of heart, deepness of love, undying life, opens up within a man. When a man has this part fully open, lie is portrayed with a halo around his head, a Christ, a Buddha, an illumined one. For the petals of this divine flower, of the flowering of man, are petals of what is called "divine light."
Let us make this clear. If anyone is not experiencing a bright light within him which actually and continually leads the breath up and down within the body, lie still does not know the purest, simplest source of all love which is inside him. He is still in the stalk stage as far as that is concerned.
Christ said, "If your eye is single, your whole bodv will be full of light." Mohammed said, "The light of Allah is found in the human temples." Krishna said, "I will give you divine sight, and you shall see my glory shining within." And Buddha said, "Every man possesses the Bright Mirror of Illumination, this is what all the Buddhas realized."
Buddha proclaimed that the way of the illumined ones is the growth of snowdrops behind the eyes, and when Christ came, it was as if a few crocuses opened their hearts to the winter sky. But now the time has come which Christ spoke of, when the meek shall inherit the earth. Springtime is upon us, there shall be more flowering saints than stars in the milky way, and it is the grace of Shri Guru Maharaj Ji which shall entirely open up this world to love. There shall be no
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war. We have tasted the thorns of civilization. Now we shall experience the flower.
The brilliance of stars in the sky is due to Shri Guru Maharaj Ji alone. There in none other upon earth who opens the heavens to men. There is none other enthroned in every heart. There is none other with power and great glory. We speak that which we have seen. Shri Guru Maharaj Ji is a tree whose seed is everlasting joyous life. He gives to those who ask him, a white stone, and upon that stone is written a Name which no man knows, unless he has received it. His is the glory of all truth and the liveliness of all life. He is bringing life to dead bodies. He is Life.
As petals are softer than stalk, so the reign of saints upon earth will be softer than the reign of politicians. And as the stalk gives way to the petals, so the warmongers shall give way to the Bringer of Peace.
Be not deceived. Peace is that which cannot be interrupted. To stand in a valley in Colorado with white doves circling overhead in a clear blue sky is not peace. It is a hint of peacefulness, but the arrival of vultures and armies can disrupt it. Peace is that which can never be interrupted, even by death. All else is merely a gap between wars.
My dear sisters and brothers, I clearly declare that the flower of peace grows at the Feet of my Lord, Satguru Maharaj.
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.