While Prem Rawat's flabby and half-naked dancing and his followers' mania for lining up and passing by and bowing down to kiss his feet are strange enough in themselves, there was another, even more unusual practice. Reproduced photos of Prem Rawat or Guru Maharaji Ji as he called himself in the 1960's and 70's, were widely sold to his premies or devotees. They ranged in cost from 50 cents for wallet size to $30 for 16" x 20". Some of the most popular photos were the focus for the cult of the worship of Rawat's "divine Lotus Feet". A lotus is an extremely beautiful flower of a tropical aquatic plant, Nelumbo Nucifera. It often grows in dirty water and it's flowers are held above the surface so in India, it is used as a metaphor for saints and yogis, etc. They supposedly live "above" the dirt and squalor of normal human life. As Rawat said in Denver, Colorado, on May 12, 1974:

"If you want to stay in this world, be like a lotus flower who stays in the dirty water, who was born in the dirty water, but never gets adopted to dirty water. You can live in the world of concepts, but live in such a way so that they don't affect you. There can be a million, trillion infinite concepts going on, and they shouldn't bother you. And I'll tell you something, that's a most beautiful way to be."

And in Patna, Bihar, India on December 25, 1971 he spoke about himself:

"So the Supremest Lord, Shri Guru Maharaj Ji, knowing everything, remains detached from everything just like the lotus flower. The lotus is blossoming in water, but remaining in water, is away from the water. If the lotus flower goes underwater, then the ability of water to take all the good and bad will also come into the lotus. But the lotus, remaining in water, does not take the qualities of water. Remaining in water, the lotus does not accept the qualities of water

Followers of Prem Rawat had shrines in their homes where a chair would be reserved for the exclusive use of the divine arse (ass) of the Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe should he ever deign to leave his gigantic Malibu mansion and enter their humble abode. In front of the chair would be a pillow with a lifesize photo of Rawat's feet before which they would pranam, sing arti while waving trays of candles and on special occasions take a smidgin of charanamrit or holy water on their tongues. Charanamrit is water in which Prem Rawat, or at least, His Holy Lotus Feet have been bathed. Some examples of these photos are shown below. It appears from close examination of these photos that Rawat may have assuaged his stressful feelings of inadequacy and insecurity by picking at his toenails as well as by alcohol abuse.

Prem Rawat spoke of His Lotus Feet and explained their significance early in his career in his charming, uniquely idiosyncratic way: "... the guy who is determined to shed his forehead on the Lotus Feet goes to that perfection from where he never returns."
In 1980 in Rome he spoke of the song Leaving Your Lotus Feet, a song dedicated to his very own feet, as being one of his favourites.
His wife, the former Marolyn Johnson to whom he gave the title "Durga Ji", began speeches with "Pranam Guru Maharaj Ji! Pranam to your beautiful Lotus Feet".
His father, Hans Rawat the Perfect Master before him, spoke of the mystical form of the "Lotus Feet of the Supreme Lord permeating the whole universe" and how "If only I might see my living Master, I would tell Him all my sufferings, weeping, and rest my head on His Holy Feet."

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