Mahatmas
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One of the most important factors in the early success of DLM were the large number of Indian 'mahatmas', supposedly celibate men and women who lived in ashrams and dedicated their lives to practice and proselytisation of the "Knowledge". The idealistic and ignorant young Westerners believed these people to be "liberated", "realised souls", "yogis", "swamis", etc. They were thought to be above normal consciousness and to exist on a higher plane. And certainly the few mahatmas that came to Australia put on a pretty convincing show in this regard. |
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Prem Rawat preached that only mahatmas were able to "reveal Knowledge" ie Guru Maharaj Ji gave them the connection to Him that allowed the grace to initiate people. On a more mundane level, it was a reasonably time-consuming process and many mahatmas were required to indoctrinate and initiate the tens of thousands of Westerners that DLM claimed as members. At the zenith of DLM's apparent success, Mahatmas Guru Charnanand, Rajeshwar and Parlokanand in about a month initiated 1,800 people in a pre Millenium '73 tour of 26 cities of the United States. Many of the Western premies had their beliefs about mahatmas challenged when they learned that a mahatma, Mahatma Fakiranand, had nearly bludgeoned the journalist and merry prankster, Pat Halley, to death with a hammer for throwing a shavingcream pie into Maharaji's face in Detroit in 1973. They had to change their beliefs about mahatmas when all but a handful returned to India and remained loyal to Rawat's mother after she disinherited Him for his playboy lifestyle. After all, they couldn't have higher spiritual experience if they accepted Prem Rawat, the Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe as just the naughty little boy who'd got lost in maya of sex, drink, drugs and being a playboy. |
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Those who remained loyal included Mahatmas Gurucharnanand and Sampurnanand who had both been heavily involved in the proclamation of Prem Rawat as the new Perfect Master on the death of his father. They are seen in this photo flanking the young Prem Rawat who pretends to play the flute and is dressed in the costume his father would wear when posing as Krishna. Sampuranand led the Rav Vidya Kender (DUO) in India after Rawat was unable to regain the Divine Light Mission properties in the Indian courts and was still testifying for Rawat in the Passages video. As of 2008 Gurucharnanand, or Abhay Charan - golfer and tennis player, is still touring for Rawat though it is said amongst followers of Prem Rawat that he did not remain a celibate monk all those years. Mahatma Padarthanand also returned to India working for Rawat and became a hirsute householder. |
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The mahatma who was probably closest to Prem Rawat was Mahatma Jagdeo. He lived in the Malibu mansion and for many years had a special service overseeing the educational facilities of Divine Light Mission and the training of the early Western initiaters. It was later revealed he was a paedophile who took advantage of his position to sexually abuse some of the children in these schools. When the organisation was challenged about these events, they first tried to ignore the accusations, then pretend that Elan Vital had nothing to do with Divine Light Mission. Jagdeo was returned to India where he was protected within the Raj Vidya Kender infrastructure. Jagdeo also supervised the training of the Western initiators for some years. In the photo he is seen at the back of an early group of Western devotees "training" to become "initiators".
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The Keys: |
The majority of the Western 'mahatmas' or 'initiators' or 'instructors' who were appointed have become 'apostates' ie they no longer believe in Rawat or his Knowledge. Some of the more prominent include Mahatma Saphlanand, Mike Finch and Jean-Michel Kahn.
Female Mahatmas were call Bais. There were far fewer of these in the West than males. Mohani Bai was an influential 'mahatma' who served mainly in Germany. It was said, amongst followers of Prem Rawat at the time, that she was a widow, that she left Divine Light Mission at the time Prem Rawat's mother disowned him and removed him as the Perfect Master and that she married a German devotee who had been her chauffeur who also became an apostate. She is an M.D. practising as a physican and psychotherapist and has a web site The Mantra Calls You. She remains a spiritual teacher who has released CDs of Indian mantras for meditation, performs concerts and has written a book. She does not wish to speak publicly of her time in Divine Light Mission.
Learning More:
The Mantra Calls You
The Keys:
Mohani Bai gave Satsang which was published in Divine Light Vol 1 No 3, Magazine of Divine Light Mission, December 1971. At that time she believed mantras were useless without the "Knowledge" of Prem Rawat: "By performing penances, austerities, fastings and other various techniques one can get a worldly and perishable reward, but not realization of Truth. The mystery of scriptures is only known by the practical Knowledge of the Sadguru of the time." She believed "My divine teacher Shri Balyogeshwar Sadguru Deva Shri Sant Ji Maharaj gave me the Knowledge of that life which is the Light of all living beings." She's learnt a lot since then.