The 4th technique of the meditation methods Prem Rawat teaches is different from the others which involve results that are unverifiable internal states of mind. However the Nectar technique is supposed to result in the flow of a divine fluid that, among other things, can alter your biochemistry. This could be verified in blood tests and the nectar could be spat out into a cup, a test tube or even a urinal when as Rawat claims it completely fills you up or just comes in drips.
Rawat's claims about this nectar were certainly remarkable: it was Divine, it was within inside every person and one can actually taste it and as soon as it drops into us, it just makes it beautiful, just makes it absolutely calm and cheerful. Jesus turned water into wine but the Perfect Master could turn water he was drinking into pure nectar and the lame can climb to a well in the heaven from which delicious Nectar flows and they drink it, and they drink it and they drink it. He even quoted stories of devotees with true faith in Guru Maharaj Ji drinking poison that miraculously changed to nectar through the power of their faith.
When talking about this Divine Nectar Rawat rarely if ever spoke from his own experience but mainly quoted the 19th century Swaminarayan Sampraday poet, Paramahamsa Brahmanand(a) who wrote the arti sung by Rawat's devotees. Rawat quotes snippets of Brahmanand's poetry more often than anyone but Kabir. It may be difficult for Rawat, who has always been obese and was particularly prone to accumulating fat in his jowls and second and third chins, to physically get his tongue in position with his throat so constricted with rolls of fat. It was taught that doing this technique had "the power of controlling the desires of the senses" but Rawat obviously could not control his desire for food.
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His father, Shri Maharaj Ji, who apparently had a better memory than his youngest son would have his Indian followers weeping with joy, as he sang whole songs of Brahmanand's such as:
O Saints, I have seen a great wonder.
There is a well in the sky from which nectar is falling, and a lame man climbs up to it and drinks his fill.
There are gongs ringing, drums beating, cymbals clashing and trumpets sounding, yet no one is playing them;
a deaf man listens to them and dances, beside himself with joy.
There is a palace built where no world exists, and it shines with a brilliant light day and night.
A blind man is overcome with joy simply to behold it.
There are living people who die and are brought back to life again. They are full of vitality, yet they take no food.
Brahmanand has this to say: Rare and fortunate among holy men are those who understand my riddle.
Lucy Dupertuis in her Ph.D. thesis reported that this meditation "technique" was so important to Rawat's Knowledge that:
Premies typically meditate "formally" for an hour upon arising and an hour before retiring, concentrating one by one on "light," "music," and "Holy Name" (in any order), while sustaining "nectar" practice through the whole session.
Jeanne Messer one of Rawat's devotees who for years administered "Darshan Recovery" where those premies who collapsed after darshan were looked after wrote of nectar in 1973:
"Devotees are told of a nectar flowing in the body which they can taste, and they are instructed to meditate by tasting that nectar at all possible times. The nectar has been described as tasting like a combination of butter and honey.
However this "Nectar of the Gods" was not on tap and despite practising it for hours and hours a day premies rarely reported any success in this technique:
I didn't understand the fourth thing which they call nectar. It is a sweet fluid that is said to be the source of bodily strength and is outrageously intoxicating. The mahatma showed us a method for tasting this nectar, but I was not too successful - Divine Times Millenium '73 Edition
I was just completely off the wall, out of it. And then suddenly I was doing the Nectar, and I'd never experienced Nectar before. It was this amazing taste, this electricity, and I looked around and felt like I was on acid. … Suddenly at the tip of my tongue I felt a sweet yet electric sensation which spread throughout my body as an intense feeling of joy and well-being. It was as if I had been transported into a new realm of consciousness where deep happiness reverberated at all times - The Company Of Truth: Chapter 3
Faith Healy, head of the New Zealand Mission and future wife and future ex-wife of Derek Harper, Australian DLM chief, reiterated the need to constantly stick your tongue back up your throat:
And in whatever we're doing we have to try to remember to do nectar, to do Holy Name. Because the only way our consciousness is going to be effected is when we have consciousness of Holy Name. Not when we have consciousness of spiritual concepts or consciousness of this or that. We have to have God consciousness and this is what we have to understand more and more, that this is our purpose, to realise Knowledge, and to focus completely on Guru Maharaj Ji.
Dr John Horton, author and Prem Rawat's personal physican for 40 years, wrote and spoke extensively from a medical perspective about Rawat's Knowledge. He has researched the effects of Rawat's Knowledge and explains the Divine Nectar:
The Knowledge of Guru Maharaj Ji not only takes man further in his evolution towards complete self-awareness, it also serves to erase destructive elements in his biological history. … Another way for us to experience the energy within us is called "drinking nectar." There is a liquid produced within us which the Bible speaks of as "the waters of life." When we are taught to drink these waters, we experience a very sweet taste which is very likely the taste of the pineal hormones, and by continually drinking this secretion, we reinforce the activity of the pineal gland, just as continual exercise of a muscle strengthens and builds it. The early "reptilian" layer of our brain imposes on us a set of primitive sense-drives and automatic, stereotyped patterns of behavior. This part of our brain is largely associated with taste and smell experiences, and when the beautiful taste of nectar is experienced, it overrides this part of the brain, releasing us from these set patterns. both by the clarity of the experience itself, and by the constant reinforcement of pineal activity which it produces.
Wow! Amazing to think what Dr Horton's clarity and experience must be like now, after drinking the Nectar for 40 years, if it was true.
It is very difficult to get your tongue back past your uvula and up towards your pineal gland and many premies were disheartened by their failures. Mike Finch a senior British devotee was an inspiration to many as he could achieve this feat easily. He recounts in Chapter 8 of his memoire, Without The Guru, that he was often used to demonstrate the technique though having a group of premies clustered around squinting down into his mouth was probably unhygenic and quite disgusting. Mahatma Gurucharanand told Finch to attend as many of the Knowledge sessions as he could so that he could be on hand to demonstrate how the Nectar technique was actually done.
When he was 16 years old Rawat married the 24 year old Marolyn Johnson, his devotee and "secretary" who had been an air hostess and with whom he had been having an affair, and during the 1970's she often spoke publicly and mentioned the nectar a few times:
Today in the darshan line it was so beautiful to see all of us in so many different faces and so many different bodies. But when we do meditation, premies, we all hear the same music, we all see the same light, we all taste the same nectar, and we all feel the same vibration. It's one thing. And we know we're one. - Essen, Germany August 31, 1975
Maharaj Ji has gifted us so much. He gives us our third eye to see his form within. He gives us external eyes to see his form on this Earth. He gives us a tongue to talk about this Knowledge, this experience, to talk about Guru Maharaj Ji. He gives us a tongue to taste his nectar - Guru Puja, July 30, 1977
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Rennie Davis, who provided most of the publicity for the young Prem Rawat (aka Guru Maharaj Ji) until 1974, has never been shy and took every opportunity to spruik about Rawat's Divinity and Knowledge, at least for a year or two until he quietly slunk off into obscurity. In this movie, Alien he talks about the supposed biological bases of Maharaji's techniques of Knowledge as taught by devotee doctors John Horton, Ed Hanzelik and Bob Hallowitz: "More and more believing that a natural physical or biological change takes place while experiencing this pure energy inside ourself, that there's actually a gland on the top of the brain called the pineal gland and that this gland is a light receptor and when we turn to the energy inside ourself which is light it activates a gland that right now in the human body is not active and this gland in turn secretes chemicals that leads to a whole harmonisation of the physical body so that the gland that ordinarily secretes chemicals that lead to fear and outrage and anger are actually brought under control." |
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In Australia nectar was described in the Golden Age magazine: HOLY NECTAR: "Within every person is a divine nectar, which one can actually taste. People drink ordinary wine and they say 'Cheers'. When you drink this divine wine, then you will know real cheers". Called Living Waters in the Bible, Soma and Nectar in the Eastern scriptures, this is an internal taste that is sweeter than honey and can sustain the body whilst fasting and is the natural antibiotic. Nectar meditation has the power of controlling the desires of the senses. |
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The Divine Nectar is mentioned in Arti.
Nectar from Satguru's feet
Is so holy and it cleans us of our sins
So sacred in cleaning us of sins
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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.
