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.

Friday, September 3, 1971 News Journal, Mansfield, 0.

I Was A Teen-Age Guru ...

Story Of Maharaji Of India

By PETER GREENBERG

Few Westerners have ever known quite what a guru is. As they understand it, a guru is supposed to be a person who is somehow religious, vaguely benign, mystical in some way and probably comes from India.

Even this fumbling definition, however, leaves no room for a guru who announces his coming on a Trans World Airlines flight he calls his "silver steed," keeps a body-guard and an appointments secretary, marks his papers "Top Sacred" and is only 13-years-old.

Yet Balyogeshwar Sri Sant Ji Maharaj fills that description exactly. And on top of it, he claims to have three million followers around the world, including 2,000 mahatmas in India who call him master. In fact, he is now seeking more adherents on a three month international tour which began in Hollywood and is taking him to New York, Washington, Canada and South Africa before winding up with a large rally in London on Nov. 5.

As for Guru Maharaj Ji's approach, it can best be described as giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "no-nonsense." He recently sat barefoot in Hollywood's Divine Light Mission, which overlooks the Hollywood Bowl, in a room decorated with dozens of poster-size photographs and color drawings of himself. At his feet sat 40 or 50 shoeless visitors, two mahatmas and his bodyguard, all wrapt in somewhat puzzled concentration on his answers to their questions:

Maharaj (beginning): "The aim and purpose of my life is to spread the knowledge of the true nature of the soul to humanity as a whole."

Old gentleman (sitting cross-legged on the green carpet): "Then am I to regard you as the supreme mind of God and knowledge in this room?"

Maharaj (innocently) "Me? Judge it in your own way."

Second visitor (throwing himself on the carpet): "Give me the knowledge!"

Maharaj: "I can't answer materialistic requests. Man has reached the apex of material prosperity while grossly neglecting spiritual evolution!"

Short - haired young man (yelling): "I'm tired of hearing theories! I want you to give me the knowledge, and I want it now!"

Maharaj: "Why? Are you going someplace?"

Unidentified man: "Any-one got a green Toyota? They're towing it away."

Maharaj (beckoning): "Gary, Gary, green Toyota."

To most of his Hollywood listeners, the 13-year-old gurus answers proved frustratingly difficult.

FRUSTRATING

But it is not even clear just how the guru regards himself. He says he is spending his spare time writing a book which "will have the essence of all the scriptures," but he disclaims, somewhat ambiguously, that he is a god.

"You'll give your devotion to God through me," he says. "I multiply it many times and then send it to Him."

When he is specifically asked whether or not he considers himself a human, however, he pauses, as though figuring out the answer. "Yes, I am a human," he says,. finally. "Hands bone, lungs. But guru is greater than God because if you go to guru, guru will show you God."

Maharaj Ji's history has been largely supplied by himself. He says he is the son of an Indian holy man who died when the boy was eight. He claims he began meditating with his father at two and at six delivered entire spiritual discourses in English in his native town of Dehra Dun in northern India.

HUMOUR

He stands 5-feet-tall and attends ninth grade at the St. Joseph's Academy. Its principal, he says, has looked the other way while he is America, missing classes. "Other children only study about these things," he says with a smile. "But Guru MaharaJ Ji is getting practical experience!"

Whatever one may believe about the 13-year-old guru, it is clear that he is without false modesty and that he has a considerable sense of humour. It is not clear, however, which quality was responsible for the announcement which preceded his arrival in America.

"All brothers of love come to welcome Guru Maharaj Ji," it read. "He is coming in the clouds with great power and glory and his silver steed will drift down at 4 p.m. at Los Angeles International Airport TWA Flight 761."

Nor is Guru Maharaj Ji likely to supply the answer. For as one of his young followers at the Divine Light Mission said when Maharaj Ji's listeners pressed him for clarity:

"Hey, c'mon, you can't coax knowledge out of the guru. Yon can't trick him or force him to give knowledge. I mean that's the vibes I get. When he wants you to have it, you'll get it, and not before."

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.