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.

Evening Standard - Thursday, June 17, 1971

SWATHED IN FLOWERS 13-year-old Guru Balyogeshwar Sri Sant Ji Maharaj is welcomed at Heathrow Airport today.

Hallelujah! The mini Guru, aged 13, cometh

"THEY ARE not," said a stern Heathrow Airport official, "playing their bells, conches, flutes or horns in the arrival building."
And he added : " We do not intend to have clarinets, tambourines, cymbals or anything else that jangles. They may say he's the Lord, but as far as we are concerned he's just an ordinary passenger."
All of which was a bit of a dampener for the biggest crowd of Guru worshippers ever seen at Heathrow.
Nearly 200 of them descended on the airport with garlands, bags filled with petals and babies in push chairs - all to meet 13-year-old Balyogeshwar Srisant Ji Maharaj.

Garlanded

When the mini Guru, hardly 5ft. tall and wearing a plain white robe, came through Customs his devotees fell at his feet and garlanded him with carnations.
Then out came a massive sack of petals and he was smothered with them as he made his way through the milling throng helped by police.
The followers of the Guru, nearly all of them English said they had known about him for two years. He had come to save them from themselves.
One of them, questioned about the Guru, said: "I think you had better speak to Charles. He's got the gift of the gab and everything."

13-day visit

But Charles passed the questions on to a white-robed Indian who said that the young Guru came from Heaven. But if you were talking about his body that, in fact, came from the Himalayas.
The devotees said that they all belonged to the Divine Light Mission.
Their master is here on a 13-day visit and will appear in London, Leicester, Exeter, and at the Glastonbury Festival on Mid-Summer's Day.
In the end there was no live music until the Guru left the terminal building.
Inside he made his regal way to the background of piped airport music which happened to be a selection from The Pyjama Game.

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.