New York Times Published: December 2, 1983
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.
UPI
Published: December 2, 1983
Ted Patrick, who has been retained by parents to help get their children away from religious societies, was convicted by a Federal jury Wednesday of violating a man's civil rights. Mr. Patrick was ordered to pay $50,000 in punitive and compensatory damages.
The jury took less than three hours to find Mr. Patrick guilty of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Richard Cooper of Brookline, Mass., 31 years old, a member of the Divine Light Mission.
The jury in the three-day trial also convicted Mr. Patrick of asssault and battery and imprisonment.
Mr. Cooper said Mr. Patrick imprisoned him for 19 days in 1979 in an attempt to pull him away from the Divine Light Mission.
The jury ordered Mr. Patrick to pay $40,000 in punitive damages and $10,000 in compensatory damages. The lawyers for Mr. Patrick, who has been involved in other suits as a result of his activities in trying to take people away from cults, said it was the first time their client had been ordered to pay punitive damages.
But Mr. Patrick said years of litigation had left him unable to pay. "I don't have a down payment on a free meal," Mr. Patrick said.
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.