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.
Australian Associated Press General News
By Rosemary Desmond - 4 September 2002
(c) 2002 AAP Information Services Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. Available for personal use but not for sale or redistribution for compensation of any kind without the prior written permission of AAP.
BRISBANE, Sept 3 AAP - Prem Rawat or "Maharaji" is worth following around the world.
A three-day gathering of members of his Elan Vital cult has drawn more than 3,500 people from 60 countries with their teacher's thoughts aired tonight in a bushland setting at Peak Crossing, south-west of Brisbane.
A small army of security guards and a few police stood guard today outside the Ivory's Rock Conference Centre, as journalists unsuccessfully sought to gain entry.
A spokesman blamed "negative publicity" from a weekend newspaper report for a refusal to grant interviews with the Indian-born guru, affectionately known to his followers as Maharaji.
Elan Vital conference-goers, some of whom have followed him to Australia for the second time this year, were also reluctant to talk.
Internet websites have accused Elan Vital of wrongdoings, including misusing donated funds, and Prem Rawat of even raffling his mother's dental X-rays.
Elan Vital today angrily denied the accusations, saying the claims were "bizarre".
"We were forced this morning to deny that Mr Rawat auctioned his mother's dental X-rays," a spokesman said.
Elan Vital directors also issued a written denial, saying recent news reports were based on unsupported rumours generated by two disgruntled former employees.
Lone protester Neville Ackland is a disaffected follower of the Maharaji with his own website dedicated to telling those willing to read it about what he calls "the con trick".
Mr Ackland today parked a truck on the roadside leading to the conference centre.
The vehicle was plastered with handwritten slogans attacking the guru he first met while backpacking in India in the early 1970s.
Mr Ackland said he donated two Brisbane home units, now worth about $500,000, left to him by his mother to Elan Vital.
But 12 years later he became disenchanted with the cult, leaving it in 1985 but was talked into rejoining in the 1990s.
"My friends talked me into coming back because they said things had changed," he said.
"But I discovered all sorts of anomalies and very sad people who had been abused by people higher up."
Mr Ackland was turned away at the gates to the conference centre.
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.