Prem Rawat (Maharaji), The Divine Pinup
Though the competition was very fierce, there is little doubt that Prem Rawat (Guru Maharaj Ji) is and was one of the ugliest,
of the ugly, infamous gurus of the 1970's and beyond.
However, this did not stop his devoted followers filling magazines with photos of him on every other page and even selling pinup photos of him in sizes ranging from wallet size (50 cents) to 16" x 20" ($30). Photos of him half naked were the most popular but Rawat was quite aware of his appearance to non-devotees, he is extremely short, extremely obese and with bad skin so he appeared on stage with malas and baggy dhotis to hide his thunder thighs and floppy man boobs. Many photos showed him dressed as the god Krishna or dancing on stage though these disappeared in the early 1980s. How his followers were able to perceive a person so distasteful in appearance as beautiful is a mystery, but this is commonplace in cults as can be seen by examining the lives of any other successful "Masters".
Below are some examples of these photos, all professionaly taken, from the collection of a normal devotee of Prem Rawat who kept these photos in a special box and who saw the light after 34 years, are shown below. Another collection of photos of Rawat's feet is available here. His feet, which his followers kissed when pranaming to him in the darshan ritual were called His Holy Lotus Feet to designate their purity in the Maya (illusion) of this world. It was the water in which his feet were washed that was given out to his followers as charanamrit for use during the daily worship and singing of 'Arti'.
More conservative pinups of him continued to be major fund raisers to the present day on calendars and similar publications despite his appearance ageing beyond his years with obesity, second and third chins and jowls and puffed up eyelids, receding hair and liver spots on his face.
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