Shri Hans Ji Maharaj - Prem Rawat's Father

HRH Yogiraj Param Hans Sadgurudev Sri Hans ji Maharaj (1900 - July 16, 1966) was a guru in India. He claimed to be the Satguru or Perfect Master of his time though he was not accepted by the majority of his Master's other followers. He married twice, the second time to Jagat Janani Mata Shri Rajeshwari Devi, also known as "Mata Ji", and had four sons and one daughter.

Shri Hans was early in his life an egalitarian iconoclast, and an opponent of the Hindu caste system. He was originally a member of the Arya Samaj, but left that movement after he met a guru of the Sant Mat tradition, Sri Swarupanand Ji Maharaj. Swarupanand initiated him into the four techniques of Knowledge or kriyas, which were to become his trademark. In the 1930s following the death of his guru, he began to travel in Sind and Lahore and later to Delhi. The death of a guru is nearly invariably followed by dissension as to whom should be the new Satguru. Rawat's father was not accepted by Swarupanand's followers as the new Satguru because he was a "householder" ie a family man. Their concerns were certainly shown to have some basis when Prem Rawat was disowned and disinherited by his mother and elder brother due to his "unspiritual lifestyle" and the subsequent public scandal which both brothers have attempted to hush up. It is not unusual for successful gurus with families to pass their property and "spiritual capital" on to their children. Hans' work grew informally for many years, spreading across northern India. He founded the Divya Sandesh Parishad or Divine Light Mission in 1960.

The best internet resource for information, albeit hagiographical, on Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, the father of Prem Rawat is the web site of his 'apostate' eldest brother, Bal Bhagwan, or Shri Satpal Ji as he now calls himself. While Maharaji and his organisations have sometimes mentioned the life of Shri Hans they no longer have any information about him available on the internet. Most of the publications and information about him available in the West were destroyed in the early 1980's on Prem Rawat's direction. In the past, Prem Rawat often acknowledged that everything he had achieved came through the grace of his Guru Maharaji, Shri Hans but his reservations about the efficacy of the meditation techniques to change people directly contradict many of the claims made by his father and his father's direct claims about his own divinity are probably now embarassing.

Shri Hans wanted his "Knowledge" to be proselytised in the West. He was naive enough to have letters sent to President John F. Kennedy and Bertrand Russell. He was certainly assertive to the point of megalomania in his claims as can be seen in his writings. He proclaimed that using his methods of meditation and under his guidance world peace could be achieved but "it is absolutely necessary that the politicians of the world be counselled and if necessary obliged to realise Divine Light by personal contacts with living Realised Soul and then the humanity will be saved from ruination without much efforts."

Hans was very forthright in promoting himself as the unique Divine Being of His time. The major source of teachings, doctrines, etc of Prem Rawat's father are his speeches that have been translated into English and were published in official magazines of Divine Light Mission in the 1970's. These are mainly extemperaneous and are very repetitious to an English reader. Some of his speeches (or "satsangs")are published on this site, including:

A series of his satsangs were published on the Manav Dharam website in 2007, They are reasonably short and possibly edited to nearly identical lengths.

On July 19th, 1966 Shri Hans Ji Maharaj died at the age of 66.

Hans Rawat was certainly not a shy person nor a dull dresser. He dressed as Krishna (as his son does in private) and in his later years was up and dancing and singing on stage at the drop of a mala. Hans Rawat Dresses Up

Video Clips of Shri Hans

These clips are from Elan Vital videos and come with commentary promoting the youngest son, Prem Rawat. No doubt, the eldest son, Satpal Rawat, has similar commentary in his videos, as he stresses his inheritance through his father and mother, though they would be in Hindi.

"... his own father. Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, who was of Royal Indian descent, formerly conveyed this message throughout India."

  

"Maharaji does not teach a religion, dogma or doctrine nor is he the first person to impart this message. Many people have done so before him including his own father. Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, who was of Royal Indian descent, formerly conveyed this message throughout India."

  
"Maharaji does not teach a religion, dogma or doctrine nor is he the first person to impart this message. Many people have done so before him including his own father. Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, who was of Royal Indian descent, formerly conveyed this message throughout India. Taking the initiative of travelling to his audiences Shri Hans Ji Maharaj was able to reach people who could not come to him."  

By the 1990's Prem Rawat had begun to reminisce about his childhood. He claimed that he was the one who attracted the crowds for his father, His Royal Highness Param Hans Ji Maharaj, whose organisation apparently couldn't raise a crowd advertising their "Perfect Master".

"I've been doing it since I was very young. My father, Shri Maharaji, he would have events, they would advertise them and they would do the whole thing and the time for the event would be coming and I would look out the window and see how many people were there and many times there was nobody there so I'd go out there and I'd start speaking and when I would start speaking they'd see this little bitty thing there speaking and they'd all start coming and when the hall was full my father would come and he would talk. It's not something I went to school for, it's a gift too, it's a gift that I can show you how to catch that magic when it happens."  

"Maharaji was born in Hardwar, India, in 1957. By the age of 6 he'd already begun speaking to the large crowds that would gather to hear his father. When his father passed away Maharaji became the sole person to make this message available though he was only 8 years old. He continued to speak to large audiences thoughout India throughout his childhood. When he was just 13, Maharaji was invited to speak in London and Los Angeles."

  

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