Prem Rawat's Teachings about Ashrams - In His Own Words

An ashram was a communal house populated by a group of Prem Rawat's (Maharaji or Guru Maharaj Ji) followers who had taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, similar to a co-ed monastery or convent. All money was pooled, the minimum required to sustain life was spent and the rest was divided, some passed on to Divine Light Mission administrators and some sent directly to Prem Rawat to support his luxurious lifestyle.

The ashrams provided the personnel required to organise divine light Mission activities and the finances to support those organisers. The ashram premies also provided the inspirational core of the nightly satsang meetings that was the main source of proselytisation for new members and the inspiration for the current members to maintain interest and continue to meditate, to do service (ie volunteer labour) and financial support of Rawat and the Mission. Up to the very time (circa 1982/83) the ashrams were summarily closed, Rawat continued to preach the necessity of the ashrams and that he wanted his most devoted, obedient followers to live in them.

Phoenix, Arizona, January 21, 1974 *But the premies who are working* in ashram, who are living in ashram, for them the thing is that, look: you have to understand.** You have to take the right decision. Because the opportunity of service you are getting now, you will not get it later. If you leave it now, then it's going to be like you are progressing, you are just completely progressing, and then you drop down. Because then you are looking for something else which is completely external. And then one day it's going to die out and then again you would like to come back and be in the ashram and do service! You understand? Because, it's much better, you know, for a man to be completely, like, in a whole circumstance where he can get satsang all the time and be able to do service all the time. Élan Vital, Autumn 1977, Volume I, Issue 1
Phoenix, Arizona, January 21, 1974 People sometimes come to talk to me. There was a reporter who came to see me in Lucknow. He was saying, "Look this Knowledge exists, people need to realize it, and you can reveal it. So why don't you just go ahead and reveal it to them?" When he said this, a thought came to me. If this man had been living in those ages when a person had to serve in an ashram for 25 years before he received Knowledge, when without even having received Knowledge a person had to accept "this is my Perfect Master," and he had to prostrate and work like a dog ... if this man had been alive in those days, I wonder what would have happened to him. Now, in this age, it has been made so easy for him to receive Knowledge, and still he says, "Why don't you just go ahead and reveal Knowledge to people?" And It is Divine, Volume III, Issue 4
Atlantic City Conference, December 20, 1976 Q: Guru Maharaj Ji, could you give me … us … a really simple definition of ashram? Please? GMJ: I did - intensive care. Ashram is a shelter - provided by Guru Maharaj Ji, unto which we can come, unto which Guru Maharaj Ji can really work at us, really operate at us, really ... because he is the surgeon, and he knows what's wrong. And it's just like, just like, we get hit by a disease, and we start to receive medication - which is good, which is Knowledge - and we start to receive medication for it, but what we need is an intensive care because our situation deteriorates so fast that for a recovery we need - just for a recovery, from the disease - we need a place to be at, where we can, we can be restored. And so Guru Maharaj Ji, this is how Guru Maharaj Ji works, this is like Guru Maharaj Ji's hospital, y'know? But if you look at it from the angle of that this life is really to, to understand Knowledge, is really to understand that experience, then ashram really makes a lot of sense. Then ashram is really required, it's really needed. Well, first of all we need a backbone. And the backbone is - ashram for people who want to be there always. That's what we have to do. To me, that is the way I forsee it. For the premies who want to move there for the lifetime - that's the first priority, and that's the first - ashram There's a lot of, there's a lot of people who drink bhang, in India. And I know them, you know? It's just like bhang - y'know, everybody used to drink bhang in ashram. In India. And all of a sudden they would get just ... the eye would, the eyes would be glowing red, and you couldn't even talk to them. Y'know, they would be just ... somewhere else, in their own little world, y'know, diving in some cove or something. And you walk right past by them and say: "Listen. You know what's happening?" Y'know? And people would just sit there and go to sleep, or do this. And it's just like - there's a Knowledge - see, this is Knowledge that's been revealed to us, this has been given to us - it's more fantastic. Whatever can we ever substitute it for? Why don't we do that, why don't we understand that, why don't we progress in that part? Y'know? Because I know that a person who is stoned cannot really do meditation. For all the (?) every time he sits down for it he'll fall off. When you ... that's when ... all your horses go wild. And that's the way it is. Because it's just like ... there's no control over anything. And I've seen that, I've seen that. Atlantic City Conference Audio Tape

San Francisco, California, February 10 1979
Oh sure! I am saying that if you - if there is a necessity of some people to move into an ashram, then they should move into an ashram. And secondly, if they are into an ashram, then they are there for a definite purpose and they should not leave the ashram until that definite purpose is completed. That is my statement towards people leaving the ashram.
Divine Times, July/August 1979, Page 10

Guru Puja Festival, Miami Beach, Florida, July 19 1979
Sometimes people even say, "And I moved out of the ashram, and it was so much Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace that he made me understand that I shouldn't have walked out of the ashram in the first place." That's not Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. What inspired you to move out is Mr. M-i-n-d. And that's it. Period
Élan Vital, Winter 1979, Volume III, Issue 4

Hans Jayanti, Kissimmee, Florida, Evening November 8, 1979
Mind lulls us away into this "everything" that looks so beautiful, that looks so incredible. Mind lulls us away into something, but everything's here, like that example, that story of this premie who came to Guru Maharaj Ji's ashram to dedicate his life. You might say he did dedicate his life. He moved into Guru Maharaj Ji's ashram and stayed there and he would do service every day. One day he decided he wanted to go off and get married. And to me it's so real; Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, saving us every moment. He went off to be married. ... "There is a letter from Guru Maharaj Ji." ... What it said is you came into this world to surrender to me, to completely focus yourself on me, to completely let go to me. And now you are wearing this whole costume of a bridegroom, and are going to get entrapped into this world. You came to get away from this world and now you're going right back into this world. You came from that place of misery to an incredible satisfaction and now you're going back to misery. And I guess it really did him in. It was "the right place at the right time," plus a lot of Grace from Guru Maharaj Ji. He really realized. He took his horse and headed right to the ashram. And he went there and then he really realized, he really could see.
Élan Vital, Spring 1980, Volume IV, Issue 1

Holi festival, Miami, Florida, 1980
Which Perfect Master hasn't come yet and has fought religion? Every Perfect Master that comes in this world, the first thing he has to do, is he's got all this, all this work cut out for Him, you know, He's gotta save the people, he's gotta find His devotees, He's gotta give them Knowledge, you know, and, and take care of His confused premies, not so confused premies, you know, keep tabs on propagation, give satsang to the people who want Knowledge, you know, and, and keep and besides having all that work cut out for Him, He's gotta somehow fight religion, every Perfect Master has fought religion.
I really want to see propagation happening and that's something that everyone of you gotta get into is propagation, that's what we all gotta do is propagation. Not sit there and have donuts and coffee every morning. Some mornings, get out there, have some satsang, you know and you know get those communities together so people can come and people can hear satsang and and and and you know there can be a place where there can be those ashrams, can be a place where there can be those, don't go out and get a hall, you know, buy a hall. No, get some propagation going so you use the hall, then you can rent a hall, you know or whatever it takes to get a hall, whatever it takes. But I'd really like to see some propagation happening. America has been a little sleepy, believe it or not, America has been sleepy. Ha ha, stars and stripes, stripes are getting a little squiggly and stars are doing a thing a little bit, but you guys gotta wake up, you know, start that propagation and when that's you gotta carry Guru Maharaj Ji's word for it. That's, that's one of the things a devotee does, believe it or not.
Holi 1980 video

Rome, Italy, 25th June 1980
"Someday, with Guru Maharaj Ji's grace, there'll be ashram everywhere is what because I just, you know, just see that there has to be a necessity for an ashram, it isn't just like, hah, that's a good plot, nobody lives in it, how about opening up an ashram? You know. But a necessity, yes there is something to back the ashram up and yes that there is something happening in that area that the ashram can back it up. Then I can see that, yes, there will be it. A good reason, you know."

Within 2 or 3 years Rawat ordered all the ashrams closed.

Rome 1980 Ashram Satsang video

"Bhang" is a Hindi word for various intoxicating narcotics derived from the plant cannabis sattiva. (OED) The word is commonly used to describe a beverage laced with hashish (cannabis resin), such as "Bhang lassi", a drink of watered-down yoghurt laced with the drug).

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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.