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.
There has been considerable disagreement about Prem Rawat's ideas about himself. While not even his most rabid apologists deny his followers proclaimed him to be the "Guru Maharaj ji", the "Perfect Master", the "Lord of the Universe", the Satguru, the Avatar or Incarnation of God they claim he, himself, did not have these Indian "concepts" about himself. Certainly, there were times when Rawat spoke of himself with humility, or at least evasion, especially when being interviewd by the Western media. Though it is difficult to find any film or video documentation of Rawat's speeches from the 1970's I have collected a small group of video clips, sorted through time, to show how Prem Rawat has spoken about himself being the Master. The words have changed but the reality remains the same.
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"The Knowledge is everywhere, the God is everywhere. We have to only discover the God. I won't make a God for you and show you the God. Everybody wants perfect peace. A man who wants to realise that Holy Name, he will have to need a teacher for it, otherwise he can't hear it. To see your personal face, your personal face is with but can you see it? The God is within you but until you have the mirror of practical knowledge you can't see it, you won't be able to see it. When God is within you, how can you find it outside? It is within you and you have to get your mind, your ideas that are going outside and if we just control them and out them inside that's ???. The importance of the Knowledge is for everyone and I've come to bestow the Knowledge in London and if you want it I can give you because it is within yourself. I will only show the mirror and you can see the .. thing. I am going to ... all these persons ....?" |
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"Peace in this world has become very strange for people. Peace in this universe has become a antique. And if we want to today receive and achieve this point of peace we have to go to him who is known as Perfect Master. Now why do they call me Perfect Master? See, if someone teaches you Maths, if someone teaches you English, if someone teaches you Science, you call him Maths Master, English Master, Science Master, respectively. Same way I can teach people peace. Uh now, again I tell this to people that I'm not prophet, I'm not a prophet. I'm just an ordinary human being with two legs, two eyes, and I work and I voluntary put myself here so that I can reveal this Knowledge to people. I think because people need it, people have forgotten what this Knowledge is and I'm just teaching them perfectness and that's why they call me Perfect Master." |
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Q: "You're described as the bringer of Peace to the world. Now, how are you going to do that?" A: "Well I think I'm doing that right now." |
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"And this Knowledge is so Holy, so Perfect that one spark that comes out of this Knowledge is so perfect, so, so perfect, wherever it goes it hits, it makes it perfect and wherever it goes, again hits, it makes it perfect. Wherever just one spark of this Knowledge shines up, absolutely perfect. So that Knowledge I'm, I've got it here." |
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"The purpose of this mission, the aim of this mission is to establish peace in this earth and we want that we should be helped by all brothers and sisters because if we are humans, if we are real humans, we would very much like that peace should be on this earth. And thus we would like to help somebody who can establish peace. Well, here I am and I can I say I can establish peace in this world." |
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"I'm trying to accomplish peace in this world. That's what I'm trying to do." |
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"Because whatever Jesus taught to his disciples has not disappeared, it's still there. Because that time if those people staying alive is because of the same Knowledge and if this time people are going to stay alive it's because of the same Knowledge. You're alive because of that same Knowledge." |
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"Guru Maharaj Ji is that Supreme Power. |
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"Guru Maharaj Ji comes again and again and says 'Wait, there's nothing here! Let's go. Let's go my place. Let's go to my world. Where you can live, you can really live, where you can really experience, where you can be away from doubt.'" |
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"Because Guru Maharaj Ji can show that to us now in this lifetime while we are still alive. Guru Maharaj Ji can give us that love, Guru Maharaj Ji can give us that realisation now. We have to just let go to Guru Maharaj Ji, give ourselves to Guru Maharaj Ji, not in a theory, not in a song, not in an Arti that we sing every night. I give you my heart, for in you it will mellow, Maharaji my Lord, my life is your play. I mean those are pretty heavy duty statements, you know. You are my mother, you are my father. What, what, what are we saying? And yet do we even have an essence of meaning to it? What we sing is right, it's true, it is an expression of a devotee. This is what a devotee would understand of his Guru Maharaj Ji. That you are my all, he doesn't have to go into specifics about your brother, sister, mother, father, cousin, uncle, aunt. And yet in a very humble and beautiful way we are trying to express that you are my all, every relations, you are my all, you are above and beyond. You know, and really the whole essence of prayer is let me really give myself to you, (the song "Always There" joins in the soundtrack) let me surrender to you, you have come singing the glories of Guru Maharaj Ji is what Arti is all about. Oh Guru Maharaj Ji you are my father, you are my mother, you are friend. I see you in those respect, you need to teach me a lesson, you need to give me the fathering, you need to give me that mothering, you need to give me that support and yet you are my all, my Lord to me." |
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"If you have a Perfect Master you can't do anything but worship him every day of your life. You tell me, if you really have that Perfect Master in your life, what can you do except to worship him every day? Get up and worship him, pray, know, surrender. Every day of your life!" |
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"To experience an experience that Guru Maharaj Ji wants to give us. You know it's very easy to get spaced out in this world. It's very easy to get lost in this world and it's very easy to forget there is somebody called a Saviour. And yet that's our greatest mistake, we forget. We forget that yes we can be helped, yes that we can be saved, yes that we do need to be saved We all really, really, really, really need to be saved. And without being saved in this world where are we going to be?"" |
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"Because the precious gift we have been given is incredible. It is upon which the universe is existent. It is upon which this entire human life depends on. It is what sustains us. It is what is everywhere. It is life, it is energy in the purest form, it is the real you and me. It is the Creator, it is what the moon dances on. It is what makes the sun shine. It is the essence of this entire existence wherever that existence is." |
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"To get on my hands and knees and to beg, it feels so good. (shouting) It feels so good to beg. You know why. Because when we do get on our hands and knees we realise we had never for anything to give to anybody anyway. Born beggar. To beg the Ultimate One in our heart. To beg that Emperor for that solution in our heart. The most majestical thing that happens to a human being or can ever happen to a human being. To open myself up, me, to beg Him, a moment between me and the Ultimate Being. A moment for me to have with that Ultimate Thing, a personal audience (shouting) and I know that when I beg the Emperor is listening to me. (shouting) In this whole world the Creator of billions and billions and billions of souls is listening to me. The Sustainer, the Generator the Destroyer of this entire (long pause) thing, not just the world, above and beyond by His Grace I have captured a moment between me and Him and nothing stands in our way. It is complete, it is the Ultimate, it ie real and when I become like that in my heart then that Gift is given to me (shouting) a Gift which ia a part of Him, a Gift that's His, Him, He doesn't just give a third thing, He gives Himself." |
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"Besides all the little other factors a human being is really fortunate because he can attain all this, (shouting) a Saviour comes for him." |
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"Through all of this travel, through all the things I have seen. Knowledge is the best thing happening and I can say that with absolutely no doubt in my mind. It is incredible." |
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"Knowledge stays the same, the holy curiosity and curiosity is holy, stays the same, the desire to want to know stays the same and when that fulfillment happens in one's life the joy of that fulfillment stays the same but we change, our attitudes change, the way we look at things changes and what that Master does, amazingly enough that it takes that thing, that experience, that Knowledge and makes it real, tangible, comprehendible to the people of his time so that they may experience that as if the same thing was being experienced by any other generation and therefore Knowledge is kept alive and not thrown in the doctrine, not thrown in the dogma but is kept totally awakened, alive and separated by that teacher. When that teacher is not there it immediately firms and becomes a dogma and a doctrine. When the teacher comes back he takes it back out of dogma and doctrine and makes it a living experience for the living people and that's what it's all about." (Heartfelt, awed applause from the "students" of Prem Rawat) |
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"What is it all about? There is a person, there is a Master, who makes Knowledge available. There it is. That's the beginning and the end of it." |
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"Knowledge and all things associated with it are compliments of the Master. The Master doesn't want Knowledge sessions to happen, guess what? They're not happening. The Master changes the rules, creates the rules, disposes of these rules as the Master wishes. The possibility of Knowledge is brought to you by the compliments of your friendly Master." |
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"But the key frame here, compliments, Master says yes this is OK to do. You may talk about Knowledge, you may not talk about Knowledge." |
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"If you're borrowing your neighbour's car, the neighbour says, "Yes you may drive it" but one day the neighbour may say "No you may not drive it, I want my car back." You have to realize ownership of Knowledge resides with the Master. Hearing about Knowledge is a privilege." |
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"So we cannot afford to perpetuate any concepts. Knowledge works, look you mean, let's face it, Knowledge works. The Master when given that right environment does his thing and it's great. It all works. Whatever we forge for the future we have to remember where we came from and we have to remember most importantly how incredibly dangerous, incredibly dangerous this stuff is. Shooting your mouth off is not innocent by any stretch of the imagination." |
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"Also remembering, also remembering that it is the Master that needs to be connected to this person, right? and the Master's message that needs to be connected to this person, how much of yourself do you interject in that. |
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"Master will give you an opportunity to do something and provide you more support than you can possibly imagine to accomplish it." |
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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.