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.

Receiving Knowledge

This video contains some footage of Prem Rawat in a "Pre-Knowledge" session, speaking and answering some questions. It also contains interviews with some people before "receiving Knowledge" (aspirants), directly after "receiving Knowledge" and up to a year later. His concept of religion is exceedingly shallow and doesn't seem to have matured since he was 11 years old and proclaimed that "People think God is a man. I do not know whether he is demeaning the experience of people whose religion doesn't include him as the divinity through ignorance or as a tool of propaganda. I don't know what to think about his answer to the question if people without Knowledge can be happy.

It is very easy to take Knowledge and to take what I am doing and put it on the parallel tracks of religion but this is about as far from religion as it gets. Because religion is a discipline so that after you die you go to heaven. You do all, you do everything right, then you got the Indian heaven, you got a Chinese heaven, you got you know this heaven, you got that heaven, busy place."

  

"I'm not saying that those people who don't have Knowledge are gonna go to hell." "But can they be happy?" (voice from audience) "Huh?" "Can they be happy?" (voice from audience) "Can they be happy? Without going to hell? Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Um. Uh uh."

Since 1988, Maharaji has given knowledge to more than 140,000 people.

The breakdown of figures based upon known percentage for a year during this period would be 130,000 in India, 9,970 everywhere else in the world for a period of at least a decade. Not very impressive.

But nobody is "given" anything by Rawat. Rawat claims that by using his special meditation techniques, that only work if taught by himelf or his appointed agents,






























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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.