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.
Critics of Prem Rawat claim that this Knowledge cannot be the true Knowledge or even a halfway true Knowledge because none of his followers have become "realised", "enlightened"
or "liberated". Even those followers who have spent over 30 years meditating appear to be quite normal ageing "baby boomers" in their 50's and they cannot spend years meditating in an ice cave in
Tibet, cannot exist on breath alone, cannot control their minds and do not appear abnormally youthful, healthy, wise or even thin. Anyone who was part of Prem Rawat's followers for any length of time
also knows that his students have a greater than average incidence of divorce, depression and general dysfunction.
The small minority of premies who have remained devoted to Rawat long enough to age from "premies" to "students" do have one thing in common, a surprisingly strong and apparently unwarranted devotion
to Prem Rawat and a belief in his super competence and power to which they attribute everything good in their lives. We can see from the testimony of Linda Pascotto and
Sandy Collier in these clips from the Elan Vital Passages video of 2001 that this devotion was not based on the experience of years of meditation and practise of this "Knowledge".
"I tell you one thing, the interaction with Maharaji was the magic ingredient and it was so plentiful, it was just, just so available."
Joan Apter (Joan Apter was one of Rawat's first Western devotees and was an extremely disturbed young woman. |
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"I can, I can look at my life and say My life has been absolutely fantastic.
The, umm, I cannot think of any way that it could of been better. It's just, you know, that's not to say there haven't been problems or difficulties."
Ron Geaves
Professor Ron Geaves has a problem with logic: "it couldn't have been better" cannot be true if "there were problems and difficulties". He was one of
Rawat's first Western devotees. |
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"From the very beginning, listening to him, captured my heart."
Linda Pascotto, President of The Prem Rawat Foundation |
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"When I first received Knowledge I was told that I needed to practise an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and
it seemed so unrealistic. I would sit down to practise and after 20 minutes I was just ... that's about all I could do and I didn't try
hard enough you know I just kinda let it slide ..."
Even some of his closest devotees such as Ms Linda Pascotto, President of the Prem Rawat
Foundation were unable to practise meditation properly, if at all, no matter how "inspiring" Prem Rawat was, until 1987 when the required daily meditation time was cut from 2 hours a day to one
hour giving her and doubtless many others a glimmer of hope that she would be able to begin to manage at least the minimum meditation. |
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"Maharaji has brought to me, personally, a sense of extreme peace and just, contentment."
The peace and contentment she claims Rawat gave her certainly didn't come from meditation as she has said that she didn't even meditate properly for nearly 20 years either because 2 hours a day
"seemed so unrealistic." |
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"It's vital I think the relationship between the Master and the student is so vital, er that
connection, that mutual feeling and um I felt that from really the very first."
Sandy Collier (Sandy Collier was one of the first Westerners to become a devotee of Prem Rawat)
What relationship? Rawat knows only a handful of his followers and has no personal contact with the overwhelming majority of his followers who only see him sitting on a stage for an hour or so a
few times a year. Unless Rawat is God the so-called "relationship" is totally imaginary. |
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"To me it's like an incredible love story, you know, this life. To discover, you know, who He
is."
Janet Wallace
I think Ms Wallace is trying to say that he's the Perfect Master, the Satguru, God Incarnate. A nod is as good as a wink. |
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"For me, he gave me love. He gave me trust. He gave me Knowledge. He gave me care. He gave me his
kindness. How, without him, I can't imagine myself where I would be. In which street in the world, doing what? God knows."
Sampuranand
An astonishing thing to say considering Sampuranand was already an adult renunciate monk when the young Rawat was born and had learnt the
so-called Knowledge from Rawat's father and was presumably practising it. How does a person "give love, trust, Knowledge" unless he is God?" |
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"For a long time, for many, many years I felt I didn't love Maharaji and I was upset that I
didn't love him because everybody else was saying "Oh we love you Maharaji." I respected him, I acknowledge him as my Master, I'd do anything for him but I didn't have that feeling of love but now I
find that feeling of love is there, I love him very strongly as if it's been there forever but I know I remember the times when I was upset with myself for not loving him."
Glen Whittaker (Glen Whittaker has been one of Rawat's most senior English managers since the early 1970's.) |
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"His innner life is to do with the love that is generated between the people who've recognised him and who do love him and his love for them, one heart to each
other. The dance that is going on, the eternal dance, really, between the Master and the student.
Rawat cannot love those "people who've recognised him" as he only knows a handful of them, unless he is God. It is obvious that Whittaker believes Rawat is God. Who else can have an eternal dance? |
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"For all of my life I've been this feeling that he's with me at every step in this journey."
Charanand
That is a remarkable statement considering Charanand is a lot older than Prem Rawat and was already a renunciate monk, taking steps in this
journey, when Rawat was proclaimed as the Satguru. Of course, he believes that Rawat truly is the Perfect Master and that the Power of God incarnated into the young Prem Rawat and out of his father's body when Rawat's father died. |
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"I mean experiences that aargh you know where we just feel completely one um .... Things like that we
can't share."
Joan Apter (Joan Apter was one of Rawat's first Western devotees and was an extremely disturbed young woman.
But she has just shared it ... |
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... and I still feel that. He's a Perfect, but to me he's Master, Perfect Master but he
still hasn't given me a satisfactory way of thanking him.
Bobby Hendry, Prem Rawat's cook |
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"Deep inside if I just see him and I'm going "Thank you, Maharaji." To me it's, it's the icing on the cake. To be able, you know, to be able to do that, to to look
at this person. Thank you. If you were not on this planet, I don't know, I mean really, it's as serious as that. If that guy was
not on this planet, I don't even know."
George Blodwell |
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To me what he's achieved is in here, this gratitude and that, that's the greatest thing isn't it?
John Hampton (John Hampton was one of Rawat's closest disciples. He was an ex-soldier, a chauffeur for Rawat
and an initiator)
No, it's not the greatest thing, it's not even close, it's no big deal, belief in any charlatan guru will do 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.
