Prem Rawat and the Festinger Effect

Guru Maharaj Ji -> Maharaji -> Prem Rawat

The Maharaji Mystery

Rawat's initial success was a product of being acclaimed as the divine head of an Indian religious organisation with thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of followers at the very time that lots of doped-up, disllusioned young Westerners were looking for "the Truth" and knowledge of Indian religions in the West was very small. Interest was exploding among the leftover "beats", bohemians and the so-called youth "counter-culture." His failure to build on this initial bandwagon is easily explained by his scandalous behaviour, his lack of charisma and the paucity of inner experience his methods produce despite their pretence of blissful ecstacy.

Many of his passing parade of devotees have made great efforts and his organisation have spent enormous amounts of money to "propagate." The devotion of his long-term followers could be the paradigmatic case of the Festinger Effect: Rawat's long-term followers have become more convinced, not less, of their beliefs over 50 years as he has removed all the initial simplistic "Sant Mat" and doctrines, none of his claims for long-term permanent ecstatic bliss have been realised. Only their secret worship of Prem Rawat and their financial committments to Rawat differentiate them from their "baby boomer" peers.

Festinger's five conditions are:

There must be conviction
There must be commitment to this conviction
The conviction must be amenable to unequivocal disconfirmation
Such unequivocal disconfirmation must occur
Social support must be available subsequent to the disconfirmation.

The real mystery is not how Rawat seems to have accumulated so much money but exactly how wealthy is he. For over 50 years he has been the Divine Leader of a relatively small cult. Initially he was not only open about his Divinity but loudly proclaimed his position as Guru Maharaj Ji, the Lord of the Universe and similar titles but from the mid-1980s secretly. Many academics of religion seemed unable to see the difference between ordering your followers to stop openly worshipping you and telling them not to worship you. A few statements about not being God should not hold the same weight as continuing to act like he is God. During all this time his income has derived totally by donations or from investments made with income from donations. During this period his only relationship with 99% of the donaters is to make speeches that they can listen to, though in most cases they have to pay for this privilege. Those who are wealthy enough can pay for "Privileges" such as access to Rawat in person or at least to sit in the front rows at his speeches and attend his annual Amaroo springbreaks.

There is a more comprehensive discussion of the Festinger Effect Here