Now I am here in Tokyo to tell you about this Knowledge, to preach you about this Knowledge. Lord Buddha even taught 4 Noble Truths, Lord Krishna talks about this Word in Gita and when we go into Bible John talks about this Word, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Élan Vital and Prem Rawat in the Late 1990s
Maharaji began the '90s still mopping up the mess from the DLM apocalypse with numerous part-time instructors (formerly initiators -> mahatmas) involved in the many "Rejoice" events that were used to re-educate the premies who had remained loyal despite and after the premie apocalypse. He began to micro-manage the process of 'propagation,' to oversee the entire process and conduct the Knowledge sessions personally. His 1990s speeches bear little or no resemblance to his early 1970s quaint, little Indian-boy-guru homilies or his later 70s bombastic Guru Maharaj Ji Megalomania. There were no more :
"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!"
His speeches full of his repetitious shtick using his new vocabulary: appreciation, compassion, dignity, heart, feeling, fulfil, fulfilment, fulfilled, gift, gratitude, joy, longing, magic, thirst, ultimate, virtue. Then there are bad words: definition, dogma, logic, philosophy, pride. He seems to think that he is daring and shocking by reiterating that death is the final solution for all lives and there is no proof of reincarnation. There is much ado about nothing and nothing at the heart of his message. It was as if he had become a vegetarian, there was no meat on the plate of wilting spinach.
He spent a lot of time "fine-tuning" his cohort of part-time instructors, hiring and firing with gay abandon and getting together in many conference. It wasn't very efficient but he enjoyed the worship.
He was searching for a way to attract new converts and keep them but his hands were tied by what he had to offer and the market was getting more competitive each year. The process of preparing new people to be instructed in the techniques of meditation became longer and longer as people had to demonstrate their "thirst" by regularly watching videos of his speeches and becoming involved in Elan Vital activities. There was no shortage of speech videos as his major activity was flying around to different countries in which there was a large enough paying audience in a personal jet, staying in luxurious accomodation that had been cleaned by devotees using toothbrushes before his arrival and speaking for 40 minutes or so to an enraptured if lethargic crowd. Every speech was professionally filmed and recorded but were rarely printed any longer. Their emptiness was obvious on paper. In the power of these videos did Maharaji trust and PWKs were not to add their personal contribution. It wasn't a request, it was an order.
By 1997 the word 'premies' had been replaced with the phrase "People with Knowledge" or PWKs for short. This also meant others were known as PIRKs "people interested in receiving knowledge" though this eventually returned to 'aspirants'. In 1998 aspirants were required to watch videos of Maharaji's speeches for 5 months before receiving Knowledge and it was still called "receiving Knowledge."
By 2000 there were up to 7 designations in an ascending scale of audiences for videos of Prem Rawat's speeches that could be seen by different categories of people..
Type:
- INTRO = Introductory - open for anyone
- LM = Learning More - for people who had shown some interest
- PFK = Preparing for Knowledge - for people who were wanting to "receive Knowledge" and demonstrating "thirst"
- PWK/PFK = People with Knowledge & People Preparing for Knowledge - soft core Prem porn
- PWK = People with Knowledge - hardcore Prem porn - for PWK's eyes only
- AA - ??
It became apparent that quoting Prem Rawat could be hazardous as quotes from his speeches could be found to say nearly anything and everything so requests were made on First Class for an authorised list of quotes available for public use be compiled. It became apparent that in fact, spome quotes suitable for the hardened ears of 30-year pwks could be misunderstood by the naive and tender ears of a first-timer, an unsuspecting gues of pwks or an aspirant. So the list was separated into the appropriate categories. The first list I have is one I found I my PC which my ex-wife used to use when handling the business of a local contact, which she was for about 6 or 7 years around 2000. The other is one from another Elan Vital source in the USA or Europe.
Elan Vital guidelines and Maharaji's direct message ordered that people with Knowledge (PWKS) doing service at public events or merely chatting in private should never:
- Repeat, clarify, interpret or add anything to Maharaji's message
- Be a salesperson; coach or encourage anyone Maharaji and the Knowledge
- Solicit and/or answer questions from the audience or anyone present avout Maharaji and the Knowledge
- Use examples, stories, personal statements or humor in relation to Maharaji and the Knowledge
- Overload the audience or anyone present with too much information about Maharaji and the Knowledge
- Do not directly answer questions regarding Maharaji's message, such as, "What is thirst?", "What does he mean by Knowledge?". Direct them to continue to listen to Maharaji
Prem Rawat instructed in 2001 that, senior followers should set up 'Knowledge Introduction Steering Committees', which were to be charged with the design of 'Knowledge Introduction Plans'. These 'KI Plans' were to be the basis for 'Knowledge Introduction Trainings' where Rawat's followers were to practice face to face sales techniques in advance of telling their friends and work colleagues about the experience of 'Knowledge'.
In February 2000, there were rumours posted on the ex-Premie Forum (then called Forum V) that Maharaji had said:
The speaker recently met with a small group of people and expressed that he was not prepared to move forward until he has a passionate and reliable vehicle to support him. He does not feel he has this at present and this is moving towards a very dire situation.'
It might not be what you want to hear but this is right out of the Captain's mouth. He also asked you premies to undertake a 'severe and sincere cleanup' and do it with the 'utmost seriousness' or else expect some 'dire' consequences.
In fact, the minutes of the Key Service Personnel Meeting on the 1st March 2000 of the Gold Coast (Australia) local community, recorded this:
Aus Cleanup: A. presented the background to this. Everyone is comfortable operating in the various key roles and with the personal assessment processes that have been taking place. As part of the group of people working with specific support structures that have been in place for some time (see guidelines, protocols, action plan) and that have proven to be very effective, we agreed to proceed as we had planned. There has not been the need for major change, regrouping or stepping back.
A. was the Local Community Contact person. Unfortunately they did not record what she had been told, probably via the First Class communiation system.
In February 2003 Maharaji decided that the term 'Self-Knowledge' which had been in use for x years and was part of the name of Elan Vital in England - "Human Development Through Self_Knowledge" - was no longer appropriate as it put Elan Vital into the "spiritual group" category on many peoples' ears, at last at first hearing. Later on, people realize it is a con. Fifteen (??) years later Maharaji, then usually calling himself Prem Rawat, brought the term back in a limited way.
available Elan Vital documentation circa 2000