The Myth of Maharaji's Meditation

Prem Rawat, aka Maharaji, claims to be able to teach students the potential they have to feel peace and fulfilment by enjoying and appreciating life to the fullest through a practical pathway, which he calls Knowledge consisting of four simple techniques for finding peace within. (Elan Vital)

These days, anyone hearing these claims would realise that they are probably meditation techniques as this is the promise often made by people recommending forms of meditation. He has said:

"In a way, it is the meditation. But it's not meditation because it's much beyond meditation. … It is appreciating something. Big difference."

Millions of meditators would disagree with Mr Rawat's definition and disparagement of their form of meditation. However, I will argue that meditation is not the major component, or in some cases even a minor component, of the practice of "Knowledge" that students of Rawat follow. My thesis is that Rawat is the head of a religion that uses the promise that he can reveal "secret" techniques of meditation that only he can empower as a bait to attract people into a process of indoctrination that convinces his "students" of their reliance on him for their happiness without any validation being required or delivered by meditation.

I make this claim on the basis of my 30 years' involvement with Prem Rawat and his organisations and many discussions with his followers. However, as others could argue that my evidence is not trustworthy as I believe Rawat is a charlatan I will use the first-person evidence of an impeccable source. Click here to see a movie of the testimony of a devoted follower of Prem Rawat for over 30 years whose inherited wealth has allowed her maximum time to devote to Prem Rawat's Knowledge and to Prem himself. Here are her words:

"From the very beginning, listening to him, he captured my heart."

"Maharaji has brought to me, personally, a sense of extreme peace, and just (pause) contentment"

"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 …"

She is Ms Linda Pascotto, President of the Prem Rawat Foundation.

So from the beginning of her hearing Rawat speak she became a "true believer" without even having been told the techniques of meditation and certainly without practising them. She then remained a committed follower for 15 years without ever having practised meditation properly (and so her concentration was undoubtedly poor). She goes on to relate that in 1987 at a series of events called 'Rejoice', Rawat reviewed the techniques of Knowledge with all the followers he could and lowered the recommended minimum time of two hours daily to a maximum of one hour daily. It has to be admitted that this was probably a unique moment in the history of human spiritual endeavour. She believed she might be able to practise consistently now that the bar had been lowered that far. Her case is certainly not unique and shows how many, if not most, followers of Prem Rawat were convinced of his central importance in their lives without meditation being tried or having any positive effect. They experience the normal effects of believing in any religion.

What she doesn't reveal is that in 1987 Rawat also made significant substantial changes to those techniques, the very techniques on which his father had based his whole 30 year career as an Indian guru and which were supposedly passed down from time immemorial through a line of empowered "Masters". Apparently all his followers had been practising the techniques incorrectly for decades but they hadn't realised that the meditation wasn't working. None of the followers questioned this publicly though it was probably the last straw for some.

Of course not all Rawat's followers are so undisciplined and some probably have been committed meditators which makes it even stranger that none of his "students" (as they are now called) have graduated even after 30 years. While they espouse a nebulous "inner peace" this has not been able to impress enough people to keep the organisation's numbers growing over the last 25 years. One would imagine that after 35 years' meditation Rawat's followers would attract large groups of aspirants if the meditation actually had any discernable effects. Elan Vital or The Prem Rawat Foundation could easily have the results of his "teachings" investigated by a reputable, independant research organisation but the confidence to allow this disappeared 30 years ago.

Before being initiated a person must vow not to reveal the techniques of Knowledge and students of Rawat believe that thay have no power if revealed by others or if the practitioner does not have Rawat's "inspiration". However there were probably a million Indian followers most of whom had been initiated in his father's time and after Rawat was disinherited and disowned by his mother for his drug taking and meat-eating in 1974 they continued on quite happily under the direction of Rawat's mother and eldest brother. There was no apparent diminution in the meditation's efficacy and they did not change their techniques in 1987 when Rawat altered his followers' methods. I believe the real reason the techniques are kept secret is that if they are revealed to a person without the prior internalisation of the Elan Vital doctrine without being in an atmosphere of heightened mystical and devotional feeling they would be considered ridiculous.

They basically consist of pressing your fingers onto your eyes while concentrating between the eyebrows (1st technique), closing your ears with your thumbs and listening to the internal sounds (2nd technique), concentrating on your breath (3rd technique) and turning your tongue backwards and past your uvula (the picture is of a person trying to demonstrate the tongue position) to taste the nectar of the Gods (4th technique).

According to the Rawat dogma, anybody learning these techniques from this document will gain no benefit from practising them unless they go through the Elan Vital aspirant process which currently consists of watching 70 strictly scheduled hours of his recorded speeches on DVDs before having them "revealed" by Rawat personally ie a DVD recording of him. In the world of Prem Rawat's Knowledge it is not the knowledge that is important but the fact that Prem Rawat is the source and has the power to provide an "experience" and this is the paradox inherent in the process. The meditation itself has no real importance because without the inspiration of Prem Rawat it will not give inner peace and fulfilment so as it is Prem Rawat himself, or Himself, that is the necessary catalyst, why is meditation required at all?

There is one documented, statistically meaningful effect of practising Rawat's Knowledge. The great majority of people who have been initiated in the last 35 years (outside of India where having a guru is part of the culture) have sooner or later become disillusioned and ceased practising and left Rawat's organisations. For the majority of people the practice of these meditation techniques appears to be self-correcting and Rawat may be better able to maintain his congregation by dropping the meditation completely and relying solely on the charismatic inspiration shown in the photo on the right.

Prem Rawat has repeated many times that his message is fundamentally different to all others as he can fulfil your thirst and not just talk about inner peace. The strangest paradox involved in this is the public insistence that Prem Rawat is just an ordinary human being when even a little thought would reveal that these techniques can only produce the remarkable and unique results claimed (but by no means demonstrated) if, in fact, Prem Rawat has divine or at least supernatural powers.