Spiritual Predator: Prem Rawat AKA MaharajiBy Henry See I think that everyone will agree that we live in a violent and troubled world. No matter which way we look, we don't see any real security be it for our jobs, our homes, our children, for the environment, and especially for those in the far reaches of the empire whose vulnerability is used shamelessly to maintain our standard of living by those who claim to represent us. When you come face to face with the fact that now, when we are said to be at the height of civilization, blessed with amazing technology, the fact that we are less secure than ever in our recorded history tells us that something is terribly, terribly wrong. If this picture seems too bleak, you haven't been paying attention. How did we get in this situation? Because of lies. We are lied to by our governments and leaders, by our schools, by our families and our friends. While some of these lies are conscious, others are the mere repetition of lies passed down from others, lies that everyone accepts and believes simply because everyone else appears to accept and believe them. But a lie is a lie, and they are no less dangerous for being unconscious or accepted out of naiveté or trust in the wrong person. It is difficult to maintain a level head and an untroubled heart in such a world. Our dire situation speaks to us deeply and indirectly through the gap – truly a chasm - that separates what we are taught to believe is best and most noble in Man, and what we see, live, and experience in real life, be it at work, in the home or in what is forced on our sense by the media. Most of us know that something is very, very wrong. But, what to do? The infection of lies and deceptions propagated by those who wish to climb to the top or stay there has seeped into the most intimate corners of our lives, beginning in infancy and childhood when we enter the world and discover that those who are supposed to be our caregivers are already infected by the disease. From alcoholism to various forms of psychological abuse; from psychopathy to covert forms of narcissism; our basic modes of thinking and living are the stuff of a pernicious disease that keeps us separated from our true selves. We learn to lose ourselves in the needs and demands of those who are infected, defining our self-worth through the eyes of first our parents, then our peers, and finally, our society – all of them often damaged more than they know, and certainly more than any infant or child can know. But we do know, on some level, that our most basic needs for honesty and true caring are not being met. And so some of us begin what may be a lifelong quest in search of the answers, a search that can only lead us back to ourselves and the ancient adage "Know Thyself". But knowledge of self, if it is not matched by knowledge of the world "out there", feeds a subjective vision and interpretation of the world, limited by our experiences, our routines, our illusions, our prejudices, and our social conditioning. To escape, to find the way out from this sea of suffering, one needs to see the world as it is, without any blinders. Unfortunately, knowing that certain members of the flock will always attempt an escape, those at the top who benefit from our ignorance, the evil shepherds, knowledge of whom forms part of this necessary knowledge of "out there", have erected many fences that must each be broken through on the way out. We are caught in a labyrinth, where paths that appear to lead towards the exit will double back at the last moment and leave us even more deeply entrapped; where teachers who claim to know the way out will leave us even more lost in illusion because we think we are seeing clearly when all we see is our own subjectivity enshrined as Truth. Some of these teachers are sincere, being themselves deluded. Others are truly spiritual predators feeding off of the thirst for truth and knowledge of their followers. Whether sincere or conscious predators, they serve the same purpose, keeping the flock hypnotised and imprisoned. The specific traps we will analyse here are: 1) that of Inner Peace, the belief that all that is necessary is to find a quiet spot inside from which to get the strength necessary to confront the sufferings of the world; 2) the notion that we need to live in the Present, that this moment is the only moment, and we must take full advantage of it; 3) the idea that Knowledge comes uniquely through the Heart, that it is an emotional certitude, a killing of doubt. This pernicious idea of Inner Peace as presented by many teachers ensures that people who have started to ask questions, who are drained by the horrors and suffering of the world, and of their own lives, will continue to feed those predators around them by developing an ability to tap into a hidden source of energy or bliss. A fixation on the Present – in the particular context of limitation to "right now" - blinds us to our past experience and the application of our lessons to the current moment and the consequences in the future. Knowledge defined as emotional certitude, freezes us in ourselves, locking us away from those people who may be able to see us more clearly than we can see ourselves, thereby closing off any hope of escape. Any or all of these teachings can be accompanied by techniques designed to produce an altered state in the seeker, a state of altered consciousness that triggers certain neurochemicals that "feel like" bliss and this then serves to reinforce the idea that the teaching is "good" and "real", the end all and be all, and that the teacher is someone special for having provided the key. In the most dangerous cases, the guru or master is credited with "giving" this state to the devotee, creating a strong and sinister psychological link between the two, a link impervious to logic, reason, and clear thinking. We will use as an example that international jet setting guru – Prem Rawat - who calls himself Maharaji, a spiritual predator who has fed off of the innocence, ignorance and gullibility of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people for over thirty years, rewarding himself for his clever duplicity with a lavish lifestyle. But first, let us take a brief look at the objective state of things in our world to see what we are up against and to better understand, later, why these teachings are so dangerous. Needless to say, the following is not included in the teachings of Prem Rawat or other spiritual predators. The WorldThe goal of any esoteric work must be that of objectivity, first in our understanding of ourselves, and then, as our filters and programmes are dislodged, of the world. A true esoteric teaching will, therefore, not only focus on "Know Thyself", but will also provide knowledge about the reality of our reality. If one or the other of these aspects are missing from a teaching, then you can be certain that it is incomplete, and an incomplete teaching, even if through ignorance of the teacher, even if unconscious, is dangerous. Regular readers of this site will be aware that we focus on several issues that we think are the core to developing an objective picture of what is really going on in our world. The most important of these topics are: 1. Hyperdimensional realities: Our reality is embedded in a complex system of realities where we are not the ultimate of God's creations; we are not at the top of the food chain. Our reality is controlled by denizens of higher reality, and the forces at work in that reality are not all good. These are the wellspring of energy behind the evil shepherds referred to above. Gurdjieff refers to them in the story of the Evil Magician cited by Ouspensky in In Search of the Miraculous:
As an aside, it is also a very good illustration of the relationship of Maharaji's students vis a vis their "Master". 2. That all six billion people on the planet are not the same; there are fundamental differences that are genetic and esoteric. But these differences have nothing to do with those cited throughout history and used to justify the domination of one group over another: colour, culture, language, wealth or social status. The real differences, the fundamental differences upon which the secret history of the world is based, have to do with conscience. Whether we like to admit it or not, there are those who have no conscience, the psychopath, man's main predator, but a predator that looks exactly like its prey, the predators that move invisibly throughout society feeding off of the weak and ignorant. In the case of psychopaths, for too long we have all lived in ignorance because this oh, so clever predator has worked very hard to make sure that we are not even aware of his existence and his wiles and ways of attack. The second difference is between that group of humans we call organic portals and those humans who have the possibility of creating a permanent link with their real 'I', their higher selves; human beings with an esoteric organ called "conscience". Furthermore, because the psychopaths have power and have established their own vision of the world as the standard, everyone else on the planet is to some extent or another infected and serves to propagate, justify, and perpetuate the pathological system, one which we have called the Pathocracy, after the work of Andrew Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology. For a good introduction to these ideas, we invite the reader to look at the following topics on the Signs of the Times Forum, where these issues are discussed in depth. http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/forum/viewforum.php?id=10 http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/forum/viewtopic.php?id=457 3. That our planet passes through periodic catastrophes, known in legends variously as the Great Deluge, the Flood of Noah, or the Fall of Atlantis. Our research indicates that we are entering such a period of catastrophe, one that may even make the legendary Fall of Atlantis pale in comparison. The recent find of a meteor crater under the ice in the Antarctic, a crater some 300 miles in diameter and now being given as the cause of the great extinction 250 million years ago, may be an indication of what we can expect. Obviously, this is the most summary of outlines of the knowledge necessary to see the world as it really is. We present it to give the reader an idea of the complexity of our reality and the type of knowledge that any esoteric school or Tradition must include if it is to give a complete picture of our situation. We have observed that so-called esoteric teachings that promote primarily ideas of Inner Peace, living in the Present, and "Heart Knowledge" (i.e. certitude of inner subjective feeling) do not deal with these issues. The significance of this should become apparent as we proceed. Suffice it to say for now that any teaching that goes no further than helping people find "strength to endure the suffering of life", without describing for them accurately and objectively the real conditions that are the basis of that life, and the real possibilities of interacting with life based on Truth will simply keep its followers in a constant state of readiness to feed man's natural predators, often willingly at that, in the misguided belief that such giving is the highest manifestation of Love. Such followers are little more than milk cows nourishing the predators of our world. Prem Rawat (Maharaji) Spiritual Predator
You know some people don't like rich people. They have this idea or that idea of what it is to be rich. But they really don't know. It's not easy to be rich. It isn't. Once you've made your first million, you need another to protect it. Then you have two million, and you'll need another two million to protect those two million. Then you'll have four million and you'll need another four million to protect those four million, and then you'll have eight million. Of course then you'll need another 8 million to protect those eight million and then you'll have 16 million... it isn't easy, it's not what you think. Maharaji speaking at Long Beach 1995 (Maharaji, will you still like me if I'm poor?) With several mansions, a love of flying, from jets to helicopters, and an international organization setting up conferences around the world, including at the UN, Maharaji, or Prem Rawat as he prefers to be known in the West today, has an ostentatious lifestyle that would better fit in a book entitled "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" than a book designated for the library shelf marked "wisdom literature". Under the watchful eye of Maharaji, Inner Peace has been transformed into the short path to the American dream – for him, at least. Hitting the West in 1971 as the self-proclaimed Lord of the Universe and Perfect Master at thirteen years old, Prem Rawat has cleverly repackaged himself as a motivational speaker, shedding the religious overtones that are too controversial in the West for the secular vernacular of inner peace that will allow you to "win friends and influence people". In this discussion I intend to avoid utilizing any information about Prem Rawat's private life, other than the readily available (and easily confirmed) information about his mansions, his planes, and his helicopters. It is very easy for ex-members of any organisation to leave and, in a desire to get even, to invent stories or blow incidents out of proportion. There is ample evidence from the publicly available history and quotes from the teachings of the Perfect Master himself to expose Maharaji for the con-artist he is. Some critics are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he is sincere, that is, that he really believes his own PR that he is Lord of the Universe; after all, his teaching works for him! It may well be. Whether or not he is a conscious con-man or a delusional megalomaniac is not relevant. The final result is the same for the gullible and ignorant followers. His HistoryThe story of Guru Maharaj Ji, Lord of the Universe, later shortened to Maharaji, and, in more recent times, to his real name, Prem Rawat, as he made the shift from Deity to stress management salesman, is that of a boy who took four yoga techniques that were taught by many teachers in India, wrapped them up in a veil of secrecy to insure his marks felt that they were getting something really special, and then used the blissful experience (strictly neurolochemical) gained by practicing these techniques to tie his followers to him, convincing them that their experience was due to his personal ability to give what he calls "Knowledge" (the four techniques). That is the short version. The long version tells us that Prem Rawat was the youngest son of an Indian teacher, Hans Ji Maharaj. Wikipedia fills in the details:
The trip to the West in 1971 was the big break for the young guru. He founded the Divine Light Mission in the US, Canada, the UK and elsewhere, and within several years, there were tens of thousands of devotees practicing the four techniques that lead to the "Knowledge", as the Divine Master called it. A million dollar bash at the Houston Astrodome in November 1973 failed in its attempt to levitate the stadium, however it did demonstrate that the boy guru was able to raise serious amounts of money within a short time of arriving in the West. Moreover, he must have had friends in high places in our, oh, so, material world. According to Wikipedia:
Not too shabby for a teenager who had arrived in the UK in 1971, according to his own account, with only 25£ in his pocket. It does, however, open the door to a lot of questions. What other teacher of enlightenment has received the keys to so many cities, and what does that say about his relationship with the folks that hold those keys? And what has this enlightenment that he "brought" to the West done for America? Remember Iraq? Afghanistan? Central America? Grenada? Iran Contra? CIA, NSA, George Bush and so on? In short, you can know them by their fruits. A split occurred with his family in India in 1974 when he married an American airline stewardess. The boy guru, he was still only 17, took over the Western part of the family business while his brother took over, under his mother's watchful eye, the business back home in India. By then, the tiny, perfect master was ensconced in a palatial home Malibu, evincing a love of wealth that has never left him. The website www.prem-rawat-maharaji.info picks up the story
Speculation is that the ashrams had to go following the media fearfest about cults after the Jim Jones mass murder in 1978. It is not hard to see in the focus on devotion to the teacher, in the practice of darshan (lining up to kiss the feet of the guru), and in the claims to divinity, that an important part of Maharaji's message was the establishment of the cult of the personality, a policy that was obviously directed from the top. It wasn't the feet of those of the inner circle that were kissed; it was the "Master's". It was not, as his apologists would have us believe, merely the result of the enthusiasm of over-zealous disciples. Those who defend the Maharaji argue that he closed the ashrams because in his great wisdom, he saw that the experiment wasn't working, that it was fixing in place exactly those aspects that the Divine One himself was trying to root out: mindless devotion to the "Master". It was also reported that the practice of darshan was dispensed with. However, reports from the last six or seven years indicate that this ritual is still practiced, well after the change of orientation from religious figure to corporate motivational speaker, though only out of the eyes of the media.
Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) giving darshan, a ritual where devotees line up to kiss his feet. He seems to be enjoying it. Can you come up with a good reason why anyone should be asked to kiss the feet of anyone else, much less those of a supposed spiritual teacher? What is the message of such a demeaning act? While I'm not going Bible thumper on the reader here, I would like to mention the example set by Jesus where HE washed the feet of his disciples. See the difference? The eighties saw the closing of the Divine Light Mission and the opening of his new front, Elan Vital, with a slick corporate veneer. The shift saw an attempt on the part of Elan Vital to destroy not only the old image of the former Lord of the Universe, but also the documentary evidence. Fortunately, former premies have made this material available on the Internet. Today Prem Rawat has taken on the trappings of the successful motivational speaker, appearing at international conferences and carefully crafted appearances before the faithful and the curious to bring his message. The public message of Elan Vital removed the religious overtones and focused on a secular message of "Inner Peace" through the practice of the Four Techniques. The use of others to pass on the teaching of the four techniques was eliminated, and now the guru himself does all of the explaining to new students either in person or via the wonders of multimedia. We'll look at the possible reasons behind such a move further on. At this point, we want to let the Lord of the Universe speak for himself. Although many of these quotes date from early in this charlatan's career, and his faithful apologists try to explain them away as either out of context or the mistakes of youth, I think these quotes well establish the foundations upon which the subsequent career of this man has been built. According to those who have followed that career closely, he has never retracted these statements, never taken responsibility for them, preferring to place the blame on those around him — the typical behaviour of the psychopath. It is never the psychopath's fault; someone else always is to blame. To my mind, any one of these quotes is enough to rip the veil off of his teaching and reveal it for the fraud it is. The entire collection taken together cannot be explained away. Read them and judge for yourself. Judgement is, of course, another of those mental faculties Prem Rawar discourages. Coincidence? We think not. Quotes from MaharajiPlace the reins of your life in my hands, and I will relieve you of your suffering... I possess such a Knowledge that with it I can control the whole world, from ants to elephants, from men to animals, from birds to mosquitoes. If you do not obey what Maharaj Ji says, what is the use of your living in this world? Rather you should die of shame! Has there been such a king before? Krishna was not such a king. Rama was not such a king. There were lesser powers in Rama, there were lesser powers in Krishna, but I have come to the world with full powers. That peace which disappeared shall prevail again. It will come, and once again the world will understand. So listen to me and act accordingly. Bow down before Guru Maharaj Ji! You should sacrifice every drop of blood for Guru Maharaj Ji... Obey my command, or else you will be drowned. Prem Rawat (then known as Guru Maharaji) 'Peace Bomb' address, India Gate, Delhi, 1970 (Note: He was twelve years old!) You want to be fulfilled? Without the Master, you cannot be fulfilled. Why am I saying 'Master' instead of 'Knowledge'? Because without the Master, you can't have Knowledge. Without the Master, Knowledge makes no sense whatsoever. Prem Rawat Oct 17, 2000 You have to get rid of it all, and surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji. And to be able to come together, and really not enjoy ourselves, but to enjoy Guru Maharaj Ji. To take in the satsang [discourses] to take in that pleasure of being together, and still being one with Guru Maharaj Ji. So the whole thing is, let's get rid of that concept maker. Guru Maharaj Ji - Malibu, June 11th, 1978 Because I've seen just the way the mind works. And I've seen it in a lot of people. They're there and everything is working okay for them. Everything is working just fine for them. And all of a sudden the mind comes in and says, "Do you understand what's going on?" Because if you don't you should try harder. Do you really, do you really feel Guru Maharaj Ji in your life? Because anything that you feel is not sufficient enough. You have to feel him more. Do you feel meditation in your life? Any amount of meditation you do is not enough. And it takes you through all this cobwebbing, all this weaving. And it just says, "No, this is not good enough." It's based on what satsang is, because that's the way satsang is given; that we can never do enough meditation, we can never do enough satsang, we can never have enough satsang. Prem Rawat Holi Festival, Miami, Florida, Sunday, April 1978. The greatest problem all around the world today, whether in America, Japan, China, Russia, India or anywhere else in the world, is that people are not in peace. People want peace. Today, if two people fight, the government is supposed to settle them down. But when governments fight, who is going to settle them down? The only one who can settle the governments down is the Perfect Master, the incarnation of God Himself, who comes to Earth to save mankind. Guru Maharaj Ji Tokyo, Japan, October 3, 1972 (And it is Divine, July 1973) Now just imagine, I have a following of six million people; and whatever I tell them, they are going to do that. And among those six million people there are millions of people who are criminals. They have murdered people, they have committed many crimes. They have been to jail and they know what it's like. And if I tell them now they would do it. They would murder anyone off the street. We could be hijacking planes and stealing cars off the roads, and killing people and doing other things. But we have realized that Knowledge, and so the whole movement is completely different. Prem Rawat 1973 (then Guru Maharaj Ji) Enough is enough. You guys are a bunch of disgusting assholes. This is how you operate. This is how you think. How can you be proud of this? Don't shake your head, you are part of it. You are part of the asshole equation. This is what you offer me. Every single time this is what I get. Do you like it? Prem Rawat speaking to some selected followers. July 24th 1999. This group of quotes spans three decades. There is a consistency of megalomania that is disturbing. At an early age, he preached that he was the Perfect Master, a being more powerful than Krishna and Rama. Thirty years later he writes that only a "Master" can bring "Knowledge", can bring you fulfilment. And, of course, there is no question as to who this master is! It is not possible to explain away these quotes as "youthful enthusiasm" or mistakes because Prem Rawat has never offered a public apology or retraction of these statements. To the contrary, he puts the blame on his disciples, shifting responsibility from the teacher, who is supposed to know better, to the student who obviously doesn't. Certainly any being who is capable of controlling "the whole world, from ants to elephants, from men to animals, from birds to mosquitoes" should be able to control his own tongue and have an understanding of the consequences of the words he utters, for those consequences are intimately bound with his own karma, and as the Perfect Master come back to Earth to preach the truth, he should undoubtedly understand karma. We will see below the process used to bring people to the point of accepting such nonsense, a process that carefully manipulates them through a series of emotional experiences that ends up by short-circuiting their ability to think clearly or critically about anything having to do with the Perfect Master. But before looking at the indoctrination process, let us look, with the help of our still functioning critical faculties, the question of Prem Rawat's wealth. His WealthIt is no secret that Prem Rawat leads an ostentatious lifestyle with his fleet of expensive cars, his private jet, his helicopters and his mansions. One doesn't need to go further, to read or listen to the stories of those who were once close to him. None of those stories matter. There is enough evidence that Prem Rawat is a spiritual predator in the existence of this personal wealth alone. The argument has been made that all of this wealth was accumulated through "gifts given out of love" to the master in gratitude for the gift, a gift beyond value, of "Knowledge". Moreover, it is said that one shouldn't refuse a gift given out of love. This argument raises several questions. Does a guru need personal wealth? Is there a better way of spending this money? What does the accumulation of wealth say about his teachings and his application of his teachings in his own life? What of the gift-givers? Is a gift offered out of love always to be accepted? What if one is putting oneself into hardship through such a gift? Isn't the Master responsible for teaching the student that giving unwisely is wrong? These are but some of the questions that a consideration of Prem Rawat's wealth brings to mind. One would think that anyone who can think would have the same questions. That his followers attempt to justify this wealth away is one of the signs of the unnatural and unhealthy hold he has over them, of the way their reason has been short-circuited and by-passed on any question relating to their "Master". They are asleep. The Teachings and Wealth Is it incompatible for a teacher to be wealthy? There are no recipes or easy answers. As we repeat often, there is good, there is evil, and there is the specific context that determines which is which. It is dangerous and lazy to throw around general principles regardless of the specific situation to which they are to be applied. That application demands knowledge of the situation. We note in passing, however, that none of the accounts of Jesus focus on his accumulation of wealth and that several passages talk about the early Christians living a rather Communist lifestyle with all their possessions "in common" and a common purse from which expenses for any of them were paid. Sakyamuni, the prince, renounced his riches to embark upon the path of self-knowledge that led to his Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. Once enlightened, as the Buddha, he didn't seem to find it very important to go back and reclaim his lost wealth. There are, however, religious teachings that promote the idea that individual wealth in an indication of God's favour. The wealthy fundamentalists backing George W. Bush tend to this view, as does the Book of Job. (Which also, by the way, discusses the terrible price Job paid for his success.) In the case of Prem Rawat, he arrived in the West with 25 pounds sterling in his pocket in 1971. Three years later he was living in a sumptuous mansion in Malibu. His only work at the time was his teaching. His wealth was obviously connected to his teaching and his relations with his followers who made him generous gifts. Obviously nobody really needs a bigger house than what is required for their daily activities: a place to sleep and eat; a place to keep the things they need for their major activities, i.e. work, hobbies, etc.; a place to meet with and enjoy the company of their friends; perhaps a place to work if they do not work outside the home. In other words, it's hard to justify a 28,000 sq foot house for a single family (not to mention more than one such home). Then, there are the cars, the aircraft, the yachts. Certainly, many people think that they need more and more "stuff" even if it is totally impossible for them to use that "stuff" on a regular basis thus showing that they don't really need it. It seems that the need many humans feel for material possessions is carefully drilled into them from a young age in order to perpetuate slavery to the consumer system. Maharaji argues that he is above all that, that he is capable of having all his toys without identifying with them, unlike the rest of us poor mortals. Nice rationalisation, isn't it? "Hey, I'm above all of this stuff. They are just gifts of gratitude from people I have helped. So back off!" The boy god started off his mission to the West with the goal of establishing world peace and, according to him, he was the only one who could do it. So how does this vast personal wealth and obscenely opulent lifestyle fit in with his plan for world peace? It is hard to see how it does. Certainly, after thirty some years of his mission, the world is in worse shape now than it was then. Hundreds of thousands of people who have been introduced to his techniques have left the fold. Millions of dollars have been spent to house, clothe, feed, and shuttle the jet setting Master and his family and servants around the world to spread his message of Peace. When is the all-powerful going to deliver the goods? Money, Gifts and the Teacher-Student Relationship What about the teacher-student relationship? Two arguments to justify the giving and acceptance of gifts are as follows: 1) that the gifts are given in love out of gratitude for having received from Maharaji a greater gift, "Knowledge"; 2) there are people at many different stages of development, and maybe it is necessary for them to make such gifts, even if it causes them hardship and suffering, because they have a particular lesson to learn. So, there you are, desperate seeker for something to ease the pain of existence. Along comes a funny guy in white robes who tells you that he alone controls the key to something you have locked inside of you. Then, following his secret instructions - instructions you have sworn to keep to yourself because if you, oh, pale mortal, should divulge them, they would emerge twisted and misshapen to such an extent that anyone following your directions would do serious damage to him or herself - you have an "experience". Poor, long-suffering individual that you are, this experience is far and away the most amazing rush you have ever had. Whoa! What a kick! And you're grateful to His Holiness the Maharaji, Lord of the Universe, the Perfect Master, because you followed his instructions and he delivered big time. How do you repay such an act? You're overwhelmed. How can you ever pay him back? So let's slow down those horses right here. Who says you owe him anything? Moreover, who says that He and He Alone put you in touch with yourself? Are you even certain that "getting in touch with yourself" is what happened? Of course, he is telling you that, and so are all of those around him who have already bought into the hook; and criminy! It did feel good so it must be what he says it is, right? Maybe you aren't conscious that you want to "pay him back". No. You just want to "thank him". Well, isn't the first thing that comes to mind that the "Master" might need a new car or private jet? Or if you aren't a trust fund baby with access to Daddy's wealth, maybe just a $100 or $1000 cheque would do? And if you aren't rich enough to afford the cheque, then how about standing in line to kiss his feet? Would the idea of giving an expensive car come from you? The idea of bestowing upon his Greatness a new jet? Or, is it just possible that you've been set up, that you have been trapped in a feeding mechanism, that you have been carefully manipulated into a situation where the soft sell is all you see until you have been hooked by "the experience"? Having been entrapped through a process that begins with a group feel-good experience to prime you, to get those chemicals flowing and tie them to the presence of you-know-who, and having been chosen to receive the "Knowledge" from the "Master" himself, you are then initiated into the secret teachings which in a certain number of devotees actually do trigger some sort of ecstatic experience, thus confirming His Specialness and your unique relationship to him — even if you have never met or exchanged words — you have been carefully nursed along into a state where you are ready to pay. And this is where the true character of the teacher and his teaching comes out. Rather than being asked to spread this knowledge freely to others, you are asked, or it is suggested, that a house, a boat, a plane, a car, or just a blank cheque would be humbly accepted. Or, perhaps, you just wanted to give to the organisation so that it could spread the word and bring this indescribable experience to others. Maybe you don't even know that your money is going to go instead to buy jets, cars, boats, and mansions, and a style of life of which you can only dream, for the funny guy in the white robes who likes to kick back after hours. A Necessary Step: Fleecing Your Flock What is the purpose of working on oneself? While the Maharaji would probably say it is to find peace, we think it is to become master of oneself. The work of the master is to help the student outgrow the master in a certain sense, to stand on his or her own feet. Prem Rawat on the other hand works mainly to increase the sense of devotion his students have towards him. I have actually met an individual in whom this devotion is so great that even after having been treated badly by the Prem Rawat group, after having been thrown out of the group, this individual still maintains this sense of devotion to the "Master". The explanation is offered: since the "Master" is isolated from the daily workings of the organisation, he doesn't know what his underlings do. Indeed, it is useful for him to appear to stand above it, above the failings of those lesser mortals who have to do the daily work of organization and management. Then, when problems arise, the master can say, "Hey, I didn't know about it". We see the same dynamic in politics. It is called "plausible deniability". So, let's say that someone is getting ready to offer, out of love, obviously, a gift to the Perfect One, say a new Mercedes. What attitude would you expect a true Master to have? "Hey, thanks, that'll look great over here next to the Rolls?" or "Are you out of your mind???? What am I going to do with a Mercedes? I already have a Rolls!", or, maybe, "Don't you think there is something better you can do with your money, young Skywalker?" Which master would you seek out? Using a popular slogan, we might ask "What would Jesus do?" or "What would Buddha do?" To bring it home, we might also ask "What would the Pope do?" or "What would Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell do?" Cash the cheque, no doubt. Which master would you seek out? What of the case when such a gift, "given in love", has emptied the devotee's bank account and has left him destitute? Even among the Boy God's followers, it is admitted that such things have happened. Is a teacher really going to let a student do such a thing to himself? Is he going to take someone's last cent? Or is he going to say, "Wake up! You're doing something really, really stupid! See how this so-called love you feel is blinding you to reality? Is it really love you are feeling, or is it just some chemical rush that shuts down your ability to think?" Which master would you seek out? Of course, if the "Master" does not know the devotee, has never spent one minute asking about his family, learning the birthdates of the kids, about what motivates him, what holds him frozen in an unsatisfying life, then he probably couldn't care less. The devotee is a vague, amorphous figure seen from afar, from the heights of the dais upon which the Perfect One sits and feeds off of the energetic teat of the crowd that delivers directly into his gaping maw endless money, goods, worship and all the things a psychopath craves. Saying that there are people at all stages in their development, that if they want to give when they shouldn't, that it is their choice, really amounts to saying there are those we can manipulate and those we can't! Beware of any dealings with a person who takes such a view. Again, which master would you seek out: the one who cares for you so much that he would take you for everything you have in order to help you learn that all-important lesson of thinking for yourself (while making a nice profit for himself in the doing), or the one who is going to help you see it before you go broke? If this seems like a rather obvious, or even a rhetorical, question, when it comes to those held under the sway of Prem Rawat, brainwashed we might even say, the answer is in no way obvious. They really can justify this behaviour and easily find excuses for it. No rational argument can shake their faith. The so-called "Knowledge" delivered by Prem Rawat cuts otherwise intelligent and loving people off from their ability to think rationally, clearly, and critically when it comes to seeing the "Master" and his scam for what it really is. What kind of "knowledge" is that? Making the Connection with the "Master"According to those who have been there and back, when an aspirant became interested in the Great One, a period of courtship began, the purpose of which was to develop within the victim the feeling of need for Maharaji in his or her life. The idea was to create the impression that one came to Maharaji not only for the "Knowledge", but also for the connection with the Perfect Master himself and the great benefits that this might bestow. The way people are prepared to receive the "Knowledge" and accept Prem Rawat as their personal saviour — for that is what it amounts to, a conversion as sad and absurd as that of the born again, fundamentalist Christian who accepts Jesus and is blind to the reality of the local TV evangelist and the crimes of George W. Bush — is a carefully managed marketing campaign designed to create a need within the client for the product. The fundamentalist and evangelical churches share two other points with the Maharaji's teaching: they offer ecstatic group experiences, and they shun the intellect. The Guru just robes his teachings in a different cloth. The first stage is the process of learning about the Guru and an evaluation of whether or not the aspirant is ready to receive the great secret. In most cases, a minimum of five months is spent watching videos of the Master teaching. Having watched some of them myself, it is clear that he is a powerful speaker. I say this not based on any content in his words - which amount to little more than Self-Knowledge 101, the same kind of tired teachings spouted by self-proclaimed gurus the world over - but because I have observed him and the special manner he uses, the way he uses his hands and modulates his voice. Anyone who is fundamentally naïve and unaware of the existence of psychopaths, or who lacks true knowledge of the matters he claims to be speaking about, thus having an inability to comprehend the crux of a matter, experiences the influence of the Maharaji's teachings as clouds of poisonous vapors whose influence easily anchors in such minds, traumatizing their psyches, impoverishing and deforming their thoughts and feelings, and limiting their ability to use common sense and to read a psychological or moral situation accurately. This then opens the door to the influence of other pathological processes. At the same time as you are watching the "Master" on video, you are meeting with premies who have received his "Knowledge" and who assure you that it is worth every effort. They reinforce the idea that He, and He alone, can do this for you. It worked for them. "Master" keeps his promise. The postulant is regaled with personal stories of the incredible experience that is "the Knowledge". More importantly, the idea that this knowledge can only be had through the intercession and divine grace of Guru Maharaj Ji, or whatever, the "Master" is calling himself this year is repeatedly drummed into the ever-more eager supplicant. The seeds of devotion are planted, to be harvested at the moment that the inner sun rises with the practice of the four secret, stolen, techniques. Having created within the individual the, by now, real need for the "Knowledge", the local handler decides the supplicants are ready to be initiated in the Great Secret, the key to the Great Experience. The big day finally is here! After all the dreaming, all the build up of expectations, all the anticipation, the anxious followers to be are finally ready to be admitted into the club. They know that they are speshul because they have learned a "one size fits all" secret teaching stolen by Maharaji's father from yoga techniques taught by teachers all over the world who haven't mastered the marketing techniques of the Perfect Master. So what exactly is the victim going to receive? The Four TechniquesThere are many schools of yoga, with many lineages, teaching different forms and techniques to achieve different goals. Often they are complex and demand long study and practice. The novice is slowly brought along, learning more as the basic teachings are understood. It is well-known that some of the more advanced techniques could be dangerous if applied at the wrong time, before the student is ready. Guru Maharaji, the boy wonder, God Incarnate and Joker all in one, has a much more simplified system. He teaches four yoga techniques that he claims will bring his disciple "Knowledge". The four techniques were initially known as Light, Music, Holy Name (or the Word), and Nectar. They are now, more prosaically, named one, two, three, and four. Although the techniques themselves are simple, they are presented to the initiate with an aura of mystery and secrecy that encourages the devotee to believe he is really getting something special and unique, something that only Maharaji can give him. He must vow to never divulge the techniques - techniques that thousands of other gurus give out in their teachings with no air of great mystery whatsoever. The following vow is given:
You will be excused if, after reading the above, you find that you need to go outside for a moment to take some deep breaths of some fresh air. If you need a sick bag, you're on your own. Yes, today, as you read this vow, you acknowledge that you are nothing. But do not fear, in a matter of hours you will have the keys to "Knowledge" and will be forever linked with his Cosmic Holiness Himself. You will be saved. Having acknowledged your lowliness, you impurity, and your need for someone else to pull your buns from the fire, and having vowed obedience and devotion to He who will raise you up, you are now ready to receive the sacrament, the Great Secret: the four stolen yoga techniques. One site devoted to looking at the real character of Maharaji and his teachings describes the techniques this way:
That's it, folks! The Rawat Family Jewels. The secret so great that millions of people have been willing to sell their souls to this modern-day Mephistopheles. The premie, as the followers of the Lord of the Universe are called, is encouraged to do the techniques for fifteen minutes each, once, and if possible, twice, a day, and if ardent, sincere, and faithful to the "Master", the path to "Knowledge" will open. So what exactly is this "Knowledge"? Well, given it is an experience induced by the above "techniques", one that by-passes that evil mind with which we are accursed, putting it into words will be difficult. Once, again, we'll give the Master himself the first word. The KnowledgeThe following are some quotes from the Man Himself on what Knowledge is. They are taken from the book The Living Master, Quotes from Guru Maharaj Ji, published by Divine Light Mission in 1978. They were republished on the web at http://www.ex-premie.org/papers/the_living_m.htm
I understand that calling it vague doesn't even come close to describing the word salad flavour of it. I showed it to a friend to get an opinion, asking the person to imagine themselves in dire unhappiness, perhaps even suicidal, looking for answers, would they, could they, find comfort in those words of Mahariji? The answer verbatim: "If anybody gets taken in by this crap, it says more about them than about Maharaji ... Hell's bells, I've been suicidal ... but I was never so dumb I'd buy that load of manure. Good god, in my salad days I wouldn't have been taken in by this crap!" That pretty much says it all. What strikes me is that all of the above is described perfectly by Andrzej Lobaczewski in his work Political Ponerology:
A further explanation and elucidation of Maharaji's "Knowledge" is offered by ex-followers on the website Prem Rawat AKA Maharaji. They have this to say:
It appears that this "Knowledge", so-called, that the Perfect Master brings is some sort of experience that he claims is that of Oneness with energy, with vibration, even with Life itself. What is also clear is that the "Knowledge" offered by the "Master" has nothing whatsoever to do thinking or the use of the Intellect at all: Rawat: 'Knowledge' does not actually involve the gaining of understanding, nor the obtaining of principles, nor familiarisation with facts or abilities, apart from the very limited exception of having been taught the 'secret' techniques of meditation. So the first thing to understand about Prem Rawat's "Knowledge" is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with thinking or understanding. It is related to experience. Next we'll look at how this "Knowledge" fits into other esoteric ideas of knowledge, specifically the idea of Gnosis from esoteric Christianity. The following two quotes also help to establish what the Master himself "thinks" — and we use the term advisedly — about his "Knowledge" and the experience it brings:
So now we learn that the experience of knowledge is the experience of Guru Maharaj Ji! And if you think the above was simply the folly of youth, albeit megalomaniac youth, then try to digest the following quote from 2000:
While other traditions speak of such an ecstatic experience as the direct Knowledge of God, Prem Rawat has no hesitation to put himself in the Creator's place! Through ecstatic experience, we'll experience Him! At least he is consistent. It has been, and still is, all about Himself. Here we can also understand why all of the teaching of the Great Secret is done by the "Master" himself, either in person or via videos and multimedia. The devotional link must be established directly with the Great One. When the acolyte is closing his or her eyes during the mediations, "Master" doesn't want the face of one of his lackeys popping up! No, it has to be the smiling face of the Divine One that forms the psychic, emotional, and psychological link with his prey. Manipulation Through ExperienceAs we began investigating Maharaji, we opened a thread on our Signs of the Times Forum for people to bring forward data they might have about the guru and their experiences with him and his "Mission". One member posted the following:
Another member of the Signs of the Times forum offered this summary of the effects of the Maharaji's techniques:
The "Knowledge" promoted by Maharaji, then, is closer to a drug high than anything that can be understood as real Knowledge. The ecstatic experience is used to promote the subjectivity of the practitioner at the expense of his or her ability to see things objectively. Such is the principal danger. The victim then becomes caught in a feedback loop where to flee from or regain energy depleted by the horrors of the world, the suffering of daily life, and any questioning of the "Master", more meditation is needed to reproduce the high. The high then reassures the victim that he or she is doing it right, that the "Master" is indeed what he claims to be, and the use of the intellect is dampened. Eventually, it closes off completely. The victim is from then on completely caught in his or her own subjectivity. Killing the IntellectWe have all probably had moments when the voice in our head begins to drive us slightly crazy. We can become caught in thought loops that seem impossible to break. We feel like a plane billowing smoke as it spirals towards a fiery death. It is this voice that Maharaji claims he can silence with his meditations. So what? Many forms of meditation claim the same thing, and can do it, but not all of them see the necessity of killing off the intellect along with the chatter. It is a serious mistake to identify this "mental chatter" with the intellect, with the entire workings of our intellectual centre. In fact, at the outset of any spiritual work, it would be a mistake to "think" that one can "think" at all. We can't. We don't think; we are thought, swept away in a stream of consciousness arising from we don't know where and propelled we don't know how. It appears to be a loose association of images that, uncalled, follow on one after the other. At the beginning this chatter is us. To shut it down before doing the work to create something Real inside that has the capacity to really think is to leave one empty, hollow So this chatter is not "thought" per se. Maharaji makes no distinction between chatter and thought. In fact, the ability to shut down the mind and bypass the intellect completely is seen as an accomplishment. Just listen to this declaration from one of his followers in 1973. It is taken from the film "The Lord of the Universe", a documentary produced about Millennium '73, the group love-in to the Master held at the Astrodome in Houston in November 1973.
That's clear. "I don't have to think, I know." Could there be a clearer statement of entrapment in one's subjectivity; of the abandoning of reason altogether? With the so-called "Knowledge" of the Guru, one needs no nothing else. But whereas real thought is active and the fake chatter that passes as thought is passive, the Great One does not preach an advancement from passivity towards action; no, but rather a total subservience to just a different passivity. Lans and Derks wrote that according to Maharaj Ji, "all evil should be attributed to the mind", and that such concept of mind indicates the obstacle of freeing oneself from former bonds, referring primarily to a "state of consciousness characterized by everything but passive, non-rational confidence and trust." Get rid of everything except "passive, non-rational confidence and trust". Again, that is clear. Not only is the intellect overridden, an explanatory structure is put into place to justify the necessity of such an act, one which may well prevent the victim from ever regaining that capacity again. Any doubts from the mind must be silenced by a return to the experience. Thought and thinking are an active process, not the passive submission to random brain chatter. Learning how to think necessitates the formation inside of us of something that has the capacity to think. It means assuring that someone is in the driver's seat. True Knowledge is not attained by killing off inner processes, but, rather, by bringing them all together under the guidance of something higher and aligning them towards a common aim determined by the higher self, the "driver"; they aren't taken out behind the barn and shot. The Parable of the Coach will serve nicely to explain what we mean. It clearly illustrates the difference between true esoteric work and the path of Maharaji, the Lord of the Universe. This image represents the characteristics of man by a coach. The physical body is represented by the coach itself; the horses represent emotions - sensations, feelings and passions; the coachman is the ensemble of the intellectual faculties including reason; the person sitting in the coach is the master.
At the beginning of esoteric work, the master is not in the coach. The master will only be invited into the coach once the other parts are working as they should, functioning as a unit. This work is called that of balancing the centres. Maharaji is proposing to dispense with the driver altogether, give all the power to the horses, and put himself in the coach! Where is the student in all of this? Reduced to little more than serving as a vehicle for possession by a living Demon. And that is pretty much what one finds. In 2003 Prem Rawat gave an interview that is posted on his website. This question and response appears: What type of people are most receptive to your message? The alarms should be going off. None of us are free. To proclaim otherwise is the first lie. We are all trapped in a false Personality that pretends to know, to be, and to do when in fact things just happen. We are incapable of Doing anything, because there is no master in the coach. The first stage on the path to Truth is to see ourselves as we are, to admit that we know nothing, to consider the state of our coach, horses, and driver and bring them back into balance. We certainly all desire to be free, to feel at ease with ourselves, and just as a couple of con-artists once convinced an entire country to say that their emperor was fully clothed by claiming that if they could not see the clothes, they were unworthy and ignorant, so does Maharaji use the same ploy. It's a game as old as the hills and people are still falling for it. Prem Rawat sings a song to enchant his listener and to entrap them. "See, you're open to these ideas! You're free! You're not like those trapped in fear! You're special!" But we are all trapped. To understand this fundamental point is the basis of any real Esoteric Work. There is no free lunch; if you think there is, you are lunch! The interesting thing is, if someone were truly free and at ease with themselves as Maharaji suggests are the types attracted to his "teachings," they wouldn't need a guru! They wouldn't need his "knowledge," they wouldn't support his lavish lifestyle, and the most definitely would not be kissing his feet. Going back to Gurdjieff's Tale of the Evil Magician, he said further:
But, all is not lost as we learn from Boris Mouravieff:
This is the goal given to this work by the Scriptures and by the Apostles. As St Paul says: 'If ye live after the flesh, ye must die.' But do not forget what else he says: 'We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.' The man who lives passively under the first law, insensibly and without being aware of it -even as an excellent |
Oh my Guru
Maharaji, I dedicate myself to your lotus feet. I am weak and ignorant
and am filled with the impurities of this world.