The Conspiracy of Silence

Maharaji addressed an audience of over 2500 people at Wembley Conference Centre in London on the 21st April, 1988. Many in the audience had come to hear 'Maharaji' speak for the first time, nearly all of them had known him as Guru Maharaj Ji for over a decade. In the speech to he raises a very interesting question: What gives me the authority to stand behind this podium and talk to you? He says it is because he has experienced something incredible and he can pass it on to every other human being on the face of this planet. In fact, there would be no hired hall, there would be no publicity, there would be no audience, there would be no 'Maharaji' if he formerly had not had a relatively successful career as infamous cult leader Guru Maharaj Ji, the Lord of the Universe, which has left him with a financial base and 10,000 or more followers who are engaging in a conspiracy of silence with him. They will not mention his former career or their belief in his being an incarnation of God but will pretend they were just instructed in a form of meditation by some of his authorised agents and they enjoy it so much they attend his lectures and provide him with money or volunteer labour so he can tell others about it. He did not just arise, a self-made man. He inherited his career as an Indian Satguru from his father but after 15 years he felt he taken that persona as far as he could and tried a rebrand. Ironically, his followers infatuation with a pseudo-Indian "spirituality" in the early 1970s was at odds with his love of Western culture and technology. He had tried more than once to de-Indianise his followers and in 1982/3 he pulled it off albeit with loss of half his following.

Is there any other successful cult leader who has ever tried such a renaming? Created a new organisation with different teachings and tried to destroy evidence of his past career with thousands of his follower happy to accept the changes and enter a conspiracy of silence in which the past was never mentioned? Why did he hold onto the name/title Maharaji?

"Was any instruction passed down...?"

1983 to 1985 were numb/coasting/transition years as ashram premies dispersed, communities transitioned to satsang in premies' homes a few nights a week and instructor visits were less frequent because there were so few aspirants.

How did the revisionism unfold? I don't recall any specific communications or instructions. It unfolded incrementally through a series of "hints" over the course of years. Osmosis. It was in the air. As Lesley and I mentioned, we welcomed the changes and supported the motive of making Knowledge more relatable.

In no particular order, milestones (hints) along the path of whitewashing history and moral corruption:

  • - the 1982? order to destroy all materials, e.g., publications, A/V tapes, photos, etc. 
  • - the 1983 closing of ashrams (not wrong but cruelly and ineptly handled)
  • - the change from Guru Maharaji to Maharaji to Prem Rawat
  • - the change from Divine Light, Celestial Harmony, Holy Name and Nectar to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th technique
  • - the change from Divine Light Mission to Elan Vital
  • - the change from satsang, service and meditation to listening, participating/helping out and practicing
  • - the change from "premies" to "people with Knowledge"
  • - the change from festivals to events
  • - touring instructors setting the tone by saying essentially that Maharaji wanted to move away from his eastern roots and trappings (perhaps the most direct communication)
  • - the change from satguru, guru and perfect master to anything other than those... teacher, principal, peace ambassador/educator, etc., and especially best selling author (they really like that one and apparently spent a lot of money on books to get it)
  • - the Legitimacy Project and "prestige events"

All of this gradually and cumulatively permeated premie culture culminating in a new normal: the new public face of the cult. Interestingly, those who resisted and clung to the old days and all their altar photos were ostracized (behind their backs, of course) and thought of as the new breed of bongos.


Which brings me to the icing on the revisionism cake: the "Passages" video. Done. Over. The last vestiges of "eastern" and a whole lot more kicked to the curb once and for all.


I appreciate Lesley's push-back regarding "conspiracy" for all the technically correct reasons: a conspirator must know they are part of a conspiracy. Both of us and I'm sure others here lived through it and "conspiracy" never crossed our minds. But I still like the word.


So, yes. Silent. Tacit as I mentioned. An understanding. Going with the flow. The result being, not a crime, but a disgusting pack of lies deliberatly intended to deceive the public. A nicer group of people couldn't be more guilty:

In his book 1984, George Orwell had predicted there would be reality shifting vocabulary changes that would reprogram peoples' ability to think clearly and rationally and in the case of the premies of Prem Rawat he was a visionary. By 1984 the people who attended Elan Vital conventions and heard speeches by an exciting new Speaker, Maharaji, were starting on a new linguistic journey and within a few years would speak in ways that very few others would understand. But all good things must come to an end and so it was that an evolution occurred after another 20 years or so and Maharaji would melt away into the mist as if he had never been.