A Pictorial History of Prem Rawat
2nd World Peace Tour 1972
Newspaper articles began to proliferate. Stories began once chartered jumbo jets of Western devotees began flying to India for festivals. Publicity increased once Prem Rawat began to stoke controversy.
February 28 1972 - Guru Maharaj Ji arrives in London.
"So when you all have received this Knowledge, what is your duty? Mahatma Guru Charnanand Ji explained the same thing, the same point, that now you have to go and tell people that they need Knowledge. Someone came to you and told you that you required Knowledge. Now you have to go and tell someone that he requires Knowledge. And that is how we are going to give this Knowledge to the whole world." - Prem Rawat
The Holy Rawat Family in Switzerland, 1972
Johannesburg, South Africa, 28th April 1972
"And he went to many masters and always received the same reply until he came to one who said, "Yes, I've seen God face to face more clearly than I am seeing you. I have spoken to Him face to face, even closer than I am speaking to you now." And then Vivekananda said, "Can you show me?" And the master said, "Yes I can show you."" - Prem Rawat
The Perfect One Is Here: Satsang of Shri Guru Maharaj Ji, Johannesburg, 29th April, 1972
"Believe it or not, the fact is that God is supreme and pure; people are lying on a bed of ignorance and dreams and doubts. They expect God Himself to come, they pray for it, they ask for it, they announce about it, but when He comes they fail to recognize Him. And not recognizing Him in His physical form, they cannot recognize Him within themselves." - Prem Rawat
Satsang of Shri Guru Maharaj Ji, St. Peters Church Hall, 28th May, 1972
"Now, what is that power that is making you breathe? Go and realize it.… So what I want to explain to you is that we have got this far out Knowledge which is being spread everywhere, in every corner of the world. And it's your duty to meditate on it." - Prem Rawat
JUL 13 1972; Guru Visits With Denver Mayor; Guru Maharaj Ji, left, 14-year-old perfect master of the Divine Light Mission and major attraction at a religious congress scheduled for July 25-27 at Montrose, Colo., visits Mayor Bill McNichols in the mayor's office Thursday morning. McNichols wished the project well and told the guru-which means teacher-that any organization that works for better relations among people of the world is a good organization. The philosophy propounded by the guru is that members of the movement receive their knowledge of God through him. Members can belong to churches of other faiths and follow guru's teachings.
July 25-27 1972 - Guru Puja Festival held in Montrose, Colorado.
"And all premies must understand, is a very important point. I must explain to everyone in America, I'm not scared of telling them this point because it's true, it's a true point, there is a going to be a soon, the time is coming soon where you're going, going to see a great, strange thing happening, really far-out thing happening. The time is coming this it's very near. And soon, maybe this world will be able to realize who is God. Not only believe on Him, know God exists. Blessing to all the premies." - Prem Rawat
Click Here for scenes of the day filmed by a disinterested observer.
"Haven't we entered this fire? And it's a very very very bad fire we have entered and God can still watch you think? That the human race will be destroyed and God will still watch? He is a father? If he is going to watch and world being destroyed he is not a father, something else but he is not a father. But no, God has manifested Himself because if He manifestses Himself after one year, it will be too late, too late."
Swiss Alps Festival, 26 August 1972
"I, I'm doing this prachar. I, I'm giving this Knowledge to people and people are responding to it fantastic. I don't know what's happened to people but they are just responding to it fantastic because one thing I tell them first of all that listen I don't give you anything from my pocket, understand, it's within inside you, if you like it, go ahead, do it, if you don't like it, just leave it."
September 1972
Guru Maharaj Ji tours Japan and Australia. Although he stayed less than a week, his visit to Australia and the subsequent visits of the Mahatmas Guru Charnanand and Padarthanand were the inspiration needed to increase the membership of the Mission from 4 to 1400 and to establish centres in the major cities and New Zealand. It was billed as the Second Coming!
Satsang of Shri Guru Maharaj Ji, Sydney Lower Town Hall, Australia, 6 October 1972
"So what is this thing that makes us alive? What is it? Doctors have been trying to search for this thing for years and years and years. They have never been able to find it. The day they will find this thing, they will be able to make a dead man alive. But they are still searching. Really it is right inside of us, but how to know it?" - Prem Rawat
Hans Jayanti Festival, November 8 - 10, 1972
Guru Maharaj Ji returned triumphantly from his second World Peace Tour in 1972, bringing with him to Hans Jayanti in New Delhi no less than eight jumbo jetloads of followers from America, Europe, and many other parts of the world. Thousands and thousands of Indians wept with joy to witness the devotion of people from so many nations to their beloved Lord.
3,000 Westerners flew to India to attend the Hans Jayanti festival. Prem Rawat flew separately and arrived a day later so they would be there to greet him for photo-ops.
Guru Maharaj Ji gave satsang at the airport
Of course, we know that there are many gurus, and they all claim to show the Light, to reveal Light. People even go to them, but they don't get anything there, and the search is still going on.
Mata Ji gave satsang at the airport
The Hans family is the Light of the World and they are going to show the whole world the path of Light. It is a family affair. Keep in touch with the family, get to know the family, learn to love the family and you will really be a part of what is happening.
"God was there. I was there. I was alive, God was there. And God was right in my heart. I just never knew Him. To whom should I give significance at the moment? Because he is the one who revealed that to me, he is the one who told me. I never knew it that God existed. He is the one who practically revealed God, that, "There it is. Now understand it." So understand why Guru has come into this world, why a Perfect Master has come into this world: to give us, to reveal to us, the Knowledge of what is called perfectness." - Prem Rawat November, 1972
Prem Rawat Swore on the Bible He Would Establish World Peace - Prem Nagar Ashram, 14 Nov. 1972
Most Westerners went on to a spiritual boot camp at Dehra Dun in Hardwar.
A 7 inch music EP with very complex cover was recorded and part of Rawat's speech at Montorose was published.
Media
In early 1974 the Divine Light Mission (Shri Hans Productions) produced this film, titled 'Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?', at a time when the young Prem Rawat, the Perfect Master, known as Guru Maharaj Ji had come down to earth with a Millenial thump of bad publicity, humiliation and debt, none of which is shown in the film which ends a few months before the Millenium '73 festival. Another movie which was scripted to end in the Millenium "triumph" was never produced due to financial problems and loss of belief. A transcript is available here, the complete movie in 5 parts is on Youtube and the darshan sequences are available here.
Lord of the Universe, is a TVTV television documentary filmed at a time when Prem Rawat and his followers had full confidence that any examination of the guru, his 'Knowledge' and his followers would be positive. In November, 1973 the Divine Light Mission held a festival, Millenium 73, "the most significant event in human history" according to Guru Maharaj Ji as Prem Rawat was then known to the world. The documentary makers were allowed full access to the event held at the Houston Astrodome and to the followers, especially to Rennie Davis who was then the major spokesman for the movement. It contains footage of Guru Maharaj Ji, events from the Millenium festival, premies involved in 'Soul Rush' a pre-festival publicity campaign, interviews with premies and Prem Rawat's oldest brother, Bal Bhagwan Ji and his mother, Mata Ji. It is still available at Amazon and is a must for anyone with an interest in 1970's Divine Light Mission.
During this early period of confidence in Divine Light Mission before the Millenium '73 fiasco, before Prem Rawat's marriage to a devotee of his who was nearly 10 years older and 4 inches taller than him and before his disinheritance and disowning by his mother, footage from Divine Light Mission movies and interviews with Rennie Davis were given to film-maker Don Como for a documentary on gurus and 'New Religious Movements' that were proselytising in the USA.