The Slow Decline Of Prem Rawat's Mission
For Every Season There Is …
Prem Rawat has always been hoping for more followers/premies/students if only to keep him in the luxury he's used to. Telling people about the "Knowledge" He offers to teach them, getting them to want it badly and believe He is the only source that can quench their thirst for it and keeping the methods secret until they're ready to accept anything is quite difficult. From His earliest time in the West there was a large drop-out rate after people were initiated and a continuing fall off as people discovered the Knowledge was more boring than blissful, more expensive than enlightening and more obedience than liberation.
From 1969 to 1974 He was able to use a cohort of Indians, supposedly celibate monks, to proselytise and initiate people but this pool dried up when His mother "outed him" as a hypocritical, unspriritual playboy. Rawat used the same method that all groups have used to increase membership:
Well, there's only one method. First they are introduced to the Knowledge by someone. Then there is our literature which people read and understand that this is the practical Knowledge that is being offered, that this is the Knowledge that we are all interested in finding. And then it is a simple process, as has been described, "Ask and you shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you." They ask for it and they are given. The people working at the different centers are like apostles, like disciples. And some disciples are called mahatmas; they reveal this Knowledge, but they do not give this Knowledge. If it was a process of giving, it might be difficult for them. But it is a process of revealing, so it is very easy. - Prem Rawat aka Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972 And It Is Divine, Volume I, Number 5, March, 1973
He had downgraded his Indian monks from Mahatmas ("great saints") to Initiators before they abandoned him. From 1974 to 1983 he used those of his Western premies He considered to be the most devoted and dedicated. He created the first few as Mahatmas but then downgraded them also and they became Initiators. Formalised steps were taken to do more than just accept people as ready for initiation on a wave of enthusiasm as this was wasteful and was disseminating the actual "Secret Techiques of Knowledge" through the wider community or at least the counter-culture community from which his early followers came.These initiators travelled to local communities, giving speeches and initiating aspirants and stayed in ashrams and were supported by ashram members who were usually aspiring to become intiators themselves. They were expected to be able to separate the sheep from the goats through personal interviews.
In 1987 in a series of meetings with his followers he even altered some of the physical techniques themselves and the description of the internal experiences during meditation even though this Knowledge is claimed to be the same knowledge and the same inner experience of the source of life within each person taught as far back as Jesus' time and further back to the time of Krishna and Ram.
The language used to discuss Knowledge has changed considerably during the tenure of Prem Rawat as Perfect Master. He is not even ordinarily referred to as a Perfect Master anymore. At times in the last 25 years his followers have called him: Guru Maharaj Ji, Maharaji, Balyogeshwar Param Sant Ji Maharaj as he has directed them. However while the words change the basis is the same. Maharaji's Meditation Techniques have new names and slightly different methods but there are still four of them and they're still pretty well useless.
In the 1970s and parts of the 80's, a Mahatma/Initiator/Instructor/Part Time Instructor explained how to do the four techniques of meditation and the rules for practising the Knowledge according to Prem Rawat. They would physically squeeze your eyeballs hard and painfully and you would then definitely see some phosphenes often in the form of the "Golden Donut".
Now this teaching is done through the use of a DVD of Prem Rawat giving the instructions and there is no eyeball squeezing.
In 2000 a video magazine, Connect 2000, was published which contained news of Rawat's upcoming method of teaching his Knowledge:
Voiceover: But first this story. Maharaji has been working on a means by which Knowledge can be received with greater ease and understanding.
MJ: For me it has been very, very inspiring to sit there and to do this and I'm not gonna call it a video cause it's not a video and it's not a DVD and it's not anything. It'll be something very unique when it's done and finished with but the possibilities all of a sudden, the the whole horizon has expanded if that's at all possible because now people can receive Knowledge regardless of where they are when they are ready they can receive Knowledge. If they cannot make it to an event for some reason they can still receive Knowledge.
Voiceover: The project is still being developed. Once completed it should be something unique to this age.
MJ: In fact in the history of Knowledge something like this never has been done. The auto Knowledge sessions, the the reason why this was created is so that Knowledge sessions can happen in remote areas, wherever. People in the hospital, people in places where I would not dare tread, so people can have Knowledge and it's good you know for all the people who I'm sure there are people there wonder where we are "How secure is this gonna be?" It's it's incredibly secure, incredibly secure. It requires more passwords than you've ever imagined and you it only gives you three tries if you don't make it within the three tries it just starts to wipe out the entire hard disk I mean that's about it so hoo hoo hoo hoo ha hah. It's very, very secure. Don't worry about that.
Rawat's boasting about the security of the system was laughable as his "secret" techniques of meditation had been exposed in most media back in the early 1970s.
