The Last Guru Alive

At the height of the 1970s Great Cult Scare it seemed that half of the youth of the USA was disappearing into one cult or another, brainwashed by one Eastern Messiah or another. These fears were premature. Youthful idealism and stupidity are always with us but fashions move on. Prem Rawat is the only one of these charlatans alive today, still repeating his spiel and worshipped by a dwindling group of followers. They're not having mass weddings, they're not committing suicide, they're just slowly dying.

Infamous Gurus of the 1970s Who Are Dead

1971 - 13 year old Perfect Master and Lord of the Universe - Guru Maharaj Ji is worshipped in the West

1982 - 24 year old becomes Maharaji, just a human who knows, a Master with no Indian religious trappings

2005->transforms into philanthropist and "Inspirational Speaker Prem Rawat by a long, expensive PR campaign

It's no surprise that this campaign is bankrolled by the very people who (used to) worship Guru Maharaj Ji.

He outlived his competition because he "became" an Incarnation of God as a young boy.

Roll of Evil Dead 1970s Cult Leaders / Gurus

1973: Neem Karoli Das the Ganesh guru of the hip LSD set dies before he makes it big. Guru Maharaj Ji bombs in Houston during the most Holy and significant event in human history
Hare Krishna's guru Prabhupad dies, leaving behind a group of young American males empowered with divine authority, what could go wrong? Guru Maharaj Ji comes back from the brink of financial ruin
1978: Jim Jones (and 900 others) drink the Koolaid in mass suicide, cults and gurus get major publicity. Guru Maharaj Ji goes dancing
1982: Swami Muktananda serial sexual abuser dies. Guru Maharaj Ji is creating a new identity
1986: L. Ron Hubbard dies. He enjoyed buying and piloting ships. Maharaji is begging for money to get a 2nd hand jet of his own
1987: Trungpa "Rinpoche" dies of heart failure at 48 years old. Maharaji comes up with new meditation techniques at the Rejoice re-education seminars
1990: Rajneesh (Osho) the sex guru dies. Maharaji uses premies for sex, has a long-time mistress and like most Indian men, he prefers white blondes
2004: Yogi Bhajan of 3HO dies of obesity and heart failure. Maharaji's "Legitimacy Project begins," pretends he is invited to speak at prestigious universities but…
2007: Sri Chinmoy the weightlifting guru dies. He hobnobbed with Bill Clinton and Princess Di among others. Maharaji knows Michael Nouri
2008: Maharishi dies aged 90. Maharishi and Maharaji had reverse careers. Maharaji begins in full Indian religious costume mode and ends up in bespoke suits. Maharishi claims TM is a simple method with no Indian trappings and ends up totally Hindu including vedic flying, pundits, Ayurveda, sidhas & sidhis
2011: Sathya Sai Baba uses magic tricks to become India's Number one guru so he can rape young boys. Prem Rawat's eldest son accuses him of sexual abuse
2012: "Reverend" Moon dies. Moon bought jet planes that Rawat could only dream about but Moon is dead, Rawat is the last of his 1970s guru competitors alive

Most of these gurus, no matter how completely they were debunked, exposed and outed have left some sort of ongoing groups behind them. C'est la vie. It's probable that TM in some form will continue. Scientology may have a severe bump on the Bridge to Total Freedom when Mr Miscavige dies if he doesn't have procedures in place to maintain continuity. Sathya Sai Baba's organisations may be large enough to be ongoing. The Unification Church probably can't survive the family infighting and controversies that occurred after his death.

Rawat's organisation has depended completely on himself, he has never allowed anyone else to gain individual authority. His eldest son who was named at birth to succeed, Hans Pal Rawat, is a strong public critic. The bulk of Rawat's Western followers, who have bankrolled his continuing efforts to promote himself while living in luxury for over 50 years will predecease him. There should be enough white haired little old lady premies to continue his worship for some years after his death. He is the last of his 1970s competitors alive but the others had to create their cults from scratch, he inherited his as a boy.

Click here for a fuller discussion of the the gurus of the East and their behaviour in the West. NB These pages about various gurus/Masters, etc were written circa 1985 and now seem rather naive. Far more negative information about these people is now available on the internet which barely existed then and there are far more bogus gurus and masters now plying their wares.