"Events" of Prem Rawat's Organisations
During and after the late 1980s "Rejoice Events" the Élan Vital and all other organisations dedicated to Prem Rawat or Maharaji as he allowed himself to be called by his followers begn to use an ambiguous and euphemistic NewSpeak type language. Festivals with their religious and joyful associations became conventions, conferences, programs and events except in India and Indian diaspora communities where Rawat kept his Hindu religious language. One thing we can foretell is that these events in the West will continue to get smaller and smaller as the cohort of Prem Rawat's 70 year old true believers (2020) dies out.
This is not a trick photo nor is it photoshopped. It is taken from an official Words of Peace Global web-site and is of a crowd of Prem Rawat's students listening to Prem Rawat give a speech at Amaroo his cult compound in Australia. There's old people at the front and old people all the way back.
An 'event' can be anything from half a dozen PWKs hiring a hall, doing some low-key advertising and playing a video of Rawat speaking (a video designated safe for "new people" to hear) or a speech in India timed to coincide with a major Hindu religious festival such as Diwali that can attract hundeeds of thousands.
This is not a trick photo, this crowd of Indians have gathered for a Holi ceelbration with Satpal Maharaj, Prem Rawat's Hated Eldest Brother who has a huge following in India that dwarfs Prem's including many 2nd and 3rd generation followers whose grand-parents were originally initiated by Prem Rawat's father, Shri Hans Ji Maharaj. Photos like this can be taken at festivals in honour of any number of Indian Godmen. Comparatively, Prem Rawat is only a minor success in India.
Many journalists saw parallels between the responses at the largest DLM festivals and 1930's Nazi rallies. As Rawat's halting speechifying was the opposite of the frenzied speeches of Hitler or Goebbels these parallels could only be discerned in the chants and acclamations at the end of the speeches. In 1978 I attended the largest festival Rawat held outside of India and I sat in the middle of a crowd of maybe 20,000 and the premies were faint-hearted and tepid compared to their Nazi counterparts of the 1930's. At their best (or worst) as recorded at the beginning of the TVTV documentary "Lord of The Universe" they were creepy.
Articles about festivals were prevalent in Divine Light Mission publications:
- Guru Puja Festival 1972 And It is Divine magazine
- Guru Puja Festival 1973' And It is Divine magazine
- Holi festival 1974 And It is Divine magazine
- Guru Puja Festival 1974 And It is Divine magazine
- Hans Jayanti Festival 1974 And It is Divine magazine
- Guru Puja Festival 1975 And It is Divine magazine
The Most Important Event of Prem Rawat's Career
The most important festival of Prem Rawat's career was also it's deathknell. While the fat young Godboy was obviously never going to bring world peace and darshan domination his followers might well have gone on to create a large and growing organisation rather than the small, unimportant dwindling group of old premies that it has become. Here we can see a clip of darshan at Millenium '73 festival which according to Prem Rawat's circular to his of followers was going to be (and presumably was according to him) "the most Holy and significant event in human history". Rawat is giving Holy Breath.
Prem Rawat being drawn through the crowd at the Hans Jayanti Festival in Kissimmee, Florida in 1978 or 1979.
