The Thrones And Stages of Prem Rawat (Maharaji)
He was the Lord of the Universe so naturally he sat upon a throne above his subjects, actually many thrones.
For more than a decade after the young Rawat came to the West, he insisted he be displayed to the public on elaborate thrones on elaborately decorated stages. He even designed some himself including the one shown above. These stages were often built to be used for only a day or three though at one time a throne and stage were re-used in Europe and transported from country to country. This continued until the early 1980's and here I present some of them.
Rawat was fat, lazy and hated exercise. He didn't even open doors or adjust his microphone. Sitting around for hours on these thrones was uncomfortable and he was a gadget freak so he demanded state of the art, air-conditioning, radio-control, heating, 64,000 incremental positioning adjustments, you name it.
From the Canadian Divine Times of October 15, 1974
Maharaj Ji wore His regal attire on the second and third nights of Millennium '73. On the second evening He was crowned for the first time in the West. A seven tiered stage was pre-fabricated and then assembled in a matter of hours for the Millennium '73 celebration. Maharaj Ji's throne was backed by a lighted lucite teardrop. On the bleachers behind the stage were massive "Shri Hans swans" made from crepe paper stuffed into chicken wire (below).