Without The Guru by Mike Finch

The Public-Private Split: Chapter 25 Excerpt

In this chapter Mike discusses what he calls the "Public-Private Split" i.e the fact that when Prem Rawat decided in 1983ish to pretend he had resigned his Divine Godship, His Lord of the Universe and related titles, those of his followers left standing in the aftermath tacitly agreed from then on to publicly lie about their beliefs and feelings towards Him (now him) and pretend to go along with Rawat's new persona and act as if the previous 10 to 15 years had never happened or if challenged use various evasions.

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p170
Up until 1983, Maharaji was the Lord of the Universe, the true Satguru, both publicly and privately. He wore elaborate Krishna-style costumes on stage publicly at large events, he openly had 'darshan' where premies (many thousands of them at big events) would line up to kiss his feet, and he was openly talked about as the Lord, the Perfect Master whose Divine Grace was needed to lubricate the efforts of the sincere and surrendered premie to usher him or her into 'Maharaji's World'.

p171
The 'split' was a conscious decision to hide all this divinity of Maharaji with its accompanying excesses of devotion and to present to the world a humanistic leader who gave motivating talks inspiring people to look within themselves using the techniques of Knowledge. But privately, nothing changed; this demotion from Lord of the Universe to self-help coach was for public consumption only. We (meaning most premies) still considered him the Lord and that surrender to him, on every level, was essential in our lives. Most of us could understand that if Maharaj's message was to take off, and he was going to bring peace to the world, then he could not wear the public persona that he had in the night in the 1970s - it was just too weird. So we considered this split a necessary adjustment, and made a brave attempt at behaving normally to outsiders and we tried hard not to appear fanatical in public.

This split in behavior made us more cult-like. It reinforced the image that we were the chosen ones, a specially graced group who recognised Maharaji as the one and only Perfect Master for this Age, but could only indulge in this group-think amongst ourselves. Once we left the comforting womb of fellow believers, and had to face the 'world', the lila, maya, the deluded people who failed to recognise the Lord in their midst, we put on our mask of normality as best we could.

p172
…by the time we get to the 2000's we find Maharaji's public relations claiming either that the devotion of the 1970s never happened, or more usually, that it was the fanaticism of a few over-zealous followers who completely misunderstood what Mahaaji was really all about.

p172
I hope this book disproves that. The vast majority of premies following Maharaji's wishes, considered him Lord and Perfect Master, if not "the greatest incarnation of God" at least God-like with divine powers. And many still do, certainly the old-timers who have not made the break.