Mitchell Ditkoff - Writer and Devotee Extraordinaire

I am interested in the writings of Ditkoff because he is a devotee/follower premie/PWik of Guru Maharaj Ji/Maharaji/Prem Rawat who writes essays about Prem Rawat and publishes them on the internet. Rawat has a 60 year career as a minor guru who achieved derision and infamy and success in the 1970s but nearly everything written about him by his followers in the past has been destroyed. Ditkoff appears to have permission to continue writing about (mostly) himself and his feelings and beliefs about Rawat.

Way back in the 1980s Maharaji asked his "students," i.e ordered them not to explain anything about Him to others - not even to talk about him - only to answer questions with a card with a phone number. However, as far as I know, only one has been allowed to continue to write about Him for the past 40 years, Mitchell Ditkoff. Why? He writes his screeds and publishes them where only other dedicated followers of Maharaji/Rawat will see them. They appear to be written for the general public but in reality are written for other PWKs which is why they often show Mitchell, himself, in a bad light, uncertain, not understanding and then another Maharaji inspires another epiphany showing Himself as so exceptionally wonderful that you could be forgiven in thinking the He might be a Divine Perfect Incarnation though also human, all too human.

For over 40 years Mitchell Ditkoff, the co-founder and President of Idea Champions, has produced a scintillating string of lyrical pieces that defy categorisation though they all point to the one truth: Prem Rawat aka Maharaji is a normal human being but he has all the characteristics of the Living Lord today, the One who gives us life, the Giver of Infinite Love though he doesn't say it in those exact words anymore. Mitch honestly believes what he writes about Prem Rawat, after all, he believes he is great seducer and lover of women and a studly stud who rips up redwoods with his bare hands. In 2026 I began to collect some of his pieces about Rawat he had written over the past 20 years. I thought he had been publishing them on various websites for decades and so he must have approval from Rawat Himself and ther emight be an understanding of what his fellow PWKs actually believe.

Prem Rawat's basic teaching is that people who follow his instructions and meditate using the techniques of "his Knowledge" have an experience that is beyond beliefs. That is possibly the most important belief a devotee of his must have because with that in mind he/she can explain away everything else that happens, especially the failure of this practice to immerse one in the dancing ocean of joy in their heart, blah, blah, blah. One of the great practitioners of this art of explaining away everything and anything is Mitchell Ditkoff who has not only made a hobby of this but also a career.

Below is a copy of acts 2 & 3 of a post on his blog by Mitchell Ditkoff. It refers to his feelings at a drunken party held by Prem Rawat for a group of his "initiators." Act II refers to 1993 (18 years before 2011). I left out Act I which was irrelevant. He correctly writes in his conclusions that we all see things differently and this is true up to a point. Very few people see Prem Rawat in the way Mitch does. Most people don't even bother to look. Mitch relates stories that reveal Prem Rawat as a divine supernatural genius in Mitch's eyes and this one is no different. His stories highlight something kept hidden by most premies since 1983ish. Most of Rawat's committed followers find the techniques boring, ineffective and pointless but they involve themselves in Rawatism activities because they wrongly believe that Prem Rawat is a divine incarnation of God.

You should read both acts to get the full story but the point is simple: the infantile gullibility and behaviour of Ditkoff vis-à-vis Rawat and the pointlessness of 40 years of meditating using Rawat's techniques. At least one other attendee saw Rawat's behaviour was in bad taste but Ditkoff's story is not unique.

"After years of trying oh so hard -- in oh so many futile ways -- to have my special, timeless, sacred, holy, cosmic, blissful, meaningful moment with Maharaji, I finally have one -- and it's for heckling an aspiring yogi at a dirty joke contest. Looking back, it's fair to say that I learned more in those few joke-telling moments about life -- my life -- than I did from years of meditating and reading holy books."

Mitch is being a bit creative here or he was a very unusual premie. Scriptures were disparaged by Maharaji and premies rarely, if ever, read them after become involved with Divine LIght Mission. They read and listened to Rawat's speeches. By 1993 even 'instructors,' Rawat's most committed followers, had given up on becoming yogis and Rawat's infidelity, drinking alcohol and smoking were no longer secret. "timeless, sacred, holy, cosmic …" So Mitch had had a few, or more, sips of champagne and made a funny and got a bit excited when he got approval from his Lord and Master but really, the language, please, who is he trying to kid? Himself.

• Editorial March 1977
• Editorial April 1977
• Editorial January 1978
• On Devotion … January 1978
• Dance, Dance, Dance August 1978
• -
• Plucked from the Ozone July 6th 1989
• 2001: Happy For No Reason Mitch is Saved from drowning by a force of grace
• 2001: Waiting For Maharaji Another Of Mitch's Fables 2001
• 2011: The Joy of Heckling when the Telling of Dirty Jokes Even Surpasses Darshan
• 2012: The Whores d-Ouevre is Empty for another Of Mitch's service satsangs
• The Most Misundersood Word in the Room Mitch and 'master'

He has written some pieces about his darshan experiences, times he is close to Rawat physically and his extraordinary responses. I found his story about the dirty joke telling which was more "special, timeless, sacred, holy, cosmic, blissful, meaningful" than his 40 years of meditation - carefully following Rawat's instructions - particularly poignant and revealing. A surprising conclusion but I have no trouble believing it because I've known quite a few premies who have also meditated for 40 years and even 50 years for no visible peace. His explanation of his experience of Maharaji darshan blahdom when he was an unpaid waiter at a party doesn't pass the Ockham's Razor test. The simplest explanation is that his effusive, inflated, borderline crazy ideas about Rawat's majesty and glory just deflated like a limp penis when was able to observe Rawat up close (though certainly not personal) for more than a few seconds.

Through the decades he has continued to deconstruct his devotion and make it clear for all who can read that Maharaji is the one, the only, the unique, God in a Bod. He hasn't been concise, he has allowed his natural prolixity full rein to flow forth in a never-ending stream of hagiography for Maharaji. This first showcased piece that came to my attention was a jolt of juvenilia from this Dance, Dance, Dance article but oh how it sings and soars on wings of glory to the Guru carried aloft on a torrent of ellipses.