Professor Ron Geaves "Research" re Prem Rawat aka Maharaji
Professor Ron Geaves formerly of Liverpool Hope University is the only academic of religion who has bothered to do any "research" or write any papers dealing with Prem Rawat for the past 40 years. This is possibly because he is a fervent believer in Prem Rawat and his Knowledge and has been since 1969. To learn about his spurious propaganda masquerading as research, Click Here. Geaves was the 5th European to be initiated into the Knowledge since Prem Rawat became the incarnated Perfect Master.
Geaves testified in the revisionist history Élan Vital video "Passages", clips from which are shown below (click on the photos to view the clips) which shows he is a trusted member of the elite caste of Rawat's followers.
As a "premie" for over 45 years Ron has presumably sat in formal meditation for over 22,000 hours (app. 15 years at 2 hours a day and 30 years at one hour per day), bowed down before and kissed Rawat's feet (his "Lotus Feet") scores or hundreds of times and listened to hundreds of his speeches. He recalls crying the most beautiful tears and praying his Master would never leave him. He has testified that, thanks to Prem Rawat, his own life "couldn't have been better" and while that is debatable his belief in Prem Rawat isn't.
Although Geaves is a professor at a very minor university, indeed it was only approved in 2005, he has been able to use his title as part of Rawat's "Legitimacy Project." This is a long term public relations' campaign in which Rawat's followers have been engaged since 1998. They have hired halls in prestigious universities for Rawat to give a speech in and the advertised this as if the university had invited Rawat to speak to faculty and staff who in most cases know nothing about the speech. Geaves stars in a video of Rawat speakin' in a rented hall at Oxford University in which he introduces Rawat as if he was an Oxford don, not a Liverpool Hope University professor.
Conclusion: Prem Rawat has been universally derided and dismissed by those who have investigated him. Professor Ron Geaves believes all such criticisms are based on bias, ignorance or because the critics are vociferous dissatisfied ex-members of Divine Light Mission. In all of these papers there is not one statement that isn't respectful or laudatory. To Ron Geaves, Prem Rawat has evolved from the teenage "Perfect Master" to an aging perfect Master.
"Student" Professor Ron Geaves talks about his "Perfect Master", Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji
"And I don't have any theories about afterlife or next life or reincarnation but if there is reincarnation I would like to come back and have another go at it really and do exactly the same thing (giggles) you know it's just and I think to be able to say that as a as a human being that your life has been fantastic, incredible you know it would be hard for anyone to have a better life than you is a compliment to Maharaji and Knowledge." - Ron Geaves
"I can, I can look at my life and say "My life has been absolutely fantastic." The, umm. I cannot think of any way that it could of been better. It's just, you know, that's not to say there haven't been problems or difficulties." - Ron Geaves
Professor Ron Geaves has a problem with logic: "it couldn't have been better" but "there were problems and difficulties".
"And I don't have any theories about afterlife or next life or reincarnation but if there is reincarnation I would like to come back and have another go at it really and do exactly the same thing (giggles) you know it's just and I think to be able to say that as a as a human being that your life has been fantastic, incredible you know it would be hard for anyone to have a better life than you is a compliment to Maharaji and Knowledge." - Ron Geaves
In picture right, Ron (with long hair and beard) helps Rawat into a Cortina with Mike Finch and Mahatma Saphlanand looking on.
"I had no idea, you know that it would come out and it would you know that it, you know, it would be, sort of that Maharaji would actually come to the West and I, I, it just didn't enter my head I just thought I'd be one of these lucky ones who, sort of, stumbled on this thing in India.
It seems hard to believe that a Professor of Religious Studies can be so naive. Cult leaders, even young ignorant ones, who head religions all say they're not starting a religion. They all say they have the true knowledge or in this case, Knowledge. What sounds more likely? Every time Rawat tells new blatant lies or makes another foolish mistake, some of his followers become disenchanted and disgruntled and stop believing in him or Geaves' box metaphor in which only people who accept any and everything from this one of the many Perfect Master wannabes keep making boxes he's got to break them out of?
References:
- Master with a Plan: Augmentation Of Narrative And Hagiography: A Criticism Of Ron Geaves' Treatment Of Prem Pal Singh Rawat
- An Open Letter To Ron Geaves
- Liverpool Hope University
- Passages video