Globalization, charisma, innovation, and tradition:

An exploration of the transformations in the organisational vehicles for the transmission of the teachings of Prem Rawat (Maharaji),
Ron Geaves,

2006, Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies, 2 44-62

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The paper will focus on the case study of Prem Rawat, also known as Maharaji, and the various organizations used to transmit his teachings. Prem Rawat has been successful since he left India in 1971, establishing his teachings in over eighty countries, and his original vehicle Divine Light Mission was described as the fastest growing New Religious Movement in the West. Thus it provides an excellent example of globalisation in this category of religious tradition. In addition, Prem Rawat has affinities with the mediaeval nirguna bhakti (formless devotion) tradition of Northern India, more commonly known as Sant. With its emphasis on universalism, equality, direct experience, criticism of blind allegiance to religious ritual and dogma, and tendency towards syncretism, it could be argued that if any Indian movement, given the necessary advances in communications and technology, was likely to transcend its cultural moorings, then the Sants would be high on the list.

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Initially, the followers of Prem Rawat's teachings in the UK established Divine Light Mission in 1971, shortly after his first arrival in the west at the age of 13. There had been a presence in the UK since 1969, located in a basement flat in West Kensington and then in a semi-detached house in Golders Green, North London. This had come about as a result of four young British members of the counter-culture, taking the "hippy trail' to India in 1968 discovering the young Prem Rawat and his teachings and requesting that a "mahatma' be sent to London who could promote the message and show interested individuals the four techniques known as "knowledge'. Interest in the teachings had spread slowly by word of mouth through the counter-culture's informal networks of communication but it was only with the arrival of Prem Rawat and his subsequent appearance at the first Glastonbury festival that the teachings caught on and spread rapidly through the milieu of the disenchanted counter-culture of Britain and the US in the early 1970s. Divine Light Mission was also established in the United States and by 1972 had its international office in Denver, Colorado. Although Divine Light Mission was established as an organisational vehicle for promoting Prem Rawat's teachings, it rapidly developed into a vigorous new religious movement with its own distinctive appearance combining the typical characteristics of a contemporary North Indian Sant panth in which nirguna bhakti was combined with intense reverence for the living satguru and millennial expectations of the western counter-culture (Geaves 2004a). Many of the characteristics of the Indian movement founded by Prem Rawat's father, who had died only in 1966, were imported wholesale into the western environment. Ashrams were established with a lifetime commitment of celibacy expected from those who joined. Members were expected to forswear drugs and alcohol, and adopt a strict vegetarian diet. The teachings were primarily taught by saffron-robed mahatmas who came from India and toured the west. The teachings were essentially Hindu in origin, embracing a worldview that accepted transmigration of souls, karma, human avatars and imbedded in an interpretation of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. However, a discerning listener would have recognized the radical voice of the North Indian nirguna bhaktas, also defined as Sants, notably Nanak and Kabir, especially in the message of universalism, equality and the focus on inwardness rather than the outward forms of Hinduism. It was this renewal of the Sant idiom that led many academics to mistake Divine Light Mission for an offshoot of the Radhasoami movement , but in fact, Prem Rawat's charisma owed itself to a combination of factors that enabled individuals to perceive something far more dynamic than an established sampradaya lineage could provide. His age, his ability to speak spontaneously drawing upon real life experiences, anecdotes and his own experience, rather than scriptural interpretation, and the intense devotion of his following based upon their own inner experiences combined with an already developing hagiography, led to the conviction of an individual master, uncluttered by tradition in the vein of a contemporary Kabir or Nanak. The intense gurubhakti had resulted in many in India regarding Prem Rawat as an avatar of Krishna or Ram.

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By 1974, the movement had experienced a number of crises resulting from the marriage of Prem Rawat to Marolyn Johnson, a Californian follower; the financial crisis created by the failure to fill the Houston astrodome * and the disillusionment of American followers, whose millennialism had always been stronger than in Europe or Britain, when their expectations of a messianic event were not fulfilled. The marriage was to prove more significant, as it caused a deep rift in Prem Rawat's family, angered that he had not followed Indian custom and the loss of many trusted followers inherited from the time of Prem Rawat's father. However, there was another more hidden agenda to the crisis. As Prem Rawat developed from a thirteen year old to an adolescent, about to be married and raise his own family, he was no longer prepared to be a figurehead whilst others dictated the direction and management of the movement established on the basis of his teachings.

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In 1982, the ashrams were finally closed, Divine Light Mission was deactivated throughout the world and a series of national organizations under the umbrella title of Elan Vital were created. Each organization established itself according to local custom, laws and culture. For example, in Britain, Elan Vital functioned as an educational charity which existed to promote the teachings of Maharaji (Prem Rawat). The important point to note is that strenuous efforts were undertaken to ensure that Elan Vital remained an administrative tool rather than develop into a movement as Divine Light Mission had undoubtedly done. There was no membership, but a small number of paid and unpaid volunteers who looked after organisational matters such as Prem Rawat's tours, finance, legal affairs, public relations, and communication. The closing of the ashrams took away the possibility of a committed workforce and instead Prem Rawat's activities to promote his teachings became more dependent on part-time volunteer assistance from individuals who were now raising families and creating careers for themselves. Elan Vital displayed none of the characteristics of a religion found in Divine Light Mission. For example, none of Smart's dimensions of religion could be found in Elan Vital and Prem Rawat increasingly used its organizational neutrality as a vehicle to promote his message of inner peace and fulfilment with a marked decrease in the trappings of the Indian heritage. Although occasionally drawing upon Indian anecdotes to use as examples for his teachings and referring to Kabir and Nanak, there is apparently little in his current idiom that could be linked to Hinduism, on the contrary, he openly challenges transmigration and the law of karma as only belief systems that cannot be verified as fact.

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It would be tempting to place Prem Rawat in the context of global Hinduism and the arrival of Indian gurus in the west, but this would be far too simplistic. The reality of the transformation of the organisational forms used to promote the message reveals a complex interweaving and opposition between charisma, globalisation, innovation and tradition that need to carefully assessed. Certainly Prem Rawat is very aware of the "global village' and utilizes technology extremely efficiently. The small boy who used to watch jet aircraft fly high above his house and yearn to fly, and who travelled on Air India, accompanied only by one family retainer, arriving in Britain in June 1971, now pilots a leased private jet around a quarter of a million miles every year. This is, perhaps, as claimed by Elan Vital, the only effective way of reaching out to over eighty nations where his teachings are now promoted. The message goes out by satellite and cable TV, websites, video distribution and printed materials, but it is still possible to find traditional methods in remote parts of India, Nepal or sub-Saharan Africa. Prem Rawat undoubtedly could be described as a citizen of the "global village', and certainly the successful communication of his message has drawn upon such globalised features of spirituality as the easternisation of western spirituality and the movement of Indians throughout the world, providing centres of interest in the Far East and the Pacific bowl.

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Prem Rawat does not lay claim to any special powers, does not heal and has stated sardonically that the last thing he would want is access to anyone else's mind and he encourages would-be students to think for themselves, delaying formal teaching of the four techniques for at least five months during which time they should listen and resolve any questions. Prem Rawat is not a renunciate, but married with four children, and generally addresses a public audience dressed in a conservative suit, and although there is a lineage of masters behind him, he rarely refers to them. Although there are many who would assert that his authority lies in his charisma, Prem Rawat himself has stated that he does not consider himself to be a charismatic figure, preferring to refer to his teachings and the efficacy of the practice of the four techniques on the individual as the basis of his authority. The showing of the four techniques replaces the traditional diksha, and although it marks the sealing of master/disciple relationship that is not emphasized in the session itself. Rather, the focus is on correct practice and staying in touch through participation or listening. Although Prem Rawat's followers, in both east and west, have asserted strongly that he is either an avatar of the supreme being or one of the avatars of Vishnu, especially Krishna, he has gone to great lengths to assert his humanity and deconstruct the hagiography that has developed around his life.

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Prem Rawat's teachings make no reference to any traditional authority, neither person nor text. The shift in language, directly appealing to human understandings of their own existential dilemma, removed the earlier and more Indian- orientated style of a traditional Sant idiom that could be grounded in reference to previous sacred figures and texts, providing authenticity by comparison and asserting that the message conformed to the "real' meaning of sacred text. This brings the paper to the issue of authority. Weber's ideal charismatic authority, was not only unpredictable and unstable, requiring routinisation in order to provide continuity, but was also centred in the personal qualities of the charismatic leader and demanding obedience. Charisma and tradition are seen as having an antagonistic relationship with each other. Prem Rawat could be defined as charismatic only in the latter sense. He does not demand obedience, in that no outer requirements or prohibitions are placed on those taught the techniques. The simple axiom, "If you like it, practice it, if you don't, try something else," is applied on frequent occasions in his public discourses. Neither does Prem Rawat regard himself as an exemplary leader, a role often ascribed to religious founders.

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Prem Rawat's message claims to be an age-old renewal concerning real identity and self-knowledge that transcends all of the above categories of identity formation and as such could be described as "supra-global' rather than "transglobal'. I would argue that his focus on "world' as personhood rather than a geographical location would permit a "supra-global' analysis which would lend itself to the image, described by Smith as seen on a contemporary poster, of Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom and knowledge, sitting confidently astride the globe. As Flood (1997:273) points out , not all Indian traditions have reacted to contemporary global culture with exclusive defensiveness, some have drawn upon ancient narratives of inclusiveness and universalism to contribute positively to the emergence of a new global culture. Any analysis of transformation in the organizational forms used to convey the message would need to take into account the tensions between maintaining the "supra-global' with the need to engage with the practical concerns of resourcing a message which is increasingly "transglobal'.