Hear Yourself by Prem Rawat: an Experience of Bogus Cosmic Consciousness
In 2019 "Hear Yourself: How to Find Peace in a Noisy World" was published. Amazon ranked it: #134,563 in Books. Unlike his earlier publications, this is an actual book not just a collection of edited transcripts of his speeches. The (ghost) author * has used all Rawat's best stories and quotes he'd gathered over the years and padded them out with extra information that Rawat had never used before. It contains a lot of sensible, if banal advice. It also contains a large amount of Rawat's spiel for his "higher consciousness teachings" though the method for attaining this is not specified. Rawat's career has been based on lies and deceit and he has removed specifics from his teachings as he tries to divest himself of his embarrassing past and evolve with the changing times. In this book he presents other revisioned stories of his life leaving out as much detail as possible. In the end though, its all about his original claims and promises.
From his beginning in the West Rawat has spoken from a perspective that he Knows whereas all other lesser mortals can only believe unless they recognise Him, obey Him and realise His Knowledge through meditation though none of them have ever attained to his level. Until 1983 he was quite explicit about this and used his Divine Status as the Incarnation of God on earth as His authority. Since then the narrative he has spun to provide himself with legitimacy was the fact that he had a significant number of "students" who support him financially and go to enthusiastically hear his speeches and involve themselves in activities he promotes. He usually presents with an arrogant, patronising smugness as the so-called Knower who offers the hapless public a helping hand along the road of spiritual enlightenment or in later years personal development. He also uses a mock humility if he considers it appropriate.
A New and Phony Story of Rawat's supposed "Enlightenment"
A very important and nearly certainly false story has been added to Rawat's life in this book. Rawat has to demonstrate how he attained his super-consciousness state in a way acceptable to New Age sensibilities. This is a necessary prerequisite for spiritual legitimacy in the 2020s amongst the wider community he wishesd to impress. His brains-trust have come up with a very good retelling of the standard story of the sudden illumination often described as Cosmic Consciousness in the garden with a nice touch - under the magnolia trees. Rawat has spent 50 years without ever telling this story and has denigrated the reality of any "personal realisation" claimed without His Knowledge.
In the nearly 1,000 copies of his speeches I have, he has never once before used the phrases "into the garden" or "grasp the moment" or "open to the day" or "into the feeling" or "a perfect sentiment" or "felt good just to be" or "a perfect moment" or "this day is for you." It's not his story because it's not his vocabulary.
One day I went out into the garden and had this desire to grasp the moment. I remember my heart was entirely open to the day and I was happy walking around inspecting everything growing there. A little later, I was sitting under one of the magnolia trees, looking at the clouds and the flowers, when I had an overpowering sense that whatever created me also made these magnolia trees and the perfumed flowers, and put the dew on the lawn, and carried the sun from horizon to horizon, and made those fat clouds float across the blue sky. In that moment, the he or she or it that originally created me said, very softly: "Just feel." It was a perfect sentiment for a perfect moment. Just feel. From then on I could sit under that magnolia tree and go into a feeling in which I had no wants, no wishes, no inner need to do anything. It felt good just to be. Ever since, a voice has continued to say to me: "This day is for you," and it means that day back in the garden just as it means the day I'm living in right now.
Rawat hasn't claimed that he heard a voice very often but in 1966 he heard it a few times and this is what it said: "You are he. You are the one to go and give this to the world." That night "For the first time," says Guru Maharaj Ji, "I did not give satsang. The satsang just came and I began to speak: Dear children of God, why are you weeping? Haven't you learned the lesson that your master taught you? The Perfect Master never dies. Maharaj Ji is here, amongst you now." Fifty years later he tells a different story: In that moment, the he or she or it that originally created me said, very softly: "Just feel."
Rawat Recounts the Story of "Receiving Knowledge" from his Father when He was 6 Years Old
I learned from my father whenever I could, often sitting at his feet as he addressed audiences of followers and others seeking insight. I first spoke at one of his events when I was four years old. My message that day was simple: peace is possible when you start with yourself. I had always felt the truth of that in my heart and, despite being so very young, it seemed entirely natural to stand up and share that insight with the people sitting before me.
One day, two years later, I was playing outside with my brothers when a family friend came to us saying, "Your father wants to see you all inside. Now!" We thought, "Uh-oh, what have we done?" When we went inside, father asked us whether we would like to receive Knowledge. That was the word he and others used to describe a set of insights and techniques related to self-knowledge. Without stopping to think, we all said yes.
That session with my father didn't last long
There was no need for it to last long. The Rawat boys were told to sit and squeeze their eyes with the long finger and thumb while holding their index finger on their forehead to see Divine Light. They were told to push their thumbs into their ears to hear Divine Music. They were told to stick their tongue backwards up past and over their uvula to drink the Divine Nectar. They were told to think abuout their breathing to experience the Holy Name or Word of God. WTF? No, I have not made this up, this is absolutely true. This is what every person initiated into Prem Rawat's Knowledge in the 1970s was told to do for at least two hours a day. This is very similar to a Scientologist reaching Level OT III and being told about Xenu the dictatorial galactic overlord and going WTF?.
I started to see how self-knowledge was a route to personal peace and that practicing it enabled me to stay centered and grounded.
The evidence of many people who have been close to Rawat, including his eldest son, declare that Rawat does not display the qualities of personal peace, quite the opposite.