Prem Rawat's Charity* Begins At Home

Until around 2001 Prem Rawat aka Maharaji proclaimed negative ideas about charity as did his Father. He stridently asserted that only his Knowledge could do any good and bring peace to the world and charitable activities were time and effort wasted that could be best spent on propagating His Knowledge. He was questioned in an interview reported in the New York Times:

Q. Why don't you sell your Rolls-Royce and buy food for the people?
A. What good would it do? I could sell it and people would still be hungry. I only have one Rolls-Royce.

Q: "It's hard for some people to understand how you personally can live so luxuriously in your several homes and your Rolls Royce and stuff and why don't you spend that money on feeding people?"
A: "And that's a really good question. Let me tell you this that life you call luxurious ain't luxurious at all because any other person gets the same life I get, he is going to blow apart in a million pieces in a split of a second." - Click Here to watch video

Well that explains why Prem Rawat must live luxuriously, whether he wants to or not. He could do a ot of damge if he explodes into a million pieces. Click Here to read some of the many critical things and that explains the many criticisms he made about charity and humanitarian activities.

So we can't do many social activities, because these social activity things were very common one time. Many people come to me and talk about these social activities and all these things. And then finally we used to reach to this conclusion that if there is a man who is hungry today and I give him some food, he is going to be hungry again tomorrow. Why shouldn't I find a solution for him so that he doesn't feel hungry ever again in his life? What is that thing? And that's what we must do. - Click Here to read full text

The Prem Rawat Foundation Charity Scam

He continued to denigrate charity until 2001 when the Prem Rawat Foundation was founded. Prem Rawat has not really changed his mind. The Prem Rawat Foundation is actually a cynical scam to gain some publicity and for his PR people to flood the internet with press releases lauding his philanthropy while actually only a small percentage of the money donated to the Prem Rawat Foundation (Rawat himself does not provide the funds for the Foundation) is used for charitable purposes. The logo changes but the scam remains the same.

Donations to TPRF Are Mainly Spent On Prem Rawat

The majority is spent on his travels in his personal jet and luxury accomodation when he is making speeches promoting his "Knowledge" and thereby actually doing some real good for himself by inspiring his followers to donate money to him. Funds for Prem Rawat are now being collected through Words of Peace Global as well as TPRF, Human Development through Self Knowledge, Words Of Peace International and too many other fund raising initiatives to list. Judging by the number of times he repeated it, his favourite comment on charity was the joke about the rich man at the pearly gates.

The Prem Rawat Foundation Annual Reports Show the Scam

Examination of the Prem Rawat Foundation annual reports shows that except in 2010 and 2011 only a small percentage of the funds contributed (by Rawat's devotees) were spent on humanitarian or charitable activities. The majority has been spent on Prem Rawat himself and helps fund his luxury travels in his private $60 million jet staying in opulent hotel suites and giving speeches that inspire his followers to donate money that is spent on his luxury travels in his private …

Only $7,673,769 of the $31,724,719 raised by TPRF was spent on humanitarian and charitable activities ie 23.30% or ¼. All but a fraction of the rest, $24,050,950 was spent on activities directly or indirectly benefiting Prem Rawat himself. Since 2013 when his daughter, Premlata Rawat Hudson, became President of the Foundation the percentage used for charitable purposes has fallen from an average of 32% in the prior ten years to 15%. The leaf doesn't fall far from the tree.

This is only a small part of the money spent on and by Prem Rawat. All of the many web-sites dedicated to Prem Rawat have facilities for donations and Rawat has registered his main public organisation, Words of Peace Global, to The Netherlands so that less detailed public financial accounting is required.

In the 2016 TPRF Annual Report it was stated that there are 2,600 persons who make regular donations to TPRF and that from 2012 through 2016 11,000 different donors had contributed $25.5 million which is $4 million more than recorded in the annual reports. Possibly this was the amount initially raised amongst his richest followers in seed money to get TPRF off the ground. 11,000 donatees over 5 years averages 2,200pa which is in the ballpark with the 2,600 of 2016. An average donation would be $655pa. The astonishing thing is how little these amounts seem to be compared with the much larger amount that appears to be required to keep Prem Rawat Inc. flying in such opulent luxury.

Of course this is only the funds raised through the Prem Rawat Foundation. Other funds raised undoubtedly total significantly more. While there would be very few individual donations of $5.5 million dollars that was made by Roger Koch there are many rich followers of Rawat's loosely organised into a Major Donors' group and the other donations by his Western middle class followers must also total a significant amount of money. If Prem Rawat was merely interested in his own opulent lifestyle and being worshipped by a small group of aging devotees he has been extremely successful. If his real motives are "spreading this Knowledge" and bringing peace to the world then he has been a ridiculous failure despite the incredible amount of money spent in this vain endeavour since 1970.

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* Even the relatively small amount Rawat's organisations donate to charitable causes is of value but his claims to philanthropy are bogus because the donations are mainly used to create publicity that overstates its value and is minor compared to the money spent on promoting himself as a meaningful teacher and his religion as a method to achieve transcendent peace.