Words Of Peace Global (WOPG)

Élan Vital had never become a famous brand giving instant name recognition to either Prem Rawat or Maharaji and it was a bit klunky to explain its relationship to "Knowledge ©" or "Self Knowledge ©" so after 30 years of outreach failure it was time to decapitate and disembowel it. Rawat switched his major organisation and public outreach to the cloud under the title 2008 - Words Of Peace Global, a foundation set up in Holland in 2008. The wealthiest of his Western followers are in the USA but as the activity of local groups of followers has little relevance to Rawat and his Knowledge anymore the country of registration is irrelevant. Holland has regulations that allow organisations like WOPG to avoid close public scrutiny but it does provide annual financial reports. Elan Vital's local community activities began to decline as Rawatism became a virtual cult. Rawat's major activity has been flying around making speeches to groups of his followers and potential followers. The rank and file PWKs were probably happy to watch videos on-line, at home without the hassle of going to small halls and being dunned for donations. The pwK defining activity was to see and hear Maharaji when possible. This pseudo relationship had been enough to maintain the Western followers but not to inspire more than a minority to get up and get out and attract new converts. As "Prem Rawat also known as Maharaji" became "Prem Rawat formerly known as Maharaji" became "Prem Rawat, world respected Peace Faker" it was easier for guru and PWKs to let it go and just enjoy the imaginary friendship. Some of the minions who needed financial support could handle the Peace Education Program which became Rawat's major claim to legitimacy with PEAK (Peace Education and Knowledge) as the neglected hanger-on. There may be possible further, less sophisticated, areas where Rawat can gain new followers but North America and Europe have far more attractive would-be leaders.

The publicly stated aims of Words of Peace Global are to collect donations to ensure that Prem Rawat can attend:

• Public internation events organised by WOPG;
• Third-party special events, where he is invited to speak at any place an audience can be provided and
• Media interviews for print, radio, and TV.

Note the word 'invited' - it is a legal fiction that Rawat is invited to these events.

Of course Rawat and WOPG provide no real public benefit though keeping 10,000 ageing Westerners not going to their graves screaming but nicely sedated without the harm drugs might do can be considered a public good. But is it worth that many millions of dollars?

Information

The table below summarises WOPG's publicly disclosed finances and is based on published WOPG figures and is in euros

Revenues which are 100% donations (either direct or through the sale of Prem Rawat related materials) had a significant 40% fall from 2015 to 2016 and a 50% fall to 2017 and a further 20% fall to 2018 though they picked up again in 2019. One has to assume that this is probably caused by a fall in their intensity of belief that WOPG would have any real effect. While the median age of the "students" is between 65 to 75 years old death should not yet be a significant reason for this fall especially as Rawat has circulated calls for "students" to remember him in their wills. It may be that Rawat sees no need or possibility of success in publicly pushing WOPG and has requested private personal donations instead. Personal donations to a private bank account have always been a significant part of Rawat's financing.

From 2014 to 2016 over 4 million euros was ploughed into transferring Prem Rawat Maharaji Inc. into a wholly internet business which now requires relatively small annual inputs. What started in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a mass movement Childrens' Crusade of LSD survivors growing from frenzied face-to-face interactions and nightly intense, confessional, "satsang" meetings and revival-style public gatherings of young hippies and Hindu-ish "spiritual" festivals has developed (you couldn't call it an evolution) into a pallid streaming pseudo-spiritual wellness nebulosity of ageing, fattening, balding baby boomers hanging on to their memories of youthful excitement and transcendental promise. Their Perfect Master/Guru/God in a Bod tells them not to proselytise personally which suits them fine as it saves embarrassment when anyone queries their own meditative experience on Rawat's 50 year hyped path of the Possibilty of Peace, a possibilty that always just seems out of reach.

Its ironic that WOPGlobal spends app €100,000pa on Local Initiatives. This could be subsidising the PEP programs.

Event Expenses are the major transfer of funds to Rawat directly, something that legally should not occur. The payment of Rawat and his entourage's travel and accomodation expenses are included in this and are the major reason Rawat's lifestyle has been tailored this way. Rawat prefers flying to any other activity and dislikes having to jostle with the hoi polloi. He flies an enormously expensive personal jet, the largest and fastest and gas guzzlingest his students can afford to lease and fuel. Its possible that the US government has inadvertently funded Rawat's travels through tax laws that allow his wealthy followers to lease a jet for his use and get tax write-offs.

While it can be difficult to find on the WOPG website and is not obvious to people first clicking into the site Prem Rawat's raison d'être on earth is as the one and only empowered (Perfect) Master who can reveal and inspire the meditation method he calls Knowledge that is the only way to access True Peace in this life. It requires some brainwashing before you can understand Maharaji's magnificence and Knowledge's importance and this is done through a process known since 2005 as "2005 - The Keys."

WOPG Jingle Jangle
WOPG News IndexWOPG NEWS

Some of Prem Rawat's Words of Peace Speeches are transcribed here.