The recent post by Roark inspired me to post on this forum. My understanding was that Prem Rawat's bona fides as a guru arose from a set of inter-related claims:
• He inherited the title of Perfect Master and unique Spiritual Power from his father who was the one and only manifestation of God in a human body on the planet before him. There was always one and only one of these Masters alive at any time.
• He was the sole bona fide source of the techniques of meditation that allowed people to attain enlightenment, realisation, love, peace, whatever you want to call it through their own effort. These techniques were worthless if taught by unauthorised people.
• He was the sole source of the spiritual grace that would empower the individual's attempts at meditation on the energy that created, preserved and destroyed the universe.
• Through his own effort in meditation he had attained an experience of life beyond the understanding of normal humans. He promised that, although he would always be unique and above all others, we too could attain the same experience. This experience was utterly beyond anything that could be imagined.
I've never had any personal interactions with Rawat but I have held on to the idea that if I had first-hand knowledge of Prem Rawat's actual life I would never have become a premie but there was plenty of evidence along the way that this was not something true. I ignored it. He was a very young guru but the mediocrity of his stage persona was enough to reveal his phoniness.
How is it that some people could see that Prem Rawat in person showed none of the positive qualities of a person who had "Realised Knowledge" - qualities that were discussed many times in satsang - and still worship him? Despite all the bullshit premies repeated, none of the first 3 claims that Rawat was the Perfect Master could be confirmed. His human qualities - his experience of life - was the only aspect able to be reliably judged by premies if they saw him up close. Only by using a strong set of concepts could his inadequacies and downright nastiness be explained away.
"I was pimping for him when he was 13. I was buying him booze and dope even earlier." Rawat turned 13 on December 10, 1970 and arrived in the West on June 17,1971. Our informant has probably mistaken the age and dates. Could he really have been supplying Rawat with alcohol in India? Prostitutes? Rawat spent 1 month in England and then flew to USA and returned to India in November? Could he really have been supplying Rawat with alcohol and dope during this time? Prostitutes? Is he talking about Marolyn Johnson when he refers to pimping?
"I don't think I ever had one ounce of blame aimed at him." When it comes to Divine Light Mission there's a lot of blame to go around but most of it goes to Rawat himself. If our informant can't see this then he certainly hasn't explored the depths of the theological and social perspectives involved. Just these 2 new additions to the list of Rawat's evils produces another mountain of blame. Rawat ordered lifestyles that created malnutrition in babies, he refused to allow any steps to alleviate the suffering of mentally ill premies whose problems were partly caused by the chimera promoted by Rawat of Knowledge being the cure-all and reason of existence and their frustrations in following this "path" to nowhere. What would it take for our informant to impute blame on Rawat?
Everything we did as premies can be explained and explained away. But there is one thing that disappoints me to this day. I am sure that our informant didn't go to Satsang (the Company of Truth) that night and talk of his real experience any of those days: "Dear brothers and sisters, Jai Sat, Chit (Truth, Awareness), Anand. Today I was able to buy a really expensive bottle of cognac by His Grace and your darshan gifts and the Lord of the Universe skulled it down and was well and truly passed out by the time I left the Residence for satsang. I don't understand why the Perfect Master wants to get drunk as a skunk, piss his pants and vomit all over the carpet but I am just a humble premie. Tomorrow there will be service available at the Residence for presentable blonde sisters with toothbrushes and/or birth control." I won't try to satirise the other events mentioned. It should have been called Bakavasang – The Company of Bullshit. Real truth requires that there is no censorship, imposed or self-imposed.
