The Rawat extreme devotional period, IMO, was laced with fear.  While he was talking about love, devotion and surrender to the Master, and raising the path of devotion above the path of knowledge, he was also giving us the lines about what would happen to you if you left the "path of devotion," the dangers of "getting in your mind," and how incredibly easy that could happen to you -- literally in a split second.

The "fear" only applied, IMO, if you thought about straying from the path -- and it was more powerful, in the end, than any "devotion" was to keep you on the straight and narrow.

Rawat even used those threats to dissuade people from moving out of the ashram at ashram meetings.  I remember a premie saying to me:  "I would leave knowledge before I would leave the ashram."

And that actually made perfect sense, because Rawat was continually saying that devotion and surrender to him was the most important thing.  More important that even practicing knowledge.

Anyway the threats (going to hell, rotting vegetables, missing the chance of a zillion lifetimes, you name it), were definitely there.

Unlike you, I was raised Catholic and so I had a lot of Catholic fear instilled into me from childhood, although I had really fallen away from the church before I became a premie.  But I was probably primed to be affected by Rawat's "Catholic Fear Period."  I actually really hated it because it reminded me of the Catholic Church, but at the same time, fear is a very motivating emotion.

I recall that other premies always talked about their love of, devotion to, and "longing" to be with, Rawat, but below the surface, there was a lot of fear of displeasing him, being rejected by him, or that your "evil" mind would trick you into leaving.  I guess I can see how maybe some premies didn't have that, but it's kind of hard for me to believe.

And I agree that one of the reasons there isn't any propagation is because of Rawat's fuzzy "image."  Is he a motivational speaker, or is he God?  This is very confusing to premies -- they don't know how to present him, and also, who cares about a "motivational speaker?"

I think if Rawat stuck with being God, he would actually attract more people.