This is most certainly a deception.  I was at the amaroo event which preceded this event and, although I didn't, a lot of the people there were going on to the events in the Far East.  This 'UN' event was certainly a premie event.  However, I guess the excuse would be that the description was written by the people arranging this video event and they misunderstood...  perhaps the same goes for the press releases.  cq below has drafted a letter to the UN which I am posting here with a couple of my editing ideas.  Although law and accountancy are complete gobbledy-gook to me, I think it's worth making some protest to the UN.  Does anyone else have any ideas?

Dear Secretary General

United Nations Association of Malaysia and Prem Rawat

I wish to bring to your attention a somewhat sensitive matter concerning your apparent endorsement of a self-professed "inspirational speaker" known as Prem Rawat.

He recently addressed the United Nations Association of Malaysia, as described in the two attached press releases. You will note that, despite the headlines, both articles clearly focus on Mr Rawat, and both convey the clear impression that you give Mr Rawat and his "message" your own personal endorsement.

It may be simply that Mr Rawat's people are giving his speech to the UNAM rather more "spin" than they should. If so, it is for your press office to deal with. But if it really was your intention to give your own endorsement to Prem Rawat, I think it only fair to inform you that this man was formerly known as Guru Maharaj Ji, the so-called "Perfect Master" and one-time head of the Divine Light Mission, a personality cult that came to prominence in the West in the 1970s.

For a cult leader with his track record for taking advantage of gullible people (and growing extremely rich on their devotion) to have the endorsement of the United Nations must be a crowning achievement.

As for the reputation of the Office of the United Nations, however …

I hope you can take every action necessary to help bring to light such blatant abuse of people's trust.

Yours sincerely

I’m not sure about saying anything about the money, although we all know what happened it would not be so easy to prove.  I know for me when making donations to Amaroo I was sure I was donating to the charity Elan Vital, only to later discover that in fact I had been pouring money into the pockets of (probably already wealthy) individuals.  But these people have experts working on their finances and their legality, and for a touch-feely arty type (that’s me by the way) it’s no contest.

My feeling is rather to concentrate on how and what he operates – the autonomous leader of an exclusive sect to which people are initiated with secret practices.  He trawls the world for prospective converts and is now using the United Nations to provide himself with legitimacy.  Operates under a number of different aliases, changes the description of his role, the name of his organization, and so on.