Such a good post. 

Sometimes it is hard to remember ourselves as sincere premies.  I was very much like Ghi, going for the inner experience and letting the rest just swirl around me without bothering to criticize it.

The reason that it took me so long to reject Rawatism is that from the very beginning I equated Knowledge with the inner light that is spoken of in all the scriptures.  Knowleldge = the Atman.  I had to reject enlightenment itself before I rejected Rawatism.  This took many years.  What actually happened is that I never reached enlightenment and just kinda got out of the habit of trying.  Finally, I had a good long talk with myself, so to speak, that lasted a few months, and I realized that what I really believed is that the search for enlightenment is foolish and detrimental.  Immediately, I had no need of Rawat or any other guru.  I had no anger at that point, I just felt mildly surprised to find myself pursuing a whole different viewpoint and kind of life.  That was 1997, and then I discovered EPO and the shit hit the fan.  When I learned what Rawat had been up to all these years, and when I learned what my initiator (Jagdeo) had been up to, I was infuriated.  Still am.  It makes me sick.

So I think that as long as Ghi and other premies still believe in the attainment of higher states of consciousness as the goal of human life, they will accept the concept of a living master.  This is tricky, because I think we all should remain somewhat "undecided" about this topic.  Despite my sometimes concrete proclamations here, I do not hold to a world view that entirely rejects higher states of mind.  I simply understand how foolish certain human endeavors have been in this regard.  Who knows?  Maybe life and evolution are indeed headed toward some perfect state.  Well, if that is the case, then I don't object.

The situation is a little more complicated these days because Rawat's teaching is no longer blatantly oriented toward self-realization in any traditional way.  He seems to have morphed into some sort of 21st century feel-good guru, which is ridiculous.  This approach seems to make sense to some premies who enjoy drinking at Daya's bar, for example.  But I can't make any sense out of it.  The new equation seems to be that Knowledge = maya.

There is another aspect to this - the feeling of connectedness that one gets in a cult.  This feeling is tangible between people and heartfelt.  There is also the fantasy connection inside with the guru that can be experienced very deeply, even though it is no more real than being in love with Jesus, or Zeus for that matter.  Ironically, I experienced this connected feeling last weekend.  An old premie friend of mine came to town and we had a nice visit.  She is an ex-premie.  She noticed the video "Lord of the Universe" on my book shelf, and wanted to watch it.   It was certainly a journey down memory lane for both of us and the old feeling of brotherhood that I used to feel came back.  I guess it is enjoyed by anyone who is in a community of any sort.  It can be very deep in a cult, because of the shared idealism, the common language and goals,  and the close quarters one lives in.

I am certain that some premies equate Knowledge with the reality that all religions attempt to embrace.  They find that following Rawat and practicing Knowledge is very helpful to them and I'm sure that they really can't understand why some ex-premies would be so negative.  The probably do think "why can't they just move on?"   Ghi seems perplexed and seems to assume that we are just objecting to Rawat's lifestyle and Elan Vital's problems.  I, however, think that it goes far deeper.  There is a concern about the harm that cults do and there is a regard for the truth.  Many people want to take on some sort of cause, and the anti-cult cause is a worthy one, in my opinion.  As long as there are falsehoods masquerading as the truth, there will be a debate.  Rawat's teachings are a few parts general truisms and one part guruism and all its absurdities.  As he continues to promote his narcissistic nonsense, he will be criticized for it.   If he wants to really appeal to the UN or the Italian senate, for example, he will have to substantially change his tune.

The Keys will either succeed or fail.  I think that even most premies are aware of the odds.