so you are in a Knowledge session and you know that other people around you are part of a harmful personality cult. How can anybody feel comfortable with that?

I think the people I am referring to in my post above, do not think it is a 'harmful personality cult'.

They just see and know that some people secretly (or not so secretly) see Maharaji as a God-like figure, their 'true friend' (even though he does not know them). They are just saying that is not for them, and they will treat Knowledge as a meditation technique with Maharaji as the inspirational speaker, and that is all.

As a strategy it makes sense initially, but I don't think it can really work. If you don't see anything special about Maharaji, then the Knowledge is nothing special, and you drift away pretty quickly. In order to stay, you have to believe that there really is something special about Knowledge that emanates from Maharaji as a special being.

In that case, you become part of the personality cult, and once you are part of it, by definition you cannot see that you are part of it.