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Criticism of Prem Rawat

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Template:Totallydisputed Prem Rawat, also called Maharaji and formerly known as Guru Maharaj Ji, along with the love and respect he inspires in his students, have been the subjects of controversy and criticism to some degree since his early beginnings.

Sources of criticism

In the 1970s when Prem Rawat first arrived in the West, the media subjected him, his organization, and his followers to a fair amount of scrutiny and attention, some of it negative. In the early 1980s the late Dr. Margaret Singer, a controversial anti-cult activist, included an earlier organization, the Divine Light Mission (now defunct), in her list of cults.

More recently, the criticism against Prem Rawat, his students, and the affiliated groups, The Prem Rawat Foundation and Elan Vital has focused through a group of vocal ex-students with an active presence on the Internet. The group members call themselves "ex-premies," based on the practice, discontinued in the West but ongoing in India, of Rawat's followers calling themselves "premies."

The size and true influence of this group are in dispute. The group admits that although small, it speaks for a large numbers of disgruntled ex-students of Rawat, while supporters of Rawat assert that the bulk of former students have simply moved on with no ill will toward him and do not share the group's viewpoint. Supporters label the group an insignificantly small hate group of no more than a few dozen who speak for no one but themselves, use the Internet to magnify their importance [1], and manipulate the media to shed negative light on Rawat [2].

Claims of divinity

A major point advanced by the group centers around a criticism that Prem Rawat formerly made public claims of personal divinity and continues privately to make such claims while denying them in public.

In the period after Rawat arrived from India, followers addressed him with greetings (such as "Master" or "Lord") and songs; or performed rituals that critics claim were affirmations of his personal divinity. Two such rituals are generally reserved in Hinduism for the worship of holy persons or deities: arathi and darshan (see also puja).

Critics also point to publications of the Divine Light Mission written by students and published in the 1970s that they say contain claims of Rawat’s divinity [3]. They note he used to dress up as Krishna, and at the age of sixteen promised to personally bring peace to the earth [4].

They claim he discouraged critical thinking in order to maintain followers' unquestioning loyalty and devotion to him, warning them that the mind was dangerous and an enemy [5], and emphasizing faith in him and surrender to him [6]. They demand that if Rawat truly no longer makes such claims, Elan Vital should publicly and unambiguously disabuse all his followers of such claims.

Supporters and Elan Vital characterize the expressions of adoration as trappings of Hindu culture that in their original cultural context are not understood as personal claims of divinity. They assert that in Indian culture it is routine to declare that a guru is as God or even greater than God. To the average person in India, they say, "Guru is greater than God" is a common statement, talk of lords and gurus is commonplace [7], and the title "Lord" simply denotes affection or admiration [8]. They assert that since Rawat was only a teenager when he came to the West, the presentation of the Knowledge techniques and his public persona were handled by Indian adults steeped in traditional Indian ways, which were acceptable to people of the hippie generation who tended to be more open to such rituals [9].

Supporters praise Rawat for leadership in leaving outdated cultural forms behind. They assert he was the one who began in the 1980s to dismantle such remnants of Indian culture and adopt a more egalitarian Western approach. He asked the title "guru" be dropped from his name and that he be referred to simply as "Maharaji" [10]. They characterize Rawat in the last decade as replacing all the old forms with a presentation of himself simply as a teacher, guide, and friend, being human rather than godlike [11]. They say the specific quotes from the 1970s claiming personal power and divinity are taken out of context.

Prem Rawat's transformation has itself generated controversy. Ex-premies who say they once believed in Rawat's divinity see this evolution as a source of their disillusionment. They criticize Elan Vital for revisionism and obscuring the past. At some point Rawat or Elan Vital asked his students to throw away old books, magazine and videos that included forms of veneration—the ex-premie group considers this an attempt to cover up the past and revise history, while supporters point to this as an effort to reform from archaic forms toward focusing on the core message.

Critics charge that claims of Prem Rawat's personal divinity are still being made in India, pointing to excerpts from some of his addresses given there in the early 1990's [12], and that they are also still being made in the West secretly, being slowly revealed to those who progress as students. One ex-premie alleges a darshan line took place in in September 2001 in Scottsdale, Arizona in the U.S. at a program for major Western donors [13]. There has been no documentation produced of recent divinity claims in the West.

In 1979 Bob Mishler, then ex-president of the Divine Light Mission, gave a radio interview in which he said he had persuaded the nineteen-year-old Prem Rawat to retract his claims of divinity in 1976 but that Rawat had hesitated because it would mean less control over his followers and as a result less income from them. [14]. Mishler said he resigned from the Divine Light Mission in January 1977 because of Rawat's refusal to change his luxurious life style and retract his claim to be God [15]. Mischler's statements are denied by Rawat and have never been independently verified. Supporters dismiss his charges as coming from a disgruntled ex-employee after being fired.

Complaints of financial exploitation

Ex-followers complain that Prem Rawat exploited them to build a luxurious lifestyle for himself. They note he has access to luxuries that average American citizens do not enjoy [16]: For example, he lives in Malibu, a city with a median family income of $125,000, lives in a house whose value critics estimate at $20-25 million, and flies (but does not own) a Gulfstream jet whose value runs in the tens of millions of dollars. Critics argue his wealth could not have come from any source but his followers' donations, since he came from India with little or no money, has never had a job outside of his religious work, and was disinherited by his mother after a family rift. Ex-premies blame themselves for being gullible and naive to have given donations. Critics have filed several complaints with tax and charity authorities, but none has ever resulted in Rawat or related entities being charged with any wrongdoing [17]. To date no financial documentation has materialized that would prove the critic's allegations.

Supporters note that Prem Rawat's lifestyle is not a secret. They assert he never broke the law in taking donations and that the Gulstream jet that he flies is a leased aircraft and not owned by him. According to them, Rawat and his family are now entirely supported by personal business investments[18][19] with no money flowing to them from the organizations supporting his work. Supporters point to the variety of charitable work overseen by The Prem Rawat Foundation as inconsistent with any goal of personal enrichment [20], [21].

Miscellaneous criticism

Critics say that the techniques Prem Rawat teaches have been taught for hundreds of years in India and they are not unique. Supporters acknowledge that these techniques are referred throughout history in writings and poems and that the main point is that they believe Rawat is skilled in teaching them to people today. His oldest brother, Satpal claims to be the sole legitimate heir of the mission of his father, not Prem Rawat. Supporters say that this family squabble only came to pass several years later after Maharaji's marriage to a Westerner, which offended his mother's Hindu sensibilities.

There was a single allegation of an instance of sexual misconduct by a former Indian instructor (Mahatma) named Jagdeo in the 1970s. No criminal charges or arrest report was ever made by the victim. Elan Vital says that they first received a complaint from the single victim in 2000 and conducted an investigation immediately [22]. Critics allege that a victim reported the incident as early as 1977 twice to coordinators [23], [24]. These claims exist only on the Ex-Premie web page and cannot be independently verified. As a result of Elan Vital's investigation, the counterpart Indian organization filed a legal complaint against Jagdeo in 2001. Elan Vital states that they have adopted a strict sexual harassment policy and that representatives of the organization undergo compulsory training to understand and implement that policy [25].

Critics say that the organizations supporting Prem Rawat's work secretly inflate the number of students to increase his credibility, by counting and adding the same people several times at different meetings. There is no documentation to support this claim.

Critics also complain that Prem Rawat's real motivation in speaking at prestigious institutions such as the United Nations and various universities is to gain prestige. Rawat's students say that these audiences in fact include many dignitaries, university students, educators, and staff from those institutions. Students also point out that often representatives from these institutions introduce Rawat at these events and have praised his work. [26], [27], [28].

Critics accuse Maharaji of buying media attention and interviews with uncritical writers in magazines and presenting these interviews as bona-fide journalistic products, [29], [30],[31]. Critics question the probity of these interviews, saying that because they contain no questions about his past claims of divinity, they must have been paid for.

In his 1979 interview, ex-student Mishler (see above) said that a teenage Prem Rawat suffered from anxiety he allegedly tried to alleviate with alcohol, in spite of the fact that he teaches meditation techniques to achieve peace. [32] Supporters believe that this claim was made by a disgruntled ex-employee after being fired.

Prem Rawat supporters question critics' character and motives

Prem Rawat supporters characterize members of the ex-premie group as not credible in their criticism, due to members' character problems such as obsessive Internet postings, extensive illegal drug use and drug dealing, criminal history, and involvement with pornography [33]. They point to the conviction of one vocal group member, Neville Ackland,[34], [35] for possession of $2.5 million worth of drugs and illegal weapons [36]. Students also say that ex-premies fit the psychological profile of apostates, becoming "professional enemies" of the organization. [37]. Group members characterize these charges about personal problems as argumentum ad personam attacks, and say their character flaws are private and irrelevant to the question whether Prem Rawat is a reliable and competent teacher of effective meditation techniques.

Prem Rawat supporters further allege that the ex-premie group harbors ill motives in, for example, maintaining what they characterize as an anonymous web page and hate speech chat room exhorting violent acts such as plans to drug and kidnap members of Rawat's family [38]. They further complain that group members have engaged in cyber-harassment, for example by publishing on the Internet the floor plans of the house where Rawat and his family reside [39]. No charges have been filed in relation to these activities.

Organizations affiliated with Prem Rawat have recently been successful in civil actions against members of the ex-premie group for wrongful activities directed against the organizations.

Two ex-premies, Tom Gubler and John Macgregor, were found civilly liable in January 2004 for a scheme to misappropriate data from Elan Vital's computers, and were enjoined by an Australian court from using the data so obtained and ordered to pay Elan Vital's legal costs. Gubler was a computer repair technician with access to Elan Vital's computers who at the behest of Macgregor, a freelance journalist, surreptitiously without authorization copied Elan Vital's data and transferred it to Macgregor and others. Their activities were exposed and Elan Vital brought injunction actions against both men [40][41]. Macgregor originally attempted to sequester his computer from examination, but relented after being held in contempt of court [42]. Gubler originally testified in an affidavit that their scheme was part of a conspiracy of ex-premies designed to harass Rawat and his students, and to interfere with the ability of persons to follow their spiritual beliefs [43]. Gubler later recanted that testimony, asserting he signed this affidavit under duress [44]. Gubler and Macgregor asked the affidavit be withdrawn from the court's consideration, but the court refused [45]. Macgregor mounted the defense that his goal was to expose wrongdoing by the organization, but the court held that an insufficient justification, and noted the misappropriated material did not show any wrongdoing by Rawat or the organizations [46].

In late 2003, The Prem Rawat Foundation brought a successful cybersquatting arbitration action against group member Jeffrey Leason (also known as "Roger Drek") for registering Internet domain names that incorporated the "TPRF" name and directed Internet users to what was characterized as "offensive and obscene" graphics and text. The National Arbitration Forum in 2004 ruled Leason to have engaged in bad-faith cybersquatting and directed the domain names to be transferred over to the organization [47]

Students of Rawat also say that they have been the targets of a campaign of cyber-terrorism by ex-premies using various computer and email attacks. In 2004, persons with an anti-Rawat agenda forged the email address of Brisbane attorney Damian Scattini, and sent emails to hundreds of Australian lawyers, journalists and business leaders. The email was disguised as an invitiation from Scattini to "worship" Rawat, and contained the same vintage photographs of Rawat in Hindu religious clothing that appear on the ex-premie websites. Scattini, who is not a student of Rawat but represents Elan Vital in Australia[[48]], has filed a criminal complaint with the Queensland authorities and the matter is currently under investigation.

Ex-premie websites

Websites of organizations that support Prem Rawat's work

References and bibliography

  • Barrett, D. V. The New Believers - A survey of sects, cults and alternative religions 2001 UK, Cassell & Co ISBN 0-304-35592-92-5 [49] pages 65, 305-329
  • Elliot, M. E. Elan Vital. Research paper written by a student of the late Jeffrey Hadden of the University of Virginia in 1999, mainly based on information from the ex-premie website Available online
  • Melton, J. Gordon and Lewis, R. James. Department of the USA Army, Office of the Chief of Chaplains Religious Requirements and practices. A Handbook for Chaplains written by The institute for the study of the American religion (ISAR) 1993 [50]
  • Melton, J. Gordon. Encyclopedia of American Religions, 7th edition ISBN 0-7876-6384-0 - page 1055
  • Introvigne, Massimo. Defectors, Ordinary Leavetakers and Apostates: A Quantitative Study of Former Members of New Acropolis in France Paper delivered at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, November 23 1997. [51].
  • Introvigne, Massimo. So Many Evil Things": Anti-Cult Terrorism via the Internet Paper delivered at the 1999 Annual Conference of the Association for Sociology of Religion, Chicago, Illinois, August 5, 1999.[52].
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