Maharaji in the Sanders Theater, Rented for the Night, in Harvard University, 22nd July 2004

Publicly, Maharaji had never wavered in his confidence that "propagation was happening" ie that new people were constantly attracted by his speeches to become involved and "receive the Knowledge" and live according to his recommendations. As far as I know, he never spoke about the obvious fall in his following and finances after the early 1980s closure of the DLM ashrams and the nightly public 'satsang' meetings that had been the source of his prior success. He had declared a media blackout in the 1970s as all newspaper and magazine articles were critical of him. A 1979 article in which DLM administration had co-operated with the high profile Life magazine had turned out to be a disaster. He began a new career as 'Maharaji' publicly devoid of Indian religious trappings but bank-rolled and supported by those of his dedicated premies who understood that Maharaji is Maharaji, he can do anything he wants and still be Maharaji. However, gathering new and financially positive Western 'premies' turned out to be a slow and expensive process and by the year 2000 another transformation in his career began to take shape.

In 2001 the Prem Rawat Foundation was created and this was a vehicle by which Maharaji, now becoming more publicised as Prem Rawat (his name) could begin to fashion a reputation as a philanthropist with minimal charitable donations and maximum PR spin. This new direction was influenced by a premie whose inability to meditate did not affect her status as a major donor with a background in trust fund philanthropy. This went against everything Rawat and his father had ever said in their prior careers, insisting that charity was useless and peace could only be attained when enough people practised the Knowledge. The driving force in adding a veneer of respectability to Rawat by claiming he already was an internationally respected teacher of Peace was Richard Cooper, a premie who had proven his devotion by breaking his leg(s) to escape brainwashing. Rawat would begin a series of speeches in Universities and other insitutions that would be publicised as his being invited by that institution whether this was false, or as later was hoped, would be true.

This was a very important speech for Rawat's Legitimacy Project which had been kept secret from the premie community until then. A full-house, 1,000 rapt premie audience was required to attend the prestigious Sanders Theater at Harvard University to prevent the speech from being a PR fiasco. Maharaji could not attract an audience of Harvard students or academics so the word was circulated through the upper echelons of the East Coast premie communities for people who could look and dress appropriately, the cream of the premie crop. Everyone who received the call immediately understood what was required and how incredibly fortunate they were to be in the ultimate "In Crowd" even thought they were strictly forbidden to let the less fortunate know. Those who found out about it later are probably still feeling the pain of rejection by Maharaji to this day. He gave a very confident speech and he demonstrates confidence by speaking loudly throughout as is his wont.

W. Timothy Gallwey introduced Prem Rawat. His focus of concentration within inside enabled him to be really within another dimension of consciousness. He was in a place of perfect peace within, his mind was still: "I credit Harvard for opening the doors of my mind and I credit Prem Rawat for opening the door to my heart of hearts."

Another person who was there reminisces (paraphrased):

We attended the "prestige events" at Harvard in 2004 and the United Nations in NYC in 2006. I had no cognitive dissonance until the U.N. event. I was skeptical when Prem was talking about the kind of peace one could experience behind bars. I attributed the organisation of the Harvard event to the commendable efforts of premies with the "connections" and "credentials" necessary to make the arrangements and propagation inroads in those circles sufficient to fill the front rows with VIP guests, i.e., it was the upper echelon of propagation unfolding before my eyes and my privilege and service to play a role in supporting it. I hadn't heard of prestige events until the U.N. in 2006, and I hadn't heard the term "Legitimacy Project" until after I left the cult. Even then, I smiled warmly when I found out Richard Cooper was behind it.

He (Prem Rawat) deserved public honour and recognition at the highest levels and although "the world" was certainly ignorant, the thought that gaming the system or any other such specious, unscrupulous or conspiratorial motives or activities never crossed my mind until I left the cult and I suspect that's true for the vast majority of active premies today. I never thought I was part of a conspiracy. Premies were naive. Intelligent actually. Deceived and deluded. Uninformed and unaware of many things.

This is a random image I chose from the TPRF video of the Sanders Theater speech which coincidentally included the person whose reminiscences are published here (paraphrased). The United States premie world is so small that although the seating was random, and I had no idea who was in the image when I selected it, at least 7 of the 10 people knew each other. All of the people in the audience had no more than 2 degrees of separation if you count their imaginary friend on stage as a friend.

Having lived in the ashram in Boston (Harvard/Cambridge) and nearby Portland, NYC and Hartford, it was like a reunion. I knew five others just in that small close-up photo, one of whom is a present day PEP facilitator. It felt fantastic to be in such good company - the company of truth. Premies were the best of the best because they had the courage to pursue their highest aspirations, often at great sacrifice in other areas of their life.

Not only was this group at the Sanders Theater the most spiritually advanced in the universe, they were also the most courageous and noblest. The quest to be fulfilled is the most noble one. Those who have the courage because they have understood their privilege will take this journey" - Maharaji 2003

Click here to read a transcript of Maharaji's speech at Harvard University.