Background: Films and Videos of Divine Light Mission, Élan Vital & TPRF, WOPG, etc
Prem Pal Singh Rawat, who claims to be a descendant of Indian Royalty, arrived in West as the 13 year old, "Guru Maharaj Ji", the Lord of the Universe, Perfect Master and Satguru whose titles included Balyogeshwar Param Sant Ji Maharaj. From the beginning his organisations have used visual media as a major tool of recruitment for new followers and for the teaching of his devotees. His teachings have never been regularised in print. His main, almost sole, teaching method is the thousands of impromptu speeches he has made since being enthroned as the Perfect Master in 1966. Many of these are available on CD and DVD though printed materials have been very few since the early 1980's. While copies are kept of all his speeches, only later ones are available for purchase. In 1982 in one of the most audacious and naive attempts at controlling his image ever attempted by a NRM leader he ordered his followers to destroy all copies of the printed, audio, video, and film publications about him in the West available up until that time.
He closed the ashrams in which many of his followers lived, terminated the nightly public meetings ("satsangs") they held and then disappeared from public view for many years years while his followers maintained a low-key organisation. No public advertising of public meetings was allowed for nearly two decades. He reinvigorated his organisations in the late 1980's with an increased number of worldwide meetings for his followers calling himself Prem Rawat or 'Maharaji' having dropped the 'Guru' from his self-created title. His close followers gave a revisionist explanation for his earlier persona and actions blaming all controversial aspects of his "Knowledge" on his followers and exonerating him. Since then he has been trying, in a very low key way, to change his public image from boy guru to respected, philanthropist, international teacher of Inner Peace living off his investments. Fortunately some videos of his earlier incarnation remains. Videos about Rawat produced from the 1980's on are available here.
The first three films produced for the Divine Light Mission produced in 1971,'72 & '73 provide a clear introduction to the doctrines and theology of DLM and Guru Maharaj Ji. They were toured through universeity campuses (campi ?) and were very successful in bringing in interested students, semi-bohemians and hippies to following festivals.
Lord of the Universe, is basically a home movie made in London and India centered on the young guru's first visit to England and the arrival in India of a group of hundred Western premies for the November 1971 Hans Jayanti festival and the month long, spiritual "boot camp" at Prem Nagar ashram in Haridwar. Despite the message portrayed in the movie these early 1970's "meditation retreats" were neither blissful nor meditative. Even newspaper articles of the 1972 Hans Jayanti festival and the following retreat were able to report this as do premie memoires. In June 1972 the "The Lord of the Universe" was shown in 12 universities around the USA and viewers were invited to come to Montrose, Colorado. This was a tremendous boost to DLM membership.
Satguru Has Come is already far more professional. The voiceover gives a concise summary of the Divine Light Mission theology and it contains film of Rawat's father and the Indian DLM. There are clips of the young guru's speeches from the "Peace Bomb" speech of November 1970 in which he claims to be an avatar with more power than Krishna or Ram or any before him. It was at this festival that the first significant number (20-25) of Western premies gathered. It ends with clips from a speech in June 1972 at Montrose, Colorado in which he claims to be the manifestation of God who will save the world from impending apocalypse. Montrose was an important milestone in the rise of DLM as significant numbers of new premies flowed from this event.
'Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?' is a significant jump in professionalism. It begins with a 20 minute "light show" supposedly simulating the "Divine Light" experience. It contains some footage of DLM in India but concentrates on clips of the young guru from 1972 to the end of July 1973. There are short "testimonials" with some of the premies including W. Timothy Gallwey and Rawat's future wife. This film was toured prior to the Millenium '73 festival.
The next 2 movies were produced by independant sources.
Lord of the Universe, is a TVTV television documentary filmed at a time when Prem Rawat and his followers had full confidence that any examination of the guru, his 'Knowledge' and his followers would be positive. In November, 1973 the Divine Light Mission held a festival, Millenium 73, "the most significant event in human history" according to Prem Rawat. The documentary makers were allowed full access to the event held at the Houston Astrodome and to the followers (though not to the guru), especially to Rennie Davis who was then the major spokesman and megalomaniac for the movement. It contains footage of Guru Maharaj Ji, events from the Millenium festival, premies involved in 'Soul Rush' a pre-festival publicity campaign, interviews with premies and Prem Rawat's oldest brother, Bal Bhagwan Ji and his mother, Mata Ji. It is a must for anyone with an interest in 1970's Divine Light Mission.
Mysterious Miracles: Aliens from Spaceship Earth, A Spiritual Odyssey contains some footage taken from "Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji?" Some of the young Prem Rawat in the West, some even earlier footage of his father and his "Holy Family" in India, some background material with voice-overs by the folk singer Donovan who was not a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji but of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of Transcendental Meditation, and some footage of darshan lines in the USA and England with premie music. Footage from Divine Light Mission movies and interviews with Rennie Davis were given to film-maker Don Como for this documentary on gurus and 'New Religious Movements' that were proselytising in the USA. With hindsight it is obvious that Guru Maharaj Ji (aka Prem Rawat aka Maharaji) was the least despicable of the gurus and other cult leaders who featured in this "documentary". Sure he loves luxury and isn't very nice and used his divinity sometimes to get sexual favours from blondes but he's not really as evil as the others.
In 1970 at most 25 Western premies had attended Hans Jayanti festival in India. In 1971 300 attended. In 1972 3,000 attended. Growth was astonishing. Finance had been run on a growth will provide funds tomorrow for spending today but recruitment suddenly ceased in 1974. A series of events exacerbated the situation:
- Pat Halley's shaving cream pie and the mahatma's revenge with a hammer.
- Publicity over his admission to hospital because of a duodenal ulcer - not really what you expect from a peace and love guru.
- The Millenium '73 festival nearly bankrupted DLM leaving it with debts of $750,000.
- Prem Rawat's insistence on a luxurious lifestyle - cars, boats and planes.
- Prem Rawat's wedding to an older woman though he'd been encouraging new followers to become vegetarian, celibate monks in an ashram.
- Prem Rawat was disowned, disinherited and deposed by his mother due to drug abuse, obsession with sex, luxury and meat-eating.
DLM produced few films until 1978 but some young Australian film student premies with the help of grants and resources available from their institutions produced 2 films over the next 3 years. Most DLM films used a standard format.
- Long scenes of Rawat in close-up giving a speech (impromptu) to an audience of his devotees (presumably some premies enjoyed these)
- Emotional devotional songs played during scenes of darshan lines (premies kissing Rawat's feet)
- Emotional devotional songs played during holi water spraying
- Scenes of crowds of premies or individual premies responding ecstatically to Rawat's presence
- Scenes of Rawat's young children looking cute
- Scenes of Rawat flying or lazing around
- From 1978 on there were scenes of Rawat dancing dressed flamboyantly as Krishna
These films were not made for outsiders but to inspire premies.
Power Of Love contains excerpts from Prem Rawat's speeches during the 1974 Guru Puja Festival in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, on October 26 and 29, 1974 and scenes of him enjoying himself in Australia. It's highlights are 2 songs on the soundtrack by Geoff Bridgeford and especially the guitar solo by Ross Hannaford on Power Of Love. A transcript of 'Power Of Love' is available here and the darshan sequences with explanations and some sarcasm are available here. They are notable for the number of times Rawat has to give "Holy Breath".
Family Of Love" was released in 1975. There is a short section missing near the beginning of the film. This contained particularly ridiculous scenes of the short, pudgy, puffing Rawat and his tall blonde new trophy wife doing Busby Berkeley type dance routines on the beach filmed from above. I presume they were cut out back in the 1970's to prevent even more mockery at the Lord of the Universe's expense. It contains Rawat's wedding and speeches Guru Maharaj Ji and his wife given at the Hans Jayanti festival in Toronto, Canada in November 1974. There is film of his first child, Rawat dancing on stage and premies kissing his feet, a small holi festival on March 29, 1975 in Miami and Rawat having his feet kissed in India and the young Rawat brothers' Indian "wedding" during their trip in 1975. There are scenes of a "Father's Day party" at his Malibu residence and a celebration at a Western cowboy theme park in Colorado.
A 1976 Australian produced film, titled "Keep On Truckin'". There are excerpts from speeches Prem Rawat made in 1975 at Guru Puja Festivals in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, Caracas, Venezuela and Essen, Germany. At this time Divine Light Mission was recovering from a series of setbacks: the failure of the Millenium '73 festival, the marriage of the 16 year old Prem Rawat to a 24 year old Californian woman and the disowning of Rawat by his mother and elder brothers for drunkenness and a playboy lifestyle.
This 57 minute long film, 'Birthday Film 1976' © Divine Light Mission Inc, 1978 contains some brief extracts of Prem Rawat's speeches on 10th December, 1976 (his 19th birthday) at his Malibu mansion, the 18th December, 1976 in Atlantic City in front of 3,000 of his premies (devotees) and a long excerpt of his speech there on the 19th December. This is the beginning of the "super-devotional" period of Divine Light Mission at the end of a year in which Divine Light Mission went through enormous changes caused by management questioning of the "Knowledge" and Rawat's role in it. The ashrams had dissolved, the financial returns evaporated and at this festival Rawat asserted his divine role, the necessity for faith in and obedience to him and averted the failure that the media and academics consigned him to from there on. There was a darshan section and one of him sitting for quite a whilwe dressed really gaudily as a Krishna-ish Lord of the Universe with a ridiculous crown.
This film, 'The Greatest Magician' © Divine Light Mission, 1978 consists of excerpts from Rawat's Speeches and associated events that occurred during the 1978 Holi Festival in Malaga, Spain, March 24 & 26 and in Miami, Florida, April 9 & 10 1978. It includes film of Rawat's distinctive celebrations of the Indian Holi festival and scenes of the Darshan ritual where his followers walk past him in single file as he sits on a throne, offer presents (they have been informed he prefers money) and bow and kiss his feet. The film was shot when Rawat's administrators were arranging "festivals" constantly, and he was strongly extolling his Divine Master Role and exhorting his followers to do nothing but attend these meetings (and/or enter an ashram) with no concern for career, family or financial stability. Rawat clearly enjoyed playing with the crowd with his discussion of God's role as the Greatest Magician who creates life and then asking "And have we ever clapped at this Magician?" and receiving the applause he was looking for.
On Sunday August 27, 1978 Guru Maharaj Ji or Prem Rawat as he later named himself began dressing up in bizarre costumes as Krisha and dancing though only in front of large groups of his devotees. He appeared highly reluctant to do so in most cases and waited on stage until he apparently felt there was enough anticipation from the audience. The following group of films show Rawat at his most boring, outrageous and openly claiming to be divine.
"Guru Puja '79" was filmed, no surprise, at the 1979 Guru Puja festival at Miami, Florida on July 19, 21 & 22, 1979. It contains some different scenes of Prem Rawat dancing, encoring his dancing and "sharing satsang" ie giving impromptu speeches in his inimitable style and surprisingly unpleasant shouting. Unfortunately, age has diminished the quality of the picture and sound though everything is completely legible. Despite later Élan Vital propaganda stating that Prem Rawat at no time believed or encouraged beliefs in his own divinity or incarnations of the God Krishna, this video taken at nearly the zenith of the "super-devotional" period of Divine Light Mission 2 years before it was renamed Élan Vital shows him openly making such claims.
"Hans Jayanti '79" was filmed, no surprise, at the 1979 Hans Jayanti festival (always 9-11 November) at Kissimmee, Florida on the afternoon of November 10th, 1979. He reminisces about his awful school days especially having to run, says how unpleasant he finds the dumb human beings he created watching a dumb football game but then all people who don't have his Knowledge are dumb dumbs. He can't control his laughter as he tells a joke about a man putting a shit covered finger in his mouth and reminds his followers that any of them "standing on the threshold" (preumablye of devotion or surrender) owe it completely to his Grace and that they will always have to do "satsang, service and meditation." It closes with a scene of his dancing in a normal suit.
Holi festival of 1980 in Miami on 11th April, 1980. This has scenes of the Holi ritual whereby Rawat pumps gazillions of gallons of coloured water over a crowd of his "blissed-out" screaming devotees. I've been to one and it was great fun as I had my kids (5 - 10 years old) there and they loved it. Ordinarily I'm not that kind of guy. The music was phony-Indianish bhajans which was the direction at that time.
The Holi festival of 1980 in Miami on 12th April, 1980. The 23 year old Prem Rawat then calling himself Guru Maharaj Ji was neither a good speaker, nor did he have a good command of English nor, on the evidence of these transcripts, did he have much to say but simplistic criticism of others and outrageous claims about himself. Comparing this transcript with the speech published in the Élan Vital magazine reveals the editing by his followers of his published speeches to make them more polished. I'm not sure I have this one sorted out yet
"You Are My Saviour" was filmed at the 1980 Guru Puja Festival on July 25, 26 & 27 and contains scenes of Prem Rawat dancing, encoring his dancing and "sharing satsang" ie giving impromptu speeches in his inimitable style and surprisingly unpleasant screeching and shouting. This video taken at nearly the zenith of the "super-devotional" period of Divine Light Mission 2 years before it was renamed Élan Vital shows him openly making outrageous claims about Himself. It features 3 songs 'You Are My Saviour', 'I Just Want To Dance With You' and a South American style tune all of which feature the His interpretative dance. There is part of the inspirational ballad 'I Surrender to my Satguru' played while Prem Rawat changes into his Krishna costume.
Prem Rawat's "Guru Puja speech at Olympia, London", on 22nd August 1980. Rawat looks markedly different from his earlier appearance. He has cut his hair, dieted and his moustache has begun to thicken up. This in a speech which concentrates on human misery and the probability of a Doomsday apocalypse. He never uses the words "Guru Maharaj Ji" or 'Maharaji' and 'Knowledge' only once.
Prem Rawat's "Guru Puja speech at Olympia, London", on 23nd August 1980, a Divine Light Mission release, was produced in 1980. This in another speech in which he talks about the Creator rather than Guru Maharaj Ji but insists there is only one way to the ultimate, omnipresent experience within and that is through a Master and there is only one way, one Master. He reiterates that devotion to the Creator "has to be correct, it has to be true, it has to be real. It has to be in a state in which doesn't matter what happens." There is a 5 minute section of the darshan line to the song "You Are My Everything" - probably the best footage available.
This video of Prem Rawat's speech in "Rome on 17th October, 1980", shows Rawat at his most boring and repetitious and to be completely open about it, stupid and ignorant. His knowledge of life, history and culture appears to derive from the watching of cartoons on television and his obsession with cars and planes is obvious. In this speech he stresses his Knowledge as the "key ingredient" for peace, love, bliss, joy, etc. In this speech he specifies that the Greatest Sin is not knowing your Creator i.e. the Greatest Sin is not recognising Himself, Guru Maharaj Ji aka Prem Rawat as the Creator in person on earth.
"Eyes Of Faith" was produced in 1981. It was filmed in Miami and Kansas City in 1980/81 and contains some brief extracts of Rawat's speeches with some darshan scenes. Rawat looks markedly different from his 1970's appearance. His audience is premies and he is still calling himself Guru Maharaj Ji and in the full transcript of his Eyes Of Faith speech (released on tape) repeats again and again that faith in him and devotion to him is the purpose of human life. There is a short excerpt of his wife which shows how out of synch she is with the rest of the human race. Prem Rawat doesn't thrill us, he disgusts us. A crowd of Miami premies (collected from across the USA for the 707 project) goes wild in a birthday cake cutting scene. There are scenes of a Holi festival held in the rain, maybe God was trying to tell Rawat something.
"Message Of The Heart" was filmed during a 1981 tour of North and South America and contains some brief extracts of Rawat's speeches with some backstage and city scenes to provide background. He makes grandiose claims for his own powers, disparages religions and scriptures and says he is full of bliss, joy, love, etc, etc.
Prem Rawat giving a speech on the 1st November, 1981 in Rome, presumably part of a Hans Jayanti festival. His speech is more confused than his norm for those years and his claims are wilder: "There is no other hope for a human being" but himself "like it or not!" The video contains a long section of him sitting onstage while 'Arti' is sung. The singing is mainly inaudible though the song is easily recognisable. He dances to a Spanish sounding song. Other songs include "Teach Me Devotion," "You Are My Savior" and "Meditating On Your Love" so there's no doubt devotion and worship are the key emotions being promoted.
Ashram Satsangs: In the 1970's and early 1980's Rawat often held special meetings for his ashram premies - who were, after all, usually his most dedicated followers and certainly they dedicated more of their lives to Rawat's mission than did his followers who lived more normal lives. In these meetings he told them that the ashrams were the backbone of this mission and ashram life gave his followers the greatest possible opportunity to "surrender to Him" and "realize His Knowledge". We currently have transcripts and clips from three of these special ashram satsangs: Malibu, January 1979, Lingfield, June 1979 and Rome, June 1980
This Malibu Ashram Satsang of 7th January, 1979
This Lingfield Ashram Satsang of June, 1979. A complete transcript of the speech is available here.
This Rome Ashram Satsang of 25th June, 1980 was given to ashram premies and premies wishing to move into an ashram. These are his most devoted followers who have no idea that within a few years all the ashrams will be closed and they will have to find careers after as much as a decade or more in full-time, unpaid work called "service" for Rawat's organisations. He openly claims to be that power Himself, taking a human form and teaching that if just once, He doesn't reincarnate then "that'll be the devastation of this entire planet."
From 1974 Prem Rawat and Divine Light Mission had been attempting to stay out of the meda spotlight as all the reporting had been negative. However, on his trip to Australia he was able to get some media

The Second Coming A New Zealand TV segment on Rawat from 1981 in which his devotees
go to new heights of absurdity in maintaining his "privacy."
A Channel 9 Australian TV segment on Rawat in 1981 partially filmed at his Brisbane
"residence" at Fig Tree Pocket. This was very soft due to the influence of an Australian major media figure of the day and premie.
Click here to see background to videos and DVDs created to praise Prem Rawat (Maharaji) from the mid to late 1980's on