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Forum III message from JW,
Maharaji is a guy from India who was born into the family of a guru and got made a guru himself at the age of 8 after being raised in an environment in which he was virtually worshipped by thousands and then literally worshipped after that. He was expected to take over the family business and be a traditional Indian Guru, claiming to be the perfect master of our time.
But the 60s hit and so did the Beatles and Western spiritual-types and hippies dropping out of western culture went to India and found this 'boy-guru' and got off on the meditation, the hash, and his basic teaching of receiving knowledge and 'blissing-out.'
Those westerners got him to go to the West. The westerners were REALLY naive and ready to believe almost anything. In the beginning the basic philosophy was 'get high you freaks!' and thousands received knowledge. The 'boy-guru' phenomenon was novel and he hit the west just as the whole 'India-trip' hit as well. Most of his followers were very young, teens and early 20s. They tended to be middle class, idealistic, educated.
The money flowed in and Maharaji got a Rolls Royce and other toys and found out he liked it here. So, he stayed. He got married, became a legal U.S. resident, and broke his ties with his family. He was now in charge. With him he brought mahatmas, ashrams, krishna outfits, and a bunch of Hindi religious nonsense. But we just ate it up. He told us to surrender our lives to him and he would set us free. Thousands moved into his ashrams and gave up everything for years. Maharaji became fabulously wealthy from the 'gifts' people gave him and the huge fundraising power of the thousands of premies, especially the ashram premies who turned over all their income to his mission. We had festivals and kissed his feet on many occasions, and he danced in Krishna outfits while the premies went nuts. We got into his promise to bring peace to the entire, troubled world, and to save humanity from darkness. He claimed to be bringing the Millennium. He was worshipped and considered by a large number of premies as god, and it was a blatant devotional cult. In the late 70s Maharaji became especially paranoid that he would lose his devotees, because of the 'loosening' in 1976 and was very frustrated that the number of followers wasn't increasing, so he became very negative and began demanding total dedication and surrender in virtually every satsang he gave. And he started asking for grandiose and ridiculous things from the premies like a Boeing 707 jetliner, luxuriously refurbished by premies, at a cost of millions. I think he did these things to reinforce in his own mind that he really was the perfect master and to quell his own doubts. During this period he held darshan lines very frequently for the same reason and also to raise money.
As Maharaji got older he likely relized he wasn't god and that his powers were really quite limited, he was NOT going to bring peace to the world, he COULDN'T save humanity, he had no idea what to do with these devotees, but he was REALLY used to the luxurious lifestyle, and he really liked being worshipped, and he didn't want that to end. But he also knew that what he was running was an obvious cult and the tolerance for those things had changed from the more-liveral 70s. I mean Maharaji was no kid anymore. He was approaching 30.
But, instead of coming clean and being honest with the premies and the world, (and maybe himself) he just tried to tone it down to keep his good thing going, and hope no one would notice. No more ashrams, communities or nightly satsang. Just sell vidoes and make money off programs, and have fundraisers for toys he wants like planes. He tries to hide his past, and all the embarrassing cultish behavior, but underneath it all, nothing has really changed. He still has virtually no contact with his devotees, except at staged programs and through videos, otherwise the aura that he is something special would be lost. He still disdains his devotees, but he needs them, because without them he is nothing and is out of cash. He surrounds himself with people who never tell him a discouraging word, and if they do, he fires them. He likely sometimes still thinks he's god, and sometimes I think he doesn't. But he does think he's somebody super important and is just a little pissed that more people don't recognize him. But he continues to play on the desire of people to experience pure love, to know the truth and to sincerely be open to a spiritual guide. In short, he plays on the sincerity of people.
He uses the carrot of proximity to him as a reward and banishment as a punishment. [Seating at programs, 'special service' around him, etc.] He continues to refuse any accountability whatsoever, to talk to his critics or disgruntled ex-members, and refuses to talk to the press. He won't respond to letters from people who leave his cult and ask difficult questions. He just continues on, creating the illusion that he is someone special, when in reality he is just a rather odd man, with a really weird background.
To him, human beings are nothing. They are totally dispensible. If you lose one devotee, just con another one into getting involved. He tries to attract new followers by saying his trip is nothing more than a meditation program, but in reality it is about devotion to HIM, which is not disclosed to interested people. They are not told about darshan, they are not told about devotion, they are not told about his past and how he once claimed to be god. It is deceiftul, or in the least misleading. But his core group of followers is an aging group from the 70s, who still hold on to the beliefs that he is god and who want the devotional trip in full swing, like darshan and dancing. So, he gives it to them to keep them, and their donations, from splitting. I think that's why he just gave darshan in Australia. He won't even allow his followers to give satsang anymore and even tries to keep them from discussing him on the internet. He does not believe in democracy, or in two-way communication when it comes to him.
What I dislike most about him is his total lack of integrity. How he never gave a shit about people who devoted their lives and sacrificed for him. And for his downright awesome arrogance.