This is most interesting. I did not know this word neither about that letter he wrote to his administrators to "excommunicate" such important figures of his upbringing entourage... Do you know when he wrote this one?

I am wondering who gave him the necessary support to do this and carry on to move to the west. The money even?

On my first journey to India, in 1979/80 or maybe 78/79, I heard Rawat had a bad reputation. I did ask about him to the guys who were meditating with Goenka, who at the time was leading the retreats himself with wife.

Reason I did being that prior to this trip to India, I had met a premie who was really into it. He had taken me to a satsang evening in Southern France. I did not even sit thru the whole thing. Thought it was demented discourse. 

But I did like this friend.

In fact I had met a small group of premies. They were nice guys. 

I had left my job and life in Paris and was on my way to discover more about life and the world.

To make long story short, in India when I asked " have you heard about Maharaji? " those Goenka followers/meditators went into a rant.

According to them he was really bad because 

..he was fighting so bitterly with his family

...he was in USA

...he married an American

...he was eating meat

I have to admit I was not impressed by their arguments. I was not interested either in this maharaji but curious. Because of this friend who was mellow. I certainly did not have any prospect of joining. As a matter of fact, at that time, I was very much repelled by the idea of joining anything anybody. 

Even though I had the most incredible " experience " during and after a meditation retreat with Goenka, I refused to go to another, like his followers were doing. Because at the time I viewed as total nonsense the necessity to follow a guru to carry on with a blissful experience ( and yes that would have been my main motivation. I did like meditation with Goenka and " left my body" at the issue of the retreat and really digged that plus recovered a very heightened sense of bliss like one has sometimes as a kid.

 I was not into drugs..So that was really nice to get there! Well you know what they say in yoga, one should not seek these states for the sake of it )

Well fate got me at some next bend of the road! And with a guru who definitively was not on my preferred list of choices!