I don't know what the point of them were -- except to show some kind of dogged determination to surrender.  The Initiators were pushing them for awhile, and I take it Maharaji said he liked them or something, so they happened.

Meditation was a kind of sensory deprivation, and I think that's why people had "experiences" sometimes.  That, and loss of blood to the lower extremities gave some kind of "experience."

I don't know how many thousands of hours I sat on the floor cross-legged in meditation and during satsang.  Years later a doctor told me that probably did a lot of damage to my lower back, due to the way one hunched forward in that position.

And with respect to the "labor" meditations, there was this vibe or this implication that somehow it would help if Rawat's devotees were all trying to merge with cosmic bliss while the baby was riding down the birth canal.  There was some point to it, although I never knew what it was explicitly.  Rawat said to do it, so we did.

Then, of course, he used to parade around his kids on stage for all of us to admire, devout family man that he wanted us to believe he was.