Over the years I have seen this discussed quite a lot, and despite the premie/Elan Vital lies that ex-premies are just playing the blame game, want to be victims, and are just blaming Rawat for their own problems, by and large ex-premies do accept responsibility for their own actions.  But Rawat has responsibility too, and he takes ZERO.  That's the problem.

For example, after a lot of self-searching, I realize that I was pretty stupid in accepting on faith the stuff Rawat was saying about not having doubts and having faith, before I was allowed to receive knowledge.  Most of the people who got involved in the Rawat cult were smart people, they were also very sincere, but perhaps a bit gullible.  I think I wanted the fairly tale being presented to be true so much, that I repressed my own judgment and values.  I take responsibility for that. 

I also stayed in the cult too long, despite being very unhappy and feeling very stifled and suffocated, because I bought Rawat's sick and dysfunctional Hindi-based belief system that my mind was the enemy and that if I surrendered to him, he and his "grace" would take care of everything.  Accordingly, I spent a lot of energy trying to ignore what my own judgment and values were telling me.  It was, in many ways, a very self-destructive activity.

So, see, I openly admit my grevious fault and I take responsibility for it.

But Prem Rawat has taken no respsonsibility, and what he did was many, many times worse.  He lied, he didn't give a shit about people who believed in him, he took financial and personal advantage of people, he used mind games to keep people dependent on him, apparently just for the money and so he could feel special and be worshipped.  And these days, he compounds more lies on top of it all, by trying to say that events that happened and things he said and did, actually never happened.  I mean, the guy has a lot to answer for. Lots, huge amounts. 

One way that I feel I can take responsibility for what happened to me in the cult, and how I was ripped off, is to talk about it publicly, and to do what little I can to try to hold Rawat responsible for what he did.  It would be irresponsible, in my opinion, to just chalk it up to how "life sucks" and walk away and just forget about it.  In that way, I feel I can make something positive out of a very negative situation.  I can also try to help in telling other people to avoid getting involved with Rawat so they don't end up with the same problems I did.  As an ex-premie, I'm in a unique position to do that, because ex-premies know all the lingo, where a lot of the bodies are buried, and can't be fooled by Elan Vital spin and propaganda.

By the way, that's what is so excellent about the new website at www.prem-rawat-maharaji.info   It just cuts through the propaganda so well.  One wonders if EV will drop all the "hate group" allegations from its websites, considering how idiotic, and how much like a cult, it makes EV look.  I think the website deals with that very well also, just by telling the truth and laying it out.  On the one hand, ex-premies have a lot of criticism and allegations about Rawat, as described on the website.  The response of Elan Vital is that ex-premies are mentally defective and are in a hate group.  The stark contrast is impressive.

But in the end, I also have the responsibility to take care of myself.  So, being an ex-premie isn't a big cause for me, it's more like one of my many interests I have.  I personally feel balance in life is important.  Also, I find this whole cult/ex-cult phenomenon very interesting (at times at least) and often extremely entertaining.