Hi Songster:

You raise a good point because one of the key ways of getting around the way the Rawat cult abuses language to deceive people is to always call things exactly what they are -- or at least to try to do that as much as possible.  This is why I started using the word "cult" to describe the Rawat cult, because the restrictive, circular thinking and blindspots that are evident in people like Eileen and Ghi who post here, are the essence of it all, and that's the essence of what a cult is.  It's only by self-censorship and control of thoughts that people can remain premies considering the vast information available demonstrating that Rawat isn't who he claims to be, etc.

The reason I have used the term "personality cult" is, again, because that's exactly what it is, and the reason I use it is because the cult tries to say in its PR spin for public consumption that Rawat is just an inspirational speaker and that's it, when, in essence, for premies who remain premies, Rawat is the whole deal, he is a divine being to be worshipped, and the meditation techniques are at at best secondary, and I think many premies hardly ever even practice them.  For them, it is entirely a personality cult.

I think in most personality cults the members don't spend time around the cult leader.  If they did, many more would get disillusioned.  It's easier to maintain an aura of specialness by keeping some distance and so Maharaji mostly only is in contact with premies in very controlled situations which strongly imply that Rawat is a divine being, without actually saying it. So, he sits high up on a stage, with all kinds of special lighting, devotional music, with groupthink, group-high characteristics, etc.