Hi Dermot

It sure would be a laugh to once again go to a program.  When I first exed I did go to a few programs where Charanand attended.  I went out of interest and I was deeply shocked at the sheer 'fawning' that was occurring.  Both to Charanand but particularly to Rawat.  Once it was round about his birthday time and the person MC'ing the meeting got everyone to stand up and sing 'happy birthday' to a picture of Rawat - twice!  This was in 2001 or therabouts.

The various meetings I went to were all just for premies and nothing was subtle at all.  It was out and out devotion to Rawat and nothing else.  There was zero discussion in those meetings about how best to practice K, what it meant to practice K, what the aims of meditation were, stuff like that.  Everything was focussed on Rawat, how to get him to come to the UK, how to please him, what he was doing, what his plans were, him him him.  This was interspersed by various videos, again slow mo shots of him in various situations. 100% focus on Rawat, nothing else.

Having said that I do detect that even the long time committed premies are coming to terms with the fact that Rawat is getting quite a lot of opposition. This perspective is based purely on recent personal anecdotal evidence.  I was at a large party recently where there were 3 groups of people who all, by and large, knew each other.  Premies, exes and just ordinary people (who generally were aware of Rawat and the cult). Both the premies and exes all knew where each other stood and generally did not broach the Rawat subject too much. For me it kind of felt like the premies, who wanted to remain committed to being premies now accepted that many former premies (friends for several decades for many) are now exes and there was now no point in being upset about it.  When the subject of Rawat came up there was a mutual unspoken understanding not to push it.  So, in many ways things I think have changed quite a lot.  Compare this to a few years ago.  If the subject of Rawat was brought up at all in anything other than highly positive terms then silence and alienation would ensure.

Interestingly, when chatting to some of the never have been premies at that party who knew about Rawat, they were absolutely amazed that anyone could ever have followed Maharaji but even more so now still following Maharaji. In the past if one ever discussed Rawat with someone who was familiar with him they would be pretty agnostic about Rawat.  Now it seems like people who know about Rawat recognise what he is all about - a cult leader.

So I think things are slowly changing, for the better. 

T