Maharaji's elder brother, Satpal Maharaj, has been donating to good causes for a long time now in his own name, although the money has come from his devotees, of course.

It looks good when it appears in the Indian press that Satpal Maharaj donated x amount of rupees to some worthy cause.  It looks good for Satpal and makes him appear as a benevolent humanitarian.

What is surprising is that it's taken Prem Rawat so long to copy this idea but now he has he can write all over the internet that the Prem Rawat Foundation has donated money to this or that worthy cause.  What he should be saying is that devotees have donated to this or that worthy cause.

When "Live Aid" was happening to help the starving people in Ethiopia, it would have been ridiculous for the organiser, Bob Geldof, to have claimed that he had donated millions of dollars to help the starving people in Ethiopia.  Yet that essentially is what Rawat is doing.