Hi,

I'm Rick who used to post on Forum 2 and 3.  I haven't had anything relevant to say concerning maharaji for eons, but recently I've noticed something odd.  The last dozen or so new people I've met don't know who the 13-year old boy guru was.  These are people old enough to have been around during those times, and I mention maharaji to describe the significance of my contact with his organization. 

Somehow I remember people knowing who he was, and the info that I was a premie told them alot about me very quickly.  I could cut to the chase about other personal stories and characteristics, once they knew I'd been a premie during the mid-seventies through early eighties.

Now I seem to be getting blank stares; perhaps a dozen in the last three months.  Trying to start from the beginning and explain who maharaji was, what he did, and what state of mind I was in to be involved with him, is a major undertaking.  I've yet to come up with the energy to explain it to anyone who wasn't already familiar.  It's like saying, "John has brown hair," and then being asked, "What's hair?"  You just want to say, "Never mind," and move onto another subject that can deliver more bang for the buck.

So, I'm a bit confused, because I thought the 13 year old boy guru was as recognizable as Timothy Leary or Nixon, to anyone who lived through that era.  Perhaps I've just coincidentally met the few people who never heard of maharaji.  Perhaps maharaji seemed more of an icon than he really was.  Maybe his schtick just didn't have staying power, and it was good for a twenty year memory that has now been dumped into the ethers.

Anyway, it would make it simpler if people remembered because then I could explain a plethora of idiosyncrasies in one sentence.  I could quickly admit to have been a specific kind of idiot for a period of time in just a few words.  Now I just have to describe myself  as having spent some time in a "cult," which is as generic as saying I used to live in a "city."  Mention "New York" or "San Francisco" and a whole story has been transmitted.  Oh well.