I agree with you that Maharaji has charisma, or at least, for my 30 years as a premie I thought so. And I think that is the point, as people have said in response to you, that 'charisma' is a subjective quality - many people who are commonly thought to have 'charisma' (like Anthony Robbins for instance) strike me as just acting, and acting badly.

And yes, also Maharaji is talking about a fairly common belief structure that people have, that there is some glorious state of enlgihtenment somewhere and I am prevented from attaining it because of my own human frailty and general incompetence. Therefore I need a helping hand, and there he is right there to provide it. It can be a comforting message.

But now I have extricated myself from his influence, and I no longer see him as my savior, giving me the grace to go beyond my doubtmaking mind and realise the Knowledge, then I don't see him as charismatic at all, and that he and his followers fulfill all the definitions of a cult.

As Jim said, if you are a premie, or would-be premie, for whom Maharaji is up on a pedestal, then it is hard to break out from the spell. It certainly was for me, and for most other ex-premies I know.

The fact is that it is a cult, by any normal usage of the word. I think rather than the words used to talk to current premies, it is more the tone that is important. It is easy to get into a metaphorical shouting match, with premies and ex-premies swapping expletives. I empathise very much with premies - both with their desire to want to realise some kind of 'truth', and with their looking to Maharaji to provide the grace to do so.

However, you can separate the two out, and reject Maharaji totally while still maintaining there is something worthwhile to discover about yourself.

For myself, whatever the answers are, or even if there are no answers, it is still a million times better to move outside Maharaji's shadow, and face yourself and the universe with no intermediary or broker in between.