http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/95816.php
PEACE PARASITE CONVENES GATHERING AT IPSWICH CENTRE
by Darwin Friday September 23, 2005 at 11:38 PM
The one time Guru Maharaj Ji, who now presents himself as a suit wearing 'inspirational speaker' and meditation teacher will be regaling his adoring fans - they call themselves premies - this week at the $30 million dollar outback development of Amaroo.
This Friday (22/09/2005) followers of the one time Guru Maharj Ji who now goes by the name Maharaji or plain Prem Rawat will begin to gather for a week long get together at the Elan Vital organisation's Ivory's Rock Conference Centre which is located near Ipswich, Qld.
Rawat has put much effort into hiding his overtly religious past - a past that saw him play the role of 'god in human form' in his Divine Light Mission organisation of the 1970s and 1980s. Today Rawat's spiel involves many untestable claims about achieving Peace and he and his organisations, Elan Vital - which is simply the old Divine Light Mission with a new name and The Prem Rawat Foundation, have cynically tried to ally themselves with the United Nations in an effort to gain legitimacy. So intent on riding on the UN's coattails has Rawat been that his followers even set up a front organisation to run a sham UN 60th anniversary event in San Francisco earlier this year.
Despite all his efforts at being taken seriously by a new generation Rawat is facing serious embarrassment as his 'god incarnate' image has resurfaced with a vengeance. Freak Folk pioneer Devendra Banahrt, has featured a picture of the rotund Rawat dressed in full 'Krishna regalia' on the front of the just released Cripple Crow album. During the last three years Rawat's lawyers have tried to bury this Krishna picture and other damning images by using spurious copyright claims against websites critical of Rawat and his Elan Vital organisation where the images are carried as a reminder of Rawat's past.
Devendra Banhart:
http://www.younggodrecords.com/ArtistPress/PressDetail.asp?ArticleID=658&ArtistID=14
For the Cripple Crow cover - click for larger image at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000A78Z82/103-3501737-9615810?v=glance
And for a copy of the source image used on the Cripple Crow album cover:
http://gurumaharaji.info/