perhaps it could be called the super devotional period?

I think, and this is certainly true for me and many others I know, that this hard on Satguru phase turned lots of people off and which led directly to the 'spaced-out' eighties.  Perhaps it was a combination of things, the turn off of the emphasis that Maharaji made on surrender and devotion as well as the need for many to grow up (as in getting their lives together) as well as simply needing to explore things of the 'world'.  After all for many premies, the whole of the 70s represented a deprived time, what with being incarcerated in ashrams, going to satsang every evening and generally being totally focussed on Maharaji and his whims.

I think that a lot of premies fell away during the 80s period and never returned, some of us were the fools and stayed around, but of course we did not think of it that way at the time.

I also think that Maharaji, or certainly people around him that were able to influence him (limited as that may have been) realised that the super devotional period was a big turn off and this resulted, in part, in Maharaji toning down this aspect to be able to garner new recruits into his cult.  Of course he does not see it as a cult, I think he geniuenly believed and still does that he is someone 'special' and able to help others, mixed in of course with his need to retain his earthly trappings.

T