However, as I remember it, it was certainly an accepted among the early premie community that Maharaji had received K when a child and realised it about 24 hours later.

It's difficult if not impossible to try to enter the head of someone who could deliver the Peace Bomb in Nov 1970, yet also had a problem with alcohol.

I can only imagine he was having some greatly remarkable experience which was fortified by others around him into believing he was the fount of the same experience. He had been vaunted since birth into being the Greatest Incarnation, and so came to accept this intrinsically.

The phenomenon of remarkable people who have divinity thrust onto them is apparently not restricted to Maharaji. I was completely gob-smacked 2 or 3 years ago to see on TV someone who looked very like an older version of Mohani Bai (is that the right name - the young beautiful mahatma of M from the early 70s?) seated in front of a darshan queue in India. A couple of hippie western girls, eerily like our generation back then, were interviewed just after leaving the line.
Completely mind-blown, they were saying stuff like: 'Wow, if we feel like this, then what does that make her??'

The way I see things now, I don't personally think that there has ever been the phenomenon in this world of a 'completely realised soul', one who is both God and perfect human. I would be greatly surprised to think so. I don't think this even registers on the human scale.

I think, however, there have been greatly inspiring people here and there who have overcome much of their lower impulses to become great channels of love to others. By this I mean people whose first response isn't from the more selfish side of themselves but from love towards others. In normal life we meet such people, in various gradations.
Certainly, I don't think humans ever 'overcome' the basic human makeup (is this even desirable?) but can come to see love for others as much preferable to trying to outdo one another. That love and compassion without wimpishness are usually better than ego competition.

I suppose that Maharaji began in such a more evolved mode, and gradually descended back into much ego-centredness through being accorded the unquestionable devotion and respect he was.

In any case, it seems to me that any true 'spiritual' growth is connected with a degree of humility, and Maharaji has blown that on numerous occasions.

It is small wonder that, looking at premie society, we see very little of 'advanced' souls, people who stand out as being above and beyond the generality of humanity. Many of them are desperately trying to hang onto some experience, and long ago abandoned the notion of anything more 'evolved'.

This doesn't mean most premies are bad people. A lot are naturally kind, and of good will to others. But I suppose that, from the queer mixed messages they have received over time, their basic goodness and ideals are often compromised by the changing example displayed by the Master.

Maharaji's statement that he is not a realised soul is a confession of his own humanity, and very contradictory internal impulses.

It's also another baffling indication to premies that Prem never was that elusive totally God and totally human myth.

I'm glad personally not to have to confront all this any longer (I'm just turning this over now because of the posts in this thread, and wouldn't present any of this as more than personal conjecture).

It seems to me, at the end of day, however, that in life there is always some degree of competition with others, if only to protect our own right of self-fulfilment. But the impulse towards being caring and loving towards one another, of mutually raising one another rather than finding some temporary gain through defeating others, seems more wholesome, honest and self-fulfilling than other options.