|
|
|
What evidence do you have that membership is crumbling so quickly?
|
|
|
|
Hello Ocker Yes loved that song too..for exactly the reason you state .. i.e. 'it being so sincere and silly '. ..more or less expresses everything that I first found so attractive about knowledge ... a soulful female voice, the hope of a simple accessible truth that could help anyone and everyone to experience true love and therefore bring about peace and brotherhood ...the fulfillment of the hippy dream (i.e. very much the 'peacenik' viewpoint in the Mike Finch premie classification scheme). Certainly dreams worthy of something better than TPRF 2007 and its tawdry little inspirational speaker. Anyway..back to the song. It helped that it was sung by a woman with an angelic voice (..someone will remember who). I think it was sung as least as far back as 1973. I bought a vinyl record sometime back then which had 'Lila' on it and a couple of other songs 'waiting the word of the master ...watching the hidden light'. I think 'Spread this knowledge' was also on that. May even still have it somewhere? .but it will take a big tidy up. best Tim
|
|
|
|
Hard to telll the full rate of decline, but without the endless round of satsangs and house meetings there seems to be less communication amd interaction between Premies so there is less pressure to stick around - with the Keys being the main way in and few being willing to watch 70 hours of the same stuff numbers seem likely to be dropping faster than they are growing - The Cagan book sales have slowed after an initial flourish of interest by the insiders so relying on that to bringthe punters flocking in is likely to be disappointing too. Ultimately, without some radical change of direction and pace my bet is that the cult is just about stuffed. There's stil life left in the old dog yet though, and too sudden a break up will leave a lot of shattered souls in need of support.
http://www.lulu.com/content/757452 My book on Maharaji - BRAINWASHED! A CULT SURVIVOR'S TALE
Arthur Chappell arthur@chappell7300.freeserve.co.uk
My Space. http://www.myspace.com/56954240
Web site www.arthurchappell.clara.net/
|
|
|
|
>Ultimately, without some radical change of direction and pace my bet is that the cult is just about stuffed.< I don't think you have quite a full picture of how the thing works. Rawat doesn't need a large following - if he did he wouldn't have spent the last 25 years doing sod all. What he needs is a well resourced following - and that is what he has got. For Rawat the business model is not 'we must grow' it's 'we must hold on to our core customers'. Of course like any business the international Conglomerate that services Rawat will always face some kind of competition but so long as the business maintains a good income stream, albeit from a reduced customer base, there is no threat to the overall operation. Of course this does not mean that Rawat will achieve any kind of prominence, and thankfully large numbers of new people are unlikely to sacrifice their time and wellbeing signing up to Rawatism. But the Elan Vital/ TPRF/Eversound operation will continue to provide Rawat with means to live a bloated and polluting existence. Nik
|
|
|
|
Hi Arthur,
I agree with your assessment but after all these years I can't imagine too much drop off from the long timers now unless there something dramatic occurs. They will undoubtedly continue to lose most of the newcomers but should be able to hold pretty steady overall. They "live in hope."
|
|
|
|
The woman who wrote and sang 'Spread this Knowlege' was Julia Howe. I knew her and her brother from '73 to '76.
|
|
|
|
Her name is almost identical to Julia Ward Howe who wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" that has the line "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord". Kabir
|
|
|
|
I loved the song. I think it was the musical background to the Darshan scene at Cuffley in the DLM film (no videos in those days) that came out after the Ally Pally Festival in 1973. I was really impressed and moved by those scenes of hippies holding flowers queueing up to kiss the feet.By then I had already been harangued with relentless satsang and by the time of that film I was surrendered and ready for knowledge.
|
|
|
|
The background to the darshan scene at London Guru Puja in in "Who is Guru Maharaj Ji" was "At the Feet of the Master."
|
|
|
|
Whether it was played subsequently in the film or not, it might have been appropriate.
Cuffley camp-site on darshan day was a remarkably beautiful situation, something like heaven on earth, as it seemed to me.
I was wandering about as an outsider, totally in my head, watching the beatific line stretching across the whole scenario, when Gurucharand exited from one of those long tents in which Knowledge was being given, raised up his saffron robe, smiled at me, and commenced to have a long apparently satisfying piss.
Thereafter, I was exiting the campsite, feeling I had done my duty as a sensible observer, when a couple of French premies I had encountered in Paris, encouraged me into joining the darshan line, even as an outsider.
I tagged along at the end, found myself in front of Maharaji, and bent to kiss his feet. Before I had got there - about an inch away - I felt something like a massive punch in my face, then, looking up, saw a great mass of electrical wave patterns which filled my vision, up to a vague horizon. He just wasn't there.
I was on my way out, when a massive rain shower erupted, and I stood in the lea of a tree clutching a stick of Guru Puja rock.
This is quite interesting, in that the Vicar of Cuffley had a meeting with Prem at the time, and reported that he was quite ordinary, and there was nothing about him which merited him being regarded as a new Christ, and, furthermore, he prophesised a future fallout of totally sad dimensions for all involved.
So what do we make of all this?
I think that Prem was a channel of power, of love, but he was obviously not the Lord. No, it was a massive hype which many of us, including he, subscribed to.
However, that particular day remains in my memory as something quite remarkable and pure, despite later happenings, and one in which Spread This Knowledge was probably totally appropriate, in that we all felt unindated by love, which came maybe from the better side of him, plus our natural response, and we all felt that, in feeling such love, anything may be possible.
Modified by anthony at Fri, Mar 30, 2007, 15:35:09
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the reply Anthony.I agree with much of what you say....but I have a tendency to give Rawat less of the credit (depending on the day and my mood at the time!). You say.... "I think that Prem was a channel of power, of love, but he was obviously not the Lord. No, it was a massive hype which many of us, including he, subscribed to." Which is rather contradictory.Either he was "a channel of power and love" OR it was a "hype".Not both at the same time ,surely? .....I am gradually accepting that the "power and love" was, and will always be, our very own. At the very most the more positive and loving of his utterances, and those of the premies in satsang, simply reminded us of our own beauty and decency.
Thanks to Joe for remembering that film more accurately than I. I still have a recollection of "Spread this Knowledge" in some film or other?? best wishes, Lexy.
Modified by lexy at Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 11:24:22
|
|
|
|
Hi, Lexy.
When I say 'hype' I mean the LOTU aspect.
The other part, power and love, yes I believe he was a channel for that, although energy might be a better word than power, I'm not sure.
Certainly, I think that the decency and love you speak of us finding together in satsang was very real and true.
This was the experience of the natural love inside being placed into a human context.
The problem with Prem IMO is that the natural love he expressed and channelled, and which we often felt with him, was basically associated with the idea of him being the unique origin of the same and the feeling to many of us that he was always, or very often, someone to be feared, and a fickle person who could make our lives beautiful or dreadful according to his whim (feelings of total failure and inadequacy, etc.).
Consequently the experience of Knowledge for many was at its best that of a deep-rooted sense of love and being cared for inside, plus the humanity you describe at local level, along with the other quite inhumane aspect.
The task to me seems to be able to strip away that layer of
fiction regarding the Perfect Master, which goes back ages, and is/was highly seductive as an idea, to the idea of some universal love which we are all part of, and which nurtures us, and, again IMO, which guides us if we listen inside ourselves for answers.
Certainly, anyone who sits in front of others and channels love, which is the best way in which I can understand it, but who claims to be the owner of the same, is deeply deluded, and seems to me will inevitably have to suffer the consequences of their delusion, which, again, will probably take the form of depression and ugly forms of egomania.
However, not to leave this post on any negative theme, I do think, as I say, that when we abandon the weird superstructures we have had placed upon it, that that internal (universal?) love remains resplendent, and does furnish us with all the necessary answers, if we listen quietly inside.
Modified by anthony at Sun, Apr 01, 2007, 14:40:32
|
|
|
