How he met Marolyn and how this is what caused the Holy Family to break up. From this perspective, it was Rawat who wanted to reconcile with the family, but according to Dettmers, Maharaji intentionally decided to marry while he was still legally a child because it would drive Mata Ji away and give him control of DLM in the West.
I note also that in Rawat's entire biography and "the man behind the message," the ashrams are never mentioned, nor the people who devoted their lives to him. It's like he had nothing to do with it. There are extensive paragraphs on Rawat learning to fly a plane, but the devotees are apparently a lot less important to "the man behind the message" than flying is. Typical, no? He really didn't give a shit about us, did he?
At age 15 Maharaji fell in love. Marolyn Johnson was a student of Maharaji's teachings and worked as a flight attendant. They first met when Maharaji was a passenger on one of her flights and a romance developed.
At the time the organization promoting his teaching was seen as one of the fastest growing movements of its kind in America, if not the world. Maharaji wanted to concentrate on his teaching but was increasingly required to consider the practical aspects of responding to the growing number of requests from around the world asking him to come and speak. Now added to this he was maintaining a discreet romantic liaison right under the noses of a family that would certainly disapprove of such a relationship on grounds of race and caste.
The matter finally came to a head when in May 1974, aged 16, he married Marolyn. At twenty-four, she was eight years his senior. For his mother, this was the final straw. She accused her youngest son of betraying every tradition she held sacred. She disowned him and returned to India. Once there she helped his elder brother start a separate movement. The strain of this rift with his family took its toll on Maharaji's health. He offered reconciliation with his family, an offer which was never accepted.
