Prem Rawat Maharaji Biography Page 12

His successor was Michael Dettmers, who said that Prem Rawat asked for a message to be sent to Bob saying, “The door that you walked out through goes both ways; you are always welcome to walk back through it.” It was sad, because Prem and Bob had enjoyed a good relationship. After his departure in late 1976, Mishler became increasingly bitter, making bizarre, unsubstantiated claims. Four years later Mishler and his wife died tragically in an air crash in the French West Indies.

By 1975, Knowledge had spread to 58 countries, but reports suggested that some of the instructors trained by Prem Rawat's mother, Mata Ji, had been teaching variants of the techniques of Knowledge. The problem may have been in part due to their poor command of English. Prem Rawat began training western instructors, and in July 1975, the first four non-Indian instructors were appointed and began traveling internationally. During the same month he held a 3 day event in Venezuela, a relatively safe haven from the political turmoil that gripped much of South America at that time. His speaking engagements that year included events in Nepal, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Malibu, Denver, Boulder, Essen, London and Sydney. In Orlando, Florida,there was an outdoor event for 8,000 people.

In February 1976, his address to members of congress in Washington, D.C. was included permanently in the Congressional Record. His event schedule included a European tour with a national coordinators meeting in Essen, Germany, and another event in Sydney, Australia.

The following year he did an extensive tour of North America, including multi-day events and an outdoor event in Miami. He also conducted seven training sessions for new instructors. In London, he did an event for 10,500 people. In Europe, his schedule included an event in Spain and a 5 day international event at Rome's Palazzo dello Sport for 14,500 people.

Events continued in 1978. The climax was a multi-day “Hans Jayanti” event in November at an outdoor location in Kissimmee, Florida. More than 20,000 people attended from all over the world.