Prem Rawat Maharaji Biography Page 8

In Nairobi he stayed with an Indian family. Prem Rawat later recalled, "They had a very large household and when I started talking to one of their black servants the owners got upset." "You're not supposed to talk to the servants," they told him. Prem Rawat replied, "He's a human being, isn't he? What's wrong with talking to him? I want to know how he lives, how he survives." ( p175, Peace is Possible, by Cagan )

By the end of 1972, permanent accommodation had been established for him in London and Los Angeles. An organizational structure emerged with the formation of separate Divine Light Missions, registered and incorporated in several western countries, as well as the establishment of ashrams (shelters).

Many who had rejected the social norms of the time were willing to give up their bohemian lifestyle in favor of the monastic life that the ashrams provided, and ashrams mushroomed around the world. They had been a very successful focus for his father’s work in India, providing an environment in which residents could optimize their practice of Knowledge.

In the west, the ashrams began to attract criticism. Some people felt that residents were allowing a religious lifestyle to compromise their effectiveness in supporting Prem Rawat’s work. Some residents found the ashram life was not for them and moved out. Most former residents now look back on their ashram days as a great opportunity to ground themselves in the practice of what they had been taught.

In 1983, he decided to close the ashrams and dissolve the Divine Light Mission. He had become openly critical of the bureaucracy that had developed, describing it as "…like trying to take a cow and put lipstick on it. You can do it, but it's unnecessary in practical terms". During the next two decades, he made many organizational changes to provide a better support base for his work and to simplify the process for aspiring students. However, the core of his teaching remains unchanged: four practical ways to enter a dimension of the heart.

In 1973, 20,000 students attended a program at the Houston Astrodome in Texas, U.S.A. It was promoted as the Millennium Festival, invoking a New Age and also attracting Christian protestors, but Prem Rawat’s students were doing all they could to get their teacher noticed. In Australia that year, following his first 1972 visit, they conducted a controversial and rather outrageous campaign, which they called the Second Coming. Media attention naturally followed, and perhaps wisely, Prem Rawat chose not to visit Australia that year.