Prem Rawat Maharaji Biography Page 9

Joan Apter, one of the first westerners to arrive at Deradune (Prem Rawat's childhood home in India) described his mother, Mata Ji, as "... a loving woman, a unique personality type," but observed that she "held on to her Hindu culture above loyalty to her family." Another person who stayed at Deradune described her as, "... an ultra-orthodox, old-guard Hindu lady with clear ethnic and religious biases." Prem Rawat and Raja Ji, Mata Ji's two youngest sons, were becoming westernized, and Raja Ji was engaged to a German woman. Mata Ji was devastated: from her point of view, marriage outside Hindu tradition was blasphemy. The situation had become volatile, but worse was to come. Mata Ji had been unaware of the deepening relationship between Prem Rawat and Marolyn Johnson, a young American airline stewardess who was also one of Prem Rawat's students.

They had first met in mid 1973, when Marolyn arrived with a gift of sweets at the house in which Prem Rawat was staying. He had just arrived back in the US after a lengthy speaking tour. Prem Rawat smiled and said, "You look like an airline stewardess." "I am," she replied.

They met again by chance a week later on a flight to Chicago. Marolyn recalls, "I used to carry a picture of him with me, and I felt that I truly loved him from a place deep inside. I didn't know him yet as the fun, engaging, enjoyable human being that he was, but I was in heaven after that encounter." (pp187-188 Peace is Possible by Andrea Cagan). By early 1974, Prem Rawat and Marolyn were engaged to be married. Mata Ji would never have allowed the marriage, so in April of that year Prem Rawat successfully applied to become an 'emancipated minor' in the US. He was 16 years old.

Raja Ji and Claudia were the first to marry. Relations within Prem Rawat's family sank to a new low, and in early 1974, his mother, his eldest brother, and an entourage of Indian instructors returned to India.

Prem Rawat and Marolyn were married on May 20, 1974, at the Rockland Community Church, Colorado. For Prem Rawat's friends and students it was a time of joyous celebration. For his mother and eldest brother, Sat Pal (Bal Bagwan Ji), it must have been a time of bitterness. To compound the problem, Sat Pal apparently thought that he should have been the one to continue as Shri Hans' successor. Unfazed, Prem Rawat and Marolyn flew to Europe.