It does seem a low figure.

These are good questions for them to clarify.

Furthermore, any foundation which wants to keep it's credibility should explain and post these figures, in order to maintain (or in rawat's case, gain) credibility.

Premie monitors, perhaps your lord can help explain?

In any 'normal' fundraising event the net costs are established at the outset and are either 'underwritten' by sponsors or deducted from the total raised - that almost never leaves an exact amount of money. Perhaps the take was even less and TPRF bumped it up to something that sounds half respectable.

For a 5,000 seat auditorium $25,000 is a pathetic amount and suggests the whole thing was serious misjudgment - 600 attendees paying $50 each would have raised $30,000 - a venue for 600 would have cost less than $5,000 - so a smaller, more targetted option would have achieved a better outcome - if raising money was the point of the exercise. Of course it wasn't - it was simply another Rawat promo set on the back of the World Food Programme.

Rawat truly is a parasite.

N

I just got back from a fundraising event in aid of tsunami victims in the Civic Hall in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a concert put on by local primary school children, & god was it boring. I only went because my daughter was taking part.

The 420 seater hall which the Civic Hall Trust had provided free, wasn't completely full. The MC was the actor who plays Flitch in the Harry Potter films, & who livened the proceedings up by doing a reasonable Elvis impersonation (voicewise only); the food during the intermission was provided by volunteers; the 70 or so kids( they were also volunteers btw) were wearing t-shirts printed up & donated by a local company; the programmes were provided at cost by another local company; the bar profits went into the pot too.

There was no ticket price,just buckets at the door for donations going out. I popped mine into the bucket which the Lord Mayor was holding, & there were plenty of notes in there. The smallest note in England is worth around $8.

I'd be very surprised if the take was less than £3000/$5000, it could quite easily be double that.

So if fewer than 400 doting parents/aunts/uncles etc can raise that amount, God is really having a bad day with his poxy $25,000.

OTS,

I think that for a lot of us who got involved in the 70s we wanted to help make the World a better place that it is very frustrating and galling to see the games that Maharaji is playing today as you point out.

But, I think that all of ex-premies who 'participate' in a grass roots effort of providing the real truth can feel that to some degree we are successful in our efforts when we see someone like RJChinook come to this forum and tell us that because of our websites and because of this forum she avoided getting sucked into Maharaji's cult.

I think that says a lot.  And it's all of us that make a difference.  It's not just the websites with pictures and a lot of words.  Sure, they're convincing, but, IMO, what is more convincing is the real live testimony that goes on at this forum that is the real message.  This forum is real people speaking from their experience.  There's nothing more powerful.

And, just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if the premie website Enjoying Life with Knowledge (ELK) was shut down because the personal experiences that were voiced by premies was confusing and contrary to what Maharaji wants the public to see.  Also, I think it was shut down because the premie testimony was incredibly lame and anybody who reads that stuff and then what people are saying here are going to know it's a mind numbing cult.

OTS-

I agree, prem doesn't seem to let up, kind of like the energizer bunny, he seems to keep on going, but I think there's a lot more behind the scenes that we don't see. A few points to consider:

-EPO and the other related websites are powerful, and are having an effect, although it's effects are mostly with aspirants, not old time premies....but stopping propagation is what will  eventually "starve the beast" and prem rawat and his minions know that.....almost everyone these days does an internet search on anything they might check out for any reason, and it's hard to ignore EPO.....when an aspirant does check it out, and question a premie about it, the premies denial or lack of meaningful response speaks volumes to the issue and raises further doubts...

-even old time premies, like many of us here, DID leave, just in the past few years, precisely because of EPO......I think EPO has created a sort of dividng line for old premies, in that it allowed a lot of us access to the inner workings of what rawat really does, and allowed us to finallly think for ourselves by showing the "hidden side' and encouraging dialogue and debate which was never publicly shown or tolerated before...the "lifers" will stay, and pride themselves in some wierd way on having the tenacity to survive another 'test of faith" like EPO...I say, let them stay, if that's what they want-it's their trap and they need it for some wierd reason...

-rawat is ADDICTED to being on stage, admired, listened to, and adored. He can't do without it, and it's getting harder and harder for him to get around the world to do so....also, when he can't personally fly his own jet anymore, due to finances or health, he will probably be far less inclined to travel.....without the props of hundreds or thousands of staring eyes in the audinece, he looks absolutely pathetic-remember the one video feed he did from his mcmansion?-he was absolutely depressed and it showed....without the stage performance, he is nothing, and pitiful to look at....

-his message is NOT unique, although it MAY be "singular in purpose" (whatever the hell that means...)...what I'm saying is that EVERYONE says the answer is within, and EVERYONE can proscribe a set of meditation techniques.....it's simply a personality cult, and I can't imagine ANYONE following the next "master", whether it is Daya, charanand, or anyone.....I think he's playing this out as long as his body holds up, and with his lifestyle and health issues, I don't think it's going to be too much longer.....really, when you look at what he offers, which is 4 techniques you can read about online, and his silly discourses, most people just say "where's the beef?"...

-I think EPO popped up at PRECISELY the time (5 years ago or so?) that rawat was attempting his big "comeback"....premies like myself were eagerly awaiting this "comeback' where the "world" would recognize him, and rather than prem being greeted as a "great master with a global message", he has been mocked, ridiculed, challenged and lost legal cases and arguments again and again....he has gotten bad publicity, except for the phony self-generated type of pr that his organization attempts...he has shown himself to be a petty, mean spirited, insecure man who will go to great lengths of revenge against former followers to avoid looking at the mess he has created and lives he has stolen...

-I think the pr campaign, the deception, the constant touring etc. is relentless, but I think it brings in very little new blood.....I think with all factors considered, rawat knows that the flock is dwindling, there are doubts amongst even the old time faithful (which cause things like donations to continue, but decrease, as premies entertain doubts, but still give something "just in case"(premie insurance), and there is very little, if any new response to him...if there is, it is not very passionate either, hardly anything he can work with....

No, I think he's on his last legs, will go down with the ship of  fools devoted to him, and hopes that when he can't do it anymore, premies will continue the myth of the master who gave his all to save the world, but the world was too busy to hear, too blind to see....

I'm not worrying about him anymore, just kind of interested to see the last days of a dying cult, and the desparate attempts to salvage something from it...

That explains it.

Ted Levitt is an old, old, premie.  He was always a nice guy from what I saw, he was a DLM bureaucrat, somewhat like me.  He bacame community coordinator in Miami for Elan Vital in 1980, when I got sent to San Francisco.

Here is a funny story I remember about Ted.  In 1980 or so, at some festival, the community coordinators were meeting and in that meeting with great fanfare, it was announced that Ted Levitt was not promoted to the position of:

HONEY OAT BAR COORDINATOR FOR THE UNITED STATES

Even at the time, as a truely indoctrinated cult member, I almost had to leave the room because I was laughing.  It just struck me as really funny.

So, Ted if you are reading this, and we know that you are, hi to you and yours, and it seems you have moved up in the world, from coordinating peanut butter cookies to working at MDC and getting Rawat an event.  I am, like, so impressed!