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Date:

 Saturday, June 7, 2003

From:

 Thorin

Email:

To:

 Everyone

Subject:

 Controversy Over Colston Hall Dates By Ex-Guru
Message:

Controversy Over Colston Hall Dates By Ex-Guru.

354 words
6 June 2003
Bristol Evening Post
3
English
Copyright (c) 2003 Bristol Evening Post & Press Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

A Controversial organisation has booked Bristol's Colston Hall for a weekend of events when they will attempt to recruit new members.

Elan Vital is charging people �16 per day to attend its events at the Bristol City Council-owned venue on Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15.

The audience will be addressed by Prem Rawat, who is billed as a motivational speaker.

Mr Rawat used to be known as the Guru Maharaji, and Elan Vital as the Divine Light Mission.

Founded in India, the Divine Light Mission established itself in the US and Europe in the 1970s. At the time, the media dubbed Mr Rawat 'The Boy Guru' and his organisation attracted widespread publicity and controversy.Mr Rawat has been accused of using money gained through the organisation to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Ian Haworth, from educational charity Cult Information Centre, said: "We remain very concerned about this group and their activities.

"I have received complaints about this group for most of the 24 years that I've been working full-time in this field.

"I can understand why the council would rent the venue out to them, but I think it would be better if they did say no." An Elan Vital representative said: "We would like to counter the suggestion that this is a religious movement. Prem Rawat teaches no code, creed or dogma. He merely teaches a practical path to inner happiness.

"Prem Rawat receives no fee or remuneration from his speaking engagements other than reimbursed travel expenses.

"As a successful private investor he supports himself and his family through independent means. He lives a comfortable life and makes no secrets about it." The spokesperson said: "The event has sold out rapidly. There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from the Bristol area." A City Council spokesman said: "It's a private letting and we're not advertising or promoting it. As long as they pay the bill and they're not doing anything criminal or in breach of the letting conditions we don't mind what they get up to."

______________________

This is the Cult Information Centre main home page.

http://www.cultinformation.org.uk/home.html

This is what the Cult Information Centre has on Rawat.

http://www.cultinformation.org.uk/links.html#elan

And here is the link for above article on Bristol Evening Post's website:

http://www.epost.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=69368&command=displayContent&sourceNode=68920&contentPK=5918057

Here is the contact page for Bristol Evening Post

http://www.epost.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=69104&command=newPage
 
 

Date:

 Saturday, June 7, 2003

From:

 Samady

Email:

To:

 Everyone

Subject:

 A Motivational Speaker of Independent Means
Message:

"The audience will be addressed by Prem Rawat, who is billed as a motivational speaker."

whaaaa....?

"As a successful private investor he supports himself and his family through independent means."

huh.....? 

"He lives a comfortable life and makes no secrets about it."

d'oh!#@!8!!

At least he's doing better than the late Chris Farley of Saturday Night Live, whose motivational speaker character lived in a van down by the river!

Does anyone even recognize the person we knew and loved as Maharaji from the above advertisements and PR statements?  I don't. 

It would be interesting to see a two column piece (FA? Roger?) with his present claims on one side and his original bait that he snagged so many of us with from the 70's to the 90's on the other.  Maybe make that an open letter to him asking for some sort of accounting for his early claims and the donations (including interest) that he got directly from making those divinely-related claims.

The present PR makes no mention of how he got his seed money to begin his financial career on the backs of people he had convinced he was the Messiah (let's not mince words here, a vast majority of the old timers believed and still do that he is the Incarnation of this age, in very large part because of the way that he came on to us and all his media indicated overtly and covertly).

He makes no secret of his 'comfortable life', but he sure does want to make a secret of how he got there, eh what?

That's what I call 'chutzpah'!

(yiddish for 'in-your-face nerve')

I wonder how his family members really feel about all this.  Maybe they are all happy as long as the Arminis and the Valentinos and the cars keep on comin' in.  Maybe they are afraid of saying how they really feel for some reason.  Or maybe they are so spoiled from living the high life they have lost touch with the 'little people', the ones who helped get him off the ground financially, including us.           

  On Choosing a Motivational Speaker

 Do you kiss the feet of your motivational speaker?  Why?

Did you ever?  Why? 

Do you bow down to him?  Why?

Did you ever?  Why?

Do you sing songs to your motivational speaker glorifying him as the superior power in person?  Why?

Did you ever?  Why?

If Prem Rawat wants to change careers from Messiah to motivational speaker, fine.  But don't anyone go telling me that he is doing the same gig he was doing when I met him in the name of spreading Knowledge.  Shape shifting right in front of us and the whole world, and he knows he can count on the world being so overampped with sensory overload that he can do and say pretty much anything he wants without much scrutiny, and the law of averages will still give him enough seeking, semi-conscious people to have as a base if he gets in front of enough people.... 

Son of a gun, he IS a successful businessman!

But that is not who he said he was, nor was that his stated mission and what we agreed to help him accomplish.  He said (or he allowed it to be said of him) that he was the Greatest Incarnation to ever walk the Earth, with more power than ever before.  That's what got him off the ground.

So that got him in many of our doors, the rest flying open with the promise of Peace within and on Earth.

Fact:  there are hundreds or thousands of people around the world who will swear by him and Knowledge that it has changed their lives for the better, brought peace into their lives, and fulfilled them.  Some of these people are old-timers who have just hung on despite all the changes.  Some are newcomers who have no idea of the history and the roots of how he became such a 'successful businessman'.   



5 Brighter than 1000 suns as seen through night vision goggles
4 As bright as the lights on Maharaji's jet
3 As bright as a 60 watt light bulb
2 As bright as a pile of burning ghi on a swinging arti tray
1 As bright as the inner light as seen by the third eye