"I didn't, I wasn't fascinated with the whole Indian culture, that's why when I first went to hear him speak and I saw these women in saris, I thought, Oh I don't want to have to wear a sari! I mean do I have to do that to listen to him and to be in this company and to receive Knowledge because I didn't want to have to do that."

Linda Pascotto, President of the Prem Rawat Foundation

"And I remember conversations with his mother on the other end of the phone and although I didn't understand Hindi, I mean it was easy to get the gist of it, that she wasn't too happy that he wasn't coming back and he was, I got the feeling you know, that he realised this was something that he wanted to do."

Glen Whitaker, one of Rawat's managers in the UK and some other devotees, talk about Rawat's marriage and his disinheritance and disowning by his mother.

"Well I was quite shocked with everybody, ergh, I think, the feeling was, we still had that residual feeling that the Master didn't need worldly things, you know, didn't need to get married, would always be the Master."

Well maybe Master didn't need worldly things but Glen know very well that Master wanted worldly things.

 Whitaker explains how Maharaji and his family and the early premie administrators were all deceiving the public and the premies about the status of Rawat's family. So much for sat, chit, anand.

"It was quite challenging that this whole dust-up should happen and the harmony that had existed in the family just broke up so easily, and it's as if his own family couldn't accept him. Now we know now in retrospect that this had been simmering for a long time, that the famiy had always been a potential bomb, time-bomb really ticking away, ready to explode the family situation Maharaji himself has taught about it, that he was never properly accepted as the Master by his own family and I knew the family, I could see what was happening, that they saw it as the family business."

I suspect that this later 'teaching' of Maharaji's is a lie. After the death of Shri Hans, everything the family said and did proclaimed young Prem Pal as the new Perfect Master. It must have been a terrible blow to their credibility to fire him after 8 years as Guru Maharaj Ji. If they were in it for the money they would have accomodated themselves to his marriage.

"Then this whole thing happened and I was in between both of them, both of them, in my heart there was one prayer to see both of them happy. That was all I could do. When I saw that was not going to happen then I had to make my decision so it was not that easy time for Maharaji and for, you know, many of us."

Charanand formerly Mahatma Gurucharanand

Prem Rawat's greatest disciple, Charanand, testifies that Shri Hans said "Only the living Master after me will impart this Knowledge.... Only a living doctor can help a patient, only a living leader can take care of the situations, problems in this country, and only a lamp that is lit can light other unlit lamps."

"I said, 'Oh Maharaji is Maharaji, he can do anything he wants'."

The First Commandment of Rawatism:
Maharaji is Maharaji, He Can Do Anything He Wants.

"I told her that, Mata Ji your husband was married and had two wives and if Maharaji got married which kind of rule he broken, broke, and why are you worried? Ultimately he would have to get married, sooner or later, instead of later he got married sooner, what is the difference, what is the problem? She was really upset, really upset".

Mahatma Sampuranand

If she had not accepted her youngest son as the Perfect Master, why would she be so "really upset?"

The surprise "Cemetery Satsang" of 1977.

"When I first received Knowledge I was told that I needed to practise an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and it seemed so unrealistic. I would sit down to practise and after 20 minutes I was just .. that's about all I could do and I didn't try hard enough you know I just kinda let it slide..."

Even some of his closest devotees such as Ms Linda Pascotto, President of the Prem Rawat Foundation had been unable to practise meditation properly, if at all, no matter how much inspiration Prem Rawat gave her and all his premies, until 1987 when the required daily meditation time was cut from 2 hours a day to one hour giving her and doubtless many others a glimmer of hope that she would be able to begin to meditate properly at last.

"I had friends who lived in the ashram, um, who stopped practising when the ashrams closed. They felt betrayed, abandoned."