Forget Transmitted Memory: The De-traditionalised ‘Religion’ of Prem Rawat

Abstract

This article uses the case study of Prem Rawat, a teacher of Indian origin who arrived in the West in 1971 and inspired several organisations, including Divine Light Mission, Elan Vital, and The Prem Rawat Foundation for the dissemination of his teachings. Identifying Prem Rawat as a contemporary form of a solitary Sant unconcerned with organisational forms or institutionalised religion and displaying considerable iconoclasm with regard to ritual and doctrinal dimensions, the article offers fresh insights into the debate in the study of religion between those who maintain that religion exists as a sui generis category and those who argue that religion is merely a sub-set of cultural phenomena. In particular the article focuses on the work by Danièle Hervieu-Léger who argues that religion exists when ‘the authority of tradition’ has been invoked ‘in support of the act of believing’.

Notes

NOTES

1. 15–16 December 2003, “Religious Studies: What is the Point?”, Lancaster University and PRS-LTSN Learning Centre.

2. 13–16 September, 2005, “The Study of Religion: Mapping the Field”, 50th Annual Conference of the BASR, Harris Manchester College, Oxford.

3. Consequently, this article will be limited in its exploration of Prem Rawat and Elan Vital and will only explore such aspects of the teachings and organisational structures that are relevant to the issues explored herein. Consequently, there will be no exploration of the views of Prem Rawat's followers, either in the West or in India. These lie outside the remit of this article and could be the subject of further research.

4. Vaudeville (36–7) uses a number of technical terms here that would be familiar to any student of Hinduism. In general, terms like yogi (one who practises the disciplines associated with the loss of ego to gain identity with Brahman, ultimate reality), siddha (perfected saint), asanas (special postures used in the practice of hatha yoga), and bhij mantras (words and formulas believed to contain special powers) refer to the general milieu of Hindu renunciate traditions. Vaudeville's point is that the Sant figure cannot be assimilated into these traditions.

5. This viewpoint is exemplified in the short statement that appeared at the end of many of Prem Rawat's satellite transmissions throughout 2002: “Knowledge is not a religion, a spiritual practice or a lifestyle. It is a practical way of experiencing a feeling that is already inside of you.”

6. Werbner (319–21) observed a process of ‘waxing and waning’ among localised movements within the broader Sufi tariqa. She suggests that new movements appear “energised through the emergance of a charismatic saint, which revitalises the old tariqa”. She states: “although shrines of illustrious saints, once established, remain points of personal pilgrimage and seasonal ritual celebrations, such shrines no longer extend as organisations far beyond a relatively localised area, and cannot continue to control, as the founder did, a series of sub-centres, and sub-sub centres over a vast region.”

7. The four terms were used in initiation during the period of Divine Light Mission and were also frequently referred to in discourses (satsang). It was claimed that the four techniques taught by Prem Rawat and the previous masters of Advait Mat provided access to each inner component of consciousness. Anahat shabd (unstruck sound) and shabd brahman (Word of God) or satnam (true name) were distinguished from each other. The former was regarded as a sound current or inner ‘music’ heard within when all external sounds ceased, while the latter referred to a feeling of deep peace within, the exhalation and inhalation of breath arising from a primordial energy that maintained the life force within the body. These Yogic techniques link Prem Rawat's teachings indirectly to Sant traditions: the Nath Yogis of Gorakhnath and even revivals of Sant Mat, such as Radhasoami, although it must be made clear that the techniques are different from those taught by the latter.

8. The main forum for ex-followers expressing their criticisms of Prem Rawat or of various organisational forms that may been constructed and deconstructed can be found on www.ex-premies.org. Interestingly, most of the criticism seems to be directed at the way things were in the 1970s and 1980s, expressed in a style of language that current new members would not recognise. Generally, the ex-premie critics take the line that Prem Rawat's efforts of transformation are a strategy to avoid ‘cult’ and ‘anti-cult’ discourses and are thus a public relations exercise.