THE WILD WEST

Prem Rawat’s arrival in London and Los Angeles in June and July of 1971 heralded the beginning of his international work. His mother was not initially in favor of him traveling to the west, but once his journey had begun there was no going back. News of his arrival spread among the counter-culture youth in both countries and people flocked to the airport to meet him. Many found themselves attracted by his simple wisdom, his youth and spontaneous style, and his air of purpose. His language was full of the metaphors of his everyday life: cars, ships, planes and comic books.

On June 21, 1971, at the first Glastonbury Fayre in the UK, he spoke publicly for the first time in the west. This 13-year-old boy, newly arrived in an alien culture, with an imperfect command of English, demonstrated his courage and strength of purpose by walking on stage and addressing a crowd of hippies, some of whom were naked.

He adjusted to western customs quickly and switched to European style clothes. But by then, ironically, some of his students had begun wearing Indian clothes. A few even adopted Indian names, and as they introduced his message to others, they invariably couched it in the terms of their adopted culture. It seemed that from the beginning his work was to be challenged by his students’ preconceptions.

Prem Rawat’s brothers and mother followed him to England. They received a warm welcome, but the focus was on Prem. In November of 1972, seven Jumbo Jets traveled to India carrying his students to the Hans Jayanti festival. Earlier in the year he had visited Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Kenya, Australia and Japan, as well as revisiting the U.S. and U.K.

In South Africa, at the height of the apartheid system, he spoke in defiance of the government to racially mixed audiences. “How wonderful it would be,” he said, “to be able to carry on a conversation with your heart, to be able to ask the heart how magnificent it feels to be fulfilled, and for the heart to reply in utter silence. And, in that silence, to understand the acknowledgment and to receive internally the most magnificent joy. To have a beautiful smile dance upon your lips because you have carried on that conversation with the ultimate friend you have. Through sad times and happy times, this heart of yours will be your best friend. It will never abandon you.”

The South African police took no action against him and did not try to interfere with his events. Apparently the government did not want to provoke an international incident by arresting a 14-year-old boy who had come to their country to speak about peace.

In Nairobi he stayed with an Indian family. Prem Rawat later recalled, "They had a very large household and when I started talking to one of their black servants the owners got upset." "You're not supposed to talk to the servants," they told him. Prem Rawat replied, "He's a human being, isn't he? What's wrong with talking to him? I want to know how he lives, how he survives."  ( p175, Peace is Possible, by Cagan )

By the end of 1972, permanent accommodation had been established for him in London and Los Angeles. An organizational structure emerged with the formation of separate Divine Light Missions, registered and incorporated in several western countries, as well as the establishment of ashrams (shelters).

Many who had rejected the social norms of the time were willing to give up their bohemian lifestyle in favor of the monastic life that the ashrams provided, and ashrams mushroomed around the world. They had been a very successful focus for his father’s work in India, providing an environment in which residents could optimize their practice of Knowledge.

In the west, the ashrams began to attract criticism. Some people felt that residents were allowing a religious lifestyle to compromise their effectiveness in supporting Prem Rawat’s work. Some residents found the ashram life was not for them and moved out. Most former residents now look back on their ashram days as a great opportunity to ground themselves in the practice of what they had been taught.

In 1983, he decided to close the ashrams and dissolve the Divine Light Mission. He had become openly critical of the bureaucracy that had developed, describing it as "…like trying to take a cow and put lipstick on it. You can do it, but it's unnecessary in practical terms". During the next two decades, he made many organizational changes to provide a better support base for his work and to simplify the process for aspiring students. However, the core of his teaching remains unchanged: four practical ways to enter a dimension of the heart.

In 1973, 20,000 students attended a program at the Houston Astrodome in Texas, U.S.A. It was promoted as the Millennium Festival, invoking a New Age and also attracting Christian protestors, but Prem Rawat’s students were doing all they could to get their teacher noticed. In Australia that year, following his first 1972 visit, they conducted a controversial and rather outrageous campaign, which they called the Second Coming. Media attention naturally followed, and perhaps wisely, Prem Rawat chose not to visit Australia that year.

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