Prem Rawat and Counterculture: Glastonbury and New Spiritualities by Ron Geaves (review)

Ron Geaves structures his book around the intriguing premise that Prem Rawat (b. 1957, AKA Guru Maharaj Ji) played a pivotal role in the inward spiritual turn of the counterculture in the early 1970s. Furthermore, Guru Maharaj Ji's brief appearance at the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre—before an estimated audience of 1,500—was a seminal event in that process. Guru Maharaj Ji did indeed rise to great prominence in the counterculture between 1971 and 1973, though he and his followers were widely ridiculed in both mainstream and countercultural society. The fact that the media persisted in calling him the "14 Year-Old Perfect Master" long past his fifteenth birthday was symptomatic of the light-hearted mockery he encountered. His movement, the Divine Light Mission, having enjoyed two years of giddy growth, experienced a precipitous collapse after the disastrous Millennium '73 celebration in the Houston Astrodome. The guru, however, has displayed a talent for rebranding and reinvention. He is still an active teacher, keeping a low profile but apparently enjoying success with his nonsectarian, almost theology-free emphasis on inner experience.

It is clear that Geaves sincerely believes in the centrality of Prem Rawat and Glastonbury to the spiritual movements of the early 1970s, but beyond his assertions as an academic and his beliefs as a disciple of Maharaj Ji, little hard evidence is provided. Part of the problem lies in the conflicting demands of genres. Not intimate enough to be a memoir, not scholarly enough to be academic, Prem Rawat and Counterculture occupies an uneasy middle ground.

The book contains a number of factual errors. Most are minor, but none inspire confidence. For example, Guru Maharaj Ji is described as "headlining" Glastonbury Fayre. In reality, Maharaj Ji's overzealous followers forced British pub rockers Brindsley Schwartz off the stage, according to Nick Lowe, bassist and vocalist of the band. Is calling Maharaj Ji, an unannounced interloper on the stage, the "headliner" deliberately misleading or simply a poor word choice? Then there are numerous misspelled names—Lisapotte (Liselotte), Ashcroft (Ashcraft), even Maharaji (Maharaj Ji), among others. Many of the mistakes are repeated in the index.

In the end, although Geaves makes suggestive arguments, he fails to demonstrate that Guru Maharaj Ji/Prem Rawat was a dominant figure in the spiritual awakenings of the counterculture. Maharaj Ji's significance in music festivals, besides fifteen minutes on the stage at Glastonbury, was negligible. Perhaps in Great Britain Rawat's spiritual impact was more significant than in the United States.