Hans Ji Maharaj
|
|
HRH Yogiraj Param Hans Sadgurudev Sri Hans ji Maharaj (1900 - July 16, 1966) was a guru in British India and later in India. He was considered a satguru or perfect master by his followers. He married Jagat Janani Mata Shri Rajeshwari Devi, also known as "Mata ji", and had four sons and one daughter.
Life and work
Shri Hans was early in his life an egalitarian iconoclast, and an opponent of the Hindu caste system. He was originally a member of the Arya Samaj, but left that movement after he met a guru of the Sant Mat tradition, Sri Swarupanand ji Maharaj. Swarupanand initiated him into surat shabda yoga through four techniques or kriyas, which were to become his trademark. In the 1930s following the death of his guru, he began to travel in Sind and Lahore and later to Delhi. His work grew informally for many years, spreading across northern India. He founded the Divine Light Mission (DLM), in 1960.
Succession and dispute
Upon Shri Hans' death the leadership of the DLM passed to Prem Rawat (known at that time as Maharaj ji), his youngest son, rather than to Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj, his eldest son, which was unusual given Hindu notions of primogeniture. The family told American reporters during the early 1970s that Shri Hans had been away from home at the time of his death and wrote a letter home to the family essentially naming Prem as his successor[1] (http://www.ex-premie.org/pages/rollings_article.htm). An ex-president of the DLM in America, Bob Mishler, after a falling out with Rawat in which Mishler either resigned his position or was fired, gave an interview in 1979 that included other details he claimed were involved in the transition[2] (http://www.ex-premie.org/pages/mishler.htm#subject17).
According to Mishler's interview, Shri Hans' funeral marked the time when his successor was to be named, and at that time his wife met in his ashram with the governing body of his supporters, including certain influential supporters known as "mahatmas," to propose that she take over leadership of the organization. Her proposal, Mishler contended, was, although she had some support among the group, rejected due to her sex. Mishler asserted that the meeting then decided that Hans' eldest son, the fourteen-year-old Satpal, would lead, in accordance with the Hindu tradition of primogeniture. However, Mishler continued, another group of followers, including one by the name of Mahatma Sampuranand, seized the opportunity of the family and the governing body being involved in the meeting to stage a sort of coup by immediately placing the eight-year-old Prem on a throne elsewhere in the ashram and crowning him successor in front of devotees. Mishler said that when the family and governing body emerged from the meeting intending to elevate Satpal, they were confronted instead by Prem already crowned on the throne and being accepted by the devotees, and faced with this fait accompli the family decided to support Prem instead as the new leader. Supporters agree Prem took the throne, and they describe him as comforting grieving devotees and making a declaration of intent to bring peace to the world.
Mishler's account, which was necessarily secondhand, is difficult to verify because he did not name his sources for it and he died soon after giving the interview. What is known for certain is that the family's support of Prem lasted for another eight years, during which they relocated to the U.S. In 1974, after a family rift apparently caused by Prem's marriage to a Westerner, Mata ji disowned Prem and returned to India with the other brothers. Through legal proceedings against Prem, Satpal secured leadership of the DLM in India, and claimed that Shri Hans had named him and not Prem as the sole legitimate successor of his father's mission. [3] (http://www.manavdharam.org/maharaj_ji.html) Satpal became an Indian politician and head of the Manav Dharam organization, and is considered a satguru by his followers [4] (http://www.manavdharam.org/index.html). Prem remained in the West and continues in a more Westernized form assertedly promoting inner peace via Hans' kriyas or "techniques of Knowledge." The Prem Rawat Foundation[5] (http://tprf.org) estimates he has engaged over six and a half million people, and that half a million have been taught the techniques since his arrival to the West in 1971.
An anonymous website (http://au.geocities.com/shrihansa/) has recently emerged claiming that Hans can and should still be followed directly and that neither of his sons is worthy to continue his work.
External links
- Website of Shri Satpal Ji Maharaj, his eldest son, about Sri Hans ji Maharaj (http://www.manavdharam.org/hans_ji.html)