With the help of generous donors around the globe, the Prem Rawat Foundation has made it part of its mission to help the neediest people around the world satisfy the most basic demands of everyday life, such as feeding themselves and their families and finding clean water. The village of Bantoli in northeastern India has been the beneficiary of the foundation’s Food for People program, which has built a facility in the region to combat malnutrition. Thanks to the Prem Rawat Foundation, the people of Bantoli enjoy more than 100,000 free hot meals each year.
Elsewhere in India, the Prem Rawat Foundation hosts free medical clinics that provide eye consultations, as well as dispense medicines and eyeglasses. The foundation also partners with international non-profit organizations such as the U.N. World Food Programme, Oxfam, and the Red Cross to expedite aid to the world’s disadvantaged populations. Among the foundation’s recent collaborative projects are a program to support relief efforts for the families and individuals affected by the floods and cyclones that hit the central and southern regions of Mozambique and to provide safe drinking water and improved sanitation in Ghana. The group has also donated $125,000 for hunger relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
In addition to these philanthropic programs, Prem Rawat — known also by the honorary title of Maharaji — brings his message of peace to the people of the world. The message is both basic and far-reaching. Addressing the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok, Thailand, he stated, ?Peace needs to be in everyone?s life. Of all the things we have tried in this world, there is one thing we have never given a chance. That one thing is peace.”
He continued: “The peace we are looking for is within. It is in the heart, waiting to be felt. It is not the world that needs peace; it is people. When people in the world are at peace within, the world will be at peace.?
The India-born Maharaji has been speaking publicly since the age of three, and by the age of four, he could lay claim to giving his first published address, as well. When he was eight, audiences across the Indian subcontinent had tuned into his speeches, and as a teenager, he went international with audiences in London and Los Angeles. In the years to follow, he has dispensed inspiration and guidance to more than 10 million people in more than 250 cities and 50 countries. His message is available in more than 88 countries and 70 languages.
