Techniques of Knowledge

Knowledge was a term used by Shri Hans Ji Maharaj (Hans Rawat) to denote a formulation of four specific techniques that were imparted in a process of initiation. The term has continued to be used by two of Shri Hans Ji Maharaj’s sons, Satpal Rawat and Prem Rawat.

According to David Barret, these techniques have some similarities to techniques in Sant Mat derived movements and may be derived from Surat Shabd Yoga. Kranenborg also writes that the techniques of Knowledge originated from the Surat Shabda Yoga or Sant Mat, the Path of the Sound Current, and that some of the techniques are related to the 'japa-' or mantra-yoga that are similar to some techniques of Transcendental meditation and the Hare Krishnas.

The website "Maharaji.org" (1999) included the traceable story of "Masters" that, according to Prem Rawat, referred to the techniques of Knowledge since 1780, including Totapuri, Anandpuri Ji, Dayal Ji, Swarupanand Ji, and his father Hans Ji Maharaj.[1]

According to the Dutch religious scholar and Christian minister Reender Kranenborg and the American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton, these techniques are secret and were originally called "Light", "Sound", "Name" or "Word" and "Nectar" but Prem Rawat now refers to them as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th techniques. Prem Rawat asks practitioners to promise "not to reveal these techniques to anyone", but says to "let other people go through their own journey... [so] they, too, can have the techniques when they are ready."

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Wikipedia