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Peace Is Possible: The Life and Message of Prem Rawat

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I was fortunate to obtain an advance copy from the publisher. First, let me say that this is Cagan's best book ever. She has finally found a topic that has enough breadth for her prodigious writing skills. The book gives the word "biography" a new value. Its fast paced, interesting, alive, the writing is very cinematic, and the reader is touched. I could not put this book down, last night, and had to keep reading and I intend to read it several times more.
The book opens with several statements by world leaders in support ot Rawat, including one from Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Vice President of the Republic of India, the world's largest democracy. This one particularly impressed me. Here is what he says:
"I'm convinced that the people of India and from other countries need to embrace in their hearts Prem Rawat's call to peace I would like to express my heartfelt feeling towards him as a most trusted and respected person who takes a message of joy to society and society puts it into practice. Doing so is the greatest success there can be in life. I want his message to reach the people around the world."
This set very high expectations for me as I started reading, and I must say that I was not disappointed.
The book opens with Prem arriving in the West from his native India, in 1971. It gives a fascinating account into what the young generation was like at that time, how intense and genuine their search was for finding peace and truth within themselves, and how powerful the encouter between them and Prem was.

The book then flashes back into the household of Prem's father and mother, in the 50s. Cagan's beautiful prose transports the reader into the foothills of the Himalaya. The reader then follows Prem as he grows up in this colorful family. I loved the many endearing anecdotes, like when ever curious Prem locked himself in the brand new refrigerator--a novelty at that time--to find out if the light stayed on when the door was closed. The book follows Prem during his school days, and the reader feels the grief of the young boy when his father passes away. The book lifts the veil on the succession process, through which Prem became the Master and started revealing the same "Knowledge"--a means to go within oneself and find peace- that his father was imparting before him. One sees Prem giving his first press conference at age ten, handling the journalists with stunning dexterity. The book then follows prem's eventful life, as he travels the world bringing his message of peace up to 2006. Cagan takes the reader through a labirynth of breathtaking developments, interespersed with finely chiselfed quotes from Prem's addresses.

The book is called "Peace is Possible," and as I read through it, I could not but think of anyone wth a story like Prem, and even more of someone with a message of peace like him. One only wonders why he is not better known, and why we dont see him mon TV more often.
Hopefully this book will help shine some light among the public on an unfairly overlooked messenger of peace. At the risk of repeating myself, Cagan did a fabulous job, she has become a master biography writer.

I have enjoyed biographies my whole life. The ones I have enjoyed the most are about people who have been faced with enormous challenges. The human side of the story particularly fascinates me: What created in these individuals the burning desire to accomplish their goal? What obstacles did they have to overcome? What motivated them to keep going? How did they feel about it? And what can I learn from them?

Peace Is Possible, by Andrea Cagan, tells just such a story. It is about Prem Rawat, a man whose single-minded goal in life has been to touch the lives of every person in the world to let them know that peace is possible if they will only look within themselves. He began his mission at the age of eight when his father and mentor, Shri Hans Ji Maharaj, passed away. (When I was the same age, I was in the third grade, and I must confess -- my life's goals were not quite as clear.)

For those readers merely looking for a rollicking good storyline, they will find it here. Cagan has apparently interviewed dozens of people who have known Rawat at various points in his life, and the book is filled with colorful anecdotes. All the things I like best about biographies - the challenges, the single-minded desire, the overcoming of obstacles, the motivation - are illuminated here as we follow the story from his early childhood in northern India to his present life as a world-renowned voice for peace and a beloved mentor for millions of people in over ninety countries.

For those who may also be looking for something more meaningful, they will find that, too. Cagan writes with positive affection, and in my opinion, does an excellent job of conveying Rawat's deeper message - that true contentment and joy in life are to be found within the heart. However, Rawat also makes it clear that what he is talking about goes beyond mere words. To the sincere of heart, he teaches something called "Knowledge" which allows the individual to actually feel the inner contentment of which he speaks. Receiving Rawat's Knowledge seems to have been a life-altering experience for many of the people interviewed for this book.

All in all, I think Peace Is Possible, is an outstanding biography of a fascinating person. It will be especially appealing to anyone who has ever wondered if there is more to life than meets the eye.

Andrea Cagan's simple narrative provided me with an understanding of Prem Rawat's life and the numerous challenges he has overcome to make his message available to people around the world.

Plentiful quotes from Prem Rawat gave me a clear insight into the message itself and had me wondering whether the peace he talks about really is possible.

This book reveals a human being who has found a way to be true to himself without becoming a renunciate.

From child prodigy to internationally-respected advocate for the individual's right to experience peace, this compelling story needed to be told and deserves to be read.

If you've never read biography before, start with `Peace is Possible'.

I've been a fan of Prem Rawat for over 30 years and I'm delighted that someone has finally written a book about him. Like many others I have read the sensationalist media articles from the 70s and have always wondered "When is someone going to take this man seriously?". His message is simple and yet important to every human being but our media has become so cycnical that "good" news is generally treated with suspicion and ridicule. Thank goodness Rawat has continued on regardless. Andrea Cagan's book paints a picture of person who understood the need for peace and happiness at a very young age and has relentlessly proclaimed it for more than forty years. Her anecdotes and stories bring Prem Rawat to life and I am pleased to be able to peek behind the curtain of the man I have seen on stage for 30 years and find courage, humor and boundless optimism. Well done Andrea for taking on this book.

Biographies and autobiographies tell stories about admirable and not so admirable people. Amongst the most fascinating I have read are those by Bill Clinton, Mark Latham (sometime leader of the opposition in Australia), and Fred Hollows, the Australian founder of the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program who brought eye health to thousands in Eritrea and to Aborigines in Australia. The commonalities amongst these books is that, in whatever way they could, the subjects tried to do something to leave a positive mark on the world. They did it in different ways. While Clinton tried to develop understanding and some form of lasting peace through renegotiating the "rules of the road" and Latham tried to "crash through or crash" (the latter in his case), Hollows used every trick known and unknown to ensure he was able to do the job he set out to do—rules, bureaucracy or lack of funds notwithstanding.

In many ways, Prem Rawat has paralleled the Hollow path rather than the Clinton. Setting out with a drive, a desire, to let every person know that peace is a possibility and second, that he could show people how to touch a peace that already was within them, Rawat has not been distracted nor diverted from this personal objective. This book narrates this story. And to be quite blunt, Rawat's work in both its scope and its success hugely overshadows the undoubted success that others have achieved.

It rolls glibly off the tongue: "to let people know that every person know that peace is a possibility". Yet this biography details the initial halting steps in that story, the rocks that seemed to have threatened to shipwreck the whole expedition, the amazing successes, and the enduring humanity, humility and humour of Rawat in the face of what might appear to be a quixotic task. Indeed, in a video some years ago, Rawat spoke with a sculpture of Don Quixote in the background. Yet there is nothing vaguely dreamy or wistfully blasé in Rawat's approach.

With most biographies, one reads with a sense of familiarity, perhaps regarding the contexts or events of people's lives. Most people are unerringly like you or me, in many respects. We can relate to the situations they find themselves in, or the things that happen to them, or their loving (or alcoholic mother) and so on. Reading this biography invokes a different set of responses. From a very early age—when most of us might have been hurtling around the suburbs in home-made carts pulled by possessed billy-goats, or for recent generations, attempting to ensure that Yankacan's (sitting in his house in the U.S.A.) Zergs do not overrun Wunsun's (sitting at his computer in Yeppoon, Australia) Terran outpost—Rawat was focused on a different world-view, whilst still enjoying being a child.

For Rawat, his desire was to assist his father, to the extent that, whilst still a youngster when most of us in world Ideal would have been fishing with Grandad, he put together a public program that his father could speak at. His sense of mission was evident at this early age; this sense of commitment to the cause of bringing the message to as many people as possible throughout the world. It is an inspiring read.

Andrea Cagan has thoroughly researched this book, talking with many people who have played some part in Rawat's life, examining documents and reviewing video and dvd sources for his talks. The text focuses on the life of Rawat, but like any biography, this one weaves various threads to create a contextualised story of that life. Thus, Rawat's relationship with his father is narrated in some depth so that we get to know something of the life of the father, and the relationship between the two, before the next chapter details the life of the father. Our interest in Shri Hans is built through that relationship, and then our interest is salved through a chapter on his life. The biogra-phy does not skirt the negative elements that impinge on Rawat's work, including the problem (for his Indian family) of the suitability of his assuming his father's role, and the activities of his detractors in their single-minded, but ultimately futile, attempt to discredit Rawat both personally and professionally.

This is an inspiring read. To the drudge that constitutes much of the evening news and the daily newspaper, the reality of Rawat and his work stands in stark and beautiful contrast.

I found this to be a very well written book about a truly interesting and indeed amazingly gifted individual. The life of Prem Rawat is told from the time of his birth in India in 1957 until the current day. There are countless anecdotes of the (no less than profound) wisdom exhibited in his childhood along with his prankishness and playfulness that I found particularly fascinating. The story of his accepting, at the age of 8, the mantle of being the successor of his father as a teacher of a way to find inner peace and contentment and subsequently fulfilling his father's dream of bringing this message to every part of the globe I found just riveting. Andrea Cagan clearly developed a strong sympathy for both Prem Rawat and his message. She writes at length of the great difficulties he faced with the break with his mother, constant travel, and administrative structures that his followers developed that did not serve the purpose he had so clearly defined.
I would have no hesitation recommending this book to anyone. For the amazing story, for the humour, to learn a little more of how this remarkable teacher has ended up with a following of millions of individuals world-wide or to simply hear a little of his message of peace.

Reviewed by Liam Ryan, Ireland.

This is an extraordinary book. At a time of ongoing war and the escalation of the American army deployment in the Middle East, a book bearing the title, Peace is Possible, is extraordinary. The story it tells, that of the life to date of Prem Rawat is an extraordinary story.

I let the book sit in my mind for a couple of days after my reading, just to digest the story and allow its meaning percolate and the word which insistently exerted itself in relation to this book is that it is an extraordinary story, certainly worthy of a read.

The book narrates in basic chronological order the life of Prem Rawat, also knows by the honorary title, Maharaji and extends back prior to his birth focusing on Mr. Rawat's father.

Mr. Rawat was born in Northern India in December 1957. His father, Shri Hans Maharaji, was a teacher of peace who has attracted a considerable following. The youngest of four sons Prem Rawat attended a Catholic school and starting speaking at his father's events from a very young age. Following his fathers death in July 1966, whilst only 8 years old and a young schoolboy, he assumed the position of teacher and master.

The book succeeds in depicting the extraordinary courage, strength and wisdom that this young man possessed to carry forward his fathers message which was now his own message. And his own mission in life. A deceptively simple message that Peace is Possible and that the teacher or master can help. Help not only in the sense of inspiration but hugely important by the teaching of four simple techniques which allow the individual to access that peace within themselves. His fundamental message of peace is that peace must commence within each individual human being. His definition of peace is not the absence of war; it is a peace or contentment in the human heart.

The story of his life was not straight forward; following his move to the West in 1971 and a subsequent marriage to an American lady there was a split in the family. His mother and two brothers no longer gave him their support and went back to India. But what are well illustrated in this biography are the strength and steadfastness, the wisdom and assurance shown by the teenage Rawat. In the midst of confusing and conflicting pulling he remained clear and true to his life's plan; to bring his message of peace to as many people as possible.

He later qualified as a pilot to facilitate his relentless travelling. His understood that the teacher or master himself in person was and is the best voice of his message.

The book covers his own family; he has four children, the spreading of his message, the honours bestowed on him by many many cities throughout the world but especially in the USA; the launching of The Prem Rawat Foundation and it humanitarian efforts.

But essentially it's the simplicity of the message and the steadfastness of the master which makes this an extraordinary story. The writing is not of the highest order; Andrea Cagan never gets down into the tactile mucking out of language in a way in a way that a McGahern or Banville would excite the mind. But that is forgiven. This is the story of an extraordinary man making tremendous progress in an extraordinary mission. It is a story very well told. It is a story that has been long overdue. It is a story you must read.

Andrea Cagan's newly released biography of Prem Rawat, "Peace is Possible: The Life and Message of Prem Rawat", published by Mighty River Press, comes as an exciting, heart-stirring and heartwarming start to the new year.

Peace might be uppermost on peoples wishlist at this time, yet it is interesting to discover that Prem Rawat has been talking about it in a unique and profound way since he was three years old, when he addressed his first audience on this subject. And has been doing so ever since.

Reading the book, written with sensitivity, appreciation and thoroughness, takes one on an uncommon and very rewarding journey, where the reader meets and becomes closely acquainted with the life and lifelong work of Prem Rawat.

From his birth in Northern India in 1957 to the present time, there is a wealth of information provided, heartwarming, touching, a story of true love, courage, dedication, humility, compassion, commitment, profound wisdom, endurance, all lightened with his rare humour and childlike playfulness.

When his father and teacher passes away in 1966, Prem Rawat at age eight accepts the responsibility of being the teacher and continuing his father's work of bringing peace to individuals, one person at a time.

There is much more I can say about this book, but it would be better for the reader to experience the joy of discovery for himself/herself.

Some books have the capacity to touch the right chords of human hearts and become essential companions along the journey of this life. Peace is Possible by A. Cagan is certainly one of those.

This is a book of great inspiration for all human beings where, at last, the word "peace", too often vague and ambiguous, takes a much more precise meaning in regards to the journey within the heart that Prem Rawat inspires.

After reading just few pages, we are immediately caught by Prem Rawat's fascinating life story. This book really touched me.

I was fortunate enough to get an abridged version of this book and read the whole thing in 2 sittings, couldn't put my monitor down (was reading from a computer screen)

I had tears in my eyes a lot of the time.

This is really a first for me as I have read about 50 books total, in my life and I remember Le Mort D'Arthur taking me about a year to read the 2 volumes

Prem Rawat is incredible, and Andrea Cagan weaves together stories about him gathered over 40 years in a masterful way to make a truly touching biography.

It is really about one mans determination to carry on the work, his father and master asked him to do, despite all odds.

Prem Rawat holds up a mirror, some like what they see, some don't .

I have seen the reflection and I like it a lot