Thank you Fluster for your observations and your great writing.  The social, gossipy, slightly yuppie nature of the followers of M has been discussed quite a bit here.  One wonders how anyone "new" would ever be attracted to something like that.  I guess few are.

We have heard that Amaroo was nearly bankrupt and that Maharaji has been somewhat desperate for cash, hence he is doing more events in the USA, where most of the money is.  Thousands may show up in India, but the few thousand in the USA actually generate more cash.

What amazes me, is that Maharaji raises millions of dollars for "propagation" and then turns around and charges the premies for the privilege of taking a "guest" to an intro event, and then, on top of that, they even charge the "guest."  It's so absurd it's funny.

From what I understand, part of the excuse of spending millions on "Amaroo" was that there was going to be a "knowledge center" there, so Amaroo is about propagation too.  Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, that center never happened and Amaroo is just a place where Maharaji holds events and has his followers line up to kiss his feet and hopes no one in the outside world will notice, due to the isolation.