Home Events

People often feel more comfortable coming to someone’s house rather than a hall. While the basic format entails some form of relaxing social gathering in someone’s home including food and a DVD presentation, there are numerous variations on this theme including guest speakers or special broadcasts.Feel free to use your own creativity or personal touch. What follows is some helpful points and the encouragement to try this as well.
The following tips and suggestions are compiled from the experience of those who have recently held successful home events, and from Charan Anand’s comments on the home events he has attended in North America, England, Ireland, Greece and Scandinavia.

Invitations:
Irrespective of how guests are invited, it’s best to let guests know the evening will include a presentation on Maharaji and his message. Invitations can be done by phone, by card or both e.g. “I’d like to invite you to a special occasion. There will be cocktails and a dinner party as well as a DVD presentation of Maharaji speaking on inner peace and contentment. We will also have a guest speaker.” Be enthusiastic and genuine. Create anticipation and excitement for a wonderful evening.
Only those who bring guests or who help directly with the event are invited. At times it may be helpful to include some people who are enjoying practising Knowledge in their lives and who feel comfortable to keep the conversation going after the presentation. Remember, though, that body language and one’s own passion often convey more to guests than the words.

Setup:

• Use your commonsense, and adapt for your culture: make sure you and your guests are comfortable.
• First impressions are lasting.
• There is no substitute for your own enthusiasm and confidence.
• Generally buffet dinners work best.
• Plan where the food is served and eaten. If event is in same room as where people eat, consider re-arranging room for the presentation.
• During dinner, consider background music and how to avoid intrusive phone calls.
• Ensure everything looks fresh and clean and consider flowers and decorations.
• Does the event need translation? If so, the ideal is through headphones so that no one is speaking over Maharaji’s voice.
• It’s nice to have a good quality, satisfying dinner so people really enjoy themselves.

Format/Content:

• Welcome each guest as they arrive. Refreshments – champagne, wine, alcohol-free drinks, etc. Be a gracious host and chat with every guest during the evening.
• Dinner
• MC welcomes everyone and explains what will happen. MC provides short introduction on Maharaji. Alternatively, if you have a live musician, they can signal the start and draw everyone’s attention together.
• Should someone wish to leave when event starts, graciously walk them to the door without judgement.
• 1 or 2 DVDs of approx 10-20 minutes each and/or special broadcast and/or guest speaker.
• Keep an eye on the time – try not to go over allotted time unless people are comfortable.
• Serve dessert before or after the presentation. If dessert is after the presentation, conversation about Maharaji and his message often continues. Do so with discretion; keep it simple and to the point.
• Guests are offered free materials and leave as the evening winds down.

Materials:

• For event: Parts of Designed for Joy, You’ve Got it, Within You, Embrace Life, Introducing Peace, Story of Life, At Ease With Yourself and Discovering More are good possibilities. Consider the following combinations:

Within You, speaker, At Ease with Yourself;
Within You, speaker, Introducing Peace;
Introducing Peace, speaker, Discovering More.

• Also materials should be made available when people leave. Possibilities include: Designed for Joy, You’ve got it, the Discovering More booklet, invitation to local events, Maharaji’s event schedule, printed material available on websites.
• If you go with an introductory video followed by Discovering More, consider having Key 1 pack and Keys registration form at hand so that guests so wishing can immediately enrol in the Keys process.

Follow-Up:

• A week or two after the dinner party, call each guest. This has given them some time to think about what they heard. Opening the conversation might run something like, “I want to thank you for coming. I hope you enjoyed the dinner party. How did you feel about the presentation?”
• Follow up is about listening to your friends, what they wish to express, and trying to respond in whatever ways are appropriate; be respectful and listen even if they have critical comments.
• You will find out who is really interested in finding out more and who is not. Keep your good relationship with those who aren’t. There is no need to show any reaction or displeasure. For those who are interested, point them towards the Keys.

Results:

• We find 5 – 50 guests come per event.
• People hear Maharaji’s message in a neutral, dignified way.
• There seem to be a healthy number of people who express interest in exploring further, by watching Discovering More or enrolling in the Keys.

Conclusion:

Home events are fun and easy to execute. They provide a natural, relaxed occasion to invite guests to hear about Maharaji and what he has to offer. Often people feel safer coming to someone’s house rather than a hall. It’s affordable and effective.

Four examples.

(1) Beautiful invitation cards were sent out two weeks before the event to 20 friends. 17 came. Five people with Knowledge were also invited and they helped out with all practical things.
The guests arrived at 5 pm. Drinks were offered and the buffet dinner served. After eating, drinking and socialising outside, the guests were welcomed inside the house round about 7 pm. Two DVDs were shown: Thirst and Contentment and Within You.
Then our guest speaker spoke and afterwards continued the conversation with people.
Three new people wanted to start with the Keys. One person was helped directly via the website later that night. Five people expressed their wish to go to an event to see Maharaji himself.
A booklet, a business card with the website information and the DVD Discovering More were given to guests together with the host’s name address and telephone number.

(2) An afternoon summer party at our beautiful farm. Families with children were also invited and babysitters were provided so the parents could enjoy the event.
72 adults attended. 43 were guests and four people were already watching the Keys. They were welcomed with refreshments. Two musicians signalled the start, by playing a beautiful piece of music, and the atmosphere in the meeting room was very attentive and focused.
Then the wonderful DVD Introducing Peace was shown. Following this, our guest speaker spoke in a warm, beautiful and inspiring way.
Information about the Keys and Maharaji´s upcoming event was presented. Many people helped themselves to the material provided, especially the Discovering More brochure and DVD.
We all had lunch together in the garden. People expressed gratitude and joy at being invited to such a wonderful event, and today many have called to get more information about the Keys and how to receive Knowledge.

(3) The “home party” I participated in took place in a restaurant owned by people with Knowledge, which turned out to have become a cooking school for advanced cooks. They had invited neighbours, journalists and photographers, who had written an article about the cooking school when it opened, former restaurant personnel and others – altogether 25 guests of all ages.
The food was absolutely excellent. After the DVD Within You and our guest speaker’s talk, a few people asked questions. Then they spread out and socialised and had a good time. 15 of the guests took the Discovering More materials and business cards, and several came back the day after and expressed great appreciation and interest in the Keys process. Some also showed up a couple of days later for an introductory event.

(4) I spent two days writing down the names of every person I know to invite to a casual drinks party after work on a weekday from 5-8pm.
I found a beautiful venue close to where most people on my list live and finally invited around 60 people either by post or email about 3 weeks before the date of the function.
For a long time I heard nothing. Then apologies arrived – people going away, etc. But they were all pleased to be invited and their email/mobile calls became occasions to catch up and re-establish a connection. Some couldn’t come to the drinks party but were in town on the date of Maharaji’s event, so if they expressed a wish, I sent them an invitation.
Finally people started to confirm but only one or two days before the day of the function and after the RSVP date – a bit nerve racking… The format was a casual drinks party – with snacks. The invitation was from 5-8pm and I expected people to stay no longer than for about half an hour on their way home from work.
40 guests came. Most arrived precisely at 5pm and nearly everybody stayed for the duration until 8pm.
At 6.30 I tapped my glass and welcomed everybody. This is what I said:

Welcome and thank you for coming.
For a long time I have had the wish to tell people I have met in my life about an important discovery I made 23 years ago.
That is when I first heard about a practical possibility to find joy and peace inside myself every day. This experience has enriched my life so much and the person who by his own example has inspired me for all these years is named Prem Rawat.
Now I would like to show you a DVD that lasts for 12 minutes - if you would like to hear him speak for yourself.

Then I walked into the adjoining room set up with 40 chairs. The guests had been very aware of this set-up since they arrived and it was obvious that they were looking forward to see what was going to be shown.
I took a seat on the first row and everybody came in and sat down. At the end of the DVD people clapped. I stood up quickly and told them about Maharaji’s upcoming event and that, if they wanted to, they could take invitation cards and DVDs.
10 people took invitations and DVDs and several people expressed that they would be coming to see Maharaji.
Everybody expressed gratitude when they left and since then, I have received several emails thanking me again.