Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University
Encyclopedia
Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU) or Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya is a monastic, renunciate Millenarian
new religious movement
(NRM) of India
n origin. It teaches a form of meditation adherents called Raja Yoga, but which differs from the classical Raja Yoga described by Patanjali
.
A neo-Hindu religious movement, the Brahma Kumaris pre-date the New Age
movement but have developed characteristics that link them to its thinking. It advocates a lifestyle which includes a vegetarian diet, celibacy, and avoidance of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.
Historically, the Brahma Kumaris have not been without controversy and a range of accusations against them have been made – see the section on controversies below for details. The controversies have involved researchers, previous members, government agency reports and the press.
in the 1930s. Lekhraj Kripalani, known as "Dada Lekhraj" and later known as "Brahma Baba" to his followers, was a Diamond merchant and follower of the Vaishnavite Vallabhacharya Sect
. Dada Lekhraj (Brahma Baba) retired from his business with assets of 1,000,000 Indian rupees to turn to spirituality. Their original spiritual knowledge was obtained though "divine revelations" and "divine visions" by sisters who channeled messages, and included "detailed knowledge ... on the basic concepts of soul, God, World, Time, Space, Karma, Mukti, Jeevanmukti, Heaven, Hell, Creation, Sustenance, Destruction, various Yugas, Maya and its various forms, the true kind of Yoga-Meditation, the divine virtues and the methodology to practise them." Lekhraj started holding satsang
s which attracted many people and the group became known as Om Mandali. In 1937, he named some of his followers to a managing committee, then reportedly transferred his fortune to the committee. Several women joined Om Mandali, and contributed their wealth to the association as well.
Some members of the local Sindhi people
reacted unfavorably to this movement because women were given an elevated status. Many young married Sindhi women attended his ashram
and were being encouraged to take vows of celibacy
, so the Om Mandali was accused of breaking up families.
Some Hindu members of the Sindh Assembly threatened to resign unless the Om Mandali was outlawed. So, the Sindh Government used the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908 to declare the Om Mandali an unlawful association. Under further pressure from the Hindu leaders in the Assembly, the Government also ordered the Om Mandali to close and vacate its premises. The Om Mandali successfully appealed against the Government order in court.
In April 1950, after the partition of India
, the Brahma Kumaris moved to Mount Abu in India, saying that they had been instructed by God to do so. After Dada Lekhraj's (Brahma Baba) death in 1969, his followers expanded the movement to other countries.
Beginning in the 1950s, the Brahma Kumaris began an internationalization expansion program, establishing centers across India with female teachers. From 1964 to 1969 methods of outreach began involving exhibitions, seminars and conferences in different parts of India.
The leadership of the BK movement remains primarily female. For example, in the UK
, only one-third of the 42 centers are run by males. According to the BKWSU website, there are currently 825,000 students and over 8,500 Raja Yoga
centres in 100 countries and territories. According to sources quoted in the Adherents website, worldwide membership ranges from 35,000 (in 1993) to 400,000 (in 1998).
A number of Brahma Kumari splinter groups exist, the most notable documented by Dr. John Walliss as the Advance Party, Shankar Party or AIVV to the BKWSU. Elsewhere they are referred to as the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris or PBKs. Walliss states that as Lekhraj Kripalani's original message of separation, spiritual introversion and violent Destruction becomes repackaged as the emergence of a New Age
through self-understanding and self-development, this direction has caused discontent within certain segments of the Brahma Kumari movement, likening them to the "Protestant Reformers
to the BKWSU's mediaeval Catholic Church".
The "Advance Party" offer a radicalised rendition of the BKWSU's original millenarian message. In particular, they are exceptionally hostile to the University's New Age and UN involvement claim that Shiva is now manifesting Himself through a different medium to correctly interpret the original teachings and that Lekhraj Kirpalani's business partner Sevak Ram was the original medium. PBKs report hostile resistance from the BKWSU and Walliss met with a wall of silence and irate phone call from the University threatening him that the BKWSU would "block [him] every step of the way if [he] persisted along this line of investigation". The University restricting its member's "knowledge and access to the group so as to prevent any further defections." Founder Baba Dev Dixit was debarred from the BKWSU.
According to the Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements,
in 2000, about 450,000 people were affiliated with the Brahma Kumaris, but many were probably not committed to the group's worldview. The Encyclopedia stated:
", "self management leadership", and "living values."
The Brahma Kumaris also have a number of voluntary outreach programs in prisons.
and projects itself as a vehicle for spiritual teaching rather than a religion.
or Jahweh and its purpose is to awaken humanity, destroy other religions to eliminate evil and negativity. He is not the creator of matter which is itself considered to be eternal.
God, they believe, possesses or incarnates into the religion's spirit mediums
at mass seance
s at its headquarters in India and speaks to its followers in person, these messages called "Murlis" becoming the scriptures of the religion but hidden from outsiders.
. Here souls are in a state of rest and beyond experience. Souls enter bodies to take birth in order to experience life and give expression to their personality. Unlike other Eastern traditions, the soul is not thought to transmigrate into other species and does not evolve but rather devolves birth after birth. Within this "point of light" all aspects of the personality are contained and is said to enter the human body in the 4th to 5th month of pregnancy.
, repeating identically every 5,000 years, and is composed of five ages (yugas): the Golden Age (Sat Yuga), the Silver Age (Treta Yuga
), the Copper Age (Dwapar Yuga
), the Iron Age (Kali Yuga
) each exactly 1,250 years long, and the Confluence Age (Sangam Yuga). The Confluence Age is said to be 100 years long, and believed to have begun again in 1936 with the descent of Shiva, during which present day civilization is to be completely destroyed by natural disasters, civil and nuclear war. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi states this information is generally hidden from non-members.
During the first half of the cycle, procreation is believed to be possible through the power of yoga without sexual intercourse. The Universe is never transformed into primordial or atomic state matter, nor does the world ever becomes devoid of human beings.
The aim of the individual Brahma Kumari is to gain a high status in the coming paradise, perhaps even a select 108 who are 'totally victorious' and will rule there. Members of the physical families of Brahma Kumaris who have contact with the University are said to become members of the 16,000 top souls and at the end of each Cycle, everyone will see visions in which their personal destinies will be fully disclosed.
as described by Patanjali
, through which members are encouraged to purify their minds. This may be done by sitting tranquilly in front of a screen on to which Dada Lekhraj's image is projected, then making affirmations regarding the eternal nature of the soul.
Lawrence Babbs described another practise where "the student or students sit in a semi-darkened room facing the teacher (usually a woman). Just above and behind the teacher's head is a red plastic ovoid that glows from a lightbulb within, in its center is a tiny hole which appears as an intense whitelight against the red glow. This device represents the Supreme Soul (known as Shiv Baba) who is the presiding deity of the universe. With devotional songs playing softly in the background, student and teacher gaze intently at each other, either in the eyes or at the forehead. While doing this the student is supposed to imagine him or herself as a soul and not as a body. The student is told to think of themself as separate from the body, as bodiless, as light, as power, as bathed in the love and light of the Supreme Soul, and so on. This might continue for fifteen or twenty minutes". Babb also states that while staring (gazing into the eyes of an adept) at the teacher, many students experience visual hallucinations involving lights.
There are two types of mediumistic messages; sakar and avyakt;
One must complete the Brahma Kumaris foundation course before starting to attend morning murli class and visiting the headquarters in India during the period when, according to Howell and Nelson, "deceased founder communicates via trance-medium".
The Brahma Kumaris have undertaken two major international projects; ‘The Million Minutes for Peace’ in 1986 for which they received 7 Peace Messenger Awards and ‘Global Cooperation for a Better World’ in 1988.
The organization now has hundreds of branches internationally and
female followers known as Sandeshputris (trance
messengers) also helped add to the group's spiritual knowledge through psychic visions.
The deceased human founder Lekhraj Kripalani continues to be channelled through a senior sister (Hirdaya Mohini, referred to familiarly as Dadi Gulzar) at the organization's Rajasthan headquarters. The combined presence of the BKWSU's human founder and the spiritual being the BKWSU believe is God are referred to as BapDada (meaning Father and Grandfather) by BKs, especially in the context of their manifestation via this trance medium, through which the pair continue to direct the organization to this day.
, the UPA-Left candidate and current president of India said on camera during the Indian presidential election, 2007
, that she spoke to the spirit of the deceased leader of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University at their headquarters in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. Patil stated that she had received a mediumistic message
indicating great responsibility coming her way during the last season in which the spirits called "Bapdada" communicated with the faithful of the Brahma Kumaris sect
. She had gone to seek the blessings of Hirday Mohini, also known as Dadi Gulzar or Dadiji.
General
Millenarianism
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed, based on a one-thousand-year cycle. The term is more generically used to refer to any belief centered around 1000 year intervals...
new religious movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
(NRM) of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n origin. It teaches a form of meditation adherents called Raja Yoga, but which differs from the classical Raja Yoga described by Patanjali
Patañjali
Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
.
A neo-Hindu religious movement, the Brahma Kumaris pre-date the New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movement but have developed characteristics that link them to its thinking. It advocates a lifestyle which includes a vegetarian diet, celibacy, and avoidance of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.
Historically, the Brahma Kumaris have not been without controversy and a range of accusations against them have been made – see the section on controversies below for details. The controversies have involved researchers, previous members, government agency reports and the press.
Early history
The origin of BKWSU can be traced to the group "Om Mandali", founded by Lekhraj Kripalani (1876–1969) in Hyderabad, SindhHyderabad, Sindh
is the second largest city in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the seventh largest city in the country. The city was founded in 1768 by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro upon the ruins of a Mauryan fishing village along the bank of the Indus known as Neroon Kot...
in the 1930s. Lekhraj Kripalani, known as "Dada Lekhraj" and later known as "Brahma Baba" to his followers, was a Diamond merchant and follower of the Vaishnavite Vallabhacharya Sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
. Dada Lekhraj (Brahma Baba) retired from his business with assets of 1,000,000 Indian rupees to turn to spirituality. Their original spiritual knowledge was obtained though "divine revelations" and "divine visions" by sisters who channeled messages, and included "detailed knowledge ... on the basic concepts of soul, God, World, Time, Space, Karma, Mukti, Jeevanmukti, Heaven, Hell, Creation, Sustenance, Destruction, various Yugas, Maya and its various forms, the true kind of Yoga-Meditation, the divine virtues and the methodology to practise them." Lekhraj started holding satsang
Satsang
Satsang in Indian philosophy means the company of the "highest truth," the company of a guru, or company with an assembly of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate the truth...
s which attracted many people and the group became known as Om Mandali. In 1937, he named some of his followers to a managing committee, then reportedly transferred his fortune to the committee. Several women joined Om Mandali, and contributed their wealth to the association as well.
Some members of the local Sindhi people
Sindhi people
Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province Formerly of British India, now in Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity...
reacted unfavorably to this movement because women were given an elevated status. Many young married Sindhi women attended his ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
and were being encouraged to take vows of celibacy
Celibacy
Celibacy is a personal commitment to avoiding sexual relations, in particular a vow from marriage. Typically celibacy involves avoiding all romantic relationships of any kind. An individual may choose celibacy for religious reasons, such as is the case for priests in some religions, for reasons of...
, so the Om Mandali was accused of breaking up families.
Some Hindu members of the Sindh Assembly threatened to resign unless the Om Mandali was outlawed. So, the Sindh Government used the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908 to declare the Om Mandali an unlawful association. Under further pressure from the Hindu leaders in the Assembly, the Government also ordered the Om Mandali to close and vacate its premises. The Om Mandali successfully appealed against the Government order in court.
In April 1950, after the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
, the Brahma Kumaris moved to Mount Abu in India, saying that they had been instructed by God to do so. After Dada Lekhraj's (Brahma Baba) death in 1969, his followers expanded the movement to other countries.
Expansion
The leadership of the BK movement remains primarily female. For example, in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, only one-third of the 42 centers are run by males. According to the BKWSU website, there are currently 825,000 students and over 8,500 Raja Yoga
Raja Yoga
Rāja Yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.Raja yoga was first described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is part of the Samkhya tradition.In the context of Hindu...
centres in 100 countries and territories. According to sources quoted in the Adherents website, worldwide membership ranges from 35,000 (in 1993) to 400,000 (in 1998).
A number of Brahma Kumari splinter groups exist, the most notable documented by Dr. John Walliss as the Advance Party, Shankar Party or AIVV to the BKWSU. Elsewhere they are referred to as the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris or PBKs. Walliss states that as Lekhraj Kripalani's original message of separation, spiritual introversion and violent Destruction becomes repackaged as the emergence of a New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
through self-understanding and self-development, this direction has caused discontent within certain segments of the Brahma Kumari movement, likening them to the "Protestant Reformers
Protestant Reformers
Protestant Reformers were those theologians, churchmen, and statesmen whose careers, works, and actions brought about the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century...
to the BKWSU's mediaeval Catholic Church".
The "Advance Party" offer a radicalised rendition of the BKWSU's original millenarian message. In particular, they are exceptionally hostile to the University's New Age and UN involvement claim that Shiva is now manifesting Himself through a different medium to correctly interpret the original teachings and that Lekhraj Kirpalani's business partner Sevak Ram was the original medium. PBKs report hostile resistance from the BKWSU and Walliss met with a wall of silence and irate phone call from the University threatening him that the BKWSU would "block [him] every step of the way if [he] persisted along this line of investigation". The University restricting its member's "knowledge and access to the group so as to prevent any further defections." Founder Baba Dev Dixit was debarred from the BKWSU.
According to the Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements,
in 2000, about 450,000 people were affiliated with the Brahma Kumaris, but many were probably not committed to the group's worldview. The Encyclopedia stated:
Since the [Brahma Kumaris] University spread to Western societies it has increasingly accommodated people with little interest in its theodicy but attracted to the practical applications of BK spiritual practices. The community service programmes of the 1980s and 1990s stimulated creative renderings of BK meditation as a tool for psychological healing and eclectic spiritual exploration. The casual participants whom the BKs have attracted in this way probably made up the vast majority of the 450,000 people on the University's records at the turn of the century.
Activities
The Brahma Kumaris conduct seven one-hour-long courses in their philosophy and open-eyed meditation technique. The organization offers courses in "positive thinkingPositive Thinking
Positive Thinking... or Positive Thinking may refer to one of two songs:*Positive Thinking *Positive Thinking...
", "self management leadership", and "living values."
The Brahma Kumaris also have a number of voluntary outreach programs in prisons.
Lifestyle
The movement teaches that the world is approaching a time of great change that will be heralded by war, natural calamities and suffering. As a form of developing inner spiritual resilience, the Brahma Kumaris adopt a disciplined lifestyle which involves:- CelibacyCelibacyCelibacy is a personal commitment to avoiding sexual relations, in particular a vow from marriage. Typically celibacy involves avoiding all romantic relationships of any kind. An individual may choose celibacy for religious reasons, such as is the case for priests in some religions, for reasons of...
, including no sex within marriage. So long as chastity is followed, marriage and family life are allowed. - SattvicSattvaIn Hindu philosophy, sattva is the most rarefied of the three gunas in Samkhya, sāttvika "pure", rājasika "dim", and tāmasika "dark". Importantly, no value judgement is entailed as all guna are indivisible and mutually qualifying...
vegetarianismVegetarianismVegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
, a strict lacto-vegetarianLacto vegetarianismA lacto vegetarian diet is a vegetarian diet that includes dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, and kefir, but excludes eggs. Lacto-vegetarians also abstain from cheeses that include animal rennet and yogurts that contain gelatin...
diet (excluding eggs, onions, garlic and/or spicy food) cooked only by the self or other members. - Abstaining from alcoholAlcoholIn chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, tobaccoTobaccoTobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
and non-prescription drugs. - Daily early morning meditationMeditationMeditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
at 4:00 to 4:45 am, called 'Amrit Vela.' - Daily morning class at approximately 6:30 am.
- Men and women traditionally sit on separate sides of the room at the centers during classes.
- Brahma Kumaris can be identified by their frequent adoption of wearing white clothes, to symbolize purity.
- Recommends that companions (friends/family) be good (satsang) soul-aware yogis as opposed to those given over to worldly pleasures, known as bhogis.
Beliefs
In 1952, after a 14-year period of retreat during which Dada Lekhraj (Brahma Baba) published numerous pamphlets, newspaper articles and wrote letters to important national and international figures, a more structured form of teaching began to be offered to the public by way of a seven lesson course. The movement has distinguished itself from HinduismHinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and projects itself as a vehicle for spiritual teaching rather than a religion.
Central beliefs
Central to its faith are the beliefs that:- The human being is an eternal soul living within a physical body and is not the physical body which is dualistic "I am a soul, my body is a garment".
- ReincarnationReincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
happens only from one human body to another. - HumanityHuman RaceHuman Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
is currently reaching the end of the current cycle and thus the world will be destroyed, a time referred to as "Destruction". - Indian subcontinentIndian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
will be the site of the future Golden AgeGolden AgeThe term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
paradiseParadiseParadise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
and that a form of HindiHindiStandard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
is the original language of humanity, all other continents being destroyed. Followers are taught that only they will live in the coming Golden Age paradise. as Gods and Goddesses.
God
The Brahma Kumaris claim their spirit guide, who they call Shiva is the God of all religions and an eternal soul, just like human soul, but the Supreme one and speaks to humanity exclusively via the Brahma Kumaris spirit mediums. They claim Shiva is the same spirit being known as AllahAllah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
or Jahweh and its purpose is to awaken humanity, destroy other religions to eliminate evil and negativity. He is not the creator of matter which is itself considered to be eternal.
God, they believe, possesses or incarnates into the religion's spirit mediums
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
at mass seance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
s at its headquarters in India and speaks to its followers in person, these messages called "Murlis" becoming the scriptures of the religion but hidden from outsiders.
Self
Human and even animal souls, called atmas, are believed to be an infinitesimal point of spiritual light residing in the forehead of the body it occupies. Souls are believed to originally exist with God in a "Soul World", a world of infinite light, peace and silence called NirvanaNirvana
Nirvāṇa ; ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha...
. Here souls are in a state of rest and beyond experience. Souls enter bodies to take birth in order to experience life and give expression to their personality. Unlike other Eastern traditions, the soul is not thought to transmigrate into other species and does not evolve but rather devolves birth after birth. Within this "point of light" all aspects of the personality are contained and is said to enter the human body in the 4th to 5th month of pregnancy.
Cycle of time
Time is considered to be cyclicWheel of time
The Wheel of time or wheel of history is a concept found in several religious traditions and philosophies, notably religions of Indian origin such as Hinduism and Buddhism, which regard time as cyclical and consisting of repeating ages...
, repeating identically every 5,000 years, and is composed of five ages (yugas): the Golden Age (Sat Yuga), the Silver Age (Treta Yuga
Treta Yuga
Treta Yuga is the second out of four yugas, or ages of mankind, in the religion of Hinduism, and follows the Satya Yuga of perfect morality and precedes the Dvapara Yuga. The most famous events in this yuga were Lord Vishnu's fifth, sixth and seventh incarnations as Vamana, Parashurama and...
), the Copper Age (Dwapar Yuga
Dvapara Yuga
Dvapara Yuga or Dwapara Yuga is the third out of four yugas, or ages, described in the scriptures of Hinduism. This yuga comes after Treta Yuga and is followed by Kali Yuga...
), the Iron Age (Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga
Kali Yuga is the last of the four stages that the world goes through as part of the cycle of yugas described in the Indian scriptures. The other ages are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga...
) each exactly 1,250 years long, and the Confluence Age (Sangam Yuga). The Confluence Age is said to be 100 years long, and believed to have begun again in 1936 with the descent of Shiva, during which present day civilization is to be completely destroyed by natural disasters, civil and nuclear war. Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi states this information is generally hidden from non-members.
During the first half of the cycle, procreation is believed to be possible through the power of yoga without sexual intercourse. The Universe is never transformed into primordial or atomic state matter, nor does the world ever becomes devoid of human beings.
Tree of humanity
It is taught that all of life will die and return to Nirvana, then take birth in the forthcoming cycle at their predestined time and place. This is portrayed as the "Kalpa Vriksha Tree", or the "Tree of Humanity", in which the founder Brahma Baba (Dada Lekhraj) and his Brahma Kumaris followers are shown as the roots of the humanity. A new world order starting with the birth of Krishna and a population of 900,000 is believed to go on to enjoy 2,500 years of paradise as living deities before humanity splits and the religious founders incarnate. Each creates their own branch and brings with them their own followers from the Infinite Light, until they too decline and splits, schisms, cults and sects appear at the end of the Iron Age.The aim of the individual Brahma Kumari is to gain a high status in the coming paradise, perhaps even a select 108 who are 'totally victorious' and will rule there. Members of the physical families of Brahma Kumaris who have contact with the University are said to become members of the 16,000 top souls and at the end of each Cycle, everyone will see visions in which their personal destinies will be fully disclosed.
Meditation
The Brahma Kumaris teach a form of meditation called Raja Yoga, which according to Reender Kranenborg may not be the same as classical Raja YogaRaja Yoga
Rāja Yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.Raja yoga was first described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is part of the Samkhya tradition.In the context of Hindu...
as described by Patanjali
Patañjali
Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
, through which members are encouraged to purify their minds. This may be done by sitting tranquilly in front of a screen on to which Dada Lekhraj's image is projected, then making affirmations regarding the eternal nature of the soul.
Lawrence Babbs described another practise where "the student or students sit in a semi-darkened room facing the teacher (usually a woman). Just above and behind the teacher's head is a red plastic ovoid that glows from a lightbulb within, in its center is a tiny hole which appears as an intense whitelight against the red glow. This device represents the Supreme Soul (known as Shiv Baba) who is the presiding deity of the universe. With devotional songs playing softly in the background, student and teacher gaze intently at each other, either in the eyes or at the forehead. While doing this the student is supposed to imagine him or herself as a soul and not as a body. The student is told to think of themself as separate from the body, as bodiless, as light, as power, as bathed in the love and light of the Supreme Soul, and so on. This might continue for fifteen or twenty minutes". Babb also states that while staring (gazing into the eyes of an adept) at the teacher, many students experience visual hallucinations involving lights.
Murlis
David Barrett states, "Unlike traditional forms of Hinduism, the Brahma Kumaris' teachings come not so much from ancient scriptures but from revelations given in trance states". However, the mediumistic messages known by Brahma Kumaris as "Murlis" read at the 6.30 am meetings are slowly developing the nature of potential scriptures. The earlier ones channeled by Lekhraj Kripalani while he was alive, are now repeated in a five year cycle. They are supplemented by later murlis channelled by Hirday Mohini of Delhi in trance states, and these too are written down.There are two types of mediumistic messages; sakar and avyakt;
- Sakar Murlis refer to the original classes said to be spoken by "Shiva" through the medium of Lekhraj Kripalani in the 1960s, before he died of a heart attack on 18 January 1969. These include teachings by Shiva and the life of personal experience of Lekhraj.
- Avyakt Vanis, or Murlis, refer to the teachings of Shiva and the soul of the deceased Lekhraj Kripalani combined through a medium named Hirday Mohini, or "Dadi Gulzar". The Brahma Kumaris believe that the soul of Lekhraj Kripalani has become perfect and now has the role of an angelAngelAngels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
. These messages are understood by members of the BKWSU to be the words of God. The Murli's are what the Brahma Kumaris use to direct their personal spiritual effort and institutional service.
One must complete the Brahma Kumaris foundation course before starting to attend morning murli class and visiting the headquarters in India during the period when, according to Howell and Nelson, "deceased founder communicates via trance-medium".
Achievements
In India, the BKWSU runs a charitable Village Outreach Programme in Mount Abu and administers the Global Hospital and Research Centre (GHRC), established in 1991 and funded by the J. Wattammull Memorial Trust. In 2004, the Brahma Kumaris established the G.V. Mody Rural Health Care Centre & Eye Hospital, located at the base of Mount Abu. The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and UNICEF. It is associated with the UN Department of Public Information.The Brahma Kumaris have undertaken two major international projects; ‘The Million Minutes for Peace’ in 1986 for which they received 7 Peace Messenger Awards and ‘Global Cooperation for a Better World’ in 1988.
The organization now has hundreds of branches internationally and
- was awarded 7 UNUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Peace Messenger Awards 1987 for its co-ordination of the ‘Million Minutes of Peace’ project. - Pioneering work in solar energy and sustainable energy, including developing the world's largest solar cooker.
- Chief administrator Prakashmani awarded Peace Medal of the United Nations for the year 1981 for the ‘Million Minutes of Peace’ project.
- granted International Peace Messenger Initiative status by the U.N.for the Global Co-operation for a Better World campaign.
Use of mediumship
The BKWSU is believed by its members to have been established by Shiva Baba (God-Father Shiva, described as the Supreme Soul and conceived as the one God of all religions) through the medium of the group's founder Lekhraj Kripalani. From the beginning, a number of trance-messengers have received messages and teachings. According to an account by Sister Denise, who was at that time Director of the San Francisco Center, a medium has been used to directly channel a message from a deceased senior Brahma Kumari, Didi Manmohini. In its early days, children would commonly go into trances, having visions of Krishna and Vaikunth (Golden Age Heaven) and engaging in ecstatic dances for as long as 7 days. A number of mediumisticChannelling (mediumistic)
In spirituality, channelling or channeling is the belief that communication of information occurs by or through a person , from a deity, spirit or other paranormal entity outside the mind of the channel...
female followers known as Sandeshputris (trance
Trance
Trance denotes a variety of processes, ecstasy, techniques, modalities and states of mind, awareness and consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.The term trance may be associated with meditation, magic, flow, and prayer...
messengers) also helped add to the group's spiritual knowledge through psychic visions.
The deceased human founder Lekhraj Kripalani continues to be channelled through a senior sister (Hirdaya Mohini, referred to familiarly as Dadi Gulzar) at the organization's Rajasthan headquarters. The combined presence of the BKWSU's human founder and the spiritual being the BKWSU believe is God are referred to as BapDada (meaning Father and Grandfather) by BKs, especially in the context of their manifestation via this trance medium, through which the pair continue to direct the organization to this day.
Divine indication
Pratibha PatilPratibha Patil
Pratibha Devisingh Patil is the 12th President of the Republic of India and first woman to hold the office. She was sworn in as President of India on 25 July 2007, succeeding Dr. A.P.J...
, the UPA-Left candidate and current president of India said on camera during the Indian presidential election, 2007
Indian presidential election, 2007
The Election Commission of India held indirect 13th presidential elections of India on 19 July 2007. Pratibha Patil with 638,116 votes won over her nearest rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat who got 331,306 votes...
, that she spoke to the spirit of the deceased leader of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University at their headquarters in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. Patil stated that she had received a mediumistic message
Channelling (mediumistic)
In spirituality, channelling or channeling is the belief that communication of information occurs by or through a person , from a deity, spirit or other paranormal entity outside the mind of the channel...
indicating great responsibility coming her way during the last season in which the spirits called "Bapdada" communicated with the faithful of the Brahma Kumaris sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
. She had gone to seek the blessings of Hirday Mohini, also known as Dadi Gulzar or Dadiji.
Controversies and criticism
- The Times of India has reported that the Government of Haryana's financial commissioner, Shri R.R. Fuliya, IAS, is seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the sect for 'criminal' activities involving cases of murders, rapes, scapegoating and police cover ups. At a press conference in Mount Abu, the commissioner gave the names of accused and deceased. He claimed a girl was sexually exploited in a Brahma Kumari centre situated in Panipat district and then her brother was killed when he raised voice against the exploitation. The commissioner noted that he had also received threat to life since raising the issues in public.
- The Brahma Kumaris were declared an "enemy of the state" by the government of Greece in 1993 and classified as dangerous by the government of France in 1996. The Brahma Kumaris were listed as a "cult movement" in the 1995 French government report on "Cults in France".
- In PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
conflicts arose between the Brahma Kumaris and a local CatholicCatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest who organized an anti-Brahma Kumaris campaign. Thereafter, local newspapers accused the organization of being a "dangerous sect".
- Dr. John Wallis wrote a book about the religion, focusing on recruitment methods, the issue of celibacy, reinterpretation of religious history. He reports about the re-writing of the revelatory messages (Murlis) by the BKWSU leaders and anger and aggression towards the Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa VidyalayaAdhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa VidyalayaThe Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, also known as Advance Party, is a part of the same Adi Devta Dharma religion as Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, a monastic, renunciate, millenarian new religious movement of Indian origin. Elsewhere they are referred to as the Prajapita Brahma...
. (The Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya or Advance Party and the BKWSU form the two halves of the Brahmin family who will supposedly eventually re-unite to transform this hell into heaven). - In a paper for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Howell wrote that teenage girls surrendering to the organisation were required to pay the equivalent of a dowry to the organization. The payment was meant to prevent parents from "dumping" their daughters at the BKWSU as a way to avoid the costs of ordinary marriages.
- The institution uses Hindu terminologies such as Raja YogaRaja YogaRāja Yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.Raja yoga was first described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is part of the Samkhya tradition.In the context of Hindu...
and Bhagavad GitaBhagavad GitaThe ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
to attract people but what is taught in the organization is completely different from what their original meanings in HinduismHinduismHinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
. - Followers are encouraged to undergo a ‘death-in-life’ and ‘die towards the outer world’ renouncing their families and thus be ‘divinely’ reborn in the ‘divine family consequently, the Brahma Kumaris have been accused of breaking up marriages and families since the 1930s.
- In 2007 Graham Baldwin, a former university chaplain and army officer who is president of the educational countercult organization Catalyst, was reported stating that the former members and the families of members had told him that BKWSU has driven a wedge between husband and wife and that there were complaints that it encourages single women and widows to donate property and savings and move to a community house. The BKWSU, a organisation being notable for its sex ban, was said to have "used pernicious methods to control its followers".
- Ian Howarth of the Cult Information CentreCult Information CentreThe Cult Information Centre is a British organization that provides information and advice to members of what the organization terms as cults, as well as affected family members, members of the press and scholarly researchers. The organization also serves as a resource for information on...
, was further quoted about complaints that people have gone undergone personality changes after joining BKWSU and become alienated from their families. A BKWSU spokeswoman replied, "this is very much a minority thing", declining to comment on allegations that BKWSU encourages followers to donate property and savings. - Questioned how dinosaurDinosaurDinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s fit within a 5,000 year Cycle of Time BK Neville Hodgkinson, a former scientific correspondent for an English national newspaper, questioned the existence of dinosaurs on the basis of the lack of bones that have been found whilst another BK follower argued that dinosaurs exist in a parallel space-time dimensionDimensionIn physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
and because of a warp holeBlack Holes and Time WarpsBlack Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy is a popular science book by Kip Thorne. It provides an illustrated overview of the history and development of black hole theory up until the early 1990s....
end up in this dimension. - The Brahma Kumaris have featured in the 'Wissen schützt' reports of Austria (edited by then Austrian Minister for Family Affairs Mr. Martin Bartenstein), Russia (International Conference "Totalitarian CulCulCul may refer to:*Cambridge University Library*City University London*Cul de canard, down feathers of a duck*Cul-de-sac, a short dead-end street*Cumberland, from its Chapman code*Czech University of Life Sciences Prague...
ts – Threat of Twenty-First Century", Nizhny Novgorod, 2001) and in a MIVILUDESMIVILUDESMIVILUDES , a French government agency, has the task of:* observing and analyzing movements perceived as constituting a threat to public order or that violate French law*...
report submitted to the French National Assembly as a "sectes dangereuses" (harmful cult) and "groupe d'enfermement" (group of confinement). This has leading to the presecution of followers in local media leading to job losses after it discovered that they belonged to a sectSectA sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
e and denouncement for their influence on children under their care. - Since 1978, the BKWSU is accused of falsifying claims internationally that its current leader and relative of the founder Dadi Janki Kripalani is "the most stable mind in the world". Journalists quoted archivists at the University in question and "found no mention of the experiments performed on Dadi Janki in 1978". Indeed, they could not even "find any University of Texas organization called the Medical and Science Research Institute."
See also
Associated concepts- ChannelingChannelingChanneling, or channelling, can refer toscience*Channelling , the process that constrains the path of a charged particle in a crystalline solid.*metabolite or substrate channeling in biochemistry and cell physiology.law...
- Channeling (mediumistic)
- End timesEnd timesThe end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...
- MeditationMeditationMeditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
- MillenarianismMillenarianismMillenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed, based on a one-thousand-year cycle. The term is more generically used to refer to any belief centered around 1000 year intervals...
General
- Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa VidyalayaAdhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa VidyalayaThe Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, also known as Advance Party, is a part of the same Adi Devta Dharma religion as Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, a monastic, renunciate, millenarian new religious movement of Indian origin. Elsewhere they are referred to as the Prajapita Brahma...
- Hindu reform movementsHindu reform movementsSeveral contemporary groups, collectively termed Hindu reform movements, strive to introduce regeneration and reform to Hinduism. Although these movements are very individual in their exact philosophies they generally stress the spiritual, secular and logical and scientific aspects of the Vedic...
- HinduismHinduismHinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
- List of Brahma Kumaris
- New religious movementNew religious movementA new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
- Raja YogaRaja YogaRāja Yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.Raja yoga was first described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is part of the Samkhya tradition.In the context of Hindu...