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Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya or Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is considered a monastic or semi-monastic millenarianist New Religious Movement (NRM) of Indian origin." It teaches a form of meditation called Raja Yoga, although not classical Raja Yoga as described by Patanjali, involving mediumistic channelling.

History

The BKWSU was founded in 1937 as Om Mandali by Lekhraj Kripalani, 1876-1969, a wealthy Sindhi merchant of Hindu background following visions of the destruction of the world and its population through war, natural disasters and nuclear holocaust following which would be the emergence of a post-apocalyptic paradise to be populated by a chosen few. Kirpalani believed that he was entered by another soul and that this spirit was God who started to talk through him. Understandably disoriented by these visions and experiences, Lekhraj decided to sell his business to his partner in order to retire and established an informal congregation of followers called the Om Mandali, or "gathering of souls". Following social and legal opposition, the movement led by Lekhraj moved from Hyderabad to Karachi and then to their current location in Mount Abu.

From the beginning of the organization Kirpalani gave special encouragement to women to develop their spiritual lives and take leadership positions handing over the responsibilities of administering the organisation to a Trust of nine women. He also rejected the Hindu practice of restricting the elevated status of celibate seeker to men. Anyone, regardless of sex, who was prepared to adopt chastity and follow purity rules concerning diet and alcohol was eligible to join Kirpalani and become a member of the organization. A high proportion of early members were women and their children. In the 1950s when teaching centers elsewhere in India were opened, young women were chosen to spread the teachings and the leadership of the BK movement in India remains heavily female. There are variances between the organization's own Indian version of the group's history and the international version .

Global Expansion

From its modest beginnings of approximate 300 individuals from a single community, the organization has expanded worldwide. The nucleus of the Brahma Kumaris’ centers worldwide is Madhuban, literally "The Forest of Honey" in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. The BKWSU now claims to have more than 5,500 Raja Yoga centres in 90 countries and over 800,000 students whilst still expanding. No details as to the level or of length of commitment are given.

Outreach programmes include at local and national levels meditation, stress reduction and self-esteem classes, associated work in prisons, homes for the elderly, drug clinics and hospitals. The Brahma Kumaris have developed links with the United Nations Organisation, through international projects as ‘The Million Minutes for Peace’, ‘Global Co-Operation for a better World’ and the educational initiative ‘Living Values' .

Practices

The movement teaches the imminent end of the world that must be prepared for by strict asceticism.. Followers take upon themselves a disciplined lifestyle which involves;

Beliefs

Referring to "world service" which was started in 1952, Kirpalani had from the very beginning published numerous pamphlets and written a huge amount of letters to important national and international figures in which he interpreted contemporary events with reference to his revealed knowledge. As a marked intensification of the process, a seven-lesson courses in the group's teachings started to be offered to outsiders. An overview of the seven-lesson course can be found here: under "Foundation Course in Raja Yoga Meditation." According to Kranenborg beliefs include ;

Concept of God: The Brahma Kumaris concept differs from Hinduism in that God is an eternal and conscient being of light, the ‘all-highest soul’, ever-pure and good. Although believed to omniscient, he is not omnipresent. Matter and human souls are also eternal—neither are they created by God nor do they emerge from God. Brahma Kumaris teachings provide specific understanding of God’s roles as creator, preserver and destroyer, known as the Trimurti.

Concept of human beings: Each eternal human soul originally lived with God in the Soul World, a world of infinite light, peace and silence otherwise known as Nirvana. Souls take birth in a body in order to experience life and give expression to their original positive qualities.

Concept of cyclic time: Brahma Kumaris teachings accord with classical Hinduism with respect to four world ages (yugas): the golden age (sat yuga), the silver age (treta yuga), the copper age (dwapar yuga) and the iron age (kali yuga). Within this last age, however, there is a fifth diamond age or confluence age (sangam yuga). The most striking departure from Hinduism is that for Brahma Kumaris the whole cycle lasts 5,000 years and it is repeated identically and eternally. The confluence age was originally taught to be 40 years but is now 100 years long ending in 2036. They believe that we currently are near the end of kali yuga, after which the civilisation will be completely destroyed and the world transformed into a new golden age.

BK Raja Yoga meditation: The practice involves initial development of the awareness and experience of the inner being, or the soul in its true and peaceful form. Once that awareness exists, thought is turned towards union with the being they consider to be God or Shiva.

Murlis: Brahma Kumaris teachings and spiritual study are based on the chanelled messages imparted when Shiva enters and speaks through a spiritualistic medium, initially that of Lekhraj Kirpalani and currently that of Hirday Mohini, a trance-messenger and also a trance-medium who speaks the ‘Murli’. These messages are understood to be the words of God and clearly indicate that Shiva is to be understood as the ‘Supreme Soul’ and not one of many Hindu gods. Formally, the movement does not have a ‘holy book’ or scripture. Murlis are not available for sale and one must complete the Brahma Kumaris foundation course in order to begin listening to them. Murli class is held in the early morning every day at all BK centres around the world.

Patterns of membership

Through its expansion form its initial group, the BKWSU now has a variety of membership patterns. Walliss recognizes four different types of members:

1) Instrumental users: Individuals drawn to the BKWSU through what they perceive as tangible benefits through their life in the "here and now" usually emotionally or physically related issues.

2) Eclectic users: individuals looking for personal development or "self-spirituality", there is a spiritual quest behind their association.

3) Spiritual searchers: Individuals who feel they belong to the spiritual path, however; their involvement with the BKWSU grew out of sense of disillusionment with conventional religiosity.

4) Interpretative drifters: Individuals originally involved due to instrumental reasons, however they "gradually discovered that the ideas behind the belief are true."

Achievements

The organization now has 100s of branches internationally and ;

  • most level management and the majority of local management and teaching is done by women
  • administrators of two hospitals
  • organizes interfaith meetings that have brought together previously opposing groups
  • active within female emancipation in India
  • 7 UN Peace Messenger Awards 1987 for the co-ordination of the ‘Million Minutes of Peace’ project
  • Chief adminstrator Prakashmani awarded Peace Medal of the United Nations for the year 1981
  • granted International Peace Messenger Initiative status by the U.N.for the Global Co-operation for a Better World campaign
  • does not charge for its services

Splinter movements

Walliss mentions the advent of a breakaway movement refering to one of them as the Advance Party, elsewhere they are referred to the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris or PBKs . He goes on to state that as Lekhraj Kirpalani's orginal 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 discontentment within certain segments of the Brahma Kumari movement. The most vocal of these being the "Advance Party" who offer a radicalise rendition of the original millenarian messsage.

The Advance Party are seen as a sectarian response to what they see as the increasingly wordly, and therefore corrupt, nature of the BKWSU manifest particularly through their UN and New Age orientation. They assert that the BKWSU has fallen from its original purity in the age of Kirpalani's influence to a state where the adulteration of the knowledge and sublte curruption is rampant and students are being exploited by the senior members. Walliss goes on to state that the PBKs claim that Shiva is now manifesting himself through a different medium to correctly interpret the original teachings .

External links

BK

Third party

Christian

Islamic

References

  1. http://www.abo.fi/comprel/temenos/temeno32/rothsten.htm
  2. Reflexive Traditions: New Religious Movements and the 'Negotiation' of Identity.-John Walliss, Ph.D University of Warwick, UK.
  3. Professor Reender Kranenborgh from Free University of Amsterdam. All citations originate from this web article unless noted differently.
  4. From World Rejection to Ambivalence: The Development of Millenarianism in the Brahma Kumaris. Walliss, John; Journal of Contemporary Religion; Oct99, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p375, 11p
  5. Brahma-Kumari Radhe, Om Mandli & the Om Nivas and their suppression, by application of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908” 1939,Pharmacy Printing Press, ISBN: B00089UWHE
  6. Jagdish Chander, Translated from original Hinu by Shanta Trivedi, PhD , Edited by Robert Shubow, J.D. "Adi Dev: The First Man", 1981 p129-134
  7. Gender Role Experimentation in New Religious Movements: Clarification of the Brahma Kumari Case, Howell, Julia. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; Sep98, Vol. 37 Issue 3, p453-461, 9p. Julia Day Howell is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Asian and International Studies, Griffith University, Australia
  8. http://www.brahmakumaris.com/aboutus/history.htm
  9. http://www.bkwsu.org/whoweare/history.htm
  10. Journal of Beliefs and Values, Vol.24, No.1, 2003 Religious Organisations in the UK and Values Education Programmes for Schools by Eleanor Nesbitt, Senior lecturer in Religions and Education, University of Warwick, UK and Ann Henderson, Research Fellow from The Univeristy of Warwick, UK.
  11. Lochtefeld, James G. Ph.D. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol. I ISBN 0-8239-3179-X, entry "Brahma Kumaris" New York Rosen 2002
  12. From World Rejection to Ambivalence:The development in Millenarianism in the Brahma Kumaris." by John Walliss. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol.14,N 3, 1999
  13. Reender Kranenborg, Free University of Amsterdam. "Brahma Kumaris: A New Religion?", 1999
  14. http://www.brahmakumaris.org.in/Landmarks.htm
  15. Dr. Julia D. Howell. Changing Meanings of Religious Pluralism, 2003
  16. Reflective Traditions: New Religious Movements and the 'Negotiation' of Identity. Walliss, John; University of Warwick, UK.
  17. http://www.shivbaba.org.pl/
  18. From World Rejection to Ambivalence:The development in Millenarianism in the Brahma Kumaris." by John Walliss. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol.14,N 3, 1999

Bibliography

  • Dr Julia D. Howell, Asian and International Studies, Griffith University, Australia & Dr Peter L. Nelson, Nelson Center for Humanities and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Australia. "Surviving Transplantation: The Brahma Kumaris in the Western World".
  • Dr. Julia D. Howel. Changing Meanings of Religious Pluralism, , 2003.
  • John Walliss, Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies, Aldershot. "The Brahma Kumaris as a ‘reflexive Tradition’: Responding to late modernity ", 2002 ISBN 0-7546-0951-0
  • Reender Kranenborg, Free University of Amsterdam. "Brahma Kumaris: A New Religion? ", 1999.
  • Peter Clarke, "Dada Lekhraj" & "Brahma Kumaris." Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Routledge 2005.
  • William Shaw , "Spying in Guruland: Inside Britain’s Cults", Fourth Estate, London, England 1994.
  • Lawrence A. Babb, "Amnesia and Remembrance in a Hindu Theory of History", Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1 (1982), pp. 49-66.
  • Lawrence A. Babb "Indigenous Feminism in a Modern Hindu Sect", Signs, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Spring, 1984), pp. 399-416.
  • Mayer, Jean-François et Reender Kranenborg, Geneve, Suisse. "La Naissance des Nouvelles Religions". 2004 ISBN 2-8257-0877-1
  • Frank Whaling, Emeritus Professor of the Study of Religion, University of Edinburgh. "Understanding the Brahma Kumaris", 2006. ISBN 1-903765-51-X.
  • Suma Varughese. "Satyug is as Sure as Death". 1998
  • BK Jayanti. "Valuing the Future : Education for Spiritual Development", 1999
  • Interreligious Insight. "Brahma Kumaris, World Spiritual University",
  • Ken O'Donnell. "Raja Yoga for beginners", 1987.
  • Jagdish Chander, Translated from original Hinu by Shanta Trivedi, PhD , Edited by Robert Shubow, J.D. "Adi Dev: The First Man", 1981.
  • Dadi Janki, "Companion of God", 2003 ISBN 0-340-82915-X
  • BKWSU. "World Drama", unknown date.
  • BKWSU. "Easy RajYoga", unknown date.
  • BKWSU. "The Seven Day Course" Pamphlet series, unknown date.
  • Near-Death Experience/Heide Fittkau-Garthe, 1998.
  • A Critique of the BK Philosophy as presented in the 7 Day Course,By Andy Harangozo
  • Report on Child Abuse,Beliefs and Lifestyle
  • Pamphlets Take a Closer Look,The Successful Subtle Soft-sell of Raja Yoga By CCG Training Insititue, Australia March 1989

See also

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