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- For the practise of Raja Yoga taught by Brahma Kumaris, see Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organisation.
Origin
This organization was found by a jewel merchant called Dada Lekhraj in 1936 being under the name "Om Mandali" and consisted of only a handful of men, women and children living in Hyderabad. A year after its establishment, the organization moved from Hyderabad to Karachi (now part of Pakistan, but at that time part of colonial India) . . . for fourteen years, until after the partition of India and Pakistan, the founding group of 300 individuals, lived as a self-sufficient community spending their time in intense spiritual study, meditation and self-transformation. In 1950, the community moved to Mount Abu, mainly due to the religious resistance to its activities in Pakistan. From its modest beginnings, the organization kept progressing in leaps and bounds to reach by early 1996 about 3,200 meditation centers in 70 countries with over 450,000 students. Madhuban serves as the nucleus of the Brahma Kumaris’ centers worldwide and Mt. Abu, ‘the Father’s mountain’ is regarded as a pilgrimage place by many who are in search of spiritual rejuvenation.
Faith
This monotheistic faith believes that all the events in this universe are periodic and each and every event will repeat exactly after 5000 years - they call this the 'Eternal Drama'. The total number of souls in this world is fixed and there is only one God - supreme soul Shiva. The god, souls and the 'Eternal Drama' have no beginning or end (Anadi and Avinaashi ). The souls keep on entering the physical body (birth) and leave (death) them as per the rules of the 'Eternal Drama'.
These 5000 years are divided into four Yugas: Satya, Thretha, Dwapara and Kali. The former two yuga's are filled with supreme happiness. The pain and grief starts from Dwapara Yuga. Souls start committing sins and face the fruit of those actions in subsequent births. At the end of Kaliyuga, the moral status of the people deteriorates to such an extent that God incarnates into the body of Dada Lekhraj and provides the knowledge of true spirituality. Only those who follow it will find place in Satya and Thretha Yuga of the next cycle. All others will start taking birth from Dwapara Yuga. There is no concept of salvation. The organization considers sexual intercourse as a terrible sin.
Achievements
The organization has branches all over the world. All top level management is done by women. It is the first and perhaps the only spiritual organization having membership of UN. Carries out many social service activities.
Criticism
Most of the concepts of this faith are similar to Hinduism, but the organization maintains that they are novel and in turn claims that certain philosophy of Hinduism are memorables or Yaadgaars of its ideas. Brahmakumaris accept food cooked only by practitioners that maintain their strict regimens. They believe that food cooked by those that do not follow their regimen may be impure. This practice offends some outsiders. They claim that the Hindu spiritual scripture, Bhagavad Gita, is actually the teachings of Shiva and that it is mis-interpreted by Hindus.
