The Brahma Kumaris Movement - A Mystery to me!

Oum Shanti!
I hope you must have heard of Brahma Kumaris - a new religion founded in 1930s. It has attained a huge popularity in a short span of time.

The head quarters for Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University or Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya is located just about 100 miles from my place at Mount Abu in Rajasthan. Still, I've never gone there.

This spiritual movement attracted my curiosity some two decades back. I was in Delhi at that time. There were several centers which used to claim that they can make you see God. Really? This was enough for me to go to one of those centers.

I was greeted by a Brahma Kumaris. She told me to come there for a daily class to learn more about it. Influenced by Swami Vivekananda's experiences, I too asked her if she can see God . She replied in affirmative. Some more usual questions followed and I got all crammed answers. Then I started asking some unusual questions and she got uncomfortable in answering them. She told me to ask those to her seniors. But they were not available at the center at that time.

I wondered why an enlightened being can't answer all my questions related to spirituality. Another thing they were highlighting was their prophecy that this world is going to end in 2036 and this cycle of time will be completed with it and then Satyuga will re-start. This prophecy didn't sound me any logical to make me return to that center.

Over the years, I've met a few more of its followers at Dehradun, Mumbai and other places. But none of them sound any convincing to me. So I didn't delved any deeper into this philosophy.

Recently, two things pulled my attention towards this community again. One is veganism and the other agriculture.

I came to know many Brahma Kumaris are turning vegan. But they ain't officially telling their followers to go vegan. A friend met a Brahma Kumari sister Varuna from Pune who is currently looking their Nigeria branch. Interestingly she herself is vegan but don't like to preach it to others. I wanted to find out why.

Yesterday BK Shivani visited my city. She is a very popular face of BK with several million followers on her social media. So I went to attend her discourse.

It was quite a long talk and was being organized in the evening. The weather here is still quite cold and despite the official advent of Spring, Winters ain't yet ended. But unfortunately, the program was arranged in an open ground. Probably they were expecting a huge turnout. But most chairs were empty. I too stayed there for only an hour as it was difficult to bear cold. Also there was no provision of any Q & A. So I thought I'd meet her in person later.

Today morning I called the organizers to get an appointment with her. But unfortunately she had left for Delhi in the morning itself.

I was also curious to know about their Sustainable Yogic Agriculture in Gujarat which is now being supported by Narendra Modi government to tackle suicide problem in farmers. Some studies also report that their meditation program and agriculture approach has resulted in an increase in seed germination and microbe growth in the soil.

Doesn't that make you curious?

All these and the tradition of their knowledge (Murlis) directly coming from the alien souls is more than a mystery to me.