The Consolidation Years (1960 - 1969)

Consolidation of Understanding

1962  A text published in 1962 by Jagdish bhai, The Great Contrast, is the earliest text we have found that clearly refers to the Supreme Soul as God Shiva. Jagdish bhai still describes the form of God Father Shiva as jyoti lingam, the oval form. This persistent representation suggests that the understanding of the soul and the Supreme Soul as tiny points of light, jyoti bindu, may not have become established until around 1964.

This may also help explain why the earliest murlis preserved within the organisation today date from the mid-1960s. These murlis have subsequently been revised and repeated in later cycles of study. Some BKs have expressed concern about this process of revision and editing, preferring that the purity of the original spoken versions be retained.

During this period, the understanding of the form of both the soul and the Supreme Soul shifts from jyoti lingam, an oval or thumb-shaped form of light, to jyoti bindu, a tiny point of light. This development was recalled by Atam Prakash of the Literature Department at Shantivan.

1964   Brahma Baba asked Atam bhai from the Literature Department to place tiny white dots in the centre of all the oval forms that depicted the soul.

1965   By this time there is broad and collective acceptance of two distinct entities at work, with Shiv Baba understood as Supreme. This understanding had begun to emerge in the late 1950s, but for some it seems to have taken until the mid-1960s to become firm. Even much later, senior members have sometimes responded with great affection, “Baba is Baba”, accompanied by a look of bewilderment or curiosity as to why drawing a conceptual divide between the two Babas should matter so much.

Murlis become the official daily theology of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, understood as being spoken by Shiv Baba through Brahma Baba.

24 June 1965   Mama passes away from cancer. For nearly thirty years she had played a formative role in the lives of the young members of the community and had been a source of support, confidence and motherly care for many. Her passing was a profound loss. It is possible that Mama had only a year or two in which to live with the more complete body of knowledge that had emerged by the mid-1960s and is familiar within the Brahma Kumaris today.

After Mama's Passing

Between 1965 and 1969 there was a unique opportunity for many to connect more closely with Brahma Baba. In the absence of Mama, Baba increasingly held the role of both mother and father to the young ones. It was also a period in which he demonstrated the practical fruit of stability, love and detachment through his tapasya, or intense meditation, following Mama’s passing.

1966   The picture of The Ladder, thematically borrowed from another religious institution in Bombay by senior brother Nirwair, begins to be used as a way of illustrating the spiritual decline of humanity. The Ladder, reproduced below, refers to destruction in 1976, reflecting the continuing sense among original members that world change was imminent and that there was an urgent need to become completely pure.

This timeline may draw on the story of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, where thirty-nine years pass between their renunciation of sovereignty and their final ascent towards the mountain. The parallel may have resonated with the community’s own understanding of the establishment of the yagya and the anticipated destruction of the old world. A poster of Lakshmi and Narayan from this period also predicts destruction in 1976.

Any pictures drawn were closely overseen by Baba and nothing was printed without his express approval.

"Baba called me and asked me to design the picture of the ladder... I began work and Baba suggested corrections and additions every day... the picture of the ladder looked very good and Baba used to say that everyone should possess this picture" (page 55, A Unique Experience)

June 1967  Senior members met together in Madhuban and reflected on the special role Mama had played in travelling, visiting centres and giving spiritual knowledge. They expressed concern to Baba that, since Mama’s passing, no-one had quite taken on that same role of sustaining the old ones and encouraging the young ones. Baba was clear that there could never be another Mama. At the same time, he asked the senior sisters to carry forward the work she had established: travelling, giving knowledge, offering sustenance and care, and helping people connect with the Divine.

Baba's Becomes 'Avyakt' (Angelic)

1969   Brahma Baba, the much-loved founder and father figure, passes away at the age of 85, to the absolute surprise of almost everyone. Within Brahma Kumaris understanding, the soul of corporeal Brahma leaves the physical world and enters the Subtle World, taking the angelic and perfected form that Gulzar Dadi, and others, had seen in visions around a quarter of a century earlier. Brahma, or Dada (“elder brother”), in relationship with the Supreme Soul, Incorporeal Shiva, or Bap (“Father”), becomes Avyakt BapDada. The two, in absolute harmony, now speak through the body of Gulzar Dadi.

The feeling that world change was imminent remained with them, as it does with us today. Baba directed that records of previous knowledge be destroyed. Some have understood this as an attempt to remove earlier or superseded teachings. However, Sister Sudesh, who was present, recalled a much more practical reason: space and storage. They believed destruction was imminent, Baba was with them, and there seemed little reason to preserve past teachings. They simply cleared out what they considered unnecessary.

Whatever the reason, the body of murlis preserved within the organisation today consists primarily of five years of teachings from 1965–1969. These are revised and repeated in the daily study cycle and distributed electronically to centres around the world.