2008 - (The Contemporary Period)

After Dadi

In 2007, the beloved Dadi Prakashmani passed away, or “left her body”. Dadi had been a spiritual guide, mentor and head of the Brahma Kumaris since 1969, and was the beloved elder sister of many. She led the community from the time Brahma Baba entrusted the running of the yagya to her and her companion, Didi Manmohini, until her passing thirty-eight years later.

Her passing marked the beginning of a significant period of change within the Brahma Kumaris. Some researchers and long-term members have described aspects of this change as “The Shift”. It is often easier to document the remote past with the benefit of hindsight than to narrate historical change while living close to its margins in the present. Here, we attempt to do exactly that.

All history is subjective and is documented through the lives and perspectives of those who record it. Any errors, omissions or assumptions here are ours (link below forthcoming).

2011 Two Scholar Practitioners Meet

In 2011, Patrizia and Tamasin were in Gyan Sarovar, sitting on the steps outside Vishnu Puri and watching BKs leave and arrive for the annual period of spiritual sustenance. As they talked, they discovered that both had been part of a new kind of conversation taking place within the “Brahmin family”.

BKs were beginning to talk about things that, until relatively recently, had rarely been discussed openly: family, ageing, health, relationships, sexuality, work and money. We were meeting people who wanted to laugh and cry, to express doubt without fearing correction, and to express need without feeling spiritually unaccomplished.

With their long-term experience of BK life, beginning in 1983 and 1984 respectively, the psychologist and anthropologist began designing a research study.

Our Yagya Community Research pilot study, colloquially known as “The Survey” (2012), formed part of a wider grassroots wave of self-reflection within the Brahmin family, captured through academic methods and rigour.

In early 2016, five years after the initial study, the term “The Shift” was coined to describe a growing movement towards de-religionisation within the community. There was an increasing search for deeper authenticity: acting less on the basis of appearance, understanding the BK spiritual journey as a human journey, and recognising emotions such as love, joy, friendship, connection and appreciation as integral to wellbeing.

Fear was increasingly being replaced by love. For some BKs, religious spiritual practice was evolving into something more fully lived as spiritual human life. A growing number were questioning whether disciplines, language and dress, by themselves, were sufficient to make one deeply pure, deeply kind or deeply loving.

It was, and remains, a kind of gentle, compassionate anarchy: BKs freeing themselves from structures and systems that no longer support their wellness and happiness, while continuing to seek depth, connection and spiritual meaning. It is a fascinating time to be part of this organisation and community, and extraordinary to be living through yet another period of evolution and change.  

Further discussion of The Shift can be found in the Essays section, including reflections from Sister Denise on this significant period of change within the community. Over the years, we have continued to receive letters, emails, phone calls and personal responses from Brahmins who say that this research resonates with changes they are experiencing in their own lives and within the wider community.