The Evolution of Knowledge is Now

When researching the Brahma Kumaris history, it becomes easy to think of the evolution of knowledge, as something that occurred in the remote past. Indeed the knowledge was in a state of great flux between 1932 and 1964. However, there have been further refinements since then. 

For example, in the 1980s when many "double foreign" BKs were "born," there was a lot of focus on three stages of meditation: Brahma-Puri (the subtle form), Vishnu-Puri (the perfect form) and Shankar-Puri (the complete and bodiless form). This was a regular type of spiritual endeavour, and common discussion during classes. This has evolved and changed to the point where today meditation is a largely private and individually negotiated affair, although still conducted collectively. Sharing meditation experiences also used to be common practice after a Yoga Bhatti (period of extended meditation). This is far less frequent now. Instead, traditions from the past are pulled forward into new generations of spiritual practitioners who find new ways to bring meaning into their spiritual practice. A process of re-traditionalising perhaps?

There was a period in the late nineties through to around 2010 when there was a lot of focus on the Five Forms (Golden Age, Worship-Worthy, Brahmin, Angel, Point) and drills. These are less talked about now. Today, there is a more secular feel while BKs discuss "authenticity" and "community". Brahma-Puri, Vishnu-Puri and Shankar-Puri are now rarely talked about now. History continues to be made. The community continues to move. And knowledge continues to evolve. 

The Shift

There is a sense of movement and change within the Brahma Kumaris organisation. Some are concerned, and some are inspired. Some feel it's the most natural thing in the world, and some are worried because centre attendance has dropped in countries outside of India. Service in India is expanding rapidly. Service in countries outside of India has slowed. Like a tree, branches die and leaves fall off, the trunk strengthens, and new branches form. The tree changes its form, shape, size and vigour according to the season, according to the time, and according to the environment in which the seed was planted. Many have the question of what is going on? For a few years now - perhaps five or so - BKs have been discussing the yagya amongst themselves; In formal meetings, and informal gatherings, at the highest level of hierarchy, and among the most rudimentary and grassroots level.

A yagya is a sacrificial fire that is created to stimulate change. A yagya is established to dispel bad omens and to invite good ones. It is dynamic and without clear boundaries. A yagya is powerful and transformative. A yagya is fire, and fire is the great element of change. Whatever is offered into a yagya, is transformed through the element of fire. Similarly, this yagya, our yagya, was never designed to be a static organisation. The yagya is a living boundless phenomenon in which many things exist, including the Brahma Kumaris organisation. The Brahma Kumaris exist in various countries. It is often known by a different name and different structure, according to the laws and requirements of the country. However, distinct from this is the the all encompassing fire of spiritual energy: the yagya which stimulates self and world change. Considering all of this, the collapse of the Brahma Kumaris in its current form, within the transformative/ destructive/ creative energy of the yagya, is the most natural thing in the world. A group met in Germany this year, to discuss this very thing. Sister Denise also spoke about it recently. We would love to hear your comments on the matter.

Transcriptions from 1954 'Second World Religious Congress' (Japan)

"God’s Dear Ones, 

OM……… OM……..OM.

Before I take to the exposition of the views of my Order on topics included in the Agenda, let us all first establish ourselves in perfect silence for a short while. For, originally, we were all-silent. In that state, we experienced supreme peace and bliss. Let us, therefore, all be calm for sometime. I mean, let us become our real selves and thus regain that lost realm of tranquility which is our Godly patrimonial right, for, our Father Almighty, you know, is all-calm."

Above is an extract from the first speech given by Miss Prakashmani and Miss Rattan Mohini in Japan 1954 at the Second World Religious Congress. They would participate in two more through 1954 and 1955. It is fascinating reading and shows a period of the development of BK understanding previously unclear. Their understanding in the 1950s was distinct to their earlier understanding of the 1930s and 1940s as well as not yet being the fully formed body of knowledge that exists today on the post-1969 BK path. 

Apologies for taking a while to get this together and publish the documents. I've finally started transcribing to render it printable as well as searchable (mainly the former). I will post up links to the original documents as well, but for now here is the first of what will be around five or six speeches and messages of the time. The beautiful words of Dadi Prakashmani and Dadi Ratan Mohini (probably authored or at least translated by our wonderful Dada Anand Kishore). 

Enjoy!

Miss Prakashmani speaks

I remember Dadi Prakashmani telling us in the 80s and even in the 90s about the "early days". I remember very clearly sitting on the floor in the history hall while she was preparing to giving us our gift of either a 'rajai' (quilt)/ framed picture of Brahma Baba/ or sari. I always chose the rajai. She was just finishing arranging the gifts around her so she could show us the gifts, when someone asked what it was like in the early days. She put down the rajai, threw her hands in the air and looked up towards the sky. "Wah Baba!" Then she looked down at us and was so engaged. She really spoke to people with full attention and respect. "In those days everything was different," she said. "First, we always sat with a lot of attention in meditation. There was never any leaning against this or that. We had to be awake and alert" She sat upright and at attention, pulling herself away from the back of the  mustard colored vinyl couch. "Not like this," she said, as she crossed her arms and leaned into the corner of the couch, gazing around. The class giggled knowingly. Dadi continued, "There was more love but less knowledge. Baba would tell us anything and we would just do it. No question about anything. Not even for a second." She crossed her legs and leaned into the class. We all leaned forward to listen. "Our understanding has changed a lot. Back then we thought Brahma Baba was God and that everything would finish quickly and we would all go together. Now our understanding has become refined. There is a lot of service still to do. We had to churn the butter. Now everything has been prepared for you. We didn't understand anything." Again she threw her hands up in the air with an expression of great love and abandon, smiling. Then she looked at us deeply and pointed to all of us in turn "Now you understand everything."

Here are some extracts of their understanding in the mid 1950s. 

"Through this Divine Insight on this and several other occasions, God reveals to us many Godly secrets and scenes in advance including His many Godly forms... World God Father Himself with whom we have been maintaining constant communion since the last 17 years through His own Corporeal ordinary human forms in the names of World Almighty Goddess Mother Sri Jagadamba Saraswati and World Almighty God Father Brahma"
- Mr Anand Kishore

"We have visualized through Godly Insight the actual form of the Surpeme Soul, call God. It is very familiar and is commonly worshipped in temples in India and in most other countries. It is a most radiant, oval-shaped ball-like form of unbearable Light, called Jyotirlingum, visualized as Infinite Divine Light. The form is full of life. This is also called Shiva Lingum... His chief trinity forms as Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Sustainer and Narayana, and Shiva the Destroyer, His bifurcated forms of Sri Lakshmi and Sri Narayana, the sovereigns of the ensuing Golden Age and the soul world, the subtle world, called Heaven in this corporeal world." 
- Miss Prakashmani

It is apparent how their understanding refined over time. You can see they fully understand and appreciate the bright and awake living energy of God. The concept of omnipresence has disappeared, however the refined understanding of all souls having the form of points of light is not there yet. They understand the three worlds and the various activities of God, but they interpret the varied activities of God as meaning that God has a variety of forms. Current understanding is that the Supreme Soul has one form, the same as all souls, a point of radiant sentient light.

1950s discoveries!

Two nights ago in the New York Public Library, I sat there until closing, reading the transcripts of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th World Congress of Religions, held in Japan during 1954-55. This is a time period in the development of the Brahma Kumaris that we know little about. The documents shed real light on the development of their understanding and gives us a much more nuanced appreciation of how things refined over time.

 These records (which will be transcribed into editable text and uploaded here along with photos of the original source) reveal the following:

• There is no mention of Shiva (outside the Shiv Shankar reference) and no indication yet of understanding Shiv Baba as God.
• They still use the term "God Brahma" but along with "God Vishnu" and "God Shiv Shankar". God Brahma is the corporeal of Incorporeal God and God Vishnu and God Shiv Shankar are the subtle of Incorporeal God. 
• There is much more focus on the Trinity of God.
• God is omnipotent and omniscient, but no longer omnipresent. However His light and His presence are omnipresent in this corporeal world.
• God resides in the home of souls. This contrasts with the early understanding of Infinite Divine Light (which according to original photos continued through to 1952). They now understand the difference between the One who resides in the region of light, and the region of light itself.
• God is the mover of the Drama. "God is the transcendent power that gets the drama a-going" and "The efficient cause of all the phenomenal universe". Now understanding is that Drama moves everyone, including God (although some may still debate this).
• God has the shape of a Shiva Lingam. No mention yet of Jyoti Lingam (although they may not be a relevant distinction between Shiva Lingam and Jyoti Lingam). Absolutely no mention of Jyoti Bindu (point of light) which is the current understanding. Modern understanding is that all souls, all living beings, including the Supreme Soul, are the form of a tiny point. 
• They still use the Gita as a frame of reference: "The significance of a religion based on one God is great but only if it is corroborated by the Gita"
• They believe the error in the Gita is that it contains the knowledge of Lord Brahma, not Lord Krishna (now the BKs understand it contains the knowledge of one Incorporeal God Shiva). 
• "Brahma is the corporeal of Incorporeal God through the instrumentality of the sisters." There is no mention of Brahma being an instrument of God, or the medium for the Supreme Soul, but rather the incorporeal manifest in the corporeal. There is also a description of the Supreme Soul inhabiting the brain of an old man and using his mouth. This is the first indication we have that they may be starting to understand the existence of two distinct personalities.  Yet understanding is still vague.

More is on the way.

Predictions and Theology

Predictions

There has been some discussion within the Brahma Kumaris about 'predictions' in the teachings and whether a date for a cataclysmic world change was ever explicitly given, implied or even insinuated.

Anthony Strano, one of the most senior teachers in the west, and held in particularly high regard as a someone who practiced the teachings at the deepest level, had this to say about dates mentioned in the BK scripture: 

"Time is contrived by 'man' (sic) to make sense out of the world. Similarly God uses the instruments of human creation to bring meaning to His (sic) teachings. But it's really not about dates. It never has been. It's about whatever you want to do, do it now."

Often, with scriptural texts, a sense of spiritual urgency is measured against world events producing predictions that - frequently - 'fail' to come to pass. This is often the case with Millenarian New Religious Movements as well as older more established religions. This doesn't have to mean that the teachings themselves have failed, but rather it may require some revised thinking around the 'absoluteness' of scriptural text. In this case, it is worth considering hermeneutics, or the language of analysis and interpretation of scripture. Hermeneutics dates back to the Jewish Oral Tradition but since the time of Aristotle (Risser 1997) it has been a method of engaging critically with scriptural text and acknowledging the fluid nature of scriptural interpretation.

“God has not revealed his theology all at once. Rather, God has revealed Brahma Kumaris theology gradually and in response to his assessment of the Brahma Kumaris’ needs and ability to understand. Their theology is not sealed and their canon is not closed. It grows continually as God explains and elaborates on it. Tomorrow, God may personally resolve any contradictions that appear today.”

— Richard Musselwhite, 'Possessing Knowledge: Organisational Boundaries Among the Brahma Kumaris', 2009, Page 8

Theology

Within the Brahma Kumaris theology, some murlis have been revised over the years, to remove predicted dates of 'vinash' or catastrophic world change that have not yet come to pass. See here for an example from 21.01.1969 three days after Brahma Baba passed away. The original and the revised versions are included, with the relevant text outlined in red. More examples of predictive statements in murlis are available below. Note that some have links to original documents, whereas others have yet to be verified. 

As stated in Musselwhite's doctoral dissertation on the Brahma Kumaris, "God’s teachings regarding the end of the Diamond Age have not been entirely consistent. The most senior member I heard speak on the subject suggested that the Diamond Age will last either 100 or 250 years." (Page 5).