Abstract
This chapter examines the globalized new religious movement, the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (Brahma Kumaris or BKs), established in northwest India in the 1930s. Today, despite its footing in a Hindu cultural and geographical base, the BK has a global presence with 8,500 centres countries across all continents. Part of the success of its expansion lies in the flexibility of the organisation, especially in recent decades, to accommodate different patterns of residence, work and family, and desires for relevance, such that the BK has increasingly moved from monasticism to outreach. Even so, we argue that its ability to attract members from vastly different cultures and life experiences has been facilitated by the central doctrine of purity, and the associated practices of meditation and divine experience.
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Notes
- 1.
Reported in stories from first-generation members, in a song sung by the first generation of foreign members, and still recounted by villagers of Mt. Abu.
- 2.
Dada Lekhraj’s full name was Lekhraj Khubchand Kripalani. Dada is a term of address in India meaning “respected elder brother,” indicating respect and not necessarily kinship. Similarly, Dadi means “elder sister.” These titles are still used to address and refer to the senior spiritual leaders of the movement.
- 3.
Om or Aum is a sacred syllable uttered in ritual observances in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, at the beginning and ending of prayers or in recitations of mantras and sacred texts. It is said to be the sound of origin of the universe, or the sound of creation.
- 4.
In the USA, the organization does not go by the name of a university, so calls itself BKWSO, O for Organization. However, at the UN, the organization is known by its international name, “Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU).”
- 5.
Trance states of meditation, for BKs, require concentrating one’s mind on God, after which one feels “pulled,” before being consumed in a visual experience of meditation, the experience of which is regularly reported back to the class. Read more detail about the BKs experience of trance states of meditation in Ramsay (2009).
- 6.
In the 1930s and 1940s, members conceptualized that God was omnipresent as infinite divine light. Understanding changed significantly in the 1950s and 1960s whereby now BKs understand God to be, not omnipresent, but an infinitesimal point of light, yet infinite in qualities, power, and virtues.
- 7.
This millenarian element in the Brahma Kumaris doctrine is found in many new religious movements, and Cohn’s typology (1974) that the phenomenon is collective, terrestrial, imminent, total, and miraculous, while arising from an analysis of Christian doctrine, can be equally well applied to the Brahma Kumaris. See the discussion in Clarke (2006, pp. 63–64, 365–367).
- 8.
Drishti (lit: gaze) where one rests one’s gaze, with open eyes, on an external point while focusing the attention and concentration inwards. BKs understand there is a natural and automatic exchange of spiritual power when two are “exchanging drishti” during meditation.
- 9.
Karma (action or deeds) refers to the laws of causation, a central concept of Hindu and Buddhist doctrine and that of many other new religious movements, such as the Brahma Kumaris, which explains the nature of existence for humans and sometimes other sentient beings, in the worldly realm and other realms, such that they take rebirth after death and their actions in this or former lives determine what happens to them in this and subsequent lives.
- 10.
Simultaneous translators sit in booths above the audience, translating from the Hindi into foreign languages: English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Malay, Arabic, Korean, and Vietnamese. Languages of the subcontinent with simultaneous translation are Tamil, Kanada, Oriya, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, and Telugu.
- 11.
Bharata Mata (Sanskrit) denotes the national personification of India as the mother goddess. Bharat is a shortened name that reveals the greatest respect for India.
- 12.
General consultative status with ECOSOC is of the highest and broadest significance. Other NGOs who hold general consultative status within the UN include Green Peace, World Vision, Rotary International, Medicine Sans Frontiers, and International Red Cross. 13.For more information go to http://www.india-one.net.
- 13.
http://www.livingvalueseducation.org/home (accessed 28–01–2012), http://www.livingvalues.net (accessed 28–01–2012).
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Ramsay, T., Smith, W., Manderson, L. (2012). Brahma Kumaris: Purity and the Globalization of Faith. In: Manderson, L., Smith, W., Tomlinson, M. (eds) Flows of Faith. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2932-2_4
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