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Expansion[edit]
In May 1950 the community moved to Mount Abu in Rajastan India. From the beginning, the organization's focus had been on education and social reform, not worship, and for this reason it had renamed itself as the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. The seminal funds of founding members were now finally exhausted[1]. As the group made Mount Abu it's new home it went through several years of significant financial hardship. It is probable that the combination of these two factors lead to a reduction in membership. In May 1955 the University reported to have approximately 150 dedicated members - which they defined as those who had 'devoted their entire life and belongings to world upliftment and the removal of human suffering' [2]. After being displaced from rental accommodation a number of times the group finally purchased a property in Mount Abu in 1958 that has served as the main headquarters well into the 1990's.
From 1950 onwards the Brahma Kumaris started to teach others the body of knowledge and spiritual practices that had been developed during their period of isolation. This was their "spiritual service" to the community and often started with 2 or 3 members responding to invitations from relatives to come and teach them [3]. Then with the support of the students who were coming to learn, dedicated centres started to open in different parts of India during the 1950's and 1960's. A more structured form of teaching began to be offered to the public that distilled the body of knowledge down into 7 distinct lessons that orientated themselves around the practices of meditation and soul consciousness.[4] In this way the movement slowly began to expand. The more visible manifestations of the group were its "Spiritual Museums" located in most major Indian cities[1]. They also attended a number of conferences, including the World Congress of Religions held in Japan.[2] On the 24th of June 1965 the first President and main administrator for the movement, Radhe Pokardas Rajwani passed away. For those inside the movement she was affectionately known as "Mama" and her death was a significant loss[3]. A lot of her responsibilities were taken over by Didi Manmohini who from this time became based in the headquarters in Mount Abu. The next major challenge for the group was the death of the founder Brahma Baba on the 18th of January 1969. Shorty after his death another dedicated member, Dadi Prakashmani, became co-administrative head alongside Didi Manmohini. These two women, along with the support of the other founding members have since overseen the growth of the organisation in India.
While different families affiliated to the Brahma Kumaris lived overseas there was no official centre until one of the founding members, Dadi Janki, moved to London in the 1974.[3] The organisation has then expanded to other Western countries and Dadi Janki has received several awards for her leadership and social service. [1][5]
In 1980 the Brahma Kumaris became affiliated to the United Nations Department of Public Relations as a Non-Governmental Organisation. In 1983 when the Brahma Kumaris achieved consultative status with the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations. The BKWSU now has a permanent office space in New York for their work with the United Nations.[3]
The leadership and membership of the BK movement remains primarily female, for example, in the UK only one-third of the 42 centres are run by males [6] and 80% of the membership are women.[7]. Estimates for its worldwide membership range from 35,000 in 1993 to 400,000 in 1998[8] to 450,000 in 2000,[9] and approximately 825,000 reported members in 2008. However, there is no clear definition of the level of involvement required to be considered a member.[10]
- ^ a b c A Reader in New Religious Movements: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements. George D. Chryssides, Margaret Wilkins, Margaret Z. Wilkins. Continuum, 2006. ISBN 0-8264-6168-9
- ^ a b Kyo, Ananai (June 1955). 4th World Congress of Religions, Shimizu city Japan. Original from the New York Public Library (Digitized University of Michigan 29 Mar 2006). p. 81.
- ^ a b c d Whaling, Frank (2012). Understanding the Brahma Kumaris. Dunedin Academic Press Ltd. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-903765-51-7. Cite error: The named reference "Whaling_Frank_Understanding_BK" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Walliss, John (2002). From World-Rejection to Ambivalence. Ashgate Publishing. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-7546-0951-3.
Lekhraj was born in Sindh in 1876 into the Kriplani family who were devotees of the Valabhacharya sect.
- ^ Religion & globalization: world religions in historical perspective. Esposito, John L. Fasching, Darrell J. Lewis, Todd Thornton. Oxford University Press, 2002 - P. 340
- ^ Howell (1998) [page needed]
- ^ 'Why are Women More Religious Than Men?' Trzebiatowska, Marta. Bruce, Steve. Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 0-19-960810-5,
- ^ "Adherent Statistic Citations". Adherents.com. Retrieved 2007-08-20.
Worldwide, this path has 4000 centres and approximately 400,000 members.
- ^ Julia Day Howell (2006), "Brahma Kumaris (Daughters of Brahma)" (pp. 71–72). In: Clarke, Peter B. (2006). Encyclopedia of new religious movements. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-48433-3. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
- ^ Howell (2006) p72" Since the [Brahma Kumaris] University spread to Western societies it has increasingly accommodated people with little interest in its theodicy but attracted to the practical applications of BK spiritual practises. The community service programmes of the 1980s and 1990s stimulated creative renderings of BK meditation as a tool for psychological healing and eclectic spiritual exploration. The casual participants whom the BKs have attracted in this way probably made up the vast majority of the 450,000 people on the University's records at the turn of the 20th to 21st century".