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Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU) or Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya is a secretive, renunciate, millenarian new religious movement (NRM) of Indian origin. It teaches a form of meditation its adherents call Raja Yoga, which differs from the classical Raja Yoga described by Patanjali. and has been derived from teachings given through mediumship and spirit possession.

A neo-Hindu religious movement, the Brahma Kumaris (ब्रह्माकुमारी, pron., abbrv. BK) pre-date the New Age movement but have developed characteristics that link them to its thinking. It advocates a lifestyle which includes a vegetarian diet, celibacy, and avoidance of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

Historically, the Brahma Kumaris have been controversial and subject to a range of accusations from researchers, previous members, government officials, and the press.

The aim of the BKWSU is to rule the world following a forthcoming apocalypse which they believe only they will survive. The Brahma Kumaris view themselves as the world’s true rulers and that 900,000 of them will be reborn during a Golden Age and enjoy 1,250 years of peace and plenty on earth.

Early history
The origin of BKWSU can be traced to the group "Om Mandli", founded by Lekhraj Kripalani (1884–1969) in Hyderabad, Sindh in the 1930s and later the 'Rajasva Asvamedh Avinashi Gyan Yagya'. Lekhraj Kripalani, known as "Dada Lekhraj" and later as "God Brahma" to his followers (see quote above), was a Diamond merchant and follower of the Vaishnavite Vallabhacharya Sect. Kripalani was reported to have learnt a spiritual practise from a Bengali saddhu at the cost of 10,000 rupees and retired from his business with assets of 1,000,000 Indian rupees to turn to start his own satsang. Their original spiritual knowledge was obtained though "divine revelations" and "divine visions" by sisters who channeled messages about the concepts of soul, God, world history, karma philosophy and spiritual liberation. Lekhraj started holding satsangs which attracted many people and the group became known as Om Mandli. In the beginning of the movement, members considered God to be omnipresent, and their founder Kripalani to be god Brahma, the author of the Bhagavad Gita beliefs which did not change until at least the 1950s.

In 1937, he named some of his followers to a managing committee, then reportedly transferred his fortune to the committee. Several women joined Om Mandali, and contributed their wealth to the association as well.

Some members of the local Sindhi people reacted unfavorably to the movement because of immoral and intimate behaviour between the founder and the young women who attended his ashram, and his encouragement that they leave their husbands and families and become his gopis. In addition, the Om Mandali was accused of and encouraging minors to leave or disobey their families. Kripalani claimed that he was the Hindu god Krishna reincarnated. The group was accused of being a cult and putting individuals into a trance by way of hypnotic or occult influences. It was reported that under the guise of high sounding philosophy, a systematic ridicule of Hinduism, worship and prayer was going on and priest and preachers of other religions were stigmatised as hypocritical charlatans and that followers were being duped into the belief that salvation could only be attained through him and the Mandli and within one week.

Some Hindu members of the Sindh Assembly threatened to resign unless the Om Mandali was outlawed. So, the Sindh Government used the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1908 to declare the Om Mandali an unlawful association. Under further pressure from the Hindu leaders in the Assembly, the Government also ordered the Om Mandali to close and vacate its premises.

In April 1950, after the partition of India, the Brahma Kumaris moved to Mount Abu in India. After Kripalani's death in 1969, his followers expanded the movement to other countries. Until 1955, they consider their founder Kripalani to be God with the title God Father Adi Deva Triumurti Guru Brahma the Creator.

Expansion
Beginning in the 1950s, the Brahma Kumaris began an internationalisation expansion program, establishing centres across India with female teachers. From 1964 to 1969 methods of outreach began involving exhibitions, seminars and conferences in different parts of India.

The leadership of the BK movement remains primarily female. For example, in the UK, only one-third of the 42 centres are run by males. According to the BKWSU website, there are currently 825,000 students and over 8,500 Raja Yoga centres in 100 countries and territories. According to sources quoted in the Adherents website, worldwide membership ranges from 35,000 (in 1993) to 400,000 (in 1998).

A number of Brahma Kumari splinter groups exist, the most notable documented by Dr. John Walliss as the Advance Party, Shankar Party or AIVV to the BKWSU. Elsewhere they are referred to as the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris or PBKs. Walliss states that as Lekhraj Kripalani's original message of separation, spiritual introversion and violent Destruction becomes repackaged as the emergence of a New Age through self-understanding and self-development, this direction has caused discontent within certain segments of the Brahma Kumari movement, likening them to the "Protestant Reformers to the BKWSU's mediaeval Catholic Church".

The "Advance Party" offer a radicalised rendition of the BKWSU's original millenarian message. In particular, they are exceptionally hostile to the University's New Age and UN involvement claim that Shiva is now manifesting Himself through a different medium to correctly interpret the original teachings and that Lekhraj Kirpalani's business partner Sevak Ram was the original medium. PBKs report hostile resistance from the BKWSU and Walliss met with a wall of silence and irate phone call from the University threatening him that the BKWSU would "block [him] every step of the way if [he] persisted along this line of investigation". The University restricting its member's "knowledge and access to the group so as to prevent any further defections." Founder Baba Dev Dixit was debarred from the BKWSU.

According to the Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements, in 2000 there were about 450,000 people affiliated with the Brahma Kumaris but many were probably not committed to the group's worldview.

Central beliefs
In 1952, after a 14-year period of retreat during which they published numerous pamphlets, newspaper articles and wrote letters to important national and international figures, a more structured form of teaching began to be offered to the public by way of a seven lesson course. The movement has distinguished itself from Hinduism and projects itself as a vehicle for spiritual teaching rather than a religion.

Central to its faith are the beliefs that:
 * The human being is an eternal soul living within a physical body. The soul is regarded as something distinct from the body.
 * In reincarnation, the soul moves from one human body to another. There is no reincarnation into non-human bodies.
 * Humanity is now reaching the end of the current cycle. Soon the world will be destroyed, at a time referred to as "Destruction".
 * The Indian subcontinent will be the site of the future Golden Age paradise. BKs regard Hindi as humanity's original language. Only BKs who have purified themselves spiritually will be reborn into the Golden Age as Gods and Goddess.

God
The Brahma Kumaris claim their spirit guide, who they call Shiva Baba, is the God of all religions. Shiva Baba is an eternal soul and a point of light just like human souls but the Supreme one. Adherents claim it speaks to humanity exclusively via the Brahma Kumaris' spirit mediums. They claim Shiva Baba is the same spirit being known as Allah or Jahweh and its purpose is to awaken humanity, destroy other religions, and to eliminate evil and negativity. He is not the creator of matter which is itself considered to be eternal.

God, they believe, possesses the religion's spirit mediums at mass seances at its headquarters in India and speaks to its followers in person. These messages called "Murlis" becoming the scriptures of the religion but are available to members only. Hidden from outsiders, they are continually being re-edited by the leadership.

Self
Human and even animal souls, called atmas, are believed to be an infinitesimal point of spiritual light residing in the forehead of the body it occupies. Souls are believed to originally exist with God in a "Soul World", a world of infinite light, peace and silence called Nirvana. Here souls are in a state of rest and beyond experience. Souls enter bodies to take birth in order to experience life and give expression to their personality. Unlike other Eastern traditions, the soul is not thought to transmigrate into other species and does not evolve but rather devolves birth after birth. Within this "point of light" all aspects of the personality are contained and is said to enter the human body in the 4th to 5th month of pregnancy. Brahma Kumari adherents believe that a soul can inhabit the body of another, or possess them, against their will.

Cycle of time
Time is considered to be cyclic, repeating identically every 5,000 years, and is composed of five ages (yugas): the Golden Age (Sat Yuga), the Silver Age (Treta Yuga), the Copper Age (Dwapar Yuga), the Iron Age (Kali Yuga) each exactly 1,250 years long, and the Confluence Age (Sangam Yuga).

During the first half of the cycle, which the Brahma Kumaris will rule, procreation is believed to be possible through the power of yoga without sexual intercourse. The Universe is never transformed into primordial or atomic state matter, nor does the world ever becomes devoid of human beings.

Destruction
The Brahmakumaris are fervently apocalyptic. According to them, the age between hell on earth and heaven on earth is said to be 100 years long, and believed to have begun again in 1936 when God entered their mediums. During this time, present day civilisation is to be completely destroyed by natural disasters, civil and nuclear war which followers call Destruction. This event is generally hidden from non-members or downplayed. Numerous false predictions of the date of Destruction have been made, such as World War II, 1950, 1976, 1987, 2000 failures after which many adherents left. The philosophy has been re-written to suit but followers are still being told it is extremely soon and now called "Transformation". The current expected date for the beginning of the Golden Age is 2036.

Tree of humanity
It is taught that all of life will die and return to Nirvana, then take birth in the forthcoming cycle at their predestined time and place. This is portrayed as the "Kalpa Vriksha Tree", or the "Tree of Humanity", in which the founder Brahma Baba (Dada Lekhraj) and his Brahma Kumaris followers are shown as the roots of the humanity. A new world order starting with the birth of Krishna and a population of 900,000 is believed to go on to enjoy 2,500 years of paradise as living deities before humanity splits and the religious founders incarnate. Each creates their own branch and brings with them their own followers from the Infinite Light, until they too decline and splits, schisms, cults and sects appear at the end of the Iron Age.

The aim of the individual Brahma Kumari is to gain a high status in the coming paradise, perhaps even a select 108 who are 'totally victorious' and will rule there. Members of the physical families of Brahma Kumaris who have contact with the University are said to become members of the 16,000 top souls and at the end of each Cycle, everyone will see visions in which their personal destinies will be fully disclosed.

Meditation
The Brahma Kumaris teach a form of meditation called Raja Yoga, which is not be the same as classical Raja Yoga as described by Patanjali, through which members are encouraged to purify their minds. This may be done by sitting tranquilly in front of a screen on to which Dada Lekhraj's image is projected, then making affirmations regarding the eternal nature of the soul.

Lawrence Babbs described another practise where "the student or students sit in a semi-darkened room facing the teacher (usually a woman). Just above and behind the teacher's head is a red plastic ovoid that glows from a lightbulb within, in its center is a tiny hole which appears as an intense whitelight against the red glow. This device represents the Supreme Soul (known as Shiv Baba) who is God. With devotional songs playing softly in the background, student and teacher gaze intently at each other, either in the open eyes or at the forehead. While doing this the student is supposed to imagine him or herself as a soul and not as a body, separate from the body and as light bathed in the love and light of the Supreme Soul Shiva, and so on. Babb also states that while staring into the eyes of the teacher, many students experience visual hallucinations involving lights.

Murlis
Unlike traditional forms of Hinduism, the Brahma Kumaris' teachings come not so much from ancient scriptures but from revelations given in trance states. However, the mediumistic messages known by Brahma Kumaris as "Murlis" read at the 6.30 am meetings are slowly developing the nature of potential scriptures. The earlier ones channelled by Lekhraj Kripalani while he was alive, are now repeated in a five-year cycle. They are supplemented by later murlis channelled by Hirday Mohini of Delhi in while possessed, and these too are written down.

There are two types of mediumistic messages; sakar and avyakt;
 * Sakar Murlis refer to the original classes said to be spoken by "Shiva" through the medium of Lekhraj Kripalani in the 1960s, before he died of a heart attack on 18 January 1969. These include teachings of God Shiva and the life experiences of Kirpalani.
 * Avyakt Vanis, or Murlis, refer to the teachings of Shiva and the soul of the deceased Lekhraj Kripalani speaking together through a medium named Hirday Mohini, or "Dadi Gulzar". The Brahma Kumaris believe that the soul of Lekhraj Kripalani has become perfect and now has the role of an angel. These messages are understood by members of the BKWSU to be the words of God. The Murlis are what the Brahma Kumaris use to direct their personal spiritual effort and institutional service.

Followers must complete the Brahma Kumaris foundation course and start by attend morning Murli class before visiting the headquarters in India during the period when the deceased founder and God communicates to them via trance mediums.

Lifestyle
Brahma Kumaris follow a lifestyle of disciplines in order to achieve a high social status in the paradisiacal world which they believe will follow the apocalyptic calamity soon to befall humanity.:


 * Complete celibacy in or out of marriage in order to focus energies on the world to come.
 * Sattvic vegetarianism, a strict lacto-vegetarian diet (excluding eggs, onions, garlic and/or spicy food) cooked only by the self or other members of the BKWSU.
 * Abstaining from alcohol, tobacco and non-prescription drugs.
 * Daily early morning meditation at 4:00 to 4:45 am, called 'Amrit Vela'.
 * Daily morning class at approximately 6:30 am.
 * Men and women traditionally sit on separate sides of the room at the centers during classes.
 * Brahma Kumaris can be identified by their frequent adoption of wearing white clothes, to symbolize purity.
 * Only having other Brahma Kumari adherents as companions as opposed to non-BKs given over to worldly pleasures known as bhogis.

Activities and recognition
The Brahma Kumaris' primary aims and objects is to gain popularity and to spread over the message of their Guru who they consider to be God the Creater or Shiva rather than giving any education to the masses. As an initiation process, it conducts seven one-hour-long courses in their philosophy and open-eyed meditation technique. The organisation also offers courses in "positive thinking", "self management leadership", and "living values." They also have a number of voluntary outreach programs in prisons. Followers' total dedication to BK activities may cause conflicts within their families.

Concluding that "doctrinal assertions are socially divisive and thus counterproductive to their primary goal" the Brahma Kumaris have starting building coalitions and leading conglomerated networks of cooperation. One such example, with the support of Vicente Fox, was carried out under the guise of a commercial enterprise introducing Brahma Kumari teachings and practises to the Government of Mexico through the "Self Management Leadership" course which grew out of Brahma Kumaris beliefs and is the backbone of Brahma Kumaris management philosophy. 90 trained facilitators ran programs through which 25,000 people at the top level of government have passed.

In India, the BKWSU runs a charitable Village Outreach Programme in Mount Abu and administers the Global Hospital and Research Centre (GHRC), established in 1991 and funded by the J. Wattammull Memorial Trust. In 2004, the Brahma Kumaris established the G.V. Mody Rural Health Care Centre & Eye Hospital, located at the base of Mount Abu. The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and UNICEF. It is associated with the UN Department of Public Information.

The Brahma Kumaris have undertaken two major international projects; ‘The Million Minutes for Peace’ in 1986 for which they received 7 Peace Messenger Awards and ‘Global Cooperation for a Better World’ in 1988.

The organisation now has hundreds of branches internationally and
 * was awarded 7 UN Peace Messenger Awards 1987 for its co-ordination of the ‘Million Minutes of Peace’ project.
 * Pioneering work in solar energy and sustainable energy, including developing the world's largest solar cooker.
 * Chief administrator Prakashmani awarded Peace Medal of the United Nations for the year 1981 for the ‘Million Minutes of Peace’ project.
 * granted International Peace Messenger Initiative status by the U.N.for the Global Co-operation for a Better World campaign.
 * UNESCO special award for collecting 35 million signatures from all over India and 120 other countries in support and promotion of the UNESCO’s ‘Culture of Peace’ Project entitled Peace Manifesto-2000 in the International Year of Culture of Peace −2,000 as proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in the year 2,000.
 * The Governor of the Indian state of Uttarakhand; Margaret Alva (First woman governor of that state) commended the Brahma Kumaris: "The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University had influence on changing cultural opinions of women, and its teachings and practice has brought about a significant change in the status of women and the regard that men hold for women."
 * BKs are known for charitable activities. Ruth Broyde Sharone, the Co-Chair of the Interfaith Ambassadors for a Parliament of the World Religions (IAPWR) and journalist; wrote: “BKs are also well-known for their charitable acts, especially on Mount Abu, where they have established themselves as teachers and healers. A modern hospital provides low-cost care for not just the BK community but the entire population of Rajasthan. (A visit to the dentist and an ex-ray for an infected tooth cost me only $10.) Several years ago Dr. Vinay Laxmi, a charming gynaecologist, launched a program in several surrounding villages to provide natal care for mothers and good nutrition for their children. I visited one of the villages and met ‘miracle children’ who would have died or been severely crippled from malnutrition and sickness were it not for the BKs’ dedication.“
 * Current chief administrator, Janki Kripalani, received an honorary doctorate from the Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management.
 * The Brahma Kumaris Youth Wing was award a place in the Guinness World Records for the "largest sand painting in the world" on 26 November 2010.

Use of mediumship
The BKWSU is believed by its members to have been established by Shiva Baba (God-Father Shiva, described as the Supreme Soul and conceived as the one God of all religions) through the medium of the group's founder Lekhraj Kripalani. From the beginning, a number of trance-messengers have received messages and teachings. According to an account by Sister Denise, who was at that time Director of the San Francisco Center, a medium has been used to directly channel a message from a deceased senior Brahma Kumari, Didi Manmohini. In its early days, children would commonly go into trances, having visions of Krishna and Vaikunth (Golden Age Heaven) and engaging in ecstatic dances for as long as 7 days. A number of mediumistic female followers known as Sandeshputris (trance messengers) also helped add to the group's spiritual knowledge through psychic visions.

The deceased human founder Lekhraj Kripalani continues to be channelled through a senior sister (Hirdaya Mohini, referred to familiarly as Dadi Gulzar) at the organisation's Rajasthan headquarters. The combined presence of the BKWSU's human founder and the spiritual being the BKWSU believe is God are referred to as BapDada (meaning father and elder brother) by BKs, especially in the context of their manifestation via this trance medium, through which the pair continue to direct the organisation to this day.

Pratibha Patil, the UPA-Left candidate and former president of India said on camera during the Indian presidential election, 2007, that she spoke to the spirit of the deceased leader of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University at their headquarters in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. Patil stated that she had received a mediumistic message indicating great responsibility coming her way during the last season in which the spirits called "Bapdada" communicated with the faithful of the Brahma Kumaris sect. She had gone to seek the blessings of Hirday Mohini, also known as Dadi Gulzar or Dadiji.

Controversies and criticism
During its short history, the Brahma Kumaris have been seen as controversial and a range of accusations against them have been made.
 * Excluding suicides, numerous serious crimes have been carried out at Brahma Kumari centers in India including murder, rape, poisoning and kidnapping in which responsible parties has absconded. In one case, the corpse of the deceased victims was removed and evidence destroyed before police could investigate the crime. Allegations include individuals being targeted after threatening to expose sex related activities of center leaders. In an interview, organisational spokesperson BK Shivani admitted cases of child sex abuse and others.
 * The Times of India has reported that the Government of Haryana's financial commissioner, Shri R.R. Fuliya, IAS, is seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the sect for 'criminal' activities involving cases of murders, rapes, scapegoating and police cover ups. At a press conference in Mount Abu, the commissioner gave the names of accused and deceased. He claimed a girl was sexually exploited in a Brahma Kumari centre situated in Panipat district and then her brother was killed when he raised voice against the exploitation. The commissioner noted that he had also received threat to life since raising the issues in public.
 * The Brahma Kumaris were declared an "enemy of the state" by the government of Greece in 1993 and classified as dangerous by the government of France in 1996. The Brahma Kumaris were listed as a "cult movement" in the 1995 French government report on "Cults in France".
 * In Poland conflicts arose between the Brahma Kumaris and a local Catholic priest who organised an anti-Brahma Kumaris campaign. Thereafter, local newspapers accused the organisation of being a "dangerous sect".
 * Dr. John Wallis wrote a book about the religion, focusing on recruitment methods, the issue of celibacy, reinterpretation of religious history. He reports about the re-writing of the revelatory messages (Murlis) by the BKWSU leaders and anger and aggression towards the Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya. (The Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya or Advance Party and the BKWSU form the two halves of the Brahmin family who will supposedly eventually re-unite to transform this hell into heaven).
 * In the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Howell reported that the families of teenage girls surrendering to the organisation were required to pay their dowries to the organization. The payment was meant to prevent parents from "dumping" their daughters at the BKWSU as a way to avoid the costs of ordinary marriages.
 * Indian feminists have criticised the religions restraining of female sexuality as an expression of patriarchal control within Sindh society under the guise of reforming society.
 * The institution uses Hindu terminologies such as Raja Yoga and Bhagavad Gita to attract people, but what is taught in the organisation is completely different from their original meanings in Hinduism.
 * Followers are encouraged to undergo a ‘death-in-life’ and ‘die towards the outer world’ renouncing their families and thus be ‘divinely’ reborn in the ‘divine family consequently, the Brahma Kumaris have been accused of breaking up marriages and families since the 1930s.
 * In 2007 Graham Baldwin, a former university chaplain and army officer who is president of the educational countercult organization Catalyst, was reported stating that the former members and the families of members had told him that BKWSU has driven a wedge between husband and wife and that there were complaints that it encourages single women and widows to donate property and savings and move to a community house. The BKWSU, a organisation being notable for its sex ban, was said to have "used pernicious methods to control its followers".
 * Ian Howarth of the Cult Information Centre, was further quoted about complaints that people have gone undergone personality changes after joining BKWSU and become alienated from their families. A BKWSU spokeswoman replied, "this is very much a minority thing", declining to comment on allegations that BKWSU encourages followers to donate property and savings.
 * Questioned how dinosaurs fit within a 5,000-year Cycle of Time BK Neville Hodgkinson, a former scientific correspondent for an English national newspaper, questioned the existence of dinosaurs on the basis of the lack of bones that have been found whilst another BK follower argued that dinosaurs exist in a parallel space-time dimension and because of a warp hole end up in this dimension.
 * The Brahma Kumaris have featured in the 'Wissen schützt' reports of Austria (edited by then Austrian Minister for Family Affairs Mr. Martin Bartenstein), Russia (International Conference "Totalitarian Cults – Threat of Twenty-First Century", Nizhny Novgorod, 2001) and in a MIVILUDES report submitted to the French National Assembly as a "sectes dangereuses" (harmful cult) and "groupe d'enfermement" (group of confinement). This has leading to the presecution of followers in local media leading to job losses after it discovered that they  belonged to a secte and denouncement for their influence on children under their care.
 * Since 1978, the BKWSU is accused of falsifying claims internationally that its current leader and relative of the founder Dadi Janki Kripalani is "the most stable mind in the world". Journalists quoted archivists at the University in question and "found no mention of the experiments performed on Dadi Janki in 1978". Indeed, they could not even "find any University of Texas organization called the Medical and Science Research Institute."

Legal action against critics
In 2007, the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization instituted legal action which would effectively shut down an independent website critical of the organisation, brahmakumaris.info. It failed to do so.