Scenes Behind the Brahma Kumaris’ Curtain

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University declares officially, ‘The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University acknowledges the intrinsic goodness of all people. We teach a practical method of meditation that helps individuals understand their inner strengths and values. A worldwide family of individuals from all walks of life, we are committed to spiritual growth and personal transformation, believing them essential in creating a peaceful and just world. Acknowledging the challenges of rapid global change, we nurture the well-being of the entire human family by promoting spiritual understanding, leadership with integrity and elevated actions towards a better world.’ Brahma Kumaris in their official documents claim that the University has 825 000 students and over 8 500 raja yoga centers in 100 countries. The University is proud of such undertakings as Dadi Janki Foundation, Images and Voices of Hope, The Global Hospital and Research Center and… the consultative status in the United Nations about which they write, ‘We align ourselves in particular with the tenet contained in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations: ‘...to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person...’ What hides behind this presentation? Below there are only few facts.

The historical background
In 1936 in Hyderabad, Sindh Province in today’s Pakistan, a rich and famous merchant of diamonds, Lekhraj Khubchand Kripalani experienced visions that were to change his life completely. Lekhraj Kripalani was a pious devotee, a disciple of 12 religious gurus as well as a successful businessman. The fact that he was received even in Indian royal courts of that time shows the scale and power of his business very well. A detailed description of his wealth and influence can be found in autobiography of his daughter, Nirmal Shanta . Lekhraj’s business reached Bengal, where he set up a partnership enterprise together with Sevak Ram . Sevak Ram was his relative and Lekraj’s most trusted confidant with whom he used to have regular consultations. Together they opened a shop with diamonds and jewelry in the most famous business center in Calcutta. The shop named Lakhi Raj-Sevak Ram&Sons was located on the first ground, Lekraj and Sevak Ram lived in the upper floors. When Lekhraj experienced visions, neither he himself nor his guru was able to understand their meanings. Lekhraj went to Benares, the intellectual-spiritual center of India. The most famous gurus and scholars in Benares weren’t able to explain to him meanings of those visions. Only in Bengal, probably in Calcutta, Lekhraj received the answer to his question about the visions. Who was that person who helped Lekhraj understand his visions? The name that is sometimes mentioned is ‘Sevak Ram’. However, it has not been confirmed whether, it is the name of a physical person, Lekhraj’s business partner or it is the name simply used as a pseudonym. In order to avoid ambiguities, one may use name ‘Guru from Bengal’.

The visions that Lekhraj experienced and what consequently happened between ‘Guru from Bengal’ and Lekhraj led to the foundation of a new spiritual school in Hyderabad (Sindh), in which that Guru along with two mothers related to him and Lekhraj Kripalani played very important roles in the period from 1936 till 1942. Initially the school was named Om Mandali. Those who at the beginning gathered around above mentioned people listened to the knowledge taught in the school and experienced that it wasn’t an ordinary human knowledge. Although it is disputable, the Brahma Kumaris claim that they recognized that it was the Supreme Father Supreme Soul Shiva who narrated Knowledge through a medium (or chariot) of the human body. Many people were joining the school. Particularly mothers and unmarried women were interested in studying and putting in practice the knowledge taught in Om Mandali. Along with the increasing popularity of the school and number of students, it came to a clash among the students themselves as well as a clash with the opposition from outside. Some of the teachings given in Om Mandali, such as living the pure life, brotherly vision of everyone regardless of gender, equal treatment of the man and woman were rejected by certain social groups and considered to be controversial. Parts started to quarrel and fight. On the turn of 1941/42 Lekhraj’s partner died. With the course of time Lekhraj took over the reins of the school. The school established in Hyderabad was moved to Karachi and later on in 1950-51 to Mount Abu, from where Dada Lekhraj became known as Brahma Baba.
As the result of internal and external clashes, two groups were formed in Om Mandali. One was supporting Lekhraj Kripalani, also called Dada Lekhraj. Another one was supporting ‘Guru from Bengal’. With the course of time, the first group, after moving to Mount Abu, transformed into Brahma Kumaris. The other one was predominant at the beginnings of Om Mandali. There are evidences that ‘Guru from Bengal’ and some other members played roles of teachers also for such students and Dada Lekhraj and Om Radhe. The bodies of few of them served as media for Shiva. After ‘Guru from Bengal’ left his body, the traces and information about him and those people disappeared. After some time, for some reasons, the seniors of Brahma Kumaris started hiding the information about the true founder of the School, changing facts and spreading the story in which Dada Lekhraj has been presented as Prajapita, meaning the main and first personality of the organization BKIVV, its founder, Shiva’s only medium and Om Radhe – as a person playing the role of the main mother.

The split
In 50-ties, after moving to Mount Abu, the group of people gathered around Dada Lekhraj, who was called by them ‘Brahma Baba’, was living there in isolation from the rest of the world for many years. Dada Lekhraj was considered by them to be the Father of Humanity (Prajapita). Along with him Om Radhe, considered to be the Mother of the World (Jagadamba), was playing an important role in BKIVV. The contacts of BKIVV with the world were developing slowly. Gradually, they were establishing centers in big cities in India and abroad. The organization was officially named BKIVV (The World Spiritual University Brahma Kumaris). For the students of the University Dada Lekhraj’s body was the medium through which the Supreme Father Shiva was narrating the true Knowledge of the Gita in the form of murli that along with the four Pictures of Knowledge should be the most important source of the knowledge about the soul, the Supreme Soul, the world cycle and also the history of the organization itself, meaning they are supposed be the subject of studying for BKIVV students.
Initially nobody wrote the murlis down with a view to storing them for the future. When BKIVV started to establish new centers in other cities, it became necessary to send classes for those living in the centers and for the students coming to the centers from outside. So, they started to write the murlis down, make copies and send them outside Mount Abu. Still nobody was thinking of any form of storage, catalogues and so on. The paper with the text of murlis was used for various household purposes and lots of classes were simply destroyed. Om Radhe left in 1965; Dada Lekhraj left in January 1969. The majority of the classes from the period of 1947-1964/65, if not all, have not been preserved. The classes from the period of 1965-68 have been preserved, but not completely. January 1969 was for many in BKIVV the time of a difficult examination. Student took over the reins of the organization.
At the end of 1969 a new student from Farrukhabad, Virendra Dev Dixit, came to BKIVV. It was Virendra who created a lot of confusion in BKIVV by his behavior and questions about the teaching contained in the murlis. Virendra turned out to be a very diligent and accurate student, for whom understanding the knowledge and following the directions contained in the murlis were the most important things. He desired to understand, so he was asking many questions. No one in BKIVV could or wanted to answer them. In addition, they didn’t make his studies of the murli easy. In BKIVV center in Ahmedabad students were forbidden to take copies of the murlis with them, although it was against the directions contained in those very murlis. However, Virendra managed to find access to the murlis, study them thoroughly, and consequently come to surprising conclusions that shocked most of BKIVV members around him and in the headquarters so much that they tried using threats and physical power to stop him from revealing them. It was the beginning of 70-ties. What Virendra discovered by studying the murlis undermined the foundation on which the seniors of BKIVV built their authority. The deep and thorough analysis of the murlis led to proving many surprising things such as: Dada Lekhraj can’t be considered to be the first and only chariot of Shiva, he can’t be considered to be the founder and so called Prajapita; the proofs showing that someone else played the main role and was the spiritual father at the beginning of the organization were deliberately or unconsciously skipped; the knowledge narrated through Dada Lekhraj is only the introduction, it is the basic knowledge which has to be clarified by the author in the future; many parts of the teaching were misunderstood, misinterpreted, changed or skipped; false information were distributed among the students; serious violations and warps in spiritual teaching and practice are taking place at the top of the organization, among seniors.
Virendra’s discoveries and revelations resulted in removing him from BKIVV and denying him the right to enter any center of the University. Meantime, Virendra provided BKIVV with logical detailed clarifications of murli points, presenting them how points from various classes combine with each other like parts of an ideal mosaic revealing new meanings before the student. The seniors from BKIVV didn’t agree with what they heard from Virendra’s mouth. Most of the students around him didn’t understand what he was talking about or feared that they might also be chucked out from BKIVV. Very few supported him. Although it is disputable, the Brahma Kumaris claim that they recognized that he is Shiva’s new chariot - that one who had been mentioned many times in the murlis narrated by Shiva through Dada Lekhraj’s body. It meant a new chapter on their spiritual path and the spiritual teaching directly from ShivBaba. In this way, AIVV – the spiritual school of the Advanced Knowledge came into being. BKIVV has been trying to hide, deny and undermine its existence at all costs.

The hidden facts
After being chucked out from BKIVV, Virendra prepared a detailed clarification of everything he discovered, proofs in the form of murli points along with the explanation of the four main pictures – everything in a written form, and sent it to the headquarters of BKIVV by registered mail. The package has never returned, so he assumed that it must have reached the addressee. No one from the administrators of BKIVV tried to contact him regarding the content. BKIVV continued using violence for some time. The conflict blew over around the beginning of 80-ties and it might have seemed that everything became fine. But it didn’t. BKIVV has been doing the same on a larger and larger scale. Instead of communicating the original Message to the world and transmit the true Knowledge received from Shiva to people, they keep organizing conferences, seminars, programs, mega programs and sessions dedicated to various topics far from what has been contained in the original teachings; they keep publishing various books not related to Knowledge; they remain busy in cooking and serving urbane cuisine and building bigger and bigger residences. Where are they getting money from? From their money-boxes where the public give donations for receiving the adulterated information.
AIVV is continuously making available classes and material containing detailed explanations showing increasing warps and adulterations of the original murlis of Knowledge narrated through Dada Lekhraj’s body in 1947-68, ‘facts’ made up by BKIVV, their manipulations of not only their students, but also the public opinion. Lots of materials related to this topic along with proofs are available in the Internet. The list of intellectual and spiritual wrongdoings committed by BKIVV is long. Some of them have been listed. The other wrongdoings are beyond the scope of this presentation.
• Attempts to change the date of Lekhraj Kripalani’s birth to prove that in 1936 he was 60 years old which in turn should be a proof that he was Shiva’s only medium since 1936.
• Adulteration of the history of the organization, its beginnings; presenting facts that are contradictory to what the original teachings narrated in the period of 1965-68 contain.
• Adulteration of the preserved classes/original teachings (removing parts of the murlis, changing the content of points, hiding them, denying the free access to them, spreading adulterated knowledge)
• Adulteration of the four main Pictures of Knowledge, which was forbidden in the original teachings and spreading them in the forms causing warps of Knowledge
• Reprimanding in public and chucking out the students who try to follow actively the directions contained in the original teachings and which are not fully accepted by the administrators and seniors in BKIVV (e.g. the students’ right to the unlimited access to the classes, the ban on the worshiping and keeping images of Dada Lekhraj and the other living or dead members of BKIVV)
• Spreading the false information on Shiva’s presence in Dadi Gulzar’s body and the adulteration of points from the murlis proving that it is impossible. Gathering thousands people form India and abroad on meetings with Shiva allegedly present in Dadi Gulzar’s body.
• Spreading the false information that raja yoga is being taught in BKIVV and organizing courses of meditation named ‘raja yoga’, which in fact not only have nothing to do with the raja yoga presented in the original teaching, but are openly contradictory to them.
• Spreading the false information presenting Dada Lekhraj as Prajapita (the Father of Humanity) which can’t be confirmed in the original teachings.
• Hindering and denying the access to the sources through which the students demanding verification could verify the information and present teachings spread by BKIVV, which is contradictory to the rights given to the students in the original teachings.
• Asking for donations, subsidies, contributions for BKIVV and creating chances for making them, which is prohibited in the original teachings. (‘It is better to die than to ask for something.’)
• Creating organizational structures having administrative-governmental connections, which is prohibited in the original teachings
• Spreading the cult of Dada Lekhraj, honoring his image in the form of the chart for meditation, photos and so on which is categorically prohibited in the original teachings.
• Applying methods of the emotional, mental and physical violence.

The members and ex-members of BKIVV through the Independent BKIVV Info Service are also revealing proofs of BKIVV’s wrongdoings. As the respond to the invitation to start an open dialogue and explain the above mentioned and other wrongdoings and adulterations of the original teachings, BKIVV remains indifferent or responds with violence.

February 2010