The Brahma Kumaris (; "Daughters of Brahma") is a spiritual movement that originated in Hyderabad, Sindh, British India (modern Pakistan) during the 1930s.Summary of movement. censamm.orgWhat Does Brahma Kumaris Mean? brahmakumaris.orgMonier-Williams, Monier (1899) Sanskrit Dictionary. Clarendon Press, Oxford. p. 292 Founded by Lekhraj Kripalani, the organisation teaches the importance of moving beyond labels associated with the human body, including race, nationality, religion, and gender, through meditation that emphasizes the concept of identity as souls rather than bodies. It aims to establish a global culture centered around what they refer to as "soul-consciousness". The members of the organisation believe that all souls are good by nature and that God is the source of all goodness.
In 2019, the organisation had more than eight thousand centres across 110 countries and more than one million members. Women continue to hold primary leadership positions within the organisation.
Early history
The Brahma Kumaris organisation was founded in Hyderabad, Sindh, in northwest British India (present-day Pakistan). They were initially known as Om Mandali, as the members would together chant Om before engaging in a spiritual discourse in traditional satsangs (meetings). These original discourses were based on the Bhagavad Gita.
Founder Lekhraj Khubchand Kirpilani (also known as Brahma Baba) was in the jewelry business. In 1935, after witnessing a series of transcendental experiences and visions, he gave up his business to lay the foundation of Om Mandali. He believed that there was a greater power working through him and that many of those who attended the discourses were themselves having spiritual experiences. The majority of those who came were women and children from the Bhaibund caste, which consisted of wealthy merchants and business people whose husbands and fathers were often overseas on business.
Three years after its founding, Om Mandali was emphasising the role of women and was not adhering to the caste system. The group had named a 22-year-old woman, Radhe Pokardas Rajwani (then known as "Om Radhe"), as its president, her management committee was made up of eight other women. and people from any caste were allowed to attend meetings. The group also advocated that young women had the right not to marry and that married women had the right to choose celibacy. In tradition-bound patriarchal India, these personal life decisions were the exclusive right of men. When the organization began in the 1930s in Sindh, it sparked controversy by empowering women to assert their right to celibacy, especially in marriage, challenging the male-dominated society of the Indian subcontinent. Feminist commentator Prem Chowdry criticized this practice as a form of patriarchal control. A committee headed by influential male members of the Bhaibund community began to form in opposition and became known as the 'Anti-Om Mandali Committee'. On 21 June 1938, this group picketed the premises of Om Mandali and prevented members from entering and caused considerable upheaval in the community. According to Hodgkinson, women attending the discourses faced verbal abuse and domestic violence. An attempt was made to burn the premises down, and the police made several arrests.
The picketing led to criminal proceedings against both groups. On 16 August 1938 the local District Magistrate ordered that Om Mandali be prevented from meeting. This ban was reversed on 21 November 1938 after an appeal to the Court of the Judicial Commissioner of Sindh. In an unusual move, the judges directly criticised the district magistrate for trying to punish the victims for the disturbance caused by the perpetrators and for trying to apply the law according to their own personal bias. Following these events, Om Mandali decided to leave Hyderabad and relocated their activities to Karachi in the latter half of 1938. Approximately three hundred members moved.
On 31 March 1939, the government appointed a tribunal to enquire into the activities of Om Mandali. When the tribunal released its findings, Om Radhe responded by compiling a book entitled Is this Justice? criticising the tribunal, which they alleged did not have a constitutional basis and made its findings without obtaining evidence from Om Mandali. In May 1939, the government used the tribunal's findings to effectively reinstate the ban, declaring Om Mandali an "unlawful association" under section 16 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1908. Nevertheless, Om Mandali continued to hold their satsangs, and the government did not enforce the ban. Possibly because of this, the committee then hired someone to assassinate Om Baba. The attempt was unsuccessful.
Expansion In May 1950, Om Mandali moved to Mount Abu in Rajasthan, India. In 1952, a more structured form of teaching was offered to the public through a seven-lesson course.
Brahma Kumaris began an international expansion programme from the mid-1950s. Since the 1970s, it has spread to London and then throughout the West.Chryssides, George D.; Wilkins, Margaret and Wilkins, Margaret Z. (2006) A Reader in New Religious Movements: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements. Continuum. Esposito, John L.; Fasching, Darrell J. and Lewis, Todd (2002) Religion and globalization: world religions in historical perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 340. The most visible manifestations of the organisation are its spiritual museums, located in most major Indian cities.
In 1980, the Brahma Kumaris became registered as a nongovernmental organisation with the United Nations Department of Global Communications. In 1983, the Brahma Kumaris achieved consultative status with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The leadership and membership of the BK movement remains primarily female: in the UK, only one-third of the forty-two centres are run by men, and women comprise eighty percent of the membership.'Why are Women More Religious Than Men?' Trzebiatowska, Marta. Bruce, Steve. Oxford University Press, 2012. , , centres are mostly in followers' own homes with a tendency toward middle- or upper-class membership. Estimates for its worldwide membership range from thirty-five thousand in 1993 to four hundred thousand in 1998 to four hundred fifty thousand in 2000;Howell (2006), pp. 71–72 however, many adherents are probably not completely committed to the group's worldview.Howell (2006), p. 72: "Since the [Brahma Kumaris] spread to Western societies it has increasingly accommodated people with little interest in its theodicy but attracted to the practical applications of BK spiritual practices. 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 BK's records at the turn of the 20th to 21st century".
Brahma Kumaris Wings The organisation's outreach and service activities are organised through the Rajyoga Education and Research Foundation (RE&RF), a society registered under the Societies Registration Act in 1982 and based at the Mount Abu headquarters. The Foundation directs Brahma Kumaris service work through approximately twenty constituent wings, each addressing a particular professional or social sector through training programmes, conferences, retreats and awareness campaigns. Sector-specific wings have been a longstanding feature of BK organisational structure and have been noted in academic accounts of the movement's international expansion and recruitment strategy.
The wings currently listed by the organisation are:
Administrators' Service Wing — runs self-management and meditation training programmes for executives in public- and private-sector institutions. Agriculture and Rural Development Wing — operates rural literacy, health-awareness and meditation programmes; oversees the Sustainable Yogic Agriculture initiative (see § Sustainable Yogic Agriculture). Art and Culture Wing — engages with artists and performers through retreats and creative programmes. Business and Industry Wing — provides training in stress management, ethics and meditation for business owners and corporate professionals. Education Wing — supplies values-education materials and meditation training for school and college teachers and students (see § Education). Information Technology Wing — runs introductory meditation workshops and retreats targeted at information-technology professionals. Jurists Wing — engages with judges, lawyers and other members of the legal profession through ethics-and-meditation programmes. Media Wing — runs training and dialogue programmes for journalists and other media workers. Medical Wing — convenes conferences for health professionals and publishes material on what the organisation describes as the role of meditation in holistic health (see § Healthcare). Politicians' Service Wing — runs meditation and ethics programmes for elected officials and political workers. Religious Wing — organises inter-religious dialogue events intended to identify shared ethical themes across faith traditions. Scientists and Engineers Wing — convenes conferences and runs programmes on the relationship between science, technology and meditative practice. Security Services Wing — runs stress-management and meditation programmes for police and other security personnel. Shipping, Aviation and Tourism Services Wing — runs meditation programmes for workers in the transport and hospitality sectors. Social Service Wing — runs awareness programmes on issues such as substance addiction and harmful social practices. SpARC Wing (Spiritual Application Research Centre) — coordinates research collaborations on scientific and metaphysical subjects between BK members and outside specialists. Sports Wing — runs sport-psychology and concentration programmes for athletes. Transport and Travel Wing — provides training for transport-industry workers in emotional regulation and stress management. Women's Wing — runs meditation, training and awareness programmes for women, with a stated focus on social issues affecting women. Youth Wing — has run meditation outreach and value-education programmes for young people since 1985.
Sociologists studying the movement have observed that the proliferation of profession-specific wings reflects a strategy of reaching potential sympathisers through their workplaces and professional networks rather than through generic mass outreach.
Beliefs The movement has distinguished itself from its Hindu roots and sees itself as a vehicle for spiritual teaching rather than as a religion.Howell (2006), p. 71 Hudson describes the Brahma Kumaris as advancing a reformed Hinduism, keeping many doctrines and vocabulary, while rejecting others.
Self
The Brahma Kumaris view humans as composed of two parts: an external visible body, which includes aspects like status and possessions, and a subtle energy known as the soul. The character structure of the soul is expressed through a person's external actions. However, regardless of the outward appearance, whether actions are carried out with love, peace, happiness, or humility, reflects the essence of one's soul. The Brahma Kumaris teach that the soul is an infinitesimal point of spiritual light residing in the forehead of the body it occupies, and that all souls originally existed with God in a "Soul World", a world of infinite light, peace and silence.
The Brahma Kumaris teach that souls enter bodies to take birth in order to experience life and give expression to their personality. Unlike other Eastern traditions, the Brahma Kumaris do not believe that the human soul can transmigrate into other species.
Supreme Soul