The value of Brahma Baba
As January 18 is an important day for Brahma Kumaris’ followers, I’d like to share what I consider important about the life of Brahma Baba for Bks and Non Bks alike.
Brahma Baba or Lekhraj Kripalani was a man who reached self-realization. It was his time.
No one can tell the exact moment, as self-realization does not depend on the perception of others as to how a self-realized being needs to behave.
Those who lived with him, may have never know about the process that he was going through. Those who experienced “miracles” attributed to his presence; may have strong feelings of devotion for him and believe that because they had experienced a “miracle,” then Brahma Baba was “very special” and them “chosen ones.”
Brahma Baba was unique but not “special.”
Brahma Baba was a source of inspiration to those who followed him, although he may not have been understood. The stories that are told about him may have been changed through time: Those who loved him, may have spiced up the stories. Those who didn’t love him, may have diminish the original stories. It is simple human math. At the end, to believe that “everyone will love a self -realized being” is a childish belief.
The value of Brahma Baba now is not in the second hand stories that we may hear, but there is value “NOW” for those who had the chance to interact with him at the subtle level, that is in his body of light. As he created the BK religion, he is now preserving it by contacting those who need to be contacted regardless of “seniority” or “years in gyan” or any such human sociopolitical beliefs.
It is important to know that Brahma Baba acts as a guide to help those who need it according to their destiny.
Brahma Kumaris for the masses, is a different aspect. It is the “beginners guide.” Every human being comes from different types of conditioning, traumas and experiences making it impossible to create a “formula” that will fit all. Brahma Kumaris for the masses offers an effort to accommodate everyone through a somehow clear cut system, thus there will be issues all the time.
A self-realized being does not know everything as what is told of ‘God.’ He is not a source of accurate data and information. A self-realized being IS empty of self. An Individual who is One with the Totality. Some may like to call that “God;” but labels do not matter to him but only to those who are not self-realized.
A Being of light will disclose the information that is necessary according to time and according to the person that he is guiding. Many times, humans will interpret that information with inaccuracies; however, even in that; there will be benefit as a being of light knows the future.
In contact with a Being of light or a self-realized being, the word “truth” has a totally different meaning from what we are conditioned to believe. It is no longer about literal words or accuracy in fortune telling, but about development of consciousness of those being guided.
Question: How are you going to “follow the father “ if you don’t know him?
Answer: It is not by DOING what we are told he did.
It is by BEING empty of self.
Brahma Kumaris and Beyond - Avyakt7 
ex-l 5:20 PM on February 17, 2019 Permalink |
Truth be, I don’t follow your blog. I must have followed some link looking for BK related information. But I read over the recent posts and would like to comment on this key statement.
You state, “Lekhraj Kripalani was a man who reached self-realization”. How can we say that and what does it actually mean? How does it stake up to the facts, objective, historical facts, as we know them?
Firstly, is there only one level of “self-realization”? You present it as if it is a fait accompli. A finish job. If so, when exactly did Kripalani reach it, or what? And what evidence is for it?
1932 … 1936 … 1968? Or may be, just perhaps, is he still on his path to pay his dues, make his self-corrections, reach the next level? Or is he even there yet?
If there’s a major fault with BKism, surely it is with its (his) egotism, narcissism, delusions of self-grandeur etc. Everything has to be “global”, “supreme”, “the highest of high”.
How about he just made the next level up? Or one up and one to the side?
It seems to me BKism only works in a world where it is the be all and everything, the only one path and Kripalani is its God, and much of BKism is all about plugging the questions, and blinding the eyes to anything outside of it. Just about every other mystic path recognises that there are many levels and many paths. Therefore it is possible that Kripalani had some door of perception opened, reach a slightly higher level of awareness? Or earned a few extra trick?
I fear you portray “self-realization” as if it is an ultimate “enlightenment” like the Buddha was supposed to have reached (but which the BKs don’t recognise).
However, what we do know about Kripalani is that he paid a huge sum of money for some kind of initiation with the mysterious unnamed saddhu in Bengal. 10,000 rupees in 1930s money – that’s about in today’s money – and that after he did so, not only the changes started to happened with him, he adopted the use of the mysterious eyeshadow and that, arguably, some times after he fell to pieces in a manner that made his family fear he was having a mental breakdown.
Further more, that contrary to the BKWSU’s portrayal, beforehand he was not actually the religious or spiritual figure he has been painted out to be.
Aren’t the first thing to do, to ask a) who was saddhu, b) which tradition did he belong to, and c) what precisely did he initiate Kripalani into?
Could it have been into a siddhi? Could it have been a relationship with some kind of spirit (possession and mediumship being core to the practise)? There are so many other possibilities before one jumps to the conclusion it was “God”, the one and only highest upon high, surely?
How could he have been “self-realized” if he believed himself to be god for 20 – 24 years, or even allow a circle of dependent women and children around him believe he was god?
(Bearing in mind there was no mention in the religion of the BKs’ “God Shiva” until around 1956).
Surely, it’s a bit of a stretch of logic or appeasement to believe that a “being of light will disclose the information that is necessary according to time and according to the person that he is guiding”.
Unless truth and light are two different things in your book, as in Lucifer was a being of light too … but I might not believe everything he says and worship him.
Again, is there only one level or purity of “light”. You’re passing it off as an absolute.
I could believe Kripalani was possessed by this other spirit but that would mean that he was too dumb or egotistically to recognise it for 20 odd years. That it took him until 1956 to realise it. But then, looking at the quality of materials it/he/they produced at that time, was it really that far down the spiritual path?
The original, unedited and unrevised Sakar Murlis that make up the core teachings were really pretty limited, and how would you really judge his “creations”, the last of the Sindhi sisters who stuck it out through the beggary period? Do you really think the Jankis, Gulzars and Mohinis and so on of this world are that far advanced now you are out of the cult? Should they be judged by their creation, eg the current middle management and nature of the organization?
Personally, I’ve given up caring about spiritual theory because that is all it is for me, theory I cannot prove or disprove. I can’t mesmerize others. I don’t exhibit mystical siddhi powers (although I’ve definitely felt and seen other [non-BK] do so). If I am at all clairvoyant, it was only sufficiently enough to see through the smoke and mirrors that the BKs and their god spirits surround themselves with.
I am sorry but I don’t see it as light. I see it as smoke because it’s not even clear and true by worldly standards.
I see it as some kind of psychicism, a lower level, not pure spirituality. And it’s most concerning symptom is the strength of its reaction to simple truths or light, suggesting to me that it or they are really living in the shadows.
For me, a symptom of someone who is truly spiritual is to run to the light, embrace and adopt it, not to crush it, misrepresent it, deny it and keep others from it; as many within the movement do. Their typical response to anyone reaching out for a greater light, is to discredit or outcast them.
What I would say in conclusion though it this, what does “follow the father” (Lekhraj Kripalani) really mean? Does it mean literally “follow the father”, like do what they say Lekhraj Kripalani did, and blindly copy everything he did (in the hope that it takes you to where he got)?
Or does it mean “follow the father” as in step out and find your own path as, indeed, Lekhraj Kripalani did. Lekhraj Kripalani didn’t follow someone else. Right or wrong, deluded or enlightened, he carved his own path, learnt his own lessons and, presumably, took on his own karma to work out.
Should that be what we or truly spiritual people should be doing, rather than trying to do his path in the blind hope it works out for us too?
The BK middle management is keen to keep the cork in the genie’s bottle. They don’t want us to think there’s further to go them Lekhraj Kripalani went.
I think it’s possible to suggest they want to mislead us into positions where they can exploit us, and the real lesson of BKism is to recognise that, drop it, go around it, and move on. I mean, even on a most basic level, look at how they blocked and monopolised access to BapDada and kept the interchanges dumbed down to an infantile level.
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avyakt7- New Generation 4:57 PM on February 18, 2019 Permalink |
I have discussed already some of the points that your bring in some of the posts.
To begin, I do not share “truth.” I share my experiences.
Allow me to start from the beginning: I joined Brahma Kumaris because Brahma Baba contacted my sister (She has medium capabilities among other “gifts.”) before we even knew what Brahma Kumaris was. That contact went on many times throughout the years, through that contact I was demonstrated that Science has limited knowledge and that I needed to put my bias aside to learn and explore something new although it wasn’t easy. Brahma Baba knew something about me, that I did not disclose to no one. That was my beginning as a BK.
What scientific “proof” can I give of it? It is a subjective experience.
There was a tree near my neighborhood in Peru. My sister used to listen to the voice of that tree when she was little. That tree gave her riddles and she brought the answers back. That relationship went on for years up until now. The tree said his name was Mathias and he presented to us as our friend. Later on he disclosed himself as a being of light (My sister is able to see that.) Mathias witnessed my “career” as a BK without trying to stop me and he helped my sister and I transition from that experience into something new. We were ready after the BK experience. Through Mathias, I actually received lots of help for my process of transformation. I am talking about years of changes. What scientific proof can I give of it? Another subjective experience.
Now, there is a new being, his name is Miguel. Apparently he will be guiding me at one point and Mathias will stay with my sister. We shall see.
I recall that in one of the posts you wrote in the BK forum, you mentioned that “I should take the guidance of a senior or someone” for in your view I was kind of rowdy, confused, etc. among other things… Well it seems that your advice became a reality.
Going back to Brahma Baba and the BKs…
Brahma Baba became one with the Totality. Self-realization. That is how we “follow the Father.”
Followers will interpret the experiences of a person going through this process of self-realization. These followers will consider themselves as “chosen ones.” If they believe in God, they could even believe that God is with them. It is all about “them.” If there are many people, the tendency is to create a religion or a cult, for they believe to have the “truth.” These individuals will degenerate the experiences or “teachings” of the person going into this process.
To illustrate, “Osho” (Rajnesh) is another self-realized being. He even said so while alive. Watch this “documentary.”
It is viewed from the side of conditioned human beings who tend to change things to fit their own needs, their morality and conditioning rather than OBSERVE themselves and use the words of a self-realized being as a mirror. For society Osho may have been an eccentric person, a fake. A simple human being cannot tell the difference between a self-realized or illuminated person and a fake; however, that is part of their experience in Life. It is not “bad” but necessary.
“A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.” Those were the words of Gurdjieff. Those make perfect sense to me now. That is the “dying alive” of Brahma Baba.
Similarly, Brahma Baba went through a particular process where he had difficulties with his own family and other “normal” people. Just like Gautama Buddha had with his father and wife. Not only that, but many people rejected them, just like what happened to Jesus Christ and Osho.
The DOING of a self-realized BEING is good and it has protection, because he IS good. Other individuals ARE not good but their actions are labeled as “good” in human view, morality. However, those actions are dishonest under the telescope of Life itself. Why? Their actions are not according to who they ARE.
Observe that although Osho had surrounded himself with people who could kill in a heart beat and were trying to kill to get their objectives, at the end; no one was killed. That is the protection that I am talking about.
Brahma Baba is a being of light. There are many BKs who had an experience with him.
I understand that your viewpoint is mostly academic and follows conventional human morality; but Life is not always as it seems. Reason and Logic many times, only grasp the surface of the matter.
I agree that Brahma Kumaris as an organization has made many mistakes. Even the teachings from Brahma Baba have been changed. Nevertheless, everyone is doing their part and I also acknowledge the function of Brahma Kumaris in our society for people like myself. That experience was necessary for me, so it will be for others.
You are welcome to add your comments as I do not censor something unless I consider it to be insulting or disrespectful. That is my prerogative as this is my blog.
My apologies if I do not answer quickly as I have other things in my plate. That is why I can post once a week in both blogs (explore7.wordpress.com and this one.)
All the best.
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Gayathri 8:35 AM on February 25, 2019 Permalink |
Yes brother. I also had a few deep spiritual experiences with Brahma Baba in his angelic form. I could not even have imagined such deep experiences. Till today, he is my best friend.
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avyakt7- New Generation 10:33 AM on February 27, 2019 Permalink |
Many BKs that I used to know in my time, had an experience with Brahma Baba or even the point of light Shiva, which started their careers as BKs.
Without those experiences, I will never have joined the BK movement. I valued my freedom to comply with the system too much. The “effort” was to leave it. Then, in time; it became a source of ego.
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ex-l 6:37 AM on March 5, 2019 Permalink |
Unfortunately, I have not had time to read over your current world view, or dare I say, “other world” view of the spiritual realms. In this case, I was thinking more about the experiences of Emanuel Swedenborg, one of Europe’s greatest mediums and mystics. An interesting individual because, unlike most mediums and mystics, he was high accomplished and grounded in this world, as well at the next.
I, too, cannot confirm his experiences “scientifically”, and they were surely tempered for the time and place of his birth C18th, but he was noted for his many miraculous accuracies in prediction and proof.
One of his best known works was ‘Heaven and Hell’ (the full title being Heaven and its Wonders and Hell From Things Heard and Seen). In essence, it was an account of his psychic journeying to many different realms and his meetings with angels and other spiritual beings in them. He shared an other worldly view of a universe of many different level above and below planet earth that is common in many traditions.
Therefore, my question would remains which level or realm/s did Lekhraj Kirpalani access and/or achieve? How “enlightened” did he become.
You now write, “Brahma Baba became one with the Totality” suggesting to me partly a monist world view, like Adi Shankara’s, but also that “he hit the jackpot”, “he reached the ultimate goal or level” in the way followers believe the Buddha did (but the BKs don’t) or achieved Moksha, as Shankara taught or his followers claim (but the BKs deny).
BKs, and some ex-BKs, have a hard time even considered that, perhaps Lekhraj Kirpalani did not “hit the jackpot but just managed to reach a next level or two up. If I have one problem with BKism, is that it is overflowing with ego, its own vanity, narcissism, delusions of grandeur. Everything has to be the highest, global, the most supreme etc etc etc instead of ‘just a little better’. Which would still be OK.
It seems to me the fragile, dare I say “child=like” ego BKism appeals to needs to think it is the best and most important in the world, instead of just another step or another path – a resting point even – on a long climb.
In your world view, does Lekhraj Kirpalani still exist in a personal form AND has merged with “the totality”, eg is he still hanging around planet earth and the BKs and popping in and out of Gulzar? (I hear her mind has gone now).
The way Swedenborg portrayed the different worlds – and he inspired many similar mystic thinkers since – was of higher and higher vibrations. In approximation, that we could communicate to beings from a world or two above and below, but as they became more and more refined, or speeded up (higher vibration) it became more and more difficult to do so and, from memory, required the passing of communication from our level to an ‘above’ and then from an ‘above’ to one above it.
This would fit within a typical conception of the Hierarchy of Angels;
Angels, Archangels and Principalities, Powers, Virtues and Dominions, Thrones, Cheribum and Seraphim etc. and similar concepts of “other worlds” or realms in Hinduism and Buddhism.
It could even explain his communication with his god spirit/guide (and the fallibilities or inaccuracies as he developed).
Now, at this point, the BK-mind starts to have a tantrum. No, it wants only one god, one realm, one path, one dada, one Baba (albeit it’s a bit confused which Baba [Brahma or Shiva]) and to be “right”. No other world and no other world view allowed.
I’m not sure. I’m thinking there’s a much bigger picture and much more to existence.
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Gayathri 8:21 AM on March 5, 2019 Permalink |
Hello. Mr.Ex 1, your message is interesting. 🙂 Yes, i used to hear about these things since my childhood. We were told that there are 14 worlds, not sure whether it includes the earth and our solar system/ our universe. Also heard that (in MahaBharat) the 14 worlds were in Krishna’s stomach.
As i could not grasp the meaning, i had asked my father what it means ( i was very young, 6,7 year old) and he told me something like it is the spiritual form of 14 worlds that are in Krishna’s stomach. And when i asked him why he ( my dad) has a paunch, he told me that there are 14 worlds in his stomach too. 🙂 🙂
When i read your message, i felt like why should any one go through so much hardship in order to go from one level to the other. (Sorry for having this lazy attitude.) I believe that our transition should be smooth and harmonious. 🙂 Otherwise, as our dear brother Avyakt 7 says, we would be pretending most of the time to reach/ become one at the next level.
One thing is for sure, Brahma Baba must be several realms (worlds) above me. He has helped me in many ways in the past 2 decades. And whenever i got the doubt whether i was hallucinating, he made sure to give me very deep experiences and a few experiences were unbelievable in the sense that i became clairvoyant too for a short while.
Anyway, i believe that the transformation should happen gradually for our own well being; for our body and spirit. I am content with my present level of spirituality. Let this spiritual journey be joyous and entertaining.
And i do plead to Baba sometimes that he should continue to be with me … who would like to lose such a wonderful friend? 🙂
Yes, i agree with some of your comments on BK family.
best wishes and regards to all,
Gayathri.
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ex-l 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 Permalink |
Although I am, without doubt, critic of BKism, I could accept, perfectly well, that Lekhraj Kirpalani was more accomplished than I on a worldly level and, having mastered a worldly level, moved on to a next.
It would not be so much “why should anyone go through so much hardship in order to go from one level to the other” but that it is inevitable that one must progress from one level to another on one’s way; some faster, some slower, some stopping to take a rest, out of spiritual laziness, or help others.
However, at this point I throw in the concept of the Sefirot of the Kabbalah that offers a spiritual map not simply of layers one on top of the other like a department store, but of different paths between different goals. The “Tree of Life”. You have various stages on two columns or extremes, a middle path, and multiple bridges or paths between them. And once you reach to top of one Sefirot, you find yourself at the bottom of the next!
Each bridge between the centres represents a separate spiritual or worldly lesson.
Lekhraj Kirpalani’s paths or lessons are not mine. Or yours. He mastered materialism, and then what? He paid for an expensive initiation with a saddhu in Bengal – where I believe one of the keys to understanding BKism lies – had some “chakra” opened, perhaps – and then went a little mad for decades, thought he was god, misinterpreted visions, hugely inflamed his ego and wrecked countless families.
Yes, he may have developed as a medium for some other spirit being, even became a mesmerist but, if you ask me, I’d suggest he was stuck and coping with all the karma he created during those years.
I’m really happy not to have it.
As to the symbolism of Krishna, that’s easy to decode. Classically, that blue is the colour used to denote infinity. Therefore the worlds are not inside anyone tummy but merely within the infinity that is our universe.
Hinduism is a terrible jumble of conflicting schools of symbolism developed on the basis of resolving social political conflicts, eg the question of rulership between the Brahmins and Kyshatria in the Gita, in which pluralism (whatever you believe is true too) developed as a way of avoiding conflict.
BKism is something separate more akin to Islam or Christianity that borrows and steals terminology and symbolism from Hinduism, in order to attract customers and victims.
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avyakt7- New Generation 7:41 AM on March 6, 2019 Permalink |
Back in 2014 I shared this article:
At that time, I interpreted that as “there is no hierarchy” based on the vision my sister had. It was my own interpretation.
Later on, perhaps a few months later, Mathias mentioned out of the blue “Hierarchy is the way of the Universe.” That was some years ago.
It is my experience that many times I have interpreted things which only fit my own model of thought. Basically, I continued with my own cage of conditioned delusions, thinking that “I know.” Once I realized that there is change.
Similarly, I could understand that Brahma Baba had visions. He also interpreted those visions. Followers will be in charge of making those interpreted visions, as “truth.”
“Beings of light” work with some individuals so these can fulfill a particular mission in Life, mostly for the common good. What they say is mostly for them alone. Sort of what the “Oracle” was in the movie “Matrix.” There are many parallels between that character and the mission of a being of light.
I do not know how many “levels” there are of self realization or how many worlds. I know that Brahma Baba “hit the jackpot” and so did Osho Rajnesh. But they are so different! One practices celibacy, the other indulges in sex. How that could be? Again, is not what they DO. What matters in Life is what they ARE… Consciousness. Human morality is only a human way to judge and label, but that doesn’t matter at all in the realms beyond our society.
Every medium, every seer, can only interpret according to what is presented to them and that interpretation is according to their own Life experiences. It is like seeing a dream at night. We make up the meaning. Sometimes it is correct. Sometimes, half way. Others, not a chance.
To be one with the Totality is not to disappear into oblivion. It is to be conscious, aware that we are an individual but at the same time, we are everything, (Totality) when we are “nothing.” That “nothing” could be called “ego-less” as BK says, or “soul conscious” or “Sunyata” as the Buddhist tradition mentions.
As you said, the BK mind wants “one path, one God and to be the only ones who have it all…” That is truly to be immersed in the egotistical mind. That is what the BK path is meant to be, in my understanding. It is a path to increase ego, for there is no way to dilute it unless it has increased and expressed in its fullest. In my experience; the BK path is necessary for some. Definitely, it was for my sister and I.
Thus in my experience, to take full benefit of the BK path, we need to go all the way according to our capacity. That doesn’t mean necessarily to be there for 80 years. It means intensity. The intensity of a house in fire rather than just being burned by a small candle.
That intensity makes it harder to leave for we have a new identity inside the BK conditioning, until there is nothing else to burn.
At the end of the BK experience, what matters is what happens inside us. What has been transformed out of the experience? That is our “inheritance.”
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ex-l 8:15 AM on March 5, 2019 Permalink |
Another common element to those traditions is that the more “spiritual” or “pure” a vibration or guide is, the more subtle and hard it is to pick up, the more “powerful” – say ‘tangible’ – psychic experiences being seen as occuring at a lower level.
A pattern and idea that BKism appears to have followed and to be adopting, from the “weakening” of psychic experiences of the nature of those had during Om Mandli era, to the withdrawal of Kirpalani/BapDada.
I am not uptdate with what is happening now, but I hear second hand they are down to showing videos of BapDada/Gulzar at Madhuban now. And that Gulzar is on her way to being senile, like Prakashmani and others before her? The following has been long prepared for the idea that BapDada would not be performing his puppet show with Gulzar forever and that in the future/today? BKs would have to be able to rise to their Subtle Regions to meet them.
Personally – although I have come to conclude that the only thing reliable about psychic experiences, is that they are unreliable (not that they don’t exist) – I would find BKism a lot more easy to tolerate if they gave up their supremacist views and went back to accepting that they were just one path, a step on the path, a resting place on a long climb, rather than “The One”.
And admit their errors and false representations (I mean stuff like admitting their true history, the failed predictions, Kirpalani’s long held delusions etc).
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