No schools are run by the BK

Deputy Commissioner Of Income Tax vs Prajapita Brahma Kumaris ... on 23 September, 1998.

This was 1998, what about now?

The learned Departmental Representative had strongly argued that the aims and objects of the assessee are not such where exemption under s. 10(22) should be granted. The aims and objects of the assessee are such as to gain popularity and to spread over the message of their so-called Dada Guru as Prajapita Brahma Guru. It was also submitted that they were not giving any education to the masses and they were just spreading over their own feelings in the name of their Dada Guru who was considering himself as creator of Shiva, the Hindu God. It was further submitted that the s. 10(22) is very clear. The language of section is also plain which says that the exemption under s. 10(22) is available to the university or the institution which is holding educational activities. No schools are run by the assessee, neither the assessee is affiliated with any educational institution approved

Now it is necessary to see whether assessee's aims and objects are such as they are required by the s. 10(22). For this purpose we would like to note some of the clauses of the constitution and other activities of the assessee. A copy of prospectus which is enclosed as enclosure C-28 of the paper book wherein the information regarding the assessee i.e., Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Iswariya Vishwa Vidyalaya is mentioned Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Viswa Vidyalaya ('Viswa Vidyalaya' for short) was established in 1937 by the Founder Dada Shri Lekhraj. The Vishwa Vidyalaya is imparting education and giving training in moral and ethical knowledge and allied subjects daily in a systematic and rational manner at fixed hours to individuals and groups and practical guidance is given for all round development of human personality. Its international head quarter is situated at Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu. It has 2,000 branches of learning spread all over the India, all the five continents and more than 50 other countries

This was 1998, what about now?

Nothing has changed ... I respect the court for seeing through the BK facade.

The aims and objects of the assessee are such as to gain popularity and to spread over the message of their so-called Dada Guru as Prajapita Brahma Guru.

It was also submitted that they were not giving any education to the masses and they were just spreading over their own feelings in the name of their Dada Guru who was considering himself as creator of Shiva, the Hindu God.

I know one BK who did some 2 or 3 month course about a year or 2 years ago. He was telling me that he would receive a certificate and it allows him to teach in bachelors level on spirituality subject when it will be introduced. He was expressing confidence that the spirituality will be made mandatory subject in bachelors degree level with in 2 or 3 years from back then.

This BK himself has no experience of doing any job or teaching except in BK center. He has very poor communication skills. But he could tell some laymen about BKism though, on a one to one basis. He was into BKism right when he was in his college/bachelor years and never got a chance to improve his communication skills. Poor fellow, even if he is given a chance to teach he would embarrass himself in a class room.

A diploma recognised by whom? By the BKWSU for doing BKWSU evangelism?

I don't think we should encourage BK to run schools. The best response to the idea of BKs influencing children was in France were a couple of BKs were arrested for doing so.

As we have read many times ... BKism is *not* a good environment for children to grow up within. Non-believer children of BKs suffered growing up under the demanding, nihilistic, self-serving and deluded 'End of the World' environment.

BK parents have not only neglect their children for the sake of the center but cases exist when they have come to resent them, or even leave them behind to chase Lekhraj Kirpalani. The Brahma Kumaris have interfered and broken up countless families the world over setting one parent against the other and sapping time, money and resources out of families to feed their endless demands.

Poor fellow, even if he is given a chance to teach he would embarrass himself in a class room.

In the beginning, Lekhraj Kirpalani and the BKs used to say that one could become a "teacher" in an hour.

In my time, they would just throw you in front of group, class or individual to teach BKism without any training at all depending on faith, your personal charisma and a recorded meditation tape which you used at the end.

Yes, I sure have memories of embarrass himself doing BK evangelism. Sobering up from being a BK is similar but *far* worse than when you wake up drunk and think, "oh, my God!!! Did I really do or say such a thing last night?" I loath some of the idiotic things I was encouraged to and who they encouraged me to be ... it was not *me* at all. When I think of them I rather wish I was dead instead of having to carry them around.

Actually, I don't drink but the memories make me considering doing so just to blot them out. Almost all BKs will face the same experiences when they come to leave.

Rather audaciously, they call it "service" but it's really just publicity, public relations (PR) or evangelising BK propaganda. From a cultic point of view, pushing adherents into humiliating experiences is a good way to break them down as individuals and their resistances. I would not say this is deliberate within BKism, but I would definitely say it happens.

We've sketched out the evolution of Brahma Kumari evangelism and PR from its early days in the West to the point it is now where 'elite' BKs are off setting up their own businesses targeting corporate executives called it "self management leadership" or "coaching". It's basically just the same as it used to be 30 years ago but with a bit more non-BK influences ... catch phrases, new agey-isms, motivational quotes from rich and famous people.

It's basically, 40 minutes of soft and general mental massage ... or as I would say 'bullsh**' ... followed by 10 minutes of hypnotic BK meditation, followed by another 5 or 10 minutes questions and answers. The more subtle and discrete ... or, as I would say, 'skilfully deceptive' one is ... the high level of PR is allowed to do.

Personally, I am interested in the paradoxes and contradictions of it. The original philosophy is all about denying anyone other influence and any other "spirituality". It's was a black and white world where only the BKs had the truth and everyone else was evil, ignorant and deluded; and yet today they reward and encourage BKs to obscure BKisms and use the very same non-BK sources they used to criticise ... to promote themselves and BKism.

Now they have vast ... and under used ... training facilities all over India in which they hold seminars, however, I have not seen any quality training materials, never mind any evidence that they are used to teach anything of any real value. I have encountered many BK on the internet who provide copious evidence that they are not being helped to develop themselves intellectually never mind with any real life skills.

To be, they are just becoming masters of bullsh** with an secondary specialism in the hospitality industry. They already lend out their under used facilities to other groups and business, trading them for PR value and an opportunity to influence anyone ...using their unpaid slave labor to run them.

At best they could at least turn themselves into a hospitality business running hotels, retreats and seminar centres where at least they could paid their unpaid servant caste and afford some healthcare insurance and a pension. That seems to be the way they are going.

From the very beginning, through the 1950s and 60s, until today the Brahma Kumaris have been criticised that they don't actually teach anything ... they just encourage manic devotion and spend all their time working out new words to do the same PR and publicity to different groups. They don't even question and do research. The core of their information is the same as it was in the late 70s following the failed prediction of Destruction in 1976 and, as we have discovered, much of it is contrived falsehoods. They don't develop skills such as logic or consider ethics.

Imagine the difference they would have made to India if they had invested their energies just in teaching children how to read and write and do basic mathematics, supported them through, say, medical or nursing college.

At least now they are developing non-BK secondary interests in other areas, e.g. running hospitals, agriculture, solar energy etc ... but even those are warped as means to ends rather than for their own value.