I learnt something new which was further enlightening about Lekhraj Kirpalani's mentality ...
There are 9 religions originally mentioned in the BK "Knowledge" ... they are; the Suryavanshi (Sun Dynasty), Chandravanshi (Moon Dynasty), Islamic, Buddhist, Christian, Sanyas, Muslim, Sikh ... and Arya Samaj.
Notice, no Jews ... he called them Islam (not as absurd as it sounds, it's an Islamic view probably representative of a common view in Pakistan at the time).
But why Arya Samaj?
The Arya Samaj is a vigorous Hindu reform movement founded in 1875 by one Swami Dayananda Sarasvati (died 1883) in Mumbai.
I guess the simple answer why is because they were active in the little world of Karachi that for the BKs was the whole or centre of the world and therefore on his mind. Even moreso, the Arya Samaj took a stand against the Om Mandli.
I am thinking this is a significant detail and influential in the development of the BKs. The others being Swami Vaswani's mission (who also took a stand against Lekhraj Kirpalani and the Om Mandli), Lekhraj Kirpalani's wife's connection with the Vallabacharya sect, the Sadhu Lekhraj Kirpalani paid a fortune to be initiated into some spiritual/hypnotic/Siddhi (?) practise ... and possibly the mysterious elder partner who left or was pushed out of the BKs early and whom the PBKs consider to be the original medium and the BKs have mixed up with Lekhraj Kirpalani..
From The Story of the Sindh ...
There are 9 religions originally mentioned in the BK "Knowledge" ... they are; the Suryavanshi (Sun Dynasty), Chandravanshi (Moon Dynasty), Islamic, Buddhist, Christian, Sanyas, Muslim, Sikh ... and Arya Samaj.
Notice, no Jews ... he called them Islam (not as absurd as it sounds, it's an Islamic view probably representative of a common view in Pakistan at the time).
But why Arya Samaj?
The Arya Samaj is a vigorous Hindu reform movement founded in 1875 by one Swami Dayananda Sarasvati (died 1883) in Mumbai.
I guess the simple answer why is because they were active in the little world of Karachi that for the BKs was the whole or centre of the world and therefore on his mind. Even moreso, the Arya Samaj took a stand against the Om Mandli.
I am thinking this is a significant detail and influential in the development of the BKs. The others being Swami Vaswani's mission (who also took a stand against Lekhraj Kirpalani and the Om Mandli), Lekhraj Kirpalani's wife's connection with the Vallabacharya sect, the Sadhu Lekhraj Kirpalani paid a fortune to be initiated into some spiritual/hypnotic/Siddhi (?) practise ... and possibly the mysterious elder partner who left or was pushed out of the BKs early and whom the PBKs consider to be the original medium and the BKs have mixed up with Lekhraj Kirpalani..
From The Story of the Sindh ...
The Om Mandali attracted mostly women --- and that too only those belonging to the Bhaibund business community of Hyderabad. The unmarried among them refused to marry; and the married ones gave it in writing to their husbands that the latter were free to re-marry. Meanwhile many stories --- ranging from mesmerism to merriment --- spread about the Om Mandali. Public organisations such as the Congress and the Arya Samaj denounced the Om Mandali as disturber of family peace. And Dada Lekhraj in turn denounced the Congress as "Kansa''. Under pressure of Hindu public opinion, the Sindh government reluctantly banned the Om Mandali, which went to court and had the ban order quashed.
Arya Samaj Core BeliefsThe belief in only One Supreme Almighty or creator known by name AUM
Students were not allowed to perform traditional idol worship at the school, and were instead expected to perform sandhya (a form of meditative prayer) and a fire ritual (yugya) around the time of sunset and sunrise ... all meals, lodging, clothing and books were given to the students free of charge ... study was opened to non-Brahmins. Dayananda, after having visited Calcutta, began lecturing in Hindi instead of Sanskrit allowing him to attract increasingly larger following.
Infallible Authority of Vedas,
Rejection of idol worship & other forms of Hypocrisy,
Equality of all human beings.
Empowerment of Women