- Posts: 111
- Joined: 02 Apr 2015
FS,
I used to help print copies of the week’s Murlis which were mailed out to international centres. I think ex-l may have done the same job at some time. This was in the days before internet & email. We used a Gestetner machine (look it up!). There were six Sakar Murlis and one Avyakt murl posted out each week to be read through the following week. That is, centres were instructed which Murli to read on which day - all centres read the same Murli on the same day.
These copies were based on translations by Jayanti, or sometimes Sudesh, done ”on the run” in real time i.e. not carefully at a desk meticulously with dictionaries or thesauruses). I have, since leaving the BKs, learnt a lot about language and use of some of the terms mis/used in Murlis - probably something you’d be more aware of as a speaker of same or similar languages. Turning well-known and well-studied terms into cult jargon (new definitions) is a powerful tool to separate a member from the rest of society. It makes them feel they are among the exclusive, chosen ones to understand ”the true meaning’ of these terms.
I was a keen analyser of the Murlis and was very aware of their patterns and content. A Sakar Murli used to be typed in times roman on a typewriter, filling 3-4 very full foolscap pages with single line spacing. It took a long time to read through.
A lot of time and care went into this process because this was ”the Word of God” - nothing truer or more important could ever be uttered, written, read or understood. God.
As you say, this process of unquestioningly accepting endless revisions must have some affect on some people, consciously or unconsciously, especially long term BKs. They must have some sense of contradictions and changes.
They may not become mentally ill but some ”distortion" in one’s conscience and personality must take place to accommodate these .
To paraphrase an old ch’an saying about thieves and bandits - it is easier to recognise (defeat) a thousand liars (bandits) in the forest than it is to recognise (defeat) the liar (bandit) in oneself.