Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

BKWSU related newstories
  • Message
  • Author
User avatar

news editor

site admin

  • Posts: 73
  • Joined: 04 May 2008

Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post19 Jan 2009

Image
The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University in Russia

Reports are emerging of how a successful Russian businessman, Aleksandr Ksenzov, stopped being a follower of Brahma Kumaris and requested the return of his property from the the BKWSU. A luxury apartment in the Moscow city centre. Ksenzov apparently claimed that he had given it to the BKWSU in a totally brainwashed state of mind, the temporarily euphoric mental state BK followers call "The Intoxication Phase" or "Honeymoon Period". The Honeymoon Period is emotional state which happens at the beginning of a follower's involvement with the Brahma Kumaris and "marriage" with their god, involving love bombing from other followers, special attention from the organization's senior leaders and psychic influences. But is one which soon evaporates.

Despite a considerable media reporting, which drew negative attention to the BKWSU, the Brahma Kumaris are reported to have fought to defend their acquisition legally and won a court case in order to do so. Events suggesting to watchers evidence of both the confrontational nature, and the degree of materialistic interests within the movement. The Brahma Kumaris, an End of the World cult, have predicted on numerous occasions from WWII onwards an imminent and desirable Nuclear Holocaust called "Destruction". Destruction is said to "purify" the world by killing 6,000,000,000 "impure" human beings, in order that they, the Brahma Kumaris, will inherit a "pure" Golden Aged heaven and rule the world as Emperors and Empresses.

The Brahma Kumaris are noted for their sizable property portfolio. It includes mansion houses, large campus-like properties on government donated land and luxury retreats internationally funded by followers. They encouraging their followers to donate not just their minds and bodies but also their property and wealth, on the promise of a high status and palaces in the Golden Age which will follow the forthcoming Destruction during which all other continents but India will sink below the seas.

brahma-kumari-sudha.jpg
Sudha Rani Gupta and the St Petersburg BKWSU center

In the Moscow Times, Sudha Rani Gupta, one of the organization’s leaders in Russia said, "Follow the (Brahma Kumaris’) teachings and you will go to the Land of Happiness ... Give everyone this message ... Everything will be destroyed. Only a short time remains." Only a "short time" but long enough to make it worthwhile acquiring property on doomed territory it would seem.

Recently, in the channeled messages which makes up the BK scripture dated 16 September 2008, the spirit entity which the Brahma Kumaris consider to be God, calling himself a "sensible businessman", said ...
BKWSU wrote:Sakar Murli Revised

... to purchase a building and donate it is very good service. It is the children who would sit and do service. The building would remain yours, but you would receive the fruit of its use. In return for that, you will receive huge palaces there. The time will come when you children will be offered many buildings and people will continually bow down at your feet. What would we do with those buildings then? We simply want to do service.

Why should we accept a building and then have to spend money on it! This Businessman is clever. He is such a sensible Businessman.

The Brahma Kumaris have a 70 year reputation for splitting families, using family homes as centers or "universities" and family inheritances to fund their expansion. The organization was established when the original founder and medium, Lekhraj Kripalani, was threatened by numerous law suits in his home of Hyderabad, Pakisthan for doing so but instead divested his wealth into a trust held by his wife, a teenage follower and the women of other families involved. It recently ran public programmes in the Russian capital aimed at children and parents called, "Children - The Gentle Riddles of the World".

In 2006, their global chief of PR, BK Karuna Shetty raises controversy when he denied the prediction of Destruction to the Moscow Times dishonestly claiming the predicted war between Russia and America had been removed from their University's teachings despite images at its headquarters showing the opposite. A statement entirely contrary to the truth.

The BKWSU leadership is also recorded as having encouraged followers to remove money from banks and cancel retirement or insurance policies due to the proximity of "Destruction", and have financially benefited from having done so.

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post20 Jan 2009

It really does seem to me that the BK are happy to use misinterpretation of The Knowledge by their followers to their own material advantage and actually encourage such misinterpretation.

Quite obviously this is not the work of God, why would God want property if destruction is due any day now?

So what is really going on?

This is my best guess - The BK teach meditation, they teach certain thoughts attitudes and disciplines that are very spiritual and those good at the teachings become very powerful and can give blessings to others. Does this mean that God is teaching through the BK Spiritual University? I personally thought that this was very likely from nearly all BK activity. But the BK greed for money and property together with the harsh treatment of anyone who "opposes God's work" (getting more money and property) very much proves that the BK have an agenda beyond conquering vices and developing virtue - the official line.

I suspect that Brahma Baba would bawl his eyes out if he knew what the BK are up to. It is one thing to go to court and challenge the court oath because God is not omnipresent, it is quite another to fight a donor in court because they do not want to give a property back after the donor has changed their mind or felt they have been conned. How on earth are the BK going to rule in the Golden Age if they must resort to using lawyers etc. here and now? There are no lawyers in heaven as there is no need to consult them there.

There was a Brother in the Tennyson Road days who sold a van, the buyer came back and said the chassis was rusty, advice was taken. The Srimat was - if you spoke to the buyer about Baba you must return the money and take back the van. Very impresssive I thought, but for some reason this does not apply to property or money that comes into the BK rather than student coffers.

I am not saying here that the BK are bad people, even though they would have those who do not fully co-operate because of reasons being debated here think they are bad. What I am saying is that there are controlling and manipulating elements in the BK camp that are doing great disservice and that their past and current activity is beginning to haunt them. It seems to me that power and wisdom are not necessarily companions and that certain "gifted" BK are hoodwinking blind believers.

It is not that I am right and that the BK are wrong. What is being highlighted here is a certain aspect of BK activity that seems very suspect. If the BK explained their position so that we can all see what is going on their credibility may not be questioned, as it is their cred. seems very shaky indeed.

A few square feet of ground was the original deal - not a luxury apartment. The Knowledge also was originally free, people who studied were often given bed and board, nowadays 10% of income is the guideline. It is not all about money as the poorest person who genuinely enquires into God's existence can receive extraordinary blessings, but money and property and personal agenda issues merit highlighting also.
User avatar

ex-l

ex-BK

  • Posts: 10661
  • Joined: 07 Apr 2006

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post20 Jan 2009

I have to agree ... but the response from the leadership is always the same.

Whether it is child sex at the headquarters, suicides at the centers or this sort of property raking ... if that is what it was ... they just turn into stuck up lords and ladies who consider they are unanswerable to no one else but their Baba. Never apologize, never explain, keep pumping out the PR. Its once you start adding it all up that it becomes suspect, and I am sure that has only just started now we have the internet and someone is centralizing it all. Its has to be true that Western BK expansion has been made on donated properties starting from non-BKs such as Jayanti Kirpalani Father.

The Brahma-kumaris have had a highly-centralized and secretive 'central command' for a long time. Since almost the beginning, I should guess. All done in a foreign language with coded meaning and cash-cash circulating around.

I am sure most BKs followers know little about all this and are kept in that state, mentally conditioned "not to think ... not to question" (to quote Janki Kripalani), "not to look at "negativity"", only to take Shrimat (advice) from the very same people at the core of all this who are acting entirely contrary to the actual teachings. Afraid in other words. Afraid to accept, afraid to be picked up by the leadership if they speak out, afraid to speak up for fear of censorship.

I have to admit, when I was inside, apart from one dubious mortgage deal ... I knew and asked nothing about all this. I was in a daze happy being an idiot and not asking how or why? I think it was a bit of a joke to take of non-BKs and "Bhagat souls" (i.e. non-BK religious Hindus who thought the Brahma-kumaris were gurus) believing that they would get "benefits" even though they had not a clue what was going on. Its really not very "holy" or "yogi".

My questions would be, as the PBKs suggest, has the BKWSU been subverted by an inner circle that is acting NOT in the real spirit of the BKWSU after all? Or is this is? Is this what it is and has been all about? Even if that was true, and they were chucked out or a new leadership brought it, would they do the housecleaning and sort out all these issues allegations? Sadly, my feeling is ... absolutely not. They have got it, however they got it, and they are not giving it up now.

I would love to know the truth ... more details please.

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post20 Jan 2009

At the time that Jayanti Kirpilani's Father donated the property near Kew, it was openly explained that the property was her dowry which otherwise would have been given if she married.

In order to finance St. Gabriels Road, Dadi Janki asked for donations in class, and then asked for more as students had more to give and they had not given enough.

When I had, prior to these events, questioned the criteria governing the soliciting of money from a certain businessman, the issue was not discussed. The change in attitude towards me which immediately became apparent was merely categorised by DJ as "a personal conflict". Her very words were, "when two pots bang together one cracks." I was racked with doubt, the topic I had raised was taboo.

There are holy aspects to every one of us, we can all develop certain strengths by living well in or out of a group. We always have to examine, question and explore both internally and externally. Is there another way to become knowledgeable?

When I see current topics such as this, and refer to my experiences a long time ago, it is clear as day that the secretive "central command" that ex-I refers to is no work of imagination. It is the dark side of the BKWSU and very, very sadly there are some who sit on Bap Dada's heart throne who create and orchestrate it.
User avatar

ex-l

ex-BK

  • Posts: 10661
  • Joined: 07 Apr 2006

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post21 Jan 2009

john morgan wrote:When I had, prior to these events, questioned the criteria governing the soliciting of money from a certain businessman, the issue was not discussed. The change in attitude towards me which immediately became apparent was merely categorised by DJ as "a personal conflict".

Her very words were, "when two pots bang together one cracks." I was racked with doubt.

its an interesting proverb and not one that I have heard in the Murlis which makes me think there is a whole sub-culture going on which belongs more in the Sindi bazaars and between the bhaibund traders.

"When two pots bang together one cracks" ... to me is sounds like a matter of "will", the Brahma-kumaris will to get the money/property/whatever and the follower or religious seeker's will to hold onto their own belongings.

That Janki Kripalani categorised it as YOU have a "personal conflict" with THEIR pot-banging modus operandi ... which is what I take you are saying ... makes me think you were either seen as "weak in faith" or "weak in will" to carry out business their style.

Unfortunately, the Brahma Kumaris are no longer, or are not proven to be, the Robin Hoods any more ... "stealing from the rich to give to the poor". The 'necessities of survival of the Beggary Period are long over.

To me, the scene is now more of "robbing hoods" ... stealing from the rich to get even more rich. Please explain to me why I am wrong and why the Brahma Kumaris no longer need to follow the advice given in the Murlis that they expect their followers to do slavishly.

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post21 Jan 2009

The issue as I saw it was a conflict of ideas. On the one hand students were told that if you give it must be to Baba and that if you are not giving to Baba your donation will not be accepted. Then on the other hand the BK court reasonably godless businessmen for funds. When I attempted to point out that there seemed to be one rule for accepting from students and another for accepting from businessmen there was no discussion, and an instant hardening of attitude, an angel had made a firm decision, and that was that.

The smokescreen named "personal conflict" ensured that the real isssue was never resolved, this conflict of ideas seems to be very much alive in the BK world today.

Perhaps every BK should carry a wealth warning. The end of the world is nigh! Only we can transfer your dosh to heaven! If you want it back we will take you to court ... oops, sorry, I shouldn't have said that, its not the official line, besides its too close to the truth.

Salesmen can and sometimes do use mesmerism in their pitches. If a salesman had a cabin with a red light in it and asked you to visualise a star before buying he would most likely be found guilty of mesmerism if taken to court. As the BK methods of meditation are aired I would not be surprised if the ex-follower who wants his property back gets it.

"At first it seemed like a dream and then it became real but then I woke up", he could say ... and the human judge would listen.

It is always made to seem that the BK are giving, that one has little or nothing that they are interested it. These great donors will fight you tooth and nail for your money and property even though we are on the eve of Destruction. Do they believe what they ask you to believe? No! These are spiritual attitudes that they are teaching, it is not physical fact but they do not want you to understand that until you have given and given well.

Must go - am off to a mad hatters' tea party ;).

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post22 Jan 2009

A short postscript.

The aim of a BK life is to become exactly like Baba.

Is Baba interested in money or court cases?

How can the one who has absolutely everything be interested in an apartment?

Surely his aim is to make his children happy.

This court action is not an act of God.

Baba provides all that I need so I ask myself the question - "Why on earth am I squabbling over what someone gave and now wishes to take back?"

Only eight take the prize, this may be worth thinking about.
User avatar

ex-l

ex-BK

  • Posts: 10661
  • Joined: 07 Apr 2006

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post22 Jan 2009

I just wanted to point out something simple but obvious ... aren't the two Indian Brahma Kumari ladies above WELL FED?

I mean they are fat like too many of the Brahma Kumaris, especially those eating off the West. You cannot get that size without considerable and persistent effort ... and funding.

I think coming from a country that ranks 96th bottom out of 119 countries listed in world hunger projects, where there are more children malnourished than in sub-Sahara Africa, where one-quarter of households have a calorie intake that is insufficient to maintain health ... is not it a bit much for "charity workers" eating out of donations?

In India of old, being big and fat (and light skinned) is a sign of wealth and power because only the rich can afford to (and do not have to work hard or outside). The majority of Indians are just trying to stay alive and a tan is a sign of a low caste laborer. 'New India' might be a little more health conscious but my mind has memories enough are full of "bags of laundry" slouched over, propped up only by the weight of their bellies and breasts. What does all this say about the Brahma Kumaris and their aspirations?

Perhaps they ought to exercise their bodies a bit more often than their "legal" rights.

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post22 Jan 2009

Its been that way for decades. An effective solution may be that each grossly overweight BK should, each time they return to Madhuban, spend a medically advised period of time working alongside the hardworking slim trim Bheel ladies.
User avatar

eromain

ex-BK

  • Posts: 110
  • Joined: 09 May 2006

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post22 Jan 2009

Its has to be true that Western BK expansion has been made on donated properties starting from non-BKs such as Jayanti Kirpalani Father.

I remember it well, and if my memory serves me the property was returned to Sr Jayanti's Father when he got into financial conflict.

Now, I am all for properties being returned but surely it should be consistent. There are many people who have not had their properties returned, so one has to wonder if it was Sr Jayanti's bias which in this case had it given back.

Eug
User avatar

alladin

no label

  • Posts: 917
  • Joined: 27 Feb 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post22 Jan 2009

Hi. Reply to ex-l:

I love that definition of "Robbing Hoods"!

Robin Hood was always a hero for me and it goes without saying that robbing the poor, in the sense of taking advantage of their pennies or free labour, fills me with indignation (BKWSO doesn't care, but that's a stage, the "Prise de la Bastille" will come later ;).

To John M:

when you ask yourself "Why on earth am I squabbling over what someone gave and now wishes to take back?", what comes to my mind is that really any positive action such as stretching hand, saying sorry, any admission of having gone wrong, becomes a precedent that the BKorg doesn't want to create. So they prefer to remain hardliners, like any authoritarian figure or dictatorship.

Eromain, (BTW HI :D):

Consistency. The BKWSO is ruled and ridden by inconsistencies and multiple standards, those are their ethics. Same thing I wrote the other day about playing mind games with people and giving mixed messages. Do we wonder then why BKs and ex BKs are rather fuc **d up, sorry the term, people? If you have parents or partners that treat you in this manner, you eventually go crazy!

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post23 Jan 2009

Hi Alladin,

Apologies for my vagueness, the question was directed towards the BKs who are involved in the court action. It was meant for them to ask themselves.

Your point about them not being able to say sorry is true and very, very sad. Hard-liner authoritarian so close, apparently, to Bap Dada reflects so badly on him. It is said that deities are the proof of God's existence. Hardliner authoritarian seems more to prove God's non existence, which brings me to a nice point.

Whatever a person does with knowledge is up to them. Best to keep one's mind off these powerplay individuals who do so much disservice, they through their lives neither prove nor disprove anything. They understand their own actions as being much more balanced than the way others see them. At different times knowledge is useful for me, a first cause can be far more useful and far less painful than a reaction to an effect. Good first causes are a major part of what enables me to cope, hope and when necessary, quickly lope to somewhere better.

That people such as Eromain should have been treated so badly because of his wishing to make right what has gone so obviously wrong is a travesty. The next moment the BK dispense supreme instructions. The nursery rhyme about blind mice comes to mind, did you ever see such a thing elsewhere?
User avatar

ex-l

ex-BK

  • Posts: 10661
  • Joined: 07 Apr 2006

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post23 Jan 2009

ex-l wrote:Its has to be true that Western BK expansion has been made on donated properties starting from non-BKs such as Jayanti Kirpalani Father.
eromain wrote:I remember it well, and if my memory serves me the property was returned to Sr Jayanti's Father when he got into financial conflict.

Now, I am all for properties being returned but surely it should be consistent. There are many people who have not had their properties returned, so one has to wonder if it was Sr Jayanti's bias which in this case had it given back.

Excuse me ... but is that not an ethical atom bomb you have just dropped on this forum!?!

Hold on ... Jayanti Kripalani's Father gives the 'BKWSU (UK) registered charity' a property in one of London's most expensive areas ... then the 'BKWSU (UK) registered charity' gives the property BACK to the Father of its chief administrator Jayanti Kripalani when he gets into financial difficulties!?!

Yet they put up a legal fight against a non-family member elsewhere?

Excuse me ... I am sorry. Am I missing something here?

It might be good to have the approximate date for this event. I'd also like to have the addresses of the BKWSU (UK)'s properties such as Richmond, St Gabriel's Road etc to see whose names they are registered in and when. Can anyone can help me?

Of course, sadly by posting such a request on a public forum I can imagine it will send the Beakies scurrying around checking and trying to clean up their act ... but looking at past records will give a useful and interesting snapshot of what was going on, and what probably is going on in less developed nations.

I also thought the Kripalani Klan saw the BKWSU as a bit of a family business. They are probably surprised it has taken off so well. If such a bail out is true ... then that might explain the Father's slight bondage to the movement in his later years. He certainly did not believe it nor follow the disciplines in the early years, did he get treated in the hospital as well?

They will probably claim that this was a perfect example of how their charity "alleviates poverty" ... their own and their family's.

What is interesting is that in a recent case she was involved with, Dr Ray Bhatt of the Janki Kirpalani Foundation told me that a follower could not expect his money back because it was given to a charity ... that they could not do it because it was against the law. Rubbish, of course. Jayanti Kirpalani's mother was heavily involved in bring the BKs over to Britain, I guess the Father bankrolled them for some time.

house-giving-jayanti.jpg
Sister Jayanti ... whose Father received a property gifted to the BKWSU back?
house-giving-jayanti.jpg (10.87 KiB) Viewed 31998 times
User avatar

eromain

ex-BK

  • Posts: 110
  • Joined: 09 May 2006

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post23 Jan 2009

Jayanti's Father Murli did not give the house to the BKs, he gave it to his Jayanti and indeed it was in lieu of a dowry. This was well known at the time, and I remember that the bills for the house were in her name not the BKs. I believe that the house stayed in her name but I had no way of knowing this for sure.

When he had some financial difficulties, the house was vacated rather quickly and the assumption at the time was that Jayanti had given it back.

Looking on google maps, I would say it was Gainsborough Rd, Richmond. If you follow the road all the way to its cul de sac it was the middle house (slightly protruding from the others) or the next one on its left which are directly facing the end of the road. Standing on the door step with ones back to the front door you could look directly down the length of the road to the dog leg turn. If you know how to find those google photos of all the houses taken from street level I'll be able to tell you which number it was.

I suppose the BKs would stress that Murli never gave it to the BKs but then do all those people who give dowries on behalf of their daughters get told that they can give it to her, and that even though she is surrendering (as indeed we all thought Jayanti had), she can keep property (money, whatever) in her own name.

Seems all very inconsistent and I would really like to know if, whenever people in London were giving property or money or whatever, they knew that Jayanti's family - with her agreement - had enjoyed a different arrangement? I, personally, do not think Jayanti was wrong to agree to it, but I do not think she could do it and be portrayed as "surrendered", and I think she and the organisation had a moral obligation to offer the same arrangement to everyone.

If she was presenting herself as surrendered - and, of course, she was (and getting the rest of us to make life changing decisions) she should have been consistent with that - she should have made it clear to her Father that if he gave her the house she was obliged to give it to the organisation.

Otherwise, surely the organisation must not accept anything from families when daughters "surrender".

john morgan

ex-BK

  • Posts: 397
  • Joined: 06 Oct 2007

Re: Brahma Kumaris Fight Follower for Luxury Apartment

Post23 Jan 2009

Does anyone know who the BK Director for Russia is?
Next

Return to News

cron