18 Jul 2016
What is notable is that at least Lekhraj Kirpalani must have had a knowledge of astrology as the Murlis are littered with astrological references, e.g. "omen of Jupiter" kind of stuff but yes, as Pink writes, it would be seen as being "body conscious" and the opposite of their practise.
To newcomers they might adopt as easy going approach, e.g. "Whatever you want to beleive ... whatever is useful to you", but to insiders, it's all just Bhakti or superstition.
In this case, the BKs - like a stopped clock that is right twice a day - may be correct. It is all largely superstition. However, I think Pink is also correct that the underlying ethos is more about controlling social and mental influences, and monopolising financial resources.
Part of the BK leaders control over adherents' thought is to protect themselves from their ignorance. The bottomline is, they are basically uneducated and hardly know anything except accounting and their cult beliefs. And, largely, they are not very good at accounting ... good at sucking money in but not in documenting how it is spent. They would not want followers going outside the cult to be given advice by others, especially others with insights that might unmask them.
Is there any validity to astrology ... does one need it or can one live without it ... should one be led, guided, limited or enslaved by it? Those are whole other questions.
One interesting footnote ... the BKs have widely falsified Lekhraj Kirpalani's date of birth making it impossible to cast his astrological chart. Like not revealing one's full name, or having a "secret" middle name, this was also a traditional supersistious habit to stop competitors etc gaining insights and magic power over one.
However, I don't think that was the motivation in the BKs/Lekhraj Kirpalani's case.
To become an astrology, or even to gain a working understanding of astrology, you would have to study and that would be seen as a competitive distraction from BKism, as well as a threatening challenge to the power structure.
If astrology is accepted as, roughly speaking, your karmic account at birth, the BKs would dismiss it as worthless because they believe their practise destroys all past karmas, and that the point of this life ... to surrender to them and do their practise in order to create the future 5,000 years (which, in the confused manner, are already inescapably predestined anyway).
As with other religions, the BKs cherrypick certain terms and ideas with "market values", and then give them a new twist to fit in with their meaning.