I have learned a lot from the BKs, some of which I find helpful, and much of which I find a distraction or downright misleading. My aim here is to separate some of the baby from the bathwater. I am only going to cover those things I have direct experience of.
What I am about to say here cannot possibly be verified objectively, other than through your own personal experience, so I am not going to make any attempt to justify or back up any of it. This is how I see and understand things, following a great many years and a great deal of effort exploring these themes, first in trance experiences (many years before I encountered the BKs) and then, in my BK years and since, through Yoga and the resulting realisations. Some of these trance experiences are described elsewhere on this site: see, for example http://www.brahmakumaris.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10&p=26
In my understanding, we each - as souls - create our own personal universe, and so I can only speak for my own universe. The mileage of others may vary!
The BK conception of God is that Shiva (in egg form - see below) is God. This egg form is the reason for their logo, and the shape of their depictions of Shiva in their paintings, Baba-lamps, etc. My conception of God is different from theirs: a non-being which is essentially the sum total of all beings that exist (which in turn makes God the the sum total of ALL that exists), hence God is all and God is nothing. This God is a concept, not a living reality, not an individual soul, and thus is irrelevant, and can be dispensed with completely with no loss. This form of God is normally associated with Vishnu, rather than Shiva, in Hinduism.
Beyond this point I am not going to refer here to God at all, as it brings too much associated baggage, and is not needed (i.e. bathwater).
The BKs Shiva is the lingam (i.e. phallus) form of Shiva, and not the Nataraja or Shankar forms. They claim that the lingam is a distortion of the egg form, but that is nonsense: it represents a penis, and it sits in a yoni, which represents a vagina. Together, the lingam and yoni represent the union of Shiva and Shakti, as per Tantra. This is a cosmic union, not a physical union: the physical representations are symbolic only.
In my direct trance experience, both angelic Brahma (or angelic Lehkraj, if you prefer) and Shiv Baba (or The Watcher, to use his non-BK title) exist: I have met them both, and had interactions with them both.
The white light Subtle Region does exist: again I have direct trance experience of it, as it is where I met Angelic Brahma (BapDada) and several other ghostly beings (ghostly in the sense of being white bodies of light, almost transparent: not ghostly in the sense of being scary in any way). It is like being inside a cloud. They (BapDada's helpers, female in form) delivered me a taste of Dharamraj there, which was shocking (and 100% deserved) and has focused my mind ever since on improving myself spiritually to eliminate my karmic balance (i.e. working towards being karmateet).
All communication there is by telepathy. There is no sound, but BapDada conjures up visions at will. Accordingly the scenes described regularly by the BK trance messengers ring true, however the conversations they report are in their own words, not those of BapDada or whatever Dadi is there, as communication is by telepathy. I was shown the world - I could myself zoom in and out (very like a 3D Google Earth, but with a more powerful zoom! I am sure this is what BapDada refers to as his alokik TV), and the changes from now until the start of the Golden Age. As this vision was apparently emerged (i.e. conjured up) by BapDada, I have no means of ascertaining it's accuracy, but it was generally (unsurprisingly) in accordance with BapDada's teachings - massive geological upheaval, total carnage, but some survivors living on like savages or cavemen in the mountains. I saw dinosaurs coming and going, and then I was zoomed down in person (beyond my control) to the globe, and found myself in an apparent garden of Eden, as a Golden Aged child-like person playing with others naked and unashamed in a fragrant frothy pool: this was a truly blissful experience. We got out of the pool and magically became fully clothed in very colourful outfits, and we walked along a path through woods. I saw no crystal palaces or vehmens, nor anything even slightly technological, but they may have been elsewhere (I suspect not). All the colours were very vivid, and the smells were beautiful and heady, and the sounds were like divine music. Communication was mainly by telepathy, though we were laughing and talking too: there was sound here.
The golden light Subtle Region may also exist, as it is described by BK trance messengers as a place where visions of the Golden Age are granted, and I certainly had the experience of being in the Golden Age. I have also twice, during intense Yoga, experienced golden light flooding a meditation room: this light creates a very powerful blissful feeling of being pure and bathed in love, akin to what I felt in the Golden Age experience just described.
And the red light Subtle Region may also exist: I have had many experience of red light seed stage Yoga, which is accompanied by the visual experience of being immersed in red light. The seed stage does exactly what BapDada says it does: burns away accumulated sanskars, thus purifying one, freeing the soul from the "rust" that has accumulated over (in my case) 50 years of low grade conditioning (and who know what from previous births). I have personally received huge benefits from this, and continue to work with it, with care, and in moderation. I learned to do this is a BK centre, and accordingly, as far as I am concerned, they (or their subtle pals) do teach Raja Yoga, and it is very powerful indeed, and very effective (interestingly, the vast majority of the BKs themselves do not seem to understand even slightly what they are dealing with).
The Soul World also, does exist: I have direct trance experience of it, and this is where I met Shiva. The Soul World is orange, not red, and full of orange souls in the form of points of light surrounded by orange egg-shaped bodies of light. These eggs are the sanskars, divine intellect, and divine mind. The point of light is the soul-consciousness, life itself. The point (which I am happy to accept as infinitesimal in size, as per BapDada) radiates divine-love energy in the form of golden light. The orange colour is created by this golden light shining through a pink substrate, which is the brahm element. This experience was of absolute comfort and bliss, and absolute understanding, and there was telepathic communication with other souls in the form of feelings rather than visions. Again, no sound.
Shiva is full of fun, a trickster, with a fantastic playful energy. I have no trouble whatever in accepting that this character is The Watcher, the soul that never incarnates (as per BapDada). He/she (souls have no gender) is then the being represented by the archetypal Trickster, or The Fool of the Tarot (number zero, or unnumbered). If so, then he/she is the ultimate in innocence and divinity (through never incarnating, and thus remaining free of all but divine "original" sanskars), and so is fairly described by BapDada as the Supreme Soul (supreme in the sense of remaining always a pure soul). However, the idea of hierarchy and "numberwise" makes no sense in the Soul World: there is no rationality or structure here, rather a sense of absolute freedom, a feeling of absolute power and self-sovereignty. Hence the numbers that BapDada assigns, rosaries etc, do not seem to me to have any place here (nor in the Golden Age come to that...).
As this is a BK-related site, I am using BK terminology. This does not mean that I fully accept the Vedic titles that the BKs use. And so I am referring to Lehkraj as Brahma, or BapDada: when he is in spiritual master form I am calling him BapDada, as that is a familiar label, and in this form he has considerable demonstrable spiritual power.
This does not mean that I fully accept that he channels Shiva (and the idea that Shiva speaks is just ridiculous). He may or may not channel Shiva, I have no way to tell. But I have found that powerful yogic states can be achieved by focusing on either Shiva, or BapDada, or on myself (the soul), or on other BK souls who are conducting. The nature of the experience is subtly different in each case.
Yoga with Shiva produces powerful red-light experiences (power, seed stage, personal realisations, the feeling of being "rewired"), which can be overwhelming, and can burn me out, producing storms of Maya (as the emotions trapped in the old sanskars are released).
Yoga with BapDada produces the typical BK white-light experiences (purity), which is also powerful in a less disturbing way (bliss, Gyani realisations). The results of this seem to last only a short time afterwards, whereas a few moments of seed stage Yoga can produce upheavals for weeks!
Focusing on others who are conducting, in a Golden Aged way (i.e. seeing them and me as Golden Aged deities) has, on couple of very good days, produced golden light experiences, which were absolute bliss, and being bathed in spiritual love. I suspect this only happens when the conductor have a loving connection (i.e. Yoga) with me (totally against BK rules of course), but this amazing experience is so rare for me that I have no real idea what the required conditions are, or how it works.
Focussing on I (the soul) produces a similar experience to Shiva but less powerful. I tried that for a couple of years post BKs (with an attitude of self-sufficiency), but returned to the old faithfuls, Shiva and/or BapDada, because they work so well.
I am not at all sure of what to make of the various differences. It is an ongoing experiment.
Is BapDada simply Brahma conducting Shiva? In the same way as you or I could do?
Conducting is a powerful phenomenon. In my early BK days I had a few visionary experiences when BKs were conducting, such as seeing past life faces change in rapid succession on the person conducting, and experiencing glimpses of Golden Age scenes. Later, when they let me conduct I frequently saw auras, and also, regularly, a ghost at the back of the room (confirmed by other conductors who also saw it regularly). Also crowns of white or golden light.
Being the conductor is an interesting : there is the definite feeling of connecting to another being, and of that being channelling through you. But is that being BapDada? Is it Shiva? Someone else? What is the being that tries to speak through you when you are conducting? If you let it do so, what would it say? I suspect that this aspect is normal everyday spiritualism, and any one of a host of beings could use you to speak through...
I have never tried conducting outwith a BK environment (and so not for many years now, especially as they stopped letting me do it even when I was still with them, due to erratic morning class attendance!) I do miss the power of these experiences. But it seems to me to be too dangerous to mess with at home. In a BK meditation room I always felt safe (I trusted them then!), and that the elevated energies produced the famed "canopy of protection". Nowadays I don't trust the BKs, but nevertheless the energy in my local centre when I visited recently was the familiar BapDada energy (better experienced alone, with no BKs around!).
The trouble with being a medium in any way is that you are not in control - you have surrendered to the being that is channeling through you, the being (or beings) that you are conducting. That could be ANY being... you open yourself right up and could easily be possessed, or could cause problems for those you are conducting to. I have been on the receiving end of some nasty gross experiences from BKs who shouldn't have been allowed to conduct.
Whatever, I see no reason to limit things by accepting BapDada's claims that only Brahma combines with Shiva. I combine with Shiva whenever I make the effort to have Yoga with him/her, and others can of course do the same. Fair enough, perhaps, to say that Brahma gives the introduction to Shiva. Maybe..
So much for Yoga. As for Gyan, Dharna, and Seva, when you take BapDada's corporeal mumbo jumbo out of the picture ("I am God", "God speaks", two Babas, numbers, rosaries, hierarchies, kingdoms, subjects, service service service, the carrot and stick exhortations to the "children" to get their act together, the hyperbolic blessings, the exhortations and methods to increase the numbers and to gain political influence, advice on running the BKWSU and the maintenance and development of its property empire, etc. etc.), what is left makes more sense ("I am a soul",karmic law, Dharamraj, reincarnation, cyclical time, Three Worlds, The Tree of souls, simple and effective methods for dharna): all of this can be found in ancient writings, and in a variety of sources that predate the BKWSU, but where BapDada adds value is in simplifying the horrendous complexity of the older sources. However, to gain this, one must become expert at discriminating between the diamonds and the lumps of ****.
My conclusion for now is that, for those who wish to take something useful with them from the carnage that BK abduction creates, the occult spiritualist aspects of the BKs are much more interesting and helpful (when handled with care) than the rest of it, although there are always some diamonds to be found amongst the rubble in the Murlis.
(All of the above may be revised in the light of subsequent experience!)
What I am about to say here cannot possibly be verified objectively, other than through your own personal experience, so I am not going to make any attempt to justify or back up any of it. This is how I see and understand things, following a great many years and a great deal of effort exploring these themes, first in trance experiences (many years before I encountered the BKs) and then, in my BK years and since, through Yoga and the resulting realisations. Some of these trance experiences are described elsewhere on this site: see, for example http://www.brahmakumaris.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10&p=26
In my understanding, we each - as souls - create our own personal universe, and so I can only speak for my own universe. The mileage of others may vary!
The BK conception of God is that Shiva (in egg form - see below) is God. This egg form is the reason for their logo, and the shape of their depictions of Shiva in their paintings, Baba-lamps, etc. My conception of God is different from theirs: a non-being which is essentially the sum total of all beings that exist (which in turn makes God the the sum total of ALL that exists), hence God is all and God is nothing. This God is a concept, not a living reality, not an individual soul, and thus is irrelevant, and can be dispensed with completely with no loss. This form of God is normally associated with Vishnu, rather than Shiva, in Hinduism.
Beyond this point I am not going to refer here to God at all, as it brings too much associated baggage, and is not needed (i.e. bathwater).
The BKs Shiva is the lingam (i.e. phallus) form of Shiva, and not the Nataraja or Shankar forms. They claim that the lingam is a distortion of the egg form, but that is nonsense: it represents a penis, and it sits in a yoni, which represents a vagina. Together, the lingam and yoni represent the union of Shiva and Shakti, as per Tantra. This is a cosmic union, not a physical union: the physical representations are symbolic only.
In my direct trance experience, both angelic Brahma (or angelic Lehkraj, if you prefer) and Shiv Baba (or The Watcher, to use his non-BK title) exist: I have met them both, and had interactions with them both.
The white light Subtle Region does exist: again I have direct trance experience of it, as it is where I met Angelic Brahma (BapDada) and several other ghostly beings (ghostly in the sense of being white bodies of light, almost transparent: not ghostly in the sense of being scary in any way). It is like being inside a cloud. They (BapDada's helpers, female in form) delivered me a taste of Dharamraj there, which was shocking (and 100% deserved) and has focused my mind ever since on improving myself spiritually to eliminate my karmic balance (i.e. working towards being karmateet).
All communication there is by telepathy. There is no sound, but BapDada conjures up visions at will. Accordingly the scenes described regularly by the BK trance messengers ring true, however the conversations they report are in their own words, not those of BapDada or whatever Dadi is there, as communication is by telepathy. I was shown the world - I could myself zoom in and out (very like a 3D Google Earth, but with a more powerful zoom! I am sure this is what BapDada refers to as his alokik TV), and the changes from now until the start of the Golden Age. As this vision was apparently emerged (i.e. conjured up) by BapDada, I have no means of ascertaining it's accuracy, but it was generally (unsurprisingly) in accordance with BapDada's teachings - massive geological upheaval, total carnage, but some survivors living on like savages or cavemen in the mountains. I saw dinosaurs coming and going, and then I was zoomed down in person (beyond my control) to the globe, and found myself in an apparent garden of Eden, as a Golden Aged child-like person playing with others naked and unashamed in a fragrant frothy pool: this was a truly blissful experience. We got out of the pool and magically became fully clothed in very colourful outfits, and we walked along a path through woods. I saw no crystal palaces or vehmens, nor anything even slightly technological, but they may have been elsewhere (I suspect not). All the colours were very vivid, and the smells were beautiful and heady, and the sounds were like divine music. Communication was mainly by telepathy, though we were laughing and talking too: there was sound here.
The golden light Subtle Region may also exist, as it is described by BK trance messengers as a place where visions of the Golden Age are granted, and I certainly had the experience of being in the Golden Age. I have also twice, during intense Yoga, experienced golden light flooding a meditation room: this light creates a very powerful blissful feeling of being pure and bathed in love, akin to what I felt in the Golden Age experience just described.
And the red light Subtle Region may also exist: I have had many experience of red light seed stage Yoga, which is accompanied by the visual experience of being immersed in red light. The seed stage does exactly what BapDada says it does: burns away accumulated sanskars, thus purifying one, freeing the soul from the "rust" that has accumulated over (in my case) 50 years of low grade conditioning (and who know what from previous births). I have personally received huge benefits from this, and continue to work with it, with care, and in moderation. I learned to do this is a BK centre, and accordingly, as far as I am concerned, they (or their subtle pals) do teach Raja Yoga, and it is very powerful indeed, and very effective (interestingly, the vast majority of the BKs themselves do not seem to understand even slightly what they are dealing with).
The Soul World also, does exist: I have direct trance experience of it, and this is where I met Shiva. The Soul World is orange, not red, and full of orange souls in the form of points of light surrounded by orange egg-shaped bodies of light. These eggs are the sanskars, divine intellect, and divine mind. The point of light is the soul-consciousness, life itself. The point (which I am happy to accept as infinitesimal in size, as per BapDada) radiates divine-love energy in the form of golden light. The orange colour is created by this golden light shining through a pink substrate, which is the brahm element. This experience was of absolute comfort and bliss, and absolute understanding, and there was telepathic communication with other souls in the form of feelings rather than visions. Again, no sound.
Shiva is full of fun, a trickster, with a fantastic playful energy. I have no trouble whatever in accepting that this character is The Watcher, the soul that never incarnates (as per BapDada). He/she (souls have no gender) is then the being represented by the archetypal Trickster, or The Fool of the Tarot (number zero, or unnumbered). If so, then he/she is the ultimate in innocence and divinity (through never incarnating, and thus remaining free of all but divine "original" sanskars), and so is fairly described by BapDada as the Supreme Soul (supreme in the sense of remaining always a pure soul). However, the idea of hierarchy and "numberwise" makes no sense in the Soul World: there is no rationality or structure here, rather a sense of absolute freedom, a feeling of absolute power and self-sovereignty. Hence the numbers that BapDada assigns, rosaries etc, do not seem to me to have any place here (nor in the Golden Age come to that...).
As this is a BK-related site, I am using BK terminology. This does not mean that I fully accept the Vedic titles that the BKs use. And so I am referring to Lehkraj as Brahma, or BapDada: when he is in spiritual master form I am calling him BapDada, as that is a familiar label, and in this form he has considerable demonstrable spiritual power.
This does not mean that I fully accept that he channels Shiva (and the idea that Shiva speaks is just ridiculous). He may or may not channel Shiva, I have no way to tell. But I have found that powerful yogic states can be achieved by focusing on either Shiva, or BapDada, or on myself (the soul), or on other BK souls who are conducting. The nature of the experience is subtly different in each case.
Yoga with Shiva produces powerful red-light experiences (power, seed stage, personal realisations, the feeling of being "rewired"), which can be overwhelming, and can burn me out, producing storms of Maya (as the emotions trapped in the old sanskars are released).
Yoga with BapDada produces the typical BK white-light experiences (purity), which is also powerful in a less disturbing way (bliss, Gyani realisations). The results of this seem to last only a short time afterwards, whereas a few moments of seed stage Yoga can produce upheavals for weeks!
Focusing on others who are conducting, in a Golden Aged way (i.e. seeing them and me as Golden Aged deities) has, on couple of very good days, produced golden light experiences, which were absolute bliss, and being bathed in spiritual love. I suspect this only happens when the conductor have a loving connection (i.e. Yoga) with me (totally against BK rules of course), but this amazing experience is so rare for me that I have no real idea what the required conditions are, or how it works.
Focussing on I (the soul) produces a similar experience to Shiva but less powerful. I tried that for a couple of years post BKs (with an attitude of self-sufficiency), but returned to the old faithfuls, Shiva and/or BapDada, because they work so well.
I am not at all sure of what to make of the various differences. It is an ongoing experiment.
Is BapDada simply Brahma conducting Shiva? In the same way as you or I could do?
Conducting is a powerful phenomenon. In my early BK days I had a few visionary experiences when BKs were conducting, such as seeing past life faces change in rapid succession on the person conducting, and experiencing glimpses of Golden Age scenes. Later, when they let me conduct I frequently saw auras, and also, regularly, a ghost at the back of the room (confirmed by other conductors who also saw it regularly). Also crowns of white or golden light.
Being the conductor is an interesting : there is the definite feeling of connecting to another being, and of that being channelling through you. But is that being BapDada? Is it Shiva? Someone else? What is the being that tries to speak through you when you are conducting? If you let it do so, what would it say? I suspect that this aspect is normal everyday spiritualism, and any one of a host of beings could use you to speak through...
I have never tried conducting outwith a BK environment (and so not for many years now, especially as they stopped letting me do it even when I was still with them, due to erratic morning class attendance!) I do miss the power of these experiences. But it seems to me to be too dangerous to mess with at home. In a BK meditation room I always felt safe (I trusted them then!), and that the elevated energies produced the famed "canopy of protection". Nowadays I don't trust the BKs, but nevertheless the energy in my local centre when I visited recently was the familiar BapDada energy (better experienced alone, with no BKs around!).
The trouble with being a medium in any way is that you are not in control - you have surrendered to the being that is channeling through you, the being (or beings) that you are conducting. That could be ANY being... you open yourself right up and could easily be possessed, or could cause problems for those you are conducting to. I have been on the receiving end of some nasty gross experiences from BKs who shouldn't have been allowed to conduct.
Whatever, I see no reason to limit things by accepting BapDada's claims that only Brahma combines with Shiva. I combine with Shiva whenever I make the effort to have Yoga with him/her, and others can of course do the same. Fair enough, perhaps, to say that Brahma gives the introduction to Shiva. Maybe..
So much for Yoga. As for Gyan, Dharna, and Seva, when you take BapDada's corporeal mumbo jumbo out of the picture ("I am God", "God speaks", two Babas, numbers, rosaries, hierarchies, kingdoms, subjects, service service service, the carrot and stick exhortations to the "children" to get their act together, the hyperbolic blessings, the exhortations and methods to increase the numbers and to gain political influence, advice on running the BKWSU and the maintenance and development of its property empire, etc. etc.), what is left makes more sense ("I am a soul",karmic law, Dharamraj, reincarnation, cyclical time, Three Worlds, The Tree of souls, simple and effective methods for dharna): all of this can be found in ancient writings, and in a variety of sources that predate the BKWSU, but where BapDada adds value is in simplifying the horrendous complexity of the older sources. However, to gain this, one must become expert at discriminating between the diamonds and the lumps of ****.
My conclusion for now is that, for those who wish to take something useful with them from the carnage that BK abduction creates, the occult spiritualist aspects of the BKs are much more interesting and helpful (when handled with care) than the rest of it, although there are always some diamonds to be found amongst the rubble in the Murlis.
(All of the above may be revised in the light of subsequent experience!)