The Tree
The name used for one lesson in the 7 Day Course. The BKs view all religions of the world as branches on a "world tree" of which the Hindu culture, rooted in the original deity religion is the trunk and the Brahma Kumaris are the roots and Shiva is the seed.
Each soul is a leaf on the tree, and as such will naturally belong to one branch and one religion. The soul may find itself involved with other religions during some births but, it is said, will only find true comfort and self realisation within their own religion. According to this belief, it is not beneficial to convert souls to a religion other than their own natural religion. Note that religions in this context include secular groupings, such as capitalism, communism, sciences, and other modern groupings which serve, for many "new souls" the traditional function of a religion.
The tree starts as a sapling - the Brahma Kumaris claim that the world starts with one dharma or religion (peace) which is not actually a religion at all but a natural oneness with all of creation. It then grows into a stem (the deity religion), from which in due course main branches appear (the other major religions). As the tree grows, each religion splits and fragments into many twigs (sects or splinter groups). Eventually the tree is fully grown, and starts to die - the trunk becomes hollow, and the tree is ready to fall and make way for a new sapling (the next cycle).
Other religions
Six major religions are pictured as the major branches of the The Tree, in order of their commencement; Judaism (often called Islamic in the old pictures), Buddhism, Christianity, Sanyasis, Islam (called Muslim) and Sikh.
Other missing early major religions such as Jain, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Confucianism, animism and tribal religions etc are not referred to by the god of the Brahma Kumaris.
Origins
In BK Vishwa Ratan's autobiography, it is noted that the idea for the Tree came from BK Nirwair who had seen a picture of a tree of religions used by another organization and suggested it would be a good idea if the BKWSU produced one. However, the account of the creation and dates of creation of the images have been proved to be unreliable. The idea for the
Original version
Recently discovered copies of the original teaching poster of "The Tree" have shown that in the early days of the organization's history, it believed that Lekhraj Kripalani as Prajapati Brahma the "Divine Father" was god and the seed of the tree and the Brahma Kumaris, or "Divine Ones" were responsible with him for not just establishing heaven on earth but also bringing about the Destruction of humanity. See also gyan