Sensores comerciales

A worldwide family of individuals from all walks of life, the Bahma Kumaris World Spiritual Orga-nizations offer education in human, moral, and spiritual values.

The founder, Prajapita Brahma, or Dada Lekhraj (1876–1969), was born into a humble home, the son of a village schoolmaster. He was brought up within the disciplines of the Hindu Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organizations 89 J

tradition but was not particularly devout at an early age. He entered the jewelry business and earned a considerable fortune as a diamond trader. At age 60, he decided to invest more time in quiet reflection and solitude. In 1936, while in a meditative state, he felt a warm flow of energy surround him and experienced a series of profound visions that revealed truths about the nature of the soul and God, the Supreme Soul.

He decided to dedicate his life to understanding the significance and application of the knowl-edge he received and to convey this understand-ing to others in service of world transformation.

In October 1937 he formed a managing

commit-tee of eight young women, and in February 1938 he gave all of his property and assets to a trust administered by them.

Although the BKWSO is not a women’s orga-nization per se, it has been largely administered by women from its inception. The organization states that it is the need for the traditionally more feminine qualities of patience, tolerance, sacri-fice, and love that keeps women in leadership positions.

The organization came into being under the name Om Mandali. At first it consisted of a hand-ful of men, women, and children living in Hyder-abad. After one year the organization moved to Karachi, Pakistan, where for 14 years, until after the partition of India and Pakistan, a group of 300 individuals lived as a self-sufficient community, spending their time in intense spiritual study and meditation.

In 1950, the community moved to Mount Abu in the state of Rajasthan, India. In 1952, Brahma Baba, as Dada Lekhraj had become known, felt that outreach was necessary to share the knowl-edge and experiences of the community. A few sisters left Mount ABU and moved to Bombay (Mumbai) and Delhi to serve by establishing study centers where the knowledge of Raja Yoga would be taught. The Madhuban community at Mount Abu remains the nucleus of the Brahma Kumaris centers worldwide and is a pilgrimage place for study and retreat.

In 1969, Dadi Prakashmani, one of the original eight trustees, was appointed chief administrative head of the Brahma Kumaris. Under her leader-ship the organization has experienced tremendous growth, expanding beyond India for the first time.

It now includes 3,200 centers with over 450,000 students in 70 countries. Since 1974, Dadi Janaki has served as coordinator for all Brahma Kumaris activities outside India.

Today the BKWSO offers a varied curricu-lum with classes and workshops on Raja Yoga, stress-free living, MEDITATION training, community organization, and development of communication The Universal Peace Hall, the main building of the

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization on Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India (Constance A. Jones)

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skills. As part of its 60th anniversary, the Brahma Kumaris inaugurated the Academy for a Better World as a place where men, women, and children can reach their unique human potential and culti-vate common human values. The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is a nongovernmental organization in general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Further reading: Liz Hodgkinson, Peace and Purity:

the Story of the Brahma Kumaris: A Spiritual Revolution (Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communications, Inc., 1999); John Walliss, The Brahma Kumaris as a “Reflexive Tradition”: Responding to Late Modernity (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002).

brahman

Brahman is one of the most important terms in the Vedic tradition, with a rich variety of meanings. It derives from the root brih, which means to “swell”

or “grow,” and evidently first referred to the swell-ing or growswell-ing power of the sacrifice and its MAN

-TRAS that expand out and create efficacy.

The most common early meaning of brahman was simply “prayer.” It is from this term that the word BRAHMIN, “one who prays,” or “priest,” is derived. Certain Vedic text collections are called BRAHMANAS; they are said to contain the secret of prayer.

Eventually, the term brahman was developed in the Upanishads to mean “the All” or “Ultimate Reality.” An understanding developed that the individual self, or ATMAN, was identical to the brahman. These understandings developed in later VEDANTA into both theistic views, in which the brahman was tantamount to a god or goddess, and nontheistic views, in which the brahman was seen as an uncharacterized reality that constituted or underlay everything.

Often brahman is spelled as brahma, in part depending on grammatical context. Both forms

are commonly used in transliterating Sanskrit. In the latter spelling the word must be carefully dis-tinguished from BRAHMA, the creator god, whose name is pronounced with a long final a.

Further reading: Jan Gonda, Notes on Brahman (Utre-cht: J. L. Beyers, 1950); Stephen H. Phillips, Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Brahman (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986.) G.

Sundara Ramaiah, Brahman: A Comparative Study of the Philosophies of Sankara and Ramanuja (Waltair: Andhra University 1974).

Brahmana

Brahmanas are texts that delineate the work-ings of the BRAHMAN in its oldest sense of the power, efficacy, or energy of Vedic ritual. They are considered SHRUTI or revelation and are part of the VEDAS. They accompany the MANTRA text of the four Vedas and are memorized along with them; the Brahmana of the Black YAJUR VEDA is interspersed with the mantras; the other three are stand alone texts. All the Brahmanas are written in prose.

The Brahmanas are designed to guide and explain the ritual sacrifice (YAJNA). Much Vedic mythology is found in the Brahmanas, explain-ing how particular rituals relate to the actions of particular divinities. For example, the SHATA

-PATHA BRAHMANA explains that goat hair is to be mixed with other ingredients for a ritual fire (AGNI), because the gods once collected Agni from among cattle. Brahmanas abound in much obscure, esoteric material that is not easy for the outsider to grasp, but that assure the effi-cacy and intelligibility of the Vedic ritual for practitioners.

Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, History of Indian Philosophy. Vol. 1 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975;

Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature (Samhitas and Brahmanas).

Vol. 1, A History of Indian Literature (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1975).

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Brahmananda Saraswati, Swami