Other Sects and Teachers

Brahma Kumaris
World Spiritual Organization
(Raja Yoga)

In 1876, the founder of this religious group, Lekh Raj, was born in Hyderabad, Sindh (now Pakistan). He was the child of a village headmaster, certainly a humble beginning. Later in life, he became a very successful and wealthy diamond merchant, known for his philanthropic treatment of the poor. Around the age of sixty, “Dada” (as he was affectionately called-meaning “elder brother”) felt compelled to spend a great deal of his time in solitude. His focus was the contemplation of the true nature of God and the self.

During meditation he claimed to receive a series of divinely inspired visions. A dominant prophetic theme involved a soon-to-come era of great destruction on the earth-through natural calamities, war and the use of powerful weapons (evidently a reference to what would later be known as nuclear arms). Another vision revealed souls descending like tiny stars to the earth. Upon arriving here these souls were trans-formed into divine beings in a restored world of celestial-like peace, love, harmony and happiness.

One vision was most pivotal to Lekh Raj’s view of his own role. He claimed to see the four-armed god Vishnu who revealed, “I am you.” It is also taught that around 1937 god Shiva began descending into Lekh Raj’s body expressing his wisdom and insights concerning the closing of a dark cyclical era (called “the Iron Age”) and the dawning of a new and glorious era (called “the Golden Age”). When Shiva alledgedly spoke through one of Lekh Raj’s disciples, the name Prajapita Brahma was supernaturally bestowed on him. It was also communicated that he would be Brahma’s instrument to awaken the ancient yoga system of India and to establish the new world. He was especially known for preaching the equality of women with men in a society and during an era in which the opposite view was much more dominant and widespread.

This religious group explains that on January 18, 1969, Brahma Baba reached karmateet-the stage of being freed from all karmic accounts. His soul departed to higher spiritual realms where he continues to work toward this goal of a transition into a golden-aged new world. Those who follow his teachings are known as Brahmins (the “twice-born”). Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (or Organization) has many centers all over the world. Their system of meditation and spiritual discipline is referred to as “Raja Yoga.” Their views on key doctrinal issues are quite unique as compared to other yoga groups.

Doctrinal Stance on the Seven Pillars of Wisdom

The Origin and Nature of the Universe

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): The earth was never created. It has always existed. Time, space and matter are all infinite, though constantly in a state of change. The Supreme Soul and all individual souls are also eternal. There are five basic elements in the universe: earth, water, fire, ether and air.

The Nature of God  

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): God is the Supreme Soul, the Father-a personal God (one having a ‘personality’). The correct name for God is Shiva, which basically means “benefactor father, the seed of creation and point-source and implies that there can be no other creator above Him.”¹ He is “the supreme teacher, guide, liberator, friend and purifier of human souls.” Usually the word “Baba,” meaning “father,” is joined to the name Shiva by true devotees.

Though omniscient and omnipotent, God is not omnipresent. To describe him this way would mean that God permeates all things. Therefore, “if God were omnipresent He would be responsible for good and evil.”² The doctrinal explanation of the relationship between God and the universe is this: “Human souls created the present human systems, not God…If God had really created everything, then my woes would also be His will-and we know that cannot be the case.”³ So the pantheistic union of the Creator with the creation is not accepted in this worldview.

God does not possess a subtle body, neither is he formless. He is light, an infinitesimal point of radiant light residing in one location. However, God is not light-years away from human beings. He can be contacted as quickly as a prayerful thought passing through the mind of a worshipper. Only in a figurative sense does God dwell in the heart of human beings-through love. His real home is in the Soul World. What human beings perceive as ‘God within’ is really only their collective impressions of him. God is changeless and his attributes are constant and perfect.

The origin and Nature of Man

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): Man has a body and a soul. The soul enters the body sometime around the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. The physical body is temporary and perishable. The soul is permanent and imperishable. It is uncreated and eternal, and has neither race nor gender. It is weightless, possessing no physical size. It is not an invisible duplicate of the body. The soul is indestructible because only that which is created can be destroyed. There is a fixed, eternally unchanging number of existent souls. In deep contemplation the soul is seen as an “infinitesimal point of non-physical light surrounded by an oval-shaped aura.”¹ The ‘seat of the soul’ is the third eye (approximately in the center of the forehead, where the pituitary and pineal glands are located).

The soul has three subtle organs: the mind, the intellect and the sub-conscious. The Conscious Mind is made up of thoughts, emotions and desires. The Intellect part of the soul uses judgment, discrimination and decision-making power. The Sub-Conscious is made up of memories, impressions, instincts and habits. These are called sanskaras. They take the form of “habits, talents, emotional temperaments, personality traits, beliefs, values or instincts.” Together these are the “basis of the soul’s individuality.”² Suffering is the result of negative actions due to negative sanskaras. Suffering is a “punishment for…wrongful acts” committed in previous lives during a state of body-consciousness.³

There are three basic functions that the soul executes: “to give and maintain life, to express and experience its role, and to receive the rewards or fruits of past actions performed in previous existences.”⁴ The Darwinian concept of evolution is rejected.

The Nature of Salvation, Liberation or Enlightenment

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): “Soul consciousness” is spoken of as being “the Gateway to God,” as opposed to body consciousness. When a person maintains the attitude, “I am a body,” he or she becomes “trapped in a world of temporary illusions, likes and dislikes.”¹ Relating to oneself as a soul is, therefore, the first main step in achieving higher levels of consciousness. When this happens the truth-seeker tends to realize: “the soul is the driver; the body is the car. The soul is the guest; the body is the hotel. The soul is the actor; the body is the costume. The soul is the musician; the body is the instrument.”²

Furthermore, when seeking persons realize their union with the Ultimate Reality and begin burning with love toward the ‘Supreme Soul,’ “sin can be rapidly incinerated. To this end the soul need only increase its love for God. Blind faith, penance, worship or despair will not help.”³ Loving communion with the most holy Supreme Soul purifies the individual soul and moves it toward its original state of purity and bliss.

“The belief that we have inherited sin from the time of Adam is not true. Each soul has become impure by its own actions during its births. We ourselves became impure and peaceless through losing our self-awareness, so it is useless to blame anyone else…The soul itself creates its accounts, good and bad, so the soul itself must balance them. No human soul, whether Christ or Buddha, or even some guru or spiritual guide can settle someone else’s account of sins. In this respect many souls are being misled by those who claim to be able to alter or interfere with the workings of the laws of karma…The account of impure actions can only be balanced by pure actions on the part of the ‘doer’: the soul.”⁴

Five steps are given to release a person from this spiritual bondage: (1) “Acceptance of personal responsibility”; (2) Recognition of the impressions (sanskaras) that promote soul-consciousness and God-consciousness, as opposed to the impressions (sanskaras) that promote body-consciousness; (3) Attentiveness to thought-life, and a commitment to stop the development of thoughts that tend toward body-consciousness; (4) Elimination of negative karma, that manifests in negative sanskaras, by developing “deep communion with the Supreme Soul”; (5) “Accrual of credit through pure and God-inspired actions for the spiritual welfare of others.”⁵

The “Four Pillars” of Raja Yoga are: (1) Sattvic Diet: Vegetarianism is mandatory. Also, food to be eaten must be prepared by a pure person who maintains loving remembrance of God; (2) Good Company, the development of godly virtues by being in daily contact with spiritual-minded persons; (3) Study of Raja Yoga; (4) Celibacy. These four things are required in order to reach a fully enlightened state of soul-consciousness. It is also necessary to walk in: faith, renunciation (Tiag), intense meditation (Tapasya), and service of others (Seva). Renunciation means primarily renunciation of negativity, not necessarily material things. Those who reach the depth of meditation can visit and experience the spiritual world above this natural plane. The primary emphasis is love generated constantly toward the Father, rendering rituals and ceremonial religious acts inferior and unnecessary.

A follower of this worldview believes that the destruction of this world is imminent (to take place at the end of the Diamond Age), and that the duty of every enlightened person is to warn others to prepare for this pivotal change.

Dimensions or Planes of Existence

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): There are three realms: (1) The Corporeal World (Physical Plane); (2) The Subtle World (Astral), and (3) The Soul World (Brahmlok). There are three separate regions in the Subtle World (Brahmapuri, Vishnupuri and Shankarpuri) named after the “Trimurti” or the three highest gods beneath Shiva: Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar. In the Subtle World, bodies are made of light, not of matter. The highest realm, the Soul World, is pervaded by the golden-red, divine light, which is the sixth element called “Brahm.” In the Soul World, souls have neither bodies of matter nor of light. Prior to descending into this world, “Souls abide there as star-like points of light.”¹

1 New Beginnings (Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India: Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1996) p. 34.

The Spiritual Journey and Ultimate Destiny of Man

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): All souls exist in a pre-incarnate state in the “Soul World.” In this upper world there is “neither thought, word nor action; just complete stillness, silence and peace.”¹ Souls born into this world during the first age (the Golden Age) are all soul-conscious human beings, or deities, who take birth by thought, not through sexual urge. This latter method of taking on a physical body does not begin until the third age (the Copper Age) when the consciousness level of human beings sinks very low, into the deep mire of evil and ignorance.

Perfection is achievable in this world. As long as body-consciousness rules a soul’s existence, it remains trapped in the cycle of rebirth. The soul creates its own destiny. No teacher or highly developed soul can interfere with, or cancel negative karma for another person. Souls can be reincarnated up to a maximum of eighty-four times during a complete cycle (5,000 years). Souls that incarnate to this degree spend very little time in the “Soul World.” Some souls may only incarnate the minimum of one time in a full cycle, spending most of their time in the “Soul World.”

Every thought, attitude and action has karmic consequences. “Vikarmas are those actions performed in body-consciousness. Sukarmas are those actions performed in soul and God-consciousness.”² No human soul ever transmigrates to an animal state. Human souls only reincarnate as humans.

Cycles, Ages and the Ultimate State of the Universe

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization (Raja Yoga): The drama of human history is spoken of in cyclical terms. There is a continual, eternal reoccurrence of five world ages, the first being an age of perfect beauty, purity and truth called the Golden Age. In this age, the law of love rules all the activities of human beings. From its inception, however, there is a continuing loss of perfection until the end of the Iron Age, when truth is hidden and evil abounds. After the Golden Age (Sat Yuga-the Age of Perfection), come the Silver Age (Treta Yuga-the Three-Quarters Age, an Age of Decline), the Copper Age (Dwapur Yuga-the Age of Duality), the Iron Age (Kali Yuga-the Age of Death), and finally, the Diamond Age (Sangam Yuga-the Confluence Age, the Age of Illumination). Each of the first four ages lasts 1,250 years. The Diamond Age only lasts 100 years. Therefore, a complete cycle is 5,000 years long. The Diamond Age is called an Age of Confluence (which means a “convergence” or a “coming together”) because in this final age, there is a meeting of God and all mankind, as well as a meeting of the old world and soon-to-be-recreated world.

Human beings who start incarnating with the beginning of the Golden Age can experience a maximum of eighty-four births during the completion of all five cycles (Golden Age-eight births, Silver Age-twelve births, Copper Age-twenty-one births, Iron Age-forty-two births, Diamond Age-one birth). Its level of purity, power and spirituality determines the number of births that an individual soul experiences.

The Diamond Age is a crucially important era. At its onset, God Shiva descends, entering a human form. Because the world is in a state of great darkness and wickedness, he comes to purify and liberate souls taking them back to their original abode. According to this worldview, such a notable happening took place in 1937, when Shiva descended into the body of Lekh Raj (later to be known as Prajapita Brahma) the founder of this religious group. God visits the earth in this manner to demonstrate his teachings through the example of the one in whom he dwells. Those who acknowledge Shiva Baba and follow the teachings of Brahma are referred to as Brahmins, the “twice-born.” “Through Brahma the Supreme Soul gives human souls a spiritual birth…through the ‘breath’ of God’s knowledge the soul experiences total spiritual rebirth: a new mind, a new vision, a new dimension of living…”¹

So we are presently over halfway through the Diamond Age, that critical time of spiritual transition, that pivotal era bridging the totally degenerate Iron Age and the perfection of the next Golden Age. Finding the truth and living in it is crucial at this time. Those who strive for spirituality and sensitivity to God during this era are preparing for the next cycle, for an important, individual role during the next Golden Age.

1 New Beginnings (Pandav Bhawan, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India: Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya, 1996) p. 118.

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