Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

for ex-BKs to discuss matters related to experiences in BKWSU & after leaving.
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heshe

reforming BK

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Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post26 Jun 2007

I spent 10 months in Shanti Bhavan in the 90's.

The Brothers were well meaning though stressed lot. I could sense the dissatisfaction with the global house system. I ended up leaving the UK disgusted at the way in which I was treated as a outsider.

I got a job localy and went to morning class in overalls before class and was told not to. You people have serious problems over there with these people who cant accept diverse realities.

What a cold sad enviroment where only the empty headed would be aloud to flourish. :lol: :lol:
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ex-l

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post03 Aug 2010

I heard one experience of Shanti Bhavan. It included someone having another BK sneaking down, when they thought they were at morning class, to leave an anonymous note on their bed telling me to leave. They were in the toilet instead and caught the BK leaving guiltily. It was all completely their own stuff.

It turned out the guy used contacts he made teaching the 7 Day Course, was working illegally in the UK and eventually left selling a faulty motorcycle to another BK without telling them so.

Yes, folks, THOSE are the reality of the BKWSU world. Of course, it could be fun because many of the people were fun interesting people ... but either most left or the fun and interestingness is squashed out of them.

Has it changed? It does seem to attract a high number of sneaky or school prefect types.
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Mr Green

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post03 Aug 2010

I was inserted there by Jankers and lived there for a few years. Myself and another guy and Baba of course installed the fish-pond.
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ex-l

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post06 Aug 2010

Mr Green wrote:I was inserted there by Jankers and lived there for a few years, Myself and another guy and Baba of course installed the fish-pond

What is it like? Why were you "inserted" there? Does anyone remember the famous sign ...

"Remember your Aim and Object"

which was stuck above the toilet seat by a tired cult serf who got sick of having to clean up Baba's Divine Angels' mistargeted (and smelly) urine splashes for them.

It is a little known philosophical fact ... but even Angels do not close the toilet seat lid after they pee and it is "not royal" to clean toilets.

The serf left the cult and, from being one of the world's greatest and most famous bass guitar players before he joined the BKWSU, he was last seen working as a ticket tout of sorts.
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Mr Green

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post07 Aug 2010

I was inserted there as DJ insisted I move away from the centre I was living in because of the unacceptable behaviour of the centre in charge there and DJ wanted me doing seva in london.

When I first arrived at Shanti Bhavan I was required to stay in the guest room until a room came free, which wasn't that long, and, luckily, I landed one of the best rooms in the house with a view of the garden. The house was very shabby and dirty and had an old musky smell to it. There is a vast kitchen area with communal seating. The kitchen was also pretty dirty. We used to have a rota for cooking there, for all the residents. Some peoples food was nice others was horrid and some Brothers felt themselves too important to cook at all. We were actively discouraged from eating at Global House, that was for the real elite surrendered ones.

Shanti Bhavan was almost looked down on by most of the Seniors and considered a place where the poor struggling Brothers were kept. For a while, we had a 'senior' come to the house every wednesday evening to bore us with their churnings and they would try and get us to share our churnings, which all of us dreaded.

Overall I would say it was the best part of my time with the BKs staying there. I made some good friends and was given a lot of freedom there, treated almost like an adult.

I fixed both the boilers when I was staying there and got the heating to work in all the bedrooms, I wonder if it still works?
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ex-l

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post07 Aug 2010

Mr Green wrote:Shanti Bhavan was almost looked down on by most of the Seniors and considered a place where the poor struggling Brothers were kept.

It is funny you say that because many people used to aspire to live there as a sign of surrender and commitment, and for spiritual support to keep away from "impure" worldly rented accommodation ... but, looking back, I suspect the real respect from the Seniors would go to the ones that had their own homes, their own business, a high income. I wonder how many generations of young men were conned into thinking they were doing something great by being "allowed" by the senior Sisters whose permission was required to stay there.

Perhaps it was the notable rate of "failure" of its inhabitants that lowered the Seniors opinion of it ... a place for fermenting "Brothers' Maya" which usually meant "questioning what the senior Sisters were up to". Eromain, Julian Boles (Ranjana Patel's lover) and that other guy who went off to become a drug dealer all used to live. Mike George too.

I remember the amount of confusion, and also subtle condemnation or looking down, on the Brother (or it may have been two Brothers - one was Chinese) who went to buy a flat with a mortgage. How could they buy a mortgage when the end of the world was coming!?! This was in the early 1980s when everyone thought the end of the world was coming are between 1986. The Murli used to say the Confluence Age, "50 year for Destruction, 50 years for Creation".

The mortgage will be paid off, probably upgraded, the Brother will have financial security, a home, a retirement plan and made money on the rising property market by now. All the "surrendered" Brothers will have nothing. I hear all the older dedicated BKs are going into local government old folks homes.

They bought Shanti Bhavan, did not they? Is it paid off? Do surrendered BKs still have to pay rent to live there now it is rent free? Where does themoney go?
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Mr Green

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post08 Aug 2010

Actually, no. Shanti Bhavan unlike Shakti Bhavan (which is owned by a trust) is still rented from a rich arab son of a very rich family. He was a BK, and originally stayed there, but left Gyan and allowed the BKs to carry on using the place with minimal rent. If I remember right it was about £1000 a month. Talk about cheap for a house that size with a big garden in the middle of london ... about 12 bedrooms!

The rent collected would go to pay all the bills and some for food, and often there would be a profit. All Brothers had to pay rent except those staying in the guest room, but the rent was very cheap. A very cheap way to live in london. A lot of the Brothers wouldn't have been able to afford to live in london without that place.

I got to know Mike George quite well when I was there. He's left there now. He was quite a good laugh in the flesh, and did not believe in The Cycle. There were some great people there. All left Gyan now.
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filthy shudra

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post09 Aug 2010

Mr Green wrote:Actually, no. Shanti Bhavan unlike Shakti Bhavan (which is owned by a trust) is still rented from a rich arab son of a very rich family. He was a BK, and originally stayed there, but left Gyan and allowed the BKs to carry on using the place with minimal rent.

He was Iranian. Not Arab - a Farsi. In fact, his name was Farz - might have been from a Baha'i family. A very melancholy nature, with the good fortune to have parents who rescued him from the gloomy post-adolescent depression that comes from not doing much with one's life while waiting for the Big One to be dropped, took him off to the USA, and set him up with wife and business. Hope he is doing well ... generous-hearted chap he was.
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ex-l

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post09 Aug 2010

£1,000 per month is £250 per week. Just to put that in perspective, a two bedroom flat in Heathfield Park, Willesden Green currently fetches around £285pw.

Anyone with £4 to spare and a credit card care to to a search at Land Registry for 15 Heathfield Park London NW2 5JE to find out where he went an how up to speed he is on the latest new of the BKWSU?

I imagine he gets all the usual VIP invites to Oxford and Madhuban to "sustain" him.
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Mr Green

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post09 Aug 2010

thanks fs, I do remember hearing the same now you mention it,
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ex-l

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post10 Aug 2010

Mr Green wrote:Shanti Bhavan was almost looked down on by most of the Seniors and considered a place where the poor struggling Brothers were kept.

I cannot say "the Seniors look up to anyone" because I am sure they don't ... but who do they respect and where do they live?

Of course, those "poor struggling Brothers" were always the first to be called on to teach courses and do unpaid manual labor.
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alladin

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post14 Aug 2010

Funny topic you guys started!!

Since I seem to be increasingly short of time, and I am glad I visited the forum, today! Yes, Pandav Bhavan was shabby and the Sisters' too, especially Pavitra Bhawan, Dudden Hill. Tennyson Rd ... "don't even ask!". Shakti Bhavan, in comparison, was luxury. In Baba Bhawan, they lived in comfort.

Instead of an atmosphere of joy and lightness, everything was gloomy and depressing. Dogmas and typical totalitarian systems must have contributed to create that heaviness, uneasiness and a permanent feeling of "walking on eggs". Is that life and state of mind conceivable for Yogis, Yoginis, top knot Priests and World Emperors??? Where is the balance? Any healthy middle? Either spic-span residences, so clean and tidy that you feel intimidated when you walk in, or completely run down and inhabited by depressed, castrated (male and female) zombies. Alarming!

From the start, my gut feeling has always been "something's wrong here". Yet, I gave credit and made allowances for a long while. Number one input/program is not to question, doubt or criticise what we deem wrong, unfair and nonsensical. It is taboo, and a mortal sin to do that. Shudra's behaviour you would get shamed for. The message is, "carry on with blinkers, turn a blind eye ". They should patent their methods for brain washing, because it really works, as we have noticed!

FS: Do you remember if that Farsi Brother broke his leg at some point (1986 it was)? Maybe it is a different person, but there was a very revealing episode that took place at that time, showing typical thoughtless BK cruelty. I will tell you this little story if you want.

duty bound

questioning BK

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post14 Aug 2010

alladin wrote:Instead of an atmosphere of joy and lightness, everything was gloomy and depressing. Dogmas and typical totalitarian systems must have contributed to create that heaviness, uneasiness and a permanent feeling of "walking on eggs". Is that life and state of mind conceivable for Yogis, Yoginis, top knot Priests and World Emperors??? Where is the balance? Any healthy middle?

I am enjoying the flow of this conversation and feel that the above comment has hit the nail on the head for me.

Balance in being able to have a healthy, grounded exchange with others reflective of the conversation that goes on internally where ones own humanity and gut instinct guide the individual towards ones own personal destination. The beauty is in that because those environment are toxic by nature they are destined to fail by virtue of there foundation being rooted in fear.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room ... "to pin drop silence".

But the failure is not a failure at all but a glimmer of hope.
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ex-l

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Re: Shanti Bhavan (house for Brothers) in London

Post14 Aug 2010

My first "experience" of a bhavan, and it was not this one in London, is sharing a flat with "one of Baba's angels" who had the habit of clearing their throat and then spitting the mucus into the kitchen sink. They were always very blocked up and so this was not just a little.

One day, I really had had enough. That was the sink which we prepared food and if they had to do that, they could have gone to the bathroom. So, as the junior of junior BKs, I approached them and ask them to stop. I mean, forget "Brahmin" standards, what about just common decency.

Instead of an apology for their disgusting habit and thoughtlessness, I got this long passive-aggressive monologue complete with long "dhristi" looks from them how the problem was mine and I should not be looking at others weaknesses or complaining etc. I remember looking at at them thinking, "Who the hell on earth is this person and what is going on here?" I was paying rent. The sink was equally "mine".

I should have run then but I had no idea how "the system" worked (how the system worked was by at first stripping you of any sense of self, confidence and placing you in utter confusion within which your previous self-defensive mechanisms are all wrong, stripped and you are easily manipulated).

Sure, there was the idealist desire to live a "yogi life" with others and sharing a house with other yogis in theory should have a great ... but we were guinea pigs being experimented with really. The BK leaders had no idea what the reality was. I think they were just seeing how far they could go with Westerners and how much they could get away with.

At that time, the Seniors was also very keen that individual BKs should not live alone. Living alone was a kind of terrible Maya where evil things happened ... like individuals thinking for themselves and leaving! The idea of privacy, basic comforts and self-expression was forbidden ... one could not have guest or friends unless they were "being served". Of course, there was also the financial aspect. The Seniors were always concerned that you should not to waste money on such things (so they could have more of it).

The individual in question then went and "sneaked" on me to the center-in-charge. I was made to have a telephone call from a frightening Senior Sister telling me how to behave in which I discovered all sorts of factually incorrect things had been said. I had no idea that behind the scenes there are all sorts of informal spying systems reporting on individuals and collecting information and centers-in-charge were reporting back to Seniors about you. You were always under someone's spotlight.

Needless to say, I left. The center-in-charge had a nervous breakdown and latter left Gyan. And the spitter has gone on to be responsible for running one of the Brahma Kumaris' main money making businesses.

Yes, sure, let us know what happened. People need to read the reality. Perhaps we should broaden this topic title to include life in all Brahma Kumari shared houses. I had no idea until I read it here that the Seniors looked down on the shared Brothers house.

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