BK Food issues

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

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Re: BK Food issues

Post30 Oct 2008

ex-l wrote:Potatoes are very bad food in comparison to grains

Potatoes are not so bad after all, not even for those who wish to have six-pack abs. Read this :D. http://magnetic-diet.com/six-pack-abs/P ... geary.html. Of course, the recipe at the end of the article is not for the BKs/PBKs as it involves using onion and garlic. :shock:

And as for the picture of the author, they could either try developing a healthy body like that or see him as a soul. ;)
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alladin

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influence of mind on food

Post20 Nov 2008

Hi, everybody! I am posting here, uncertain whether I am doing it in the right topic or not. Apart from vegetarianism, one of the big issues BKs have to face is the one related to the person who has cooked the food we eat. When you become a BK, you soon have to learn that center niwassis and other BKs will not eat the food cooked by you unless you have been following the disciplines of celibacy, attendance of Murli class, etc. for at least six months. Like it or not. Because we are taught that the state of mind of the cook, influences the food been prepared, so we should protect ourselves from the bad vibes of impure, negative and ignorant people and likewise, we should not cook for others if we haven't become "pakka".

Boomerang effect: as we said long time ago on this Forum, it happens that students, once they become a bit independent and strong, noticing how impure and bossy their sister in charge is, may no longer accept meals, toli or even drishti given to them by that particular person. This is where discrimination power becomes handy. In the process of becoming wise and free from dogmas, BKs become paranoid and refuse food cooked by friends and relatives, never join colleagues for lunch break, and whilst desperately trying to protect themselves from any outside contamination, collect labels of being antisocial, create a lot of complications for those who invite them for a meal (I only eat raw food, etc...), and cause sorrow even to mothers and grandmothers, digging divides that later becomes difficult to bridge.

It is possible that this BK custom has roots in some Hindu system of Brahmin priests not accepting food cooked or handed over by untouchables. But apart from the caste system, or Bhakti, I firmly believe that cooking is like alchemy and that our thoughts do influence matter. I would like to get some opinion on this , based on your direct experience and especially, since some of you have expanded their horizon by studying other types of knowledge, what do different sources say. As far as I know, food, as well as magic potions, have been used, and still are, in human society in order to influence people either positively or negatively, to heal, to control, to tie up,to make one fall in or out of love, to make a person crazy or ill, weak or strong ...

So, it is a common practise in sorcery and esoterism.

Once again, is it possible to sieve the truth from falsehood, the cosmic laws from human made rules, to discover that what the BKs claim to be their monopoly, is something that is property and legacy of humanity and they did not discover anything new, they just have a very incomplete, terroristic and authoritaristic way to use it and impose it on adepts, so that rather than a teaching being shared or a truth revealed, it takes on the taste of a threat or becomes a cause for creating feelings of superiority/inferiority in people?

Does anybody feel like sharing opinions on this matter?
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joel

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Re: BK Food issues

Post20 Nov 2008

Hi Alladin,

The key character of a digestive system is that the food is broken down into sub-units the body can reassemble in its own form and for its own purposes. A rat eaten by a cat transforms into the personality and expression of the cat. The cat continues to behave like a cat. That is the general principle.
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tom

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Re: influence of mind on food

Post21 Nov 2008

alladin wrote: one of the big issues BKs have to face is the one related to the person who has cooked the food we eat. When you become a BK, you soon have to learn that center niwassis and other BKs will not eat the food cooked by you unless you have been following the disciplines of celibacy, attendance of Murli class, etc. for at least six months...

...BKs become paranoid and refuse food cooked by friends and relatives, never join colleagues for lunch break, and whilst desperately trying to protect themselves from any outside contamination, collect labels of being antisocial, create a lot of complications for those who invite them for a meal (I only eat raw food, etc...), and cause sorrow even to mothers and grandmothers, digging divides that later becomes difficult to bridge.

Thank you alladin. Yes believing what they told us, that this is an order from God, to protect our "pure vibrations" we hurt the feelings of our most beloved relatives and friends refusing their in their clean kitchen with love cooked delicious food and ate every sort of tasteless Brahma bhojan cooked in centers' dirty kitchens by every depressed BKs.On journeys we refused any healthy food in good restaurants and survived days long with some salad and bread.

We had to cut our relations with our parents, close relatives and friends because of this food issue and cursed ourselves to loneliness and to become dependent to the so called "BK family".
It is possible that this BK custom has roots in some Hindu system of Brahmin priests not accepting food cooked or handed over by untouchables.

You hit the target alladin. Yes, this is not God's order but Dada Lekhraj's and Om Radhe's affectation of Hindu casts' customs.So that by considering the whole worlds population "Untouchable", BKs believe to represent the divine caste.

Here is an interesting article from the newspaperThe Independent 18th December 2007 documenting that even these days 300 school children in a school in Uttar Pradesh in India boycott for weeks to eat the food cooked by one lady, the mother of 3 children, only because she is "Dalit" = from "Untouchable" caste and is working in the school kitchen for 75p a day as a cook.Ironically in Uttar Pradesh one another "Dalit"= "Untouchable" lady is elected as Chief Minister.

The children told the reporter that they heard from their parents that the lady is from low caste and started to bring their own lunch box from home until the authorities kicked the lady out.

alladin wrote:I firmly believe that cooking is like alchemy and that our thoughts do influence matter.

Yes,this is a fact. All human beings on this world must have experienced this fact eating their own with different emotions cooked food and or by eating food from others, who cooked with joy or with anger.
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jann

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

I know a BK that is very ill but refuses to believe that it all comes from starving himself and not telling his doctor the truth about his eating pattern.
Any advice even from a professional (the bad company because she advises to eat more protein and nutrition and to forget his belief for a while to get better) he wants to discus with his senior. If this senior advises to do more meditation, i make sure she will lose her job as a doctor. To make a long story short;

Hunger

Some cults welcome newcomers by encouraging its members to sacrifice part of their meal to the newcomer. In turn, once that newcomer has been around a while, he joins those who give up extra food. The result is long-term, subtle, calorie deprivation. Food deprivation is a well-understood means by which to leave folks vulnerable to suggestion.

http://www.betterwaypress.com/dietsurvi ... 05-09.html

Examine the group's use of manipulation or mind control. A cult will use manipulation to keep members loyal. They may threaten members physically or spiritually. They may also tell members that they will be shunned by their family if they reveal cult secrets or if they leave. Cults may actively abuse members emotionally and physically as well, or subject them to sleep or food deprivation during "retreats."

http://www.answerbag.com/articles/How-t ... 83d0c995c9
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joel

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

Karen Carpenter starved herself to death without the benefit of mind control. Starving yourself is reminiscent of various traditions of mortifying the senses, not unlike Crazy Horse, who starved himself for several days then whacked off the end of his little finger with an axe, hitting it on a trunk until the blood flowed freely. He wanted to go into trance; that was what pushed him over the edge.

Starving oneself can be an attempt to assert power. A BK I lived with started to look like a skeleton, especially his skull. I looked like a skeleton, too. It is scary to starve oneself for any reason. A bit sad, yet the young ego set on conquering the world affirms its strength in a kind of controlled tantrum against the self. A bit like an angry child might holds its breath, complicated by a life's culture of food and food's associations.

Joy in living would probably bring eating along with it. Passion for life.
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ex-l

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

joel wrote:A rat eaten by a cat transforms into the personality and expression of the cat. The cat continues to behave like a cat. That is the general principle.

Its a fairly good point. If it is true that the nature and vibrations in our food crate our consciousness ... why does every wild cat in the world not act like a mouse? Is there some wonderful exclusion clause in the Universal Laws of Karma™ that exclude animal from being effected? Makes me wonder ...

The only active abuse of food I saw in the BKs was over-eating ... lots of it. I don't buy the "vegetarianism" is bad and cult induced tactics theory. Its a fine diet if practised well.

Yes, the "do more meditation" is their only cure.
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tom

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

joel wrote: A BK I lived with started to look like a skeleton, especially his skull. I looked like a skeleton, too. .

Lucky you, would say many Kumaris. :D Take a look at the BK's photos in the Library, at the BKs' videos in YouTube or at the VCD* files in the forum, to remember Om Radhe's transformation in few years, the scene of obese Dadis' and Senior Sisters' and obese young Sisters who are helping those Dadis gathering on the stage.I have seen how the late Manohar Dadi, Big Mohini and many others ate to become sick.

Trying to compensate all emptiness of BK life, all missing joys of normal life and lack of love with tolis and deep fried food, much carbonhydrate and less vegetables and fruits, and sitting too much while they are doing service 'through their talking and Yoga' the students take care of their needs.This is the other extreme which makes most of the young and old center niwassi BKs obese, sick, depressed, food addicted and dependent on others help to move and to live like a cripple.

I am sure other members have many observations to add to this issue.

bansy

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

1) Can anyone explain why, during the end of BapDada meting, BapDada (via Dadi Gulzar) is fed ? It is only body after all ? Why does Father Shiva need to be fed...is it so He can taste the food...but then what about going beyond the senses and elements ?

BKs cook in remembrance of God and then offer Brahma Bhojan so that if it is worthy for Him to eat then it is worthy for us all. How does God "eat" ?

2) Don't know about you but most of the BKs I know eat chili, chocolate and ice cream, etc but there are some really freaky BKs who go mad and look at every ingredient on the packing. Think about it, say an pack of biscuits used some egg, now that egg has been processed and turned into mineral and elements and its components dissolved into the rest of all other ingredients with the flour, sugar, etc. These all all just elements. Does it mean you are actually eating the soul of the egg or simply the elements.

Let's say it is a pork chop. Now the pig is already dead, it's soul has gone somewhere. What you have on the dish in front of you is a piece of meat which is, if you look under a microscope, is simply a bunch of elements and compounds. In fact no much different from your big toe. Do you look at the pork chop and realise its soul, or is it just a bunch of energy molecules.

Well actually I like vegetarian food because it is just more healthy and has more (I think) nutrients than other forms of food. But there have probably been many times I have taken non-vegetarian food, without regarding it as such simply because it is waste of time and energy trying to find out if it would do any harm. In most cases, I ate so unintentionally to later find out. Are vegetables not living things, or have we subjected them to being soulless lifeforms ? Everything is just a bunch of elements. There is more danger to my health breathing in the air in my city.
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Mr Green

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

It is true Bansy that some Indian BKs more believe that vegetables have souls.....in the Murli once it said trees have a soul

so the slaughter by being boiled alive is just as cruel as the bolt gun

it does feel more spiritual to be veggie, but is that just more egotistical self appeasement

I don't know
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tom

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Re: BK Food issues

Post21 Nov 2008

bansy wrote:why, during the end of BapDada meting, BapDada (via Dadi Gulzar) is fed ? It is only body after all ? Why does Father Shiva need to be fed

Very interesting question. They are not feeding Shiva, they are feeding Dada Lekhraj's soul.

I was also annoyed seeing first time and every time in Madhuban Dadis feeding "God" and noticed more than once in the Murlis some comment like this: 'I don't need to taste any food but this one (Brahma Baba) wants to taste everything.' So I was more disturbed thinking of an "angel" = Brahma Baba in the Subtle Regions wanting to taste everything. But without any hope to find a reasonable explanation, I had to push this issue like countless other weird puzzles of Gyan in the drawers of my mind believing that 'one day close to the end, Baba will reveal all secrets'.

And since I found this forum, all secrets stored in my mind are revealed for me one by one:

    Dadi's are feeding the hungry ghosts.
bansy wrote:BKs cook in remembrance of God and then offer Brahma Bhojan ...

This is also a ritual which is practiced since thousands of years in every religion. In Hindu faith, in Buddhist traditon, in all three main religions in different ways. Dada Lekhraj started to practice this ritual after moving to Madhuban in the beggary period with the belief that offering food would bring prosperity.

And for me it is a nice habit to cook with elevated thoughts in mind. And starting to eat whatever I am eating with silent or verbal thanks to God as all faithful people in all religions are doing is the best starter for good digestion.
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ex-l

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Re: BK Food issues

Post22 Nov 2008

tom wrote:This is also a ritual which is practiced since thousands of years in every religion. In Hindu faith, in Buddhist traditon, in all three main religions in different ways. Dada Lekhraj started to practice this ritual after moving to Madhuban in the beggary period with the belief that offering food would bring prosperity.

A very interesting observation ... thank you. It would be good to know HOW, WHEN and WHY offering food or feeding hungry ghosts was introduced into the Yagya ... to know if it was actually "BK Brahmin". I am absolutely sure all the de rigueur tea trays, lacing doillies are not. And what of the hair washing and allowing to fall loose?

    That is all far more close to spiritualism and ritual ... the virgin offering her purified body, along with the food, to the consuming spirit.
Perhaps the power of the spirits around Lekhraj Kirpalani were waning or perhaps they were becoming greedier and power hungry ... perhaps ritualism and Bhakti was creeping back in out of fear and superstition? I mean ... who are all the centers offering food to? Has each got their own hungry ghost?

Does Lekhraj Kirpalani alone need to be fed at least one a day by 800,000 BKs? Add all that energy that up ...
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tom

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Re: BK Food issues

Post22 Nov 2008

ex-l wrote:It would be good to know HOW, WHEN and WHY offering food or feeding hungry ghosts was introduced into the Yagya

I heard from different Dadis and Senior Brothers in chit chat that Brahma Baba was during the beggary period in Mount Abu
(must be around 1950) one day, very desperate because of lack of food and money for the children, the idea came to his mind to offer some food to "God". And the result was very beneficial.They got help from somebody. So he initiated this ritual in the routine of Yagya.

My opinion is that in Dada Lekhraj's and his wife Yashoda's pre Om Mandli days - according to their Hindu belief - offering food in the temples to Gods must have been a routine as it is in the lives of all faithful Indians. I am not sure why they have dropped this ritual before the beggary period. Probably Dada Lekhraj believed also, like all his Kumaris and Kumars, that he himself was God and he did not wanted to provoke the Anti Om Mandli members and the neighbors by letting the children offer to him personally food. So one day, maybe because of desperation and fear, Dada Lekhraj must have accepted the existence of a transcendent "God". Maybe it is at this time that the concept "Shiva" came on the stage.
ex-l wrote:And what of the hair washing and allowing to fall loose?

What I learned through my friends coming from different religious backgrounds is that every religion has its own holy day of the week in which they take specially a bath and put on clean cloths. Faithful Christians on Sunday mornings take a bath, put on their best cloths and go to the church. Some faithful Jews don't cook and don't touch the oven at Saturdays. They go out. And, of course, they take a bath and put on nice clothes. Muslims go to the mosque on their holy day, Friday mornings, around 05.00 - 06.00 a.m. So they take a bath before.

Dada Lekhraj must have been inspired by the rituals of the main religions and he must have initiated also a holy day for the BKs, "Baba's Day", which is Thursday, to practice the ritual of offering food to 'God'. In Hindu religions maybe Thursday has a specific meaning, I don't know. So before the Murli in the morning all BKs take as usual a bath. Kumaris wash their hair also. All BKs put on clean cloths. In all centers after Amrit Vela, special food is cooked to offer to "Baba" before the Murli. The Kumaris letting their hair lose can have a practical reason, to let it dry because of lack of time. I have seen many Sisters at Thursday mornings coming to the class with water dropping from their hairs.

But the Seniors were telling us Kumars and the Kumaris, by offering food also to think that we are offering our weaknesses and our bones to "Baba". And we were teaching the same to the new ones.
ex-l wrote:Perhaps the power of the spirits around Lekhraj Kirpalani were waning or perhaps they were becoming greedier and power hungry ... perhaps ritualism and Bhakti was creeping back in out of fear and superstition? I mean ... who are all the centers offering food to? Has each got their own hungry ghost?

Exactly. As the money finished, Dada Lekhraj must have been feeling desperate and abandoned by his 'God' and of course very worried how to feed 70 girls.

I was asking different BKs whom they were thinking of when they were offering food. Most of them were thinking of Brahma Baba, having Shiv Baba seated in his forehead.
ex-l wrote:Does Lekhraj Kirpalani alone need to be fed at least one a day by 800,000 BKs? Add all that energy that up ...

Amazing. These entities are not elevated beings. They would have vanished long time ago when Dadis were not holding them with the energy of the "Children's Yoga". These ghosts need to be accumulated with the energy of all the BKs' Yoga in Amrit Vela and in Traffic Control periods and in the evening meditations. Think of the energy emerging from the Yoga of 20,000 surrendered BKs in the BapDada Meetings in Shantivan. Not only the ghosts, also for survival the Dadis are taking benefit from this energy.

jann

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BK and food

Post24 Sep 2009

“The preparation of food for eating is a sacred act; it is to honor and respect life.” Since love is touted as the mother of all virtues, this quality provides the vital ingredient and nourishment in the meal ... Raval also debunks the protein myth. “You don’t need anything more than complex carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, pulses) to provide all the nutrients in a perfect diet. Everything else is to please the palate.”

Vegetarian Mongolian BBQ, ‘adobo’ choplets
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ex-l

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Re: BK and food

Post24 Sep 2009

Yes, she published an earlier cook book where she came out with some pretty racist stuff about Latinos being lustful and aggressive because they ate onions and garlic ... there is a quote of it somewhere.

On the other hand, of course, I agree on the protein myth stuff. Vegetarian and vegan diets, done well, are perfectly good enough for the vast majority of people.
First, the cook needs a calm and focused mind. Washing up and a short meditation before cooking promotes hygiene and clean mental attitude. Then, the cooking area should be clutter-free.

Members of the Brahma Kumaris who live with their non-vegetarian families usually separate their cooking utensils and storage.

Most important, the cook must have a big heart yet handle the food with no ego and detachment.

Texas-based medical scientist and BK lecturer Hansa Raval disputes studies on the healing effects of garlic and onions. She cites researches that in societies where excessive garlic is consumed, the hypertension and mortality rates are high. “Onions and garlic are highly acidic. They have an effect on the mucus membrane, eyes and skin. They can burn the mucus membrane of the intestines and it has been proven to cause ulcers and hyperacidity,” explains Raval. “The odor of onions and garlic is offensive and the odor settles in the sebaceous gland of the skin. This creates a constant offensive smell.”

Believe me, there are other things in this world that are even more offensive than onions and garlic ... and which leave a far longer lasting spiritual bad odor.

I understand Hansa Raval is pathologist and a cancer specialist, not a dietitian. Let us look at this construction. Blah .. blah ... blah ... "scientist" ... blah ... blah ... blah ... United Nations ... blah ... blah ... blah ... Brahma Kumaris. The BKs have some high profile IP media and VIP contacts in the Philippines who deliver such PR whitewash.

So let us look closer, in "societies where excessive garlic is consumed ... mortality rates (death) are high"! OK, so where is the peer reviewed scientific paper? That is the way science works. In ALL societies mortality rates are 100% ... so what is she saying? Garlic kills?

What she is really say is a kind of pseudoscientific fudge the BKWSU has placed on top of this onion and garlic issue since the earliest days in the West. The 'no onion and garlic thing' in the BKWSU comes from Vaishnavism which Lekhraj Kirpalani's wife, mainly, followed. Lekhraj Kirpalani himself was apparently a prodigious meat eater. Early Western BKs (and Hare Krishna adherents) have tried desperately to "scientificate" it.

According to the ancient wise sages of Vaishnavim, onion and garlic variously came from the dead body of a murdered cow, a sacrificial horse or demon magician, and therefore they are considered like eating meat or demons (asuras), thus their consumption brings us closer to mode of ignorance which characterizes the nature of the demons. They are non-vegetarian from the Shastric point of view. Eating them makes one ignorant and lustful, they claim.

So the story goes ...
Sanjaya dasa: There's a story about a brahmana's wife. She ate a piece of a cow, and some of it turned into carrot, some of it turned into garlic, some of it turned into onion, and the blood turned into red lentils. Is that story true? 


Srila Narayana Maharaja: It is quite true; so we should not eat those things ... the onion is tamasika (in the mode of ignorance). It has all the qualities present in the meat of cows, and the same result obtained from eating cow-flesh occurs from eating onion. One will become lusty and violent by eating it.

Garlic came from the bones of that cow. It is full with bad qualities and puts one in the mode of ignorance. Don't eat it.
In the ancient days, it is claimed, a cow or a horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterwards the rishis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a beautiful young body.

One time the rishi who was about to perform a sacrifice. His wife was pregnant and had a very strong desire to eat. She had heard that if during pregnancy one has a desire to eat and does not fullfill this then the baby that will be born will always have saliva coming from its mouth. She desired strongly to eat meat and kept a piece of meat of the sacrificed cow's body. She stole and hid it, and made a plan to eat it later.

The rishi finished the sacrifice and uttered all the mantras for the new young cow to come to life but when the new cow was reborn, there was a part missing from her left side. He went into meditation and realized that his wife had taken away a piece of meat during the sacrifice.

His wife caught, quickly threw the meat far away but due to the effect of the mantras uttered by the rishi there was now life in this piece of meat. Then the blood of this meat became red lentils, the bones became garlic and the meat became onions.

Thus these foods are never taken by any Vaishnava

Now, frankly, there are good reasons for not eating onions and garlic. Imagining being in a room full of 20,000 farting burping and snoring Indians, as you experience in Mount Abu, who just had done so ... but the stories above are the cultural roots of why the BKs do not eat onions and garlic. And not some pseudo-scientific nonsense applied later on.

Show us the science.

If I was to add my own pseudo-science, I would have to ask ... but is the whole total control of diet to the point of excluding non-BKs (including one's own mother and family) not just a part of their convenient mind and milieu control?

We have read report enough of quite un-yogi states and activities in BKWSO kitchens and centers ... who are they really kidding they are the highest of all religions?
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