Aimée wrote:The ritual of leaving food aside as probably be started by individuals, but I have neither seen this practice and it does not fit with the principle dear to BK world that no food should be waisted.
I would agree. I remember stress placed on not wasting food that reached back to the Om Mandali days, or early Madhuban, when pressumably Dada Lekhraj's money was running out and food was becoming scarse.
The Dadis used to talk about, and I think it made it into the Murlis, how they had to survive on one roti a day and that if anyone was going to starve it would be Dada first.
The BKs used to say that "every rice grain you wasted would be one less jewel in the Golden Age" and the Sister known as Saraswati seemed to be a bit of a dragon when it came to policing the Sisters, many of whom had come from wealthy families and were not used to cooking never mind deprivations. Personally, how many jewels one was going to wear in Heaven was never exactly an inducement for me! It shows you where their heads were at.
Aimée wrote:The idea of offering food seems good at first and was justified by the BK authorities as a way to put good vibrations in it. Then why not frankly decide to meditate on this food for that purpose and not as an offering?
Yes, it is very Krishna devotee style, they were almost entirely from a Vashnavite background. I suppose it gives them something to fill their day with. ANother one of those little non-sequitors, e.g. if one's mind was to b ecome powerful enough to change matter from impure to pure, then how come you could not cope with a plate of rice and lentils in front of you?
One of my biggest amusements was discovering, despite all the emphasis there was on not eating impure, Kali Yugi, Shudra prepared food, that Sister Jayanti survived her international stateswoman travel schedule on Airport coffee. But that was OK for her ...
There was a subtle little quite slide, that no one tells you about and is not written, that it was OK to eat "neutral foods", e.g. those made by machines like Coca Cola and bread. Again, slight double standards and unspoken alterations. Coffee is not actuallly Sattvic ... but health and nutrition were considered " Bhakti " by the BKs and I thought that there was distinct tendency that made beating your body up a sign of a cool BK.
Aimée wrote:The BK path is preparing the path of devotion for the broad drama, Dadi Janki even started the idea of offering for the departed souls, you cannot get more Bhakti than that!
That Murli quote is from a BKWSU Murli? Amazing ... how far are they walking away from what their god says and not listening? Dadi Janki, who to be frank I never warmed to nor saw what all the fuss was about, seems to have been quite a scene shifter. It was she that insisted on the bigger than life sized Dada Lekhraj trance lights despite the Murlis stating no pictures of him.
I found Janki a little manipulative or invasive. Now, she may have been right so I cant say, but I remember when I decided to stop eating dairy because it made me feel sick that she made a big show in front of the whole class of not given me Dhristi when I went up to receive Toli but giving it to the Toli instead. Ditto, I got pulled up and told to cut my hair and so on.
Quite the little Emperor.
[God, I used to hate the Dadi worshipping that went on. Where does that fit in any spiritual path?]