Rape motive suspected in BK killing - RIP BK Dawn Griggs

My thoughts and peace for her. I wish it did not happen.

I do believe in god's help and the "karma" stuff but, maybe she should not have worn a lot of jewelries etc, naturally attracting thieves and criminals or even innocent people becoming criminals?

What an ugly story!! Mind that, when it happened, they did not want to talk much about it.

The jewelry part is quite a mystery, how can you quantify an excess in showing off of wealth, really! In a poor country, even a watch, a camera and some money people certainly travel with, can inspire robbers.Truly, India has become a most unpleasant place especially for single women travelling, over the years. Hard drugs and alcohol consumption don't help!

I'd feel safer on an airport bus at night, better than a taxi!

Karma, yes; karma no. Some of you suggested that God promised to protect the children. I found myself in very dangerous situations I might describe in another topic, but the essence is that everytime I felt God's presence and power that got me out unscathed. Really magically rescued. My good karma? And each time, together with a breath of relief and heaps of gratitude, I felt like saying, "Baba thank-you, I am sorry, I have been irresponsible. Hadn't it been for you!! I will never do it again, I promise!"

My thoughts and peace for her. I wish it did not happen. I do believe in god's help and the "karma" stuff but, maybe she should not have worn a lot of jewelries etc, naturally attracting thieves and criminals or even innocent people becoming criminals?

My thoughts, too, are with her, and her bereaved family and friends.

If she was wearing jewelery, no doubt it was to carry it to Mount Abu. Reliable BKs are often asked to bring donations given elsewhere. No BK would be wearing such valuables on a trip to India just for show.

I believe in Baba but not in Bhog's message and advice from Seniors. For them is much too easy to find a mistake in anyone's action and blame it all on "karma from past life" ... please ... such an excuse ... As said in the forum: if The Cycle repeats itself identically ... ???????????!!!!!!!!!!! ... no cycle, no karma from the past ... these are excuses to not accept the reality of one's choices ... for me, BKs have always lived in the 'future', Destruction and Golden Age, not teaching how to enjoy the present and have hopes and practical dreams for a future right here, not in Paradise ...

My good wishes to her that she can re-incarnate in a very good situation, with people with good intentions, love and harmony in their minds !!

Easily for them (the Seniors), BKs are awash with insecurity and programmed not to think, question, and most of all ... follow through logic. It is largely futile, if not damaging into one's BK career, to demand proper answers and express their doubts. A curt little spooky message, a moments faux sincerity and it is "Om Shanti from us". The cleaning crew is called in and it is all swept under the rug.

Imagine if the BKWSU were actually the beneficiaries of the $8,000 and her Will ... now that would have been known but never discussed. How right does that sound? I think it is fair to say she was killed bringing, at least, cash to Mount Abu.

I think it is fair to assume that it is very likely that the cash was destined to be donated to Madhuban, whether it being her cash or her taking it to Madhuban for someone else. It is also fair to assume the same for heavy jewelry that she might have been carrying in her luggage. But I think it is a big stretch to assume that the Yagya would have expected her to display the jewelry on her body whilst traveling in India or carrying that much money in cash whilst traveling alone as a Sister. Even if someone may feel that some in the Yagya do not care for their people, no one would dispute that they do care for the money.

I was in Madhuban when it happened. Didi Nirmala addressed the class that morning and said a few words about Sister Dawn, explaining briefly who she was. I do not remember exactly what she said but I picked up from that that she was not a pukha-pukha wearing saree Sister attending class every morning type of person but that she had an active professional life, that she had been integrating Baba's knowledge into it, serving in this way, something along those lines. Nothing was blown out of proportion and it was very respectful of her.

It was mentioned that she was wearing jewelry and that it was not advisable to do that in India, but as far as I remember it was not said that she was wearing "heavy" jewelry or anything of that sort, nor was anything said about cash or rape.

Easily for them (the Seniors), BKs are awash with insecurity and programmed not to think, question, and most of all ... follow through logic. It is largely futile, if not damaging into one's BK career, to demand proper answers and express their doubts. A curt little spooky message, a moments faux sincerity and it is "Om Shanti from us". The cleaning crew is called in and it is all swept under the rug.

You're a bit more cynical than I'll admit the need to be, but I don't disagree with what you're saying.

Dawn Griggs was clearly a high profile 'mike' of some longstanding. She was booked in at Madhuban. Someone there knew she was arriving after hours, arriving alone. Karma or no, where's the duty of care by administration or Seniors in the first place? Or do they get to be blissful while such responsibilities filter down their ranks to a point of non existance?

Accurate as you think your Yoga maybe, Didis and Dadis, Baba's clearly not done too well by himself on the airport run. I think that's the message he needs to insert into their bliss, in no uncertain terms. As it stands, Dawn is being allowed to be blamed for her own demise. A bit like rape victims being blamed because the rapist found the victim's dress or conduct alluring.

I've seen a lot of peasantry in India. I suspect these Didis and Dadis who became BK when young have, if a little education, even less valid life experience outside their feted roles. I'd describe their duty of care as laughable if the consequences, such as those for Dawn, weren't so final. Whoever quoted "the infantile Asian mind" in an earlier post, I think you've put your finger on it. That's the tip of an iceberg that cannot melt quickly enough, for mine.

Offtopic:

If The Cycle repeats its self over and over, then her life was the same as previous lives. Was it not? So where is the karma of previous lives come from as it was the same in this life?

No, Cycle Repeats means she will be killed next cycle at the same time also, it does not mean her past births was the same. The Cycle repeats identically - it is said if a fly flies here right now, it will fly in the same way after 5000 years. In The Cycle a soul takes many births and they are all different. They all repeat. It does not mean he will be killed in each birth. One can live wery well for many, many births and be killed in one of them. It also does not mean that she must have killed someone in the past birth. It is an account. One can settle it slowly, little by little or with one go. Like we have gathered money we can buy something bir or spend them little by little. Sometimes one feels very disinterested in the world. He sees it as bad place and likes to move. He does not like at and likes to disapear. We have all felt like this, is it not. Depending on the intensivity or our thoughts they also bring their fruits sooner or later.

And you will be saying the same thing in 5000 years. So the situation has not changed just because of that.

I don't believe in The Cycle anymore ... what's the point ? it is boring ... no enthusiasm to live life the fullest now ... my opinion ... my belief ... .

Perhaps from a PBK point of view, if they were trying to make sense of why "God" says such things and yet they do not come true, the BapDada spirits are talking not to BKs, the general BK followership but to someone or someone's else? Who might they be? Can God give false promises? Can God be wrong? Can God string followers along with stuff like this and fleece them for donations on the way? Does it seem right to you?

God never directed His children to extract money from fellow bretheren. If the children are doing it, they are doing it at their own risk.

As regards the killing of BK Dawn Griggs, it was really a sad incident which should not have happened to any human being, least of all a woman. Of course, it was unfortunate that she was wearing heavy jewelry on the day of the incident. Since Delhi is a big city with a very large number of BKs (both surrendered and non-surrendered), she should have liased with the local BK centers to arrange for her travel from the airport to the center/hotel or at least requested for someone to receive her.

In case of PBKs, whenever a new PBK (especially a Sister/mother) comes from the Airport, Baba sends a PBK to receive them. If any PBK member of this forum from a foreign country can write about his/her experiences in this regard it would be nice. PBKs are issued detailed guidelines before they come to India for bhatti. As regards wearing jewellery, it is totally discouraged. Even BKs used to discourage wearing jewellery, but in present condition of the Yagya, where Shrimat does not get the topmost priority, I don't know if the senior BKs have enough willpower to discourage the erring VIP BKs (if any) from violating Shrimat.

With regards,
OGS,
Arjun

BK killer 2.jpg (6.19 KiB) Viewed 19247 times

Its gets worse, she suffered a violent disfigurement. I am wondering if the Jewelry issue is a bit of a red herring. To me, it sounds good for the Dadis to cover up the gang rape issue and good for the Indian male psyche to, essentially, blame the female or suggest that it was her fault. The short skirt equation.

It does not make sense. Dawn was a regular visitor to Mount Abu over years. A long term BK involvement. She had experienced working all across Asia and in prisons. Would she have been dumb enough, or lacking in style to wear "heavy jewelry?

Certainly, one does not need $8,000 plus dollars for a month in India, let alone staying with the Brahma Kumaris at Madhuban. Can someone in Australia check up on her Will? Is this BK Dawn?

Brahma Kumari rape murder

BK Dawn Emelie Griggs.jpg (23.39 KiB) Viewed 19244 times

Griggs was a long-time member of the Brahma Kumaris Yoga movement and a frequent visitor to its ashram, a usually secluded residence of a religious community and its guru, at Mount Abu in Rajasthan. She intended to visit the ashram and Sri Lanka. It was Grigg's passion for learning that resulted in the third international Soul in Education conference that she helped organize in Byron Bay last year.

Australian tourist killed near airport - Archis Mohan and Vibha Sharma New Delhi, March 17

When Dawn Emelie Griggs landed in Delhi early Wednesday morning, she was looking forward to a spiritual holiday. The 59-year-old Australian, a regular visitor to India, booked a cab to the Brahmakumari ashram in Karol Bagh; she was planning to spend next month at their Mt Abu ashram before returning home.

Instead, her cab driver took Dawn to a secluded spot 200 yards behind the international airport, robbed her, probably raped her, strangled her, disfigured her face and dumped her body. The driver, Jyotish Prasad, has been arrested; a possible accomplice detained. Their motive was robbery.

A few hours after the crime, at around 10 a.m., residents of the nearby Shahbad Mohammadpur village spotted Dawn's body in the bushes and called the police. The cops found her face crushed, nose downwards, probably with a stone. A screwdriver had been banged under her right eye. She'd been cut on her right arm. A cloth was stuffed in her mouth. Her clothes — a saffron kurta and white salwar — were in disarray. There'd obviously been more than one attacker.

The police combed the surrounding area — she'd been found in bushes off the main road to Dwarka, on vacant airport land between the airport and BP towers — and found two heavy pieces of baggage near a well, about 250 yards away. They contained photocopies of her passport, among other things.

Once Dawn was identified, the cops pieced together her story. She arrived in India at 1.55 a.m., having left Sydney on a Qantas flight and taken a connecting Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong. She was a career counsellor, originally from Britain and living in Brisbane the past few years; a letter revealed her Brahmakumari connection. She was booked to return to Australia on April 20, via Colombo.

The cops were surprised to learn Dawn's age; at the spot, despite the gruesome state she was in, they figured her to be much younger than 59 years. They even thought it was a sex crime — they sent her body for a post mortem to find out if she had been raped.

With her details, the cops scanned the vouchers at the pre-paid taxi counter. They found "Griggs" on a receipt for a cab, DL 1T 4428, headed for Karol Bagh — where the ashram was. Bingo. They needed to now just track down the driver. Jyotish Prasad wasn't hard to find. The Bihar native lived in Shahbad village. He was tempted to commit the crime perhaps by the slack cab checking at the international airport and the deserted stretches of road leading there. He told the police Dawn was wearing lots of jewellery. She appears to have been wearing a pouch tied to her waist, where she may have kept traveller’s cheques worth $8,000 and her passport; the pouch is still missing.

Not long after the police made the arrest, they detained an accomplice, also a native of Bihar. He was being questioned late into the evening.

DNA report helps nail 2 accused 2 Dec 2005

NEW Delhi: Relying on a DNA test performed on a piece of evidence collected from the body of Australian tourist Dawn Emilie Griggs, a city court has framed charges of gangrape, in addition to murder, against two taxi drivers arrested for killing her in March last year.

Additional sessions judge D K Saini has framed charges of gangrape against Jyotish Prasad and Ashish, the two accused taxi drivers in the Australian's murder. Senior public prosecutor S C Sharma said that the DNA test report confirmed the woman was gangraped by the two accused. "The DNA report received recently analysed the semen collected from the victim's body and it confirmed the accused sexually assaulted her before killing her," he said.

Griggs had arrived at the IGI Airport at about 1.50 am on a Cathay Pacific flight on March 17 last year. She travelled from Australia via Hong Kong. The prosecution said that Ashish joined Jyotish Prasad in his pre-paid taxi minutes after Griggs had hired it to take her to Karol Bagh. After a brief discussion between the two accused, Prasad turned the taxi towards Shahbad Mohammadpur instead.

The two apparently drove on for about 200 meters and then allegedly attacked Griggs, gagging and strangulating her with a piece of cloth, at about 3 am. To make identification difficult, they [repeatedly] stabbed Griggs on the forehead, above her right eye with a screwdriver. Her belongings were checked and then discarded another 200 meters away in a dry well, the prosecution said.

Her body was spotted by villagers around noon and they called the police. Other than Griggs's belongings, investigators found the receipt of Rs 250 which the accused got from the pre-paid taxi stand.

Griggs had come to India to visit the Brahmakumari Ashram in Mount Abu. She had reportedly been associated with the organisation for over 20 years and had visited India at least five times earlier. She had also authored a book and was working as an educationist in Australia. The prosecution had initially said that the investigators faced difficulty in identifying the Australian's valuables.

A formal request had to be sent to the Australian embassy seeking details of the valuables Griggs was carrying. The robbed items recovered from the assailants were then matched with the list of items she was carrying. The police recovered Rs 5,400 and Australian $ 260 from Ashish. He had buried his loot in the ground near his house.

The last one sounds like a badly made up police statement.

'I brutally killed her and regret now' (Tushar Srivastava/Express News Service @ ExpressIndia)

New Delhi, March 18: Jyotish Prashad, who is alleged to have murdered Australian national Dawn Enelie Griggs, says he is repenting his crime. He was speaking to Delhi Newsline, hours after his arrest. He recalled that Dawn had to go to Karol Bagh but ‘‘I instead took her to the nearby jungles.’’

‘‘On reaching the place, I put a cloth around her face, and as she resisted stabbed her with a screw driver,’’ said Prashad. ‘‘I first strangled her and in between stabbed her in the face. The only reason I killed her was because she would have named me. She resisted but I overpowered her.’’

‘‘I took her luggage and threw it inside an empty well but kept her purse with me. I washed myself and removed the blood stains on my clothes and then returned to the taxi stand at the airport,’’ Prashad said.

Can someone ... check up on her Will?

... and also her relationship (with BKs) days/weeks before she left for India?

From the easy recovery of her baggage, including her money belt with its cash intact, it seems robbery may not have been the motive

is quite contradicting with

but kept her purse with me.

She had reportedly been associated with the organisation for over 20 years and had visited India at least five times earlier.

Is she a pukka BK? Is she in good terms with everyone?

Just curious, does anyone know if she was wearing a white sari or white kurtha pajamas? This attire gives a spiritual look and one who wears it, usually gain respect from the locals.

The reports said she was wearing "a saffron kurta and white salwar". Perhaps once a BK but then stepped back and investing in her professional/own venture?

In most Developed/Western countries, individual's Wills have to be registered with the Birth/Death registrar and are available for public inspection. Ditto, large donations ought appear in the local or national BKWSU's charity accounts.

Dawn was connected to that other BK support/contact soul Peter Senge of Society for Organizational Learning, whose name often comes up in the business/values education service. She slips in the usual BK references from Janki Kripalani, Values Education Ken O'Donnell.

Her thesis, which in a typical pattern became her book one as I guess we will see with other BKs such as being discuss on the Tao of the Traveller topic, is available at the University of Western Sydney download section for free. For me, it reads well but is too autobiographical for an academic paper and is more like a book it became but it is a good enough. Very loosely, I would say that she was inspired by the BKWSU, its Values Education and the professional contacts was taking educational further in her own direction and would have been a good asset for the Brahma Kumaris.

Her paper, the basis for her book; Spirit of learning: an exploration into the role of personal/spiritual development in the learning, teaching process; by Griggs, Dawn Emelie. University of Western Sydney, 1996.

In terms of finding a "moral compass", I have journeyed to find my own spiritual core which is my guide in connecting to others and to my environment. From a basis of soul consciousness I can related to others as a spiritual beings in a way that is much more powerful and meaningful than usual ...

As I began exploring the power of the mind, the idea of spiritual development and even 'world transformation' began to have meanings and importance in my life. I was learning that wether I chose to or not, I was having an automatic and significant influence upon my students on a daily level. I began wondering more and more about what kind of sub-conscious messages I was sending the students ...

The most significant of all my networks has been a world-wdie connection of students and teachers from the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, the world headquarters of which are based in India, Partly through my association with this university over 11 years, I have learned to place deep value and significance on a teacher or leader's personal, spiritual growth.

On many occasions I have has frequent discussions on the subject of 'the teacher as an example' with spiritually minded professional people who visit from all over the world. Many of these people teach spiritual philosophy and practical meditation to the general public. Others are leaders in various fields and professional educators who take an innovative and integrative approach to their practises ...

These like-minded 'souls' come from an enormous range of cultural and professional backgrounds and have provided wonderful opportunities for my exploration of the subject of our own personal, spiritual development. Is is probably not a co-incidence that four of the individual participants in this inquiry have all been drawn to visit the [BKWSU] Mt Ab headquarters for international conferences, and all without prior knowledge of its existence. The common thread of being a spiritual seeker with a commitment to personal and global transformation has promoted a sense of unity, connectedness and 'global conspiracy'.

Since my thesis implies that we educators need to develop inner powers to counteract the opposition to change, and to re-inforce our 'army of conspirators', I also believe that networks are a "tool for transformation ... for the next step in human evolution".

Spirit of Learning in a general sense is an exploration of the inextricable link between learning, individual personal development and potential. This thesis emphasises the personal/spiritual development of the educator, including the author, within an enhanced, holistic learning context, which is called 'integrated accelerative learning'. The inquiry examines the way individual educators and 'life-long learners' develop their inner selves, by exploring some of their relevant attitudes, values and significant life experiences. The accelerative learning approach is based on a philosophy which includes an expanded view and maximisation of human potential.

And you will be saying the same thing in 5000 years. So the situation has not changed just because of that.

Offtopic: Yes, and you will be saying the same. We don't remember what was last cycle so we can change everything. At the end we will have done the same thing, but anew.

I think that we should not seek something extraordinary in this thread. Killings happen every day. BKs are just normal people. We cannot extract some moral for the BKs some tendention. It is a tragedy, incident, but who knows, the BK soul could have found her better fortune. Who know what will happen in future. Everyone likes childhood. So if she becomes a child it is good for her. If she is playing a part of entering then it will also be some benefit.