Daughter "Donated" to the Brahma Kumaris "Spinster Union"

Interesting view from another India ... Daughter "Donated" to the Brahma Kumaris.

We have before criticised, as many have, the Brahma Kumaris habit of demanding the dowries of young girls in their teens who join the Brahma Kumaris ... essentially making it impossible for them to leave at a later date. The reason for this, a BKWSU leader stated, was to "stop the poor dumping their daughters" ( ... which makes me ask, so what about sincere poor girls?). The BKWSU (money going in one direction as usual) also demand the parents pay the keep of the young girls for the first few months as they train.

Their spirit guide Shiva Baba being called "The Lord of the Poor", here they are called the Brahma Kumaris "Spinster Union" which gives a good impression of how they are seen by others.

Then there came this young female – dressed in a white Punjabi suit – an old man had come to see her off – as luck would have it she came and sat next to me – she took the window seat and I slid to the one beside.

The man left off – and I did not realise when the bus started moving. I opened my Times of India – though from a corner of my eyes I was studying the occupant of the window seat – I could not place her.

She was not pretty but quite good-looking – but what seemed bizarre was that every effort had been made to make her look unattractive – her wrists were bare – no jewelry on ears or nose either – no Bindi – the suit - pure clean white, seemed to be made and worn so as to the conceal the protrusion of her bosom – the hair were just clumped together in a heap. There was a small metal badge on the left of her chest – the etching not legible. All this put my mind into a turmoil – I finally came to the conclusion that she must have been widowed – recently.

The woman seemed reluctant to talk (that’s never been a problem with me). She seemed to be curiously interested in the Page 3 of the Bombay Times I was holding (which splashes images of the Who’s Who of the city’s burgeoning social circles – men and women fashionably attired holding wine-glasses in one hand).

I do not remember how I broke the ice – but it did and I finally got to learn that she was a member of the Brahamakumari Samaj, the spinsters’ union. She turned out to be surprisingly talkative from the point onwards – she could speak good Hindi and I was able to see the world through her eyes – a world where all men were looked upon as Brothers (brought over by years of brain-washing) – and then there were mothers and Sisters – she stayed in an Ashram in Mahad – preaching virtues to Brothers and Sisters who visited the Ashram – controlled by mothers – there was supreme mother she referred to as Mama. I tried shifting her focus from the doctrine she preached to, herself – I wanted to know ‘Why’?

It seemed she had been ‘donated’ to the Samaj by her parents – and since her teens she’d been part of this – she could visit home once in a while but they were proscribed from doing some common things like watching TV and reading newspapers and, of course, making friends with men was unimaginable.

I wanted to ask her if she never ‘felt’ anything – but was at a strange loss of words – I thought up a ploy and told her since she thought her Mama was her idol whether she never wanted to become a Mother – in the true sense – that of having kids?

That switched her to thinking state – I looked intently at her – she looked beyond – still thoughtful – may be I could imagine a sigh escaping? – No, there was no sign of dissapproval – nor of contempt for me for making such a prepostorous suggestion.

Talk thinned – Mahad came – I helped her to her solitary suitcase from the rack above – she thanked and asked me to visit her Ashram if I could find time.

A fascinating third person account.