The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

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bkti-pit

Independent, free thinking BK

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The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post08 Feb 2009

When did we see a Brahma Kumari photographed giving toli to a sewer worker?

When did we see a Brahma Kumari discussing social justice with an influential Indian VIP?


From the BBC ...
'My life cleaning Delhi's sewers'

India may be spending billions on its high tech space programme but its spending on sewers is decidedly low tech and deadly, reports the BBC's Rupa Jha.


I will never forget the sight of that thin short man, wearing nothing but cotton underpants, strapped into a harness arrangement, disappearing down into a dark manhole beneath the streets of my home city.

The diameter of the hole was so small that he bruised himself while slipping down. Inside was a dark well, full of sewage, with giant cockroaches sticking to the wall. Before he climbed in I asked him his name. I was really surprised when he answered flamboyantly, "Rewa Ram - Son of Khanjan." I thought: "He must be educated, seems to speak some English." But when I asked him, he said: "No. I am a complete illiterate."

When I looked down that hole into the drains of Delhi, the smell was overwhelming. Down below, he was coughing, trying hard to keep breathing. He was struggling to clear a blockage with his bare hands.

Dizzying smell

All of a sudden, a pipe protruding into the drain above his head started spewing out water and human faeces that poured over his body. I began to feel dizzy just looking down into this mess. My nostrils were filled with that obnoxious smell, a bit like of rotten eggs. I wanted to vomit. I felt weak and wanted to run away from the smell.

I was born and brought up in India and for the past 15 years I have lived in Delhi, the capital city of one of the world's most rapidly growing economies. I am a member of the growing, upwardly mobile middle class. I suppose I represent the "roaring Tiger" India, but I am regularly shocked and surprised when I see the struggle for dignity that so many face here.

Literally beneath the glitter of the big city lies a vast network of these dark drains, where so many Rewa Rams are struggling with toxic gases and human waste. They suffer disease and discrimination in return for cleaning the city's sewage system.

Deadly job

Rewa Ram is just one of thousands of sanitation workers in India who work hard to keep the cities, towns and villages clean. Most of them come from the community of lower caste Dalits as they are known, or untouchables. Health experts working in the field told me most of these workers would die before their retirement because of the poor health and safety conditions they work in. Their life expectancy is thought to be around 10 years less than the national average.

Dr Ashish Mittal, an occupational health consultant, did a survey of the working conditions of sewage workers. He told me most of the workers suffer from chronic diseases, respiratory problems, skin disorders and allergies. He said they are constantly troubled by headaches and eye infections. I am not surprised. Rewa Ram was pulled out when he started feeling dizzy from the toxic fumes in the manhole.

They were thick with a mixture of methane and hydrogen sulphide, both considered potentially fatal by the health experts. He needed water to clean himself, just a splash on his face could have made him feel better. His colleagues started banging on doors of the rich neighbourhood where he was working. Nobody opened their gate.

Ancient sewers

Human rights activists and trade unionists I have talked to ask a simple question. If the government of India can spend billions on its space programme, if Delhi can reach all its targets for the beautification of the city in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, including an underground train system, then why cannot the sewage system be modernised?

Why does it still rely on sending practically naked men down below the streets to clear the drains with their bare hands, being exposed to noxious gases which could take them to a premature grave? I put these questions to the authorities. The reply? "We are trying our best." It did not really feel good enough after what I had seen.

The law courts have passed several orders banning human beings from going into the sewage system unless it is an emergency. In Delhi it looks as if every day is an emergency in the sewers.

Smell of death

I asked Rewa Ram, still breathless and covered with the sewage from the drain: "How do you feel about having to do this work?" With folded arms, he replied: "I am not educated, I come from a very poor family of untouchables. What else can I expect? "At least I have a government job and I am able to feed my children. I get into this hell everyday but then this is my job. "I live smelling death, but it is fine."

But is it fine? Why should he expect so little just because he comes from a lower caste and is not educated?

How can our so-called civil society be so indifferent to the millions like him? I, for one, am left feeling guilty.
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yogi108

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post09 Feb 2009

Don't you know that "it is their Karma ...".

DJ once told Mother Teresa that, "Your role is to look after the poor and mine is to look after the rich. Both of them need help".

Yogi
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spiritual spy

questioning BK

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post02 Apr 2009

Typical BK Answer ...

BK: By donating helping the poor you may create or share their bad karmic account. So do not do charity. Well, in case if you want to help help them by giving 'Godly knowledge' bring them and make them BK. If you want to donate donate to BK center.

---------------------------

Newcomer BK: But does it mean that all those VVIPs and Rich who get instant blessings are pure and have no karma ...

BK: Yes ... No ... well ... they are just microphones.

Newcomer BK: But by accepting their help we are doing wrong karma.

BK: Well ... (you are asking me wrong questions). See you are corrupted with bad materialistic knowledge you need to purify your soul ... Go and read Murli for 10 times and do seva. (Clean the BK center).

Newcomer: :shock:
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ex-l

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post03 Apr 2009

See who is bowing to whom ... Mother Teresa gets her holy sweetie and spiritual inheritance from Emperor Janki, one of the top 8 human being in the world (allegedly).
mother_teresa.JPG
mother_teresa.JPG (6.01 KiB) Viewed 10379 times
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yogi108

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post03 Apr 2009

As usual, a great find the picture of Mother Teresa and Dadi Janki!!! do not know where ex-l gets it from.

When I actually heard her say, "Your role is to take care of the poor and my role is take care of the rich", the crowd was a little stunned. She followed by saying, "is not it true that both of them have problems?".

I know a lot of the BKs and the ex-BKs do not like Dadi so much. There is a lot of hatred ... There was a time when she was so sick (she was in Mumbai at that time), she actually called Dadi Prakashmani to ask her permission to leave body. Apparently, the pain was unberable ...

Dadi Gulzar then went for a message from Baba and what came back as a message was that, "She has a lot more to do".

Now after this there are a lot of people who left body; Jagdish, Dadi Prakasmani etc ... and this little DJ still is still around.

Yogi
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joel

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post03 Apr 2009

yogi108 wrote:When I actually heard her say, "Your role is to take care of the poor and my role is take care of the rich", the crowd was a little stunned. She followed by saying, "is not it true that both of them have problems?".

Maybe she borrowed that from Rajneesh/Osho, who commented that all the poor want from their gurus is blessings for health, wealth, children, good marriage partners for the children, granchildren, etc. It is the rich who seek enlightenment, transcendence, etc and it is to them that he directs his teachings.
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ex-l

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post04 Apr 2009

I doubt Dadi Janki Kripalani has ever heard or read of Osho's teachings, or has had any interest in them. They would just be impure, kaliyuga Bhakti to her. Indeed, I cant remember her ever having read a book or learning about anything outside of the BKWSU. Is she not the anti-thinking, anti-questioning, utterly surrendered, give-us-your-money Brahma Kumari?

I should imagine her nose for wealth, and its value above all virtues, is more rooted in her Sindi business background where her education was limited to 3 years arithmetic (for doing financial accounts), a smattering of English (to speak to wealthy English customers) and listening to Hindi myths in her parents' company. I mean, throw in a little hocus-pocus and there is the core of the Brahma Kumari movement.

I would certainly be classified as poor, so are many BK followers ... I never sought gurus' blessings for all that stuff. At what point do we accept that there is a financial "pragmatism" to all these Indian god men and women that we were blind to see, or denied, during our Honeymoon with them?
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yogi108

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Re: The Brahma Kumaris and the Poor of India

Post06 Apr 2009

Do not know if this is true ... apparently Osho/Rajneesh had visited Madhuban, took the 7 Day Course and actually met BapDada ... Now that qualifies him for the Golden Age!!!

ex-l ... don't write off DJ's lack of education as a weakness ... even Google's co-founders will have a tough time getting investors to take on a new project/assignment ... well, DJ has to just give a signal and the new retreat center or a big house in LA or NY will just magically happen.

So, call it brainwashing or Hindu Bhakti ... she has mastered the art of getting investors on a term sheet which promises multi-million return ...

Yogi

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