For what it is worth, apparently Lekhraj Kirpalani appointed Didi
Manmohini to be leader but she was too passive and Kumarka / Prakashmani, being more pushy and dominant, rose to the fore.
The BKs might dispute that but is it possible to believe anything they say now? The pair have been mythologised and making them equals was all part of 'Madhuban politics'. I did find
Manmohini to be "retiring" (reserved/modest) although it too long ago for me to really remember. Perhaps Kumarka was more favoured by Ramesh Shah's group?
We never heard what the various factions' positions were, nor what politics went on amongst them except in the most hush, oblique terms. We were not important enough to be told and have our "intellects distracted" by such things.
I don't even know what
Manmohini did on a practical level. I just saw her playing the part of BK royalty.
I depresses me the BKs cannot write grown up, adult biographies of their leaders and discuss them in a mature fashion. What little biographical details there are that remain are comic book hagiographies (exaggerate biography of saints or venerated persons, idealizing or idolizing them). Now I am reading they claim Prakashmani "ascended" like a Christ figure.
I do remember
Manmohini's death though ... it really shook up the older, original BKs. I remember as a young BKs being bewildered and amused by how emotionally they were ... all shaking, choked and tearful ... "
Be stable in Drama" ... and, as usual, it meant a lot of international airfare for the elite to go and re-affirm their position within the organisation by attending the funeral.
We proletariat BKs were not allow to attend.
I could not understand it. did not the Murlis say "
eat halva when your mother died"? did not soul consciousness mean that they had not died but just carried on to their next existence ... what was there to be upset about. In truth, it was probably one of the first eye openers I had that the BKs were not as they claimed ... and that they had all transferred their natural 'attachment' to one other.
I never even got any halva out of it.
I guess it was a shock to them because, after Lekhraj Kirpalani and Om Radhe, she was the first big 'original' Brahma Kumari to die and, really, she should not have done so. When was it ... 1983? Destruction was down for 1986. It a sign the end was near!
As Pink wrote elsewhere,
some punk panther wrote:Dadi Kumarka & Didi Manmohini were said in Avyakt Murlis to have a particular role until Destruction, then one after the other died, then decades have passed ... so it's not only Sakar Murlis revised.
Pink will be able to give you more first hand impressions of her. By my generation the leaders were already becoming more distant and protected from the following. They would roll into a lucky few centers like royalty. It would be a special occasion with special treats, and the place would be super-clean and nicely decorated ... however, far more modestly than today with no vulgar over-sized images of *b-o-d-i-e-s*. The Sisters would be wearing brand new saris and give class and dhristi, and then fly out. They were generally warm and brought with them the feel of India which is often lacking in Western centres.
I cannot even remember any of their classes or their personalities. From my memory, their presence was generally eaten up recharging the inner circles. Perhaps they got paraded out to meet some VIP the BKs wanted to impresses as a VIP service event. I don't know ... it's funny how much of a mystery what went on was, to the low ranking neophyte BKs whose donations paid for it all to go on.
Certainly, neither of them spilled the beans on the true history of the BKWSU. I don't think either of them really had any influence in the Western BK movement and neither of them travelled much outside of India. That was left to Janki to play that role. It was her domain.
I don't even know if they travelled much within India.