Apparently, the Brahma Kumaris is not a cult says BK Neville Hodgkinson. Gosh, I am glad he cleared that one up for me.
But when precisely did it stop being a cult?
Neville Hodgkinson is perhaps more responsible that most BKs in the West for redifining BKism and making it suitable for the English speaking and Western market.
Asked whether the BKs were a cult, Hodgkinson replied - somewhat disingenously to anyone who knows its core beliefs and its history - that it is not a cult, it is “a spiritual movement”.
“Cult”, he says, "has unpleasant connotations of taking over people’s minds and leading them to do violent or dangerous things. That’s not what BK does."
“It is not a religion" either, he says, so why do they claim religious charitable status to avoid paying taxes?
Two faces, no?
But when precisely did it stop being a cult?
Neville Hodgkinson is perhaps more responsible that most BKs in the West for redifining BKism and making it suitable for the English speaking and Western market.
Asked whether the BKs were a cult, Hodgkinson replied - somewhat disingenously to anyone who knows its core beliefs and its history - that it is not a cult, it is “a spiritual movement”.
“It teaches we’re eternal souls and this body is not the essence of who you are. The essence is the soul. There is a supreme source of truth with which we can renew ourselves when we connect with that.”
“Cult”, he says, "has unpleasant connotations of taking over people’s minds and leading them to do violent or dangerous things. That’s not what BK does."
“It is not a religion" either, he says, so why do they claim religious charitable status to avoid paying taxes?
Two faces, no?
Brahma Kumaris is not a cult, says Neville Hodgkinson
JULY 11, 2016 PEOPLE BY MAJORIE CHIEW
British journalist, author and meditator Neville Hodgkinson and his wife, Liz, split in 1988. He felt bad for a long time about the marriage not working because he was too caught up in his spiritual journey at the time.
But two decades later, he had a good laugh about that difficult time when he read The House Is Full Of Yogis (HarperCollins, 2014), a book written by his younger son Will. It tells of the early days when Hodg-kinson began practising with Brahma Kumaris (BK) in the 1980s.
The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is a woman-led spiritual training organisation founded in India in the mid 1930s.
“The book was incredibly funny and quite healing for me,” says Hodgkinson, 72, who joined BK in 1994, halfway through his career as a medical and science journalist in London.
“It’s so funny and kind and it put my heart to rest. There’s a plan to make it a TV series,” says Hodgkinson.
Will (the other son is Tom) was reluctant to show the book to his Father until the last minute, fearing he might object.
“But I loved it! I was crying with laughter over almost every page,” Hodgkinson says, adding that there were “re-created conversations, some exaggerations but the gist of the story was correct”.
Hodgkinson recalls that Will was probably 11 or 12 years old when he came home from school one day to find the house full of yogis – his Father’s new friends.
In the book, he makes fun of the way his Father behaved. Like telling a 12-year-old boy “to consider himself to be a soul ... to understand that this body is the Chariot, you’re the soul”. Hodgkinson did not realise how comical he was being from a teen perspective.
Will also describes humorous changes in his household: the family went from a yuppie lifestyle to vegetarianism; stock car racing (Dad’s past time) to “reflective things” (Dad’s meditation); pop art (of a Coca-Cola bottle) to spiritual images (of Indian deities).
Hodgkinson was in journalism for more than 30 years in Britain, specialising in the health, medicine and science beats. He wrote for The Times, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Express and The Sunday Times.
Recently, he was in Malaysia to conduct a weekend retreat focused on “The Art and Science of Not Thinking”, at Dengkil, Selangor.
Books run in the family
Hodgkinson has lived and worked for the past 20 years at the Global Retreat Centre in Oxford, in Britain (globalretreatcentre.org). Specialising in lectures and classes on the links between science and spirituality, he gives talks regularly across Britain and in other countries.
He has written several books, the latest of which is I Know How To Live, I Know How To Die (Ocean Paperback, 2016), based on the teachings of current BK chief Dadi Janki.
His other books include Will To Be Well – The Real Alternative Medicine (Hutchinson, 1984), AIDS – The Failure of Contemporary Science (Fourth Estate, 1996) and Inside Out – A Better Way Of Living, Learning, And Loving (on Dadi Janki’s behalf, 2003).
Hodgkinson says that when Will was 15, Liz, also a journalist, wrote Sex Is Not Compulsory (1986), a book about celibacy.
Hodgkinson explains: “Celibacy is one of the practices that the Brahma Kumaris teaches to people who are very serious about making a connection with god. It created interest all over the world because at that time the fear over about HIV/AIDS was huge.”
Liz wrote it from the point of view of a feminist. She felt that celibacy could be an empowering option for a woman in marriage. Afterwards, both husband and wife were interviewed.
Will was watching TV at his boarding school when, suddenly, his parents were on screen, talking about celibacy. He was very embarrassed when the girls started asking him questions like: Is it true they are celibate? Isn’t that weird? Are you celibate?
All for meditation
Looking back, Hodgkinson is grateful for “a lot of good” that has happened in his life after joining BK. “The practice of nourishing yourself with the divine reduces your dependency on another person,” Hodgkinson explains.
“Now I’ve the strength, and because of Liz’s respect for that strength, we’ve become closer,” says Hodgkinson, who confides that his “attachment to and depen-dency on Liz was one reason that, after nearly 25 years together, she wanted to separate”.
In recent years he worked with Liz (now a freelance author and journalist) on her book, Dadi Janki: A Century Of Service (2015), a biography covering the BK spiritual head’s 40 years of service outside India.
There are those who call BK a cult, we tell Hodgkinson, asking for his take on this view of the organisation.
He promptly replies that it is “a spiritual movement”.
“It teaches we’re eternal souls and this body is not the essence of who you are. The essence is the soul. There is a supreme source of truth with which we can renew ourselves when we connect with that.”
The word “cult”, he says, has unpleasant connotations of taking over people’s minds and leading them to do violent or dangerous things. That’s not what BK does.
Also, he says: “It is not a religion in the sense that most religions identify with a particular culture. There is sort of a BK culture (like vegetarianism) but it’s not a culture that belongs to a particular group of people. The movement is all over the world, supported by people from many different backgrounds.”
Hodgkinson himself comes from a Christian background but became an atheist in his late teens and 20s. Later, even though he had put his faith in science, he still felt an emptiness in his life. He reckons it was from living in “a too materialistic way” and “not paying attention to the inner life”.
Some of that connection was made through meditation, which BK advocates; specifically, Raja Yoga meditation.
Hodgkinson explains: “It entails coming into the present moment, letting go of the past, not worrying about the future, and turning your attention inwards. When you’re peaceful, you embrace positive feelings of love, peace and happiness.”
More and more people, he says, want to learn about spirituality.
“I find it is so good to help them. Although the vast majority of those who come to us don’t become regular students or part of BK, they go off with spiritual skills that help them.”