"It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatment

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ex-l

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"It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatment

Post16 Jun 2013

No one invites us to Brahma Kumari meetings and so although our history knowledge is very good, our current affairs news about them is always a little out of date.

The 5th meeting of The Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders in 2012 was held at the Brahma Kumaris Global Retreat Centre in Oxford hosted by Jayanti Kripalani and Maureen Goodman, who no doubt played on her long renounced Jewishness. Elijah Interfaith is based in Israel and was started by a Rabbi.
Elijah Interfaith Institute wrote:The Elijah Interfaith Institute is a multinational organization dedicated to fostering peace between the world's diverse faith communities through interfaith dialogue, education, research and dissemination. Our unique programming generates interfaith dialogue at the highest levels, bringing together world religious leaders and renowned scholars the world over, through research projects, public conferences and community-based initiatives.

From horror movies there is a famous catch phrase, "it's behind you!", which is used just as the ghost or monster rears from behind its intended victims.

Well, it applies at the Brahma Kumaris too. Behind all the respected individuals who attended from other religions were the Brahma Kumaris teaching posters ... neatly whitewashed of any embarrassing revelations about the true teachings of the Brahma Kumari faith about other "impure" religions, stuff like 5,000 Year Cycles and how Jesus, Mohamed and Buddha were all possessed by other spirits and never achieved enlightenment or liberation.

I wonder, did they tell them that Jayanti was twice as spiritual as Abraham and one of the top 108 souls in the world?

Look, they're behind you (... it's a wonder how much goodwill a nice bit of real estate can buy one these days).

Brahma_Kumaris_Elijah_Interfaith.jpg

Brahma_Kumaris_Elijah_Interfaith-2.jpg

Brahma_Kumaris_Elijah_Interfaith-3.jpg

dany

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Re: "It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatm

Post16 Jun 2013

Judging from the phtotos, no important or well known Religious leaders or figures were present in Jayanti’s hospitality.

Few days of summer time in Oxford, with full board accommodation, would encourage some to grow beards, replace shoes by sandals, and dress like Buddha or any other religion or cult. To complete the show, even insist on sitting on the floor to look closer to mother nature, like the guy in the corner of the photo .

Should not the definition of "Hypocrisy " be revisited, for possible expansion ...!!
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ex-l

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Re: "It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatm

Post16 Jun 2013

... Not to mention all the free servants to do all the work the BKs have hidden out of the picture.

Looking at this picture and looking at the picture and documents of their first voyage overseas to the religious congress in Japan which only attracted about 24 people, after 75 years the BKs basically have not moved on very much in the international arena. They are still at the same level ...

Except now they have a huge big luxury house in the country, with said servants, to impress other minor religions with.

What was the purpose of it all? To give them a taste of their meditation ... a bit of social climbing/networking?

I suppose they justify it saying, "the Bhagat souls took their inheritance from Baba for the next Kalpa Cycle".
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Pink Panther

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Re: "It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatm

Post16 Jun 2013

A tangent, but I think it connects....

My neighbours today gave me some tickets they'd bought, worth $45 each, but were were unable to use, to attend a talk by the Dalai Lama in the afternoon, and they did not want to see them wasted. So I went along. I gave away 3 tickets to people queuing at the box office. (I assume the funds were mainly for covering costs of the tour, the venue usually hosts concerts at 3-5 times that price).

I know his public programs are kept simple compared to some of his books & his obvious deep scholarship of this ancient tradition and philosophy but I was curious to see how he filled a two-hour slot in a simple but meaningful way - and half in mind wanting to compare him with how other spiritual leaders present publicly over a longer presentation.

I was impressed by the way he wove inklings of his deeper, more personal insights into the popular narrative, appealing to each person to work according to their own traditions and philosophical bent, to find commonality rather than the difference, even stating that Buddhist philosophy is itself inferior to nature.

The theme was "secular ethics". Talk ranged over many subjects, climate, economics, relationships etc

His premise was that secularism is not anti-religion, it is about respecting the right for all beliefs and for those without beliefs equally, affording all the right to individual choice to "make their own mistakes and discoveries" (the quote is my paraphrase, not his words) .

He repeatedly equated secular ethics with compassion and with biology. He mentioned some research showing that the mother's touch for an infant is crucial to brain development. All creatures respond to kindness, warmth, feeding, affection, antagonism, cruelty, abandonment etc in similar ways, from the moment of birth.

He then said, if I am kind to a dog and feed it or let it shelter from harsh weather, the dog understands and responds to that compassion, it understands the friendship and will respond in kind, but no matter how much I tell the dog about Buddhist philosophy or Christian doctrine or anything, it will look at me without understanding...

He confessed himself to be a Marxist ! He criticised any religious leader who worked to uphold feudalism & inequality (a criticism thrown at him by the Chinese) as well as Leninism, Maoism, Capitalism, nationalism and modern Chinese authoritarianism saying their ideals destroy their own intent, i.e. the benefit of all individuals (one example being the inability to act on carbon emissions).

At the end, after Q&A session, he said: you may like to continue to think about these ideas afterwards or talk them over with friends, or you may just wish to leave it all behind here when you go. No matter.

What I saw when I "looked behind him", to his underlying theme, was the heart of Buddhism - that all belief and philosophy is in itself empty. He did not push Buddhism over any other belief, he even pushed all beliefs into a secondary position to action. Although they have their own logic - it should be secondary to the reality of ethical interaction between all sentient creatures, that only through empathy and practice of compassion does any belief or philosophy have value, the value comes before the logic and the belief.

dany

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Re: "It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatm

Post16 Jun 2013

pink panther wrote:"only through empathy and practice of compassion does any belief or philosophy have value, the value comes before the logic and the belief " .

True, I cannot agree more ..!!
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Pink Panther

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Re: "It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatm

Post17 Jun 2013

Yes.

Janki, Jayanti or any BK lecturer getting up in front of 10,000 people and saying "it doesn't matter whether God exists or not, whether you are soul conscious or body conscious, in fact we BKs may be completely wrong and are prone to believe our own publicity if we are not careful. Basically we are complex mammals. Just be excellent to each other dudes"

Can you imagine that ever happening?

dany

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Re: "It's behind you!" Elijah Interfaith gets the VIP treatm

Post17 Jun 2013

If that ever happened, the BKs will turn to each others and say, poor Janki, looks like Alzheimer found its way to her brain, and she is starting to hullocinate ...!!

BKs ... single track minded souls ...!!

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