Using the 5,000 Year Cycle to bring truth to life with BKs

Constructing the infrastructure for the Sat Yug is not the same as JFK proposing in 1960s that humans should land on the moon, and the event happening less than a decade later. There can be unprecedented advances in science and technology in the next 20 years; building and maintaining an infrastructure of Sat Yug, within the next two decades is possible.

The probability is decreased when other factors are considered, including spiritual revolutions.

The probability is decreased when other factors are considered, including spiritual revolutions.

Not to mention ...

Who is going to get rid of the 7 bn human corpses, and the countless trillion animal corpses; how the bones will all decompose in time.
The distruption of the disappearance of vast swathes of existing species taxomonies, and the evolution of entirely new species and supporting environment.
The instant growth of new species vegetation sufficient to support a new ecology, presumably Krishna and Radhe will not be running a heavenly garden centre full of saplings and cuttings?
The effects of the tectonic shifts required to sink every continents on the planet, except Indian somehow (I mean how will Russia and China just drop off the edges and disappear?). Presumably it will cause vast tsunamis.
The reverse in space of photons (traveling light) coming from stars more than 5,000 light years away.
The molecular reverse where every piece of mined metal returns from the scrap heaps of the 20th C back deep within the earth.
The removal of every grain of microplastics from the oceans, never mind the general plastic waste.
Never mind the instant replay of million of years of life required to replace the oil reserves back where they were in order to be extracted again in 5,000 years time ... and so on and so on and so on.
The return of the energy of Sun to its original state, 5,000 years ago.

Or even simiple practicalities the BK fairy story does not address like, where are the mines and factories in their Golden Age to make all the stuff they claim will exist? Or the time to invent and create all the safe nuclear powered devices requiring science that does not exist at present?

Remember, what the BKs are claiming is a molecularly identical repetition.

Clearly Lekhraj Kirpalani and the original Om Manlites had beyond ZERO scientific understanding. Nothing but a fairy story "magic wand" ending could achieve what they are incapable of offering any explanation of how it is to happen ... including *their own* professed specialism, of how "Godly" energy from their god spirit, transfers to re-charge human souls, which then recharges (what?) in nature.

Truly only an infant child could accept it as a likely proposal of what is going to happen whic begs the question, how can adults?

Many dedicated Western BKs struggle with even a child-like understanding of the science and busy themselves making up theories that the Seniors will never confirm or deny ... proposing ideas like time travel (time carries on but the BK community loops back and forward in space-time continum), or building heaven by the power of thought ( they will be able to think matter into form and place). I remember hearing many of them ... they were just all further fairy stories, in response to Lekhraj Kirpalani's fairy stories, that we told to each other to excite our fantasies.

I have had the impression that the BKs had a group of scientists and physicians validating their concepts, may be the equivalent of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. But then if the Vatican were to truly listen and implement the ideas of the PAS, Christianity would be much different and we would observing Christmas in many different ways.

Overwhelming evidence from archaeology, anthropology, and kindred disciplines is beginning to give us a fairly clear idea of what the last 40,000 years of human history really looked likea, challenging our preconceptions about human evolution and specifically the idea of inevitable social inequality.

BKism, of course, has a different version of history that is even more overtly social inequality, an eternally rigid hierarchy or caste system that they as Royalty ... of course ... are at the top of.

Despite enjoying the fruits of Western liberalism, the BKs see it as the most impure form of social order ... good heaven, words like democracy, egalitarianism and communalism don't even exist in their dictionary.

How to change the course of human history

The story we have been telling ourselves about our origins is wrong, and perpetuates the idea of inevitable social inequality.

The evidence before our eyes, if we choose to look at it ... Egalitarian cities, even regional confederacies, are historically quite commonplace. Egalitarian families and households are not.

Once the historical verdict is in, we will see that the most painful loss of human freedoms began at the small scale – the level of gender relations, age groups, and domestic servitude – the kind of relationships that contain at once the greatest intimacy and the deepest forms of structural violence.

If we really want to understand how it first became acceptable for some to turn wealth into power, and for others to end up being told their needs and lives don’t count, it is here that we should look.

For centuries, we have been telling ourselves a simple story about the origins of social inequality. For most of their history, humans lived in tiny egalitarian bands of hunter-gatherers. Then came farming, which brought with it private property, and then the rise of cities which meant the emergence of civilization properly speaking. Civilization meant many bad things (wars, taxes, bureaucracy, patriarchy, slavery…) but also made possible written literature, science, philosophy, and most other great human achievements.

Almost everyone knows this story in its broadest outlines. Since at least the days of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it has framed what we think the overall shape and direction of human history to be. This is important because the narrative also defines our sense of political possibility. Most see civilization, hence inequality, as a tragic necessity. Some dream of returning to a past utopia, of finding an industrial equivalent to ‘primitive communism’, or even, in extreme cases, of destroying everything, and going back to being foragers again. But no one challenges the basic structure of the story.

There is a fundamental problem with this narrative.

It isn’t true.

Overwhelming evidence from archaeology, anthropology, and kindred disciplines is beginning to give us a fairly clear idea of what the last 40,000 years of human history really looked likea, challenging our preconceptions about human evolution and specifically the idea of inevitable social inequality.

Was glancing some random stuff on the net and came across these FAQs and videos. I am sure there are lot many interesting, supporting materials available out there in the world wide web. Hope these links might come in handy for anyone interested to know more about human evolution and tally it against the 5000 year cycle. I guess this 5000 year myth alone is sufficient to crush all other baseless theories. Like somebody mentioned in this forum, this is the biggest "Emperor's New Cloths"!!!

Some 20 years ago, I read in newspaper that they removed Darwin's theory of evolution in US school text books. Not sure if it is still the case even today.

https://www.skeptic.com/downloads/top-10-evolution-myths.pdf

http://humanorigins.si.edu/education/frequently-asked-questions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-B3PUQK3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr61zni_AxE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROwKq3kxPEA

I guess this 5000 year myth alone is sufficient to crush all other baseless theories ... Some 20 years ago, I read in newspaper that they removed Darwin's theory of evolution in US school text books. Not sure if it is still the case even today.

There are a lot of politics on the Conservative Right in the USA, with some Christian Fundamentalist trying to promote the Biblical version of Creation as "the truth" (they claim God made the world in 7 days, and it is about 6,000 years old according the lives of the characters in the Bible).

Yup, Americans/Westerners can be just as dumb and crazy too when it comes to religious indoctrination. However, it's certainly not true that they succeeded in removing Darwinism or Evolution from all US schools. They call it Creationism, or "intelligent design" theory. It's pseudoscience but they want it taught as being equal to scientific theory.

What is notable among Western educated BKs is they often borrow or steal the strategies and tactics of the Christian Fundamentalist to defend the BK worldview, eg using arguments to discredit carbon dating. I suspect Indian BK copy them.

One of the strategies is attempting to seed doubt and confusion about science or how scientists work, portraying them as proud and arrogant or deluded ... ignoring all their painstaking, careful and expensive hard work ... which really only works if the victim is poorly educated, ie the majority of BKs.

Such arguments began with BK Jagdish Chander, who depended on Victorian or prior examples to do so (19th C).

We came to the conclusion that the BKs got the 5,000 year figure from Vaishnavism, dating it back to when it is said Krishna last came for the Mahabharata War which was suppose to be 5,000 year ago.

Because they believed Lekhraj Kirpalani was Krishna (and Vishnu and Brahma and Narayan), and WWII was the Mahabharata War, it appears the BKs developed that into an indentically repeating 5,000 year Kalpa ... whereas in Hinduism it is 4.32 billion years and surprising close to the scientific estimates ... and it has since been set in stone.

Now I believe it has just taken on a tribal meaning ... it is a tribal identifier. If you want to be part of the BK tribe - and benefit yourself with all its spoils and earnings - you have to accept and adopt 5,000 years without question. It's like a sign or a flag. No mean, no substance, no science, just a tribal definer.

No other explaination for where the 5,000 year figure has been offered. It is patently ridiculous to think the entire cosmoc ticks to a 5,000 year long clock ... identical to the second. However ... if you consider that Lekhraj Kirpalani must have suffered from some sort of mental illness, the BK Kalpa the sort of rigid symmetry, regularity and unpredictable that someone with mental illness, like OCD, would like.

Real life tends to me random and unpredictable ... which they dislike. This rigid symmetry is also apparent in The Tree lesson, whereas the reality of human religions is that there is no symmetry, eg Buddhism and Judaism are small (yet have the largest branches, Islam and Christianity are large (yet have smaller branches).

Of course, in a culture that largely illiterate and uneducated (Lekhraj Kirpalani's circle of Bhaibund Sindi women and children), it would not be hard to offer it as a mental plug. An answer to all the "why are we here, where did we come from?" type questions.

What is notable among Western educated BKs is they often borrow or steal the strategies and tactics of the Christian Fundamentalist to defend the BK worldview, eg using arguments to discredit carbon dating. I suspect Indian BK copy them ... Such arguments began with BK Jagdish Chander, who depended on Victorian or prior examples to do so (19th C).

True, the Creationism people. in turn, actually relied on few flaws pointed out by the Scientific community themselves on their work (like some miscalculation here and there while studying or interpreting archaeological materials) in the spirit of Science. However, if we see the overwhelming evidences that are found worldwide, over the centuries, there is enough evidence to prove our existence beyond 5,000 years.

Even if we discount Sathyayug's first 1,000 years, we have documented history of civilizations older than 4,000 years. These are incriminating evidences which should be food for thought at least to the educated BKs. The problem is, people at the BKs are so hard wired, they still cling on other assuring factors and neglect the clinching evidences right in front of them.

Yeah, I remember, Jagdish Chander had written one big fat book called Eternal World Drama. May be I will get a copy of it read once (I had bought it at Mt. Abu, but never read it. Not sure if it is still in my book shelf). Hope to find few interesting things, correlate and try to put it here in the forum as part of "Service".

The problem is people at BK are so hard wired, they still cling on other assuring factors and neglect the clinching evidences right in front of them.

The problem with we Indians is we easily get influenced by others, what is known as blind faith. For example:

1. In spite of knowing a particular politician is corrupt to the core, he will have thousands of Crores of rupees (Billions of Dollars) stashed away, their sons will own half a dozen cars each worth a mind boggling 1 to 2 million USD and this politician will claim he is a humble farmer and works relentlessly for the upbringing of Farmers "selflessly" people are all ears.

2. If so many doctors, engineers, scientists, IAS officers, ministers believe Sathya Sai Baba as God, he should indeed be God with some great powers. Same holds true for BKs or any other organizations. This is the main reason I think why everybody questions a newcomer whether he/she has visited Mt. Abu. Because the people from smaller towns or even cities when they visit Mt. Abu, they see this grand screensavers in the form of building, dedicated people, thousands of followers and firmly believe all these people are not fools and they are really working to establish a new world order! (Emperor's new cloths).

Once back, they ask these people to come to the front of class and share their experience. Even if they did not experience anything unusual in BapDada milan, these poor souls cook up something. This is an advertisement in itself and act as testimony. I doubt all other people in Om Mandli started to have visions after Brahma Baba's returned from Kolkatta. Because, if one girl started to say I am seeing some vision, every other inmate will also tell she too had a hallelujah moments.

I read somewhere, one of the ex-BK Double Foreigner has written that he was idealistic and young when he entered BKism. Out of 6 categories of people like Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional, the Social category are the most idealistic people and according to my interpretation. They are also somewhat, indirectly, submissive because they believe in idealistic society, which is a boon for BKs.

An idealist even before coming to the BK will anyway be having a socialist mind set.

While it might be stupid to correlate the personality types to the BK followers, I am trying to see a strand(s) of personalities which will give affirmations to a beginner that what BKs are saying in the 7 Day Course are true by tallying their own personalities and beliefs.

Once you start going, the BKs anyways have a heady mix of Hinduism, bit of that, bit of this to keep you on track.

I suspect Indian BK copy them.

100% they will copy. They are all one family and they will have a hotline to discuss this topic. I am not saying all are crooks, vast majority of good people are in the wrong place. In the spirit of defending their organization, they work together.

For example, they had a sub-group called SpARC which was relatively low key within BKs and present only in cities. Now I just googled and they have a dedicated website http://bksparc.in/. SpARC stands for Spiritual Applications Research Centre. I am sure this team will have lot of interest in collecting facts which will strengthen their arguments and would have definitely "inspired" by the Creationists. You see, hear also, like how they borrowed from Hinduism, they will borrow stories from Creationists.

As far as I remember, highly educated BK followers were part of this group and they used to meet once a month. They even had their annual conference where all the SpARC members across India and from the West used to participate.

I wonder what they have to say about the evolution and how will they counter it?

Yeah, I remember, Jagdish Chander had written one big fat book called Eternal World Drama. May be I will get a copy of it ...

Jagdish Chander's worst work was in "Purity" and their other magazines of which he was virtually the only author and editor off.

His greatest failing was the complete lack of peer review ... exactly what makes "science" as valuable as it is.

He was for much of his time, pretty much the only core BK with semi-educated cleverness and worldly exposure. He was witty and quixotic but was left to write pretty much anything he wanted irresponsibly, which then we would take it to be truth and repeat, as the senior Sisters did not read and write; and the other senior Brothers were more in the background and involved with management. He even wrote often "in God's voice" for him.

We will likely never know how much of BKism was actually out of his ... "Sanjay's" ... mind.

the Social category are the most idealistic people and according to my interpretation. They are also somewhat, indirectly, submissive because they believe in idealistic society, which is a boon for BKs.

This is an interesting observation that I had not thought of before. I guess it is true. We were willing to compromise for a peaceful world ... and part of us probably wanted to be led.

Your socialistic observation, I have questioned before ... the strange contrast between a generally Left Wing/Liberal leaning following; and the BK leadership's Right Wing autocratic tendencies and political associations.

I heard SpARC is distrusted, or not respected within the BKWSU? Perhaps it is seen as some "Brothers Maya" (male BKs delusion), or perhaps it is due to how led it? I don't know the inside story.

How much money, time and resources does the Brahma Kumaris so called University put aside for "research"?

It's all just PR. I've seen about one paper remotely like a scientific paper produced on the effects of meditation and it is transparently propgandistic.

How many papers has the BK University had published and peer reviewed by non-BKs?

I have not seen anything that "strengthens" their arguments but I have read lots of attempts to chip away creditibility of other research, usually by using very outdated arguments.

As you write, "Science" knows that it has makes and has made mistakes ... but keeps double checking and improving. The BK mentality is more of, "look one man made a mistake in 1934 ... therefore it must be ALL wrong and you cannot trust it!!!".

Science is tough. It takes a lot of work, a lot of mathematics, a lot of resources ... BKism is so easy, the lazy, and deluded, and deluding (those who enjoy deluding others) are attracted to it.

And I accuse myself, at the time I joined, with that statement. Looking back, I used to babble nonsense like a drunken child. I often say it was like being high on drugs. We were encouraged to and revelled in the joy and freedom of being idiots!

they have a dedicated website http://bksparc.in/. SpARC stands for Spiritual Applications Research Centre.

I had a quick look, I see two papers. There is mention of books called things like, 'The Secret of Dinosaurs' and another 'The Vimana Project'.

Do they have the real spirit of a scientist, or is it just for BK retreats and company amongst other like minded BKs? I suspect their aim is make science fit to BKism, rather than ask if BKism stands to scientific scrutiny, let alone address anomalies?

Is 'Brahma Kumaris' Institution a religious organization ?

We are not confined to any religion, people from all religions, professions, caste-creed join the organization, for spiritual upliftment of oneself, with the help of value education & Meditation training imparted here.

There's also a Google Drive of recorded talks. I don't have the time to listen to any right now but it looks just like more of the usual, with a lot of attention on school children.

Take one paper, "Effect of Raj Yoga Meditation on Affective & Cognitive Functions" Nishi Misra, Arunima Gupta, Sarika Alreja, Om Prakash".

It's formatted in the manner of a science paper but it's just pure BKism.

It's more like hacking the scientific process to try and promote BKism. This really is not "science". As usual, it's not made clear all the promoters are BK adherents themselves, a clear conflict of interest.

ABSTRACT

Context: Raj Yoga is the supreme or the highest Yoga that empowers the self to rule the mind, sense-organs and the body. There are several psychological benefits incurred by raj-yoga which have not been highlighted due to scarcity of scientific studies.

Aims: The present study examined the effect of duration of Raj Yoga Meditation practice on affective & cognitive functions in terms of attention/concentration, memory, visual processing, neuroticism, hope and happiness. Materials and Methods: Sixty- four healthy volunteers practicing Raj Yoga from 1 month to more than 10 years were segregated into two groups of beginners and practitioners and their psychological and affective functions assessed using standard measures at a Raj Yoga Centre in Delhi, India.

Results and Conclusions: Results suggest that the group practicing Raj Yoga for longer duration had significantly less neurotic symptoms, scored higher on hope and happiness and higher on cognitive functions in comparison to the group practicing Raj Yoga for shorter duration. These results may be due to personality development, self-actualization and better attention and concentration achieved due to training in Raj Yoga.

Key-words: Raj Yoga, Affective & Cognitive Functions

INTRODUCTION

The word „Raj‟ means the king, sovereign or the supreme. Raj Yoga is the supreme or the highest Yoga that empowers the self to rule the mind, sense-organs and the body. Raj-Yoga also implies that even a person who is a king and who is very busy can practice it, as this practice does not involve any acts of austerities or penances or
renouncing one‟s household. Raj-Yoga meditation is different from all other forms of meditation; although contemplation, reflection, imagination, concentration, etc. are employed in its practice.

INTRODUCTION

The word „Raj‟ means the king, sovereign or the supreme. Raj Yoga is the supreme or the highest Yoga that ... as this practice does not involve any acts of austerities or penances or renouncing one's household.

They are claiming there are no austerities required/involved, but they have restrictions on food and reproduction which is believed to be fundamentals. They tell you to wear simple dress but they themselves often buy costlier cars for the organization (may not be a BMW or a Merc, but they do buy mid-range cars). I mean, if they really believe in valuing their followers hard earned money, they should go for cheaper cars, why sedans?

I have seen BK Sisters jet setting every now and then to Mt. Abu when air tickets were expensive. Buying tickets at short notice will make it even more expensive.

What is/was the need for such travels when they all follow one Baba?

A video conference should suffice when you are in unison with the God's directions.

Your socialistic observation, I have questioned before ... the strange contrast between a generally Left Wing/Liberal leaning following; and the BK leadership's Right Wing autocratic tendencies and political associations.

You nailed it.

Followers are not outspoken because the leaders cut them to size often. To an extent, I got a chance to observe 2 senior Sisters in charge of zonal level. One being a graduate was mostly descent, the other Senior Sister, not so educated was ruthless when it comes to any follower becoming little "famous", she would cut them to size even if it means an occasional outburst publicly, may be she thought it is lesson for others.

The latter is flourishing in terms of more centers, more functions, more properties because of her "focused" approach. They are right wing and capitalists when it comes to their assets but want the followers to have socialist mind set and give away everything.

They indeed tone the followers to become submissive and like I mentioned earlier, the submissive or the idealistic types get attracted to BKism. Because like you rightly pointed, they want their ideal world, mental well being and ready to follow, in fact they look forward to follow and have a relatively hassle free life without confrontation. Again, avoiding confrontation can also be largely attributed to lack of self esteem.

Number one trait of low self esteem is they don't care of themselves. This is what they teach day in and day out that you are not the body, Jithe Ji Marna (Dying while living). This is what makes the followers robots working tirelessly hoping to secure a good position in Heaven.

I wonder if all these "Yukthis" are taught to them in Mt. Abu Bhattis?

Because, generally, in corporate, to make everyone to do what they are intended to do, HR people devise specific training courses for Junior Software engineers, separate personality training for team leaders, managers, middle management, top management and so on. There, they actually try to brain wash people to listen to their higher ups. It will not be very obvious during the training but in a subtle way.

Corporate training is a multi million dollar industry and you have all sorts of tricks to rewire people. I am sure BKs will not be left behind to try these kind of stuff. Every time in Mt. Abu senior class during each Milan, Senior Sister being arrogant topic is covered in some special class with the followers.

What does it mean? this is a international level congregation and they talk about short temperedness of senior Sisters.

It means it is prevalent in all geographies with senior Sisters even after years of practicing Raja Yoga and they going to heaven very soon with an added bonus of permanently going to heaven Kalpa after Kalpa. In these classes, they say no body is perfect and everybody are working towards being perfect, so on and so forth. Agree, but if a follower looses his/her cool, will the BK teachers also think the same way that the poor soul is struggling and he/she needs our loving support, we are all one family? I seriously doubt it unless you have are a heavy donor financially.

This is to subtly tell the followers to keep mum and try to iron out the wrinkles.

They even say, "whoever does anything wrong will be looked after by Dharma Raj and their position will also get affected in Heaven. Senior Sister also might fall in terms of ranking, so you be perfect, you will get a good position".

So the followers believe it and never bothers to confront anybody because in his/her mind, they are racing ahead and securing good place.

I wonder if all these "Yukthis" are taught to them in Mt Abu bhattis?

I don't know ... I think by the time they get to the Mt Abu bhattis (retreats), they are already pretty well indoctrinated.

You got,

a) the group indoctrinations and "schooling" in BKism for the young girls during which time they weed out the non-submissive or questioning ones. Or "weak" as the BKs would call them.

b) then the prolonged 'one-on-one' apprenticeships as a junior Sister to some dominant centre-in-charge. Then,

c) the constant telephone - and I suppose internet now - chat with Seniors, or zone-in-charges, in which they gossip about everyone and everything that is going on at their centres, and ask for advice in how to handle issues during which the Seniors reinforce "Shrimat".

Then the general mutual confirmation of other teachers or BKs. A lot is done informally in that way, self-perpuating the cult.

My working theory is, the system is based on the fundation of how the Bhaibund merchants worked; how you had to apprentice to a full "Brother" first, slave unpaid sleeping under the shop counter to learn the trade, be 'initiated' into the business and connections (including all the criminal activity, secret language, tax dodging etc), until you were trusted to become a full member ... be loyal to the clan, and keep silent.


The Bhaibund and/or their clever Amil accomplices.

It is presented as a "God inspired" miracle system ... but, obviously, it has to have its roots in LKs real world experiences. The match is just too close to dismiss.

I would argue that there is a strict 'written' tradition, the Murlis etc, but also a sort of 'unwritten' verbal tradition ... that includes all the criminal and semi-criminal aspects. The sort of ... Dadi's and Dada's "Shrimat" elements, eg we've often discussed how they have said, "it's OK to steal from your employer for their/Baba's service" and no one knows the full extent of their money moving, how and when to bribe, their tendency to abscond when a serious event like a murder or suicide takes place at a centre etc.

Obviously, it's not written down in a manual how to deal with that stuff, as it would look bad ... but it has all gone on.

I add some comments on the paper by Misra et al. The style of scholarly writing is not clear. Is it the AMA, MLA, or APA format of writing?

In the introductory section there is there a literature review? How does the BK system of raj Yoga compare and contrast with other schools of raj Yoga?

Such a comparison and contrast, part of scholarly writing or scientific reporting is absent.

Any facts and figures? What is the major problem the study is meant to solve? Is there a major question the study aims to solve? Did the authors stste a clearly defined hypothesis or a series of hypotheses? Where are the data? What is the quality of the data? Did the data from the studies validate the proposed hypotheses? To what extent did the data validate the hypotheses? What is the sample size of the population studied and how represented is the sample size?

The above-mentioned questions are the questions I ask as I look over the paper.

There are many yes answers to the presented questions.