The 7 Myths of Love: What does love mean to a BK?

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steveo

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The 7 Myths of Love: What does love mean to a BK?

Post09 Nov 2010

What does love mean to a BK? My partner has recently been to BK for the first time and despite returning and saying she does not want to become a member, she has begun reading a book by, Mike George called "7 Myths about Love". I understand Mike has BK connections and the book is about giving yourself to others and beliving that you are LOVE? Do the BKs believe though that you should give your love to Shiva? Can anyone enlighten me on this book or, BK views on love and how this fits into not giving affection etc? There seem to be a contradiction here.
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ex-l

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Re: What does love mean to a BK?

Post10 Nov 2010

steveo wrote:What does love mean to a BK? My partner has recently been to BK for the first time and despite returning and saying she does not want to become a member, she has begun reading a book by, Mike George ...

Mike George is a marketing guy and long term BK (ostensibly celibate for nearly 30 years) who has carved his own niche out of semi-commercialising Brahma Kumarism, New Agey-ism and business consulting. He adds a lot of tasty icing onto the BK cake. Read about him here and at BKWSUwatch.com. I see there is a new website dedicate to the book, Myths of Love. Thank you very much for bring it to our attention and that the BKs are using it to promote themselves ... as usual.

Loving a BK is a one way act. The BKWSU will instruct the BK to cut off from you entirely. Firstly physically, then mentally and emotionally. Finally, geographically. You are an obstruction to their progress and doing service for the BKWSU, your love for them is a Maya (illusion) or negative karmic bond. Unless you are also going to submit to the BKWSU, you will be removed. Sidelined.

If you do submit, you will both be expect to serve the movement with no 'two way' interaction. It is all about them. No 'you' allowed. The best you will get is a benevolent gaze from an Angelic being. All of the ordinary things of relating, all of the ordinary interests, gradually all interest in the outside world (eating, socialising, sports, entertainment ... you name it) are removed and all that there is is service, service, service, meditation, meditation, meditation ... sucking up to senior acolytes as if they are gods ... and conspiratorial service meetings.

If you have any joint investment, protect them now.

Detachment is the BKs favorite word. For them, you cannot love unless you are detached and unencumbered from worldly love. I suspect there is no specific mention to Shiva or BapDada. I suspect he will just use words like "The One", "The Light", "Highest Love" rather than the names of their spirit entities. The BK like to present their spirit guides as 'universal states' in the first place and it is not until you come close to 'The Light' that you will be told that IN the Light there is a spirit being and that it is to that spirit being that you are to surrender all your love. Of course, the 'spirit being' may well be a distraction from the universal Light, and life. Only time will tell.
In what is NOT another ‘relationship manual’, nor a guide on how to be a ‘better lover’, the author takes us on a journey to the highest territory of the human spirit as he clearly reveals in very down to Earth language.

No prizes for guessing what he thinks the "highest territory of human spirit" is. Its their 'BK Raja Yoga'.

It is funny because Mike knows very well all the shortcomings of the BKWSU. He separated himself from the machine and leadership to a certain extent but has then taken much of 'The Knowledge' and made it into his own business. We would argue that was done strictly against the principles of the religion but the Leadership seems to allow it because it is good for their business. Even his apparent "independence" is a good appearance for them. Stealth evangelism.
There may ultimately be a parting of the ways as one or both feel called to be more ... unlimited. Or there may be an attempt to stay in the relationship and still realize the universality of love together. This could be ‘challenging’ as any attachment is like a denial of that universality ...

Of what I can read online, the book is full of Brahma Kumari trigger words ... "unlimited ... The Jewel ... 3 Dimensions ... subtle communication" etc and ditties so beloved of the Indians intimacy equals “Come in (in) to (ti) me (ma) and see (cy) me". BKs can and will buy it and understand what he is getting at. Non-BKs might find it a little poet and mystic ... but that too is the sale angle, "how spiritual!".

If you can give us your review, or quotes, we can comment on them. Thanks.

jann

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Re: The 7 Myths of Love: What does love mean to a BK?

Post11 Nov 2010

When a BK talks about love, it is about the love for Baba, and "love in all relationships" is the relationships with Baba ... as the friend, the husband, the Father, the mother, etc.

BKs have love for that, but not for human beings.
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ex-l

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Re: The 7 Myths of Love: What does love mean to a BK?

Post11 Nov 2010

I should add to what I wrote above that if you are the husband of a BK, or a woman interested in following the BKWSU, although the cut off will happen, you will still be expected to pay. BKs have become quite strident about exploiting their "rights" in this way, even working together to do so, and in the West using the legal system.

Even when the woman does not make it as a BK, the relationships often end from the damage. I would even go as far to state that individuals USE the BKWSU at a stick against their partners, or to break a relationship, in a way that the BKWSU itself cannot be blamed for.

In the past, Mike has been critiicized most for taking what would have been done or given for free in the old days and turning it into a private business for himself. He is quite close to the BKWSU elite, or "serviceable" as they would say, and has been key in shaping the BKWSU in the West/UK.

How, or why, he broke free and turned it into his own little Cotswolds cottage industry, we do not know. I suspect that a) he gave up on how hopeless dealing with the Indians was, and b) he 'twigged' that the whole game was turning spirituality into a business (means to support one's life) which the Indian leaders had been doing for some time. They play to their audience, Mike has made and played to his audience. There is a little movement to the side of the BKWSU of Westerners making little businesses off the side of the BKWSU ... because, I suspect, they realise how much of a loser's game the rest of it is. Only a handful of old Sindis/Indians will get to live off the BKWSU.

Back to "loving a BK". Anyone going into Brahma Kumarism will soon erect a wall to stop the interchange of energies that the rest of the world calls a relationship. The sort of stuff they are told to is anything from "sending good wishes (... that the other person will go away)" to wearing full pajamas, socks and even gloves in bed to avoid touching (I kid you not), avoiding touching is a BIG thing for BKs.

If the BK accepts the full disciplines, they include 3.30 am rise for 4 am meditation, class at 6.30 am, work and then service in the evenings and at the weekends. Personal relationships are seen as negative karma, "bondages", dragging an individual down and miring them in the evil of body-consciousness. What Jann says is also true.

Is Mike part of the 'soft sell' of that lifestyle or is he just making a few bucks on the side? I would say both. Reading what I can online, it really appears to be quite superficial New Agey stuff with a load of BKisms thrown in. Of course, people do buy that New Agey stuff whether it works or is true or not. Those are his customers.

As far as I remember, Mike used to work as a below the line advertising copy writing in Slough before he met and used the BKWSU to "elevate his status". Shades of "The Office" then ...?
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Mr Green

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Re: The 7 Myths of Love: What does love mean to a BK?

Post12 Nov 2010

On a personal level, I found him to be quite a good laugh most of the time, but always a bit edgy and difficult to talk too; a bit aggressive, but not a bad bloke by any means.

I think he was very sincere like most of us in his early days and had loads of personal meetings and all that, but became slightly disillusioned and moved out of Shanti Bhavan as I did. It was not in his interest to leave the BKs, as it was in mine.

Good luck to you Mike.
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ex-l

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Re: The 7 Myths of Love: What does love mean to a BK?

Post12 Nov 2010

Mr Green wrote:I think he was very sincere like most of us in his early days and had loads of personal meetings and all that, but became slightly disillusioned and moved out of Shanti Bhavan as I did. It was not in his interest to leave the BKs, as it was in mine.

I think you hit the nail on the head there with "not in his interest to leave" to which I might add, not in his interest to question or reject.

It is said that, at least in the early days, he was greatly appreciative of this website. He has a fan following of his own, a publisher and niche market, the cottage in the Cotswolds (one of the prettiest and most desirable parts of England). His humble enough yet enviable international lifestyle is made easier and more comfortable by his association with the BKWSU which promotes his business for him.

See note of this international promotional tour, appearing at a local BK center near you soon (example). By compromising their principles, and allowing him a freer reign, the Brahma Kumaris - great lovers of disguise and misrepresentation - can use and promote him as "Mike George, a business consultant, prolific author and motivational speaker" instead of "Mike George the career-less and potential-less Brahma Kumari adherent" like so many of his Western BK peers, rendered by their total dedication to the other wordly End of the World cult.

It is a problem that many of the Oxford Leadership Academy BKs like Miriam Subirana (any Western BK with a small degree of intelligence and worldly ambition) faced ... many of them using it as a way out of the BKWSU and back into real life. But Mike seems to remain a believer.

He makes a buck, they make a buck and both their reputations and market penetration are enhanced. The Brahma Kumaris, whilst rejecting the touchie-feelie New Age as ignorant and body-conscious, have always targeted it for potential recruits. Both they and Mike are targeting the same audience. The book is clever positioned in the market "Love Actually" was a 2003 romantic movie from the makers of Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill. Aimed exactly the right part of society ... do single middle class women of a certain age not make up the majority of Western BK adherents? Or am I being too cynical?

My feel is that Mike George REALLY sussed the BK game and that he is one of a few ... a) it is about the money, dummy, and b) it is about "self-sovereignty". Taking control of one's own life against all influences, even that of the would be BKWSU elite. Mike is the "King", creating his "subjects" and, perhaps, making a few courtesans ... to use the BKs' own language.

For the few, BKism is a 'living' (a way to earn), not a 'way of life'. It is only a 'way of life' for consumers. In life, you there are producers and a consumer. In between, there are middleman, entrepreneurs. Mike is taking the basic materials of Brahma Kumarism and then re-marketing them to spiritual consumers. In my opinion, unless the aim and object is made clear, it is not entirely fair.

Mike took control over his own life and took the game outside of their pond as, say, other like Hansa Raval have done within their pond 'owning' their own centers and, perhaps, other have 'owning' their own Zones. See how they sell him, here:
BKWSU wrote:As a lecturer and teacher for the Brahma Kumaris, his eighteen years of research into the spiritual principles which govern human relations provide the foundation for his work with leaders and managers in organisations in over twenty countries.

Strange. He has been a BK for much longer than 18 years. Personally, I am not buying it.

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