Dada Lek Raj and the The Case for Feminist Revolution

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Upaya

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Dada Lek Raj and the The Case for Feminist Revolution

Post19 Jan 2022

Does anyone in the forum have views on feminism and the spiritual life?

There is a passage in this document that should go into the annuls of radical feminism of the like of Shulamith Firestone.


Why should a woman give up her precious seat in the cattle car for a bloody struggle she could not hope to win? But, for the first time in some countries, the preconditions for feminist revolution exist - indeed, the situation is beginning to demand such a revolution.

The Dialectic of Sex, publ. The Women's Press, 1979

Find it on page 17.

https://archive.org/details/preordained ... 7/mode/2up
This Preordained World-Wide War of Mahabharata and it’s Result

Supreme Divine Prajapati Brahma

Who becomes instrumental at the time of the confluence of the cessation and the progression of Kalpa for bestowing the most Supreme Status of Double-Crowned, Jiwan Mukt Deities through the test of ‘Aham Brahma Asmi’ (I am the creator of my creation) or ‘Sahaj Yoga Raj Yoga (Easy Yoga, Royal Yoga – ref: Patanjali – Yoga mediation)

Upon the Female Sex
The Virgins and Mothers of Bharat

Degraded and downtrodden under the malafide influence of –

Neem Talib Khatray Jan (Sindhi religious Teaching association)
Veda-Vadi Vidvans (Vedic Scholars)
Acharyas (Hindu religious teachers)
Pandits (Hindu Scholars)
Ect,.

Who have simply burdened their brains (the female sex) with carefully cooked anecdotes and attractive stories
NAILING THEM HARD

In jeopardous practices of servile devotion and complete surrender at the feet of their worthless, vicious husbands
As their very Life-Sustainers. Over-Lords, Gods, Salvation-Bestowers and what not.
Admin wrote:Admin Strike Out

If you have any evidence to support the documents are not genuine, then please publish it, or remove the inferences. Thank you.

n.b. There is a question mark as to the authorship of this document - at the time Dada Leck Raj was being strongly opposed by an Anti-Om Mandali movement in Sindh and the likelihood he would have presented these inflamitory anti establishment statements in English or any other language as some form of gifted written message to the English administration is highly unlikely ...

More likely is the Anti Om Mandali Party fabricated the document as part of a smear campaign. and fraudulently presented it into the archives of the English administration to bolster their campaign


Never the less it's a great read.

I like the nailing them hard bit - like nailing Jesus as WOMAN to the cross of patriarchy and religion....
That the natural reproductive difference between the sexes led directly to the first division of labour at the origins of class, as well as furnishing the paradigm of caste (discrimination based on biological characteristics).

The Dialectic of Sex

Dada Leck Raj certainly did find a revolutionary method to combat this caste difference - celibacy for all.

Celibacy is also endorsed in Women's Liberation by The feminist group Cell 16.
"The feminist group Cell 16, founded in 1968 by Roxanne Dunbar, was known for its program of celibacy and separation from men, among other things. Considered too extreme by many mainstream feminists, the organization acted as a sort of hard left vanguard It has been cited as the first organization to advance the concept of separatist feminism. In No More Fun and Games, the organization's radical feminist periodical, Cell Members Roxanne Dunbar and Lisa Leghorn advised women to "separate from men who are not consciously working for female liberation", but advised periods of celibacy, rather than lesbian relationships, which they considered to be "nothing more than a personal solution."
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Pink Panther

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Re: Dada Lek Raj and the The Case for Feminist Revolution

Post19 Jan 2022

One needs to always define one's terms before a meaningful discussion can take place.

Feminism is a term that has taken various forms but for me ultimately "feminism" simply means that a person is never advantaged nor disadvantaged because of their sex, in any sphere or activity.

Beyond that you get into particulars to do with social roles, employment, sports grading etc. I think these can all be worked out if the basic principle is adhered to.

BK's so-called feminism was on one hand admirable in that it was trying to free women and girls from the expectations of the accepted role in that society of early 20th century Karachi, to obediently marry whomever her parents said she should and become a dutiful wife and mother.

But what exactly was the alternative the BKs offered? To become a member of a group where they each had their tasks not unlike that of a housewife - cooking cleaning etc? They were discouraged from seeking full secular education and explore career options because the world was always about to be destroyed. They simply became the fantasy gopis to Lekhraj's fantasy Krishna etc.

They, the BKs, make a big deal that the women run the organisation. Do they really? They are put into nominal leadership and teaching positions, but so too are many men. Thats fair enough. Lekhraj made them 'trustees" and heads of the organisation later, but did not all decisions depend on his say so? Weren't the various post-1969 entities and bodies set up by Ramesh Shah etc for which he and other men - Brij Mohan, Nirwair, Karuna Shetty, Jagdish Chander etc the pragmatic real leadership - the head eunuchs of the empire who handled the money, organised projects, who really ran the show, so to speak? The Dadis did have final say and would be obeyed in the odd occasion they could not be convinced by the "viziers" but going along with that simply preserved everyone's positions. Middle management was always about what talents you had to contribute to the "glorification of Baba" and pleasing the upper management, playing the game, nothing else.

Then, look at the way women are represented in there Gyan : Lakshmi, Radhe, Sita etc - they are all passive consorts of strong male figures. What about the "Shiv Shakti" image they talk about? Again all they are doing is simply misappropriating a feminine archetype and claiming it literally as their own, the way Lekhraj appropriated the mythology of masculine archetypal figures like Brahma, Krishna etc, made a melange of them, turning the metaphorical "I am that" into the literal 'I am that and you aren't"!

Removing one onerous expectation - obedient daughter who is forced into a potentially loveless, sometimes unpleasant, sometimes abusive marriage, to become a servant to the husband and in-laws, breeder for that family's lineage as per patriarchal expectations, is something, but not quite enough in my books to be called 'feminism" or even proto-feminism.

The BKs were only "relatively" feminist if compared to the conservatives of the time. Its not like there were no decent, kind-hearted progressively-minded fathers or patriarchs at the time and place who encouraged their daughters to become educated and make their own decisions as best they could. It's not like there were absolutely no people like that.

For sure there are the stories of women who join Om Mandli to escape a bad fate, but that does not mean all women and girls were in such families facing such situations.

What the BKs did was point out the worst injustices, then substituted the biological patriarchal authority with a religious patriarchal authority that played to fantasies.

The BKs today do embody their own view of highest form of womanhood. It's a princess who delegates everything, even child birth , to others. To sustain their organisation, they discourage their own women from having children and simply seduce the children of other women to join their ranks and do the work. The sign of high spiritual status in the BKs is others do the tedious chores, even yours and you sit back and delegate.
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ex-l

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Re: Dada Lek Raj and the The Case for Feminist Revolution

Post19 Jan 2022

Upaya wrote:Does anyone in the forum have views on feminism and the spiritual life?

Spirituality in general, or just the BKs' spiritualistic practices?

A more interesting discussion for me would include documentation of when the BKs attempted to remarket themselves as "feminists" in order to attract & appeal to a certain class of woman, or perhaps liberal, in the West.

The BKs were never feminists.

The idea that Lekhraj Kirpalani was a feminist is as much of a joke as claiming that "Jeffrey Epstein was a feminist". You're talking about a rich businessman, who ditched his worn out, middle aged wife (what became of Jasoda?) to take a teen ge girl as his eternal bride, & enjoyed intimacies with the young wives & daughters of members of his jati, including; sleeping with them in the same cot, bathing semi-nude with them, feeding them mouth-to-mouth, "pulling their breasts" (quote-unquote). None of which Om Radhe, his attractive teenage replacement denied in cross examination by the court ... but just claimed was all "pure" because they were with their "divine Father" (acting out his Krishna fantasies). If Lekhraj Kirpalani was her "spiritual Father", & she became his bride, is not that spiritual incest?

It's BS.

I'll come back to this question later but when you compare how the young women & daughters of his Sindhi or Bhaiband peer were truly becoming emancipated through real education, training & professional development - with the support of their families - and even the work that his arch nemesis Saddhu Vaswani was doing with his girls school, Lekhraj Kirpalani's claims are typical of the cults narcissistic audaciousness.

Short version, Lekhraj Kirpalani was being threatened with law suits by the families of the women, so he establish a trust to protect his wealth & property from them with them in positions of power but entirely guided by him, the advocate & other males. The Om Mandli wasn't about uplifting womankind, it was about turning them into his gopis. What more of a patriarchal system could their be? BKism remains an ultimately patriarchal system.

In India, gender is the primary issue, it's caste. How are the young, poor India girls enslaved for life as house servants for BK center-in-charges "liberated" in any way?

There was a feminist critique of the BKs written by a woman [feminist] academic in India. I'll dig it out for you if I can. It may be in the library. I think Lawrence A. Babbs also discuss this, something about power by proxy of the entirely male voice of the Murlis. Sorry, it's a while since I read all of the material on them.
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ex-l

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Re: Dada Lek Raj and the The Case for Feminist Revolution

Post19 Jan 2022

Pink Panther wrote:But what exactly was the alternative the BKs offered? To become a member of a group where they each had their tasks not unlike that of a housewife - cooking cleaning etc? They were discouraged from seeking full secular education and explore career options because the world was always about to be destroyed. They simply became the fantasy gopis to Lekhraj's fantasy Krishna etc.

Precisely. Thank you.

If Lekhraj Kirpalani was "liberating" them from their husbands & families, it was so he could have them as his gopis, wives, & servants. A tradition which carried on to this day, with 100s of young girls - teenagers - being married to him (BapDada) is mass ceremonies akin to what the Moonies do. Giving up their freedom to stultify their minds, & become servants for to the organization, to be abused by "strict" center-in-charges.

Western BKs *really* need to wake up to what has and is going on in BK India.

It must have been a wonderful slumber party UNTIL his money ran out & he could no longer keep them as his princesses (Kumari means princess, not daughter).

Marx was a bit of a joke too ... he shagged the housemaid his mother-in-law paid for to take care of her daughter & their children (as in his wife & family) & then sent her away once she got pregnant. I always wondered how he managed it, as they were living in a one bedroom apartment at the time. I have this imagine in my mind of bearded Marx having a drunken "knee trembler" up some alley in Soho, London where they lived.

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