Teacher Training Manual: Lesson 11 - History

RAJA YOGA INTERMEDIATE COURSE Lesson 11: ROLE OF BRAHMA BABA & YAGYA HISTORY

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of two sessions, the participants will be able to: · Recognize the role of Brahma Baba, · Realize the importance of the yagya as the institution through which God's task is being accomplished in this auspicious confluence age, · Realize one's role and the personal transformation one has to have in order to claim the inheritance of heaven.

PROCEDURE

· MEDITATION EXPERIENCE

· Briefing: Ask them to take note of the different information they can gather about the institution as they watch the video "Welcome Home."

· Let them watch the video then, ask them for their feelings about the documentary and also the information they got about the Brahma Kumaris.

· Start the information about the Yagya.

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU) was founded in 1936 in Karachi, Sindh (now Pakistan) by Brahma Baba. Inspired by a series of revelations, Brahma Baba dedicated the remaining 33 years of his life to bringing into reality his vision of people of all cultural, economic and religious backgrounds coming together to rediscover and develop the spiritual dimension of their lives.

In 1951 the University's world headquarters moved to Mount Abu in Rajathan, India, where it remains to this day. In 1969 Brahma Baba passed away, aged 93, passing the mantle of leadership to Dadi Prakashmani as the Administrative Head of the organization joined by Dadi Janki as Additional Administrative Head.

A University for the World As an international university with around 3,500 branches in over 86 countries, the Brahma Kumaris offer to people of all background an opportunity to learn meditation and deepen their understanding of universal principles and innate values through a variety of educational programs, courses and learning resources.

As a worldwide family of individuals from all walks of life, the University provides a caring cooperative and supportive environment which encourages individuals to bring out the best in themselves.

As a global organization which coordinates international and community projects, the University has created opportunities for people in 129 countries to participate in a variety of initiatives aimed at creating a better world where people live in peace and harmony.

Learning for Life The BKWSU recognizes the intrinsic spirituality and goodness of every being and helps people to rediscover that goodness within them, encouraging and facilitating the development of spiritual awareness, attitudes, behaviors and skills through a process of lifelong learning.

Recognizing the importance of understanding the wider context of human existence, the University's core curriculum addresses the spiritual significance of religious and cultural traditions and explores such themes as life after death, our relationship with God and the purpose of life.

The University organizes and participates in dialogues across a wide spectrum of issues promoting peace and understanding in many local and global fora.

Working With the United Nations The overarching and global spiritual perspective of the Brahma Kumaris helps to highlight and strengthen the ideals and motivating principles underlying the work and spirit of the United Nations. Speaking with the authority of increasingly large segment of civil society concerned with human and social values, the University's work supports UN programs on a wide range of developmental, humanitarian and other issues. Its special competence allows it to bring a particularly ethical approach to world concerns and these to be expressed clearly within the broad forum of UN circles.

The BKWSU is a non-governmental organization in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and in consultative status with UNICEF. It is also affiliated to the Department of

Public Information. The University's book "Visions of a Better World" is a UNESCO supported publication and UNESCO officially supports Living Values: an Educational Programme, which is sponsored by the Brahma Kumaris and the National Committees of UNICEF of France and Spain and the Planet Society of UNESCO. The University has also sent sizeable delegations to most major UN Conferences over the past years.

The Brahma Kumaris pursue the goal of upholding the Human Rights of all People worldwide by calling into focus the worth of the individual and the dignity and integrity of the human family. Working with UNICEF and UNESCO at headquarters as well as within the national committees and commissions, the University promotes values-based programs and initiatives through its local and national centers, including some activities specially for women, youth and children.

INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

The Million Minutes of Peace In 1986, during the United Nations International Year of Peace, the University launched the Million Minutes of Peace project. It reached 88 countries involving millions of people and winning support of hundreds of companies and organizations. With the purpose of emphasizing that peace begins within each individual, the project gathered over one billion minutes of prayer, meditation and positive thoughts.

Global Cooperation for a Better World As a result of the Million Minutes of Peace project, the Brahma Kumaris received from the United Nations seven Peace Messenger Awards. This inspired the first International Peace Messenger Initiative dedicated to the United Nations, Global Cooperation for a Better World, which was launched from the Houses of Parliament in London in April, 1988. The project brought about the increased cooperation and understanding between nations, communities and individuals, gathering the hopes and visions for a better world of hundreds of thousands of people in 129 countries. These were then synthesized into the Global Vision Statement which forms the United Nations Peace Messenger and UNESCO supported publication "Visions of a Better World."

Sharing Values for a Better World In September 1994, the University launched its third international project Sharing Values for a Better World, which adopted as its central focus the tenet in the Preamble of the UN Charter, "To reaffirm faith in the fundamental rights, in the dignity and worth of human person". The project aimed to raise awareness of core spiritual values and the development of those values at both an individual and collective level. Living Values: An Educational Program Sharing Our Values for a Better World identified 12 universal core values, which were the central focus in the publication "Living Values: A Guidebook". This book was published in honor of the United Nations 50th Anniversary and contained a section on how to integrate values in the classroom curriculum. Twenty educators from around the world gathered together in 1996 in New York City to explore the issues of values, attitudes and behavior and to share their experiences of working with values in the classroom and within the community. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a strategy to support values-based education for all. This included exploring new skills, pedagogical approaches and training programs for educators and caregivers. The needs of pre-school, primary and secondary age groups were addressed as well as those children in emergency situations.

Opportunities to learn about values were found to be interwoven throughout the educational process crossing traditional lines of specific subject areas. Using "Living Values: A Guidebook" and "The Convention on the Rights of the Child" as a framework, the educators agreed to work' together to develop a program to set the pace for lifelong learning and to commit to testing it in their school communities. The educators produced the "Living Values Educators' Kit" in consultation with UNICEF, UNESCO and the Brahma Kumaris. This kit is currently being piloted in 57 countries. The Founder - Brahma Baba Born in 1876 into a humble home, the son of a village schoolmaster, Brahma Baba was brought up within the disciplines of the Hindu tradition. However, he did not follow in his father's footsteps and instead entered the jewelry business, earning a considerable fortune as a diamond trader. As a businessman, he maintained a highly respectable position within the local community and was known for his philanthropy.

He had an inherent ability to cope with change. At age 60, when most of his colleagues were planning for retirement, Brahma Baba entered into the most active and fascinating phase of his life.

In 1936, over a period of several months, he felt the need to invest more time in quiet reflection and solitude. Then one day, while in a meditative state, he felt a warm flow of energy surrounding him, filling him with light and exposing him to a series of powerful visions. These visions continued periodically over several months, giving new insights into the innate qualities of human soul, revealing the mysterious entity of God and explaining the process of world transformation. The intensity of the message they conveyed was such that Brahma Baba felt impelled to wind up his business and devote himself to understanding the significance and application of his revealed knowledge. The sound of the words ringing in his mind seemed new, yet felt so true and real.

Over 60 years have passed since Brahma Baba received the series of visions. Apart from those touched by the same visionary experiences, who could have guessed that the young women he placed at the fore of the institution would now be on the world stage, sharing platforms with political and religious leaders at the highest level, and leading a lifestyle revolution, together with over 450,000 people from all cultural and religious, racial and social backgrounds? Or that millions of others would be taking benefit from the teachings he received and passed on, finding empowerment in the present and hope for the future, when loss of integrity in human hearts and minds has plunged so many into despair?

The living skills that he taught have stood the test of time. The young women with whom he entrusted leadership of the organization, now in their seventies and eighties, have become beacons of love, peace, and happiness in a world increasingly troubled by disordered relationships, greed, addiction, anger and violence.

Brahma Baba left his body in 1969 at the age of 93. In Madhuban, the Tower of Peace stands as a tribute to the invincible spirit of an ordinary human being who achieved greatness by rising to the challenge of the deeper truths of life. Chariot of Shiv Baba (Excerpts from Adi Dev pages 49-51) "Dear child, consider yourself a soul and remember Me." In these words, Shiva Baba, the Highest on High, sums up His teachings. But behind this simple phrase lies a limitless treasure of Knowledge and experience. Each day, therefore, Baba would descend anew from the Incorporeal World to explain another aspect, another unseen implication, and most of all, He would exemplify His words in very practical ways, so that the lessons became indelibly engraved into the minds of his "sweet children."

People everywhere are familiar with the expression "God is love." But how many have had the unparalleled good fortune to experience His limitless love directly? By entering the body of Dada, He showed what it really means to be the Father. God raised His divine family with such meticulous care and attention that even the simplest soul could understand immediately that here, indeed, is the Ocean of Love.

When Shiva entered Dada's body, He renamed that soul whose chariot He now shared, with the name Prajapita Brahma, (Father of the People). All those who heard the Knowledge, which Shiva spoke through Brahma's mouth became the mouth-born progeny, or Brahmins. And so, no matter what age they were, old mothers or teenagers, all who recognized Him became His "sweet children." They took the name Brahma Kumars and Brahma Kumaris," the pure sons and daughters of Brahma.

They gathered to him like needles to a magnet, and they stayed. And so an institution was created, out of the love of souls for God; an institution of purification, a sacrificial fire, a Yagya. And the Yagya grew and grew, as more and more souls heard and understood. Their hearts simply melted to grasp the nature of the process, which was going on: the world was actually being transformed before their eyes. It began with one soul, that of Prajapita Brahma. Soon 400 moths had dashed headlong into the Flame. Today, there are 500,000 Brahmins whose minds are firmly turned to Baba, who are purifying their natures, their sanskars, (innate tendencies or personality). And they are also channeling Baba's incredible vibration into the material world, secretly affecting Nature itself, causing the present Iron Age to finish, and paving the way for an Age of Gold, heralding the reappearance of the Royal Dynasty of the Sun.

The story of the birth of the Yagya is told in the following pages largely through the words of those who experienced those ecstatic days themselves: those who witnessed Baba's arrival, who surrendered to Him, and who underwent the testing by "fire" which made the young company invincible.

The story, of course, is not yet complete, for the Final scenes have yet to be played. Now the time' has come for Baba to be hailed and recognized, by the entire world. The face of every atheist will pale, the mind of every devotee of every bodily religion will boggle, and the truth of the present moment will be clearly visible.

And then.... the fireworks will start. World War III, the Final War, the Great Mahabharat War, will be launched. The terrible, swift sword of nuclear destruction will separate us all from these worn-out bodies, and we shall rise again in our subtle form, to the visionary planes, and meet with our Creator to be judged. After that, our loving Father, Shiva Baba, will guide us on our final homeward flight, to Shantidham, the World of Peace. Day of the Daughters Was it an accident that most of Baba's children in the beginning were women? Or that he put women exclusively in charge of the Yagya? Of course God does nothing by accident. Many reasons can be adduced. For one thing, it was a question of physical safety. If it had been brothers who went out into the world to announce Baba's revolutionary spiritual teachings, they would have been attacked and killed. Coming from the mouths of young girls the Knowledge seemed less threatening, and even Baba's enemies were forced to act with some restraint.

It cannot be too strongly emphasized how much opposition arose against the Spiritual University. Baba spoke truthfully and clearly about the diseased state of life in modern India, the corruption which affected every soul. The truth was painful.

Moreover, by demanding purity by every one of His children - something never attempted by any religious movement in history - those obsessed with sexual desires felt their very identities threatened. As indeed they were. Baba was intent on causing us to dis-identify with our bodies, He made us transcend the false ego structure in which we had been trapped. On the whole, the male ego was a greater enemy than the female.

Yet more importantly, Shiva Baba had by His very Presence challenged the authority of every guru - not to mention all the scholars, priests, philosophers, and scientists in every corner of the world. Baba had announced Himself as the Supreme Almighty Authority.

He was not simply a high soul. He is the Supreme Soul, the one and only God. No one had ever said that before. Even the gurus who claimed to be God were careful to qualify it by saying that God was in everyone. Were they all wrong and Baba right? Should the entire body of Indian scriptures be thrown out the window? Who would dare say such thing?" Usually it was a young girl sitting peacefully, dressed all in white, sweet and demure, with eyes that could sear the soul of an evil man.

Shiva Baba is the gentlest Being in the universe. Yet simply by His now into making the most crucial and difficult of his life. For if Baba is not God, then one should instantly surrender to Him. On the other hand, if Baba was not God, then he was committing a great sin by making such a claim, and ought to be opposed. Shiva's descent thus divided humanity into two camps: those who loved God and those who did not.

For most recorded history, men had dominated women in religious as well as worldly matters. Baba had come to bring that state of affairs to a close. So He put His authority into the capable hands of females: it was the day of the daughters. The switch of roles had a remarkably therapeutic effect on all Baba's children, with women in front, and the men working powerfully behind the scenes. Mutual respect was fostered, and purity more easily maintained.

The daughters learned to deliver the lectures, to sit on the gaddhi ("the guru seat") and lead meditation. They were given the authority to read the Murli in centers around the world. It was daughters who went into trance to visit Baba in the Subtle World.

These women learned to tolerate adversity, and to remain unaffected by praise, which is even harder. Their performance was so astounding, that based on what they accomplished in the last Confluence Age 5,000 years ago, women have been idolized even until today.

In early pagan rituals, virgins were sacrificed, in an echo of the sacrifice of fragility and vice which Baba's daughters had made into the Yagya. Another symbol of womanhood is the cow. Not only are such animals still sacred in India, but even at the foot of Mt. Sinai while Moses was receiving his divine inspirations, the Hebrews worshipped the Golden Calf, representing the purity of the virgins.

Even in the West, women have been the traditional keepers of the highest human values. Purity, chastity, and modesty were always terms of praise bestowed on that fair sex, who for that reason were placed on pedestals until modern times, when they along with men tumbled down into the mud of vice. Today, it is no longer even admitted that lust is a sin. This is the measure of how far we have fallen. Now it was women who were once more taking their rightful place on the pedestal of Baba's heart.

The brothers also performed nobly on the battlefield, however, and so are memorialized in a host of scriptures. Since they gave up their monkey-like desires, they are remembered in the form of Hanuman, the monkey god who served the Lord. In the Ramayana, it is told that God required an army of monkeys to help Him defeat the evil Ravan. In the Mahabharata, the story of the five heroic Pandavs is recorded. They were only a handful but they defeated the world, with the help of God. Now the real Pandavas were defeating the evil army of vices within themselves, and thus transforming the earth. THREE ACTS OF GOD

God comes when there is extreme darkness of ignorance, unrighteousness, and irreligiousness in the world. He comes to bring back truth and establish a kingdom of truth. This is something many sages and holy men in India believe in. In a way the Christian do also believe in the second coming of Christ whom they consider as God.

God' existence has been demonstrated philosophically over the centuries in a number of ingenious proofs, such as the famous ontological argument of St. Anselm (which many philosophers still consider valid), but it is unlikely any of these have even altered anyone's prior beliefs. Beyond the realm of logic, however, is that of experience. And many people have indeed been transformed by what others refer to as "mystical encounters", but which may be understood simply as an intellectual (some would say telepathic) link with the Supreme Soul. This is called Raja Yoga, and is the real foundation of all religions.

It stands to reason that people become confused about their relationship with God, they will run into great difficulties. Today the world as a whole had run into great difficulties; should we not wonder whether we may have become confused about the nature of God? Since the great majority of people either believe in no God or in a God who is omnipresent - which in terms of logic comes down to the same thing - it is reasonable to consider that this may be the source of the confusion. If God does exist, it stands to reason that He would have to descend personally to this corporeal realm and rectify the confusion. Since if we already possessed the correct beliefs, He would have to come, it is also obvious that some of His teachings would contradict widespread beliefs; but those teachings would of necessity always be on the highest ethical and spiritual plane, always aiming at the transformation of lives of His students, so that with behavior royal and pure as gods, the souls who learned from the Great Teacher would be able to revitalize the world after the present corrupt and oppressive societies had destroyed themselves. (Excerpt from Editor's Preface to Adi Dev by Robert Shubow, 1982)

When Shiva Baba comes in the corporeal world He performs three great tasks. He establishes heaven (which are the Golden and Silver Ages) through Brahma; He destroys the old iron-aged world of vices through Shankar by teaching us Raja Yoga to conquer our vices and inculcate divine qualities; and He sustains His creation through Vishnu the symbol of perfection. Through His teachings of Raja Yoga He enables us to transform ourselves and reach our original perfection. He comes to become our Father, Teacher and Satguru.

(Explain further the three acts of God how creation is carried out through Brahma.) Shiva Baba enters the body of Brahma and adopts us as His children. Through Brahma's mouth, He tells us of the inheritance we are to receive as His direct children. Using the body of Brahma, He becomes our Teacher and He gives us the truth about Himself, about the soul, and about His creation. As the Satguru, He teaches us how to go back home. In fact He will lead all of us, souls, back home at the end of physical time.)

· Self Reflection: How do all of these informations relate to you personally? How do you see your original aim of learning meditation changes now that you have these informations about Brahma Baba and God's task of transformation?

· Entertain questions for clarification. Recommend to students the book: "Adi Dev - The First Man" as reference in getting to know yagya and Brahma Baba.

· End the session with meditation.

References: • Profile of the Brahma Kumaris: A University for the World Learning for Life

• Jagdish Chander, Adi Dev The First Man, BKWSU, 1981.