After Raj Yoga, Can There be ANY Faith?

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After Raj Yoga, Can There be ANY Faith? - posted by: ex-london on September 17, 2005

That is an interesting question. This post is intended as an open “work in progress” and not as a finished “truth” or thought. This is a fairly in depth response that requires a broad base of spiritual, psychic and academic understanding, and is not intended for sociologists, comparative religious instructors or cult busters! I would like to give a personal answer as well as a more theoretical answer.

In theory, I would have to say that anyone that does go back to faith after Raja Yoga could not have gotten Raja Yoga in the first place because, in essence, Raja Yoga is the destruction, through diminishment, of all other religious or psychological practices or beliefs. Individuals ought to realise the total and complete deconstructive absolutism of Brahma Kumarist mental practice. What would be an interesting thread to start would be to question how long, by what process, or what preconditions are required, for these seeds of destruction - of all other loves and faith - to flower in human minds.

But it has to be said; after B.K. Raja Yoga, how can there be “faith”, “Bhakti”, ” worship”, without voluntary and energetic reconstruction of the ignorant, blind or childlike mental state required for “faith”? The practice taught by the Brahma Kumaris is designed to erode and eradicate any other potentially challenging hope for one’s soul. Seen in that light, if Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga is not the work of GOD, then it must be an almost perfect nihilistic psychic parasite meme. This process of spiritual annihilation brought about by pracitising Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga is well documented throughout this forum

The only three limitations I can see to this are if :

a) a state of severe trauma - either physical, mental or social - throws the practitioner back on an earlier state of consciousness for the sake of survival. I think a perfect example of this is the previous quotation of an ex-B.K. who, in panic, re-found him / herself as a Churchgoer. Physical and mental traumas are easy enough to understand. By “social trauma” I mean the type of experience where an individual, by moving from his / her “native” faith, causes such social upheaval within his / her closest family and community that he / she is forced, or forces him / herself, to re-immerse in a particular social form of religion - i.e. religion; not as a spiritual practice, but social conformity. This is generally soul destroying.

b) a particular practice is taken up because it is seen or understood to have a “mechanically” productive effect. By which I mean, for example, “I don’t believe that hatha Yoga / tai chi / aikido will bring me to enlightenment but, by doing it, my body / spirit connection feels better / healthier / is more productive, or “I don’t believe that chanting this particular mantra / visualising this yantra connects me to a God, but by doing it my such-and-such chakra opens up, it clears certain blockages and energy flows through me better.”

c) actually, we were wrong all the time and Jesus / Mohammad / whoever was right after all, and we all fake it like hell come the End of Time.

To answer the question on a personal level, I would like to draw attention to the psychic level of effect of Brahma Kumaris so-called Raja Yoga. This is not a level that I see much discussion of, as it is a level of awareness that either the Brahma Kumaris are unconscious of or, of course, institutionally block any discussion and awareness of. Indeed, they even control and exclude any acceptable language with which to discuss it, as to even discuss it would challenge the status quo

My deepest, most personal and saddest response is that since being indoctrinated by the Brahma Kumaris I have pretty much been unable to follow or practise any other spiritual form, never mind religious path. This flows from what I would define as a persistent psychic experience I started to have whilst practising Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga; that I have been unable to have externally o objectively defined. As soon as I try other spiritual or meditationary forms, this experience or these related experiences return so strongly that it makes any other form of practice impossible. And, of course, my mind has been so prejudiced into a state of superiority over non-practitioners that I do not know of anyone or any group with which to turn to for bona fide assistance

Now, to an indoctrinated follower of the Brahma Kumaris, this would be evidence that Brahma Kumari’s Raja Yoga is “The Way, the Truth and The Light”. I don’t believe that. I find the teachings and the institution of the Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga too inconsistent to accept and hold the senior practitioners responsible for serial abuses and for perpetuating serial abuses of a spiritual nature, rather than helping others grow

Just what the Brahma Kumaris “Source” and process of indoctrination is will be left for another threa and another time - and I do not have a final answer for that either - but I must say that I often feel that I am exerting myself defensively on a spiritual or psychic level against this influence, rather than “practising”, “worshipping” or “devoting” myself - all of which have some personal and objective value

The primary symptom I am talking about is the pressure felt on the area of the third eye, which I can basically “turn on” almost immediately and become intense fairly quickly. On a minor level, I could also say the “whitening” visual effect many of you must have experienced. I think also my dhrist †, is either still “used” by their “Source”, “Guide” or “Guides” or that it has been changed / strengthened in a way that I do not entirely understand.

I must say that during my practice of Brahma Kumaris “Raja Yoga” - I bet Patanjali wished that he had taken a trademark out on the use of that name because I cannot equate what the Brahma Kumaris practise to “Raja Yoga” - I had numerous ‘interesting’ experiences; given a prior leaning toward Christian Spiritualism and family and social environments where psychic phenomena were commonplace.

I never actually “left my body” or had a “Paramdham †† experience” but I certainly experienced detachment from the body form and the utter and general body consciousness that most folks live in. Funnily enough, whilst teaching students on a one to one basis, I had proof that I was not doing, but another was doing through me. I certainly did feel myself / my head being taken and guided, almost as surely as someone was holding it on either side, whilst giving “dhristi” from the “gaddi”.†††

And I certainly experienced other completely neophyte students, on “The Seven Day Course”, having visions through me, or projected onto me - and I clearly state ‘through me’ because I was not giving them and have no idea how to - during that “White Out ” experience you sometimes have during open eyed meditation. The latter was always most entertaining, as individuals who had not one iota awareness of Hinduism would have visions of old bearded men [God Brahma] turning into monkeys with crowns on their heads [Hanuman] or, on another occasion, I remember a Christian lady having what must have been vision of Jesus and then Mary. More than once, jaws would drop or student snap out of meditation in shock, and so I am convinced something was happening. I am still asking what though.

So, personally, I am completely stuck and at a loss as far as faith or practices go. Until I have a clear faith or knowledge of what these psychic phenomena are, and what the psychic source or sources of the Brahma Kumaris tradition are, I am spiritually paralysed and tragically upset at being so.

When I came to the Brahma Kumaris, I was at the starting point of earnest spiritual seeking. I did not want peace of mind, my ego flattered, pampered by New Age sophistry or to buy into “positive thinking” sales pitches. I wanted to understand the human condition and be trained to help myself and then others, to manage, overcome and improve it. I was at the point of dedicating my life to th spiritual path and spiritual study. I respected the BKs for their seeming purity of intent and, although I did not go along with “The Knowledge”, I was willing to practise it earnestly and see what came out of it all. In my opinion, what I got was a mesmeric hypnogogic indoctrination and, as far as I am concerned some kind of psychic attachment to whoever or whatever is their psychic “Source”, “Guide” or “Guides” As far as I can see, learning to overcome, defeat or at least defend myself from that influence is the next and only thing I can hope for at present

Faith and Faiths are essential for “human monkeys”. I call us “human monkeys” just to remind us of how close to basic, frail and dependent biological beings humans and their minds truly still are. I would never criticise faith and Faiths, as the Brahma Kumaris do, until I was able to offer a complete alternative to them. I can’t and, to be honest, I won’t. Being a Brahma Kumari has cured me once an for all of ever wanting to be a guru, guide, or whatever! Forget it. Challenging others faith is a dangerous act of spiritual aggression, domination and imperialism. It might be right and necessary at times BUT one had better be damned sure of when - and ready and prepared to carry the responsibility of the ramifications afterwards. Ramifications I have experienced - the Brahma Kumaris very quickly drop, ditch and run

Faith and Faiths are the little life rafts and lighthouses that we all cling to and climb aboard from time to time on our journey. I have basically no idea what another human requires and teach myself not t judge and leave well alone. What the Brahma Kumaris want to do - teach their teachers and student to do - is sink every other lifeboat, disassemble every other lighthouse, dysfunction every other guide How can one practise another faith if one part of one’s self, one’s mind has been set up and is continuin in that disfunctional process? It is like drilling a hole through the lifeboat with one hand whilst bailing out water with the other

I accept that what the Brahma Kumaris are doing is offering another brand of lifeboat and, in many cases, it is actually better than most alternatives. It is just clear to me that in order to run thei business of providing psychic “lifeboat and lighthouse” services, they need a lot of metaphoric - as well as literally - joiners, bricklayers, painters, decorators, cooks and cleaners to do their work for them! At the subjects’ own financial expense. And, I have come to think, at their own spiritual expense

I also raise some contentious questions. How just are the BKs? Have they just used Westerners as a sale pitch to their native Hindu client base? And how much of Brahma Kumarism is applicable to those born into the Western Tradition?

Administrator inserted notes:

† The word “drishti”, in Brahma Kumari usage, means “gaze” or, to be more precise, the spiritual power emanating from the gaze of an elevated being.

†† “Paramdham” - in Brahma Kumari usage this refers to the supreme abode, the non physical Soul World, the original home of all souls.

††† “Gaddi” - the raised seat or couch that Brahma Kumari teachers sit on.