BKs in the fortune telling business

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fluffy bunny
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BKs in the fortune telling business

Post by fluffy bunny »

From a review of a BK event in the USA, more interesting evidence for the demise of the spiritual purity of the Brahma Kumaris.

This individual discusses her experience of having a " VirtueScope reading" from the Brahma Kumaris. I know this to be a service yukti they use widely on at least 3 continents in "the West".

What it entails is an individual picking some cards on which positive "virtues" are written.

This habit started way back in the 1980s as a bit of fun using a commercial product call "Angel Cards". It started off as a bit of innocent fun to break the boredom of BK life at BK parties with individuals picking one card for inspiration. What's interesting now is how they have developed into a sort of fortunate telling or divination based on the Nordic/New Age system of Runes or Tarot. Note, neither Angel Card nor Rune or Tarot come from BKism, their god nor "the Knowledge". They are all external influences that have been mixed in.

And, needless to say, you can buy your own set from the Brahma Kumari shop for a mere 654 rupees (equivalent £6.50). Angel Cards are a trademarked commercial product and so the BKs have made their own copy called "VIRTUE REALITY CARDS". There are also Star Cards - price £14.99 from Relax Kids, 8 Power Cards - price £8.00, Jewels For Life Pack of 36 Cards - price £6.50, Self Mastery Card - price £6.00, Choose Calm Cards - price $14.95, Heart and Soul Virtue Cards, and a "spin the bottle" VIRTUE SCOPE PAD especially designed to be used with the Virtue Reality cards - price £1.50.

I dare say there are more in other languages than English too.

What on earth is going on? I will leave it to any interested PBK to make a comment on the spiritual aspects but from a lokik aspect I would say it is simple. The "New Age spirituality industry" is a huge commercial market worth, literally, billions of dollars. It clear that the Brahma Kumaris are now taking inspiration from it, modifying it, and sell back their own branded version of it to make money. This is true not just this level but also at the level of the modification of their philosophy and self-marketing.

What amazes me is just how much time, energy and money they must be investing in developing all those products and commercial outlets.
From www.omthemoment.com.

One of the highlights for me was getting my VirtueScope read. They told me it was like reading your horoscope but it's through your virtues. The reader had me pick three cards: a foundation card (your driving force), expression card (primary way others perceive you) and outcome card (the culmination of your efforts). My cards were caring (foundation), forgiveness (expression) and cool or level headed (outcome card). The reader told me that if I focused on being a caring and forgiving person, I would remain calm and cool in every situation. I thought it was an interesting concept and would love to have a full reading one day.
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arjun
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Re: BKs in the fortune telling business

Post by arjun »

This practice of picking cards containing blessings has been prevalent in the BKWSU since the 1970s (I don't know the exact year when this method of service was adopted). Earlier we used to prepare these cards manually, but now they seem to have commercialized it by printing and selling it. Earlier it used to be given only on Rakshabandhan festival. But now they do it on almost every festival or special day. Nothing new. It is one of the tactics to keep the BKs busy and entertained. PBKs have never adopted such tactics because they don't celebrate any festival at all. When God Himself is with us then there is no need to celebrate festivals on any particular day. Everyday is a festival for us. He gives us a lot of blessings through the Murlis. So, there is no need to pick such fancy cards to get blessed by gurus.
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fluffy bunny
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Re: BKs in the fortune telling business

Post by fluffy bunny »

Interesting, thank you. I know little of the more modern historical developments in India.

What were on those cards, typical and exact quotes from Baba and the Murli I suspect?

What I find interesting is how despite all the criticism of other sources of inspiration and enlightenment, more and more the BKs is the West are leaning on famous and mostly non-BK Kali Yugi minds who, by the Knowledge, would likely just be first birth souls or even "founding fathers", e.g. they use famous inspirational quotes from famous people like Gandhi, Einstein or Eckhart Tolle in a way which entirely distracts and disguises The Knowledge.

If they do not use famous people, they then use the highly generalised works of gifted BKs as on these commercial cards. Some BKs get a financial reward from their works, others give it freely. There appears to be no overall policy on who gets what or who is allowed to do what but even the paid for stuff is clearly what we, in the old days, would have considered to be service and given freely or at our own cost.

The selling of music is another example which has gone from purely "costs only" to being openly commercial ... and continuous even after the individuals have left and starts having sexual relationships etc again. Given all their talk about purity of vibrations etc, it amazes me they allow such souls to a) use BK events and facilities as marketing venues, and b) continue to represent BKism.

They appear to want to represent BKism as something so free and open it contradicts the teachings entirely, and then they go on to criticise the PBKs and ex-BK for being "fundamentalists" ... using the negative sense of the word as per Islam etc ... for questioning or criticising it.

Speaking from a Western BK point of view, their presentation appears to have gone from 90% Knowledge and 10% marketing fluff to 99% marketing fluff and no Knowledge. The Knowledge is hidden and non-BKs are given the impression that BKism is the marketing fluff. I saw the early days of this when they were transforming from teaching the traditional course, the Trimurti etc to allow a little general entertainment at public service events but, back then, few to no BKs would have the confidence to deviate from the Knowledge and use external sources. Now they appear to be investing a great time into studying external sources, using and copying them.
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arjun
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Re: BKs in the fortune telling business

Post by arjun »

fluffy-bunny wrote:What were on those cards, typical and exact quotes from Baba and the Murli I suspect?
They were not exact quotes from Murlis, but blessings derived from Avyakt Vanis and also the footnotes given on every page of the printed Avyakt Vani books. These footnotes used to contain the essence of whatever was spoken in that page.
BKs is the West are leaning on famous and mostly non-BK Kali Yugi minds who, by The Knowledge, would likely just be first birth souls or even "founding fathers", e.g. they use famous inspirational quotes from famous people like Gandhi, Einstein or Eckhart Tolle in a way which entirely distracts and disguises The Knowledge.
In the past these cards used to contain only blessings derived from BK Murlis or Avyakt Vanis, but now-a-days the BKs in India have also started printing inspirational quotes, but these are generally prepared by the BKs themselves. They probably take them from the classes of various Dadis-Didis and brothers.
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