satyaprakash wrote:You are wrong. Even if there is any big chance of the doom coming true, there is no justification for denying common people normal family life and shut them up in ghettos. This is totally negative and misery producing mindset of a demented soul who planned this movement.
I don't disagree with you.
I've been studying the early history of this movement from the 1930s and it seem that right from the very beginning, Lekhraj Kirpalani had the idea to lock women up in his houses and to, basically, do nothing ... just have a good time, adore him, he to adore and spoil them, and to dream up ways of dragging in new members. There was very little to no activities of practical benefit.
The descriptions are also identically typical of how to encult individuals which has been studied and is known as "
Stockholm Syndrome".
Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them. These feelings are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, who essentially mistake a lack of abuse from their captors for an act of kindness.
What Larena states is that the PBK sisters are held in the same manner and show the same lack of interest in doing anything beyond housework and evangelism, and show the same interest in their Baba, Virendra Dev Dixit. Virendra Dev Dixit appears to have copied the old BK model exactly.
The PBKs explain this is explainable because he is a reincarnation of an deceased associate of Lekhraj Kirpalani, and the current medium for the same spirit that possessed Lekhraj Kirpalani. From a rationalist's point of view, he must think to himself that he has to follow the old model without change or question in order to assert his divinity and prove his position to, or make a critique of, the BKWSU.
And, fair enough, they say some parts of India are not safe for women to live much different lives.
To me, the PBKs seem to offer a refuge for those individuals enculted into the BK lifestyle and beliefs, who have left because of the abuse and corruption ... but cannot give it all up yet. Either PBK is "the truth" ... or it is a kind of "methadone" to wean individuals off the BKWSU's "heroin".
But, as with the BKWSU, we need a cut of point where we can safely say, "look, this really is not the truth ... move on with your lives" and to help people out of it. The failure of the End of the World to come would be one such cut off point, however, even if the BKs and PBKs pass the cut off point ...
and I think many of them have in their minds ... it is likely that they will still want to live together in communities and, I suppose that is within their rights. To live in their own ashrams.
It would just be good if they gave up their habit of trying to encult others when they do.
With the BKs ... it seems that they keep "changing the goal posts". Each time the prophecy fails ... they just change it to keep the business going. Obviously, the leaders live off the wealth of the religion, they have no other jobs. Perhaps a few enjoy the egotism, the power and grandeur it gives them. That is what a lot of religions are and they are in the same business. In my time, the BKs taught Destruction in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s ... before me, I did not know this, they taught 1976 (and many left when it failed). Before that they taught 1950 and WWII.
I don't know if the PBKs are going to be any different ... if they are going to admit failure at some point, or if they are going to keep hanging on until 2036. Obviously if Virendra Dev Dixit dies, they will probably fall apart.
It will satisfy your curiosity but revealing details does not help the families concerned ... You are already aware of some problems.
Then please contact me via the private message system or email. I would like to know more about the general circumstances in India.
Perhaps on the forum you would be willing to talk about how the BKs are generally seen by the rest of India and how they operate?
