10 - Spreading Soul Consciousness: Managing and Extending the Global Reach of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University

Summary

Abstract

The BKWSU is an Indian globalized NRM that originated in Hyderabad in 1936 when the founder, Dada Lekhraj, a pious jewellery merchant, received dramatic visions from God relating to the peaceful soul world and imminent world destruction. He subsequently created a closed meditative community, largely female, and handed management over to them, thus initiating a revolutionary spiritual path for Hindu women. Members of the community call themselves ‘Brahmins’, practice celibacy, and maintain a lacto-vegetarian diet, mirroring Hindu Brahmin practice, but embodying a revolutionary social identity within Indian society. In the early 1970s, the movement spread internationally and now has approximately 8,500 centres in 121 countries. Our chapter will discuss the changes in administrative structure and management since its global expansion, examine which aspects of its organizational culture attract and retain members, including recent changes in strategic marketing to increase the movement's appeal to an individualized and secular global audience.

Keywords: Brahma Kumaris, Global Functioning, Hindu, spiritual technology, purity, soul consciousness

Introduction

This chapter will discuss aspects of management and marketing within the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU), an Indian globalized new religious movement (NRM) established in 1936 in pre-Partition Hyderabad (now in the Sindh province of Pakistan). The founder, Lekhraj Kripalani, a middle-aged, pious and wealthy jewellery merchant received dramatic yet contrasting visions of the supreme beauty of paradise and the destruction of the present world. He subsequently sold his half of the lucrative business and created a meditative community, initially called Om Mandli. He handed over his wealth and management of the community to a small group of young women followers, thus initiating a revolutionary spiritual path for women in the context of Hindu society (Ramsay 2017).

Students of the community call themselves BKs (Brahma Kumaris1) and, as part of their lifestyle of brahmacharya [seeking God realization through a virtuous life], practise celibacy and consume a ‘sattvic’ [‘pure’] lacto-vegetarian diet. These disciplines mirror Hindu Brahmin tradition, embodying a revolution in social identity within the dominant Hindu culture, as members are termed ‘Brahmins’ regardless of their caste origins. Despite its close adherence to the most ascetic forms of Indian religious practice, in the early 1970s the movement spread to Europe and Asia.