Brahma Kumaris

Modern Hindu religious organization
founded in the 1930s by a Sindhi jeweler
named Dada Lekhraj. In 1947, after the
partition of British India into India and
Pakistan, the organization relocated its
headquarters from Sindh (in modern
Pakistan) to Mount Abu in the Indian
state of Rajasthan. Although the sect
has only about 100,000 members—
minuscule by Hindu standards—it is
noteworthy for several reasons. Unlike
most Hindus, the Brahma Kumaris
aggressively seeks out and converts new
members, and thus it has a much higher
profile than other religious sects. The
organization preaches a doctrine foretelling the imminent end of the world,
which must be prepared for by radical
asceticism. It is also noteworthy that
since its beginning, the majority of its
adherents have been women.
The movement began following a
series of apocalyptic visions by Dada
Lekhraj. These visions not only convinced him of the coming tribulation
but also reinforced his conviction that a
human being’s real identity lay not in
the body but in the soul. This latter realization resulted in the organization’s
adoption of complete celibacy. When
this ideal was adopted by some of his
young women followers, it initially led to
a tremendous uproar, because they
renounced their primary traditional
roles as wives and mothers. The movement persisted despite these troubles,
which bound the followers together
even more tightly. By the time Dada
Lekhraj died in 1969, the movement had
developed a strong missionary bent. All
of these factors make it unusual and, in
the eyes of many ordinary Hindus, marginal and suspicious. For further information see Lawrence Babb, Redemptive
Encounters, 1987.