The Brahma Kumaris are a new spiritual tradition. The movement now has over 450,000 adherents world-wide in more than 100 countries. In this book Frank Whaling seeks to understand the Brahma Kumaris. As with all spiritual traditions, the Brahma Kumaris are different, bewildering, fascinating in their newness and in their complexity. The Brahma Kumaris began in 1936 in Hyderabad in the Sind province of India. A millionaire diamond merchant named Lekhraj Khubchand began to have visions at the age of around sixty. They led him to start meetings in his own home which were attended mainly by women. This was the beginning of the Brahma Kumaris. Dada Lekhraj, as he became affectionately known, used his fortune to set up a trust composed of eleven youngish women. One of the young women, who became known as Om Radhe, became the leader of the new movement, whilst Dada Lekhraj remained a key figure. Following the Partition, the Brahma Kumaris moved to Mount Abu in Rajasthan in India and this remains their headquarters. Through phenomenology the author attempts to 'get inside' the Brahma Kumari tradition and to see that tradition from the inside.
Phenomenology involves firstly putting one's own world-view aside in order to understand the world-view of others. Applying 'epoche', to avoid bias, and 'empathy', to engage sympathetically, the objective of this study is to understand, as far as is possible, from within. Titles in Understanding Faith are intended as first readers for students of comparative religion and as basic source books of essential information about the major world faiths in the 21st century for those who seek to understand this aspect of influence on our lives today.