Thank you, JW.net and Cofty, for redirecting me to the right organization!
When I posted “Why did God permit Scriptures to be corrupted?” (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/225590001/why-did-god-permit-scriptures-corrupted) a week before, Cofty commented that its contents reminded him of Brahmakumaris organization.
Then I thought, if there is an organization that believes all Scriptures are corrupted (which obviously makes it enemy of all religions), that organization is not ordinary, but gutsy, lionhearted, and worthy of close examination! I went straight into their local congregation (what they call Rajayoga Meditation center), and expressed my desire to know more about them. The sister-in-charge (similar to JW Presiding Overseer) told me that their course is for one hour daily for seven days (conducted free of charge) which would cover all the necessary things to equip one to be a child of God.
I told her: “You can start the first day course right now, and continue for the next six days.” Thus I completed all seven subjects (as given below):
1) How to control your thoughts and thus to take charge of your destiny?
2) Who I am, and eight powers of the spirit
3) Nature, role and acts of God
4) Cultivating a sweet relationship with God
5) You reap as you sow
6) History repeats itself through five Ages—Golden, Silver, Copper, Iron—each of which is of 1250 years duration and Diamond Age or Age of Illumination (100 years from 1936, when God Himself teaches and trains the willing people into golden-aged ones)
7) History of religions. God-established divine religion remains through first two Ages—in growth and decline mode. Then great Fall into egoism occurs with divisiveness setting in with all weed-like religions making their appearance on the world scene and growing like an inverted tree as they convert worship into an exercise aimed at material benefits which is in contrast to the very meaning of the word religion (relegere = to reconnect with God)
My conclusion:
When I completed the seven-day course, my conclusion is this:
If judged from the fruitage, JWs represent the “foolish virgins” and Brahmakumaris the “wise virgins” (Mathew 25:1-13). JWs acted foolishly treating woman inferior and not even greeting those who differ with them which also amounts to ‘beating the fellow-humans’ (Mathew 24:49), thus failed to represent the God whose very essence is equality and benevolence towards all humans. (Mathew 5:44-48). In contrast, Brahmakumaris have everything to be called “wise virgins”—literally and figuratively. To mention a few of their fruits:
1) They get up “very early in the morning” to spend time remembering and talking to God. (Mark 1:35). (Meditation daily from 4 AM to 5 AM in their respective houses, and 6.30 to 8 AM in their Meditation Halls). This is something only the self-motivated ones can do—something which no cults can accomplish.
2) They are focused on the invisible behind the visible (Mathew 6:22; Luke 18:18-19) and do everything as an offering to God, wherever they are—observed or unobserved. (Colossians 3:23)—again something no cults can enforce on their members.
3) Diamond Age (which is running now) is for reclaiming the lost spirituality (not for pleasure-seeking) thus to prepare for Golden Age, hence all women are treated as sisters and men as brothers. (Mathew 23:9; 5:28) (Originally it was all about asexual reproduction, and sexual reproduction came later. http://www.trueorigin.org/sex01.php)
4) No special favors to own family members/relatives. (Mathew 23:9; 12:46-50) God is viewed in a ‘husbandly’ relationship, and doing His will is viewed as “food.” (Isaiah 54:5; John 4:34; 6:38)
5) Be good and holy because God is good and holy. (Mark 10:18; Mathew 7:11; James 1;17; 1 Peter 1:16)
6) All humans are spirit beings in this temporary “tent” called physical body. (John 5:24; 6:38; 8:42; 13:1; 17:5; John 4:24 Compare Ecclesiastes 12:7 and Mark 12:26-27; Mathew 5:3, 8, 9).
7) Every soul carries within it tendencies formed in the past indefinite, and may continue to future indefinite (Mathew 12:3, 35 compare Mathew 11:14. Luke 16:31); hence most people may repeat their habits—and if anyone wants to change, he can do so only in Diamond Age.
8) Vices such as lust, anger, greed, pride … originate from body-consciousness (Mark 7:21-23; Galatians 5:19-21) and are conquered when one returns to soul-consciousness. (Galatians 5:22 – 26; John 16:33)
9) God does not intervene in the affairs of mankind as the principle of “sow and reap” is omnipresent. (Mathew 12:36; 23:12; Luke 6:38) God does only one act—RECREATION of heaven on earth whenever it decays to its extreme.
10) This Iron (dark) Age will be replaced by Golden Age, which will deteriorate in due course to become Iron Age again. (Mathew 12:32; 19:28; 13:33) When decline of Iron Age reaches its climax, it is destroyed by the use of WMD in the man-made global war. (Mathew 24:21; 26:52) And cycle repeats itself ‘indefinitely.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9, 10)
11) Those who love the “light” will be born in all the five Ages in appropriate place according to each one’s merit whereas others will have varying number of births starting from Copper Age through Iron Age in appropriate places according to each one’s merit. (John 3:19-21; Luke 6:38) The more spiritual one is, the higher the number of births he receives in more favorable circumstances, and vice versa. In other words, in a cycle, there are some who receive upto 84 births spread through the entire cycle, and there are some who receive just one birth—that too towards the end of Iron Age. And there are others who receive births in varying numbers from 83 to 2. This explains why the population gradually increases to touch the explosive level in the last generation!
12) Women show keener insight into spirituality than men (Mathew 26:10-13; contrast John 6:60) and were appointed to impart vital spiritual truth to men (John 4; 20:16-18)
13) Purpose of life is to become like our Heavenly Father, manifesting His qualities in everything we do. What is required is only a change of attitude! (Mathew 5:44-48; Genesis 11:6) This is achievable for anyone, if he/she wants to; because Spirit is more powerful than the body (John 6:63), and such one is also helped by the Father. (Luke 11:13)
14) Spirituality also means qualifying to be called “friend of God,” (James 2:23; Hebrew 11:16) having a guest-attitude while living on earth, considering oneself as a ‘temporary resident’ here, which means living in remembrance of ‘returning to one’s original home, a better place,’ (Hebrews 11:13-16 Compare Philippians 3:20), viewing the world as a drama stage. (1 Corinthians 7:31; 1 John 2:17)
15) God is not partial to any nation or religion; but goes by fruitage one produces. (Mathew 7:16-23; 21:43)
Interestingly, Brahmakumaris organization sprouted on the world scene in the year 1936 (which is 2520 years after 586 BCE which is the actual year of Jerusalem’s Fall (not 607 BCE as JWs wrongly calculated) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11407-nebuchadnezzar; Encyclopedia.com; The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1982, page 1016 ….). It seems JWs, who took “the place of honor” without checking whether ‘another organization more distinguished than them might have been invited’ or not, are all set to hear from the Master: ‘Give this one your seat.’ (Luke 14:8, 9)
Thank you JW.net, and special thanks to Cofty.
(No more posts from me, as I want to leave my past where it belongs to)