Life of the master
Lekhraj Khubchand Kripalani, also known as Dada Lekhraj, was born in 15 December 1884 in the city of Hyderabad in Sindh province of pakistan. At that time partition of India had not occured.
He was born and brought up in a hindu family, and his father was a village schoolmaster.
He started his career as a carpet salesman. After working in different jobs he entered the jewellery business, later on becoming a successful diamond trader.
He married to Jashoda and had 5 children.
From 1932, he becomes deeply contemplative. He conducts satsangs where he studies bhagavat gita and invites women and children to attend. In 1934 his uncle dies and his spirit of renunciation intensifies. In that year he sells his business to dedicate himself fully to spiritual studies.
In 1935, the satsang starts chanting “Om” together. Members of the satsang have spiritual experiences along with dada. People start calling the satsang “Om mandali” and dada lekhraj as “Om baba”.
In 1936, he had a series of spiritual experiences, and people started to recognise him as god.
Between 1937 and 1938,he surrendered all his assets and property to a trust ,managed by a committee of 9-19 women who would lead the Om mandali.He remained as an advisor to the trust.
Dada Lekhraj appointed 8 young women from the satsang into a managing committee, surrendered all his properties and assets to a trust administered by them,informally starting the organisation which has grown today to be known as Brahma Kumaris.
He died in january 1969.
He is lovingly known as Prajapita Brahma Baba by his followers.
Organization
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya(Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University), also known as Brahma Kumaris, is a worldwide spiritual organisation that started in Hyderabad,Sindh,Pakistan in 1939.The organisation focusses almost exclusively on Raja yoga methods of meditation,and is known for the prominent roles women play in it.
It was started by Lekhraj Khubchand Kripalani, a wealthy diamond trader, who gave up his business after having spiritual experiences in 1932 ,having decided to start an organisation for spiritual development of people.
It began as “Om Mandali” in 1932 in the form of a satsang conducted by dada lekhraj. The participants would chant “om” together ,before having discourses in satsang style.
In 1939, due to legal problems the name of the organisation changed to Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya (Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University), which remains the same till today.
In 1950 , the organisation shifted to Mount Abu in rajasthan, post partition of india.
Since then, it has been expanding worldwide.As of 2008, the movement claimed to have more than 825,000 regular students, with over 8,500 centres in 100 countries.
Besides the spiritual activities, the organisation has activities on education, healthcare, renewable energy, sustainable yogic agriculture.It enjoys consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN and UNICEF,and has a permanent office space in new york city for their operations.
Teachings
The Brahmakumaris primarily teach the Raja yoga form of meditation.
There are 4 main pillars in the Brahmakumaris way of life – Study, Meditate, Practice virtues and Serve.
References
http://www.brahmakumaris.org/about-us/introduction
Avadhoota Udyana 