The Brahma Kumaris

Movement·Founded 1937 CE·The organisation reports more than one million students at over 8,000 centres in about 110 countries. Students are counted by attendance at the daily class, not by conversion, so the figure means something different from a membership roll.

The Brahma Kumaris

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual UniversityThe recordWorld Religions and Spirituality Project — Brahma Kumaris

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Overview Belief 3How to Live 1Practice 1Stories & Scripture 1 You × The Brahma Kumaris Discussion
Story of The Brahma Kumaris

He handed it to the young women, and never took it back.

In 1937 Lekhraj Kripalani vested his entire fortune in a trust of eight women, most of them under twenty-five. The organisation has been administered by women continuously since, which is close to unique among world religions.

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Where it is toldThe organisation's own history of its first years
Who appearsLekhraj Kripalani; the eight young women of the first trust; Om Mandali in Hyderabad
What it teachesThat a wealthy man in his sixties handed the whole institution to women in their teens and twenties, and that it has been run by women since
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

In 1937 Lekhraj Kripalani, a jeweller in his sixties with a fortune, put the whole of it into a trust administered by a committee of eight women, most in their teens and twenties, with Om Radhe at the head. It was not a gesture: administration, teaching and succession have been in women's hands ever since, through Dadi Prakashmani and Dadi Janki, and the organisation's senior figures are women in a way no comparable body matches. The arrangement drew immediate hostility in 1930s Sindh — an anti-Om Mandali committee formed, and the government of Sindh acted against the group before the order was lifted — and the community moved to Karachi in 1938.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour. Judaism · precept Go deeper →
The towel and the basin. Christianity Read it in full →
G Guru Amar Das — eat first, then see me. Sikhism · figure Meet them →
B Bahíyyih Khánum. The Bahá'í Faith · figure Meet them →
Honor the seven principles. Unitarian Universalism · precept Go deeper →
Clara Babcock, ordained in 1888. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Read it in full →

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