Advance Party (religious movement)

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The Advance Party is a splinter group from Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, a monastic, renunciate,[1] millenarian[2][3] new religious movement (NRM) of Indian origin.

Dr. John Walliss mentions the advent of a breakaway movement, referring to one of them as the "Advance Party".[4] Elsewhere they are referred to as the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris or PBKs.[5] Walliss goes on to state that, as Lekhraj Kripalani's original message of separation, spiritual introversion and violent destruction becomes repackaged as the emergence of a New Age through self-understanding and self-development, this direction has caused discontent within certain segments of the Brahma Kumari movement, likening them to the "Protestant Reformers to the BKWSU's mediaeval Catholic Church".

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[edit] Membership

The Advance Party is predominantly made up of disaffected ex-members of the BKWSU who are highly critical of what they allege to be the increasing worldliness and corruptness of the BKWSU's hierarchy, where pomp and show and grandeur are given preference over true "godly knowledge". At a deeper level, the Advance Party's critique is aimed at the BK theodicy and the manner in which they allege its millenarianism has been misunderstood. In particular, they are critical of the University's New Age and UN involvement.[4]

Walliss goes on to state that the PBKs claim that Shiva is now manifesting Himself through a different medium to correctly interpret the original teachings, claiming that its founder was the BKWSU's founder Lekhraj Kripalani's business partner Sevak Ram, and that it was he who was the original medium. PBKs report hostility and resistance from the BKWSU. Walliss met with a wall of silence and irate phone call from the BKWSU headquarters threatening him that the BKWSU would, "block [him] every step of the way if [he] persisted along this line of investigation". The University restricting its member's "knowledge and access to the group so as to prevent any further defections" and founder Veerender Dev Dixit was debarred from the BKWSU.[4]

[edit] BKWSU use of term

Within the Brahma Kumaris' theodicy, the "Advance Party" are the group of purified deceased Brahma Kumari followers who reincarnate back to earth at this time to prepare the paradisical heaven on earth, called the Golden Age, and for other BKs in the near future. The breakaway group's use of the name is seen within the BKWSU as impertinent and they therefore refer to them as the 'Shankar Party'[4] (Lord Shiva, or 'Siva Shankar', is considered as the Destroyer of the World).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ (1994) Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka, Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521461290. 
  2. ^ Robbins, Thomas (1997). Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415916486. 
  3. ^ Babb, Lawrence A. (1987). Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0706925637. 
  4. ^ a b c d Walliss, John (2002). The Brahma Kumaris As a Reflexive Tradition: Responding to Late Modernity. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0754609513. “Another rendition of the University's Millenarianism [is] put forward by a group named the Advance Party. This group is made up of predominantly disaffected ex-members of the University and are highly critical of what they allege to be the increasing worldliness and corruptness of the University's hierarchy. The University, they claim on their website, has become a true Ravan Rajya (Kingdom of Devil) where pomp and show and grandeur are given preference over true godly knowledge. At a deeper level, the Advance Party's critique is aimed at the BK theodicy and the manner in which they allege its millenarianism has been understood.” 
  5. ^ Advance Knowledge. Retrieved on 2007-07-22.

[edit] External links