ex-l wrote:• Simple question, is it still America versus Russia?
It would be an honest [Western or educated] BK that speaks openly about the truth we/they all have about how difficult they find living with the teachings of BK Destruction, the difficulties in telling others, the difficulties they had/have with the 5,000 years, the difficulties in dealing with the anomalies it throws up - and how it effects one's life.
But perhaps if folks started to be honest then Shiva or Brahma will answer them.
Dear ex-l,
I have been reading this question of yours quite a few times. I have not finish reading all the posts on this topic and don't know if you got an answer. I am new on this forum and this is my first post and I want to be honest with you.
I have been in Gyan for 23 years and I am sorry if I am a little loose with the Gyan. So far I believe that God spoke and still speaks the Murlis but I am very aware of the editing of the Murlis. So what did God really say and how much has been edited and how much is lost in the translation? I cannot say but I do trust my sense of truth (it has served me well up to now) and I think that despite all the alterations I can still get the essence of it and make something good out of it for my own life and that of those around me.
On the topic of the nuclear war between America and Russia, I cannot say what is the official position of the Brahma Kumaris institution these days, as I do not read all their stuff and rarely listen to a class by a senior or any other teacher anymore, but as far as what God says in the Murlis, considering the alterations and considering that my memory might not be totally accurate, it seems pretty clear to me that it is often stated in the Murlis that there will be a nuclear war between America and Russia.
When I teach the course, I am not usually so specific but I do mention destruction trough nuclear war, civil wars and natural calamities. I try to take the pulse of the students and try to give them only what I think will be helpful to them. I feel that at the end, after they are told about God coming and speaking the Murli, if they are interested, they will eventually get it all from the source and will be able to make up their own mind about it. I am honest with them about the editing of the Murlis, about what is my own understanding of it and what is or seems to be generally taught as being the official teaching of the institution.
If we want to go into the details, it seems to me that what has been generally taught by this institution is that there will be a nuclear war between America and Russia, that most of the world will be destroyed by nuclear bombs and that civil wars and natural calamities will also have a part in the destruction of the old world and that somehow Bharat will be spared the nuclear destruction, etc.
Now, how much of what is usually understood as being the teachings of the Brahma Kumaris has actually been spoken by God and how much has been created by human minds? I think that a lot is man made. So I don't mind taking my distances from it and using my sense of truth to discern what makes sense to me.
In terms of the difficulties that the concept of destruction created in my life: honestly, it did not. I have been shocked by the possibility of destruction ever since I became aware of the existence of nuclear bombs when I was a child in the early sixties and I became convinced that it was inevitable in the early seventies, a decade before I got the Gyan. I was pretty hopeless and saddened about it. Gyan gave me hope, taught me that something good would come out of it and that the better world I had been dreaming of, the world of peace and justice I had been fighting for, would become a reality. I have no doubt about that, I have no difficulty telling others that this is what I believe and I have no problem to say that there is no scientific evidence of the cycle being true.
How can a satopradhan world emerge from the ashes of Kaliyug, how can perfect satopradhan bodies be born from tamopradhan bodies, I don't really know. The explanations generally given by BKs do not satisfy my sense of truth. I made up my own explanations to try to make some sense of what I understand God as saying, but even that is questionable and, all that said, honestly, it does not matter much to me. Whether the Confluence Age is exactly 100 years and the cycle exactly 5000 years, whether there are 5, 6 or 7 billion souls, whether God may not be accurate with numbers, it does not matter much to me and it does not affect my faith in God or my understanding that he is the Truth.
It is not the theoretical knowledge that pulled me to the Brahmin life, it is the experience of God's pure love and its impact on my life. From the very beginning my aim has been to experience this love more and more and also to become loving in the same way. To me it is in this that God is Truth, in his benevolence and his purity. Yes I believe in Golden Age but it is not that which really motivates me. What motivates me is to imbibe God,s benevolence and purity, use it in my daily life and thus help in making this old world a little better.
I have my own issues with the BK institution, the dishonesty, the secrecy, the covering up, the falsifying, the arrogance, and all the harm it creates. I may discuss that at some other time but this is not the topic here.