How Big is your Badge

[arjun]

No soccer rosettes for the chosen few back then. Just "ShivShatki" Lakshmi and Narayan ones.

I think during the days of Brahma Baba and a few years after his demise, BKs were mostly wearing Trimurti or Lakshmi-Narayan badges, but ever since the arrival of double foreigners in the Yagya, i.e. from the late seventies, the BKs increasingly started wearing badges of incorporeal Shiva, a point of light. I remember having seen the double foreigners with large round colourful Trimurti badges in late seventies. We had one at home for many years. But probably lost it. The sizes of the badges also started decreasing. The more the status or wealth of a BK, the smaller and costlier the badge depicting incorporeal Shiva. The wearing of button sized badges became so popular that many BKs (including me, at that time) started feeling body conscious to wear large badges. And the badges of Trimurti and Lakshmi Narayan have been limited only to the BK teachers since the last few decades.

In the Advance knowledge ShivBaba (through Baba Virendra Dev Dixit) says that we should keep the badge of knowledge of the souls playing the roles of Trimurti and Lakshmi-Narayan in our pocket-like intellect.

Regards,
OGS,
Arjun

[yudhishtira]

Yup, even the cheap Om Shanti pin badges. They were give out as if they were mystic power totem of aceptance. What do they have a supermarket now where you can buy one to go with your serviceable beige outfit and one to go with your ceremonial whites as you chose?

When is a Sister taken aside and taught how to put on a sari and by whom? When is the formal command given by the Shiv Shakti commanders, "saris on and to the front!" How much pressure is/was there put on individuals to conform?

Mmm, well .. to answer your first question, yer standard Om Shanti badges are sold at the literature shops in Gyan Sarovar and Pandav Bhavan. Not sure why I got my gold ring, which I subsequently lost. I think it was more connected to a piece of service that I was involved in. A sister I know, who was on the way out, got given a large gold necklace. She still ended up getting married.

I first got put into a sari by a white sister at our centre. It certainly wasnt a big deal. It was at a retreat we went to. I would more often wear kurtas because saris take a long time to iron. I never really experienced "dressing up girlie" get togethers, although when you do not have full length mirrors, you rely on others to tell you if the thing is on drooping or straight. I only really wear saris in Madhuban now. I did go from disliking them to liking them but I certainly never felt any pressure to wear it. I cannot speak from an Indian bodied perspective though, they may experience more pressure. Especially in Asian countries. Western bodied souls are viewed by the Indians though a filter of decreased expectations in terms of following Brahmin cultural practices ...

[alladin]

Polyester doesn't need much ironing, you see (although it makes one sweat and can catch fire more easily, and consequently stick to your skin, horrible forecast!). So, a busy service oriented sister will eventually give up the messy, ever shabby looking cotton ones. That's for villagers who are, by the way, allowed to meet Baba topless. I mean without blouse under. That's their traditional outfit when they harvest crops by hand. Cute wrinkled old Matas putting together their Rupees to meet God in Mount Abu!!

About the effect sarees have on brothers, they are generally considered sexier that kurtas (see through, tight, funny way of walking in them). Or there is a deeper subconscius message, example, surrender means in bed also. May be a cotton kurta pijama sister is less feminine and more difficult to twist around in bed! However, I wouldn't trust someone who desguises herself or wears a "façade". Maybe for a one night stand, but not for a lifetime relationship!!

Just joking, OK?

[proy]