The ''Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya'' (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

, translates as "Spiritual Godly University".

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

: आध्यात्मिक ईश्वरीय विश्वविद्यालय) claims itself to be a reformative splinter group within the

Brahma Kumaris The Brahma Kumaris are a spiritual movement that originated in Hyderabad, Sindh, during the 1930s. Followers of the ''Adhyatmik Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya'' (AIVV) refer to themselves as the ''Prajapita Brahma Kumaris'' (PBKs) or Advance Party. The AIVV sees itself and the Brahma Kumaris Organization as two halves of the same spiritual family who will eventually re-unite to transform this world from hell into heaven, although the

BKWSU The Brahma Kumaris are a spiritual movement that originated in Hyderabad, Sindh, during the 1930s.Kampil Kampil is a town and a Nagar panchayat in Farrukhabad district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located about 45 km from Farrukhabad, and 55 km from Budaun. It is a very important place from a historical point of view. Hi ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Beliefs

Central to the PBKs' beliefs is that at the beginning of the movement, there was a different

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

Dada Lekhraj Lekhraj Khubchand Kirpalani (15 December 1876 – 18 January 1969), also known as Dada Lekhraj, was the founder of the Brahma Kumaris. Life Lekhraj Kirpalani (commonly known as Dada Lekhraj) was born in Hyderabad, Sindh in 1876. In his fift ...

's business partner, who died in 1942, reincarnated as the AIVV's leader Virender Dev Dixit and has, since Lekhraj Kripalani's death, become once again the authoritative medium of

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

through whom he speaks clarifying the earlier teachings. The PBKs accuse the BKWSU's hierarchy of "censoring or altering" the spiritualistic messages called "". They consider that the Brahma Kumaris misinterpret and misunderstood their predictions. PBKs refer to the Brahma Kumaris' teachings as ‘Basic Knowledge’ and message presented by Shiva through Dixit as the ‘Advance knowledge’. The PBKs claim that God is now manifesting himself through a different

to correctly interpret the original teachings and reject the Brahma Kumaris belief that

and their deceased founder

is being channelled via an elderly woman called Hiradaya Mohini or "Dadi Gulzar". Shivbaba narrated Gyan (flute of knowledge) through Brahma Baba and is now giving the advanced knowledge i.e. He is clarifying the true meaning (the true Gita) of those , to the AIVV Prajapita Brahma Kumar/Kumaris (i.e. Advance Party or AIVV).

Membership

The group is made up of predominantly disaffected ex-members of the BKWSU University, some of whom had conflict with the BKWSU's local representative. Walliss identifies the Advance Party as radically re-interpreting the millenarianism of the BKSWU to regain its "true" original form. As a result, they set a specific date of 2008 as that expected for the destruction of the world and the emergence of the millennial kingdom in 2036.

BKWSU use of term

Within the Brahma Kumaris movement, the term "Advance Party" is also used for the group of deceased

Brahma Kumaris The Brahma Kumaris are a spiritual movement that originated in Hyderabad, Sindh, during the 1930s.paradisical heaven on earth, called the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

. 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'.

Criminal allegations

In December 2017, Indian police raided the group's

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

s to free hundreds of female followers said to be being kept in terrible conditions. 250 women and 48 girls were released many of whom, it was alleged by Swati Maliwal the city's commissioner for women, appeared to be drugged. According to a lawsuit lodged at Delhi's High Court, the leader of the group Virendra Dev Dixit had sexually assaulted multiple women and keeps residents confined in conditions "worse than farm animals".

Notes

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External links