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Other entries in Mount Abu

Mount Abu - Brahma Kumaris

Our Train arrived early (shock horror) in Abu rd, 45 minuets from Mt. Abu. We missed our dinner on the train because it was early. Not really bothered by this, we jumped off the train after a scenic desert landscape had faded into sunset. We went out into the car park to find the bus stand. Every person we asked directions from seemed to give us misleading and conflicting information. So after walking in circles we ended up back in the car park, waiting for a bus. After being hassled for the last thirty minuets for a taxi ride or some food to buy we were not in the mood to be approached. We sat on the roadside waiting for the bus. Out of the blue a man approached us and started yelling about food in harminders face. We realized after he had calmed down that he had been looking for us for the last 30 minuets because we had paid for our train food and we did not receive it!
This was a little new to us in India, and we had also not seen this guy on the train ride, so questions arose, such as how did he know we missed our food? How did he know what we looked like? And why did he even care in the first place? It seemed very strange but he asked us to follow. We went to a ramshackle building where we were asked to wait at the back of. I was very sus on this whole deal, but still, he did know that we paid for and did not receive the meal! Two minuets later he appeared with a packed three course meal for each of us. This was a pleasant shock for us.
After finding the info place, with food in hand, we got proper directions this time, and walked half a km down a dark rd with our packs, only to hear from two bus drivers that there were no more buses to Mt Abu tonight! We resigned to hiring a cab for the 45 minute ride, and there were as whole bunch of dodgy characters around us trying to book cabs for us so that they could get a cut.
Then out of nowhere, our saving grace, a bus drove up with a man in it slapping the side of the bus shouting "Mt Abu, Mt Abu" I grabbed harminder and we stood in front of the bus so that it would not take off. We jump on, and one of the guys who was trying to book a taxi for us, jumped on the bus and tried to take a fare from us!
We told him where to go, but still he insisted he was here to collect our fare, and pretended not to understand our protests. No other conductor made themselves present on the bus, but still we refused to pay him.
He jumped out on the next stop.
I think the bus conductor was in on the scam, since he allowed it to take place. In the end the trip cost less than a dollar each so it was ok.
We wound our way up the mountain into a very well lit main street, with many restaurants and handicraft shops still open and buzzing at 10:00pm.
We woke early in pursuit of a better hotel before check out, and the surrounding area was perfect.
The town is set on the lake, and our walk included views of a very calm lake surrounded by rocky green hills. The landscape is host to a pleasant variety of flowering trees with many colours - yellow/orange, some deep cool reds, blazing bougainvilleas in all colours, and a rarer brilliant bright purple flowering tree. There are even some Australian gum trees! There were birds chirping, busily going about their business, insects were buzzing around, and the early morning atmosphere was alive with spring. The beautiful harmony of nature was only broken by the odd motorbike whizzing past and madly tooting. Once we had found a new place to live, we went straight to Brahma Kumaris, the spiritual university we had heard about.
We arrived by jeep to a grand white hall set on a little hill, with a magic garden and steps leading up to it. It looks quite grand from the outside. As we enter we are welcomed with quiet warm smiles from some older "Brothers and Sisters" who are all dressed in white. There are some amazing artworks on the walls, we are led by a Sister into a huge meditating hall with over 3000 seats. Huge signs hold pearls of wisdom on the walls in Hindi and English. There are also huge paintings of teachers. There is a relaxed atmosphere, and the whole complex and all the students dressed in white could have be the set of a futuristic sci fi movie. We decided to find out more when our little tour ended by buying some books at the book stand. I bought 4 books for 54 rupees, that’s about AUD$1.70. They print their own books and do not make a profit off it, and at that price, you can believe it! We organized to come back the next morning for three days of meditation and some lessons.
We found out later that the university organizes periods of time where westerners come in the thousands to learn advanced meditation, and only after they have been meditating in their respective Brahma Kumaris (BK) centre back home for the last 8 months are they offered the chance to learn here.
We just rocked up on the doorstep, and they very kindly organized us a teacher. Almost every service provided through the organization is free, students are welcome, but never forced or made feel obliged to donate money. Yet the infrastructure costs come from donations made by generous mediators, and most of the many services provided are free.
So we turn up to the peace hall at 9:30, and sit in what is supposedly an English class. The teacher speaks Hindi for a while, and we resign to the fact that we may not get any instruction, as was the case with his Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings and the language barrier.
But then along came a fantastic Australian lady by the name of Margaret, or Mani as the Indians call her, and she had offered to take us for guidance on the Spiritual Philosophy of the organization, and the details of how to meditate in their way.
She has put aside time for us at the drop of a hat, which we are very grateful for. Her lessons have been very clear and thorough, and not all things in the philosophy are how I might have imagined them. The organization has a vision that it is possible that the world can become peaceful, harmonious and free of religion, all through transformation of the self through meditation.
They teach that through meditation you can experience certain truths that you cannot experience with your five senses.
Here is a little outline of the philosophy only as I understand it so far:

God is a point of light, pure consciousness

We are all eternal souls, who always exist in the world of souls, which is like a dimension beyond time.

You can see the truth of your past lives, and the truth that your soul transmigrates from one body to another, life after life, and you can experience your original state in the soul world.

You can become an immaterial being but you cannot remain as an eternally immaterial being, you must at some point be reborn.

You are able to enter material worlds of perfect harmony through transformation.

The physical laws of thermodynamics apply to the spirituality. The law of entropy, which is that as the Universe expands, and time spirals onwards, chaos is increasing. This brings about seasons in the ages of consciousness in humanity. This means that souls take their next life in a world with less order, and as we are now we are in the age where man is in the clutches of greed lust anger fear and other nasties. This will end through the transformation of individuals through meditation. Apparently we are near the change or renewal of this entropic cycle

Another physical law of thermodynamics is that energy can neither be created or destroyed. Same goes with the soul.

God is not omnipresent! This one surprised me. They teach that god is too pure and innocent to be involved in suffering, disease and death.

Karma is a dimension of which they give a similar description to the one I gave in Varanasi, but also that you can transform your world through becoming a Raja, someone who is not just a product of their environment, not someone who needs their thoughts actions or their life to be validated rather a person, or who is really needy of others, but rather someone who makes up their own mind without just going along with others, someone who is not affected by their environment unless they choose to be. This gives the person a chance to transform themselves, as well as to positively influence others.

Even though all religions provide wisdom and often help humanity, they are mixed up memories of the past. All religious teachers are considered souls who remembered who they really are at a high level, which is that they are pure peaceful souls like you and me, and spoke the truth. This truth was then degraded by the natural law of entropy which resulted in the corruption of the truth, and eventually we will see the death of the religion. They do not believe that God would ever take a body.

In short, the meditation practice itself encourages you to follow peaceful feelings, and to keep your eyes open while you explore your thoughts.

Most importantly it offers all teachings as a hypothesis and encourages the student the opportunity to experience the truth of it through the meditation itself. They encourage skepticism, since it is a useful tool to becoming a master of Raja Yoga.

So that is a rough outline - remember it’s ONLY as I understand it, if you would like to read more you can visit their site.
http://www.bkwsu.com/

So anyway back to the story. After a brief discussion we were invited by Margaret to visit one the University itself, which is a complex separate to the peace hall. We caught the BK bus service and arrived at huge campus of elaborate and impeccably maintained gardens, with once again, sci-fi designed white building. As they were aware I was a musician they took us to meet David, an Australian brother who has a little pro tools studio there, and is also the resident artist, he is the man behind alot of the amazing art around the place. He is a peaceful guy, and he engages us warmly. During chatting a little more about recording, music and Australia, the four of us engage in what is known as traffic control. This is 3 minuets silence every hour on the half hour. It is great to sit there with these relatively unknown people to us at this point and observe silence in a relaxed manner. Quite beautiful. We head to his dwellings for a cuppa and more of a chat. On the way we pass a small dome shaped structure, like half an egg. We walk into the red lit room, which has amazing acoustics. We stand in the middle and all the reflections come back at you. We meditate here for 5 minutes. We then head to his dwelling on the uni grounds. In the 4 sided igloo shaped mud brick structure, painted white and perfectly clean and feng shui organized, he shows us his array of instruments. He also hand feeds birds on his balcony. His electricity comes from the batteries in the shed running off solar power. He even has an oven that runs off sunlight from a mirror!
The whole experience is so cool and outa this world like, and I feel great.
We also meditated along with the not quite synchronized monthly world peace meditation hour, which was great, despite people in the room farting, burping, sneezing, coughing and snorting.

Ben

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