By Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi
Spirituality is important to many. It is relevant to India. Spirituality is also important to Droupadi Murmu, the serving President of the Republic of India.
President Murmu has been having deep association with ‘Brahma Kumaris.’ (Special intensive prayers were offered by Brahma Kumaris, for the successful tenure of Draupadi Murmu in the Rashrapati Bhavan.)
Brahma Kumaris established themselves as a movement in Hyderabad, Sindh (in what is today Pakistan), in the 1930s by one Lekhraj Kirpalani. Lekhraj, it is said, had visions, visions of the future.
After the Partition in 1947, Brahma Kumaris moved to India where they established their headquarters at Mount Abu, in Rajasthan. (The Mount has attracted holy people of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhist religion.)
Brahma Kumaris are spiritual. The sect is described by some as part of the ‘New Age Movement’, which believes in the concept of End Times.
According to Brahma Kumaris, the world is approaching a time of ‘great change’ that will experience ‘war, natural calamities, and suffering.’ They believe, the world will witness a ‘nuclear conflict.’
The Brahma Kumari movement has a membership of a million or so devotees, present in more than a hundred countries.
On their part, a number of Hindu scholars have propagated the spiritual aspects of the mainstream Hindu religion. Serious practitioners, among others, include Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. His Guru, Swami Dayanand Giri, passed away some years ago. They feel the world is slowly entering a new time period.
Spiritualists of Dharmic beliefs have a silent fascination with the mysteries of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
Paradoxically, the main centers of the Indus Valley are not located in India, but in Pakistan a country which is itself the fortress of high Islamic spirituality.
Esoteric supernaturalism is gradually surfacing. As the world moves in the direction of religious fascism, the contours of this complex phenomenon would baffle the minds of many.
Note: The writer Mian Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi Qureshi joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1984. He was promoted to Grade 22, the highest grade in the civil services of Pakistan in 2017. He retired from government service in 2018.
Ambassador Afrasiab has authored a number of books, including the following:
– Encyclopedia on Pakistan’s relations with India, China and the United States.(2013)
– US Relations with South Asia. (2002)
– Ancient and Contemporary Pakistan. (2015)
– 1971: Fact and Fiction. (2014)
– The Greatest Man in History is Prophet Muhammad PBUH.(2017)
– Saqoot e Dhaka (2018)
– End Times (2022)
