{"title":"Preparing for the Past, Packaged for the Present: The Brahma Kumaris, Meditation, and a Self-(Help) Styled Monasticism","authors":"","doi":"10.1007/s11407-024-09358-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Abstract</h3> <p>The Brahma Kumaris are a Hindu religious movement whose membership consists almost exclusively of women and whose devotional practices revolve around notions of purity and celibacy. They also hold a cyclical apocalyptic eschatology, believing that the world will end in utter disaster in the near future, just as it has done in countless times past. In order to achieve their religious goals with respect to the apocalypse, the Brahma Kumaris must engage in recruitment on a massive scale. This article examines the marketing of the Brahma Kumaris. It argues that, in order to usher in the end of the world and spare others a painful post-apocalyptic fate, the Brahma Kumaris host a number of retreats and programs aimed at attracting the public to their movement. These retreats and programs, however, have little to do with celibacy and apocalypticism, but instead focus on self-help, stress reduction, and increasing self-confidence. The article examines the ways that the Brahma Kumaris brand their determinedly ascetic, apocalyptic, and predestinarian movement as a meditative tradition which offers self-help tools for the frenzied modern public. It also considers how scholars should theorize about the marketing of religious groups that have a radically different set of internal theologies than those they present to the public.</p>","PeriodicalId":53989,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Hindu Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Hindu Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-024-09358-5","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
The Brahma Kumaris are a Hindu religious movement whose membership consists almost exclusively of women and whose devotional practices revolve around notions of purity and celibacy. They also hold a cyclical apocalyptic eschatology, believing that the world will end in utter disaster in the near future, just as it has done in countless times past. In order to achieve their religious goals with respect to the apocalypse, the Brahma Kumaris must engage in recruitment on a massive scale. This article examines the marketing of the Brahma Kumaris. It argues that, in order to usher in the end of the world and spare others a painful post-apocalyptic fate, the Brahma Kumaris host a number of retreats and programs aimed at attracting the public to their movement. These retreats and programs, however, have little to do with celibacy and apocalypticism, but instead focus on self-help, stress reduction, and increasing self-confidence. The article examines the ways that the Brahma Kumaris brand their determinedly ascetic, apocalyptic, and predestinarian movement as a meditative tradition which offers self-help tools for the frenzied modern public. It also considers how scholars should theorize about the marketing of religious groups that have a radically different set of internal theologies than those they present to the public.
期刊介绍：
Founded in 1997, the International Journal of Hindu Studies is committed to publishing excellent scholarship on well-established topics in Hindu Studies, to fostering new work in neglected areas, and to stimulating alternative perspectives as well as exchange of information on a wide range of issues. The Journal supports critical inquiry, hermeneutical interpretive proposals, and historical investigation into all aspects of Hindu traditions. While committed to publishing articles that will advance scholarship in any discipline relevant to Hindu Studies, the Journal is especially interested in areas of research that have cross-disciplinary relevance or new implications for this emerging field of scholarly interest. Submissions of a comparative or theoretical nature in every discipline in the humanities and social sciences will receive serious and respectful consideration. Each submission to the Journal will receive double-blind review.
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