From BrahmaKumaris.Info Encyclopedia
From the Hindi word for flute, as seen pictured symbolically in the hands of Krishna, the BK Murlis are the closest thing to scripture within the BK religion. The are considered to be the words of God, i.e. Shiva, as spoken through the medium of Brahma Baba. All the primary BK teachings come from the Murlis. The BK Murlis, especially Sakar Murlis are not widely available to the public. One must go to a BK center to hear them spoken or to read a copy. BK "students" hear a Murli every morning at around 6.30 am.
- Flute: for Raja Yogis the murli has come to mean the classes given by BapDada being as sweet as the flute of music played by Krishna.
- This word murli is used for the teachings of Shiv Baba. It is very appropriate and poetic. Baba enters a medium and speaks, as a flutist makes music by blowing wind through a hollow flute.
One who plays (trance messenger/speaks) the murli.
Varieties of Murli
There are two varieties of Murli:
- "Sakar" i.e. corporeal - these were spoken by Dada Lekhraj/Brahma Baba every morning until his death in 1969. Nowadays the BKs edit and recycle the last 5 years of these Murlis, listening to them Monday through to Saturday every week.
- "Avyakt" i.e. subtle - these have been spoken since 1969 by Brahma Baba through the medium of channel of BK Gulzar - only a few of these are now spoken each year. BKs also recycle these and hear them every Sunday. New Avyakt Murlis are broadcast live from Madhuban, via secure private channels over the internet to BKs worldwide and are heard live by up to 25,000 people in person at the gatherings in Madhuban, Rajasthan, India. See also Avyakt BapDada.
God, and The Murlis, are said to be only heard spoken in Madhuban.
Controversy exist over how much of the Murlis are Shiva speaking and how much are Dada Lekhraj or Brahma speaking. Internally, a wide variety of opinions are be held. Institutionally, the Seniors have invariably avoided this debate by accepting Brahma Baba's words to be equal to God Shiva's. They call the two in a "combined form" called BapDada and engage in editing out, or considerably changing, controversial sections including; dates, specific numeric references such as world population and the more politically incorrect contents, e.g. relating to race, color or religion.
The orthodox view is that all of the Murlis are "God's" unquestionable" Word". However, simple syntax and numerous references suggests otherwise and it would appear that medium Dada Lekhraj/Brahma Baba has some degree of input and expression or that the channeled being relies on Dada Lekhraj/Brahma Baba's sanskars to express itself. This would explain how and why "God" speaks Hindi and has such a Hindu leaning. The BKWSU was instructed to revise these teachings after the death of Dada Lekhraj/Brahma Baba. However, revise has been taken to mean re-edit and, unfortunately, due to extensive nature of these edits and secrecy about the early teachings, it is becoming increasing difficult study them in their original state.
On the internet, the BKWSU chooses to limit access to "God's Word" by a system of password protection, extensive PGP encryption and other systems. Emailing Murlis to others, where it can be easily copied, is considered bad form and new technologies are being brought in to increase security.
BKWSU offshoot, the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris, or PBKs, also value and study both the Sakar and Avyakt Murlis, as well additional teachings or new Murlis, through their own alleged medium Veerendra Dev Dixit. They are refused original copies by the BKWSU and have to rely on anonymous and supportive sources within the BKWSU for supplies, known PBKs being barred from BKWSU centers. In addition, their medium also produces new Murlis, or clarifications of the old Murlis, which are distributed freely and widely.
Copyright and Public Access
Naturally, the issue of these teachings being, avowedly, the active words of a living God by the BKWSU raises interesting question as to what exactly the copyright restrictions on their publishing might be. At the very least, it must be argued that they be available for the purposes of non-commercial study under the internationally accepted principle of "Fair Use". However, in this circumstance and as an example to the BKWSU, we are taking the initiative to publish them under the principle known as Copyleft or the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
Before doing so, repeated unsuccessful efforts were made to have clarification of the copyright issue on teaching aids created under Shiva's instructions from the Chief of Global P.R. and MultiMedia B.K in Madhuban, India. Karuna. B.K. Karuna declined to clarify on the grounds that the independently run BrahmaKumaris.Info was acting against "Shrimat" and that he was receiving "bad vibrations". He did however state that both the "birthright" and "copyright" of God's Word belonged to the original BKs only.
Under the terms of this limited copyright, it must therefore be accepted that any individual considering themselves to be a BK, or God's child, has access to these documents for their own use.
- Further donations, especially of older, original and un-edited Murlis' are very welcome - either directly to this Mediawiki Encyclopedia, or anonymously to the BrahmaKumaris.Info upload section, here; . No password necessary.
- For open, independent, public access to example Murlis see the category links below ;