contributed by Nick Tackes, 5 Apr 2022

Our thoughts have the power to influence our feelings, body, nature, and the world. … We have all read the book [The] Secret. We all talk about [the] law of attraction. In Hindi, the word is very simple. Saṁkalp se siddhī: thoughts manifest … so we create thoughts that we want [to be] manifest. We want it to finish, so we create the thought, “it’s finished, it’s gone, it’s over, never ever to come again.” That’s how we talk about this virus or think about it. Because what we think radiates, vibrates, and manifests. So let’s collectively think, “it’s gone, it’s over, it’s finished,” and let’s use saṁkalp se siddhī, the law of attraction.

So spoke Sister Shivani, YouTube star and public face of the Brahma Kumaris. Her words were broadcast to Republic News on April 5, 2020, the day Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set for a nationwide display of unity in the face of COVID-19. For nine minutes at 9:00 p.m., all citizens were to shut off all houselights and stand in solidarity with candles lit. Sister Shivani’s appeal to the viewers of Republic News went one step further: rather than stand idly, candles in hand, India’s citizens should think positive thoughts to manifest the reality that they have already conquered COVID-19.

A post, dated January 6, 2021, on the Brahma Kumaris’ official Facebook page promotes a YouTube video on “The habit of seeing goodness” by Sister Sudha. Source: https://www.facebook.com/bkwsu.

What are we to make of the injunction to positive thinking amid a global health crisis? At the time of Shivani’s interview, there were 3030 active cases in India. To date, the number of COVID-19 cases has risen above 43 million. Critiques of government shortcomings and the irresponsibility of substituting symbolic actions for substantive relief measures quickly followed the April 5 event. These were repeated forcefully one year later when the COVID-19 delta variant, or “second wave,” overwhelmed India’s hospital infrastructure and medicinal distribution networks, exposing a lack of healthcare capacity and preparedness.

When disease not only persists but rages, what does positive thinking accomplish, whether for individuals, families, or communities? I argue that for the Brahma Kumaris, such thinking is not merely optimism; rather, it is a ritual method whereby participants transform themselves and their surroundings through vibrations. More than a recapitulation of Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling self-help book, The Secret, the Brahma Kumaris’ version of the law of attraction involves a meditative practice understood to establish a substantive connection between practitioners and God. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as I describe below, the Brahma Kumaris have used ritualized positivity to mitigate panic, inspire on-the-ground relief efforts, and cope with the deaths of two prominent organizational leaders.

The Brahma Kumaris claim to be the world’s largest religious organization run by women. Founded in 1937 in Hyderabad, Sindh (at that time British India, now Pakistan), the group has rapidly expanded since the 1970s. It is especially popular among middle-class urban-dwelling North Indians of Hindu background (both men and women), and the overseas missions of several senior leaders have led to a sizeable following in the U.K.: according to organizational estimates, there are now nearly one million members worldwide.

Although the Brahma Kumaris borrow heavily from popular Hindu cosmological concepts, members distinguish themselves from Hindus in dress, lifestyle, and doctrine. Notably, they wear white clothing (which Hindus associate with widowhood) and maintain vows of celibacy. These practices reflect a larger departure from mainstream Hinduism: Brahma Kumaris believe that the world will end within the next century, and that only the pure will be reborn in a golden age of righteousness that they call the satyug. Despite this worldview, the Brahma Kumaris neither framed COVID-19 as evidence of the end times nor retreated from society in preparation for an approaching apocalypse; to the contrary, members insisted upon efforts to spread lifestyle advice based on their belief that with the correct mindset, one can radiate benevolent vibrations that have the power to work transformations upon oneself and others.

Among the Brahma Kumaris best known for popularizing these teachings is Sister Shivani, whose most popular YouTube videos have millions of views. During her interview with Republic News, Sister Shivani was quick to point out that the purpose of standing in solidarity for nine minutes at 9:00 p.m. “is not just symbolic as far as unity and coming together, but it’s also so that all of us will together create very high-energy thoughts…. When the whole country together will create those vibrations, it will empower everyone all over the world.” It is with this same sentiment that the Brahma Kumaris, one month later, began to advertise daily synchronous meditations so that large numbers of people could benefit from their positive vibrations. Shivani’s words emphasize that for the Brahma Kumaris, there is strength in numbers. By advocating for the ritual performance of group solidarity as a COVID-19 countermeasure, Shivani and the Brahma Kumaris joined a number of religious communities that promised immunity as the result of collective action (Gajaweera and Mahadev 2021; Roy et al. 2021; Tackes 2021).

Source:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BK+Shivani+meditation+covid+patients

The particular meditation that the Brahma Kumaris promote is called rājayog, a contemplative exercise members believe establishes a connection between practitioner and God. During the Spring of 2021, at the height of COVID-19’s second wave in India, the Brahma Kumaris published several YouTube videos entitled “Meditation for COVID patients.” Although these videos were offered to the public as general meditations, they followed the same format as rājayog, featuring narration by Sister Shivani. At certain points in the recordings, Shivani directs participants to make positive declarations such as “I am peaceful” and “my body is completely healthy.” At other points, she encourages listeners to visualize themselves receiving beneficent vibrations from God.

Framed as a COVID-19 relief measure, positive thinking is thus more than a refusal to admit defeat in trying circumstances. For the Brahma Kumaris, positivity is a ritual process wherein divine vibrations work upon the body and its surroundings. The mindset that one has the ability to connect with God’s grace–a communicable force in the form of vibrations–offers Brahma Kumaris a sense of control amid chaotic times. Tamasin Ramsay, Lenore Manderson, and Wendy Smith (2010) have previously written about the Brahma Kumaris’ ability to cope with catastrophe through recourse to “soul consciousness,” a frame of mind in which the organization’s members focus on the soul’s distinction from the body. The injunction to think positive which has characterized the Brahma Kumaris’ response to COVID-19 resembles soul consciousness in a major way: both promote a “mind over matter” attitude that rejects the ability of worldly trials to determine one’s interior state. Yet a major difference distinguishes the two. The focus of soul consciousness is on the separation of soul and body. The power of positive thinking, by contrast, derives from the ability of human thought to activate a vibratory conduit between the soul, God’s beneficence, the body, and its surroundings. If soul consciousness provides comfort by assuring Brahma Kumaris that they are not of this world, ritualized positive thinking offers Brahma Kumaris a tool whereby they might engage with and transform the world for the better.

The Brahma Kumaris believe that God’s benevolence has prophylactic power, and that it can be accessed through ritual connection. Photo by the author, 2019.

The Brahma Kumaris have invested in the proliferation of positive thinking as a relief measure to the public. From April to June 2021, the organization published twenty two YouTube videos that addressed mental health amid the pandemic. Uniformly, these videos shared the message that one’s thoughts have power, whether to conquer fear and anxiety, to heal the body, or to connect with deceased loved ones.

In addition to YouTube content, the Brahma Kumaris offered medical relief in the vicinity of their headquarters on Abu Road and Mount Abu (Rajasthan, India). This included the relegation of nearly seven hundred beds to COVID-19 patients, the provision of daily meals, and three mobile clinics that made daily trips to local villages. Alongside physiological care, patients received regular counseling by Brahma Kumaris staff in line with the above-mentioned focus on positive thinking.

COVID-19 has marked a distressing period for the Brahma Kumaris, during which they lost two of their senior-most leaders. Sister Janki, an active member of the Brahma Kumaris since its inception and a leader since the 1980s, died at the age of 104 on March 27, 2020. One year later, Sister Gulzar died at the age of 93. The Brahma Kumaris consider Gulzar to have been the last sister able to act as a medium for God’s word, so her death has effectively closed the canon of Brahma Kumaris’ scripture. Although the Brahma Kumaris surely grieved and lamented the loss of these two organizational leaders, they publicly focused on expressions of fond reminiscence, peace, and empowerment.

A government-imposed lockdown severely limited the organization’s ability to gather for Sister Janki’s funerary rites, so onsite videographers and drones live-streamed the ceremony to YouTube. Viewers worldwide participated in the event online by typing messages in the YouTube chatroom. The overwhelming majority of these messages consisted of the simple phrase “ōṁ śānti” (“Om, peace”). This phrase is both the salutation used by the Brahma Kumaris and the condensed form of their declaration of soul consciousness (“I am a peaceful soul”). When mourning Brahma Kumaris expressed this sentiment during the cremation of Sister Janki (and, one year later, the cremation of Sister Gulzar), they did so in part to convey peace-filled vibrations to the soul of the departed.

The Brahma Kumaris have long believed that thoughts reach the souls of the recently deceased, and the large-scale loss of life caused by COVID-19 spurred them to reiterate this message to the public. Sister Shivani, once again, served as the public messenger in a YouTube video published in late May of 2021. Although Shivani acknowledges the reality and weight of grief, she encourages the bereaved to consider first the needs of those who have died. Thoughts of sadness and distress may exacerbate the loneliness of a departed soul, for which reason the Brahma Kumaris encourage instead positive thoughts and fond remembrance to empower that soul on its journey to the afterlife. In an emphatic switch from Hindi to English, Shivani tells viewers that “this is a time to come together collectively, because collective vibrations of peace, love, gratitude, and power will become their healing energy.”

For the Brahma Kumaris, positivity is more than a mood. Represented as a meditative process whereby participants connect with God, receive vibratory power, and gain the ability to radiate divine beneficence, positive thinking is a therapeutic tool by which to cope with COVID-19, treat it, and perform service unto others.

Works Cited

Gajaweera, Nalika, and Neena Mahadev. 2021. “Sonic Fields of Protection in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Pandemic.” CoronAsur: Religion & COVID-19 (blog). February 19, 2021. Accessed March 27, 2022. https://ari.nus.edu.sg/20331-76/.

Ramsay, Tamasin, Lenore Manderson, and Wendy Smith. 2010. “Changing a Mountain into a Mustard Seed: Spiritual Practices and Responses to Disaster Among New York Brahma Kumaris.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 25 (1): 89–105.

Roy, Dishani, Raka Banerjee, Carola E. Lorea, Fatema Aarshe, Khaled Bin Oli Bhuiyan, and Mukul Pandey. 2021. “The Sonic and the Somatic: Matua Healing Practices During COVID-19.” CoronAsur: Religion & COVID-19 (blog). January 22, 2021. Accessed March 27, 2022. https://ari.nus.edu.sg/20331-73/.

Tackes, Nick. 2021. “COVID-19 First Responders: The Gayatri Pariwar and the Immune Ritual Body.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 89 (3): 1006–38.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the blog editorial team or the Asia Research Institute.

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