Tamasin Ramsey
Full comment by Tamasin Ramsey:
Thank you for this very good article about cyclic time and the period of degradation and renewal (or destruction and creation in a more fundamental sense). I thought it was important to clarify the point Anthony mentioned in his article that there has been no fixed date given for the destructive/ transformative moment. It’s true that no precise date has been given. However there have been prophecies that have not come to pass: years for destruction have been mentioned throughout the organization’s history. Key to understanding this is knowing that in the early days of the BK community there was a strong sense of spiritual urgency. That feeling is still there among many, although it has tempered somewhat with the passage of time. Nevertheless, when the first generation of members coupled that feeling of spiritual urgency with the world events of WWII they presumed – understandably – that the end of the world was taking place. Then when it didn’t happen, the Partition between Indian and Pakistan made 1950 look like a good option for the world change prophecy to come to fruition. Then in the Indian scriptures it says the Confluence Age is 100 years. As Brahma Baba was (they thought) born in 1876 (that’s another story) the year 1976 made sense. That too failed to pass. There have been multiple reasons, and multiple dates. Although no fixed date was ever given by Shiv Baba who is the Supreme Being the BKs consider the God of all, people do love to predict, plan and prepare. Brahma Baba did the same and offered dates to keep the student body moving forward in their aim of becoming egoless, liberated and complete. We can only presume to know his reasoning as he is not here to response. In the BKs, time has always been “short” and we should recognize, and be clear about, what can be considered a failure of prophecy. This doesn’t mean a failure of the whole teachings. But the BKs have indeed had prophecies, and they have – to date – failed to pass as yet.