I came across a magazine called "what is enlightment?" which claims to be "striving to catalyze a new way of thinking, one that integrates our highest spiritual aspirations with the demand to transform the world." The issue I looked at (a web feature on this topic can be found at:
http://www.wie.org/business/default.asp) included many articles on transforming the global corporate machine into a catalyst for global change - involving new "paradigms" for corporate methodologies, etc. The main article had sections penned by several major players in the corporate world. Page after page I turned and the realization soon hit me - all of these people who are to be in charge to "change the world" were all white men and women who all maintained the privilege and worldview that comes along with belonging to the wealthiest class of people in the world.
This is the same paradigm that has plagued the world in the form of european "enlightened" thinking for the past few hundred years(and one could say the past few thousand years if one see european culture as the fruition of the conquering indo-european system of beliefs). Who is being consulted and who is it making the decisions? It is still resting with those who have been banking off the mess and will now be banking on the "clean up."
This same old way of thinking is now dressed up with the consultations of "spiritual" advisers such as:
"Co-Administrative Head, Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. A spiritual guide to Brian Bacon, Tex Gunning, Joseph Jaworski, Charles Handy, Peter Senge, David Cooperrider, Rita Cleary, and others.
We are reminded of the tasks of the European enlightenment in this supposed new way of thinking:
“It's God's task to purify the impure, to transform the world,” Dadi Janki tells us. “But He can't do it alone. He says, 'I've got to get it done through you. You've created hell in the world, and so you have to be the instruments to create heaven. Then you can be the masters of heaven.'” This message is Dadi Janki's mandate for leaders.
From one product of aryan invasions to another, this is nothing but ego stroking along the lines of bringing light to a dark world amongst an elite class of brahmans - birds of a feather flocking together.
And while this diminutive woman draped in a white sari might appear to be from an era long past, she is a guiding force to a bright future. “Those with a positive vision of the future,” she writes, “give us an image of a world . . . where the highest human potential is fully realized. But we can get to that stage only when there are leaders to take us there.”
And she is determined to create those leaders. Through “Call of the Times” dialogues, she invites key figures in government, business, and the nonprofit sector from all five continents to engage in the deepest level of dialogue and reflection about the current human situation. After these dialogues, she has been known to select someone to continue to work directly with her—meditating and engaging in discussion—to insure that that person viscerally grasps our world crisis and is compelled to take action in new and profound ways. For example, after meeting Dadi Janki and the Brahma Kumaris, Brian Bacon, strategic advisor to some of the world's largest multinationals, began to offer his highly regarded leadership trainings gratis at the Brahma Kumari World Spiritual University. And Joseph Jaworski, founder of Generon Consulting, credits Dadi Janki with the inspiration for his Global Leadership Initiative, designed to tackle the biggest challenges facing humanity.
“Her leadership is not based on any formal position that she holds,” says Tex Gunning, president of Unilever Bestfoods Asia. “Her power comes purely from her spiritual credibility. As a leader, the more I've searched for role models, the more I've come to realize that this is the most profound power. If my boss asks me to make a meeting, I look at my agenda first. But if Dadi Janki, with whom I have no formal relationship, tells me to be in London, I just get on the plane!” As she makes profoundly clear to those who come in contact with her, there is no choice but to respond to the call to change the world: “As God says, 'This is what you have to do.' And we must say, 'Yes, we will.'”"
Indeed.
Author