On September 11, President Droupadi Murmu will make her first trip as India’s President to the Mount Abu headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual group she has been affiliated with since 2009.
She will address the session during the panel discussion at a summit the organisation is conducting. Among those attending the event will be Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Murmu last visited the headquarters about five or six years ago, according to Ratna Behan, who has been associated with the organisation for 48 years. “We only said a short Om Shanti (greeting) to one another. She ate lunch with everyone in the communal dining hall, and she seemed very grounded.”
RS Singh, a Brahma Kumari for 55 years, claimed that Murmu joined the group out of a sense of loss. “She was looking inside herself and found it here.”
When Murmu was an Odisha legislator, she would go to the Brahma Kumari ashram in the far-off Rairangpur hamlet with her three sisters.
According to her colleague Leena Behen, Murmu would serve food and wash dishes. “She [Murmu] has always been committed to public service and will remain so.”
When Murmu lost her husband and two sons, she joined the Brahma Kumaris. According to a member of the organisation, she approached them when she was in horrible form.
She used this place to discover her position in the world. The source continued that in order to disseminate the Brahma Kumaris’ worldview, Murmu organised camps and other activities in far-flung tribal areas.
Murmu will probably also travel to the organization’s headquarters in Odisha, where she has given two Brahma Kumaris homes.
She is among well-known figures in politics, religion, and business who have ties to the organisation. When he was the chief minister of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to the organization’s headquarters. More than 140 countries are home to the organisation.
The organization’s communications officer, BK Komal, claimed that while their donations decreased by almost 50% during the COVID-19 outbreak, their number of followers climbed dramatically.