Bhaibund Om Mandli Committee

“ The constantly dins into their ears that their husbands are passion-ridden and lascivious. On that account they are never to be given their marital rights and in order to put their husbands off, they are taught all sorts of tricks and dodges. An amorous husband is to be told that she is having her menses, that she is sick, and if he continues to be insistent, he is to be delivered a knock-out blow or smashing kick. Such is the teaching given for making and maintain a home. No wonder that hundreds of erstwhile peaceful and happy homes have been ruthlessly broken up by the Mandli. ”

“ Government in Sind still believe in force; the Satyagrahi relies on the Higher Power which no force can conquer.
"The Premier's pleading in favour of the Om Mandli as reported by the A. P. is an insult to the ideals and intelligence of the Hindu Community. The Premier takes his stand on the plausible plea of democratic freedom of an association and argues as though politics and social morality have nothing to do with each other. Surely a true democracy respects the voice of public opinion. The Mandli is anti social for it breaks down homes and human values and human rights. ”

“ Women and girls are influenced or duped to remain in the Mandli by all sorts of luxuries Bhai Lekhraj supplies them with rich food, appetising sweets, fruits, scented soups, pastes, perfumes, clothes and beautiful beds all free. Then he has cars and buses to give them joy rides. Their days pass in eating, enjoying and making merry with no work to do. It is not surprising therefore that the girls which have such comforts and company feel miserable on return home until they get habituated again to their normal life after the influences are warded off. ”

“ It was certainly a duty of the Panchayat to inform the parents of the evidence that had been collected by the Committee and explain to them as to what was happening in the Mandli under the cloak of religion and philosophy. If a reasonable explanation inspired by duty and service towards Society is mistaken for harrassement, one can find no words to express the contempt, the dispair and sorrow to the extent folly can descend. ”

“ The discontentment at home following the unnatural and sudden rebellion of hitherto peaceful and loving daughters and daughters-in-law, the general wonder at the abnormality found inside the Mandli, the whispers of the baffled and disgusted neighbours-all these took time to make noise. But not four years as Om Radhe says. Barely six months. Truth is stranger than fiction. Nobody would believe it at first, the modern educated people refused to believe it. ”

“ The Government of Sind ought to bring pressure on Lekhraj to hand over immediately all the minor boys and girls in the Om Mandli to their parents and guardians, and then force him to close down the institution for the sake of public peace and tranquility. We think he should also be advised to take a long voyage for about two years and thus save the girls from his hypnotic influence. His life has passed his meridian; but the future life of the grown up girls and little children in the Mandli is damned for ever. They can not always live in a state of trance or coma. ”

“ This Mandli has thrown many girls and women into the abyss. The Premier's pleading is not a plan for freedom but a call to race suicide. Let us be aware lest liberty turns into license. Let us not forget that the guide to freedom is the great Gospel of Social Morality. ”

“ The investigation of the Bhaibund committee and the depositions of some inamtes of the Om Mandli as well as the very truths divulged by Om Radhe in the course of her cross examination in Court (Marked A) have completely opened the eyes of the Public of Sind as to the nature of this so called Gian.
Perhaps one would forgive Lekhraj if he kept his Gyan to himself. He has in his fold tender minds, impressionable and growing. Om Radhe who is the President is herself inside twenty five years; she is young, unsophisticated and yet only a girl budding out to life. ”

“ My Committee is confident that the Government will give its earnest consideration to the grievances of public, vindicate their rights and take suitable action against the defaulters who have wilfully disobeyed the directions issues to them. Such associations must be put down with a strong iron hand and in the interests of public good, they must be uprooted without any further delay and therefore request that Government will be pleased to devise ways and means to remedy the evils which are cutting at the very roots of the loyal and law abiding Hindu Community, at their earliest convenience. ”

“ Let us take for granted our children need more discipline and spiritual education than what they get at their schools. But is this the reason why these children should be taken out of their natural environments and taught to disobey their parents and to he harsh and callous towards their kith and kin, and to live as if they owed no obligation to the Society in which they were born? ”

“ The Mandli is a cordon against Hindu homes and an insult to Sri Krishna and the Hindu Rishis' ideal and the sacred teaching of "OM". Would the Premier be allowed to tolerate for a day a Mandli which would insult the Prophet of Islam as the Om Mandli is insulting Sri Krishna every day? Here in the Mandli is an ordinary mortal impersonating as Sri Krishna and giving to young impressionable girls and credulous women a teaching which means disruption of homes and democracy, the three are one' and this agitation against the Om Mandli is also a movement for purified democracy and true freedom. ”

“ A whole city, like one man, has concentrated upon the activities of a single individual. None has time or inclination to think of anything else. Om Mandli has got on their nerves. It sounds a ghost story from Arabian-Night but never-the-less it is true. One feels it is only when the city is free from the "infernal" spell of this Om Mandli (some called it Om Mandi (Market) . Prof. Jethmal called it Om Khandli) that Hyderabad will be able to divert its energy and attention to some other useful and constructive pursuit. ”

“ Only the family has grown so large and so noisy that is has become a public nuisance and the public has stood up in anger. Moreover the vaunted programme of the Om Mandli of saving the world and of inaugurating a New Age, i.e. social work, makes the purpose of the Mandli a public one, Om Radhe is too much under the hypnotic influence of Bhai Lekhraj to have a correct view about him would be obvious. ”

“ And how many husbands were there in comparison to the wives?
Sadhu Vaswani has world wide fame for his piety and the fact that he joined the movement against the Om Mandli proves without the least doubt the righteousness of the Public cause. His call to his countrymen which is reproduced in his own words here below admits of no such compromise as mentioned above.
"My appeal" said Saddhu Vaswani "is to all my countrymen. The Om Mandli is a den of darkness. Close it down without delay. Your children, my dear Sindhi countrymen are your richest treasure. ”

“ Poor innocent girls, who know nothing of marriage and the process of birth are taught that men are tyrants, that pregnancy is painful and therefore marriage it to be avoided." "These children are hypnotised into unconsciousness for hours at an end." To cheat the parents into the belief, that their children are not wasting time in the Om Nivas, a sewing class has been opened which is more for their entertainment than for their training. There are no fixed hours of work, The whole day is wasted in idle merriment and in devising ways of enticing new members." ”

“ It is not a fact as alleged that husbands are brutal or so lustful and inconsiderate that they would demand conjugal rights of a weak or sick wife. It is a false excuse especially taught to defy their husbands however humane and reasonable they may be. Bhai Lekhraj does not want the affections to be transferred to any one but himself. d. The founder of the Institutions Bhai Lekhraj and his disciples indulge in vile abuse against the community, the Committee Members, parents and use filthy language towards them and thus bring about utter contempt for them. ”

“ The garb of religion is used to cover Dada Lekhraj's activities. He knows nothing of religion and has never practised any. His cult furthers the object he has in view. He is God, the members of the Om Mandli to whom he imparts Gian become Gods; a God can commit no sin...... ”

“ We should welcome the publication by Government of the evidence recorded and the findings at by the Tribunal so that the public of Sind might know what a poisonous institution, destructive of morality, decency, clean personal and family life and of natural parental relationship with children is children is being nursed in the midst of the people of Sind, which is to their shame and disgrace. ”

“ From the facts concerning the Om Mandli which have now seen the light of the day, through sources external as well as internal, this public meeting of the citizens of Karachi has been convinced that the activities which are being carried on within its precincts are absolutely harmful to public morals, have destroyed many homes and are undermining the very foundation of the Society. ”

“ Married women are enjoined not to offer conjugal rights to husbands and even permit the latter to remarry on the please that they have not realised their self. Apart from the fact that this has broken up erstwhile peaceful homes and made the contented life of a husband and a wife miserable it has produced prejudice amongst the public in respect of unmarried girls in the Mandli and likely grave apprehension with their parents for their future disposal in marriage if they continued to live therein. ”

“ Bhai Lekhraj either through hypnotism or some other uncanny influence or wrong teaching brings about such a perverted state of mind among the inmates that the girls bathe with or before him half-naked without feeling abashed. Under probably the belief that he is divine, the women and he indulge in premiscuous kissing, hugging, dancing, and sleeping together and all this is offensive and immoral socially according to Hindu ideals. With us even sitting alone with women folk, be they relations, is not proper. ”

“ The girls who gave depositions belong to very respectable families and have narrated their own personal observations and experiences. They bear no enmity to either Bhai Lekhraj or his Om Mandli. Far from giving wholly improbably and absurd stories, their depositions give a consistent and logical account of Bhai Lekhraj and his Om Mandli from the time of their first connection upto the time when these girls were rescued by their parents. ”

“ Some 2 1/2 to 3 years ago one Bhai Lekhraj Khubchand aged about 52 who had retired from his jeweller's business at Calcutta set up a satsang in his house which he called Om Mandli where it was said that divine knowledge would be imparted to girls mostly, which neither his occupation nor his education or his anticedents fitted him for. He train some young girl disciples. to give sermons to visitors and also initiate them in what was called "Gian" i.e. self realisation by putting himself of his girl disciples and the seeker alone into a closed room for hours together from day to day. ”

“ The pretext of non-interference of Bhai Lekhraj on ground of no locus standi of causes of mal-treatment suffered by women are after thoughts and inventions of Om Radhe to shield Bhai Lekhraj.
Perhaps Om Radhe is under the belief that it gives pleasure to the Important Members of the Bhaibund Committee to agitate and cause agitation against the Mandli. No sane man is Anti without a reason, a well grounded justification. ”

“ It is utterly false and even mean of Om Radhe to write about the District Magistrate as a ally of the Panchayat. Due to the District Magistrate's leniency, the Mandli was emboldened from day to day not only to flagrantly flout the very compromise they had themselves made but even after the proceedings under Section 107 Cr. P. C. were launched and the City Magistrate had ordered them to suspend mixed satsangs they still carried on, caring nothing for the Magistrate's order.
The best way of fighting against criticism is to stay where one is and face it. Bhai Lekhraj had another ingenous way. ”

“ It is well known that it is in the interests of the unmarried adult girls of the Om Mandli and many young women living there that the evidence was asked to be taken in camera so that their future may not be entirely blasted. After sometime things will pass into merciful oblivion, and those unmarried girls will have a chance of getting settled in life removed from the obnoxious influence of the super-hypnotists of the Om Mandli. ”

“ The so called school is merely a name where no education of any sort to improve their body and mind is given. Instead wrong notions of marriage and child-birth are inculcated amongst girls of tender age. ”

“ This report has set in motion all those who are in the pay of Dada Lekhraj, pleaders, barristers, touts etc. who have been making money at his expense, to make a last desperate effort to save him and his Mandli from the inevitable fate in store for them, in view of the findings of the Tribunal going completely against his undesirable and immoral institution, which should be closed down in the public interest. ”

“ Do girls fall in trance in Om Mandli? A: Yes they do fall in trance and see visions of God in that trance as Arjun had seen visions of God. Q: Do girls of tender age fall into such a trance? A: Yes Q: Do adults also fall in such a trance? A: Yes all males and females do fall in such a trance? Q: Who gives Gian in the Mandli? A: Every male and female member of Om Mandli takes and gives Gian which I mean "Atam Gian". Q: Is screaming done in trance? A: No screaming is done in trance by any but all falling in trance talk of what they see like Arjan before Krishna. ”

“ The innocent children in charge of this man will become victims of mental perversion and sexuality, which is a danger to Society. He can not be the Krishna all the time, for young and middle aged women Gopis for long. He has to die one da and these women, who are being brought up on such an erotic diet, will seek fresh Krishnas to lead the life of rakes. We therefore think that the rake's progress of the Om Mandli has to be immediately stopped by constituted authority. ”

“ It is a potent fact that no true "Gian" can be bought in the market. What he has really bought is some hypnosis or some other mystic, sinister and perverted yogic power which easily affects weak and susceptible minds. His Satsang is a ruse to gather the company of young girls and women about him, making them believe the he is God Incarnate. c. Imparting of "Gian" (self realisation) by young girls to youthful visitors closeted alone for hours together. This is a temptation which is unhealthy and undesirable and many young men visit the Mandli purely on account of this sex attraction. ”

“ The widow's savings, the married womens' jewellery, the unmarried girls dowry-fund-all these have gone into the general pool, and to say nothing of the "things" they borrowed" from their homes when they ran away! An institution is a collective growth depending on the resources of dhan of all the members according to their capacities. From the reports in the press and elsewhere, is unwise to to believe that Lekhraj alone contributed, others have equally contributed their quota to the Mandli. ”

“ It may be he is leading a revolt against some of the pernicious social customs and practices prevailing amongst the Bhaibund community. But a social reformer need not style himself as a modern Sri Krishna nor should he have an exclusive attachment of women devotees, most girls of tender years and of marriageable age who should have other guardians and care takers than this Bhai Lekhraj. ”