Brahma Baba bestows blessings of peace, wisdom.

Byline: FROM HEART TO HEART By Sister Karan For The Register-Guard

I have three fathers: 1) the dear, 87-year-old, devoutly Christian father of this body of mine; 2) the beloved Supreme Father of I, the soul; and 3) my angelic father, officially called Prajapita Brahma (Father of Humanity) and affectionately known as Brahma Baba. He founded the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, to which I've dedicated the past 25 years of my life.

On Jan. 18, 1969, at age 93, Brahma Baba passed from this world into the subtle world of angels.

Those who knew him well say he had achieved complete balance of all yogic disciplines and, having become viceless, full of virtues, egoless and free of karmic bondages, relinquished his body. I hadn't yet met him. Half a world away, I struggled through my first Montana winter.

Ten years later, destiny led me to San Francisco and to a Brahma Kumaris (BK) meditation center.

The first time I saw Brahma Baba's photo, I felt as if he was saying, "Ahh, you've come." Thousands of BKs all over the world relate similar stories.

I've learned to experience this sweet father through the BK elders who lived around him for three decades - both through their stories and from the way they embody how he was. He led by example, acutely aware that "As I do, others will follow."

He radiated love, peace, wisdom and happiness and treated everyone with high regard, irrespective of age, caste, race or religion.

He particularly elevated women from second-class status to spiritual leaders and teachers. He brought out the best in everyone. Everyone felt he belonged to them, and they to him.

Brahma Baba demonstrated mastery over the mind, emotions and senses. He showed practically how purity, selfless love, faith, truth, nonviolence, godly knowledge and silence can remove the deep-rooted poisons of anger, greed and ego. Despite his charisma, he never allowed anyone to regard him as a guru, maintaining rather that he was a student of God, the supreme teacher. His companions have become spiritual leaders themselves and today are examples for thousands of others, myself included.

Gradually, I've also grown to know Brahma Baba as the angel he's become. I've seen his angelic, self-luminous form on several occasions, but sense his presence nearly every day - a presence that never imposes but gently touches my heart.

I've come to trust his unconditional love for me, a love that enables me to recognize and replace habitual reactive attitudes with positive, proactive thinking beneficial to my self and others. I know many others who - in visions or dreams - also perceive Baba's transparent, shining form or sense his presence through vibrations and feelings.

This Tuesday, Jan. 18, hundreds of thousands of people in 86 countries will pay tribute to this man who stands out like a lighthouse in the darkness, a beacon to the heights of character that a human can achieve.

Everyone can celebrate this World Peace Day - a day to claim spiritual power and bestow blessings of love, peace and spiritual wisdom on one and all.

Sister Kiran leads meditation classes at the local Brahma Kumaris Center and is involved in interfaith work locally. "From Heart to Heart" is coordinated by TRIM, a network of more than 35 spiritual traditions in the Eugene-Springfield area. For more information, call 344-5693.