The Brahma Kumaris international headquarters or Brahma Kumaris world headquarters, collectively known as Madhuban (, "forest of honey"), is the headquarters complex of the Brahma Kumaris (officially the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya), spread across Mount Abu and Abu Road in Sirohi district, Rajasthan, India. The complex consists of several campuses, the largest of which are Pandav Bhawan (the original 1950 site, on Mount Abu), Gyan Sarovar (1995, also on Mount Abu) and Shantivan (1996, at Abu Road), together with the J. Watumull Global Hospital and Research Centre at Talheti and the India One solar thermal power plant commissioned at Shantivan in early 2017. Among the complex's notable facilities are the Diamond Hall at Shantivan, which the organisation reports can seat 20,000 - 25,000 people, and a Scheffler-reflector solar kitchen that, together with the adjacent India One plant, prepares about 50,000 meals daily.

The Brahma Kumaris movement, founded in 1936 in Hyderabad, Sindh, moved its headquarters from Karachi to Mount Abu in 1950 and has been based there since. Successive expansions in the 1990s, undertaken during the administration of Dadi Prakashmani, added Gyan Sarovar and Shantivan to accommodate the movement's growth, while the J. Watumull Global Hospital opened in 1991. Executive administration of the institution has been held by women since its founding: Om Radhe served as the first administrative head from 1937 until her death in 1965, while the founder Brahma Baba himself held no executive office, and after his death in 1969 the role passed through a succession of senior women, most recently Mohini Didi from 2025.

The complex hosts the movement's annual gatherings, training courses and international conferences. The Brahma Kumaris reported in 2021 that the headquarters administered a global network of more than 8,000 centres in over 110 countries, with more than one million students. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Brahma Kumaris' 80th-anniversary celebrations at Shantivan in March 2017 by video link from Delhi, and visited Shantivan in person in May 2023 to lay the foundation stone for the second phase of the Watumull hospital. Reporting by Indian and international media has focused in particular on the India One plant, described by India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) as the largest concentrated-solar-thermal facility of its type in the country.

History

Founding and relocation (1936-1950)

The Brahma Kumaris were established in 1936 in Hyderabad, Sindh, by Brahma Baba and operated as the Om Mandali satsang group before relocating to Karachi in 1938 amid local opposition. In October 1937 the founder transferred his personal fortune to a managing committee of eight women and named the then 22-year-old Om Radhe as its president; she served as the institution's first administrative head until her death in 1965, while Brahma Baba himself held no executive office. Following the partition of India, around three hundred members of the movement moved in 1950 to the hill station of Mount Abu in Rajasthan, taking the lease of a property on Sunset Road that became known as Pandav Bhawan. Pandav Bhawan has been the movement's spiritual headquarters since, and a more structured seven-lesson public introduction to Raja Yoga meditation was developed there from 1952 onwards.

Expansion (1969-2007) Brahma Baba died at Pandav Bhawan on 18 January 1969; after his death, executive responsibility settled on Dadi Prakashmani, who served as chief administrator until 2007. During this period the movement was registered with the United Nations Department of Public Information as an NGO (1980) and granted UN ECOSOC general consultative status (1983), and Dadi Prakashmani was named a United Nations Peace Messenger in 1987 following the Brahma Kumaris' "Million Minutes of Peace" appeal for the UN International Year of Peace in 1986. The headquarters expanded substantially in the same period: the J. Watumull Global Hospital and Research Centre opened at Mount Abu in 1991; the Gyan Sarovar academic campus was added on Mount Abu in 1995; and the much larger Shantivan campus, in the foothills near Abu Road, was inaugurated in 1996 to mark the movement's Diamond Jubilee. A Scheffler-reflector solar kitchen at Shantivan was developed with the inventor Wolfgang Scheffler in the late 1990s, and a Sustainable Yogic Agriculture programme was begun in cooperation with Indian agricultural universities.

21st-century development Following Prakashmani's death in 2007, the chief administrator's role passed to Dadi Janki (2007-2020), then to Dadi Hirdaya Mohini ("Dadi Gulzar") in 2020-2021, to Dadi Ratan Mohini from 2021 until her death in April 2025, and then to Mohini Didi (BK Mohini Panjabi), the institution's sixth administrative head. A 1 MW concentrated solar thermal power plant, India One, was commissioned at Shantivan in early 2017 after about five years of construction. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi opened the Brahma Kumaris' 80th-anniversary international conference at Shantivan in March 2017 by video link, and visited the campus in person in May 2023 to lay the foundation stone for the second phase of the Watumull hospital on an adjacent 50-acre site.

Administrative heads The institution was founded by Brahma Baba, who held no executive office; from October 1937 its day-to-day administration was vested in a managing committee of women. The headquarters has accordingly been administered by women since its founding, an arrangement that anthropologists have noted as unusual in the patriarchal Sindhi milieu in which the Brahma Kumaris originated.

+ Administrative heads of the Brahma Kumaris international headquarters # Portrait Name Tenure Notes 1 Om Radhe (Mateshwari, "Mamma") 1937-1965 First administrative head; led the institution through the 1938-1939 Sind court proceedings and the 1950 move to Mount Abu 2 Dadi Prakashmani 1969-2007 Took charge after the founder's death in 1969; oversaw the 1990s campus expansions; named a United Nations Peace Messenger in 1987 3 Dadi Janki 2007-2020 Long-serving Director of Brahma Kumaris Europe before her appointment; died in 2020 aged 104 4 Dadi Hirdaya Mohini ("Dadi Gulzar") 2020-2021 Died on 11 March 2021; farewell rites held at Shantivan 5 Dadi Ratan Mohini 2021-2025 Appointed in March 2021 aged 96; died in April 2025 aged 100 6 BK Mohini 2025–present First "Didi" (rather than "Dadi") to lead the institution

Administration and outreach The headquarters complex serves as the administrative centre for the Brahma Kumaris' international activities. Outreach work is coordinated through the Rajyoga Education and Research Foundation (RE&RF), a society registered under the Societies Registration Act in 1982 and based at the Mount Abu headquarters; the Foundation directs the movement's service work through about twenty profession-specific wings - covering sectors such as education, medicine, business, law, media, science and engineering, agriculture and rural development, women and youth — each running training programmes, conferences and retreats for its sector.

Major outreach programmes administered from the Mount Abu headquarters in cooperation with the United Nations include the 1986 "Million Minutes of Peace" appeal during the International Year of Peace, the 1988 "Global Cooperation for a Better World" project, and the movement's ongoing UN ECOSOC consultative work.

Campuses The headquarters infrastructure is divided between two locations about apart. The hill town of Mount Abu holds the movement's original and historically significant sites - Pandav Bhawan, Gyan Sarovar academy, the spiritual museum and Peace Park, while the larger campuses developed on the plains at Abu Road (Talheti), led by Shantivan, provide the residential and congregational capacity for mass gatherings.

+ Principal campuses of the Brahma Kumaris international headquarters Campus Location Primary role Reported residential capacity Notable structures Pandav Bhawan Mount Abu Original headquarters; historical nucleus c. 350 - 500 Universal Peace Hall, Baba's Hut, Baba's Room, Shanti Stambh, History Hall Gyan Sarovar Mount Abu Academy and research campus c. 1,500 Universal Harmony Hall, Spiritual Art Gallery, SpARC Shantivan Abu Road Mass congregation; administration c. 15,000 - 20,000 Diamond Hall, Conference Hall, memorial stambhs Mansarovar Abu Road Seminar and retreat campus c. 2,500 500-seat auditorium Manmohinivan Abu Road Residential and media campus c. 2,000 Godlywood Studio, Global Auditorium Anand Sarovar Abu Road Professional-retreat campus c. 1,000 Programme grounds, Dadi Gulzar Park

Mount Abu

Brij Kothi Brahma Kumaris accounts identify a leased former royal residence known as Brij Kothi as the community's first base in Mount Abu in the early 1950s, used during the transition from Karachi before Pandav Bhawan became the established headquarters.

Pandav Bhawan

Pandav Bhawan is the original 1950 headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris and the seat of the movement's senior administration. Over the decades it has developed into a complex of dormitories, residential units, meditation venues, dining facilities and administrative offices; the organisation reports a permanent residential population of several hundred and the hosting of tens of thousands of guests each year, with a communal kitchen able to serve several thousand people at a sitting.

The campus contains a cluster of sites associated with the founder that the organisation groups as a pilgrimage circuit (Char Dham): Baba's Hut (jhopri), a simple hermitage used by Brahma Baba for meditation; Baba's Room, his preserved personal quarters; the History Hall, where early murli discourses were delivered; and the Shanti Stambh (Tower of Peace), a white marble memorial raised on the site where the founder's remains were placed after his death on 18 January 1969. The campus's principal assembly building is the Universal Peace Hall (Om Shanti Bhawan), a pillar-less auditorium built in 1983 that the organisation reports as seating between 3,000 and 5,000 people, with simultaneous translation in 16 languages; open to the public, it is used for daily morning classes and conferences and is a Mount Abu tourist attraction.

Gyan Sarovar Gyan Sarovar (, "lake of knowledge"), formally the Academy for a Better World, is an academic, research and conference campus developed in the 1990s approximately from Pandav Bhawan. Laid out as a self-contained village on a site variously reported at , it was designed to limit building to a small share of the land and retain the surrounding natural topography, and in 1996 was recognised as a Best Practice initiative at the United Nations Habitat II conference on human settlements in Istanbul. Its facilities include the Universal Harmony Hall, a tiered auditorium seating about 1,600-1,800 with translation booths for 16 languages; an International Centre for Higher Learning with thirteen seminar rooms; a Spiritual Art Gallery presenting the movement's cyclic cosmology of four yugas through audio-visual, laser and multimedia displays alongside a section on traditional Rajasthani life; Golden Meditation Dome; and the Spiritual Application Research Centre (SpARC), established in 1995 to study applications of Raja Yoga meditation. The academy accommodates around 1,500 residents across several named blocks, with dining facilities for some 1,200 people, and operates solar water-heating, solar steam cooking and greywater recycling systems; an adjoining landscaped park commemorates Dadi Janki.

World Renewal Spiritual Museum