Readers’ Letters

SIR: Liz Hodgkinson’s article (‘My husband left me for a cult’, May issue) portrayed the domestic upheaval caused when her husband ‘went spiritual’ 36 years ago. The story is true – I was that husband. However, perhaps out of politeness, Liz fudged the issue of how the marriage ended. The reality is, she chucked me out, and I was deeply dismayed.

I would vastly have preferred us to continue to try to work things out together. Perhaps Liz was right, and that would have been impossible. Nevertheless, I loved family life and did not want it to end. I was irresistibly drawn to the spiritual path, but don’t believe it to be inconsistent with loving relationships. Quite the contrary: when practised properly, it diminishes neediness and facilitates kindness and consideration. As I see it, the problem was that I was clumsy in the way I tried to pursue it in those early days.

Your headline’s introduction of the ‘c’-word – ‘cult’ – is also misleading, if one takes the dictionary definition of a cult as ‘a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange’.

I suppose that could have applied when I encountered the Brahma Kumaris spiritual movement in the UK all those years ago. But today, it has a presence in 130 countries, is highly respected for its input as an NGO at the United Nations, and is valued across almost all of India for the benefits it brings to individuals, families and society. In a 35-minute address to the eightieth anniversary celebrations of the woman-led movement last month, India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, also sang the praises of the Brahma Kumaris globally, commenting that they ‘have spread the message of India’s rich culture throughout the world’. Neville Hodgkinson, Nuneham Park, Oxford.

SIR: By changing just one letter in the title ‘My husband left me for a cult’, this could refer to many, many marriages. Frank Reynolds, Bridgwater, Somerset.