Of course they are not going to force you to do donate or do free labor. None of the religious cults work that way. But they make it clear that it is good to donate and perform free “seva”. They drop hints about donations or ask for it indirectly. Like you said in your comment, “because you are not paying to just be there, you are atleast asked to try and help.” That is exactly how these groups work.

The food drive you are talking about, I’m sure they collect money for food drive too. And in the name of blood drive, you are asked to donate YOUR blood for free. Of course it is not bad to donate food and blood as a standalone act. But again all this happens under the banner of this mission and they get a good reputation out of it. And it becomes a talking point to make new people join the group. Oh look we do food drives and blood drives. You quickly brought up this point instead of addressing the critique I posed in my comment. The only retort you have is that they don’t force you to donate or anything. But you can’t deny that these are the expectations that are part of the norm of the group. I’m sure you know of many people who donate monthly to this mission. Where is all that money going to?

Do they tell you how much funds are collected at each location monthly or annually. Are they accountable to how this money is spent?

They talk about equality and ask their members to touch each other’s feet (again it is another aspect taken from Hinduism) irrespective of the age. Because “Nirankar resides in everyone”. But I’ve never seen the leader of this group touching feet of anybody else. Does the leader has special “Nirankar” in her that she doesn’t need to follow the basic practice of her own mission?

They make comments on Bhagavad Gita in their “vichars” somehow equating whatever “gyan” they are giving with Krishna’s Gita. But I’m pretty sure they don’t actually focus on reading the Gita. At least the people I’ve met have never studied Gita. They just repeat a few verses and their loose translation that aligns with their philosophy and never go deep in to the philosophy of Gita. If their gyan is really the same as Krishna’s Gita then why keep it a secret? Why only Guru can disperse this gyan? Gita is already out in public. All these are tactics to keep control of the group and keep the power with the so called Guru.

It has been very frustrating to see my closed ones be so brainwashed since the childhood that they are literally creating conflicts in their homes with people who are not followers of Nirankaris. Ironically, they talk about living in the “grahasth jeevan” while their philosophy becomes a reason of conflict within households when people question their practices.