Refuting Mervyn Hughes' latest attacks on me

Last updated on 21st April 2020

21st April 2020 Update: I had an inner urge to name-snip the names of some person(s) in this post and so have done so.

As some readers of my Facebook posts (and blog posts) have read Mervyn Hughes' latest attacks on me titled, 'Exposing the lies of Ravi S. Iyer, notorious hate monger on the payroll of Central Trust', I felt it appropriate in this Internet wild allegations and wild claims age of ours, to inform readers about the truth. I have given below two screenshot pics of his attack piece. I have blanked out an offensive word in both screenshot pics.


1) I have NOT been paid a single Naya paisa (Indian equivalent of penny) by any Sathya Sai institution or by anybody else acting on their behalf, during my FREE SEVA years of association with Prasanthi Nilayam institutions, which was mainly a stint from Jan. 2003 to Mar. 2012 with Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL, Sai university), and also a FREE SEVA short stint of a month or two with Prasanthi Digital Studio/Radio Sai in the period between Oct. 2002 to Dec. 2002. After I parted ways with Prasanthi Nilayam institutions in March 2012, I have not been paid a single Naya paisa till date by any Sathya Sai institution including the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust or by anybody else acting on their behalf.

Mervyn Hughes writes, 'Ravi S. Iyer has always been very vocal in criticising Muddenahalli ...' Yes, I am VERY CRITICAL of the FALSE CLAIMS made by Sai university alumnus Madhusudhan Rao Naidu, the so called communicator of the so called subtle body based in Muddenahalli, as well as his endorsement by former Sai university warden, Shri B.N. Narasimhamurthy, former Sai university vice-chancellor Prof. --Name1-snipped--, Sai university alumnus Shri VijaySai B.S., Sai university alumnus Shri C. Srinivas and veteran former leader of Sai orgn. in India and over the world, and former trustee of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, Shri Indulal Shah. I do my work of PUBLIC criticism of these FALSE CLAIMS of Madhusudhan Rao Naidu and of some of the writings endorsing these FALSE CLAIMS by some of the people mentioned above, as MY DUTY to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and the Sathya Sai fraternity, from whom I have gained a lot and for which I am deeply grateful. I have not written against any service activities conducted by the Muddenahalli group which has some of the above mentioned persons as leaders, and have even appreciated that work, in some of my public writings on social media.

2) Mervyn Hughes writes, "Let me highlight that this imposter who only supervised lab work on the pretext of doing service (meaning he was never officially hired or had his credentials checked as required by law) always masqueraded as a faculty member and a pseudo intellectual".

I have given a pic below with the identity cards issued to me during my stint in the Sai university in the period Jan. 2003 to Mar. 2012 (I have blanked out the face in the photo part of the I-Cards).



As readers can see, my designations in this period were Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty as certified by the appropriate campus authority of Prasanthi Nilayam campus of the Sai university, the then principal of the campus, Prof. U.S. Rao. The teacher-drohis (those who cause harm to teachers) namely, --Name1-snipped-- (former vice-chancellor of Sai university), --Name2-snipped-- (former Head of the Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science, DMACS), --Name3-snipped-- (Registrar), and --Name4-snipped-- (former Director/principal-equivalent of Prasanthi Nilayam campus, SSSIHL), are CROOKS and cannot be trusted. [By the word crooks, in this context, I mean people who use untruthful and unethical (Asathya & Adharma) practices. Further, the four persons I named earlier as crooks, have committed or aided & abetted or had knowledge of but turned a blind eye to, malicious defamation and criminal record tampering act done against me. For more details see my blog post, My May 2012 service record & record tampering related correspondence with Sai university (SSSIHL) administrators, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-may-2012-service-record-record.html.]

If these CROOKS and TEACHER-DROHIS challenge the designations shown in the attached I-Card pictures, in PUBLIC under THEIR OWN NAME, I will take appropriate LEGAL ACTION against them which will include filing a First Information Report (F.I.R.) complaint in Puttaparthi (Urban) police station, and filing a case in Penukonda court (the court that has jurisdiction over Puttaparthi town, as per my knowledge).

Mervyn Hughes does not reveal where he lives and so we have not been able to verify whether he is a real person or is using a fake Facebook account. Writing malicious attack pieces ANONYMOUSLY is the work of a COWARD and not something that is appropriate for a follower/member of a spiritual path/community. If the COWARD Mervyn Hughes has the COURAGE of his convictions, let him reveal where he lives so that I can consider whether I can initiate legal/police action against him for defamation/libel.

Regarding the allegation that the Sai university did not check my credentials properly, all I can say is that I provided my biodata to them, and also had a sort-of interview round with them where the key persons who tried to assess my software development knowledge were Prof. G.V. Prabhakar Rao, who is now associated with Muddenahalli group and can be easily contacted by Muddenahalli group persons, and Dr. Raghunatha Sarma (currently Assistant Prof. in DMACS, SSSIHL). Whether the administrative block of the university did due diligence by checking my credentials is a matter that they have to answer.

As I have been referred to as an imposter, I felt it appropriate to share my professional background as a software consultant as well, which includes my free services to the Sai university. Please note that I now have RETIRED from my software consultancy work (including FREE SERVICE software consultancy/teaching work).
My bio-data as of March. 2012 can be viewed here:  https://ravisiyer.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/202002-ravisiyerbiodata.pdf

My international software industry work experience can be viewed here: https://ravisiyer.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/raviiyerindustryworkexperience.pdf

I have put up the course content of the Lab. courses I taught in the Sai university here: https://raviiyerteaches.wordpress.com/, as a free service to any interested student or anybody else. Yes, I was a software lab. course teacher, and a consultant for M.Tech. (Computer Science) & M.Sc. (Maths) software projects, and not a lab. assistant or lab. supervisor as Mervyn Hughes alleges.

Regarding the pseudo intellectual bit: I am a writer on social media (a blogger) where I share my views on some matters. I do not claim to be an intellectual.

3) Mervyn Hughes also commented about my English being poor :-) . Well, I think my English is decent but not great. However, I write my posts in a hurried way. Sometimes I am not satisfied with the way I have expressed myself. But, many times, I don't have the time, or am not in a mental frame of mind, to rephrase my words. Note that writing such critical of Muddenahalli FALSE BELIEF posts and facing attacks from Mervyn Hughes and others does put a significant emotional burden on me while I write such pieces. It is certainly not a pleasant or easy task. I leave the hurriedly written and not so well formulated English sentences as a small burden on my readers to tolerate. However, I try very hard to stick to the truth as I see it. So what the reader gets in my writings are my truthful views (truth as far as my knowledge goes) even if the English language part of it could be better.

What I should also say in this context is that I have seen that some people use their English linguistic finery skills to present a FALSE BELIEF as the truth!!! I think these people have got caught up in some psychological trap (psychological denial, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial; psychological projection, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection) where they think that just because their English is of great quality, everything they write about has to be TRUE!!! All the varnish of linguistic finery over a FALSE BELIEF cannot make it true, even if that linguistic finery traps some readers into the FALSE BELIEF.

I prefer to write the plain and unvarnished truth as I see it. Satyaannaasti Paro Dharmaha (there is no higher Dharma/ethical living than truth)! Jai Sairam!
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Some comment exchanges from Facebook post of mine, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1728666447349925, having almost the same contents as above contents of this blog post, are given below.

Ivan Escalona wrote (and was OK with his comments being shared here):
Again I'm sorry for my comment being used for such bad and mean purposes. I don't endorse any of the comments of this Mervyn character.
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Ivan Escalona, No issues whatsoever brother. Mervyn Hughes simply used it to attack me - I understand his game. Reading and viewing up on USA presidential elections has helped me understand his game. LOL! Thanks for your comment, anyway.
---

Ivan Escalona wrote:
I'm glad you understand, I'm doing it so that people will know. My disagreement in that topic doesn't mean I endorse Mudenahalli Fraud and this Mervyn character's insults to you. And since he used my Facebook comments without permission putting them out of context, I don't want people to think I'm with them.
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote in response to brother Sai Keshav's comment disapproving of Mervyn Hughes' comments but noting that Sai Keshav and I have different views on Muddenahalli:
Sairam brother Sai Keshav, thanks for your sympathy and kind words. I have blocked Mervyn Hughes. I got to know of this comment as brother Ivan Escalona saw it and got upset by it. Around the same time, I was mailed the screenshots of Mervyn Hughes' comments against me. That allowed me to understand Ivan Escalona's reaction.

What I am learning is that pointed attacks by people like Mervyn Hughes do have an effect of spreading a negative view about me. If I keep quiet about it then some people may think that my silence is an indication that Mervyn Hughes' has written correctly about me! This is the power of DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGNS in this Internet age. Therefore I felt that, at least to my readers, some of whom may be reading Mervyn Hughes' comments, I should provide my side of the picture.
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Przemek Czarnowski wrote (and indicated that he is OK with it being shared here):
Keep up to great job Ravi, even I haven't met you in person yet, I know you are a great man! Don't offend cowards calling that beetroot a coward...
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Thanks a lot for your support, brother Przemek Czarnowski. Though I must say that I am not great - I am just another guy trying to do his bit. Interesting comment about not offending cowards LOL!
---

Sasikanth Gudla wrote and was OK with his comment being shared here:
'2) Mervyn Hughes writes, "Let me highlight that this imposter who only supervised lab work on the pretext of doing service (meaning he was never officially hired or had his credentials checked as required by law) always masqueraded as a faculty member and a pseudo intellectual".' Sasi: I was a student at Parthi for 9 years(2 in school and 7 in PSN Campus) I was your student in particular during M.Sc and M.Tech days. I have always loved your classes and the courses you have taught us. In general, IMHO, a student is more interested in what the teacher teaches and is less interested on how the teacher is enrolled(regular/voluntary/honorary) in the university. Again, this is my experience as a student. By that metric, I hold you in very high esteem and suffice it say that I have been immensely benefited by the courses you have taught us.(then as a student and now as a software professional)
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Thank you so much brother Sasikanth Gudla. A student saying that I did a good job as a teacher is a very big and a very satisfying certificate for me as a former teacher. I hope Mervyn Hughes and his supporters (e.g. Sachin Iyer) read your comment (as I have blocked them, they will have to be told of it by others). May I share your comment on my blog as well?
---

Sasikanth Gudla wrote:
Ravi S. Iyer Yes sir. With pleasure.
---

Shubha Ramesh Kumar wrote and was OK with sharing of her comment here:
I just saw this and I am truly sorry brother Ravi S. Iyer . Bullying via libel and slander is the favorite weapon of the morally corrupt. What better way to pour out ones frustration, jealousy and animosity towards someone without physically hurting them ? It has to be through words that are sharp, utterly false, uncouth and disgraceful isn't it?. Well atleast let's just hope this ghost of a person feels good after pouring out all his venom on you others like Terry Reis Kennedy

You write beautifully and inspiringly, please don't let this get to you! Sairam.
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Thank you very much for your sympathy and your encouragement, sister Shubha Ramesh Kumar. It really is helpful for me.
---

Chandu Patel, an old friend & colleague from the software industry who is now settled in the USA, wrote over email (and was OK with public sharing):

Hi Ravi - What an utterly non-sense and baseless allegations by Mervyn Hughes against you. I think he may be doing this with some malicious intents. I find all the allegations against you by him/her to be nothing but laughable. I know you from our days with Datamatics/BTC, SEEPZ, Mumbai and our stints together in several projects, including the one at Wang Labs, USA during 1988-89. I have always found you to be truthful, compassionate, and a genuine spiritual aspirant (even though we are into different spiritual organizations in our quests for holistic spiritual development).

And, of course, I found you to be a passionate and detail-oriented software professional during those days (I know you have taken voluntary retirement from that career).

I always felt proud to have you as a friend!

Regards,
Chandu

---
I (Ravi) wrote back (slightly edited):

Thank you so much for your supportive and encouraging words, Chandu. They are really a great help to me at this time when I am under vicious & malicious attack from Mervyn Hughes.

I think that my continued writings against Muddenahalli FALSE BELIEF may be hurting some financial interests of Mervyn Hughes or the person behind the Mervyn Hughes fake id or may be hurting financial interests of a person from Muddenahalli group who is encouraging this Mervyn Hughes. In particular, my recent writings have been against the PUBLIC announcement from a Muddenahalli group leader (a USA native, Mr. Isaac Tigrett, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Tigrett) at 2015 Christmas eve program on stage in Muddenahalli, that Bhagavan had asked him to open a (gambling) casino in Las Vegas, USA. I view this as an attempt to CORRUPT the teachings of my beloved Gurudev, Sathya Sai Baba, who has spoken publicly against gambling, and so I did my duty to my beloved Gurudev by OPPOSING that CORRUPTION of his teachings. This has been appreciated by a CURRENT Sai university alumnus-teacher (the 3rd gen. Sai devotee) which I have shared in another recent post.

Now I would like to take this opportunity to clarify that I have great respect for the great act of (material) giving that Mr. Tigrett did (tens of millions of (US) Dollars donated to Sathya Sai trust; some report the figure to be 108 million (US) Dollars) which was an important factor in the FREE MEDICAL SERVICE Super speciality hospital in Puttaparthi, http://psg.sssihms.org.in/, coming up. I honestly think of this act of his as being similar to the great acts of charity done by the Mahabharata hero, Karna, who was the unacknowledged first-born son of Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, but circumstances (and destiny perhaps) made him become a friend and ally of Duryodhana, the leader of the Kauravas. An extract from Karna's wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna, which talks about the greatness of his charity, is given below [Note that Karna is the son of God Surya (Sun-God) and Arjuna, the arch-rival of Karna, is the son of Indra (Rain-and-thunderstorm God; leader of the Gods in Heaven]:

The Pandava elder brother Yudhisthira always considered Karna as the foremost warrior in the world and worries about this fact in the prelude to the war.
“Bhishma, Drona, Ashwatthama and the illustrious Kripa,are masters of all celestial weapons and devoted to the practice of virtue. I think they are incapable of being vanquished even by gods led by Vasava himself. There is again amongst them that mighty warrior Karna,impetuous, and ever wrathful, master of all weapons, and invincible, and encased in impenetrable mail.Without first vanquishing in battle all those foremost of men, unaided as thou art, how canst thou slay Duryodhana? O Vrikodara, I cannot sleep thinking of the lightness of hand of that Suta's son, who, I regard, is the foremost of all wielders of the bow!”
Indra realized that Karna would be invincible in battle and unable to be killed as long as he had his Kavach and Kundal [Ravi: Kavach is armour/shield; not sure what Kundal means]. He approaches Karna as a poor Brahmin during Karna's sun-worship. Surya warned Karna of Indra's intentions, but Karna thanked Surya and explained that he was bound by his word and could not send anyone from his door empty-handed. When Indra approached Karna in the form of a Brahmin beggar and asked his Kavach and Kundal as alms, Karna reveals that he knew the Brahmin's true identity but assured that he would never turn anyone away. Indra became ashamed and took his normal form. Cutting the armor and earrings off his body, Karna handed them to Indra. As he does so, heavens opens up and all the gods and celestial beings in all realms appeared in sky and showered flowers on Karna. They praised that it was the greatest charity the world have ever witnessed. All Gods, Deva's, sages and celestial beings blessed Karna with glory and fame. They blamed the Lord of Heaven, Indra for such crooked and cunning actions for the benefit of his son Arjuna. Lord Indra justified himself and told, like every father he only wished for the welfare of his child. Celestial beings become very much ashamed of seeing the Lord of Heaven becoming a beggar. In order to escape from such severe shame Lord Indra asked Karna to accept a gift in return. Karna rejected this offer telling that he didn't give charity expecting anything in return. All Gods, Deva's, sages and celestial beings requested Karna to accept any gift in return in order to save them from the insult that was caused by Indra upon them. Obeying the celestial beings and as per the request of Lord Indra, Karna, as his father had instructed him, asked for the Vasavi Shakti. Indra granted the boon, with the stipulation that Karna could only use the weapon once. In some versions of the story, Indra gives Karna the name "Karna" for this great act.
--- end wiki extract ---

The grapevine has it that Mr. Tigrett faces some financial constraints which come in the way of his plans to serve people on a large scale, in the spirit of the Love All Serve All philosophy/teaching that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba taught. I do wish him all the best in his business endeavours which will enable him to succeed in his plans for Love All Serve All kind-of large-scale mission.

If he opens and runs a casino in Las Vegas, USA, based on some PRIVATE instruction that (physical form) Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba gave him (in a 2009 interview as he mentioned), I have no issues against that. That is his personal life & business decision - I don't want to interfere in such personal and business matters of individual Sai devotees. However, I would request him not to name the casino after Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba as that would send a wrong message & signal about Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to those who come to know of the casino (and its name).

But I must also give my humble opinion that given the stature and respect that Mr. Isaac Tigrett has in the Sathya Sai fraternity, and given that he comes from a family of devout Christians from a Bible belt state of the USA (I have already compared his great act of charity to that of Karna, one of the greatest persons associated with charity in Hindu scripture), it would be much more fitting for Mr. Tigrett to engage in some other business venture not involving gambling.
---

I (Ravi) wrote:
Chandu, I must also say that I cherish our long friendship going back to our software industry company colleague days (mid 80s to early 90s), as well as our various discussions on spirituality & religion then and now. Your views on various spiritual and religious matters have significantly contributed to my understanding of them improving. In particular, your views on the churn that goes on when a founder of a spiritual movement passes away and there are some succession issues, was very helpful when I went through that churn in the Sathya Sai movement after the Mahasamadhi of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. I am very happy to have a friend like you, brother Chandu Patel.
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
I thought I should mention here that THE COWARD Mervyn Hughes has spewed some more garbage against me. I suggest that people like VijaySai B.S. and Sai Keshav stop interacting with Mervyn Hughes UNLESS he reveals who he is to them. Then he can be held accountable. ... I am willing to answer any of the statements I have made against people that I have complained against and used harsh statements against, in an Indian court of law. I am accountable and answerable for my statements. Mervyn Hughes is not. I think that ANONYMOUS persons SHOULD NOT BE ENTERTAINED in our Facebook interactions.
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to brother VijaySai's comment that he tried in the past to find out who Mervyn Hughes is but did not succeed:

Brother VijaySai B.S., I think Mervyn Hughes should be blocked on Facebook by you and Sai Keshav UNLESS he reveals who he is to you both. You need not let us know who he is. But I trust you and Sai Keshav, and so if you folks know the real person and ensure that he realizes that he will be held accountable for his comments & posts on Facebook, then he can be entertained.

Let me be frank with you brother VijaySai B.S.. There was talk from somebody else of possibility of filing a cyber police complaint against Mervyn Hughes. I personally do not want to take a step of going to the police station/cyber police UNLESS my name & reputation continues to get maliciously and falsely attacked. I mean, when I have shown the photographic evidence of my designations on I-Cards issued by appropriate campus authority, this COWARD and SENSELESS Mervyn Hughes is not RETRACTING his earlier statements, and tries to put on a new spin by referring to me as Seva Dal! Actually, I did my FREE SERVICE in the spirit of a "Seva Dal" which I regard as a badge of great spiritual honour and which was appropriate for me as I viewed my FREE SERVICE in the Sai university as a spiritual Seva offering to Bhagavan. But, from a worldly point of view, one has to go by designations provided by the appropriate authorities. The matter ends there.

Also I have never claimed to be a regular paid faculty. I was a FREE SERVICE faculty whose services were renewed every year. That arrangement worked out well both ways, I think. For me, the focus was on my spiritual progress. My view was that so long as my Seva in the Sai university as a teacher, consultant, and some amount of systems manager role in the initial years, worked out spiritually for me, I would continue to offer it. When it stopped working out from either side, we could part ways. Now you are a visiting faculty to Muddenahalli educational institutions. So you can understand what I have said. How would you feel if the Muddenahalli group educational institution head showed you in their records as Teaching Assistant and humiliated you by saying you are a Teaching Assistant and a Seva Dal and not a Visiting Faculty! You may be offering (FREE SERVICE) Seva there, but the institution has to treat you with dignity and respect. Isn't it?

We cannot stop the Robert Priddys of the world from writing JUNK against Swami and the Sathya Sai movement. But we can surely excommunicate Robert Priddy from our Facebook conversation if he ever attempts to join it under his name.

If Mervyn Hughes continues to be entertained by Muddenahalli group persons then he may get into more & more gutter writing and I am afraid things may take a turn towards the police and the courts. Already the PN and MDH trusts are involved in a civil court case. This Mervyn Hughes gutter-writing could be a criminal case (as defamation, I believe, comes under the criminal part of the Indian Penal Code). I think you, brother VijaySai, should use your good offices to either force Mervyn Hughes to reveal himself/herself to you, OR excommunicate him on Facebook by blocking. Excommunication will make him another Robert Priddy whom we all can ignore.
---

Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to brother Sai Keshav saying OK to the above comment:
Thanks Sai Keshav. And, I repeat, if Mervyn Hughes reveals who he/she is to you or bro. VijaySai B.S., he can be entertained, as we all can hold him accountable for his posts & comments. But if he/she insists on being anonymous, it is safer for both PTP and MDH groups to block him/her.
---
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Readers may want to see the following blog posts:

1) Mervyn Hughes says he is attacking me to teach me how it hurts when I criticize others; Clarification on my Systems Manager role, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/04/mervyn-hughes-says-he-is-attacking-me.html, dated April 14th, 2016.

2) Mervyn Hughes writes that he has deleted all posts relating to me, and will not write posts about me, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/04/mervyn-hughes-writes-that-he-has.html, dated April 16th 2016.

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