Deccan Chronicle publishes article on interrogation/arrest of Muddenahalli group leaders in Nigeria

Last edited 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.

Update on 11th Feb. 2017: My blog post, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2017/02/my-congratulations-to-muddenahalli.html, has my congratulations to Muddenahalli group leaders for 10 Jan 2017 Nigerian police report clearing them of any criminal or other offence charges. However this Nigerian police report DOES NOT WITHDRAW or REFUTE point 4 of Nigerian police report dated 23rd Nov. 2016 which states "During interrogation, the 4th suspect (D. Madhusudan Rao Naidu) said he is not "light body" and does not receive any message from the late founder, Sri Sathya Sai Baba". end-update

Preface: I would like to say that I am sharing this information so that the truth about the matter is shared with the Sathya Sai fraternity. After all, Muddenahalli group has become very divisive and problematic for the Sathya Sai movement worldwide. I personally do not wish any harm, especially in terms of criminal investigation by police of any country including India, towards our brothers (and sisters) of Muddenahalli group. However, I must also say that the brothers & sisters of Muddenahalli group should force Madhusudan Rao Naidu to make a public, transparent and complete statement on this matter, and not just stay silent (on this matter) and act in public as if nothing has happened.

Madhusudan Rao Naidu is making an ENORMOUS claim that he (and, to all intents & purposes, he alone) is able to see and interact with a so-called subtle body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba based in Muddenahalli, and is giving darshan, interviews and discourses as this so called chosen communicator of this, invisible & inaudible to others, so called subtle body, which has attracted so many Sai devotees across the world towards him and who believe his chosen communicator role!!! Such an ENORMOUS claim cannot be viewed lightly, and it is quite natural that such a claim will be challenged very seriously with the burden of proof being on Madhusudan Rao Naidu to prove his claims to be truthful.
--- end Preface ---

Here's an article in the Deccan Chronicle today (August 1st 2016), http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/010816/nigerian-cops-arrest-satya-sai-trustee.html, which supports the information put out in the Sathya Sai International Organisation, Nigeria document titled "MUDDENAHALLI FRAUD EXPOSED IN NIGERIA" which can be viewed here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3Pcd4RD_n8LUWdyWVc1QjJlVDA.

Update on 1st August 2016: A signed version of this document can be seen on my blog post, SSIO Nigeria document on detention/arrest of Muddenhalli group leaders signed by Africa chair Ramesh Hathiramani, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2016/08/ssio-nigeria-document-on.html, dated 1st Aug. 2016.

The Deccan Chronicle article says that Madhusudan Rao Naidu and others were detained/arrested by Nigerian police.

Short extracts from this Deccan Chronicle article are given below:

Sources said that the team, which included a self-styled godman, was arrested by the Nigerian Police Force in Enugu on July 26 for investigations pertaining to cheating, defrauding innocent Nigerians, conspiracy and deceiving innocent people with ulterior motives to collect handsome donations, amongst other charges, by using the name of Satya Sai Baba.
...
The Muddinehalli group was exposed in Nigeria by the Satya Sai International Organisation (SSIO) Zone 9A, Region 93, for disgraceful activities, including fraud and deceit, and disrupting Satya Sai Baba’s sacred mission.
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Ravi: The self-styled godman reference above must be to Madhusudan Rao Naidu. Note that the article states that the arrest by Nigerian police was for cheating, fraud ... "by using the name of Satya Sai Baba". That is the key issue for me. If Madhusudan Rao Naidu stops using the name of our beloved Lord, Kali Yuga Avatar, Shiva-Shakti Swarupa Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and instead gives darshan, interviews and discourses in his OWN NAME (or some other assumed name like Madhu Sai Baba) then I will not have any issues with him.

Honestly, I think Madhusudan Rao Naidu has been able to get away with this in India because the Sai orgn. leaders did not file a suitable case (including a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case possibility) in Karnataka High Court (Muddenahalli falls in Karnataka state of India) against his claims, and seeking an order from the honourable court to restrain Madhusudan Rao Naidu from misusing the name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in this manner. However, I should also add that the Sai orgn. leaders, especially the leaders of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (the mother official Sai orgn. body in charge of Prasanthi Nilayam ashram and associated Sai institutions), were facing a deluge of challenges especially in Prasanthi Nilayam and Puttaparthi to keep the Sai institutions like schools, university and hospitals (all providing free service) functioning and the ashram functioning. Perhaps those in charge felt that the challenges they were facing were too much, and so did not want to get involved in a direct confrontation with the breakaway Muddenahalli group. Perhaps if I was in their shoes facing all the challenges they had to face, I would have felt similarly. I have in the past expressed, and would like to repeat now, my appreciation and gratitude to the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust for ensuring that the functioning of the various Sai institutions and the ashram in Prasanthi Nilayam and Puttaparthi continued without any significant disruption during the very challenging and traumatic few years after the Mahasamadhi of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in April 2011.

Note that the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust has filed a case related to some trust and property related matters in a district court in Karnataka. But that case seems to not focus on this misuse of the name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba by Madhusudan Rao Naidu (though it does mention it, if I recall correctly).

Slightly different articles on the same matter in the e-paper of the Deccan Chronicle (Aug. 1st 2016 issue) can be seen here:
a) http://epaper.deccanchronicle.com/articledetailpage.aspx?id=5996438
b) http://epaper.deccanchronicle.com/articledetailpage.aspx?id=5996360

Readers may want to read the following related blog posts of mine:
1) Nigerian police interrogate Madhusudan Naidu about his communicator of Sathya Sai subtle body claim, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2016/07/nigerian-police-interrogate-madhusudan.html, dated July 30th 2016.

2) Madhusudan Naidu MUST TELL Sai devotees what happened in his interrogation by Nigerian police, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.in/2016/07/madhusudan-naidu-must-tell-sai-devotees.html, dated July 31st 2016.
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Some comment exchanges from my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1771701546379748, associated with this blog post, are given below.

Alok Dara Shikoh wrote (slightly edited):

I am very much on the wall neither for or against MDH. Even if MDH is true it doesn't matter to me since my interaction with physical body of swami was limited to but a few interviews.. All of my connection with him, if Any, is remote. And if MDH is false then too it's immaterial since my connection with swami was never based on anything to do with MDH.

--snip--

Brother all I am trying to say is that I do see anti-MDH camp grappled of the age old emotion of engaging in violence aka inflicting psychological pain of opponents via such hyperbolic language and ridiculing tones instead of factual expressions...

If indeed Sai-Krishna is prompting the PTP side to wage war against the adharma of MDH, why not follow the Gita in its entirety.. Why not show dispassion towards the pairs of opposites and why not set exemplary behavior (dispassion, kindness, sweetness, anudwegakaram vakyam, priyahitam etc) set in chapter 12/17 etc. while still fighting that war?

At the risk of being branded an MDH supporter, I would further say that the conduct of displaying emotional fireworks by the anti-MDH team and the absence of any from MDH may actually go against the anti-MDH mission. It might convey an impression that anti-MDH folks are employing the flawed principle of 'a good end justifies any means'.

All this said, I do agree that if MDH authorities can release an official version of this incident and not an unofficial narrative such as one shared by brother VijaySai it would be very helpful in discovering the truth.

Also brother, I am a Muslim and my apologies if I have quoted the Hindu scriptures in any inappropriate way...

Samastalokasukhinobhavantu

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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Alok Dara Shikoh, as you mentioned Hindu scripture in the context of our efforts to force the truth of Muddenahalli so called chosen communicator, Madhusudan Rao Naidu, to come out, I thought I should give my two paisa on it. Well, far more than the Bhagavad Gita, it is the actual Mahabharata war that needs to be studied in this context. And there was a lot of emotion in that war as recorded/mentioned in the Mahabharata epic (I have read the abridged version). It was not really a "dispassion, kindness, sweetness" war. Krishna himself lost his cool once and was ready to kill Bhishma with the wheel of his chariot after Bhishma humiliated Arjuna in battle! It seems to me that you, bro. Alok, do not have much exposure to Prasanthi Nilayam mission part. I assure you that even when Bhagavan was in physical form, the mission part had a lot of emotion and sometimes tension, and sometimes even worse. It is part of the game.
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Alok Dara Shikoh wrote:
Thanks Ravi sir. Your posts are always more factual and more balanced than many others on the anti-MDH side.

True brother that the vagaries of the mind does inflict human moments on everyone even including the people fighting on the side of truth including the very lord...

But brother, I think the ideal behavior is still prescribed by the very lord himself. While there are a number of examples where good people lost their composure In the scriptures, there are also a good number of examples where people followed the path of stitapragya and oozed love and benevolence despite extreme adversities and tribulations. The latter conduct, though very hard, does seem more appealing.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Well, bro. Alok Dara Shikoh, what experience of Prasanthi Nilayam of over a decade, as well as history has taught me, is that love and benevolence work with decent, truth-loving, and in today's Indian and many other countries' of the world context, law-abiding people. I have personal experience of the unethical behaviour and dictatorial/power-craze behaviour of Prof. --Name1-snipped--, the former vice-chancellor of the Sai university who betrayed the Central Trust as well as similar unethical and dictatorial/power-craze behaviour of then and current registrar, --Name2-snipped--, and then Head of Dept of Maths & Computer Science, --Name3-snipped--. It is the behaviour of these people not only towards me but their (--Name1-snipped-- and --Name2-snipped--) behaviour towards veteran faculty of Sai university like Prof. Anilkumar Kamaraju and Prof. Krupanidihi that caused me to terminate my association with the Sai university in March 2012. It took a lot of courage and determination for me to get involved in publicly writing against it once I realized how precarious the situation had become (I started sometime in or around August 2014, if I recall correctly).

The easy option was to simply continue to stay away from the matter like I had done after June/July 2012. Then I could have focused on practising love & benevolence and all that.

But I realized that Avataric careers are full of fight against Adharma, and not only love & benevolence. On the other hand, rishi-muni and saintly careers may be full of love & benevolence. I recalled that Jatayu, even though he was an elderly bird and perhaps knew that he would lose the fight with Ravana, chose to fight Ravana when he was taking away Sita. Love & benevolence did not work with Ravana as he laughed at that. Love & benevolence did not work with Duryodhana. Janami dharmam na cha me pravratti (I know Dharma but it is not my nature (to follow Dharma)) quote is attributed to him, if I recall correctly.

In today's context, I have seen some horrific videos of IS state brutality. They have literally gunned down defenceless prisoners without a trace of mercy, and put up video(s) of it. They think that those who do not believe in their extremist version of Islam, are kaffirs (unbelievers) who can be killed like one swats or insecticide-sprays mosquitoes! Such people are like the Ravana and Duryodhana of Hindu scripture against whom love and benevolence will not work.

It would be inappropriate for me to end this comment without mentioning perhaps the fiercest Avatar of Hindu scripture - Narasimha. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba would talk a lot about Prahlada's Bhakti towards Narayana in the face of his father's complete and deadly opposition to such Bhakti towards Narayana. When Narasimha Avatar came out of the pillar and tore apart Prahlada's father the demon, Hiranyakashipu, he was full of fury, and got pacified by the devotion of Prahlada.

And then I have to mention that your part-namesake Dara Shikoh's love and benevolence was no match for the fury and military power of Aurangzeb and the people who were dead against Dara Shikoh for adopting a unity of religions view and going by Sufi teachings (where love & benevolence are very important). These, bro., are the truths of life that history & scripture teach us.
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[I thank deccanchronicle.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]