Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Last updated on 4-Sept-2018 [Note: A limited version of this conversation having only my part of it was put up by me as a standalone post around a week ago here: Some thoughts of mine about software techie spiritual aspirants, Hinduism, Science, Christian faith etc., http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/08/some-thoughts-of-mine-about-software.html , 23rd Aug 2018] Given below is a recent mail conversation I had with an old techie colleague of mine we will refer to as Anon1. Anon1 was OK with public sharing of his mail contents. My comments are prefixed with Ravi and included in the body of Anon1's mail contents given below. Anon1: Prologue. I happened to come across something you had written last year on your blog about BioLogos and your thoughts on changes to be made to reflect all religions. I should thank you for inspiring me to put down a lot of things that (have) been tossing around in my own mind. Ravi: Happy to know that my post triggered you to expression of your

Last updated on 4th Sept. 2018 I have got a report from a reliable source that before Mr. Nimish Pandya took on the responsibility of All India President of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organizations (SSSSO) (India), Mr. Nimish Pandya (and his wife) met Madhusudan Rao Naidu, the so called chosen communicator, in the house of Mr. Indulal Shah in Mumbai. I do not know the date - perhaps it was in end 2014 or in 2015. I was also told that after Mr. Pandya took on the responsibility of All India President of SSSSO, he has NOT met Madhusudan Naidu. As I have personally experienced the madness that gripped and created traumatic division and havoc in Prasanthi Nilayam and Puttaparthi for at least five long years (from around mid 2011 to around mid 2016), first by Narasimhamurthy as so called dream instruction successor (false claim) of Sathya Sai and then by Madhusudan Naidu as so called chosen communicator (false claim) of Sathya Sai, I am super-sensitive to credible reports of top office bea

Last updated on 4th Sept. 2018 Mr. V.R. Ganti's recent Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/notes/vr-ganti/all-india-president-of-sathya-sai-seva-org-nimish-pandya-becomes-all-india-dicta/10213085340872829/ , shares the very disturbing recent letter of Shri Ramesh Sawant, former state president of Maharashtra Sathya Sai orgn. to Mr. Nimish Pandya, All India President of Sathya Sai orgn. I read this letter a few days ago and was very disturbed by it. The post also states that on Guru Poornima 2018 i.e. 27-07-2018, ".. 8 Presidents of various states in India either were removed and in one particular case, the President has been relieved of part of the state, primarily because of the bifurcation of the state itself. These changes, caused ripples in the SAI Circles of various states but most of the Presidents removed who were seriously hurt" kept quiet. Mr. Ganti's post then states, "However, Ramesh Sawant who was the President of Maharashtra and Goa state

To Hon'ble Chief Minster of Maharashatra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis chiefminister@maharashtra.gov.in [Also as blog and Facebook post links in message on https://cmo.maharashtra.gov.in/contactus ] Namaskar Saheb, Dear sir, I am a grateful son of Mumbai and surrounding regions (Mumbai Metropolitan Region), and Maharashtra and so I am writing this Open Letter to you as a matter of duty to Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Maharashtra. It is in Mumbai Metropolitan Region that I was born, educated, earned a living as software development professional, fulfilled my family obligations and saved money for early retirement. I lived there for most of the first forty years of my life before I moved to Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh in October 2002 as a retired-from-commercial-work spiritual aspirant. I have lived in Puttaparthi now for over 15 years. Puttaparthi, as you may know sir, is the abode of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. In November of 2017, you sir along with Shri Sachin Tendulk

Last updated on 29-Aug-2018 Warning: This post has some graphic swear words. Readers who prefer to not read such swear words may please skip reading the rest of this post. As I became a whistle-blower exposing from early 2015 onwards on social media (Facebook and blog), Muddenhalli group false belief and Muddenahalli group hijack of Sai university, I got my first taste of people wanting to silence me. Initially it was polite comments on social media and even in person, where people advised me, some perhaps out of wanting to genuinely help me, to stay out of the matter, especially given the health problems that I face. I politely explained to them that I felt it is my duty to my beloved and revered Gurudev Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to expose the false belief of Muddenahalli group as they are misguiding innocent Sathya Sai devotees using his HOLY NAME. Later some trolls of Muddenahalli group using Facebook Fake IDs started threatening me. I later came to know that at least som

Former altar boy says he stole $100,000 from church as revenge for priest abuse, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/religion/former-altar-boy-says-he-stole-100-000-church-revenge-n903801 , 25th Aug. 2018 A small extract from the above: "Things would manifest themselves and I would be forced to let it out and look at that fear, anger and resentment," he told NBC News in an interview. --- end extract --- Ravi: This I think reflects a sad and human-weakness related reality of many non-transparent and non-accountable spiritual missions and ashram systems. Those who are within these missions and ashram systems and financially or otherwise dependent on them, when faced with abuse of power in a sexual way or otherwise, are not in a position to hold their bosses accountable and get justice. These systems have the ingrained culture of cover-up, and the outside community too does not want to know about such things and thereby encourages the cover-up. In the victim of abuse who is

Last updated on 25-Aug-2018 In Indian English I think the word fraternity goes beyond a male only brotherhood. It means more of a community of people, adult male, adult female and children bonded together as a community-hood (even if it may be referred to as a brotherhood at times, it does not mean a male only brotherhood). The Indian Republic picked up the words of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity from the French Republic. So the preamble to the Indian constitution uses the word fraternity with the meaning I have given above (and NOT a male only brotherhood). And so in Indian English I think the word fraternity is understood by most Indian English readers to NOT mean a male only brotherhood. Related extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamble_to_the_Constitution_of_India The preamble to the Constitution of India is a brief introductory statement that sets out guiding people and principles of the document, and it indicates the source from which the ordinary document

Last updated on 26-Aug-2018 Given below is a comment I made on recent post of Mr. V.R. Ganti, https://www.facebook.com/notes/vr-ganti/is-aip-with-his-deputy-politicising-sai-org-is-aip-trying-compete-with-c-sriniva/10213054773988676/ : Former Prime Minister of India, late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a committed devotee of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and contributed greatly to India's development and growth. As a resident of India and an Indian citizen I am deeply grateful to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his dedicated service to the nation, which benefited millions of Indians including me. Shri Vajpayee also publicly repudiated Western media led attacks on our beloved and revered Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. As a Sathya Sai devotee, I am deeply grateful to Shri Vajpayee for that. A Sai bhajan being held at Shri Vajpayee's residence is a wonderful occassion for Sathya Sai devotees to pray for Shri Vajpayee's soul (mind/subtle body) and also to pray to B

Last updated on 31-Aug-2018 Note: The post contents below have only my part of a conversation with another person. Readers may want to look at the full conversation post here: http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/08/conversation-on-software-techie.html . [About being software techies and novices on spiritual path:] I think most of us are in the learning boat. As software techies (software developers & designers) we get trained rather ruthlessly by the computer to be respectful of truth. If the program or the design/architecture of the software has serious flaws, the computer ruthlessly exposes the flaws when the appropriate input triggers the flaws leading to the software not working properly. The computer does not try to be nice to us neither can we try to boss over the computer to "behave" and run our software "properly". We come to terms with the fact that, virtually always, the problem is in our program and/or design/architecture of the software, and