Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Readers may want to read my recent post on another blog: My Facebook posts on Indian Air Force pilot in custody of Pakistan, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2019/02/my-facebook-posts-on-indian-air-force.html .

Given below are contents (same title as this post) of my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2425810464302183 , dated 26th Feb. 2019 Here's the Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement on the IAF (Indian Air Force) surgical strike against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied/Administered Kashmir: https://www.mea.gov.in/media-briefings.htm?dtl/31090/Statement_by_Foreign_Secretary_on_26_February_2019_on_the_Strike_on_JeM_training_camp_at_Balakot As an Indian citizen and resident, I support the destruction of terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied/Administered Kashmir as described in above statement. I salute the bravery of the Indian armed forces and others who provided support to them, for this surgical strike which is intended to protect India and Indians from terrorists trained in bases in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied/Administered Kashmir. The problem is with terrorism and not with Pakistan as a country or Pakistani people wh

Last updated on 7th March 2019 I have put up this video taken from https://www.facebook.com/PathOfTransformation/videos/824751827869336/ on my youtube channel here: Sathya Sai On Draupadi Cursing Silent Witnesses of her horrific humiliation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROEWGWw-Lkk (mentioning that the Video Courtesy is Path of Transformation). The video is 1 min 17 secs long. [The reason why I put it up additionally on my youtube channel is to provide more exposure to Sathya Sai teachings on the Internet. There is no profit motive whatsoever for this action.] From the description of the youtube video: Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba tells us about how Draupadi cursed silent witnesses to act of her being humiliated in open court. I am quite sure that Bhagavan is referring to Draupadi's horrific humiliation in open court of the Kauravas. An attempt is made by Kaurava prince Dushasana egged on by other Kauravas to disrobe Draupadi in the open court. Only Vikura and Vidura o

I felt it appropriate to share a recent comment (slightly edited) I made on Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514 : --Name-snipped-- Good reference to Mahabharata war. I have been able to come to terms to some extent with what happened after Mahasamadhi in Prasanthi Nilayam ashram system (including its institutions like the Sai university) and the Sathya Sai movement in general, by comparing it to the Pandavas - Kauravas struggle which led to the horrific fratricidal war, the Mahabharata, resulting in huge level of killing of the ruling elite of the concerned kingdoms then. In our case it was not actual violence (and thank God & Sathya Sai Avatar's teachings on peace for that), but the betrayal and the horrific level of nasty groupism and politics that was indulged in by the people in position ***and their donor-supporters and other-kind supporters***, was similar. Perhaps that is the weakness of human nature. Pope Alexander VI's

Today has been a pretty disturbing reading & viewing day for me. While I was aware of some really nasty stuff done by Popes in the past, I had no idea that the history of Pope Alexander VI was so scary and so disturbing. This includes how he got a reformist challenger, the Dominican friar Savonarola, executed. But there are views that Alexander VI behaved as per the times. This view says that the problem was that the Roman Catholic Church had got corrupted and had a lot of nasty politics in those times which sometimes involved murder, executions and even war. So it is unfair to view Alexander VI alone as bad or evil. Alexander VI is also praised by some as having been a capable Pope, given the times then. I forced myself to go through this history as I think that as I write on spirituality & religion, I must know this. For those readers who would like to go through this history, here are some links that I went through. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_

Vatican’s Secret Rules for Catholic Priests Who Have Children, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/world/europe/priests-children-vatican-rules-celibacy.html , 18th Feb. 2019 This is a shocker for me! Just shows how many people may have been raised in a similar way without knowing that their father was a supposedly celibate Catholic priest! The article provide a suggestion for a solution: "For the church, stories like Mr. Doyle’s draw uncomfortable attention to the violation of celibacy by priests and, for some former clerics and liberals inside the church, raise the issue of whether it is time to make the requirement optional, as it is in other Christian churches." Ravi: I think that's the way forward for the Roman Catholic Church. Make celibacy optional! Don't give the priest the option of: Either holding on to his job and hiding his fatherhood OR marrying and openly raising the child that he is the father of, but after quitting his job. The priest shoul

Last updated on 21st Feb. 2019 Ceremonial Reception of Mohammed Bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTM2HNV7CHM , 10 min. 35 secs. After the guard of honour, towards the end of the video, the Crown Prince speaks a few words about relationship between Arabian peninsula (represented by Saudi Arabia as 80% of Arabian peninsula) and India going back to thousands of years and being in the DNA of people of India and Arabian peninsula. The Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman spoke warmly about Saudi Arabia and India relationship and that was very nice to hear. For me as a writer on spirituality and religion, Saudi Arabia is a very important country due to Mecca and Medina being in that country. Islam is an important religion in India and I have had the good fortune of having quite a few Indian Muslim friends in my life in Mumbai and surrounding areas, and I also taught a few Muslim students during my free service stint in th

23rd 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. Yesterday afternoon in the main road of Puttaparthi (outside ashram), I had a small one-to-one interaction with an elder Sai devotee who had come under the sway of spiritual fraud Madhusudan Naidu for a brief period some years ago, after which he now seems to have kept away from Madhusudan Naidu and Muddenahalli group. He told me that he does not go there now and I believe what he told me to be true. I suggested to him that he could make a public statement about him now keeping away from Madhusudan Naidu (spiritual fraud) and Muddenahalli (MDH) group. While I don't think I told him specifically that he should say in it that it was a mistake on his part to get associated with Madhusudan Naidu (spiritual fraud) and MDH group, I think I implied it. I also told him that Aravind Balasubramanya, Sai university alumnus and Radio Sai staff, had made such a public stat

Last updated on 17th Feb. 2019 Please note that I have a PUBLICLY POLITICALLY NEUTRAL role in these social media posts that I put up related to Indian political leaders which may include leaders in government currently and those not in government. I am an Indian citizen and resident of India. I do vote in Indian elections but I keep who I vote for as a private matter. I should also say that I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy in India. In Focus Narashimha Rao, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XqPEo9FANw , around 25 mins. Non-Indian Sai devotees may be interested to know that former Prime Minister of India, (Late) Shri P.V.Narasimha Rao (PVNR) has visited Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and shown reverance to him, and that PVNR as PM was the chief guest for the inauguration of Puttaparthi Super hospital in 1991. Here's a short less than 3 min video of that event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peXX3H0Lr8c published by Radio Sai Global Harmony.  In t

आत्मवान् को जितक्रोधो द्युतिमान् कोऽनसूयकः | कस्य बिभ्यति देवाश्च जातरोषस्य संयुगे || १-१-४ Who is that self-composed one, who controlled his ire, who is brilliant, non-jealous and whom do even the gods fear, when provoked to war Valmiki Ramayana 1-1-4 Source: https://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga1/bala_1_frame.htm Ravi: I would translate devas as divine beings rather than gods due to confusion that creates in readers who are of Abrahamic religions. The above verse is part of a query from Valmiki to Sage Narada about whether a person matching the queries of Valmiki, exists. Sage Narada later replies that indeed he exists and is living and tells Valmiki about Lord Rama. The point to note here is that Rama is self-composed, non-jealous and controls his anger. But on provocation to war, even the divine beings fear him! So it is a combination of divine fearsome warrior power and other divine attributes like calm and lack of jealousy, that make up the character of L

Last updated on 25th Feb. 2019 This post in based on a recent mail conversation I had with an Indian Catholic Christian friend and former software industry colleague, who I refer to as George (not his real name). The intent of this post is to improve understanding and harmony between Hindus & Christians. It is NOT the intent of this post to denigrate any religious group/sect. A few days ago, George wrote me over email about an incident when many of us from our Mumbai software company (Datamatics, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datamatics ) were in Nashua, New Hampshire, USA and nearby places (some in Massachusetts), doing assignments at Wang Labs. Lowell, Mass.,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories . This was in the 2nd half of the 1980s. To help improve our recollection of the event we also got input from another of our group who was there then. We were a large group. I don't recall the exact number of us in Wang Labs, at the time the event happened. But we

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). ================================================================ In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514 , I wrote a comment on 24th Feb. 2019 which I put up in a slightly edited form as a separate post here: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/02/muddenahalli-group-spiritually-led-by.html . Given below are some further exchanges on that Facebook post ( https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514 ) : Somebody commented (slightly edited): my humble request is that Mr Ravi Iyer and Mr --name-snipped-- remove misunderstanding between Mr Ganti and Mr Ratnakar so we can all be united in facing the crisis before us. ---- I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - I have not met or spoken to Mr. Rathnakar ever. I lead a reclusive outside-ashram life in Puttaparthi. In early 2017, I had faced unfortunate social media atta

Last updated on 11th Feb. 2019 Thought some readers may be interested to know that I have started reading Ramayana authored by Kamala Subramaniam and published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The first edition was printed in 1981. I have a hardbound (print) copy of the fourteenth edition printed in 2018. While I do not recall reading specifically in the preface that it is based on Valmiki Ramayana, I presume that is the case. This book does not provide original Sanskrit verses and English translation of those verses. It instead provides an English rendition of Ramayana which seems to be based on Sanskrit Valmiki Ramayana. I think I should also say that my view of Lord Rama is strongly influenced by what I have read and heard (many times live in Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam) my beloved and revered Gurudev Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba say about Lord Rama. Primarily due to Sathya Sai's words, I believe Lord Rama to be a historical figure and NOT a mythological figure. Furthe