Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

On my iami1 blog Crisp Statements of Belief in God that is Compatible with Science Created Aug 2012, Last (major) update: Apr 2017, Last minor update: Aug 2026 On this ravisiyer blog (in date created order) Science Fanaticism and Anti-Religion Fanaticism displayed in Post Theistic Society Article Created: Sep 2013, Last updated: Oct 2013. Science Fanaticism and Anti-Godmen/Anti-Religion Fanaticism of Some Indian Scientists Sep 2013 Feedback on my adaptation of Crisp Statements of Belief in God that is Compatible with Science Created: Apr 2017, Last update: Apr 2017, Last minor update: Jan 2020 About top-notch scientist Dr. Francis Collins and his superb arguments about science being compatible with belief in (Christian) God; My adaptation to multi-faith God Jan 2018 Conveying why my Existential reality; Vedanta; God & Science conversation iami1 blog book may be of some interest to open-minded (hard science) scientists and social science researchers May 2018 Elevati...

Found it interesting that my "Divine revelation gems from Chandogya Upanishad: Chapter 6 (Dialogue between Uddalaka and Svetaketu)", https://iami1.wordpress.com/2018/04/08/divine-revelation-gems-from-chandogya-upanishad-chapter-6-dialogue-between-uddalaka-and-svetaketu/ blog post (on a different blog of mine) written 8 years ago still gets some visitors once in a while (around 60 visits in the past year). I checked out Google search ranking for it for the term: divine revelations in chandogya upanishad I was surprised to see that in both my account search as well as incognito search on desktop and mobile, for the above term, my above post is ranked #1. I re-read the post today and was quite pleased with it. I am happy that this humble post of mine on core Vedantic philosophy including the Tat Tvam Asi (Thath Thvam Asi) Mahavakya (Mahaavaakya) which is part of Chandogya Upanishad: Chapter 6, is of interest to few persons. Family heritage wise, I am a Sama Vedi Brahmin and Cha...

Today I saw this recent article in the news: Comedian Louis CK says India has ‘functioning poverty’ which is still better than New York: ‘Nobody looks at you’ . I think the remarks of Louis CK match my views. I have seen poverty in Mumbai and surrounding areas where I lived for most of my childhood and young adult years (till 2002), and in Puttaparthi and surrounding areas where I have lived over two decades now (from end 2002). In the 1980s and early 1990s, I have spent some time in the USA as well. It is with that background that I say that Louis' views match my views. This triggered me to lookup some old posts of mine. I was very happy to see this post: Shirdi Sai Baba's life and sayings on Sufi Maqaams (stations) of faqr (poverty), sabr (patience) and tawakkul (trust/surrender) , Sept. 2016. That's almost ten years back! The post clearly covers the emphasis Shirdi Sai Baba laid on leading a life of poverty ('faqr') and how that is part of the traditional Sufi li...

My recent Facebook post shared this post about an ancient Narasimha avatar carving in Kaiyuan temple in Quanzhou, China:  https://www.facebook.com/thebharatpost/posts/a-fascinating-cultural-link-is-drawing-attention-to-a-rare-carving-of-narasimha-/1323013913019340/ The share comments of  my above mentioned recent Facebook post  are given below. Very interesting! More background from the wiki page for the Kaiyuan Temple (Quanzhou), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiyuan_Temple_(Quanzhou) : The temple is also one of few in China to contain Hindu monuments, left there by traders from Southern India. --- end wiki extract --- Quanzhou is a port city in the Southeastern coastal part of China. As per Gemini AI: In the "distant past"—specifically during the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368) dynasties—Quanzhou was effectively the center of the maritime world. Because of its location, it was the primary destination for Tamil merchants and other South Indian traders who crossed ...

Last updated on 27 April 2026 My last spiritual update post was in end Jan. this year. Here's a short update to that. The Dissolve into God Sadhana (DIGS) is going on well. Regular prayer to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is also going on well. Some notes I had made over the past few months are given below. Feel the lasting truth break. I can have this break when I need a break from activity that is straining me mentally. This can be a long session of software development work which is becoming difficult like a long unsuccessful debugging or trial and error session. I have had partial success with this approach. Quite a few times, I take this break, which I also refer to as DIGS break. While I have not timed it, the impression I have is that after around half an hour of such a break, my mental tiredness reduces significantly. But sometimes I have failed in the attempted DIGS break. My mind does not settle into it. So I then typically unwind (the mind) and relax by doing something el...

Contents of my recent Facebook post are given below. Today Facebook showed me this 8 years old post of mine. While I rarely write on spirituality nowadays, I decided to share it along with some info. about the related book, as it may be of interest to any readers contemplating on self-publishing their first spiritual book. The book in the shared post was my first effort at publishing or rather self-publishing a book. Initially I explored a local printer in Puttaparthi - the pics in the shared post are of the local printer printed book (cover page and book printing in general was not very good). Later I moved to self-publishing the book through Pothi.com and Notion Press (both provided much better printing of the book including cover page). Note that I published the ebook as free download and the printed book at not-for-profit minimal price. The big takeaway for me from this effort was that even now years after I self-published it and moved on to other stuff, that book is around and se...