Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

I read the initial parts of Pope Francis' newly released document, The Joy of the Gospel. Here's a news article on it, "Francis: This is how the joy of the Gospel can reform the Church", http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/francesco-francis-francisco-30114/ Though Pope Francis' words are directed to Catholics/Christians, I think many of his views apply to other faiths too with a replacement of the deity Christ, when mentioned, with that of another faith (or a formless God). I have put down some references to the document and some small extracts which I think may be of interest to non-Catholic/non-Christian readers too. The long document is available here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html# I must also say that many of us may not agree with some approaches of the Roman Catholic Church - I am not so comfortable with the idea of ev...

I saw an interesting though perhaps over-dramatized video on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, "Secret Tibetan Book of the Dead | History Channel Documentary", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ermcc6iDqQA , 44 min 01 sec, with the transcript available [Transcript allows you to browse through the text of the video and choose to view only the parts you are interested in.] The video has input from some Western experts on the book including some professor(s). The experts comments are quite interesting and thought-provoking. There is a wikipedia page associated with it, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol . A few extracts: The Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State differentiates the intermediate state between lives into three bardos: The chikhai bardo or "bardo of the moment of death", which features the experience of the "clear light of reality", or at least the nearest approximation of which one is spiritually capable. The chonyi...

Last updated on 28th November 2013 I tried to pick up some key figures from the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust Annual Report for 2012-13, http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/Pdf/Annual%20Report%20_SSSCT%202012-13.pdf (12 MB document having 132 pages). Here they are: [Note: A crore is 10 million; figures are in Rupees; 1 US $ is currently around 62 Rupees.] Key financial figures for 2012-13 From Page 10: Income: 165.95 crores   [includes  Interest (on Investments, I presume) of 117.18 crores and  Donations of 41.46 crores] Expenditure: 101.21 crores [Barring 8.22 crores spent on Admin & Maintenance, remaining expenditure of 92.99 crores was on Education, Medical Relief & Welfare projects.] * Additional 10.88 crores spent by university from funds and grants received by them. Page 11: Balance Sheet - Total Funds: 1523.25 crores [includes Investments of 1257.28 crores] Key service figures for 2012-13 Free Medical care: 6,75,363 patients attended to and...

I thoroughly enjoyed, felt inspired and improved my knowledge about Muslim mystic music of India as well as Islam, by watching a documentary Sama. Some info. about it from its webpage, http://www.psbt.org/screening/movie_review/481 . It is financed by the Governement of India. SAMA – MUSLIM MYSTIC MUSIC OF INDIA | SHAZIA KHAN | 52 min | Kashmiri, Malyalam, Assamese, Bengali, Rajasthani, Tamil, Hindi , English | 2113 The Film explores the Islamic music traditions in India and portrays how they have borrowed and taken inspiration from the culture of the India, in both form and content, to become a truly magnificent sound. The Film discovers that connection which allows the artiste to become one with the creator and experience peace, calm, serenity and joy. --- end webpage extract --- I saw it on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyg4qpqDXqE , 52 min, 01 sec. It starts with a Tamil Muslim song which I loved and a simple yet very powerful quote from the Quran: Qura...

It was very satisfying for me to see the recognition provided by the Govt. of India of Swami's outstanding contribution to India of motivating people to pursue spirituality though loving service to the poor and the needy on a very large scale suitable to modern times, by releasing a postage stamp in his honour. Here's a Telugu news video clip of it , 0 min: 55 secs. Here's a pic of the stamp , and here's a pic of the "First day cover" . https://postalinspectors.blogspot.com/2013/11/commemorative-postage-stamp-on-sathya.html gives a pic of the release itself. I have copy-pasted the accompanying text below: Sri Sathya Sai Baba (born as Sathyanarayana Raju; 23 November 1926 – death 24 April 2011) was a highly revered spiritual leader and world teacher, whose life and message are inspiring millions of people throughout the world. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. The Sathya Sai Organisation, founded by Sathya Sai Baba "to ena...

I was 'persuaded' to buy a copy of "Srivari Brahmotsavam- A celestial spectacle on earth" from The Hindu by my Hindu newspaper vendor/supplier for Rs. 150/- a few days (perhaps weeks) ago. I thank the vendor for making me buy it :). I have yet to read it in full but have found it to have fascinating insights of Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam setup with wonderful photographs as well. I thought I should let readers know that it can be bought from the net here: http://hindu.com/books/srivari/srivari13.htm . Some points about the issue. It starts with lovely photographs of the annual Brahmotsavam (mainly deity photographs). Average number of pilgrims having darshan every day - 63,000! On 25 to 30 days in a year the number of people having darshan crosses 1 lakh. The financial picture I think TTD has heavily benefited materially by South India's economic boom. Some figures of revenue: 2012-13 Rs. 2125 crores 2003-04 Rs.  496 crores 1993-94 Rs.  121 crore...

Last updated on November 20th 2013 The post, Sathya Sai Baba's Advaita Teachings By John Hislop Ph.D. - Edited Transcript of Video , is about teachings of Advaita as taught by Sri Sathya Sai Baba from one of the foremost, now deceased, Western followers/disciples of his, a Dr. Hislop (given in a talk in 1989 in the USA). Very interestingly, the theory of Advaita is backed by practical experiences of Dr. Hislop of the "universal consciousness" level of Sri Sathya Sai Baba which allowed the latter to have paranormal knowledge about Dr. Hislop. Sri Sathya Sai Baba exhorted his followers to believe that the ultimate reality and the only reality of all of them (indeed of all existence) is the "universal consciousness" which is at the depth of their very being. In other words, that all are God. But, as most of us (including me, certainly), have some difficulty in constantly (or even for some time) living with such a belief, given the various very human limitat...

Last major update on 20th November 2013 Last minor update on 21st March 2017 Video courtesy: saicast.org This post is an edited version of the talk, a significant part of which covers Advaita as taught by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Swami), given by Dr. John Hislop , in simple and friendly English, at a US Retreat (Eureka, Missouri) on 27 th May 1989. The video's original source is saicast.org and is available at the following saicast links: http://www.saicast.org/1989/19890527Hislop.html and http://vimeo.com/47243347 . I have uploaded the video (temporarily) to youtube and provided a proper transcript for the same, here, "Sathya Sai Baba's Advaita Teachings By John Hislop Ph.D.", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl9izOvsUJg , 1 hr, 26 min, 02 sec. Instructions about how to use the transcript and related caption features of youtube are provided in the About tab of the youtube video page above (you will have to click on ‘Show More’ button to see the w...