Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

A correspondent wrote over email (edited extract follows), and provided approval for it to be shared publicly: Music has this tremendous power - it is the ONLY thing that is common to all cultures of the world (past, present, future) - and it comprises just 7 pure (shuddha) notes and 5 flat (komal or tivra) notes. If it is one god we talk about - then nowhere is this in evidence except in music.  Religions and spiritualists fight over their version of god - musicians do not - they have their ONE god - the 12 notes (swaras). I think MUSIC is the true god :-) --- end correspondent message edited extract--- My response (edited): Great man, please enjoy the/your true music God. In my case, some of the beliefs (not full blown experience) that guide my life are drawn from the Upanishads which say that all is God - Isha Vasyam Idam Sarvam! [Isha/Brahman/God lives/permeates all this (world).] What is not God? How a person expresses his/her worship/visualization of God - throug...

I recently had a mail conversation with a USA correspondent who seems to be an atheist and a "secular humanist", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism . From this wiki page, (the following It refers to Secular Humanism) "It posits that human beings are capable of being ethical and moral without religion or a god. It does not, however, assume that humans are either inherently evil or innately good, nor does it present humans as being superior to nature. Rather, the humanist life stance emphasizes the unique responsibility facing humanity and the ethical consequences of human decisions. Fundamental to the concept of secular humanism is the strongly held viewpoint that ideology—be it religious or political—must be thoroughly examined by each individual and not simply accepted or rejected on faith. Along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy. Many Humanists derive their m...

Google search for the term, sathya sai baba miracles , gives the first page of results having 9 positive (view of Sathya Sai Baba's miracles) or neutral result links and 1 skeptic link (media report and not an anti-sai site).  The second page of results has 7 positive or neutral result links and 3 negative links including anti-Sai sites. [BTW I did the search from my PC in Puttaparthi using anonymous (incognito) Chrome browser window to avoid any personalization of search results.] So for general Google search users for Swami's miracles, the rankings seem fair to me given the widespread belief in Swami's miracles - the positive and neutral sites being given prominence but the critical sites also being provided. Google search for the term, sathya sai baba miracles scientific investigation , sadly has the first three results from anti-Sai sites with articles critical of Prof. Haraldsson's,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlendur_Haraldsson , investigations on Swami...

Here's a slightly edited extract from a Sai devotee correspondent's recent email (with approval from the correspondent): Here I would like to narrate a personal experience when I went to deposit a cheque sent by a devotee friend to the (Sri Sathya Sai) Central Trust office (in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India) opposite the South Indian canteen. As I was asked by my friend to deposit the cheque into the "corpus fund" I was asked to wait for my turn. Meanwhile one "visibly" poor man entered. He seemed to be little confused and unsure. I thought he mistook the Central Trust office for canteen token issuing counter. He was holding a 100 rupee note in his hand. Looking at the 100 rupee note and his physical appearance this man reminded me of  Lord Krishna's childhood friend "Sudama" ( also known as Kuchela in South India). He came up to me and asked (in Hindi) "where is the place to make a deposit to Swami's Trust". I told him you...

I was very pleased to read this article, dated July 23rd 2014, From crisis to credibility: How Sathya Sai’s trust turned around the fate in three years, http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/NAT-TOP-from-crisis-to-credibility-how-sathya-sais-trust-turned-around-the-fate-in-three-4688779-PHO.html . Some notes/small extracts and comments: Widespread speculations about future of Sai institutions three years ago (at Swami's Mahasamadhi time); many thought these institutions would not survive. [Ravi: I think the above words convey quite truthfully what most of the non Sai-devotee world would have thought at the time of our beloved Lord's Mahasamadhi. Perhaps even some of us in the Sathya Sai devotee fraternity may have harboured doubts about the future of these magnificent institutions focused on service to humanity.] ... "The institutions built by Sai are flourishing and the credit goes to Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT)." [Ravi: Having seen a lot of nonsens...

Last updated on August 3rd 2014 Some recent incidents led me to refresh my knowledge and also dig up a little on the fascinating phenomenon of impersonators of famous divine figures. Let me start by mentioning some such cases. Impersonator of Lord Krishna This is mentioned in the Bhagavatham (Hindu holy scripture which has the history of Krishna and more). One interpretation of the Bhagavatham section related to this impersonator, available on the net, is the ISKCON related one here: http://vedabase.net/sb/10/66/en1 . King Paundraka started believing that he was the true Vaasudeva (a name of Krishna), the divine master descended to earth! His impersonation went so far as to result in a challenge, through a messenger, to the real Lord Krishna as follows: "I am the one and only Lord Vaasudeva, and there is no other. It is I who have descended to this world to show mercy to the living beings. Therefore give up Your false name."!!! [BTW Lord Krishna is the son of Vasudeva...