Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

"Always remember, Swami knows everything. I am always watching - not just from yesterday or day before. From several crores of years; from several past births of yours. Do not think you can cover my eyes and get away with doing whatever you want." - Sri Sathya Sai Baba, from https://sathyasaiwithstudents.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-am-watching-over-you-from-several.html . I would like to share that, in my slightly over eight years of serving in Prashanti Nilayam campus of SSSIHL (university founded by Bhagawan) when Swami was in physical form (Jan. 2003 to April 2011), and having quite regular darshan of Swami whenever he was in Prashanti Nilayam, there were many occasions when there was eye contact between Swami and me. It took me some time to become sensitive to Swami's facial expression when he looked at me. Over time it became very clear to me that when he looked at me even if it was just for a few seconds, he somehow knew what I was thinking then and what I had done ea...

I think today's thought for the day from Prashanti Nilayam is something that is very close to my heart. Have faith that Truth will save you in the long run; stick to it, regardless of what might befall. For if you are true, the sense of guilt will not gnaw your insides and cause pain. It is cowardice that makes you hide the truth; it is hatred that sharpens the edge of falsehood. Be bold and there is no need for a lie. Be full of love and there is no need for subterfuge. The easiest habit is speaking the truth, honesty; for if you start telling lies, you will have to keep count of them and remember how many you have told to whom, and be always alert not to contradict one lie with another! Love a person and you need no longer deceive the person with a lie; you will feel that the loved one deserves the truth and nothing less than the truth. Love saves a good deal of bother. (Divine Discourse, March 3, 1958) From Thought for the day for Nov. 28th 2014, http://www.theprasanthirepo...

Last updated on 30th Nov. 2014 In a mail exchange, a correspondent mentioned (includes a small later clarification from correspondent), "a small distance can separate a poor area (like a slum) from a wealthy area, yet people can live for years in the wealthy area without ever seeing a poor area." To this I (Ravi) add, or rather elaborate: without ever spending time in that poor area and understanding the challenges of living in that poor area (slum). I agree on the comments of the correspondent about living in a wealthy area without ever seeing a poor area. I think it is a great problem which exacerbates the rich/poor disconnect and which perhaps is a big factor contributing to social tension and strife, whether the country be a materially developing one like India or a materially developed one like USA. My experience in a spiritual organization with a lot of focus on service to the poor (Sathya Sai Seva Samithi), for nearly a decade, while I was in working in the softw...

A recent mail exchange with a correspondent triggered this post. My view is that Swami's (Sri Sathya Sai Baba's) public teaching, from Sanathana Dharma, is: Sathyam Bhruyath (Speak the truth), Priyam Bhruyath (Speak that which is pleasant/loving), Na Bhruyath Sathyam Apriyam (Don't speak the unpleasant truth). Now this is a general rule and, surely, there will be some exception cases. For example, when questioned in any investigation of fraud, it is far better to be truthful about any fraud one knows of, related to the investigation, than not speak about it as that will amount to concealing fraud in an investigation, and could land one into significant amount of trouble. But what about "harmless" lies used for the common good? Well, the danger is that what one views as harmless may not be viewed as harmless by others. Lying to get out of difficult situations is a common failing. So one could get into the spiritually very bad habit of lying to escape o...

Last updated on 9th Feb. 2019 Note: I added this post to this spiritual blog as I felt some Sathya Sai devotees would like to read this post. Day-before-yesterday (15th Nov.) my municipal councillor told me about a Swachh Bharat (Clean India) activity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan , scheduled for yesterday morning around 10 AM at Chitravathi riverbed, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitravathi_River . I thought it would be a small affair. But when I went there yesterday morning I was surprised to see a large amount of people as well as earth mover machines in action. Lots of govt. & local administration officials & representatives as well as a large police contingent were present. I was very happy to see school boys, young girls perhaps school girls, citizen groups and even policemen participate in the cleanup activity. It gave a sense of oneness to Puttaparthi town (outside-ashram). While I did not participate in the cleanup myself I thought I coul...

The official trailer of the Hindi movie Satya Sai Baba with Anup Jalota playing role of Swami is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfAbayOofWU , 3 min 6 secs. The songs can be heard here (no video - still frame), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoWcwAFATi4 , 34 min 27 secs. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the following song: LAGI RE LAGAN MOHE LAGI @ 13 min. 3 sec (13:03 till around 18:43): It is a pukka Bollywood (Bombay/Mumbai's Hollywood) song but with a spiritual message, sung by Sukhwinder Singh with lyrics by Naqsh Layalpuri. I think such songs will have tremendous appeal for the general public. BTW I am a born-and-bred Bombay/Mumbai fellow (spent most of first four decades of my life in Bombay/Mumbai) - Hindi film songs (till the early 90s) are an inextricable & deep part of my life! So I just loved this Bollywood style song on Swami when I heard it first. Don't know though how Sathya Sai devotees into Parthi style songs will take it - it is a p...

Last updated on 17th Nov. 2014 Note: I put up this post on this spiritual blog as some Sathya Sai devotees visiting /living in Puttaparthi may be interested in this topic. Over the past few weeks I have heard of some cases of Dengue (pronounced as Dengee by some and as Dengu by most Indians I discussed it with), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever , in Puttaparthi. I also read about recent Dengue cases in Mumbai. From the wiki link on Dengue given earlier: Dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs. ... As there is no commercially ava...

This post is about a recently discovered case of a murder of a 75 year old Australian lady in Puttaparthi. Please skip reading the rest of this post if you want to avoid such stuff. [I did not want to use the word murder in the title and so used 'incident'.] After some thought I decided to put it up in this spiritual blog instead of a miscellaneous blog as Sathya Sai devotees may want to know about this unfortunate incident and how to avoid similar incidents in future. Over the past few days I have been seeing rather unusual 'Missing' notices showing an elderly white lady stuck in a few places in Puttaparthi. I presume that the lady mentioned below is the same as the one mentioned in these missing notices. Yesterday I was shocked to read this article in The Hindu, Missing Australian woman’s body found, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/missing-australian-womans-body-found/article6576766.ece . A small extract from it: "An Aus...

Last updated on 14th Nov. 2014 On November 1st, the Hindu carried this article by Karan Thapar, The two faces of Mr. Modi, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-the-two-faces-of-mr-modi/article6553304.ece . I submitted the following comment (in two parts) to the above webpage (version below has small corrections): I think Mr. Thapar is reading too much into honourable PM Narendra Modi's statements about genetic science and plastic surgery in the context of Mahabharata and Lord Ganesha. It is not as if Mr. Modi is directing scientists to agree with his view. It is Mr. Modi's belief and, IMHO, he is entitled to it. Mr. Thapar views such matters as false - fine, he is entitled to his view. My personal view is that some paranormal capabilities and events of Hindu epics & scripture may be true like some of the miracles attributed to Jesus in the New Testament may be true. But I think that some Hindu epics/scripture like some parts of some of the Puranas should no...

Last updated on November 20th 2014 Based on my somewhat limited study of early Christianity I now have the impression that the two most prominent apostles responsible for the spread of Christianity after the trauma of the crucifixion of Jesus and the (believed) resurrection of Jesus from the dead, are Peter and Paul. Now Paul did not see Jesus and was involved with the initial persecution of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, after they had started spreading the message of Jesus including telling about his resurrection. But Paul became a great messenger of Jesus after a transforming experience. Recently I saw a couple of videos on Paul, and (most of) a regular movie on Peter. The general impression I have is that while these videos may have immense value for some of those interested in the Christian faith, I am not so sure about how accurate they are from a viewpoint of current mainstream scholarly knowledge about Peter and Paul. When I say scholarly knowledge I refer mainly to...