Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

I recently came to know of a conman, Fred Brito of the USA, who went to the extent of being a fake priest. The following two youtube video links of "I ( Almost) Got Away With IT" has a dramatization of Fred Brito's conman career interspersed with the real Fred Brito giving his views on it, as well as other real persons like an LAPD officer (Det. Debbie Potter, Supervisor, LAPD) who was the main person to initiate his arrest while he was doing his second fake priest role. I think these videos give a pretty good idea of how such conmen think and work. a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp6GTcngG5c , 34 min. 12 secs [The fake Catholic priest part starts at around 31:00 in this video]. b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ZfpXOXTSg , 9 min. 49 secs. [The fake Catholic priest part continues from the beginning of this video till its end]. Transcripts of parts of video b): @ around 0:03 Father Patrick Mowrer, real Catholic priest (speaking about Brito fake priest act)...

Pope Francis blesses (and prays with) gathering outside US Capitol on Sept. 24th 2015 in this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-y_Q0eVNpQ , 4 min. 42 secs. Pope Francis first lovingly looks at the crowd, blessing them. Then he says (according to the on-the-spot translator): Hello everyone. I am so grateful for your presence here. The most important ones here, children. I will ask God to bless them. Father of all. Bless these. Bless each of them. Bless the families. Bless them all. And I ask you all please to pray for me. And if there are among you any who do not believe or cannot pray, I ask you please to send good wishes my way. Pope Francis finally says in English: Thank you. Thank you very much and God bless America. [Ravi: USA House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner is very moved by this, and is struggling to hold back his tears. Mr. Boehner is a Roman Catholic. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boehner , "On September 25, 2015, Boehner announced ...

Given below is a transcript of a short segment of the Facebook Townhall meeting involving Mark Zuckerberg and Indian PM Naendra Modi. The event was on 27th Sept. 2015 and its video is available here: https://www.facebook.com/narendramodi/videos/10156199765675165/ . Around 1:00: Zuckerberg: India is personally very important to the history of our company here [Ravi: Facebook company]. This is a story that I haven't told publicly and very few people know. But early on in our history when, before things were really going well, and we hit a top patch and lot of people wanted to buy Facebook, and thought we should sell the company, I went and I saw one of my mentors, Steve Jobs. And he told me that in order to reconnect to what I believed as the mission of the company, I should visit this temple that he had gone to, in India, early on, in his evolution of thinking about what he wanted Apple and his vision of the future to be. And so I went, I travelled for almost a month and seeing t...

Last updated on 14th Nov. 2015 I would like to first say that I believe in Shirdi Sai Baba's teaching of "Sabka Maalik Ek" (The master of all is ONE). In other words, I believe in ONE GOD with various religions including Islam being various paths/ways to worship and merge in that ONE GOD. Specifically, I am not against Islam, and am actually supportive of it, so long as it does not interfere in the right of others (like me, a Hindu) to practise their faiths which are different from Islam  (e.g. Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism) . Shirdi Sai Baba used to say "Allah Maalik" (Allah/God is the master) very often; I revere the same Shirdi Sai Baba,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi ,  and try to follow His teachings. Here's an article from The Hindu today, 27th Sept. 2015, "Tipu Sultan: a secular internationalist, not a bigot", http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/tipu-sultan-a-secular-internat...

Last updated on 18th Sept. 2020 18th Sept. 2020 Update: I had an inner urge to name-snip the names of some person(s) in this post and so have done so. This post got missed out in the name-snipping I did some months ago. Some Sai university alumni are deeply associated with Muddenahalli group as promoters/leaders of the so called subtle body of Swami in Muddenahalli belief which automatically promotes the so called chosen communicator (Madhusudhan Naidu) who claims to see and interact with Swami for hours together on regular basis. [I am convinced that it is a FALSE BELIEF and I have documented the reasons elsewhere in this blog.] Please note that I am referring to Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (Sai university) alumni and NOT alumni of Muddenahalli and Alike schools run by Loka Seva Trust. It seems that most of such Sai university alumni promoters/leaders of Muddenahalli group (besides Madhusudhan Naidu) believe that they have some spiritual powers and/or some contact w...

Last updated on 30th Sept. 2015 After Bhagavan's Mahasamadhi and the ensuing chaos & confusion in Puttaparthi Sai setup, (which resulted in me parting ways with the Sai university in March 2012), I started reading up and viewing up (videos and spiritual TV channels) on other contemporary and near-contemporary spiritual movements and groups, both in India and abroad. One thing that struck me right away was that in all these spiritual movements and groups, expert(s) on their spiritual principles and views and interpretations of holy scripture, were the prominent person(s) and seemed to be the key decision maker(s) in the associated orgn. And that made sense as it is these people who play a great role in drawing and retaining followers in their spiritual movement/group. If the number of followers dwindle then that's usually an indication of some serious problem in the movement/group which needs to be addressed quickly and effectively as otherwise the entire movement/grou...

I have very fond memories of time spent enjoying and being engrossed in Bhajans at ISKCON, Juhu, Mumbai, http://www.iskconmumbai.com/iskcon-juhu/ , in the early 90s. It was perhaps my first serious effort at trying to focus the mind in Bhakti (devotion) of the Lord, through song (bhajan) in an atmosphere of community devotion (satsang). Here's a great bhajan by famous ISKCON singer Loknath Swami, Mukunda Madhava Govinda bol, 7 min. 15 secs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0nkjHXkrlQ . I should also say that I did read fair amount of ISKCON literature, both on Bhagavad Gita, and the Bhagavatam. I was not entirely comfortable with some aspects of this literature and that held me back from becoming more committed to ISKCON as my spiritual guide-organization. [This was prior to me knowing about Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and then associating with the Sathya Sai orgn.] I should also say that, by no means, am I finding fault with ISKCON literature! NO, NOT AT ALL. I am not gettin...

Here's the video of Pope Francis address to US Congress on 24th Sept. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te0_bWQNFn4 , 50 min. 39 secs. Here are extracts from the transcript of the above address of Pope Francis, from http://time.com/4048176/pope-francis-us-visit-congress-transcript/ : I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. I would like to think that the reason for this is that I too am a son of this great continent, from which we have all received so much and toward which we share a common responsibility. ... Yours is a work which makes me reflect in two ways on the figure of Moses. On the one hand, the patriarch and lawgiver of the people of Israel symbolizes the need of peoples to keep alive their sense of unity by means of just legislation. On the other, the figure of Moses leads us directly to God and thus to the transcendent dignity of the human being. Moses provides us wi...

A correspondent passed on this video, To Scale: The Solar System, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg , 7 min. 06 secs, published on Sep. 16th 2015. It has already touched over 1.6 million views in slightly over one week after publication  (as of 24th Sept. 2015) ! I added the following comment on the youtube video: Loved it. Found it educative, really. I mean, I knew distances in the solar system were HUGE, but I did not have a proper sense of proportion of sizes of planets and sun, and the distances between them. This video gives me that sense of proportion (I presume it is accurate; would be great if it is certified for fair level of accuracy (not perfect accuracy) by some top orgn. in the field like NASA). --- end comment --- Five short quotes from the video: From 0:00: As we got farther and farther away, the Earth diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine ... seeing this has to change a man. - JAME...

[Disclosure: I am not a lawyer. I am just using plain logic in my arguments below. Note that essentially a court of law follows logical arguments in the context of the laws of the land. So it is not necessary to be a lawyer to consider such matters. Further, I believe, in exceptional cases, a petitioner/plaintiff or a defender in a court of law is allowed to present arguments himself/herself without using a lawyer.] The relevant act is called "The Emblems And Names (Prevention Of Improper Use) Act, 1950". Its "bare act" including schedule (schedule 24 & 25 relate to SSSCT and Sri Sathya Sai) is available here: http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/laws/the-emblems-and-names-prevention-of-improper-use-act-1950.html . One key part (section?) of the act is given below: 3. Prohibition of improper use of certain emblems and names Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, no person shall, except in such cases and under such conditi...

Last updated on 22nd Sept. 2015 [I used the term (white) lady to simply let readers know that this account is about how the Holy Vedic Gayatri mantra benefited somebody who was not born in an Indian Hindu cultural environment. My view is that her example shows that people of all ethnic and racial (and gender) backgrounds (white/black/brown whatever and whatever cultural exposure) could also benefit from the Holy Vedic Gayatri mantra (provided, of course, that one has faith in it and practises it diligently).] In a Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/yaani.drucker/posts/10153660252075477 , Mrs. Yanni Drucker shared "Waking Up by Undoing Ego" Facebook user community's post having following contents authored by Yanni Drucker (public sharing here, approved by Yanni Drucker): Gayatri mantra is chanted day and night for the uplift of all fellowman. Back in '82 when I first came to have Baba's darshan, Professor Kasturi gave a talk on the power of Gayatri mant...

Last updated on  6 Jun. 2024 6 Jun. 2024: Sensitive content has been snipped. 21st 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. Given below are the contents of my recent Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1665140473702523 . This is my reaction to Mr. Vr Ganti​'s recent post, "Revamping of Zone 4 - a must - to continue Sai Mission in South East Asia", https://www.facebook.com/notes/vr-ganti/revamping-of-zone-4-a-must-to-continue-sai-mission-in-south-east-asia/10205214685271358 . 1) That Muddenahalli (MDH) group was helped SIGNIFICANTLY by Singapore Sai devotees due to large sums of money donated by them, as well as other support rendered by them, has been QUITE WELL ESTABLISHED, IMHO, by Mr. Ganti. I mean, while evidence in terms of documentation of money trail is not provided, Mr. Ganti's account seems to me to have the RING OF TRUTH. Neither has Mr. Ganti's acc...