Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Given below is a recent Facebook chat exchange I had with a Facebook friend (FF4). FF4 wrote: Sairam Anna [Ravi: Anna means brother] . Through your posts i got to know that you won't write on MDH anymore. Well, it's your wish. You have cited reasons, which is understandable. I'm not a fan of MDH either. What can be done, only Swami can bring the Truth out. I must say, we do live in a society of hypocrites, nobody values innocent straightforward people. Sorry to take your time. Take care of your health Anna. Sairam. ------ I (Ravi) wrote back (slightly edited): Sairam sister! I have decided to stop writing aggressively against MDH (Muddenahalli) belief . And also not write about police & legal stuff. Other stuff will continue. Especially on questions about whether what Madhusudan Rao Naidu says fits in with Swami's teachings. ------ FF4 wrote: Ok anna. It's right. One must be careful in such matters. Most imp., you take care of your health. Health

Last updated on 28th August 2016 A Facebook friend (FF3) wrote over FB chat: Sairam brother. Hope you are well. I just happened to read your posts . Did Mervyn threaten you again? I hope that won't stop you from posting against MDH. The fight is against falsehood and you have taken a very brave stand. I hope you continue to do it and please remember we are all there to support you in any way we can. The last two weeks have been very busy for me work wise and I have had no time read through posts. I just very randomly shared posts and just not got to see your wall posts. Please do not get disheartened. Swami will stand by you always and so will you have all our support. Sairam. ------- I (Ravi) responded (edited): Thanks for your kind words about me and support for me, sister --name-snipped--. Well, I owe a lot to my elder sister. She was very upset with me and so I had no option but to agree to her advice to tone down my writings critical of MDH (Muddenahalli) group belie

A Facebook friend (FF2) wrote over FB chat today: Sai Ram dear Ravi, I just saw your post about Mervyn Hughes threatening legal action regarding your posts on Muddenahalli. Ravi, don't worry, he has no grounds whatsoever. If anything you are the voice of reason in online social media discussions about Muddenahalli and impartially provide both sides of the argument. Your reasoned, calm and balanced approach is very much needed! It is sad to see the depths to which Mervyn is sinking in his bid to bolster the Muddenahalli sham. There is more information on the horizon which Mervyn will not be happy about. Please don't withdraw from this fight - your opinion is not only wanted, it is needed! ------ I (Ravi) wrote back (edited): Well, my elder sister with whom I have very strong bonds of love and respect, got very upset and worried. I tried to convince her that it (the police and legal action threat) is a bluff and that I have some support from people in Puttaparthi and from

Last updated on 24th August 2016 [A recent Facebook comment of mine which I felt appropriate to put up as a separate post is given below.] Here's a Facebook chat interaction I had with a Facebook friend (FF) over yesterday & today. FF: Sairam Ravi, will you be less involved in the MDH stuff from now? ----- Ravi: I guess so. ----- FF: You are the articulate, vigorous, passionate voice of this side of the issue, Ravi Is this the beginning of the end for the resistance? ----- Ravi: I have no idea. I owe my elder sister a lot. I have to respect her wishes in this regard. I am bound by the duty of (springing from) my love and respect for her. ... Even when I was brutally marginalized and humiliated in the Sai university, NOT A SINGLE PERSON in the Sai university where I offered FREE SERVICE for 9 years came forward to support me!!! NOT ONE!!! It was my elder sister & family, and my elder brother and family (all of whom are not Sai devotees) and my old software

Last modified on 23rd August 2016 Today, I was blasted on the phone by my elder sister, a (retired) medical doctor based in Mumbai, for having got involved with matters where I had become a target of a police/legal action threat against me by a Muddenahalli group supporter on Facebook (even if the Id is a fake Id). BTW it is my elder sister who was supportive of my getting more deeply associated with the Sathya Sai movement/organization in the early 90s (Dombivli Samithi, Maharashtra) and taking an off-beat life path (staying single and eventually choosing to retire from commercial work at 40 years of age and moving to Puttaparthi for a "spiritual career"). In this phone call, she even said that she was wondering whether she did the right thing in supporting my taking up this off-beat spiritual aspirant path. She said that I had become a crusader now instead of a spiritual aspirant! I was deeply moved by her love for me and thanked her for the genuine concerns and wor

Muddenahalli Fraud and Scam , Talk by Leonardo Pablo Gutter, https://saibabathepurnaavatarandi.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/muddenahalli-fraud-and-scam-talk-by-leonardo-pablo-gutter/ , Aug. 20th 2016, Uriarte Sathya Sai center, Buenos Aires, Argentina This is a MUST READ article for those who want to read directly from transcript of talk by Prasanthi Council Member, Mr. Leonardo Gutter, about how Muddenahalli group used unethical means of attracting devotees & donors from official Sai orgn., to grow its mission, and how its (Muddenahalli group) growth using these means, has put pressure on Prasanthi Nilayam/Puttaparthi ashram (including some economic situation challenges) and on official Sai orgn. [Prasanthi Council is the world Sai orgn. (Sathya Sai International Organization) top management body. From https://www.sathyasai.org/organize/foundationCouncil/content.html : "The Sri Sathya Sai World Foundation focuses on policy issues and legal matters of the Sathya Sai Internation

Last updated on 21st April 2020 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. In the context of some recent posts of mine where I shared some nasty (verbal) attacks on me including one attack about me not being Ph.D., on Facebook, I thought some readers who are not knowledgeable about Indian Computer Science academia may wonder why I was teaching lab. courses in the Sai university though I am not a Ph.D. in Computer Science or otherwise educationally qualified in Computer Science. So I thought of putting up this post explaining the situation. Well, I did not join Sai university/SSSIHL for an academic career. I retired from commercial work in Aug. 2002 and came to Puttaparthi in Oct. 2002 with an objective of focusing on my "spiritual career" at Prasanthi Nilayam/Puttaparthi if Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was willing to accept me for such a role. To cut a long story short, in January 2003 my offe

Last modified on 24th August 2016 Animated map shows how religion spread around the world, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvFl6UBZLv4 , 2 min 35 secs, published on Jul 14th 2015 by Business Insider. The main description on youtube page above: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are five of the biggest religions in the world. Over the last few thousand years, these religious groups have shaped the course of history and had a profound influence on the trajectory of the human race. Through countless conflicts, conquests, missions abroad, and simple word of mouth, these religions spread around the globe and forever molded the huge geographic regions in their paths. --- end main description of youtube video --- Ravi: There may be quite some detail level inaccuracies in the video but it does give a bird's eye view of spread of the main five religions of the world today, from 3000 BCE to 2000 CE (5000 years) within a two and a half minute video! I viewed it m