An overview of my interactions with Mr. V.R. Ganti whom I have now blocked (sadly)
As a followup to my recent Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1858290811054154, where I reported that I have blocked Mr. V.R. Ganti and gave my reasons for doing so, I have put up this post. This post is composed from recent comments of mine, collapsed into one post and slightly edited, from the above mentioned recent post of mine.
I felt it appropriate to give an overview of my interactions with Mr. Ganti which started in the first half of 2015 if I recall correctly, perhaps around nine months or so after Madhusudan Rao Naidu burst on the Sathya Sai community scene in May 2014 publicly "declaring" his so called communicator claim.
Prof. G. Venkataraman (GV sir) then heading Radio Sai wrote in July 2014 an article in Radio Sai, challenging and refuting the claims made by Madhusudan Rao Naidu. I wrote a blog post referring to that article of GV sir, giving my views on the matter. That blog post of mine, Radio Sai article on recent Swami (Sathya Sai Baba) subtle form appearance controversy, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2014/07/radio-sai-article-on-recent-swami.html, dated July 11th 2014, shows a viewed count of 12,945 when I checked today, and is by far the most viewed post of that blog of mine which has Sathya Sai related blog posts of mine (and some other posts related to religion and spirituality).
However, after this Radio Sai article in July 2014, Radio Sai did not play any significant role in directly refuting Muddenahalli group claims. Perhaps they had their constraints and so decided to play safe by rarely referring to Muddenahalli group claims directly, and instead only stating Bhagavan's key instructions in this regard that Bhagavan's relation with his devotees is heart-to-heart and that Bhagavan never uses any intermediaries for such matters.
Meanwhile belief in Madhusudan Rao Naidu's so called communicator claims started growing at a great pace with many Sai devotees worldwide associating with him and with other leaders of Muddenahalli group like Sri Narasimhamurthy, Mr. Isaac Tigrett, Sri C. Srinivas etc.
By March 2015, I had got enough information, conveyed by Prof. Anilkumar Kamaraju in his talks where he was questioned by Sai devotees about Muddenhalli, and in private conversations he had with others which was conveyed to me, that Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group had become a SERIOUS DIVISIVE THREAT to post-Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement.
Radio Sai and other dissemination wings of official Prasanthi Nilayam ashram were largely SILENT and not criticizing Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group by name. This created an environment where association with Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group was viewed as acceptable by Sai devotees, in my considered opinion.
It is in this vacuum that people who started writing, in their individual capacity, exposing the claims of Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group BY NAME and backing the views with details/evidence, started becoming somewhat noted in Sathya Sai circles. SaiBliss Facebook posts, Terry Reis Kennedy's Facebook posts, my blog and later Facebook posts, and Mr. V.R. Ganti's emails and later Facebook posts exposing Muddenahalli group claims became a major source of information to Sathya Sai devotees wanting to know about the matter. It is my considered view that these names (including mine) got prominence simply because the official dissemination wings of Prasanthi Nilayam, like Radio Sai and Sanathana Sarathi chose to remain largely SILENT on this matter, perhaps due to some constraints they had.
Mr. V.R. Ganti did major work in approaching leaders and important people in both Prasanthi Nilayam system as well as Muddenahalli group, to investigate the matter, share the matter with his readers, and try hard to get Muddenahalli group to give up Madhusudan Rao Naidu's communicator claims and unite back with Prasanthi Nilayam based official Sai organization. He also shared the history of how this Muddenahalli group started, and who were the key people who supported Muddenahalli group and Narasimhamurthy in particular, right from July 2011 onwards. I will NEVER FORGET this great service done by Mr. V.R. Ganti to the post Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement. My blog post, Selected Facebook Notes on "Muddenahalli Saga" by Mr. V.R. Ganti, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/08/some-important-facebook-notes-on.html, dated Aug. 7th 2015, shares many extracts from Mr. Ganti's posts on this matter, and links to the associated Facebook posts of Mr. Ganti.
I and some others who were supportive of Prasanthi Nilayam and opposed the SERIOUS DIVISIVE THREAT posed by Muddenahalli group to post Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement, collaborated with Mr. Ganti on this work of his. I am very happy that I did so then as Mr. Ganti's work then informed the Sathya Sai devotee community worldwide about the history of Muddenahalli group and significantly contributed to exposing the false claim of its communicator, Madhusudan Rao Naidu.
However, sometime perhaps in 2016, Mr. Ganti started becoming very aggressive and started very harshly criticizing Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and its trustees. That is when Mr. Ganti started becoming a problem to people like me who are publicly (and privately) supportive of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT) and Prasanthi Nilayam. I publicly countered some of his criticism of SSSCT and its trustees which strained my relationship with Mr. Ganti.
But as he also continued to aggressively expose some wrongdoings of Muddenahalli group and was unstinted in his rejection of Madhusudan Rao Naidu's claims, I decided to take a path of opposing him on SSSCT criticism and co-operation on exposure of false claim of Madhusudan Rao Naidu. It was a difficult balance to strike. But I was able to manage it reasonably for some time. Further, Mr. Ganti had come to my support publicly and strongly, when I was viciously attacked by some persons on social media in the past. I was and still am grateful to him for that support that he had extended to me.
However, over the past few weeks, Mr. Ganti seems to have collaborated with people like Arun Srinivas of Muddenahalli (who is against Muddenahalli group of Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy) and Facebook fake Id Parthi Resident/Venkatesh Babu, who have used viciously personal, malicious and false attacks against an SSSCT trustee. I think in these matters, Mr. Ganti, Arun Srinivas and Parthi Resident/Venkatesh Babu seem to have got consumed by hatred, due to which they have lost basic human decency, let alone the Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema values taught by our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
In this post-Mahasamdhi phase of the Sathya Sai movement, polite and fair criticism of SSSCT and official Sai orgn. with a view to improve SSSCT and Sai orgn. is acceptable, in my considered view. But what Mr. Ganti has got dragged down into cannot be viewed as polite and fair criticism.
It has been painful for me to see how Mr. Ganti has lost his way, consumed by his hatred of some people in SSSCT & Prasanthi Nilayam based official Sai orgn. I earnestly pray to Bhagavan to show Mr. V.R. Ganti the right way of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema, and desist from making or associating with viciously personal, malicious and false attacks against SSSCT and Prasanthi Nilayam based Sai orgn. leaders.
I felt it appropriate to give an overview of my interactions with Mr. Ganti which started in the first half of 2015 if I recall correctly, perhaps around nine months or so after Madhusudan Rao Naidu burst on the Sathya Sai community scene in May 2014 publicly "declaring" his so called communicator claim.
Prof. G. Venkataraman (GV sir) then heading Radio Sai wrote in July 2014 an article in Radio Sai, challenging and refuting the claims made by Madhusudan Rao Naidu. I wrote a blog post referring to that article of GV sir, giving my views on the matter. That blog post of mine, Radio Sai article on recent Swami (Sathya Sai Baba) subtle form appearance controversy, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2014/07/radio-sai-article-on-recent-swami.html, dated July 11th 2014, shows a viewed count of 12,945 when I checked today, and is by far the most viewed post of that blog of mine which has Sathya Sai related blog posts of mine (and some other posts related to religion and spirituality).
However, after this Radio Sai article in July 2014, Radio Sai did not play any significant role in directly refuting Muddenahalli group claims. Perhaps they had their constraints and so decided to play safe by rarely referring to Muddenahalli group claims directly, and instead only stating Bhagavan's key instructions in this regard that Bhagavan's relation with his devotees is heart-to-heart and that Bhagavan never uses any intermediaries for such matters.
Meanwhile belief in Madhusudan Rao Naidu's so called communicator claims started growing at a great pace with many Sai devotees worldwide associating with him and with other leaders of Muddenahalli group like Sri Narasimhamurthy, Mr. Isaac Tigrett, Sri C. Srinivas etc.
By March 2015, I had got enough information, conveyed by Prof. Anilkumar Kamaraju in his talks where he was questioned by Sai devotees about Muddenhalli, and in private conversations he had with others which was conveyed to me, that Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group had become a SERIOUS DIVISIVE THREAT to post-Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement.
Radio Sai and other dissemination wings of official Prasanthi Nilayam ashram were largely SILENT and not criticizing Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group by name. This created an environment where association with Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group was viewed as acceptable by Sai devotees, in my considered opinion.
It is in this vacuum that people who started writing, in their individual capacity, exposing the claims of Madhusudan Rao Naidu and Muddenahalli group BY NAME and backing the views with details/evidence, started becoming somewhat noted in Sathya Sai circles. SaiBliss Facebook posts, Terry Reis Kennedy's Facebook posts, my blog and later Facebook posts, and Mr. V.R. Ganti's emails and later Facebook posts exposing Muddenahalli group claims became a major source of information to Sathya Sai devotees wanting to know about the matter. It is my considered view that these names (including mine) got prominence simply because the official dissemination wings of Prasanthi Nilayam, like Radio Sai and Sanathana Sarathi chose to remain largely SILENT on this matter, perhaps due to some constraints they had.
Mr. V.R. Ganti did major work in approaching leaders and important people in both Prasanthi Nilayam system as well as Muddenahalli group, to investigate the matter, share the matter with his readers, and try hard to get Muddenahalli group to give up Madhusudan Rao Naidu's communicator claims and unite back with Prasanthi Nilayam based official Sai organization. He also shared the history of how this Muddenahalli group started, and who were the key people who supported Muddenahalli group and Narasimhamurthy in particular, right from July 2011 onwards. I will NEVER FORGET this great service done by Mr. V.R. Ganti to the post Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement. My blog post, Selected Facebook Notes on "Muddenahalli Saga" by Mr. V.R. Ganti, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/08/some-important-facebook-notes-on.html, dated Aug. 7th 2015, shares many extracts from Mr. Ganti's posts on this matter, and links to the associated Facebook posts of Mr. Ganti.
I and some others who were supportive of Prasanthi Nilayam and opposed the SERIOUS DIVISIVE THREAT posed by Muddenahalli group to post Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement, collaborated with Mr. Ganti on this work of his. I am very happy that I did so then as Mr. Ganti's work then informed the Sathya Sai devotee community worldwide about the history of Muddenahalli group and significantly contributed to exposing the false claim of its communicator, Madhusudan Rao Naidu.
However, sometime perhaps in 2016, Mr. Ganti started becoming very aggressive and started very harshly criticizing Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and its trustees. That is when Mr. Ganti started becoming a problem to people like me who are publicly (and privately) supportive of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT) and Prasanthi Nilayam. I publicly countered some of his criticism of SSSCT and its trustees which strained my relationship with Mr. Ganti.
But as he also continued to aggressively expose some wrongdoings of Muddenahalli group and was unstinted in his rejection of Madhusudan Rao Naidu's claims, I decided to take a path of opposing him on SSSCT criticism and co-operation on exposure of false claim of Madhusudan Rao Naidu. It was a difficult balance to strike. But I was able to manage it reasonably for some time. Further, Mr. Ganti had come to my support publicly and strongly, when I was viciously attacked by some persons on social media in the past. I was and still am grateful to him for that support that he had extended to me.
However, over the past few weeks, Mr. Ganti seems to have collaborated with people like Arun Srinivas of Muddenahalli (who is against Muddenahalli group of Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy) and Facebook fake Id Parthi Resident/Venkatesh Babu, who have used viciously personal, malicious and false attacks against an SSSCT trustee. I think in these matters, Mr. Ganti, Arun Srinivas and Parthi Resident/Venkatesh Babu seem to have got consumed by hatred, due to which they have lost basic human decency, let alone the Sathya, Dharma, Shanti and Prema values taught by our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
In this post-Mahasamdhi phase of the Sathya Sai movement, polite and fair criticism of SSSCT and official Sai orgn. with a view to improve SSSCT and Sai orgn. is acceptable, in my considered view. But what Mr. Ganti has got dragged down into cannot be viewed as polite and fair criticism.
It has been painful for me to see how Mr. Ganti has lost his way, consumed by his hatred of some people in SSSCT & Prasanthi Nilayam based official Sai orgn. I earnestly pray to Bhagavan to show Mr. V.R. Ganti the right way of Sathya, Dharma, Shanti & Prema, and desist from making or associating with viciously personal, malicious and false attacks against SSSCT and Prasanthi Nilayam based Sai orgn. leaders.
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