Miscellaneous comments of (mainly) mine on Facebook in April 2017
Last updated on 6 Jun. 2024
6 Jun. 2024: Sensitive content has been snipped.
20th 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.
On https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/1009100179226466, I wrote (on 18th April 2017):
--Name-snipped--, Hope you get your dosa & chai in London. Enjoy it man!
I am a chai man :-). It is not just a beverage but a way of life for Bombayites/Mumbaikars, which I carried on to my Puttaparthi life, including Sai university service life. I have had lots of wonderful sessions brimming with love and happiness as well as spiritual satsang over chai in my nearly fifteen year Puttaparthi life.
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On https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/1007589479377536, Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) (on 18th April 2017):
--Name-snipped--, --Name-snipped--, I think it is group psychology and fanatical belief at work which led to all of them clapping to Madhu's dodging the question that --Name-snipped-- asked him. There is a tendency in people, especially in spiritual followings, to follow the group leadership and distance themselves from a single (or few) dissident(s).
I think that such group psychology behaviour can be countered effectively by a group of dissidents questioning them. If --Name-snipped-- had been with five or six dissidents, who had clapped loudly when --Name-snipped-- had asked the question, I think it would have made the others in the meeting give more importance to --Name-snipped--'s question. Most of the group clapping after Madhu Baba's answer could have been countered by boo's from the dissident group expressing their dissatisfaction with Madhu Baba's answer.
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Terry Reis Kennedy responded:
We will be employing this type of technique in our future encounters....most likely when the large group goes to MDH.....when they return from their unending travels. Thanks, Ravi S. Iyer for the prompt.
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From https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1892918157591419 dated April 14th 2017:
[Ravi S. Iyer wrote:]
It was similar in my childhood. First important thing to see when one wakes up on Vishu (Kerala/Malayali new year) are God (images/idols), fruits, vegetables, grains ... - the goodies of life. BTW I am a Kerala Iyer (Tamil Brahmin hailing from Kerala) and so our family celebrates Vishu as our traditional new year.
Sai devotees should not miss out Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's famous pic along with other idols, in the shared pic below. I think Hon'ble MP Shashi Tharoor's mother is a Sathya Sai devotee. Dr. Tharoor represents Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala as an MP in the Indian Parliament (at Delhi).
---end post contents ---
The above post shared this post: https://www.facebook.com/ShashiTharoor/posts/10154735887548167 dated April 14th 2017,
[Shashi Tharoor wrote:]
For the first time in decades my mother prepared this vishu kani for me. The 1st sight this morning. Happy Vishu! https://t.co/fLNKToEKhE
[The pic below was attached.]
[I thank Dr. Shashi Tharoor and have presumed that he will not have any objections to me sharing the above pic from his Facebook & Twitter public posts, on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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My comments on Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/1010429809093503:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote on 19th April 2017:
Going by what I could read of the text on the screen in the background, this seems to be a celebration event of the first FREE pediatric heart surgery at their new Haryana hospital (which I think is the one inaugurated over video-link by PM Modi).
I am not surprised at all at a union minister being present for the event considering the extraordinary service to society that has been rendered. The presence of the union minister has to be seen as appreciative of this service to society, and NOT any endorsement of Madhu Baba (who is on stage) unless the union minister clearly makes a statement endorsing him (Madhu Baba).
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Oh! I think the Indian govt. would do something similar in terms of extending support if any spiritual orgn. offered a similar service to the poor. Such service is certainly extraordinary in rural India. I don't know of many NGOs in urban India, let alone rural India, who offer free pediatric heart surgery service.
So long as the means by which the funds were collected is not deemed illegal by any court of law in India or lndian law enforcement, the govt. of India will not interfere, in my considered view.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Well, in India and in the USA, two countries whose governmental setups I have a decent reading & viewing exposure to now, I don't think the govt. is tasked with investigating spiritual claims related to fund raising for charitable activities. So the govt simply does not interfere in the matter UNLESS there are complaints from the public that are upheld as valid complaints by law enforcement (Police) and/or courts of law.
And the political reality on the ground is that such projects which benefit the poor get great support from the local populace that benefits from it. So political leaders will support it.
Now I don't want my comments to be viewed as supportive of Muddenahalli group's FALSE BELIEF and going against the teachings and instructions of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba when it comes to mediums (and communicators). I am clearly against them which is known by all serious followers of this matter due to my public writings against them.
But our objections to Muddenahalli group will not matter much to Indian political leaders & political parties, so long as Muddenahalli group follows Indian law and does service to society activities of eye catching nature like free pediatric surgery. I simply want readers to know of this reality on the ground, as per my view of the matter.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Sairam brother --Name-snipped--! By Whitefield campus do you mean, the earlier Whitefield general hospital area? If so, I think that belongs to C. Srinivas and his trust. ... However, the Brindavan campus of SSSIHL in Kadugodi (just next to Whitefield), I believe, belongs to Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, Oh! Maybe you were saying that the faculty and staff of Brindavan (Kadugodi near Whitefield) campus of SSSIHL go to Muddenahalli? If so, that seems to have been the case in the very sad and very dark phase of SSSIHL Hijack and after-effect of Hijack, from Jul 2011 to mid 2016. After mid-2016, any faculty or staff from any campus of SSSIHL who is known to have associated with Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) or Narasimhamurthy, would face rather strict action from Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. So I doubt anybody from any campus of SSSIHL does that now.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Brother --Name-snipped--, I wonder whether you are aware that a senior faculty in SSSIHL, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus, had his services terminated in mid 2016 because he visited Muddenahalli group and gave Arati to so called subtle body next to Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu)? At the same time, around five teachers from Prasanthi Nilayam Higher Secondary school, were removed from the school for the same reason.
It was a big event and caused a lot of opposition and ripples. But Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (one trustee in particular), I am told, remained firm. That sent the message loud and clear to everybody in SSSIHL. If anybody from Brindavan campus of SSSIHL is now visiting Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) and/or Narasimhamurthy, they risk removal from service, if authorities are informed of the matter with suitable evidence. Evidence is important as otherwise people may flatly deny that they met Madhu Baba or Narasimhamurthy and then the authorities will not be able to act.
So, as Chiran Basnet, a Brindavan alumnus said, I think that very, very few persons from Brindavan campus, if any, would be doing it now, and if they are doing it they would be doing it in a hidden way. BTW I am a former free service faculty of SSSIHL, Prasanthi Nilayam campus from Jan. 2003 to Mar. 2012 with designations of Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, I thought of sharing my view on the matter. I don't have any objections to the service to society work of Muddenahalli group - Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu), Narasimhamurthy, C. Srinivas etc. I wish them all the best and have publicly appreciated their work in this regard.
My very strong objection to Muddenahalli group is the dilution, distortion and corruption they are doing to the legacy and memories of my revered and beloved Gurudev, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Rao Naidu) is giving darshan, discourses and interviews of his, using the name of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Yes, they print Madhu Baba's discourses in books as Sri Sathya Sai Baba's discourses!!!
Madhu Baba has said that Kali Yuga has ended and Sathya Yuga has begun!!! But these are conveyed as Sathya Sai Baba's words!!! However, Sathya Sai told Hislop that Kali Yuga will continue for over 5,000 years more!!!
I consider it my duty to my Gurudev, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and to the Sathya Sai fraternity from whom I have benefited a lot, to inform the fraternity through social media and elsewhere that Madhu Baba is NOT saying the words of Sathya Sai. Many Sathya Sai devotees, including foreign Sathya Sai devotees, have thanked me for clearing the confusion that they had on this matter.
But you, sir, are surely entitled to your view of the matter. However I do hope that your friends and family do not get misguided by the FALSE CLAIM of Madhu Baba that he is speaking the words of our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Thanks. Jai Sairam!
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Brother --Name-snipped--, I did not presume that you and family (and friends) were supporters of Muddenahalli group. But I just remarked that I hope that they do not get misguided by (fall into the trap of) Madhu Baba. I am glad to know of the firm faith in Bhagavan that you and your family have and that you'll have nothing to do with them. Happy to know of Bal Vikas, Convener etc. association/positions of you/your family.
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I view this division as somewhat like (not literally) Sai Sunni (Puttaparthi group) and Sai Shia (Muddenahalli group). And that, even when not taken literally, scares me for the future of the Sathya Sai movement! Saudi Arabia (mainly Sunni) and Iran (mainly Shia) have been at loggerheads for centuries, I believe, and even today are very dangerous enemies of each other! Our neighbouring country, Pakistan, sees so much violence and killing directed at Shias!!!
Therefore I feel it is important to challenge Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) on his claim on social media and elsewhere. That will reduce the number of people who fall into his FALSE CLAIM trap, and help reduce this confusion over future generations.
Ideally I think heirs of Sathya Sai, which I think is the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and/or close kin of Sathya Sai, should challenge the UNAUTHORISED use by Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) of the name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba for Madhu Baba's discourses, interviews and darshan. I am sure there would be inheritance laws and copyright laws in India that would come into play when heirs of Sathya Sai legally challenge Madhu Baba.
Note that Bala Sai Baba and Sanjay Sai Baba use different names. Note that Sathya Sai used a different name from that of Shirdi Sai. I would not have such serious objections if Madhu Baba uses his own name, Madhusudan Naidu, or Madhu Baba or even Madhu Sai Baba, instead of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
However, SSSCT and/or close kin of Bhagavan, have so far not legally challenged Madhu Baba even though he has been publicly and openly using the name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba for his discourses, darshan and interviews, right from May 2014!!!
My view is that a PIL possibility in Karnataka High Court from any other person may be worth trying, even if the chances of the High Court rejecting the PIL are high. My view is that at least the High Court may provide advice to the PIL litigant about how he/she could proceed with seeking justice on the matter at lower courts. However, due to various limitations that I have, I am not in a position to either file the PIL myself or be a joint party to the PIL.
Thank you brother for sharing your views with us.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, I think you refer to the PIL. The ground of unauthorised use of name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba by Madhusudan Naidu, for Madhusudan Naidu's darshan, discourses and interviews, which is leading to misguidance and confusion, as well as dilution, distortion and corruption to the legacy and memories of Sathya Sai.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
About the fight for Dharma vs. fight against Adharma: It is a long, long story with me. Right from Jul 2011 meeting I had with then vice-chancellor --Name1-snipped-- in the VC's chambers, where he shouted at me as if I was a criminal, ... to me terminating my association with SSSIHL in Mar. 2012 ... etc. So now I am a committed fighter against Asathya and Adharma of Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy. I am fighting them like Jatayu fighting Ravana, as I have lots of limitations.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (multiple comments collapsed into one):
Very interesting to know about the possibility of filing a case against them for impersonation. Thanks.
But the complexity here is that SSSCT is not filing any such legal case.
So we need some other Sai devotee to file a case on his/her own name.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, About why can't SSSCT file it - I DON'T KNOW. You will have to ask SSSCT and see if they give you a response for it.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Brother --Name-snipped--, I think your words, "Let them die a natural death. Untruth will die .You will see them perish. Rather let us fight for Dharma which means to strengthen our institution and spread its glory. In the process of trying to terminate them our own institution will be finished." capture the view of the "fighters for Dharma but not fighters against Adharma" group very well. And I do acknowledge that it may, I repeat may (I am not certain about it), be a sound approach from the long term point of view. The point about possible damage to our own institutions (SSSCT and official Sathya Sai orgn.), if they (SSSCT & Sai orgn.) file legal case of impersonation of Bhagavan, against Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) seems to be a very important one. I have ZERO personal experience of fighting court cases. I have never even stepped foot in a court of law, Indian or foreign. So I place a lot of value to your opinion as you are a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India!!!
However ... Let me first respond to this part of your comment, "Well some truths I wish to tell you which may not be palatable to you. The impact of madhusudan and that group is very very local. In nothern part of India People dont even know saya sai ,so what to say about this tiny group."
You see, the impact of Madhu Baba and his devotees, in dividing Sathya Sai movement and creating confusion and trauma in it, is extensive in some foreign countries like Singapore and Australia. Even though I strongly oppose Mr. V.R. Ganti for his vicious attacks on SSSCT and some of its trustees, it is undeniable that Mr. V.R. Ganti has exposed the ONGOING deep involvement of Singapore Sathya Sai devotees with Muddenahalli group, including being major financial donors to it!!! Melbourne, Australia seems to be a CURRENT hub of Muddenahalli group devotees including some who use fake Facebook Ids to viciously malign those of us who write critically of Madhu Baba and his devotees [See https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2017/02/my-facebook-posts-related-to.html for details of how I was attacked in January end and early February this year, and how I fought them back.]
UK and USA are other countries which have been significantly impacted by Madhu Baba and his devotees, though the impact does not seem to be as severe as Singapore and Australia, as of now.
Some Sathya Sai devotees in the above mentioned countries are driven to frustration at seeing how Madhu Baba and his devotees are freely going around in their countries, trapping innocent devotees with their FALSE BELIEF using the HOLY NAME of our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. These persons are now in a mode of being fighters against Adharma and not just fighters for Dharma. They would love to have somebody file a legal challenge restraining Madhu Baba from impersonating Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in their countries. But so far we don't seem to have any Adharma-fighter who is willing to file such a case in India, Singapore, Australia, USA or UK, or any other country of the world. I would like to clearly repeat that I myself have many limitations due to which I am not in a position to file such a case myself in India, either singly or jointly with others.
So that's where we are now. A few public social media Adharma-fighters against Muddenahalli group but nobody yet who is willing to file a CIVIL case in any country of the world against Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) to prevent him from impersonating Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
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My comment on Facebook post,
https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10212972193158357:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote: It is when it comes to deep Hindu scriptural knowledge, like the Vedas - the Karma Kanda part of it and the Aranyaka and Upanishads part of it, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana (has accounts of Avatars), Brahma Sutra etc. that the differences between Sathya Sai's words and Madhu Baba's (Madhusudan Naidu's) words, become vast. Madhu Baba rarely dares to venture into these territories. That relative silence itself tells us he is not Sathya Sai. But when he (Madhu Baba) has tried to get into these territories he tends to expose his lack of scriptural knowledge. For example, he had said in 2015, if I recall correctly, that Kali Yuga is coming to an end, and that Sathya Yuga is starting (the next day). What a howler that was for any person with a decent knowledge of Hindu scripture! Further, Sathya Sai told Hislop that Kali Yuga will last for 5,000 odd years more!!!
I am very happy to see that "Croatian Sai Publications", "spotted enormous differences" when they compared Sathya Sai's words with Madhusudan's words on "deeper aspects of Upanishad metaphysics". I hope that they are able to share this knowledge with Croatian Sathya Sai devotees in their local language(s).
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On https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10212953655734933, I wrote (partial extract):
I prefer videos to books on certain topics that I am not too deeply into (I prefer books instead of videos on topics that I am deeply interested in). So I found a video on Narcissism and NPD to be very informative for me (along with some general info. web pages on it). The original video link mentioned in my blog post in previous comment I made a few days ago on this thread, seems to have been taken off youtube. Just browsed for other youtube video copies of it. This seems to be a copy of that video which I found to be very informative: [Warning: The video has graphic stuff, both in terms of violence and sex] Shocking full documentary - narcissism / narcissistic personality disorder ( psychology ), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG7rvOsE2ws, 47 min. 25 secs.
,,,
Well, --Name-snipped--, the reality on the ground is that at least one top person of Muddenahalli group, I am told, has access to PM Modi himself!!! No wonder, BJP govt. ministers readily visit MDH group functions.
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--Name-snipped-- Yes, I do think PN has access to PM. But that access would be for social service work, and not for combating MDH group, I think. It is MDH group social service work that has earned the support of PM and other ministers & chief ministers. Political leaders see the service to society that's done and are not deeply involved in knowing whether the matters are spiritually ethical or not.
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On Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10212982914586386, I wrote (on 24th & 25th April 2017)
Repeating comment from earlier on in this post: --Name-snipped--, Looks like you wanted to tag me on this. As I am a direct/indirect beneficiary of the services of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (medical service, water supply to handle water problems in summer, peaceful life in PTP ...), I am biased towards them. So I prefer not to get involved in this conversation. Thanks.
BTW I am ex university Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty. Lecturer implies an academic. I am NOT an academic but a software industry guy who offered free teaching, guidance and other service to the Maths & Comp. Sc. dept of Sai university.
Thanks for your kind words about my views. But I do trip up many times. All the best with this conversation.
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In Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/saidas108/posts/1169378849837867, I wrote (on April 22nd 2017):
Great from idealistic point of view. And I believe it to be the ultimate truth of existence! But, IMHO, till one has had that experience of one being in all, and all being in one, I think one has to be a little selfish to even survive in this dog-eat-dog world of ours.
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I hasten to add that I also believe that, in many matters, faith comes before experience. So if one has the faith that one is in all and that all is in one, at a deep existential level, then that prepares the ground for future experience of it. .... I guess it is a matter of how ready one is to be unselfish and not to be really that concerned about oneself and one's survival, leaving it to the will of Almighty God/Divine force in each one of us.
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Well, --Name-snipped--, honestly your association with Swami goes far longer back than mine, and so you know some stuff about Swami better than me. But on this one I recall reading about it recently. If I recall correctly, the guy (supposed 'saint') who refuses to move away from the path of the elephant, even though the Mahout shouts at him to move, dies. He then faces God and accuses him of doing nothing to help him, his devotee! Then God says I was trying to help you by shouting at you. I was the Mahout! But you refused to listen to me :-).
Comment I put up on 29th Apr. 2017 on https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1846733735579923&id=1605194046400561, [Desktop FB post: https://www.facebook.com/IndiainCroatia/posts/1846733735579923] India in Croatia (Embassy of India, Zagreb):
Dear Hon'ble Indian Ambassador to Croatia,
Are you aware, sir, that Mr. Madhusudan Rao Naidu, who is shown in one of the 3 pics of this post, on stage, publicly claims to be a so called communicator of an INVISIBLE & INAUDIBLE to all others but him, so called subtle body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba???
Are you aware, sir, that this claim of Mr. Madhusudan Rao Naidu goes against the teachings and instructions of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and so is rejected by the official Sathya Sai organization in India and other countries of the world???
By the Indian embassy of Croatia putting up these pics of the event, the Indian embassy has perhaps unknowingly, promoted a FALSE BELIEF CULT which is diluting, distoring and corrupting the legacy and memories of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
In the interests of Sathya and Dharma (truth and rightful conduct), I suggest, sir, that you ensure that this post is taken down from the Indian embassy's Facebook page and that the Indian embassy avoid any formal promotion of this Muddenahalli, Karnataka based FALSE BELIEF CULT and their events. Of course, the Indian embassy may not accept my words that it is a FALSE BELIEF CULT. But surely they can contact the official Sathya Sai organization in India and ascertain their view, before they (Indian embassy) promote this FALSE BELIEF CULT and their events.
Thanks & Regards
Ravi S. Iyer
Social media writer on spirituality & religion and retired international software consultant, Puttaparthi, India
Spiritual/Religious Websites/Blogs
* About Sri Sathya Sai Baba and more: ravisiyer.blogspot.in [23rd Sept. 2020 Use ravisiyer.blogspot.com ]
* God & science conversation and a little more: iami1.wordpress.com/god-and-science-toc
Software Websites/Blogs
* Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism: eklavyasai.blogspot.in/p/table-of-contents.html [23rd Sept. 2020 Use eklavyasai.blogspot.com/p/table-of-contents.html ]
* Course material related to computer programming (software lab.) courses: raviiyerteaches.wordpress.com
Misc. Topics Blogs
* ravisiyermisc.blogspot.in/ [23rd Sept. 2020 Use ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/ ]
* ravisiyer.wordpress.com/category/misc/
e-mail: ravi@raviiyer.org
Twitter: twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer
Google+: google.com/+RaviSIyerSai
Facebook: facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7
Service to Society is Service to God
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Some general stuff/thoughts of mine:
Why I did not reveal the name of the officer who closed my grievance to PM mentioned in my blog post: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/09/open-letter-to-pm-modi-hrd-minister.html?
My first interactions with New Delhi union govt. bureaucracy was from around Sept. 2011 onwards, with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and University Grants Commission (UGC)/All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), for my work in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology Academic Reform activism, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/.
I found out via my mails and phone calls to New Delhi bureaucrats or their P.A.s that, as far as MHRD and UGC/AICTE are concerned, it is a political maze that one has to navigate when one raises controversial issues or suggests reform. Bureaucrats have to play the safe game so that they don't get crushed by top political leaders and powerful educationists. So bureaucrats will go by the book and take the safe response, and also try hard to avoid getting caught up in any controversial issue which might become a political dogfight with them becoming sandwiched in the middle.
I gave up on my Indian CS & IT Academic Reform activism efforts as I understood all this, and realized that I needed political power to back me. I did not want to get that involved. I stopped at transparently recording my efforts in the above mentioned blog so that others who are interested in it can see my views and my efforts at change which failed to even stir the ENORMOUS BUREAUCRACY that MHRD and UGC/AICTE are.
I think in this case of my letter to PM Modi on Madhu Baba false claim, it is similar. The lower level bureaucrat (typically with designation of under-secretary) who rejected my letter as being invalid, would have followed norms of PMO, and avoided controversy. I don't want his name to unnecessarily be bandied about in this controversy.
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My considered view now is that BNNM (B.N. Narasimhamurthy) seems to have thought that he was BETTER and MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE than Swami during the last year, at least, of Bhagavan's physical sojourn. But it was Sathya Sai that had the following. BNNM did not have his own following in his own name. So he had to play a game as if he is respecting Swami's word but within he was thinking he knew BETTER than Swami!!! That was the CRUCIAL SPIRITUAL BLUNDER BNNM made.
After Mahasamadhi, the trauma that Parthi went through with national media sensationalizing every bit of unfortunate news from Parthi, just played into BNNM's hands. The stage was set for BNNM takeover with him becoming dream-instruction of Swami messiah for traumatized Sathya Sai devotees in Parthi and elsewhere!
--Name1-snipped--, sometime towards end 2011 or early 2012, tried to influence a somewhat form-boy young faculty of PN campus to accept BNNM as Swami dream-instruction leader! Prasad told him something on the lines that referred to BNNM, at least indirectly, as Moses!!! This was conveyed directly by this young faculty of PN campus to me. I was traumatized by hearing this along with other accounts which indicated to me that --Name1-snipped-- was using his VC position to influence faculty to accept BNNM's claim!!! Eventually I decided to shake up --Name1-snipped--, to whatever extent I could, by terminating my association with SSSIHL in March 2012, and writing officially to --Name1-snipped--, with courier proof of having delivered it to VC's office, on a big mistake SSSIHL administration had made by showing me FALSELY as a Teaching-Assistant in some official University QA document, signed by him (as VC), which is a criminal offense of record-tampering under Indian Penal Code.
But --Name1-snipped-- was a veteran in these power games and had strong political support (he seems to be well known to a former Indian PM from South India and his party people). So he washed his hands off the matter and bounced it to PN campus director --Name2-snipped--.
People don't realize how vital a role --Name1-snipped-- played as TRAITOR Vice-chancellor of SSSIHL, to silence any opposition within SSSIHL to BNNM's Swami dream-instruction claims. Without --Name1-snipped--, BNNM would not have succeeded in HIJACKING SSSIHL the way he did. BNNM, all said and done, quite openly made his dream-instruction claim in Jul 2011, and that part was fair I think. It was upto people to accept it or not. People like Anilkumar Kamaraju sir rejected it right away and people like me followed views of such elders as they backed it with Swami teachings and instructions. But I still say that BNNM was fair and open in saying that he had those dreams and that it was upto people to accept it or not. No force was suggested by BNNM, at least then.
It is --Name1-snipped--, along with --Name2-snipped--, then director of PN campus and close friend and confidant of BNNM, who influenced SSSIHL faculty to either accept BNNM's claim or not oppose him. Those who dared to oppose BNNM like Anilkumar Kamaraju were THROWN OUT of SSSIHL using some academic regulation excuse! Some SSSCT trustees like S.V. Giri sir opposed --Name1-snipped-- on this matter. --Name1-snipped--, I am told, threatened SSSCT that if they remove him as VC, he will go to the media and create problems for SSSCT!!! Poor SSSCT was cornered between media blasting them, govt. breathing down their necks (govt. takeover of SSSCT was on the cards then), senior trustee Indulal Shah sir backing Narasimhamurthy, and --Name1-snipped-- threatening them with more media and other trouble if they sacked him as VC. What a pathetic and dark phase SSSCT, SSSIHL (Sai university) and Prasanthi Nilayam went through then!!!
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Now see, I am not saying that --Name1-snipped-- or --Name2-snipped-- are innately bad/evil persons. However, in the extraordinary trauma that Prasanthi Nilayam and SSSIHL went through in the immediate months and years after Mahasamadhi, they made some bad mistakes including believing in Narasimhamurthy as kind of successor to Swami, even though leading lights of Prasanthi Nilayam like S.V. Giri, K. Chakravarthi, G. Venkataraman, Anilkumar Kamaraju sirs, all of whom Bhagavan VISIBLY gave a lot of importance to in the last years of his physical sojourn, did not accept Narasimhamurthy as successor! All said and done, Narasimhamurthy and Indulal Shah sir were not Prasanthi Nilayam based persons!
Okay, we all make mistakes. Even Peter, the great devotee of Jesus, denied him twice/thrice at the crucifixion of Jesus, out of fear, I guess, that he too may get arrested and perhaps get crucified!
But they should acknowledge the mistakes they made! This is where the ARROGANCE AND EGO of these people is insufferable! They should take inspiration from Gangadhar Bhat (GB) sir, who was associated with Swami physical form for fifty to sixty years! If GB sir can publicly confess and repent for the mistake he made by going along with Narasimhamurthy in the immediate years after Mahasamadhi, who are Professors --Name1-snipped-- and --Name2-snipped--??? I tell you, I find that some academics who become professors are utterly arrogant and egoistic and lack the basic human values quality of accepting their big mistakes and apologizing for it. They will find fault with everybody else for their mistake but never accept they made a mistake.
If the top people of SSSIHL in the key post Mahasamadhi period of May/June 2011 to June/July 2012, make a clean confession about what happened then, especially what Narasimhamurthy and --Name1-snipped-- did, then the entire Sathya Sai fraternity including Sathya Sai university and schools alumni, will know the truth from authoritative sources. That confessed/revealed truth will help Sathya Sai fraternity including Sai university & schools alumni to deal with this Muddenahalli FALSE BELIEF matter properly. But, very tragically, SSSIHL top administrators, most of whom are Sai university alumni, choose to follow the COVER-UP approach and act as if nothing wrong happened in SSSIHL under --Name1-snipped-- from after Mahasamadhi till Nov. 2014 when he stepped down as vice-chancellor.
I would like to reveal that a few months ago I was informed by a reliable source that a person had made contact with current vice-chancellor, Prof. Varma, with respect to request to revoke gold medal(s) of Madhusudan Naidu. At that time, I was told, Prof. Varma told the person that SSSIHL had stopped giving a medal in the name of --Name1-snipped-- - the normal practice, I believe, is to institute a medal in the name of a recently stepped down vice-chancellor (or is it done even when he is sitting VC?). Perhaps they had that medal in the name of --Name1-snipped-- for a year or two, but have now stopped it. I was not told the exact response of Prof. Varma on revocation of gold medal(s) of Madhusudan Naidu, but I got the impression that Prof. Varma and, I guess, others in SSSIHL administration/trustee level positions, were not willing to go that far.
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Even when Swami was in physical form, Prasanthi Nilayam ashram system was not perfect. Money related matters particularly were very sensitive. I simply stayed away from such matters and that, I was told, was the advice Swami had given to some seniors - something on the lines of, Ne pani maatram chesko Vera valluto ekkuva matladaku (I hope I got the Telugu reasonably right). That means, Do only your work, don't talk much with others.
So this was the survival mantra in PN ashram system when Swami was in physical form. I largely tried to stick to it and stayed away from ashram power politics and especially from anything even remotely connected with money in the ashram system. That policy served me well helping me to lead a largely peaceful life in PN ashram and in outside ashram Puttaparthi.
But physical form Swami would see to it that spiritual teachings of his were not compromised or diluted. He was very, very particular about that. As I have been a teacher myself in a material world area - software development - I could very well appreciate why Swami as a teacher of Dharma, and of the highest spiritual truths expressed in ways appropriate for current age of Kali, was so particular that his teachings were not compromised. He would go out of his way even when he was rather severely physically challenged at bodily level in the last year or two of his physical sojourn, to correct people who had misunderstood or misinterpreted him on such matters. I have seen this with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears in Sai Kulwant Hall. I will never ever forget this aspect of Swami, the TIRELESS teacher of Dharma and of highest spiritual truths expressed in 20th and early 21st century age terms.
Further, if somebody went too far in power craze or money craze resulting in lots of complaints to Swami in physical form, then Swami would act. People in power in ashram would suddenly be stripped of their position and power! Slowly the word would spread about why that happened. Usually, but not always, it would be a disciplinary action by Swami himself against that person.
So while Swami was in physical form, fear of Swami at physical form level itself, led to some level of discipline even among the power mongers and/or money crazy people in ashram system.
After Swami Mahasamadhi, that fear vanished. That led to a period of rather rampant power craze across PN ashram system, including, very unfortunately, SSSIHL. That paved the way for SSSIHL Hijack from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014 by Narasimhamurthy initiated with full support and involvement of then vice-chancellor, --Name1-snipped--, Director of Prasanthi Nilayam campus, --Name2-snipped-- and Director of Muddenahalli campus (Dr. --Name4-snipped--, I believe). I do not know the role of Brindavan campus director in this matter, and whether Registrar, --Name3-snipped--, and Controller of Examinations, --Name5-snipped--, co-operated/collaborated in this SSSIHL hijack. But I know this. Anilkumar Kamaraju sir wrote emails to many SSSIHL senior faculty and administrators (with many alumni-staff already being in such positions) when he was ousted from SSSIHL in mid 2012. As far as I know, NOBODY came to AK sir's help!!! So even if --Name3-snipped-- and --Name5-snipped-- did not actively collaborate in removal of AK sir - they did not do anything to stop it.
Once AK sir was out in mid-2012, with Prof. Krupanidhi preferring to leave rather than stay in this environment - he was labelled a 'runaway' by SSSIHL administrators --Name1-snipped-- and --Name3-snipped-- - and many other senior teachers who had crossed 60 years of age preferring to leave SSSIHL (but not all, a few continued), either out of dissatisfaction with new SSSIHL post-Mahasamadhi environment under --Name1-snipped-- and --Name3-snipped-- or out of better financial prospects outside, NOBODY in SSSIHL had any guts to OPEN THEIR MOUTH against Narasimhamurthy, --Name1-snipped--, --Name2-snipped-- and --Name3-snipped--!! In my nine years of service at SSSIHL I had never seen such an environment of TERROR/ GREAT FEAR of SSSIHL administrators that had pervaded SSSIHL campus then. I don't blame SSSIHL faculty & staff. I mean, if AK sir could be thrown out without anybody opening their mouths in protest, who were they? I have personally seen how scared young faculty would be when they saw the car of --Name3-snipped-- approach us when we were talking on the road. I mean, the young faculty would not want to be seen with me, out of fear of --Name3-snipped--!!! You can imagine how terrified they then would have been of Narasimhamurthy and --Name1-snipped--!!
And to sweeten matters, --Name1-snipped-- with support of --Name3-snipped--, had forced SSSCT to implement sixth pay commission pay revision, as well as putting many people on proper pay scale, in July 2011. SSSCT resisted as donations had come down to ZERO or close to ZERO. They requested postponement. --Name1-snipped-- told them from Delhi where he had gone for a visit, that he would fax them his resignation if they did not implement sixth pay commission. --Name3-snipped--, I am told, supported --Name1-snipped-- on this matter, much to the displeasure of SSSCT. SSSCT capitulated. Many SSSIHL staff were overjoyed! Almost all youngsters who were teachers, but not all, were put on regular UGC sixth pay commission pay scale with a starting salary of over Rs. 20,000 per month. One Professor of political science (not a large department and with few students doing significant work), who also was Joint Director of PN campus, had his salary go up to Rs. 1 Lakh per month! University non-teaching staff also would have got significant raises. --Name1-snipped-- had become a HERO to most SSSIHL staff for delivering them great salary increase!
Naturally, other parts of the ashram system observed all this and demanded the same for them. So SSSCT had to institute sixth pay commission scale across the board in all its divisions, including hospitals, resulting in significant increase of salary burden just a few months after Mahasamadhi.
I was shocked at seeing this stuff. I mean, sure SSSIHL needed to ensure that people will stick on. But at a time when donations to SSSCT were down, people coming to PN had dwindled, the future of PN was uncertain, why this great increase in salary? Given my previous international software industry exposure of nearly two decades, it did not make financial sense to me. After all the revenue to PN system was donations. Donations are the LIFEBLOOD of PN system, and most such ashram systems in India. When donations had come to zero or near zero, it was time to tighten belts rather than splurge on generous salary increases, and regularising many people on UGC pay scale.
I felt that the right response of a spiritual organization division head like SSSIHL vice-chancellor would have been to co-operate with SSSCT at a time when donations had drastically come down, and request SSSIHL staff to help the mother trust, SSSCT, at this time of great challenge, by continuing on previous salary for six months to a year. That is, postpone the sixth pay commission implementation by six months to a year. Just imagine how Bhagavan would have responded to a vice-chancellor who informed him that if he did not implement salary increase for the university staff, he would fax his resignation from Delhi! I have NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that Bhagavan would have asked him to resign and would have appointed a more spartan vice-chancellor instead!
Note that --Name1-snipped-- offered honorary service. I believe he was reimbursed for his frequent travelling expenses between Mysore and Puttaparthi, and, of course, he was given a flat in the ashram to stay for free. But he was not paid any salary, I am told. So --Name1-snipped-- cannot be accused of implementing sixth pay commission to benefit himself. But he did great damage to SSSIHL MORAL FIBRE by forcing SSSCT under threat of resignation, at a time of great problems for SSSCT, to implement these generous pay hikes and putting many youngsters on regular pay scale. What MORAL HIGH GROUND does any SSSIHL paid faculty or staff have now to claim that they are doing great sacrificial service for Bhagavan??? Once your vice-chancellor forces SSSCT to implement pay hike under threat of resignation (resignation blackmail), all of SSSIHL loses that MORAL HIGH GROUND!!! I think by this act alone, --Name1-snipped-- who was supported by Registrar --Name3-snipped--, dealt a severe blow to the spiritual mission and spiritual high ground of the DIVINE Sai university that Bhagavan had founded.
Anyway, --Name1-snipped-- stepped down in Nov. 2014 bringing his very damaging term from SSSIHL spiritual mission perspective, to a close. Why he stepped down then? Well, VCs serve for a term. I think the normal term is 3 years, which can then be extended by a year or perhaps two years, in the normal case. --Name1-snipped-- started in June 2010 or so. I think his stepping down has to be viewed as a normal case of stepping down after his term including extensions, I guess.
The current VC, Prof. Varma who took over from --Name1-snipped-- in Nov. 2014, is paid at least Rs. 2 Lakhs per month, and does not seem to be a devotee of Bhagavan. His contribution to spiritual mission side of SSSIHL seems to be very limited, if there is any contribution at all. But he does not support Muddenahalli group.
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Yes the VC, --Name1-snipped--, would have been concerned about staff leaving as Swami was no more in physical form and so would have wanted a good pay hike, with lots of youngsters regularised on pay scale, as the way for him to retain staff and run the university well. I agree.
However, he should have been more understanding of the matter. With donations coming down drastically, he should have realized the corner that SSSCT was in. He could have told them that he is not responsible if people start leaving the university, if salary hike was not given. But where he made a great mistake was to exploit the situation and use resignation-blackmail to force SSSCT to give the salary hike. That may have been a wonderful master stroke in worldly level universities dealing with government ministers & bureaucrats who give out tax payer money. [Prior to coming to SSSIHL, --Name1-snipped-- was associated for long with Mysore University, a state funded university, where he rose to position of vice-chancellor.] But for a spiritual university that was a HUGE SPIRITUAL BLUNDER.
I recall that the generous pay hike was conveyed as Prasadam from Swami (I was free service visiting faculty then and so received the mails). What prasadam! Blackmail prasadam! It is no wonder that --Name1-snipped-- has associated with FALSE BELIEF Muddenahalli group with their blatant ways of soliciting donation money from rich donors FALSELY associating the HOLY NAME of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba for their non-SAI and quite worldly donation collection ways.
Instead, if SSSIHL staff had continued for a year say, on earlier salary levels, with some staff leaving but others putting in extra time to take up the workload of those who left, I am sure SSSCT would have implemented the sixth pay commission hike. July 2011 was too close to the trauma that PN went through after Mahasamadhi. Sixth pay commission money being paid in July 2012 without any resignation blackmail, even if say 5 to 10% staff had quit because they were not willing to continue on old salary, would have been a spiritual triumph for SSSIHL.
From http://www.sssbpt.info/summershowers/ss2002/ss2002d11.pdf, Bhagavan discourse, Summer Course, Brindavan, 26th May 2002: "Na Karmana Na Prajaya Dhanena Thyagenaikena Amrutatvamanasu (immortality is not attained through action, progeny or wealth; it is attained only by sacrifice)".
Such self-sacrifice by 90% SSSIHL staff for one year (continuing on old salary; I am not saying no salary :-) ), would have made them worthy of the words that the founder of SSSIHL said in the discourse mentioned above. One would have seen a spiritual glow on their faces even if one did not see them driving around in their own cars (as against institution vehicles), sometimes own fancy cars, or sometimes own fancy motorbikes, and saw them instead on their humble and simple own two wheelers, or simply walking or using institution vehicles or using the ubiquitous hired Auto.
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Well, I do not know the salary levels of SSSCT staff. But surely they too got a good pay boost some months after Jul 2011 pay boost in SSSIHL. See, salary levels of SSSCT staff or even SSSIHL salary levels will not come close to industry salary levels in metros like Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. Those alumni who choose to serve in PN ashram system will naturally tend to compare their salary levels with those of their batchmates who work in such metros in India. In comparison to such batchmates' salary levels, PN staff will certainly be getting a lot less.
But when Swami was in physical form, I know how poor the salary levels were for many alumni staff in PN ashram system. I was amazed to see so many alumni staff working for such measly salaries, even though many of them could have easily earned good corporate level salaries in Indian metros. I used to revere these youngsters and even medium seniority alumni-staff, even though many of them were much younger in age to me, and sometimes had much less knowledge about technical matters or even typical worldly management matters, for this spirit of Tyaaga that they demonstrated. And, frankly, I felt some of the faces of these alumni staff shone with that spiritual Tyaaga splendour.
In PN ashram today, most alumni staff work for far better salaries than what they were getting before Mahasamadhi. If some of these persons find that salary to be inadequate for their needs, especially if they have to meet family expenses for kids and parents, and need salary closer to Indian corporate salary earnings of their batchmates, then I think they are in the wrong place. Not only PN ashram system, but most Indian ashram systems, are donation money dependent with salary levels being much lesser than corporate world. If one wants corporate world salaries in PN ashram system then one is in the wrong place. One should quit PN ashram system and join the corporate world, presuming corporate world would offer them suitable jobs.
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Now I am told that PN ashram situation is such that they avoid taking new staff on regular payroll to save money! Instead they try to hire people on contract for a year at lower salary than what they would have to pay an employee on regular pay scale.
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Even spiritually, I think confession and repentance can free individuals from burden of any big mistakes they have committed. Readers may want to see my Jul 2015 post, Nelson Mandela statement on receiving Truth & Reconciliation Commission report; Can Sathya Sai movement learn from it?, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/07/nelson-mandela-statement-on-receiving.html
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I am ever so deeply grateful to Bhagavan for having guided me through his writings and discourses and books on his Mahima, and the Sathya Sai fraternity's help and encouragement, that paved the way for me from around 1993/94 when I first came to know of Him (as an adult; I was told by my elder sister that as a baby I had darshan of Him in Mumbai in the 1960s but I don't recall that), to eventually be in a financially independent position for a simple & single ceiling-on-desires life in Puttaparthi from Oct. 2002 onwards.
But I must say here that I do have my fair share of human flaws. Bhagavan in physical form disciplined me on my flaws through His Looks and Gestures at Darshan in Sai Kulwant Hall and sometimes when I had the good fortune to have His Darshan in other places in PN, and has helped me come to terms with it. I am ever so deeply grateful to Bhagavan for that Guru/Teacher disciplining work that he did on me - I very badly needed such a Guru who would know my faults, point it out to me and show me the way to overcome it. I have improved but I have not yet overcome my flaws - it is an ongoing process :-).
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Yes, the Nelson Mandela inspired Truth & Reconciliation statement and work are a tremendous contribution from South African anti-apartheid struggle, to humanity as a whole. Prasanthi Nilayam based Sathya Sai movement can surely find great inspiration in it for us too, to use Truth and Reconciliation, to come to terms with Muddenahalli FALSE BELIEF that Prasanthi Nilayam in general and SSSIHL in particular, was heavily under the sway of, from around Jul 2011 to mid 2016. After all, we never faced anything in terms of real physical violence in this matter, in stark contrast to what South Africa went through under apartheid and in its anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela chose the path of not seeking revenge (punitive justice) for violence inflicted on his supporters by the apartheid regime, which paved the way for a peaceful transition to post-apartheid South Africa.
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--Name1-snipped-- has openly supported Muddenahalli group after he stepped down as VC. If I recall correctly, he stepped down as VC on 22nd Nov. 2014, and he was on stage in Muddenahalli for Bhagavan birthday celebrations on 23rd Nov. 2014 with Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy!!!
The evidence of --Name1-snipped-- BETRAYAL is available in PLENTY. The REALITY is that nobody wants to CONFRONT the TRUTH. They prefer to sweep it under the carpet. This includes current top management of SSSIHL.
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My study about such matters in organizations and governments, is that it needs a top man who has the willingness to face the truth and share it with people. That essentially means a VC who will have that attitude, and trustees who will back such an approach. This cannot be done at lower levels below VC and trustees, in my considered opinion.
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One should not say that evidence is not there. There is plenty of evidence. It is a case of psychological denial.
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... sharing with Sathya Sai fraternity matters like how AK sir was ousted, how --Name1-snipped-- played a big role till Nov. 2014 in nobody opposing Narasimhamurthy in SSSIHL.
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A few months ago I spoke in short to a senior faculty-administrator in SSSIHL, who is an alumnus of Sai university, when I bumped into him in outside ashram Puttaparthi streets, about this horrible period in SSSIHL when AK sir was ousted and Narasimahmurthy and --Name1-snipped-- bossed over SSSIHL (Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014). ... He acknowledged that it happened! That itself was an achievement for me!!! But he said what can be done now or something on those lines... You see, life in PN is like that. You try to forget the unhappy stuff of the past and deal with the current situation. He also confirmed that now PN hostel is very clear about informing students about Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy making false claims. ....
So I doubt that PN system will want to revisit the past and acknowledge the mistakes with Sathya Sai fraternity.
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The net result though is that Sathya Sai orgn. people look upon alumni with a lot of suspicion. I hope these words don't upset people. But that's the reality.
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BTW about evidence, I thought I should let people know that I have done my bit of documenting my problems with --Name1-snipped--, then DMACS HOD --Name6-snipped--, Registrar --Name3-snipped--, and then Director PN campus, --Name2-snipped-- is my very loooong post, My May 2012 service record & record tampering related correspondence with Sai university (SSSIHL) administrators, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-may-2012-service-record-record.html. People may want to browse-read through it. I put up the post only in Nov. 2015 (with updates later on) as earlier I preferred not to create embarrassment to SSSIHL. But as I saw that SSSIHL top administrators were not being accountable for their mistakes, and things were going from bad to worse, with Muddenahalli group influence over PN system, I decided to expose that part on the Internet.
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Very, very unfortunately, the alumni is desperately and horribly divided by this Muddenahalli matter. And that has resulted in most alumni-staff in PN system, including Sai university, to play safe and not to publicly oppose Muddenahalli group. One LOYAL PN leader refers to them as fence-sitters! This is the reality of PN even today.
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Do people know that even in 2015 and 2016 some alumni-staff in PN were visiting MDH and having darshan of Madhusudan Naidu???
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The BIG MILESTONE was RJR standing firm and removing 5 teachers from higher secondary school (HSS) and one teacher from university for visiting Madhusudan Naidu in mid 2016. The HSS school teachers included school warden.
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This removal of 5 from school and 1 from university at the same time, caused major ripples in PN system, with lots of hatred and enmity directed at Shri R. J. Rathnkar. But he stood firm, to his great credit.
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Today, after the mid-2016 strong action taken against school teachers and one university faculty, there is fear, I think, among PN system employees. So people do not associate openly. But who knows how many have hidden phone contact, mail messages, SMS etc!!! Just see and try to count how many people in PN system (employees) who have Facebook accounts are openly critical of MDH!!! You will find that there are very, very few such persons. Perhaps less than ten!!!!
This is the state of affairs in PN system itself. So you can imagine how it will be in alumni groups in India and across the world, and in Sai orgn. in India and across the world.
I have served as Mandir discipline Seva Dal in Sai Kulwant Hall around the mid 1990s on six different occasions for a week or two. We were instructed that we have to ensure physical security of Bhagavan. I was told that there have been physical threats to Bhagavan.
So while at a divine level Bhagavan could demonstrate awesome miraculous powers, his servitors at physical form level had to do their duty. At some time, even plainclothes ARMED policeman accompanied Bhagavan at darshan round.
I also know of a case (though I was not there then) when an East European devotee/person who was very well built physically, charged at Bhagavan. Perhaps he only wanted to get physical access to Bhagavan. But what if Bhagavan had got physically hurt by this devotee/person charging at him? I was told that a few Seva Dal had to tackle him and succeeded in preventing him from getting close to Bhagavan.
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What one needs to understand is that the duties assigned for people around Swami were quite worldly. And the Mandir discipline Seva Dal kind of people were not really trained for crowd management or security people. I was a working software professional who had studied physics in college and who was on the thin side. But I would typically be seated in the front rows facing the crowd as Swami gave Darshan.
Our instructions were that we should not allow devotees/people to jump or rush towards Swami, and only allow people to approach Swami when Swami permitted it. We would try to do our job well. But I am sure many of us, including me, failed here and there, and bugged not only devotees but sometimes Swami, when we failed to prevent indiscipline while Swami was doing his Darshan round.
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But the beating part is something that I will not approve of, unless the conditions were exceptional. And that exceptional condition would be that the person is a real physical threat to Bhagavan.
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Note that the top Puttaparthi police man (DSP) would be present when Bhagavan would give his Darshan round in the mid 1990s and later (perhaps earlier too but I don't know about that). His main task was to prevent any physical attack on Bhagavan. The DSP would have his stick, if I recall correctly. And if he saw somebody as a physical threat and had reasonable grounds for that perception, I think he would not have hesitated to use that stick to tackle the physical threat.
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And then there were intelligence reports too, I am told. Top ashram functionaries would be informed of such threats. So they had to worry about all that.
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But, yes, undoubtedly, at times, these persons would tend to go overboard with INNOCENT devotees too. That was painful. But it was part of life as the top people were more concerned about protecting Swami than the well being of devotees.
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I had two personal interactions with Shri K. Chakravarthi in end 2002, if I recall correctly, as I was exploring free or honorary (with small honorarium as payment) service opportunities in the ashram. He was not exactly polite with me then. So I preferred to avoid interaction with him after those incidents.
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Very unfortunately, there were some physical level bullies and mental level bullies in the PN ashram system on a permanent duty basis (as against temporary Seva Dal). One had to deal with them.
We were told that when complaints about them were made to Swami, Swami would say/joke that he is keeping them in the ashram as Swami ensures that they do only limited damage in the ashram. If they were released in the outside world, they would cause far more harm :-)
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See I am not saying that Shri K. Chakravarthi is the embodiment of Shanti and Prema! He is well known for some sharp and cutting remarks he makes and also for some tough actions he takes.
But let me tell you the other side of KC sir due to which I still respect him, even though I have not received any polite behaviour from him. KC sir was Swami's next-in-command guy in the ashram system, with the designation then being Secretary, SSSCT. He had to handle all kinds of problems and also be next to Swami for almost all public events. And you know, in the 90s especially and even in early 2000s the day would start with 7 AM Swami Darshan!!! KC sir would be with Swami at that time. And that would go on till evening.
KC sir came to Swami at a relatively young age (late 30s I guess or perhaps early 40s) with his family, when he could have pursued a bright career outside (He already was holding a key IAS administrator position in govt.). I think he joined PN system as University's first Registrar in 1980/81. In his service of around three decades when Swami was in physical form, KC sir has played a ***VITAL*** role, I am told, in a lot of the main projects taken up by Bhagavan, and in amenities provided in PN ashram. I am thankful to KC sir (and other top administrators like him) who played a crucial role in providing good amenities in PN ashram system and in establishing and running key PN ashram institutions like the hospitals and the educational institutions. That made it easy for people like me who came first to the ashram in the mid 1990s by which time it was already quite well setup with good amenities! And when I moved to Puttaparthi and worked (free service) in the ashram system from Oct. 2002 onwards till March 2012, I was able to enjoy all the amenities and facilities that hard work of top administrators like KC sir had created.
Okay, due to all those pressures and hard work, KC sir sometimes would lose his temper. I felt that is a minor thing to tolerate when seen against all the facilities that he and others were instrumental in providing to all devotees who came to PN ashram, including you and me!
And KC sir, I believe, has been LOYAL to PN system right from the beginning of Narasimhamurthy dream-instruction claim. I have not heard one single report of KC sir falling for that FALSE CLAIM even when the powerful Indulal Shah supported Narasimhamurthy. I am also told KC sir played a significant role in Gangadhara Bhat sir coming out of Muddenahalli group in the recent past. So KC sir has great value as a COMPLETELY LOYAL to Prasanthi Nilayam top administrator, in this divisive problem that MDH has created.
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I should also say here that I have not seen any Mandir discipline or security staff (including Seva Dal) beat up devotees during Swami darshan rounds (or even later). However, it is possible that some people saw some such incidents.
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Narasimhamurthy is undoubtedly the brains and the dictatorial power behind MDH group as of now. C. Srinivas runs the hospitals which attracts a lot of publicity and celebrities including political leaders. But I don't think CS plays a spiritual leader role.
That role is played mainly by Narasimhamurthy (BNNM) who uses Madhu Baba as a drama performer with his mimicry of Sathya Sai to attract persons who do not know much about the teachings and instructions of Sathya Sai (this includes many who were close to physical form Sathya Sai, including Sai alumni).
That BNNM is committing Guru Droham by misguiding people using the name of Sathya Sai Baba, is, I think, beyond any doubt now for any unbiased person who is knowledgeable about Sathya Sai life and teachings.
I think it is also quite clear that BNNM is a Narcissist who has put his ambitions about building a spiritual empire using the name of Sathya Sai, far above the teachings and instructions of Sathya Sai! However, BNNM has NOT been able to win the endorsement of even one respected spiritual leader for his outrageous endorsement of Madhu Baba being so called communicator of invisible to all others, so called subtle body of Sathya Sai. I was informed of a former philosophy lecturer of Sai University, Shri (or is it Dr.) Kuppuswamy, who stayed for some weeks in Muddenahalli after Madhu Baba started his public drama mimicry of Sathya Sai. Kuppuswamy sir went away, I was told, after those few weeks that he was there, as he felt Madhu Baba's claim is false!
Quoting from the New Testament and talking about St. Francis of Assissi, may please some Christians like some Italian Christians BNNM may have been directing his lecture to. But that will not earn him endorsement from any serious Christian priest or pastor who knows his/her Bible, as they will not accept the outrageous and FALSE CLAIMS of BNNM and Madhu Baba.
But then how are they able to continue for so long? Well, the history of 20th century cults has many examples of cults that grew for years but eventually collapsed as their foundation was FALSE.
I think this FALSE BELIEF of Madhu Baba and his devotees will NOT STAND the test of time. But how long will it take before Madhu Baba stops impersonating Sathya Sai or his devotee following becomes very small/irrelevant, is something I don't want to hazard a guess about.
One thing though is quite clear to me now. It is the money power that MDH group has garnered that has attracted many people to them. I know/have been told of some persons who go to Muddenahalli but actually don't believe in Madhu Baba's claims though they accept that he has some siddhis. I mean, for many people it is a job or a business contract or business contacts possibilities that draws them to MDH. Really! And in Parthi too there are many people in the system who are more interested in the job or business contracts or business contacts possibilities than deep faith and dedication to Sathya Sai.
And then, I guess, some donors want some recognition, some fame within the community. MDH provides them that and so they donate there!
My view is that MDH group and Madhu Baba will continue to function so long as donors keep giving them money, and so long as nobody is able to legally prevent them from impersonating Sathya Sai. Our social media work can only help some people from getting trapped by Madhu Baba and his devotees but not really stop them. Stopping them needs far bigger level action - legal challenge to Madhu Baba for impersonating Sathya Sai.
...
Perhaps Narasimhamurthy should be told of this verse from the New Testament, Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.", http://biblehub.com/matthew/7-15.htm!!!
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On https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/1009100179226466, I wrote (on 18th April 2017):
--Name-snipped--, Hope you get your dosa & chai in London. Enjoy it man!
I am a chai man :-). It is not just a beverage but a way of life for Bombayites/Mumbaikars, which I carried on to my Puttaparthi life, including Sai university service life. I have had lots of wonderful sessions brimming with love and happiness as well as spiritual satsang over chai in my nearly fifteen year Puttaparthi life.
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On https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/1007589479377536, Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) (on 18th April 2017):
--Name-snipped--, --Name-snipped--, I think it is group psychology and fanatical belief at work which led to all of them clapping to Madhu's dodging the question that --Name-snipped-- asked him. There is a tendency in people, especially in spiritual followings, to follow the group leadership and distance themselves from a single (or few) dissident(s).
I think that such group psychology behaviour can be countered effectively by a group of dissidents questioning them. If --Name-snipped-- had been with five or six dissidents, who had clapped loudly when --Name-snipped-- had asked the question, I think it would have made the others in the meeting give more importance to --Name-snipped--'s question. Most of the group clapping after Madhu Baba's answer could have been countered by boo's from the dissident group expressing their dissatisfaction with Madhu Baba's answer.
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Terry Reis Kennedy responded:
We will be employing this type of technique in our future encounters....most likely when the large group goes to MDH.....when they return from their unending travels. Thanks, Ravi S. Iyer for the prompt.
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From https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1892918157591419 dated April 14th 2017:
[Ravi S. Iyer wrote:]
It was similar in my childhood. First important thing to see when one wakes up on Vishu (Kerala/Malayali new year) are God (images/idols), fruits, vegetables, grains ... - the goodies of life. BTW I am a Kerala Iyer (Tamil Brahmin hailing from Kerala) and so our family celebrates Vishu as our traditional new year.
Sai devotees should not miss out Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's famous pic along with other idols, in the shared pic below. I think Hon'ble MP Shashi Tharoor's mother is a Sathya Sai devotee. Dr. Tharoor represents Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala as an MP in the Indian Parliament (at Delhi).
---end post contents ---
The above post shared this post: https://www.facebook.com/ShashiTharoor/posts/10154735887548167 dated April 14th 2017,
[Shashi Tharoor wrote:]
For the first time in decades my mother prepared this vishu kani for me. The 1st sight this morning. Happy Vishu! https://t.co/fLNKToEKhE
[The pic below was attached.]
[I thank Dr. Shashi Tharoor and have presumed that he will not have any objections to me sharing the above pic from his Facebook & Twitter public posts, on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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My comments on Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/sathyanarayana.raju.9/posts/1010429809093503:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote on 19th April 2017:
Going by what I could read of the text on the screen in the background, this seems to be a celebration event of the first FREE pediatric heart surgery at their new Haryana hospital (which I think is the one inaugurated over video-link by PM Modi).
I am not surprised at all at a union minister being present for the event considering the extraordinary service to society that has been rendered. The presence of the union minister has to be seen as appreciative of this service to society, and NOT any endorsement of Madhu Baba (who is on stage) unless the union minister clearly makes a statement endorsing him (Madhu Baba).
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...
Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Oh! I think the Indian govt. would do something similar in terms of extending support if any spiritual orgn. offered a similar service to the poor. Such service is certainly extraordinary in rural India. I don't know of many NGOs in urban India, let alone rural India, who offer free pediatric heart surgery service.
So long as the means by which the funds were collected is not deemed illegal by any court of law in India or lndian law enforcement, the govt. of India will not interfere, in my considered view.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
Well, in India and in the USA, two countries whose governmental setups I have a decent reading & viewing exposure to now, I don't think the govt. is tasked with investigating spiritual claims related to fund raising for charitable activities. So the govt simply does not interfere in the matter UNLESS there are complaints from the public that are upheld as valid complaints by law enforcement (Police) and/or courts of law.
And the political reality on the ground is that such projects which benefit the poor get great support from the local populace that benefits from it. So political leaders will support it.
Now I don't want my comments to be viewed as supportive of Muddenahalli group's FALSE BELIEF and going against the teachings and instructions of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba when it comes to mediums (and communicators). I am clearly against them which is known by all serious followers of this matter due to my public writings against them.
But our objections to Muddenahalli group will not matter much to Indian political leaders & political parties, so long as Muddenahalli group follows Indian law and does service to society activities of eye catching nature like free pediatric surgery. I simply want readers to know of this reality on the ground, as per my view of the matter.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Sairam brother --Name-snipped--! By Whitefield campus do you mean, the earlier Whitefield general hospital area? If so, I think that belongs to C. Srinivas and his trust. ... However, the Brindavan campus of SSSIHL in Kadugodi (just next to Whitefield), I believe, belongs to Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, Oh! Maybe you were saying that the faculty and staff of Brindavan (Kadugodi near Whitefield) campus of SSSIHL go to Muddenahalli? If so, that seems to have been the case in the very sad and very dark phase of SSSIHL Hijack and after-effect of Hijack, from Jul 2011 to mid 2016. After mid-2016, any faculty or staff from any campus of SSSIHL who is known to have associated with Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) or Narasimhamurthy, would face rather strict action from Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. So I doubt anybody from any campus of SSSIHL does that now.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Brother --Name-snipped--, I wonder whether you are aware that a senior faculty in SSSIHL, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus, had his services terminated in mid 2016 because he visited Muddenahalli group and gave Arati to so called subtle body next to Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu)? At the same time, around five teachers from Prasanthi Nilayam Higher Secondary school, were removed from the school for the same reason.
It was a big event and caused a lot of opposition and ripples. But Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (one trustee in particular), I am told, remained firm. That sent the message loud and clear to everybody in SSSIHL. If anybody from Brindavan campus of SSSIHL is now visiting Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) and/or Narasimhamurthy, they risk removal from service, if authorities are informed of the matter with suitable evidence. Evidence is important as otherwise people may flatly deny that they met Madhu Baba or Narasimhamurthy and then the authorities will not be able to act.
So, as Chiran Basnet, a Brindavan alumnus said, I think that very, very few persons from Brindavan campus, if any, would be doing it now, and if they are doing it they would be doing it in a hidden way. BTW I am a former free service faculty of SSSIHL, Prasanthi Nilayam campus from Jan. 2003 to Mar. 2012 with designations of Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, I thought of sharing my view on the matter. I don't have any objections to the service to society work of Muddenahalli group - Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu), Narasimhamurthy, C. Srinivas etc. I wish them all the best and have publicly appreciated their work in this regard.
My very strong objection to Muddenahalli group is the dilution, distortion and corruption they are doing to the legacy and memories of my revered and beloved Gurudev, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Rao Naidu) is giving darshan, discourses and interviews of his, using the name of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Yes, they print Madhu Baba's discourses in books as Sri Sathya Sai Baba's discourses!!!
Madhu Baba has said that Kali Yuga has ended and Sathya Yuga has begun!!! But these are conveyed as Sathya Sai Baba's words!!! However, Sathya Sai told Hislop that Kali Yuga will continue for over 5,000 years more!!!
I consider it my duty to my Gurudev, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and to the Sathya Sai fraternity from whom I have benefited a lot, to inform the fraternity through social media and elsewhere that Madhu Baba is NOT saying the words of Sathya Sai. Many Sathya Sai devotees, including foreign Sathya Sai devotees, have thanked me for clearing the confusion that they had on this matter.
But you, sir, are surely entitled to your view of the matter. However I do hope that your friends and family do not get misguided by the FALSE CLAIM of Madhu Baba that he is speaking the words of our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Thanks. Jai Sairam!
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Brother --Name-snipped--, I did not presume that you and family (and friends) were supporters of Muddenahalli group. But I just remarked that I hope that they do not get misguided by (fall into the trap of) Madhu Baba. I am glad to know of the firm faith in Bhagavan that you and your family have and that you'll have nothing to do with them. Happy to know of Bal Vikas, Convener etc. association/positions of you/your family.
...
I view this division as somewhat like (not literally) Sai Sunni (Puttaparthi group) and Sai Shia (Muddenahalli group). And that, even when not taken literally, scares me for the future of the Sathya Sai movement! Saudi Arabia (mainly Sunni) and Iran (mainly Shia) have been at loggerheads for centuries, I believe, and even today are very dangerous enemies of each other! Our neighbouring country, Pakistan, sees so much violence and killing directed at Shias!!!
Therefore I feel it is important to challenge Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) on his claim on social media and elsewhere. That will reduce the number of people who fall into his FALSE CLAIM trap, and help reduce this confusion over future generations.
Ideally I think heirs of Sathya Sai, which I think is the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust and/or close kin of Sathya Sai, should challenge the UNAUTHORISED use by Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) of the name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba for Madhu Baba's discourses, interviews and darshan. I am sure there would be inheritance laws and copyright laws in India that would come into play when heirs of Sathya Sai legally challenge Madhu Baba.
Note that Bala Sai Baba and Sanjay Sai Baba use different names. Note that Sathya Sai used a different name from that of Shirdi Sai. I would not have such serious objections if Madhu Baba uses his own name, Madhusudan Naidu, or Madhu Baba or even Madhu Sai Baba, instead of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
However, SSSCT and/or close kin of Bhagavan, have so far not legally challenged Madhu Baba even though he has been publicly and openly using the name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba for his discourses, darshan and interviews, right from May 2014!!!
My view is that a PIL possibility in Karnataka High Court from any other person may be worth trying, even if the chances of the High Court rejecting the PIL are high. My view is that at least the High Court may provide advice to the PIL litigant about how he/she could proceed with seeking justice on the matter at lower courts. However, due to various limitations that I have, I am not in a position to either file the PIL myself or be a joint party to the PIL.
Thank you brother for sharing your views with us.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, I think you refer to the PIL. The ground of unauthorised use of name of Sri Sathya Sai Baba by Madhusudan Naidu, for Madhusudan Naidu's darshan, discourses and interviews, which is leading to misguidance and confusion, as well as dilution, distortion and corruption to the legacy and memories of Sathya Sai.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote:
About the fight for Dharma vs. fight against Adharma: It is a long, long story with me. Right from Jul 2011 meeting I had with then vice-chancellor --Name1-snipped-- in the VC's chambers, where he shouted at me as if I was a criminal, ... to me terminating my association with SSSIHL in Mar. 2012 ... etc. So now I am a committed fighter against Asathya and Adharma of Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy. I am fighting them like Jatayu fighting Ravana, as I have lots of limitations.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (multiple comments collapsed into one):
Very interesting to know about the possibility of filing a case against them for impersonation. Thanks.
But the complexity here is that SSSCT is not filing any such legal case.
So we need some other Sai devotee to file a case on his/her own name.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
--Name-snipped--, About why can't SSSCT file it - I DON'T KNOW. You will have to ask SSSCT and see if they give you a response for it.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited):
Brother --Name-snipped--, I think your words, "Let them die a natural death. Untruth will die .You will see them perish. Rather let us fight for Dharma which means to strengthen our institution and spread its glory. In the process of trying to terminate them our own institution will be finished." capture the view of the "fighters for Dharma but not fighters against Adharma" group very well. And I do acknowledge that it may, I repeat may (I am not certain about it), be a sound approach from the long term point of view. The point about possible damage to our own institutions (SSSCT and official Sathya Sai orgn.), if they (SSSCT & Sai orgn.) file legal case of impersonation of Bhagavan, against Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) seems to be a very important one. I have ZERO personal experience of fighting court cases. I have never even stepped foot in a court of law, Indian or foreign. So I place a lot of value to your opinion as you are a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India!!!
However ... Let me first respond to this part of your comment, "Well some truths I wish to tell you which may not be palatable to you. The impact of madhusudan and that group is very very local. In nothern part of India People dont even know saya sai ,so what to say about this tiny group."
You see, the impact of Madhu Baba and his devotees, in dividing Sathya Sai movement and creating confusion and trauma in it, is extensive in some foreign countries like Singapore and Australia. Even though I strongly oppose Mr. V.R. Ganti for his vicious attacks on SSSCT and some of its trustees, it is undeniable that Mr. V.R. Ganti has exposed the ONGOING deep involvement of Singapore Sathya Sai devotees with Muddenahalli group, including being major financial donors to it!!! Melbourne, Australia seems to be a CURRENT hub of Muddenahalli group devotees including some who use fake Facebook Ids to viciously malign those of us who write critically of Madhu Baba and his devotees [See https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2017/02/my-facebook-posts-related-to.html for details of how I was attacked in January end and early February this year, and how I fought them back.]
UK and USA are other countries which have been significantly impacted by Madhu Baba and his devotees, though the impact does not seem to be as severe as Singapore and Australia, as of now.
Some Sathya Sai devotees in the above mentioned countries are driven to frustration at seeing how Madhu Baba and his devotees are freely going around in their countries, trapping innocent devotees with their FALSE BELIEF using the HOLY NAME of our beloved Lord, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. These persons are now in a mode of being fighters against Adharma and not just fighters for Dharma. They would love to have somebody file a legal challenge restraining Madhu Baba from impersonating Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in their countries. But so far we don't seem to have any Adharma-fighter who is willing to file such a case in India, Singapore, Australia, USA or UK, or any other country of the world. I would like to clearly repeat that I myself have many limitations due to which I am not in a position to file such a case myself in India, either singly or jointly with others.
So that's where we are now. A few public social media Adharma-fighters against Muddenahalli group but nobody yet who is willing to file a CIVIL case in any country of the world against Madhu Baba (Madhusudan Naidu) to prevent him from impersonating Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
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My comment on Facebook post,
https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10212972193158357:
Ravi S. Iyer wrote: It is when it comes to deep Hindu scriptural knowledge, like the Vedas - the Karma Kanda part of it and the Aranyaka and Upanishads part of it, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana (has accounts of Avatars), Brahma Sutra etc. that the differences between Sathya Sai's words and Madhu Baba's (Madhusudan Naidu's) words, become vast. Madhu Baba rarely dares to venture into these territories. That relative silence itself tells us he is not Sathya Sai. But when he (Madhu Baba) has tried to get into these territories he tends to expose his lack of scriptural knowledge. For example, he had said in 2015, if I recall correctly, that Kali Yuga is coming to an end, and that Sathya Yuga is starting (the next day). What a howler that was for any person with a decent knowledge of Hindu scripture! Further, Sathya Sai told Hislop that Kali Yuga will last for 5,000 odd years more!!!
I am very happy to see that "Croatian Sai Publications", "spotted enormous differences" when they compared Sathya Sai's words with Madhusudan's words on "deeper aspects of Upanishad metaphysics". I hope that they are able to share this knowledge with Croatian Sathya Sai devotees in their local language(s).
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On https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10212953655734933, I wrote (partial extract):
I prefer videos to books on certain topics that I am not too deeply into (I prefer books instead of videos on topics that I am deeply interested in). So I found a video on Narcissism and NPD to be very informative for me (along with some general info. web pages on it). The original video link mentioned in my blog post in previous comment I made a few days ago on this thread, seems to have been taken off youtube. Just browsed for other youtube video copies of it. This seems to be a copy of that video which I found to be very informative: [Warning: The video has graphic stuff, both in terms of violence and sex] Shocking full documentary - narcissism / narcissistic personality disorder ( psychology ), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG7rvOsE2ws, 47 min. 25 secs.
,,,
Well, --Name-snipped--, the reality on the ground is that at least one top person of Muddenahalli group, I am told, has access to PM Modi himself!!! No wonder, BJP govt. ministers readily visit MDH group functions.
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--Name-snipped-- Yes, I do think PN has access to PM. But that access would be for social service work, and not for combating MDH group, I think. It is MDH group social service work that has earned the support of PM and other ministers & chief ministers. Political leaders see the service to society that's done and are not deeply involved in knowing whether the matters are spiritually ethical or not.
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On Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10212982914586386, I wrote (on 24th & 25th April 2017)
Repeating comment from earlier on in this post: --Name-snipped--, Looks like you wanted to tag me on this. As I am a direct/indirect beneficiary of the services of Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (medical service, water supply to handle water problems in summer, peaceful life in PTP ...), I am biased towards them. So I prefer not to get involved in this conversation. Thanks.
BTW I am ex university Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty. Lecturer implies an academic. I am NOT an academic but a software industry guy who offered free teaching, guidance and other service to the Maths & Comp. Sc. dept of Sai university.
Thanks for your kind words about my views. But I do trip up many times. All the best with this conversation.
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In Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/saidas108/posts/1169378849837867, I wrote (on April 22nd 2017):
Great from idealistic point of view. And I believe it to be the ultimate truth of existence! But, IMHO, till one has had that experience of one being in all, and all being in one, I think one has to be a little selfish to even survive in this dog-eat-dog world of ours.
...
I hasten to add that I also believe that, in many matters, faith comes before experience. So if one has the faith that one is in all and that all is in one, at a deep existential level, then that prepares the ground for future experience of it. .... I guess it is a matter of how ready one is to be unselfish and not to be really that concerned about oneself and one's survival, leaving it to the will of Almighty God/Divine force in each one of us.
...
Well, --Name-snipped--, honestly your association with Swami goes far longer back than mine, and so you know some stuff about Swami better than me. But on this one I recall reading about it recently. If I recall correctly, the guy (supposed 'saint') who refuses to move away from the path of the elephant, even though the Mahout shouts at him to move, dies. He then faces God and accuses him of doing nothing to help him, his devotee! Then God says I was trying to help you by shouting at you. I was the Mahout! But you refused to listen to me :-).
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In Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1899060640310504, I wrote (on April 26th 2017):
The Great Pretender - Madhu Baba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuUKKAE4J7s, 3 min 26 secs.
The video has the song, 'The Great Pretender' of Freddie Mercury (first time I heard the song). Here are the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/freddiemercury/thegreatpretender.html
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===========================================In Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1899060640310504, I wrote (on April 26th 2017):
The Great Pretender - Madhu Baba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuUKKAE4J7s, 3 min 26 secs.
The video has the song, 'The Great Pretender' of Freddie Mercury (first time I heard the song). Here are the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/freddiemercury/thegreatpretender.html
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Comment I put up on 29th Apr. 2017 on https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1846733735579923&id=1605194046400561, [Desktop FB post: https://www.facebook.com/IndiainCroatia/posts/1846733735579923] India in Croatia (Embassy of India, Zagreb):
Dear Hon'ble Indian Ambassador to Croatia,
Are you aware, sir, that Mr. Madhusudan Rao Naidu, who is shown in one of the 3 pics of this post, on stage, publicly claims to be a so called communicator of an INVISIBLE & INAUDIBLE to all others but him, so called subtle body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba???
Are you aware, sir, that this claim of Mr. Madhusudan Rao Naidu goes against the teachings and instructions of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and so is rejected by the official Sathya Sai organization in India and other countries of the world???
By the Indian embassy of Croatia putting up these pics of the event, the Indian embassy has perhaps unknowingly, promoted a FALSE BELIEF CULT which is diluting, distoring and corrupting the legacy and memories of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
In the interests of Sathya and Dharma (truth and rightful conduct), I suggest, sir, that you ensure that this post is taken down from the Indian embassy's Facebook page and that the Indian embassy avoid any formal promotion of this Muddenahalli, Karnataka based FALSE BELIEF CULT and their events. Of course, the Indian embassy may not accept my words that it is a FALSE BELIEF CULT. But surely they can contact the official Sathya Sai organization in India and ascertain their view, before they (Indian embassy) promote this FALSE BELIEF CULT and their events.
Thanks & Regards
Ravi S. Iyer
Social media writer on spirituality & religion and retired international software consultant, Puttaparthi, India
Spiritual/Religious Websites/Blogs
* About Sri Sathya Sai Baba and more: ravisiyer.blogspot.in [23rd Sept. 2020 Use ravisiyer.blogspot.com ]
* God & science conversation and a little more: iami1.wordpress.com/god-and-science-toc
Software Websites/Blogs
* Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism: eklavyasai.blogspot.in/p/table-of-contents.html [23rd Sept. 2020 Use eklavyasai.blogspot.com/p/table-of-contents.html ]
* Course material related to computer programming (software lab.) courses: raviiyerteaches.wordpress.com
Misc. Topics Blogs
* ravisiyermisc.blogspot.in/ [23rd Sept. 2020 Use ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/ ]
* ravisiyer.wordpress.com/category/misc/
e-mail: ravi@raviiyer.org
Twitter: twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer
Google+: google.com/+RaviSIyerSai
Facebook: facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7
Service to Society is Service to God
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Some general stuff/thoughts of mine:
Why I did not reveal the name of the officer who closed my grievance to PM mentioned in my blog post: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2016/09/open-letter-to-pm-modi-hrd-minister.html?
My first interactions with New Delhi union govt. bureaucracy was from around Sept. 2011 onwards, with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and University Grants Commission (UGC)/All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), for my work in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology Academic Reform activism, http://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/.
I found out via my mails and phone calls to New Delhi bureaucrats or their P.A.s that, as far as MHRD and UGC/AICTE are concerned, it is a political maze that one has to navigate when one raises controversial issues or suggests reform. Bureaucrats have to play the safe game so that they don't get crushed by top political leaders and powerful educationists. So bureaucrats will go by the book and take the safe response, and also try hard to avoid getting caught up in any controversial issue which might become a political dogfight with them becoming sandwiched in the middle.
I gave up on my Indian CS & IT Academic Reform activism efforts as I understood all this, and realized that I needed political power to back me. I did not want to get that involved. I stopped at transparently recording my efforts in the above mentioned blog so that others who are interested in it can see my views and my efforts at change which failed to even stir the ENORMOUS BUREAUCRACY that MHRD and UGC/AICTE are.
I think in this case of my letter to PM Modi on Madhu Baba false claim, it is similar. The lower level bureaucrat (typically with designation of under-secretary) who rejected my letter as being invalid, would have followed norms of PMO, and avoided controversy. I don't want his name to unnecessarily be bandied about in this controversy.
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My considered view now is that BNNM (B.N. Narasimhamurthy) seems to have thought that he was BETTER and MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE than Swami during the last year, at least, of Bhagavan's physical sojourn. But it was Sathya Sai that had the following. BNNM did not have his own following in his own name. So he had to play a game as if he is respecting Swami's word but within he was thinking he knew BETTER than Swami!!! That was the CRUCIAL SPIRITUAL BLUNDER BNNM made.
After Mahasamadhi, the trauma that Parthi went through with national media sensationalizing every bit of unfortunate news from Parthi, just played into BNNM's hands. The stage was set for BNNM takeover with him becoming dream-instruction of Swami messiah for traumatized Sathya Sai devotees in Parthi and elsewhere!
--Name1-snipped--, sometime towards end 2011 or early 2012, tried to influence a somewhat form-boy young faculty of PN campus to accept BNNM as Swami dream-instruction leader! Prasad told him something on the lines that referred to BNNM, at least indirectly, as Moses!!! This was conveyed directly by this young faculty of PN campus to me. I was traumatized by hearing this along with other accounts which indicated to me that --Name1-snipped-- was using his VC position to influence faculty to accept BNNM's claim!!! Eventually I decided to shake up --Name1-snipped--, to whatever extent I could, by terminating my association with SSSIHL in March 2012, and writing officially to --Name1-snipped--, with courier proof of having delivered it to VC's office, on a big mistake SSSIHL administration had made by showing me FALSELY as a Teaching-Assistant in some official University QA document, signed by him (as VC), which is a criminal offense of record-tampering under Indian Penal Code.
But --Name1-snipped-- was a veteran in these power games and had strong political support (he seems to be well known to a former Indian PM from South India and his party people). So he washed his hands off the matter and bounced it to PN campus director --Name2-snipped--.
People don't realize how vital a role --Name1-snipped-- played as TRAITOR Vice-chancellor of SSSIHL, to silence any opposition within SSSIHL to BNNM's Swami dream-instruction claims. Without --Name1-snipped--, BNNM would not have succeeded in HIJACKING SSSIHL the way he did. BNNM, all said and done, quite openly made his dream-instruction claim in Jul 2011, and that part was fair I think. It was upto people to accept it or not. People like Anilkumar Kamaraju sir rejected it right away and people like me followed views of such elders as they backed it with Swami teachings and instructions. But I still say that BNNM was fair and open in saying that he had those dreams and that it was upto people to accept it or not. No force was suggested by BNNM, at least then.
It is --Name1-snipped--, along with --Name2-snipped--, then director of PN campus and close friend and confidant of BNNM, who influenced SSSIHL faculty to either accept BNNM's claim or not oppose him. Those who dared to oppose BNNM like Anilkumar Kamaraju were THROWN OUT of SSSIHL using some academic regulation excuse! Some SSSCT trustees like S.V. Giri sir opposed --Name1-snipped-- on this matter. --Name1-snipped--, I am told, threatened SSSCT that if they remove him as VC, he will go to the media and create problems for SSSCT!!! Poor SSSCT was cornered between media blasting them, govt. breathing down their necks (govt. takeover of SSSCT was on the cards then), senior trustee Indulal Shah sir backing Narasimhamurthy, and --Name1-snipped-- threatening them with more media and other trouble if they sacked him as VC. What a pathetic and dark phase SSSCT, SSSIHL (Sai university) and Prasanthi Nilayam went through then!!!
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Now see, I am not saying that --Name1-snipped-- or --Name2-snipped-- are innately bad/evil persons. However, in the extraordinary trauma that Prasanthi Nilayam and SSSIHL went through in the immediate months and years after Mahasamadhi, they made some bad mistakes including believing in Narasimhamurthy as kind of successor to Swami, even though leading lights of Prasanthi Nilayam like S.V. Giri, K. Chakravarthi, G. Venkataraman, Anilkumar Kamaraju sirs, all of whom Bhagavan VISIBLY gave a lot of importance to in the last years of his physical sojourn, did not accept Narasimhamurthy as successor! All said and done, Narasimhamurthy and Indulal Shah sir were not Prasanthi Nilayam based persons!
Okay, we all make mistakes. Even Peter, the great devotee of Jesus, denied him twice/thrice at the crucifixion of Jesus, out of fear, I guess, that he too may get arrested and perhaps get crucified!
But they should acknowledge the mistakes they made! This is where the ARROGANCE AND EGO of these people is insufferable! They should take inspiration from Gangadhar Bhat (GB) sir, who was associated with Swami physical form for fifty to sixty years! If GB sir can publicly confess and repent for the mistake he made by going along with Narasimhamurthy in the immediate years after Mahasamadhi, who are Professors --Name1-snipped-- and --Name2-snipped--??? I tell you, I find that some academics who become professors are utterly arrogant and egoistic and lack the basic human values quality of accepting their big mistakes and apologizing for it. They will find fault with everybody else for their mistake but never accept they made a mistake.
If the top people of SSSIHL in the key post Mahasamadhi period of May/June 2011 to June/July 2012, make a clean confession about what happened then, especially what Narasimhamurthy and --Name1-snipped-- did, then the entire Sathya Sai fraternity including Sathya Sai university and schools alumni, will know the truth from authoritative sources. That confessed/revealed truth will help Sathya Sai fraternity including Sai university & schools alumni to deal with this Muddenahalli FALSE BELIEF matter properly. But, very tragically, SSSIHL top administrators, most of whom are Sai university alumni, choose to follow the COVER-UP approach and act as if nothing wrong happened in SSSIHL under --Name1-snipped-- from after Mahasamadhi till Nov. 2014 when he stepped down as vice-chancellor.
I would like to reveal that a few months ago I was informed by a reliable source that a person had made contact with current vice-chancellor, Prof. Varma, with respect to request to revoke gold medal(s) of Madhusudan Naidu. At that time, I was told, Prof. Varma told the person that SSSIHL had stopped giving a medal in the name of --Name1-snipped-- - the normal practice, I believe, is to institute a medal in the name of a recently stepped down vice-chancellor (or is it done even when he is sitting VC?). Perhaps they had that medal in the name of --Name1-snipped-- for a year or two, but have now stopped it. I was not told the exact response of Prof. Varma on revocation of gold medal(s) of Madhusudan Naidu, but I got the impression that Prof. Varma and, I guess, others in SSSIHL administration/trustee level positions, were not willing to go that far.
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Even when Swami was in physical form, Prasanthi Nilayam ashram system was not perfect. Money related matters particularly were very sensitive. I simply stayed away from such matters and that, I was told, was the advice Swami had given to some seniors - something on the lines of, Ne pani maatram chesko Vera valluto ekkuva matladaku (I hope I got the Telugu reasonably right). That means, Do only your work, don't talk much with others.
So this was the survival mantra in PN ashram system when Swami was in physical form. I largely tried to stick to it and stayed away from ashram power politics and especially from anything even remotely connected with money in the ashram system. That policy served me well helping me to lead a largely peaceful life in PN ashram and in outside ashram Puttaparthi.
But physical form Swami would see to it that spiritual teachings of his were not compromised or diluted. He was very, very particular about that. As I have been a teacher myself in a material world area - software development - I could very well appreciate why Swami as a teacher of Dharma, and of the highest spiritual truths expressed in ways appropriate for current age of Kali, was so particular that his teachings were not compromised. He would go out of his way even when he was rather severely physically challenged at bodily level in the last year or two of his physical sojourn, to correct people who had misunderstood or misinterpreted him on such matters. I have seen this with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears in Sai Kulwant Hall. I will never ever forget this aspect of Swami, the TIRELESS teacher of Dharma and of highest spiritual truths expressed in 20th and early 21st century age terms.
Further, if somebody went too far in power craze or money craze resulting in lots of complaints to Swami in physical form, then Swami would act. People in power in ashram would suddenly be stripped of their position and power! Slowly the word would spread about why that happened. Usually, but not always, it would be a disciplinary action by Swami himself against that person.
So while Swami was in physical form, fear of Swami at physical form level itself, led to some level of discipline even among the power mongers and/or money crazy people in ashram system.
After Swami Mahasamadhi, that fear vanished. That led to a period of rather rampant power craze across PN ashram system, including, very unfortunately, SSSIHL. That paved the way for SSSIHL Hijack from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014 by Narasimhamurthy initiated with full support and involvement of then vice-chancellor, --Name1-snipped--, Director of Prasanthi Nilayam campus, --Name2-snipped-- and Director of Muddenahalli campus (Dr. --Name4-snipped--, I believe). I do not know the role of Brindavan campus director in this matter, and whether Registrar, --Name3-snipped--, and Controller of Examinations, --Name5-snipped--, co-operated/collaborated in this SSSIHL hijack. But I know this. Anilkumar Kamaraju sir wrote emails to many SSSIHL senior faculty and administrators (with many alumni-staff already being in such positions) when he was ousted from SSSIHL in mid 2012. As far as I know, NOBODY came to AK sir's help!!! So even if --Name3-snipped-- and --Name5-snipped-- did not actively collaborate in removal of AK sir - they did not do anything to stop it.
Once AK sir was out in mid-2012, with Prof. Krupanidhi preferring to leave rather than stay in this environment - he was labelled a 'runaway' by SSSIHL administrators --Name1-snipped-- and --Name3-snipped-- - and many other senior teachers who had crossed 60 years of age preferring to leave SSSIHL (but not all, a few continued), either out of dissatisfaction with new SSSIHL post-Mahasamadhi environment under --Name1-snipped-- and --Name3-snipped-- or out of better financial prospects outside, NOBODY in SSSIHL had any guts to OPEN THEIR MOUTH against Narasimhamurthy, --Name1-snipped--, --Name2-snipped-- and --Name3-snipped--!! In my nine years of service at SSSIHL I had never seen such an environment of TERROR/ GREAT FEAR of SSSIHL administrators that had pervaded SSSIHL campus then. I don't blame SSSIHL faculty & staff. I mean, if AK sir could be thrown out without anybody opening their mouths in protest, who were they? I have personally seen how scared young faculty would be when they saw the car of --Name3-snipped-- approach us when we were talking on the road. I mean, the young faculty would not want to be seen with me, out of fear of --Name3-snipped--!!! You can imagine how terrified they then would have been of Narasimhamurthy and --Name1-snipped--!!
And to sweeten matters, --Name1-snipped-- with support of --Name3-snipped--, had forced SSSCT to implement sixth pay commission pay revision, as well as putting many people on proper pay scale, in July 2011. SSSCT resisted as donations had come down to ZERO or close to ZERO. They requested postponement. --Name1-snipped-- told them from Delhi where he had gone for a visit, that he would fax them his resignation if they did not implement sixth pay commission. --Name3-snipped--, I am told, supported --Name1-snipped-- on this matter, much to the displeasure of SSSCT. SSSCT capitulated. Many SSSIHL staff were overjoyed! Almost all youngsters who were teachers, but not all, were put on regular UGC sixth pay commission pay scale with a starting salary of over Rs. 20,000 per month. One Professor of political science (not a large department and with few students doing significant work), who also was Joint Director of PN campus, had his salary go up to Rs. 1 Lakh per month! University non-teaching staff also would have got significant raises. --Name1-snipped-- had become a HERO to most SSSIHL staff for delivering them great salary increase!
Naturally, other parts of the ashram system observed all this and demanded the same for them. So SSSCT had to institute sixth pay commission scale across the board in all its divisions, including hospitals, resulting in significant increase of salary burden just a few months after Mahasamadhi.
I was shocked at seeing this stuff. I mean, sure SSSIHL needed to ensure that people will stick on. But at a time when donations to SSSCT were down, people coming to PN had dwindled, the future of PN was uncertain, why this great increase in salary? Given my previous international software industry exposure of nearly two decades, it did not make financial sense to me. After all the revenue to PN system was donations. Donations are the LIFEBLOOD of PN system, and most such ashram systems in India. When donations had come to zero or near zero, it was time to tighten belts rather than splurge on generous salary increases, and regularising many people on UGC pay scale.
I felt that the right response of a spiritual organization division head like SSSIHL vice-chancellor would have been to co-operate with SSSCT at a time when donations had drastically come down, and request SSSIHL staff to help the mother trust, SSSCT, at this time of great challenge, by continuing on previous salary for six months to a year. That is, postpone the sixth pay commission implementation by six months to a year. Just imagine how Bhagavan would have responded to a vice-chancellor who informed him that if he did not implement salary increase for the university staff, he would fax his resignation from Delhi! I have NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that Bhagavan would have asked him to resign and would have appointed a more spartan vice-chancellor instead!
Note that --Name1-snipped-- offered honorary service. I believe he was reimbursed for his frequent travelling expenses between Mysore and Puttaparthi, and, of course, he was given a flat in the ashram to stay for free. But he was not paid any salary, I am told. So --Name1-snipped-- cannot be accused of implementing sixth pay commission to benefit himself. But he did great damage to SSSIHL MORAL FIBRE by forcing SSSCT under threat of resignation, at a time of great problems for SSSCT, to implement these generous pay hikes and putting many youngsters on regular pay scale. What MORAL HIGH GROUND does any SSSIHL paid faculty or staff have now to claim that they are doing great sacrificial service for Bhagavan??? Once your vice-chancellor forces SSSCT to implement pay hike under threat of resignation (resignation blackmail), all of SSSIHL loses that MORAL HIGH GROUND!!! I think by this act alone, --Name1-snipped-- who was supported by Registrar --Name3-snipped--, dealt a severe blow to the spiritual mission and spiritual high ground of the DIVINE Sai university that Bhagavan had founded.
Anyway, --Name1-snipped-- stepped down in Nov. 2014 bringing his very damaging term from SSSIHL spiritual mission perspective, to a close. Why he stepped down then? Well, VCs serve for a term. I think the normal term is 3 years, which can then be extended by a year or perhaps two years, in the normal case. --Name1-snipped-- started in June 2010 or so. I think his stepping down has to be viewed as a normal case of stepping down after his term including extensions, I guess.
The current VC, Prof. Varma who took over from --Name1-snipped-- in Nov. 2014, is paid at least Rs. 2 Lakhs per month, and does not seem to be a devotee of Bhagavan. His contribution to spiritual mission side of SSSIHL seems to be very limited, if there is any contribution at all. But he does not support Muddenahalli group.
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Yes the VC, --Name1-snipped--, would have been concerned about staff leaving as Swami was no more in physical form and so would have wanted a good pay hike, with lots of youngsters regularised on pay scale, as the way for him to retain staff and run the university well. I agree.
However, he should have been more understanding of the matter. With donations coming down drastically, he should have realized the corner that SSSCT was in. He could have told them that he is not responsible if people start leaving the university, if salary hike was not given. But where he made a great mistake was to exploit the situation and use resignation-blackmail to force SSSCT to give the salary hike. That may have been a wonderful master stroke in worldly level universities dealing with government ministers & bureaucrats who give out tax payer money. [Prior to coming to SSSIHL, --Name1-snipped-- was associated for long with Mysore University, a state funded university, where he rose to position of vice-chancellor.] But for a spiritual university that was a HUGE SPIRITUAL BLUNDER.
I recall that the generous pay hike was conveyed as Prasadam from Swami (I was free service visiting faculty then and so received the mails). What prasadam! Blackmail prasadam! It is no wonder that --Name1-snipped-- has associated with FALSE BELIEF Muddenahalli group with their blatant ways of soliciting donation money from rich donors FALSELY associating the HOLY NAME of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba for their non-SAI and quite worldly donation collection ways.
Instead, if SSSIHL staff had continued for a year say, on earlier salary levels, with some staff leaving but others putting in extra time to take up the workload of those who left, I am sure SSSCT would have implemented the sixth pay commission hike. July 2011 was too close to the trauma that PN went through after Mahasamadhi. Sixth pay commission money being paid in July 2012 without any resignation blackmail, even if say 5 to 10% staff had quit because they were not willing to continue on old salary, would have been a spiritual triumph for SSSIHL.
From http://www.sssbpt.info/summershowers/ss2002/ss2002d11.pdf, Bhagavan discourse, Summer Course, Brindavan, 26th May 2002: "Na Karmana Na Prajaya Dhanena Thyagenaikena Amrutatvamanasu (immortality is not attained through action, progeny or wealth; it is attained only by sacrifice)".
Such self-sacrifice by 90% SSSIHL staff for one year (continuing on old salary; I am not saying no salary :-) ), would have made them worthy of the words that the founder of SSSIHL said in the discourse mentioned above. One would have seen a spiritual glow on their faces even if one did not see them driving around in their own cars (as against institution vehicles), sometimes own fancy cars, or sometimes own fancy motorbikes, and saw them instead on their humble and simple own two wheelers, or simply walking or using institution vehicles or using the ubiquitous hired Auto.
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Well, I do not know the salary levels of SSSCT staff. But surely they too got a good pay boost some months after Jul 2011 pay boost in SSSIHL. See, salary levels of SSSCT staff or even SSSIHL salary levels will not come close to industry salary levels in metros like Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. Those alumni who choose to serve in PN ashram system will naturally tend to compare their salary levels with those of their batchmates who work in such metros in India. In comparison to such batchmates' salary levels, PN staff will certainly be getting a lot less.
But when Swami was in physical form, I know how poor the salary levels were for many alumni staff in PN ashram system. I was amazed to see so many alumni staff working for such measly salaries, even though many of them could have easily earned good corporate level salaries in Indian metros. I used to revere these youngsters and even medium seniority alumni-staff, even though many of them were much younger in age to me, and sometimes had much less knowledge about technical matters or even typical worldly management matters, for this spirit of Tyaaga that they demonstrated. And, frankly, I felt some of the faces of these alumni staff shone with that spiritual Tyaaga splendour.
In PN ashram today, most alumni staff work for far better salaries than what they were getting before Mahasamadhi. If some of these persons find that salary to be inadequate for their needs, especially if they have to meet family expenses for kids and parents, and need salary closer to Indian corporate salary earnings of their batchmates, then I think they are in the wrong place. Not only PN ashram system, but most Indian ashram systems, are donation money dependent with salary levels being much lesser than corporate world. If one wants corporate world salaries in PN ashram system then one is in the wrong place. One should quit PN ashram system and join the corporate world, presuming corporate world would offer them suitable jobs.
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Now I am told that PN ashram situation is such that they avoid taking new staff on regular payroll to save money! Instead they try to hire people on contract for a year at lower salary than what they would have to pay an employee on regular pay scale.
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Even spiritually, I think confession and repentance can free individuals from burden of any big mistakes they have committed. Readers may want to see my Jul 2015 post, Nelson Mandela statement on receiving Truth & Reconciliation Commission report; Can Sathya Sai movement learn from it?, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/07/nelson-mandela-statement-on-receiving.html
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I am ever so deeply grateful to Bhagavan for having guided me through his writings and discourses and books on his Mahima, and the Sathya Sai fraternity's help and encouragement, that paved the way for me from around 1993/94 when I first came to know of Him (as an adult; I was told by my elder sister that as a baby I had darshan of Him in Mumbai in the 1960s but I don't recall that), to eventually be in a financially independent position for a simple & single ceiling-on-desires life in Puttaparthi from Oct. 2002 onwards.
But I must say here that I do have my fair share of human flaws. Bhagavan in physical form disciplined me on my flaws through His Looks and Gestures at Darshan in Sai Kulwant Hall and sometimes when I had the good fortune to have His Darshan in other places in PN, and has helped me come to terms with it. I am ever so deeply grateful to Bhagavan for that Guru/Teacher disciplining work that he did on me - I very badly needed such a Guru who would know my faults, point it out to me and show me the way to overcome it. I have improved but I have not yet overcome my flaws - it is an ongoing process :-).
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Yes, the Nelson Mandela inspired Truth & Reconciliation statement and work are a tremendous contribution from South African anti-apartheid struggle, to humanity as a whole. Prasanthi Nilayam based Sathya Sai movement can surely find great inspiration in it for us too, to use Truth and Reconciliation, to come to terms with Muddenahalli FALSE BELIEF that Prasanthi Nilayam in general and SSSIHL in particular, was heavily under the sway of, from around Jul 2011 to mid 2016. After all, we never faced anything in terms of real physical violence in this matter, in stark contrast to what South Africa went through under apartheid and in its anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela chose the path of not seeking revenge (punitive justice) for violence inflicted on his supporters by the apartheid regime, which paved the way for a peaceful transition to post-apartheid South Africa.
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--Name1-snipped-- has openly supported Muddenahalli group after he stepped down as VC. If I recall correctly, he stepped down as VC on 22nd Nov. 2014, and he was on stage in Muddenahalli for Bhagavan birthday celebrations on 23rd Nov. 2014 with Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy!!!
The evidence of --Name1-snipped-- BETRAYAL is available in PLENTY. The REALITY is that nobody wants to CONFRONT the TRUTH. They prefer to sweep it under the carpet. This includes current top management of SSSIHL.
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My study about such matters in organizations and governments, is that it needs a top man who has the willingness to face the truth and share it with people. That essentially means a VC who will have that attitude, and trustees who will back such an approach. This cannot be done at lower levels below VC and trustees, in my considered opinion.
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One should not say that evidence is not there. There is plenty of evidence. It is a case of psychological denial.
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... sharing with Sathya Sai fraternity matters like how AK sir was ousted, how --Name1-snipped-- played a big role till Nov. 2014 in nobody opposing Narasimhamurthy in SSSIHL.
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A few months ago I spoke in short to a senior faculty-administrator in SSSIHL, who is an alumnus of Sai university, when I bumped into him in outside ashram Puttaparthi streets, about this horrible period in SSSIHL when AK sir was ousted and Narasimahmurthy and --Name1-snipped-- bossed over SSSIHL (Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014). ... He acknowledged that it happened! That itself was an achievement for me!!! But he said what can be done now or something on those lines... You see, life in PN is like that. You try to forget the unhappy stuff of the past and deal with the current situation. He also confirmed that now PN hostel is very clear about informing students about Madhusudan Naidu and Narasimhamurthy making false claims. ....
So I doubt that PN system will want to revisit the past and acknowledge the mistakes with Sathya Sai fraternity.
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The net result though is that Sathya Sai orgn. people look upon alumni with a lot of suspicion. I hope these words don't upset people. But that's the reality.
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BTW about evidence, I thought I should let people know that I have done my bit of documenting my problems with --Name1-snipped--, then DMACS HOD --Name6-snipped--, Registrar --Name3-snipped--, and then Director PN campus, --Name2-snipped-- is my very loooong post, My May 2012 service record & record tampering related correspondence with Sai university (SSSIHL) administrators, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-may-2012-service-record-record.html. People may want to browse-read through it. I put up the post only in Nov. 2015 (with updates later on) as earlier I preferred not to create embarrassment to SSSIHL. But as I saw that SSSIHL top administrators were not being accountable for their mistakes, and things were going from bad to worse, with Muddenahalli group influence over PN system, I decided to expose that part on the Internet.
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Very, very unfortunately, the alumni is desperately and horribly divided by this Muddenahalli matter. And that has resulted in most alumni-staff in PN system, including Sai university, to play safe and not to publicly oppose Muddenahalli group. One LOYAL PN leader refers to them as fence-sitters! This is the reality of PN even today.
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Do people know that even in 2015 and 2016 some alumni-staff in PN were visiting MDH and having darshan of Madhusudan Naidu???
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The BIG MILESTONE was RJR standing firm and removing 5 teachers from higher secondary school (HSS) and one teacher from university for visiting Madhusudan Naidu in mid 2016. The HSS school teachers included school warden.
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This removal of 5 from school and 1 from university at the same time, caused major ripples in PN system, with lots of hatred and enmity directed at Shri R. J. Rathnkar. But he stood firm, to his great credit.
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Today, after the mid-2016 strong action taken against school teachers and one university faculty, there is fear, I think, among PN system employees. So people do not associate openly. But who knows how many have hidden phone contact, mail messages, SMS etc!!! Just see and try to count how many people in PN system (employees) who have Facebook accounts are openly critical of MDH!!! You will find that there are very, very few such persons. Perhaps less than ten!!!!
This is the state of affairs in PN system itself. So you can imagine how it will be in alumni groups in India and across the world, and in Sai orgn. in India and across the world.
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Well, long time PN insiders/survivors have no choice but to keep a lot of stuff confidential which makes life hell for them. But that's what it takes to get into PN inner circle. It was much more confidential when Swami was in physical form. Now there is more transparency. But the old timers know a lot of rather painful stuff, which they will never reveal outside. PN life sure had its challenges when Swami was in physical form, and continues to have some challenges.
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Well, MDH caused a lot of heartburn and put some Sai orgn. leaders in a real fix as their own family members were involved with MDH!!! So it has taken time for Sai orgn., Indian and international, to come to terms with it. Now I think Sai orgn. both Indian and international are much more aware about the MDH matter, its dangers to Sathya Sai movement UNITY, and are determined to at least ensure that PN based Sathya Sai movement in India and around the world, stops being an easy prey to poaching efforts by MDH group.
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Well, MDH caused a lot of heartburn and put some Sai orgn. leaders in a real fix as their own family members were involved with MDH!!! So it has taken time for Sai orgn., Indian and international, to come to terms with it. Now I think Sai orgn. both Indian and international are much more aware about the MDH matter, its dangers to Sathya Sai movement UNITY, and are determined to at least ensure that PN based Sathya Sai movement in India and around the world, stops being an easy prey to poaching efforts by MDH group.
I have served as Mandir discipline Seva Dal in Sai Kulwant Hall around the mid 1990s on six different occasions for a week or two. We were instructed that we have to ensure physical security of Bhagavan. I was told that there have been physical threats to Bhagavan.
So while at a divine level Bhagavan could demonstrate awesome miraculous powers, his servitors at physical form level had to do their duty. At some time, even plainclothes ARMED policeman accompanied Bhagavan at darshan round.
I also know of a case (though I was not there then) when an East European devotee/person who was very well built physically, charged at Bhagavan. Perhaps he only wanted to get physical access to Bhagavan. But what if Bhagavan had got physically hurt by this devotee/person charging at him? I was told that a few Seva Dal had to tackle him and succeeded in preventing him from getting close to Bhagavan.
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What one needs to understand is that the duties assigned for people around Swami were quite worldly. And the Mandir discipline Seva Dal kind of people were not really trained for crowd management or security people. I was a working software professional who had studied physics in college and who was on the thin side. But I would typically be seated in the front rows facing the crowd as Swami gave Darshan.
Our instructions were that we should not allow devotees/people to jump or rush towards Swami, and only allow people to approach Swami when Swami permitted it. We would try to do our job well. But I am sure many of us, including me, failed here and there, and bugged not only devotees but sometimes Swami, when we failed to prevent indiscipline while Swami was doing his Darshan round.
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But the beating part is something that I will not approve of, unless the conditions were exceptional. And that exceptional condition would be that the person is a real physical threat to Bhagavan.
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Note that the top Puttaparthi police man (DSP) would be present when Bhagavan would give his Darshan round in the mid 1990s and later (perhaps earlier too but I don't know about that). His main task was to prevent any physical attack on Bhagavan. The DSP would have his stick, if I recall correctly. And if he saw somebody as a physical threat and had reasonable grounds for that perception, I think he would not have hesitated to use that stick to tackle the physical threat.
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And then there were intelligence reports too, I am told. Top ashram functionaries would be informed of such threats. So they had to worry about all that.
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But, yes, undoubtedly, at times, these persons would tend to go overboard with INNOCENT devotees too. That was painful. But it was part of life as the top people were more concerned about protecting Swami than the well being of devotees.
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I had two personal interactions with Shri K. Chakravarthi in end 2002, if I recall correctly, as I was exploring free or honorary (with small honorarium as payment) service opportunities in the ashram. He was not exactly polite with me then. So I preferred to avoid interaction with him after those incidents.
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Very unfortunately, there were some physical level bullies and mental level bullies in the PN ashram system on a permanent duty basis (as against temporary Seva Dal). One had to deal with them.
We were told that when complaints about them were made to Swami, Swami would say/joke that he is keeping them in the ashram as Swami ensures that they do only limited damage in the ashram. If they were released in the outside world, they would cause far more harm :-)
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See I am not saying that Shri K. Chakravarthi is the embodiment of Shanti and Prema! He is well known for some sharp and cutting remarks he makes and also for some tough actions he takes.
But let me tell you the other side of KC sir due to which I still respect him, even though I have not received any polite behaviour from him. KC sir was Swami's next-in-command guy in the ashram system, with the designation then being Secretary, SSSCT. He had to handle all kinds of problems and also be next to Swami for almost all public events. And you know, in the 90s especially and even in early 2000s the day would start with 7 AM Swami Darshan!!! KC sir would be with Swami at that time. And that would go on till evening.
KC sir came to Swami at a relatively young age (late 30s I guess or perhaps early 40s) with his family, when he could have pursued a bright career outside (He already was holding a key IAS administrator position in govt.). I think he joined PN system as University's first Registrar in 1980/81. In his service of around three decades when Swami was in physical form, KC sir has played a ***VITAL*** role, I am told, in a lot of the main projects taken up by Bhagavan, and in amenities provided in PN ashram. I am thankful to KC sir (and other top administrators like him) who played a crucial role in providing good amenities in PN ashram system and in establishing and running key PN ashram institutions like the hospitals and the educational institutions. That made it easy for people like me who came first to the ashram in the mid 1990s by which time it was already quite well setup with good amenities! And when I moved to Puttaparthi and worked (free service) in the ashram system from Oct. 2002 onwards till March 2012, I was able to enjoy all the amenities and facilities that hard work of top administrators like KC sir had created.
Okay, due to all those pressures and hard work, KC sir sometimes would lose his temper. I felt that is a minor thing to tolerate when seen against all the facilities that he and others were instrumental in providing to all devotees who came to PN ashram, including you and me!
And KC sir, I believe, has been LOYAL to PN system right from the beginning of Narasimhamurthy dream-instruction claim. I have not heard one single report of KC sir falling for that FALSE CLAIM even when the powerful Indulal Shah supported Narasimhamurthy. I am also told KC sir played a significant role in Gangadhara Bhat sir coming out of Muddenahalli group in the recent past. So KC sir has great value as a COMPLETELY LOYAL to Prasanthi Nilayam top administrator, in this divisive problem that MDH has created.
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I should also say here that I have not seen any Mandir discipline or security staff (including Seva Dal) beat up devotees during Swami darshan rounds (or even later). However, it is possible that some people saw some such incidents.
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Narasimhamurthy is undoubtedly the brains and the dictatorial power behind MDH group as of now. C. Srinivas runs the hospitals which attracts a lot of publicity and celebrities including political leaders. But I don't think CS plays a spiritual leader role.
That role is played mainly by Narasimhamurthy (BNNM) who uses Madhu Baba as a drama performer with his mimicry of Sathya Sai to attract persons who do not know much about the teachings and instructions of Sathya Sai (this includes many who were close to physical form Sathya Sai, including Sai alumni).
That BNNM is committing Guru Droham by misguiding people using the name of Sathya Sai Baba, is, I think, beyond any doubt now for any unbiased person who is knowledgeable about Sathya Sai life and teachings.
I think it is also quite clear that BNNM is a Narcissist who has put his ambitions about building a spiritual empire using the name of Sathya Sai, far above the teachings and instructions of Sathya Sai! However, BNNM has NOT been able to win the endorsement of even one respected spiritual leader for his outrageous endorsement of Madhu Baba being so called communicator of invisible to all others, so called subtle body of Sathya Sai. I was informed of a former philosophy lecturer of Sai University, Shri (or is it Dr.) Kuppuswamy, who stayed for some weeks in Muddenahalli after Madhu Baba started his public drama mimicry of Sathya Sai. Kuppuswamy sir went away, I was told, after those few weeks that he was there, as he felt Madhu Baba's claim is false!
Quoting from the New Testament and talking about St. Francis of Assissi, may please some Christians like some Italian Christians BNNM may have been directing his lecture to. But that will not earn him endorsement from any serious Christian priest or pastor who knows his/her Bible, as they will not accept the outrageous and FALSE CLAIMS of BNNM and Madhu Baba.
But then how are they able to continue for so long? Well, the history of 20th century cults has many examples of cults that grew for years but eventually collapsed as their foundation was FALSE.
I think this FALSE BELIEF of Madhu Baba and his devotees will NOT STAND the test of time. But how long will it take before Madhu Baba stops impersonating Sathya Sai or his devotee following becomes very small/irrelevant, is something I don't want to hazard a guess about.
One thing though is quite clear to me now. It is the money power that MDH group has garnered that has attracted many people to them. I know/have been told of some persons who go to Muddenahalli but actually don't believe in Madhu Baba's claims though they accept that he has some siddhis. I mean, for many people it is a job or a business contract or business contacts possibilities that draws them to MDH. Really! And in Parthi too there are many people in the system who are more interested in the job or business contracts or business contacts possibilities than deep faith and dedication to Sathya Sai.
And then, I guess, some donors want some recognition, some fame within the community. MDH provides them that and so they donate there!
My view is that MDH group and Madhu Baba will continue to function so long as donors keep giving them money, and so long as nobody is able to legally prevent them from impersonating Sathya Sai. Our social media work can only help some people from getting trapped by Madhu Baba and his devotees but not really stop them. Stopping them needs far bigger level action - legal challenge to Madhu Baba for impersonating Sathya Sai.
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Perhaps Narasimhamurthy should be told of this verse from the New Testament, Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.", http://biblehub.com/matthew/7-15.htm!!!
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