Open Thank you letter for deleting Madhusudan Naidu posts, to Ambassador of Indian embassy in Croatia at Zagreb, Croatia

Last updated on 4-May-2017

Given below are the (slightly edited) contents of an email I sent a few minutes ago:

from: Ravi S. Iyer <ravi@raviiyer.org>
to: info@indianembassy.hr
date: Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 9:21 AM
subject: Open Thank you letter for deleting Madhusudan Naidu posts, to Ambassador of Indian embassy in Croatia at Zagreb, Croatia
mailed-by: gmail.com

To: Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Hon'ble Ambassador of Indian embassy in Croatia at Zagreb, Croatia
Email id: info@indianembassy.hr

Dear sir,

Thank you very much for positively responding to multiple requests from concerned Sathya Sai Baba devotees, including me, from around the world, by deleting the Croatian Indian embassy social media posts (Twitter & Facebook) of an event in Croatia highlighting Shri Madhusudan Naidu, Shri B.N. Narasimhamurthy and others of Muddenahalli group who promote the FALSE BELIEF of Madhusudan Naidu being a so called communicator of an INVISIBLE and INAUDIBLE to everybody else, so called subtle body of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

As I had mentioned in my Facebook comment on the now deleted Facebook post of the Indian embassy, Madhusudan Naidu and group are going against the teachings and instructions of Sathya Sai by making the so called communicator claim. Further, they are diluting, distorting and corrupting the legacy and memories of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Your action of deleting these posts, sir, has brought the Indian embassy in Croatia back on the ancient Sanathana Dharma teaching path of Sathya & Dharma (truth and right conduct). I am sure this action of yours will be a blessing for the Indian embassy.

Sandeep Kumar sir, I had a look at your profile here: http://www.indianembassy.hr/pages.php?id=8. I thank you for the services you have rendered to our wonderful country, India, and wish you all the very best for the future. I have noted that you have also served in one of the most dangerous places on earth today, namely, Afghanistan, and have written a book, "On Edge", http://www.amazon.in/Edge-Afghan-Passage-Sandeep-Kumar/dp/8121210372, about those "life changing experiences". If time permits, I hope to procure and read your book. I do earnestly pray to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to bring peace and harmony to our Afghani brothers & sisters who have endured this horrific war/war-like situation in Afghanistan for decades.

At an individual level, sir, if you believe in the claims of Madhusudan Rao Naidu, both from an ethical point of view as well as from Indian law point of view, I think you are fully entitled, in your personal capacity (different from Indian embassy social media position/stand), to have that belief. I would not want to intrude on that belief of yours, sir. I wish you well with that belief.

However, sir, if you would like to know more about THE REAL Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who gave up his body (Mahasamadhi) in April 2011, I would be glad to point you to appropriate web sources on the Internet, and also personally respond to any particular questions you may have of me.

I am sure the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, which is the main official organization founded by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba HIMSELF, would be very happy to welcome you to Prasanthi Nilayam in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, which is the abode of THE REAL Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. If you would like to pay such a visit, I would be glad to put you in touch with appropriate persons in Prasanthi Nilayam.

Thanks again, sir, for your Sathya & Dharma action of removing the Muddenahalli group FALSE BELIEF CULT social media posts from Indian embassy social media accounts.

Please note that I will be putting up this open letter on my blog and my Facebook pages.

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 [24th 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 [24th 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/ [24th Sept. 2020: Use ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/]
* ravisiyer.wordpress.com/category/misc/

e-mail:   ravi@raviiyer.org --snip--
Twitter:  twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer
Google+:  google.com/+RaviSIyerSai
Facebook: facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7

Service to Society is Service to God
--- end email contents ---

Ravi: Here's the comment (slightly edited to fix typo) I put up on 29th Apr. 2017 on now deleted post: 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, distorting 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 [24th 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 [24th 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/ [24th 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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Given below are my comments (slightly edited) from my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1900777756805459, associated with this blog post:

Sairam sister --name-snipped--, I disagree with your view but you are entitled to your view. And I am being respectful to the Ambassador - not "buttering him" :-).
...
And about the path of Dharma bit. My view is that the Indian embassy of Croatia was doing Asathya & Adharma by posting Madhu Baba pics on its social media outlets. By removing those, my view is, as far as this matter is concerned, they have got back to Sathya & Dharma. I am not talking about the individual here. I am talking about the Indian embassy.
...
Sairam sister --name-snipped--, I disagree with your view too then. But you surely are entitled to your view. ... Regarding Indian embassy issuing a statement on this matter - Well, my view is that the Indian embassy will not go to the extent of issuing a statement on this matter. I mean, it is not a diplomatic issue between Croatia and India, for the embassy to issue a statement. But I could be wrong and if the embassy does issue a statement, it would be very interesting.

Further, let me share that my first proper involvement with Sathya Sai fraternity was with a splinter group whose leader, a specialist doctor with a thriving practice, thought he had some special powers! It took me some time, along with some very good advice I got from some elders, to realize that while the splinter group leader was a very capable man, he had gone astray with some delusions of spiritual power that he thought he had.

Now perhaps the Indian ambassador in Croatia's first proper exposure to Sathya Sai, is through Muddenahalli group!!! Like elders advised me properly so that I could move away from the splinter group leader and firmly associate with the official samithi organization, I felt I should play such a role now by offering to help the Indian ambassador know more about THE REAL Sathya Sai and the official Sai orgn.

Getting very aggressive with powerful diplomats and powerful government officials is not a good idea, IMHO. They know how to handle opposition, and if they get bugged they might retain that attitude towards those that bugged them, for long.

Especially for spiritual movements people like you and me, I think it is far better to be polite and diplomatic with such powerful people.

Mind you, the embassy put up pics of MDH group event. But similarly a Union minister of Karnataka put up pics on his official Facebook pages, of an MDH group event that he himself had attended, perhaps around a year ago. I wrote to the union minister then on Facebook, tagging him. There was no response, and the pics STAYED on his Facebook page!!! Here the ambassador has acted and so I think that thanking him for it, is the CORRECT response.
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Update on 4-May-2017:

Given below is a short message I received over email from Indian embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, which I felt is appropriate to share publicly:

"The Indian Embassy in Zagreb has clarified that the Ananda Trust public event in Zagreb on 27 April 2017 was organized solely by Ananda Trust, Croatia, independent of the Embassy in Zagreb.  Focus of the Embassy remains promotion of bilateral relationship between India and Croatia in all fields."