Creator of Muddenahalli group - Narasimhamurthy - caught between two masters: Sathya Sai and Madiyal Narayan Bhat

Last updated on 23rd April 2020

23rd 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.

Once, when Narasimhamurthy was Sai university, Brindavan campus warden, he showed a letter to a form-boy student. The student read the letter which was addressed to Narasimhamurthy. The letter referred to Narasimhamurthy as Vivekananda. The form-boy student presumed that the letter was by Sathya Sai which is why Narasimhamurthy was showing it to him, but was surprised to read at the end of the letter that it was from Shri Madiyal Narayan Bhat (and NOT Sathya Sai)!!

Of course, showing the letter to the form-boy was a way to get respect and adoration from the form-boy. At that particular time, Narasimhamurthy was not so much in form with Sathya Sai.

I think such incidents in the life of the driven spiritual mission builder that Narasimhamurthy seems to be, explain why he betrayed Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, after Mahasamadhi by creating Muddenahalli group with its FALSE BELIEF of so called communicator, which has split the Sathya Sai movement worldwide, and is misguiding thousands of Sathya Sai devotees over the world into believing that Madhusudan Rao Naidu is a communicator of Sathya Sai and sometimes becomes Sathya Sai himself!

It seems to me that Narasimhamurthy got caught up between two spiritual masters that he adored: Madiyal Narayan Bhat and Sathya Sai. That led him to ignore the teachings and instructions of Sathya Sai about mediums and communicators (that he never uses them), even though Sathya Sai had told Narasimhamurthy about it in person and in strong terms.

Narasimhamurthy was not willing to follow Sathya Sai's instructions related to mediums and communicators but wanted to tap Sathya Sai devotees (especially rich devotees) so that he could start his own spiritual mission. So he created Muddenahalli group which uses the name of Sathya Sai but refuses to follow key instructions and teachings of Sathya Sai (e.g. with respect to rejecting mediums). Perhaps Narasimhamurthy really wants to follow Madiyal Narayan Bhat while putting on a show of following Sathya Sai.

The astonishing thing is that he could attract so many Sathya Sai devotees into believing his claims that go against Sathya Sai teachings with respect to mediums. Quite a feat in brain-washing, I must say!

And so the Sathya Sai fraternity will have to deal with two kinds of Sathya Sai devotees now: physical form Sathya Sai devotees and Madhusudan Rao Naidu devotees who label themselves as Sathya Sai devotees! Such is life!

I should also mention that I was told by a reliable alumni source that Narasimhamurthy boasted of having, and seems to have, a photographic memory about students that came under his care as Warden of Sai university. That would have helped him in his Muddenahalli group creation work.
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Given below are comments of mine (slightly edited) from my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2102911156592117, associated with this blog post:

In response to query about why Narasimhamurthy was not stopped like a Sai centre in Florida, USA was stopped (from operating) as the home in which the centre was based had devotees who were following another Guru as well as Sai Baba, I responded:

Narasimhamurthy moved to Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Trust owned premises in Muddenahalli after Swami Mahasamadhi (or perhaps a little earlier - I don't know exactly). After Jul 2011 he used that as his base to create and grow Muddenahalli group. And then there is a big history of division within Central Trust as senior trustee Indulal Shah backed Narasimhamurthy, then vice-chancellor of Sai university, --Name1-snipped-- backed Narasimhamurthy etc. So essentially from Jul 2011 to early 2015, the infighting within Prasanthi Nilayam and support from some people in Prasanthi Nilayam saw to it that nothing could be done against Narasimhamurthy. Then the resistance movement started on social media with various people including me playing a role on it. SSSCT also filed a lawsuit against Narasimhamurthy for his take-over of Loka Seva Trust etc.

Believe it or not, it was only in mid 2016 (around five years from when Narasimhamurthy created Muddenahalli group in July 2011) when some Prasanthi Nilayam school teachers and one senior faculty of Sai university were thrown out of Prasanthi Nilayam system for visiting Muddenahalli and Madhusudan Naidu, that Prasanthi Nilayam system got some level of control over its staff. Till then, very very unfortunately, significant number of Prasanthi Nilayam staff including paid staff ***openly*** supported Narasimhamurthy, Madhusudan Naidu and Muddenahalli group.

Another big factor is the support that many Sai educational system alumni provided to Muddenahalli group, and the silence of those who did not support them but out of fear were not willing to say anything publicly (and sometimes even privately) against Narasimhamurthy and others of Muddenahalli group. The vice-chancellor of Sai university, --Name1-snipped-- threatened Central Trust with media complaints against them if he was removed as VC. So this pathetic HIJACK of Sai university by Muddenahalli group continued till Nov. 2014 when --Name1-snipped-- stepped down as VC. From Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014 many of the Prasanthi Nilayam ashram staff including paid staff were open supporters of Narasimhamurthy and Madhusudan Naidu. This is the reality of what happened. Those who openly opposed them like Prof. Anilkumar Kamaraju were thrown out of the Sai university using some weird academic regulations excuse!!!!

Only a very few alumni had the courage to openly be critical of Narasimhamurthy. Even today you will see that while some of the Sai university faculty, including senior faculty, are on Facebook, they do not say anything critical of Narasimhamurthy. I think they are petrified to say anything against Narasimhamurthy in public. In this context, I congratulate and greatly appreciate Shri Satyajit Salian for openly exposing Narasimhamurthy, though that too was quite late - sometime in 2015 I think. But that man showed ***guts***. I think that is why Bhagavan kept Satyajit as his close servitor and trusted him fully. Let us hope some other alumni leaders especially senior faculty/administrators in the Sai university, will learn from Satyajit's guts and pick up some courage to publicly criticize and condemn Narasimhamurthy.

Hope this quick account gives you some background.
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In response to comment having the lines, ""When the cat's away, the mice will play". Happy to hear that Anilkumar stayed true!", I (Ravi) wrote:

Great line of yours - "When the cat's away, the mice will play"! Enjoyed it! I think it applies so well to the chaos, confusion and trauma we in Prasanthi Nilayam ashram system and Puttaparthi went through in the immediate months and years after Mahasamadhi. Some mice sure had a whale of a time!
...
I must add that in Prasanthi Nilayam system, even though it took over five years, eventually new cat(s) got in place and so the mice are no longer playing :-)!
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The SSSCT trustees who manage Prasanthi Nilayam (PN) system after mid 2016 have shown ****zero tolerance**** towards any staff, whether paid or honorary, who visits Muddenahalli group/Madhusudan Naidu. I think any staff in PN who do that and get exposed are removed from their job/service activity.

It is very important to bear in mind that this was NOT the case prior to mid 2016. Essentially from Jul 2011 to mid 2016 some PN staff would quite openly visit Muddenahalli and take 'darshan' of Madhusudan Naidu and/or Narasimhamurthy.

But what some Parthi Sai activists want seems to be restrictions for devotees who are NOT staff of PN system, and who visit Madhusudan Naidu - restrictions from availing the facilities of the PN ashram system. I don't think such restrictions are there in any significant way. But I am not sure as I rarely visit the ashram.

My own view is that Muddenahalli group devotees should NOT be restricted from devotee facilities of PN ashram so long as they do not use PN ashram as a base to evangelize about Madhusudan Naidu and try to get Sai devotees to visit Muddenahalli group.

PN system staff and Sai orgn. office bearer positions are different - Muddenahalli group devotees should not be allowed to hold such positions - that's my public view.

But non-staff and non-office bearer position Muddenahalli group devotees should not have restrictions from visiting PN and Sai centres and attending its events as 'ordinary' devotees.
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In response to query about how Narasimhamurthy looks like, I (Ravi) responded:
See this short video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHa8zYF3qFU.
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I need to mention another aspect of Madiyal Narayan Bhat. The impression I have is that he was like a Jesuit missionary leading a simple, celibate life dedicated to uplifting society and its moral values. He founded an organization which was unaffiliated with Sathya Sai, some decades ago and collected a band of youngsters including Narasimhamurthy who got inspired by Madiyal Narayan Bhat to lead similar missionary lives (Tyagajeevi is one Indian term for such people meaning those who dedicate their life for a mission sacrificing worldly joys like marriage).

Somewhere down the line Madiyal Narayan Bhat developed intense belief in Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. That in turn seems to have led to his disciples (including Narasimhamurthy) at least studying about Sathya Sai and trying to experience His divinity.

Very unfortunately Madiyal Narayan Bhat had an untimely death in a car accident. His mother as well as the disciples of his, seem to have pleaded to Bhagavan (Sathya Sai) to take over the reins of the organization. Bhagavan accepted their request. I think that would have been when the orgn. name changed to Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Trust with two centres in Alike and Muddenahalli in Karnataka both of which were primarily educational mission oriented (schools).

So Madiyal Narayan Bhat was somebody who seems to have accepted Sathya Sai's divinity.

Now during the years I was with the Sai university in Prasanthi Nilayam, I have seen the Loka Seva Trust missionary teachers and their students many times on their visits to Prasanthi Nilayam. I used to sit in the Old Students block many times (instead of the university teachers/staff block) due to some health issues that I had, and the teachers and students of Loka Seva Trust schools would also sit in the same place when they visited. So I have observed them quite a bit.

They were very impressive as a dedicated missionary and celibate type leadership school. They also dressed humbly and were well disciplined and polite. Whenever they needed to interact with Bhagavan through the leaders of the group, Bhagavan would almost always oblige by stopping during the Darshan round and interacting with them. I have seen that from a close distance of 10 to 15 feet, on many occasions.

Now Narasimhamurthy was picked up by Bhagavan from the Loka Seva Trust school he was at and made warden in the Sai university. So Narasimhamurthy spent decades with the Sai university though his mother organization was the Loka Seva Trust.

Now I do think that Narasimhamurthy and perhaps some others in Loka Seva Trust considered themselves somewhat superior to others in Prasanthi Nilayam system, due to their Jesuit missionary type dedicated life to the mission. Note that Prasanthi Nilayam system top people were mostly married people.

And my view is that superior attitude/superiority complex that Narasimhamurthy had, seems to have led to his spiritual downfall of betraying Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba by going against his teachings and instructions about mediums and communicators (to never accept such claims), and misguiding so many others who were taken in by his celibate missionary track-record and aura.

I think he may have even felt that he knows some things better than Sathya Sai!!! I am not exaggerating. I really think so. That perhaps was why he decided to reject Bhagavan's direct instructions to him to not follow mediums and communicators. Perhaps he wanted a convenient mix of Madiyal Narayan Bhat celibate missionary type of teachings and inspiration and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's teachings and inspiration, but using Bhagavan's name for his (Narasimhamurthy's) mission as that is what could attract followers and donors in big numbers.

And that seems to have been Narasimhamurthy's ****big blunder*****. As he wanted to be a self-appointed successor-boss/successor-king of these spiritual missions, he should have stuck to either Madiyal Narayan Bhat teachings and instructions OR to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's teachings & instructions, especially on critical matters like mediums & communicators, and not gone for a hodge-podge (confusing) mix of Madiyal Narayan Bhat teachings and instructions and Sathya Sai teachings and instructions.
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--Name-snipped--, I think MDH group attracted some heavy weights in spiritual philosophy who were not able to have powerful positions in Prasanthi Nilayam and official Sai orgn. So it was quite some 'operation', IMHO, and, to be honest, it seems to have its positives too.

But that they backed Madhusudan Rao Naidu, the cheap imitator, spoiled all of that. What is the use of great spiritual philosophy knowledge if you back an imitator of the Avatar! It is deeply flawed spiritual philosophy which may intellectually sound impressive but is ***false*** at its core.

False prophets are the most dangerous persons in the spiritual and religious fields as they not only can create problems for themselves but also for their followers.

And when their false beliefs start to unravel, they go crazy and blindly hit out at those who are exposing their false beliefs. This is the unfortunate history of false belief cults, no matter how intellectually sophisticated they may seem.

Glad that you did not fall for their 'Top 20%' sales pitch :-).
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--Name-snipped--, A very disconcerting thing for me to come to grips with some, I repeat, some students and alumni of Sai university, is that they lie with a straight face. Eventually I improved upon my face-and-body-language reading abilities to be able to figure out, most of the time, whether they were lying with a straight face or they were being truthful.

On a lighter note, here's an extract from a blog post of mine: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2017/06/bholi-surat-dil-ke-khote-1950s-hit.html

Bholi Surat Dil Ke Khote - 1950s Hit Hindi film song
Note: I put up this post on my spiritual blog as the first two lines of the song mentioned below also can be interpreted in a human values/spiritual values sense.

A 1952 Hindi film romantic-dance hit song which has stayed alive for generations. It certainly was very alive in the 1980s when I was a young adult.

The first two lines of the song have been very catchy I think:
"Bholi surat dil ke khote
Naam bade aur darshan chote"

which I would translate as
"Innocent face (but) deceitful heart
Big (in) name (& reputation) but small (in) reality"

The original song with some touch-up of the video to improve it, I guess; video has a gap in the song: Bholi Soorat Dil Ke Khote | Albela Songs | Bhagwan Dada | Geeta Bali | C Ramchandra | Filmigaane, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uVRRFbJOU, 4 min. 34 secs.

--- end extract from my blog post ---

On a serious note, I remember one case where as the teacher of a software lab. course in the Sai university, I was evaluating assignment submissions (which contributed to eventual grade I would give to the students) and found that one somewhat-form-boy (not big form boy but somebody who was known at personal level to Swami and who was fiercely loyal and devoted to Swami) seemed to have copied his program assignment from some other student's assignment!

Now I was put in a tricky position. On one side I had to deal with public discourse level admonitions of Swami to teachers and parents that if they do not correct their children/students when they do wrong then they are contributing to development of bad traits in their children/students. At the other level, was the reality that this somewhat-form-boy and others (including form boys) known to him were ***more powerful*** in Prasanthi Nilayam ashram system than me, the free service teacher who was ***never*** in form with Swami!

I tried to involve other teachers associated with software lab. courses, most of whom were student-staff (former students of Sai university who now were teachers). They saw the issue but did not want to get involved! That was ***smart survival*** tactics by them. The HOD (Head of Department) at the time was also very much a ***smart survivor*** who also was ignorant about software development and so would not be able to understand the evidence that I was presenting. I don't remember clearly whether I discussed the matter with him but I am quite sure that even if I had discussed the matter with him, he would have played safe by not getting involved in the matter and told me, the teacher, to handle the sensitive issue myself, as the concerned student was a somewhat-form-boy.

I decided to do what I felt is the right thing, which was to follow Swami's public admonitions to teachers/parents about not failing in their duty to point out and correct the mistakes they see in their children/students.

I confronted both the students with the evidence of the identical or almost identical long program source code for the assignments. One of the students was a star in the class. I don't recall now but I would have questioned him about the program source code and confirmed that he could explain it to me properly thereby showing me that he was, in all probability, the actual writer of the program source code.

When I confronted the second student, the somewhat-form-boy, I clearly recall him saying forcefully that he had coded the whole program himself and had not copied it, or words to that effect. But the chances of two such long program source codes being identical or almost identical were almost zero, based on my over two decades experience then in programming/software development and teaching it. So I was not willing to buy his forceful assertion that he had written it himself. He then took an angry stance and said that he has told me the truth and that I can do what I want or words to that effect. Given the power that he had in the system I did not want to come down heavy on him OR ELSE I feared that my free service itself would have got terminated, and I would have lost the ***invaluable*** privilege of staff seating for Darshan of Bhagavan in Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam!

But neither did I succumb to accepting his forceful assertion. I was convinced he was lying and that he had copied the program. And I think I would have let him know that without making too much drama about it.

But I could not prove it without any room for doubt unless I launched a big investigation for which nobody had the time or the inclination!

Another point to note is that the somewhat-form-boy student was reportedly active in mandir related matters that students were involved with. That's how he got his power, I guess! But that would have put pressure on available time for him to work on the software assignment which had deadlines. So, out of lack of time, and NOT NECESSARILY out of lack of programming ability, my view was that he succumbed to the easy way out of copying the programming assignment of one of the star students.

The right path for him would have been to meet me and seek extension of deadline or simply not submit the assignment and accept the lesser marks he would get.

After discussions with other software lab. course teachers, I decided to give him, if I recall correctly, one grade lower (still passing grade; in fact good grade but not excellent grade) than he would have got otherwise in the lab. course, due to this copying mistake that he had done, and not acknowledged it when confronted with it but tried to use bluff and bluster to get out of it.

To conclude, the reality is that there are some, I repeat some (NOT ALL), alumni of Sai educational systems who lie with a straight face and use bluff and bluster when confronted about their lies, to try to get away with it. I view it as a serious character flaw in them. And I think such people, including ***cheap imitator*** and FALSE CLAIM so called communicator, Madhusudan Rao Naidu, should learn from Lance Armstrong who eventually acknowledged his lies, bluff and bluster, and sought psychological help to overcome his lying problem. For more on it see my blog post: How some talented people, including some spiritual leaders, can psyche themselves into false belief, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-some-talented-people-including-some.html, May 2015.
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Vr Ganti wrote (BNNM is B.N. Narasimhamurthy): VINASA KALE, VIPAREETHI BUDHI.

Let us all accept that if one is not greedy and/or egoistic, one is not man but divine and at least on the path of attaining divinity. Let us all also recall that in everyone's life there are always 2 roads in front - something like Y and the road which is tough is generally desirable as it leads to SATHYA & DHARMA. However, VIDHI (destiny) drags one to the other road and that will be the beginning of going back in circles with out reaching the eventual destination.👇See the picture below.

BNNM is one of the biggest TRAITORS of Kaliyuga for sure.
[Have omitted the attached pic. Users who want to see that pic may please visit the Facebook post.]
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Vr Ganti wrote: BNNM received so much love from Bhagawan and he was the one who was given the opportunity to write 3 volumes of SATHYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM. This in my opinion is a great honour and in return what has he done - CREATED DISUNITY. Horrible guy
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Thank you Vr Ganti sir, for your valuable and knowledgeable comments on this matter. I think you have had extensive discussions with people in Muddenahalli group itself as well as those in Prasanthi Nilayam system, on this matter of why BNNM betrayed Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in this manner which has created so much damage and division within Sathya Sai movement worldwide.
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Vr Ganti wrote: Ajit Popat Sir is fully aware of why BNNM chose to split his ways and I was told that BNNM is taking revenge
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