Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

I think people should not hold the view that hard science is the only or even primary source of truth, knowledge and experience in life. There are other sources of truth, knowledge and experience too which may not be as easily certifiable as true as hard scientific knowledge but may have a lot of truth in them. Literature and history and the arts in general which are not hard science fields, are examples of sources of a lot of truth, knowledge and experience which enrich life, IMHO. Literature does have fiction category some of which is based on imagination and not facts but which may still be reflective of some real life experiences & events. Some fiction literature though may be purely flights of imagination like some science-fiction. As an aside, one of the most important survival teachings about a truth of life, which has served me well in my adult life, came from English literature and not hard science. That is the old English proverb, "A fool and his money are soon p...

Here's the longer and more descriptive title that I have used in the corresponding Facebook post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2195270094022889 , "My challenge to Madhusudan Rao Naidu to come to Prasanthi Nilayam and prove his so called communicator claim by showing us the miracles that physical form Sathya Sai has demonstrated in Prasanthi Nilayam in the past". Rather unwillingly I got caught up in a conversation regarding Madhusudan Rao Naidu with a Muddenahalli group supporter who is a Facebook friend of mine, on her public Facebook post. I was challenged to go to Muddenahalli. The specific words of the challenge were ".. I challenge you to go to Muddenhalli with an open heart and pray to Baba to settle the matter for you, by letting you see him." And this was made in the context of me asking her whether she had seen the so called subtle body of Muddenahalli. I responded (slightly edited): Sathya Sai has said on multiple occasions and in...

When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). Given below are comments I made (slightly edited) on the following post around 28th June 2018: https://www.facebook.com/yaani.drucker/posts/10156456774170477 : [In the context of the post having the following: '"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark." Radbindranath Tagore', I wrote:] I loved the Rabindranath Tagore quote --name-snipped--. I did not know of that quote. Thanks a ton for sharing that quote. --- ... Oh! No problem about that. I view Madhu as misguided and deluded with the false communicator belief. But him quoting Rabindranath Tagore and my own beloved and revered Gurudev Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is fine (so long as he does NOT plagiarize them as his own quotes). I have no issues about appreciating such quotes even if it came via Madhu. I have publicly stated that I view Madhu as a spiritual leader in h...

The most dangerous ideological corruption threat to spiritual movements after the demise of its founder is from narcissists backed by big money. I make the above statement based on my direct experience of the Sathya Sai movement after the bodily passing away of its founder, my beloved and revered Gurudev, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in April 2011. This movement was badly impacted and now in June 2018, continues to still be badly impacted by a big split caused by some former leaders of the Sathya Sai movement who now endorse the weird and false claims of Madhusudan Rao Naidu, a so called communicator of a so called subtle body of Sathya Sai (FALSE CLAIM) based in Muddenahalli. Very unfortunately, this Muddenahalli group is backed by big money which is allowing them to widely propagate their false belief and promote their so called communicator Madhusudan Rao Naidu who, in my considered view, is only a cheap imitator of Sathya Sai.

Learned of this awesome quote of Rabindranath Tagore about faith from a Facebook post of somebody https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/101391-faith-is-the-bird-that-feels-the-light-and-sings "Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark." - Rabindranath Tagore. This man was truly a genius. His Gitanjali collection of poems, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitanjali , mesmerized me when I first read it (English translation) in my youth (I think I was in college then - late 70s and early 80s).

Last updated on 29th June 2018 Over the past three months or so (from beginning April 2018) I have spent most of my work time on converting my free  iami1.wordpress.com blog into a book with at cost (no royalty to author) print and free electronic (ebook) versions. This was my first such effort to produce a proper published and sold paperback book and free ebook put up on some well known free ebook websites like Open Library and Project Gutenberg. This post has a quick summary of the process followed by a list of detailed posts related to the process. Quick summary (QS) of conversion of free iami1.wordpress.com blog into not-for-profit (at cost) paperback Print-On-Demand book with ISBN, less expensive spiral-binding book without ISBN and free ebook PDF (ISBN applied) QS1) Decided to use Print-On-Demand self-publishing support company to print proper (decent quality paperback) book copy. Eventually I settled on Pothi.com self-publishing support company. QS2) Prepared NO...

Last updated on 27th June 2018 I have prepared an alternate version of the cover page (full page with back + spine + front) which uses black coloured title instead of dark red/purple coloured title. I have also used a large ISBN barcode image to make it more easily readable, (and re-positioned the text to the left of it). That cover page pic is shown below. [To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.] I have asked Pothi.com if they think that this cover will be easier for the printing of the cover page without colour dots being splashed around on other parts of the cover page, and that if so, I would be happy to go with this cover page. In fact, I like the black title as against the dark red/purple title. And if Matte printed cover is easier to print without colour dots being splashed around elsewhere on the cover page, as compared to glossy (which is my current sele...

Last updated on 2nd July 2018 Today I got delivery of 3 paperback copies of my updated book, Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation, https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-ultimate-existential-reality-answer-vedanta-god-and-science . Unfortunately the colour cover print for both front and back of book are not satisfactory. I have attached below pics of the front and back cover with problem areas marked. It seems that the dark red/purple colour from the title of "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation" seems to have got spread around some other parts of the front page and back page pictures. [BTW please ignore the flash part of front cover pic towards the left-bottom area; that's introduced by the camera. The purple dots which are pointed out by arrows are NOT introduced by the camera. That's how the front and back cover page look.] [To open pic in hi...

Today I received a set of 5 iami1 blog books that I had ordered from the Delhi online printer printonweb.in. To overcome the problem of compressed size in his printouts of the blog book (see http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/06/good-quality-of-printing-and-binding-in.html), I sent a 108% zoomed pdf file of iami1 blog book (see http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/06/zoomingenlarging-text-content-of-pdf.html) to them. Given below is first a pic of comparison of previous printed book from Delhi online printer without zoom and then the current printed book, with both of these books being compared against Paperback copy of iami1 blogbook which uses large fonts and is very easily readable. [To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.] Above pic: Book on right of pic is Delhi online printer delivered WITHOUT-ZOOM blogbook Above pic: Book on right of pic is Delhi online print...

Sensitive post; Readers who don't like reading such sensitive stuff may please skip reading this post. Tragic! Ex Vatican diplomat found guilty of possessing child pornography, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vatican-pornography-trial/ex-vatican-diplomat-found-guilty-of-possessing-child-pornography-idUSKBN1JJ0G1 But good to see that the Vatican took action and jailed the concerned Catholic priest. Hypocrisy is the issue here - sexual hypocrisy in particular. If he could not keep away from sexual stuff he should have given up his Catholic priesthood, become a layman and then engaged in sexual activities that are legal, and surely kept far away from anything related to sexual activities about children/minors (below 18). But then perhaps he was unwilling to give up the money & comforts that came from his position as a Catholic priest, and work for a living like any other layman/laywoman. If so, that is really tragic for a person engaged in a spiritual quest as a suppos...

Given below is a list of my first and successful ISBN application related posts: 1) How I was, and continue to be, obliged to make my iami1 wordpress blog book front pages content to be somewhat more in line with regular books, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/05/how-i-was-and-continue-to-be-obliged-to.html , 15th May 2018 2) Have applied for an ISBN for printed iami1 blog book, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/06/have-applied-for-isbn-for-printed-iami1.html , 1st June 2018 3) Sent isbn.gov.in mail on: Clarifications and questions about my ISBN application 5413|ISBN|2018|A made on 31st May 2018, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/06/sent-isbngovin-mail-on-clarifications.html , 1st June 2018 4) For self-published author like me who is not interested in earning royalty nor in promotion of book for large sales, is it worth the bother to get ISBN for POD book versions?, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/06/for-self-published-author-like-me-who.html , 7th June 2018 5) Have r...

isbn.gov.in (India's govt. owned ISBN agency website) has a search feature among its "Recently Published Books". Clicking on that link in its home page leads one to: http://isbn.gov.in/Recently_Published_Books.aspx . Note that one does not have to be a registered user (logged in user) to use this search facility on isbn.gov.in. This page has a search facility. The pic below shows the results obtained on this page on searching by ISBN number allotted to my paperback type/format book "Who am I. I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation": ISBN 978-93-5311-521-0. [Actual printed title has ? instead of first . and so is "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation"] [To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.] However ISBN search sites like https://isbn...

Got a message today morning from Pothi.com that earlier submission made yesterday had got accepted. Here's the book page link with yesterday submission files: Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation, https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ravi-s-iyer-ultimate-existential-reality-answer-vedanta-god-and-science . Uploaded files today (21st June) to Pothi.com with the following changes: 1) The blue color hyperlink of email in Verso page (page 2 of inner contents pdf) has been changed to normal text. This version upload to Pothi.com did NOT give the converted to grayscale message. I also checked in the preview that the email id is shown as black (NOT grey). 2) Improved upon patchwork done on book back cover page to include ISBN. Extended the pastel background colour into the Author description part and then rewrote Author description ensuring that it did not overwrite ISBN. That pic has been given below: [To open pic in higher resolu...

Today (20th June 2018), I made the following changes made to iami1 blog book (Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer ...) version/dated 20th June 2018, for Paperback type: 1) ISBN 978-93-5311-521-0 has been specified in Verso page. 2) Used 200% Code scale in https://www.free-barcode-generator.net/isbn/ with all other parameters having default values to generate barcode image. 3) Book back cover page picture was modified to include ISBN barcode image. That necessitated increasing pastel background colour into the bottom of the back page picture overwriting few last words of previous back cover page text. Added the "For at cost printed book and free e-book visit iami1.wordpress.com" in black colour to left of ISBN barcode image. 4) Specified ISBN in Pothi.com book details page. The book is now shown with status as Revision under Review in Pothi.com. Given below are pics of the updated full cover page and the Verso page: [To open pic in higher res...

Last updated on 20th June 2018 Today (19th June 2018) when I checked the status of my ISBN application on isbn.gov.in, I was pleasantly surprised to see that an ISBN number: 978-93-5311-521-0 had been allotted to Papeback (Print-On-Demand) book type of my book, "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation" (iami1 blogbook). The issue of title in ISBN not having ? character (it is replaced by .), remains. So the title in the ISBN appl. is "Who am I. I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation" whereas the actual book title is "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation". isbn.gov.in did not respond to my email to them dated June 13th 2018, about whether this minor discrepancy (due to isbn.gov.in web page not allowing ? character in title field) is OK with them. The question for me was to decide whether I sho...

Last updated on 22nd June 2018 After my ISBN application 5413|ISBN|2018|A for the Paperback version of iami1 blog book, was approved on 12th June 2018 (after I uploaded a clearer picture of my PAN card in response to a clarification sought status message), (on the same day itself, if I recall correctly), the application status on isbn.gov.in and an email from isbn.gov.in informed me that (1) ISBN was reserved, and the application status prompted me to fill Title Details related to it. I filled that up in the evening/night of 12th June 2018, and submitted it on the isbn.gov.in website. The status for the "Add Title Detail of the books for which ISBN IS required" then showed as Submitted. As of 22nd June 2018, they have not responded so far to my mail to them dated 13th June 2018 on the issue of my proposed actual book title being "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation" but due to the isbn.gov.in web form...