My view of how Prasanthi Nilayam system got severely and negatively impacted by Guru Drohi Narasimhamurthy

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.

Terry Reis Kennedy put up a post recently https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10217556757489600 where she writes: HERE'S THE STORY ONCE MORE FOR ALL OF THOSE WHO MISSED IT AND ALSO MISUNDERSTOOD IT.....THE FRAUDS AT MDHU, THEIR LEADER NARASIMHAMURTHY, HAVE STILL NOT REPENTED. Terry then gives a video link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGwbeekSK18, to an April 2017 SSSCT trustee talk where the trustee gives SSSCT views on activities of Muddenahalli group.

Given below are my (Ravi) comments on the abovementioned post.

I would like to add my view of how Prasanthi Nilayam system got severely and negatively impacted by Guru Drohi Narasimhamurthy.

I am a former free service Sai university Prasanthi Nilayam campus faculty (designations of Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty) serving from Jan. 2003 to Mar. 2012 when I quit in disgust as traitor vice-chancellor --Name1-snipped-- had helped Guru Drohi (betrayer of Guru) Narasimhamurthy to HIJACK and effectively control the Sai university as the dream-instruction successor of Sathya Sai. These are my views mainly about that traumatic, chaotic and confusing period from after Mahasamadhi in end April 2011 to around mid 2012 at which time there was a raging power struggle in Prasanthi Nilayam system. I have also added some information about later periods. Note that I was part of the university then and so got a lot of information from university associated persons about what was going on then.

1. Narasimhamurthy used his status as long-time warden of Sai university and his reputation of celibacy and not having any significant financial corruption taint, at that time in 2011, to effectively proclaim himself as a dream-instruction successor of Sathya Sai starting from July 2011.

2. In the months following Swami Mahasamadhi in April 2011, many sections of the Indian media, especially some Indian language TV media channels, had spread vicious rumours about Prasanthi Nilayam which severely dented the fair name of Prasanthi Nilayam. There was talk of government taking over Prasanthi Nilayam!

3. The ****biggest**** traitor of Sai university was NOT Narasimhamurthy as Narasimhamurthy had stepped out of his warden of Sai university Brindavan campus position. Narasimhamurthy is the biggest traitor of the Sathya Sai movement and a traitor of Sai university too but not the biggest traitor of the Sai university, IMHO. The ****biggest**** traitor of the Sai university was then vice-chancellor --Name1-snipped--. He lost confidence in the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust which was effectively paying all the salaries of paid staff of Sai university and meeting its other expenses, and turned against the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT). Note that --Name1-snipped-- was offering honorary services (no salary, I believe) with his room in PN ashram and vehicle expenses (as he would frequently visit Mysore) being provided by SSSCT, I believe.

The ethical thing for --Name1-snipped-- to have done was to have quit his vice-chancellor position if he had lost confidence in the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust. He could have joined Narasimhamurthy openly then itself (around July 2011). Then I would not have labelled him as a traitor and as the ****biggest**** traitor of Sai university. I would have respected him for such an ethical resignation irrespective of whether his loss of confidence then in SSSCT was justified or not.

But he did NOT do that. Instead he sat in the very powerful chair of vice-chancellor of Sai university and started taking instructions from Narasimhamurthy viewing Narasimhamurthy as successor to Sathya Sai!!! --Name1-snipped-- even tried to convert some young faculty of Sai university to viewing Narasimhamurthy in this fashion. One such young faculty told me himself in, if I recall correctly, the second half of 2011, that --Name1-snipped-- was trying to convince him to view Narasimhamurthy as Moses (of the Old Testament of Christian and Jewish faith) who will now lead the Sathya Sai movement!

--Name1-snipped-- used traitor-collaborators in the Sai university to target Prof Anilkumar Kamaraju who had the guts to oppose Narasimhamurthy's dream-instruction successor claims by counselling foreign devotees and donors to NOT accept Narasimhamurthy's claims. Under some university discipline pretext, the traitor --Name1-snipped-- and traitor-collaborators in the Sai university, successfully harassed and then eventually forced out Anilkumar sir from Sai university sometime in mid-2012. Nobody in Sai university had the guts to support Anilkumar sir as if they had done so, they themselves would have been thrown out of Sai university. This was the ****utterly pathetic**** state of affairs in Sai university in that crucial power struggle period of July 2011 to mid 2012. That power struggle battle was completely won by the Guru Drohi Narasimhamurthy and the traitor vice-chancellor --Name1-snipped--. Sai university had come under effective control of these two traitors.

SSSCT was a ***mute and helpless*** witness to this HIJACK of the Sai university. Why did SSSCT not dismiss the traitor vice-chancellor (VC) --Name1-snipped-- in 2011 itself as he rebelled against SSSCT and supported Narasimhamurthy's dream-instruction successor claim? That is what deeply troubled many of us then. [As far as I know, till now, SSSCT has NOT publicly said one word against the traitor vice-chancellor --Name1-snipped--, while they have publicly condemned Narasimhamurthy.]

Perhaps SSSCT was going through intense trauma then with the Andhra Pradesh government and Indian media breathing down their necks. The seniormost (Bhishma Pitamaha) functionary of Sathya Sai movement - Shri Indulal Shah - who was a trustee of SSSCT himself, supported Narasimhamurthy! So there was division within SSSCT itself on Narasimhamurthy!

I was also told that --Name1-snipped-- had threatened SSSCT that if SSSCT removes him from VC position then he would go to the media and attack SSSCT through the media. Perhaps SSSCT which was already reeling under a really horrific Indian media assault on Prasanthi Nilayam, did not want to add fuel to the media fire against them then. They perhaps decided to ride out this period hoping that Bhagavan would enlighten --Name1-snipped-- and that he would come out of the bad spell that Narasimhamurthy had cast on him.

After having heard and seen enough I decided to terminate my association with Sai university in March 2012 with the termination process taking up to end May 2012 as I tried to deliver a kick in the pants to the Sai university traitors and traitor-collaborators, by cornering them on a big mistake they had done about my designation. My final letter to Sai university traitors and traitor-collaborators advised them to follow the path of Sathya & Dharma. It did not bring any change in them, as far as I can see, but I had done whatever I could to tell them to mend their Asathya-Adharma ways.

Traitor VC --Name1-snipped-- stayed on as VC of Sai university till Nov. 2014.

4. Sai university coming under the control of Narasimhamurthy and --Name1-snipped-- was ****vital**** in the powerful Sai university and school alumni network coming under Narasimhamurthy's sway. Without the Sai educational system alumni network Muddenahalli group would have been a minor NGO. But, very very unfortunately, the Sai university and school alumni network lent huge support to Muddenahalli group. Many paid alumni-staff in Prasanthi Nilayam system itself who were being paid by Prasanthi Nilayam system supported Narasimhamurthy and perhaps viewed him as the Moses saviour of Sathya Sai movement! What an extraordinarily weird situation it was then!

5. From around July 2011 till mid 2014, Narasimhamurthy and Muddenahalli group were completely dominating SSSCT even in Prasanthi Nilayam system. As far as I can recall, SSSCT did not publicly say even one word against Narasimhamurthy in this period.

6. It was after Madhusudan Rao Naidu in May 2014 got publicly promoted as so called communicator of so called subtle body of Sathya Sai in Muddenahalli (FALSE CLAIM) that SSSCT slowly started to react. I think the first public condemnation of Narasimhamurthy by SSSCT was by the Late V. Srinivasan, Trustee SSSCT and All India President of Sathya Sai Orgn, in a speech in Kulwant Hall sometime around Nov. 2014.

7. It took till mid 2016 for Prasanthi Nilayam system to reassert its control over its paid and honorary staff as 5 teachers from PN Sai Higher Secondary School and 1 faculty from Sai university Prasanthi Nilayam campus were thrown out of the school and university respectively, for having visited Muddenahalli group and expressed support for them.

8. Today in Aug. 2018, I think SSSCT is fully in control of paid and honorary staff working in SSSCT systems including Sai university. The impression I get is that now any staff who associates with Muddenahalli group is thrown out as soon as that information is known to PN top administrators. That is a very satisfactory state of affairs for people like me who had to go through the trauma of the Guru Drohi Narasimhamurthy and traitor VC --Name1-snipped-- HIJACKING Sai university with the support of some traitor-collaborators of Sai university, and with SSSCT then being a helpless witness to this HIJACK.
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Hope my above points contribute to the understanding of readers about this crucial history of immediate post-Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement.
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Given below are some comments from my Facebook post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2266126103603954, associated with this blog post :

In response to comment, "Narasimha Murthy Sir was hand selected by Swami, who knows the past present and future of each of us. Do you think Baba made a mistake?", Ravi S. Iyer responded (slightly edited):
Sister --snip-- Judas was picked by Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think Jesus Christ made a mistake?
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited) in response to a comment:
My considered view on such text in holy scripture which are two millennia or older (Hindu scripture too has some controversial text), is that we really do not know exactly what the great spiritual masters and evolved beings said. In the transmission of their words over the ages some powerful people may have modified the sayings of the master to suit the powerful people's needs at that time.

Sathya Sai said that only a few verses of the Bhagavad Gita were said by Krishna to Arjuna. Rishis added their own verses to that!

Those of us, like you and me, who have had the great good fortune of seeing, listening to and reading Sathya Sai are extraordinarily fortunate as we got revelations about spiritual matters directly from Bhagavan!

I like to now view ancient scripture of various religions in a non-literal way when it comes to verses which talk about exclusivity of their way. I focus on other parts of their teachings and the divine accounts of concerned spiritual masters and find happiness and joy in them. This way I get great joy from reading parts of the New Testament, whenever I have the occasion to do so. I just gloss over the exclusivity stuff as perhaps some distortion that was introduced at a later date, or something like that.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Oh! Jesus saying something in 1965 is something I am not into. This is NOT to say it is wrong. It is just that I am NOT into such a belief.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Well, these exclusion issues are very, very big matters in religion and powerful institutions/kingdoms today.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: I prefer not to get into debates about it due to these things being super-sensitive, especially in India when it comes to Islam.
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In response to comment, "Everything is super sensitive. Why get into debate about NSM sir???", Ravi S. Iyer wrote:

Guru Drohi Narasimhamurthy is diluting and distorting teachings of my beloved and revered Gurudev, and misguiding thousands of people. Unfortunately you are defending him and thereby aiding and abetting him in this task. Very sad to see this.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: If you people want to create a new version of Sathya Sai which is modified to suit your needs, why don't you folks have the courage of conviction and truthfulness to say that this is your Fantasy Sathya Sai?
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Do you think you people will escape the negative karmic consequences of this misguidance of thousands of Sathya Sai devotees across the world with this madness of Madhusudan Naidu?
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote (slightly edited): Rest assured, sister --snip--, you too will have to face the negative karmic consequences of these actions.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Well, my views then are none of your business too.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Why comment on my posts?
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: What ludicrous behaviour! Disobeying public instructions of Sathya Sai with respect to mediums and communicators and then trying to hoodwink people.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: And then you call yourself enlightened!
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: I think you should call yourself devotee of some fantasy Asathya Sai Baba.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: That will at least be truthful.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: I think you do not seem to have the basic ability to discriminate between what Sathya Sai taught us to follow and what Sathya Sai taught us to condemn and stay away from.
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In response to comment that the conversation was not going well, Ravi S. Iyer wrote: Yes. It
is not going well.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: I think there is something really wrong wth you.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: You seem to be spiritually lost.
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: And are intent on misguiding others too. Using the HOLY NAME of Sathya Sai. What a tragedy! Anyway, I think this convo is not helping either you or me.
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In response to a comment, Ravi S. Iyer wrote: The convo was on scripture and you inserted Narasimhamurthy into it. Seems like you have a one-track mind in such convo. LIke some evangelist who wants to convert somebody. Tragic to see such behaviour.
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In response to a comment, Ravi S. Iyer wrote: I am speaking about this thread. What a weird thing it is to discuss matters with you. Twisted logic. Twisted arguments. Tragic!
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Ravi S. Iyer wrote: I pray to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba to rescue you from the twisted people of Muddenahalli group and become a straight person.
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Terry Reis Kennedy shared my above mentioned Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/terry.reiskennedy/posts/10217563288412869. I put up the following comment on it:
Thank you for sharing Terry Reis Kennedy. I think it is truth that should be the basis of the post-Mahasamadhi Sathya Sai movement. Even some inconvenient and unpleasant truths related to this horrible split in Sathya Sai fraternity should be shared with Sathya Sai fraternity (I use fraternity in the sense of community of like minded people, male and female) so that future generations of Sathya Sai devotees can work towards unity knowing about these problems & issues of the past. So your sharing my post helps in spreading that history (my view which I think is truthful to the best of my knowledge).
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