Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Last updated on 1st Dec. 2018 First I would like to state that I have a PUBLICLY POLITICALLY NEUTRAL role in these social media posts that I put up related to Indian political leaders which may include leaders in government currently and those not in government. I am an Indian citizen and resident of India. I do vote in Indian elections but I keep who I vote for as a private matter. I should also say that I am a beneficiary, a lover and an open supporter of democracy in India. I was born, educated and worked for a living in Mumbai for most of the first four decades of my life. My residence during this period was spread over some areas of Mumbai city and Dombivli city which is on the outskirts of Mumbai, from where I commuted to Mumbai by train. I consider myself to be a grateful son of Mumbai city and its surrounding areas, Maharashtra, my former home state, and of India. I now live in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh state and have lived there for the past 16 years. I am particular...

Firstly, what is a Subhashitha? http://mcjoshi21.blogspot.com/2018/10/todays-subhashita_8.html tells us that it is a Sanskrit epigram capturing "choicest thoughts on various subjects" in verse. Here is a video of Dr. K. Unnikrishnan and which person, I believe, is the same Dr. K. Unnikrishnan, Principal of Govt. Sanskrit College, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala, where he chants the Sanskrit Subhashitha - Yatha dhenu Sahasreshu, and explains it in Malayalam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHVF_bCWBM , 5 min. 39 secs. Dr. Unnikrishnan seems to have been the (former) Head of Department of Sahitya (literature) department of the Govt. Sanskrit college. As per http://mcjoshi21.blogspot.com/2018/10/todays-subhashita_8.html , the Sanskrit text of the couplet is (note that there are slight differences between what is chanted by Dr. Unnikrishnan and what is given below, but the meaning/English translation of the Subhashitha seems to be similar, if not same): यथा  धेनु...

Last updated on 1st Dec. 2018 As a former Mumbaikar and Dombivlikar, I was pleasantly surprised to note the absence of Hon'ble Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in my quick browsing of Muddenahalli group video of the event on 27th Nov. 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ekuvbqY5A . They have termed the event as "Commencement of Medical Services, Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani, Navi Mumbai". They have not used the word, 'inauguration', but it seems like an inauguration event to me. I am glad that Maharashtra CM Fadnavis did not attend and so did not share the stage with Cheap Imitator Madhusudan Rao Naidu. I don't know whether this was a conscious decision of the CM or simply a scheduling issue. Now other Muddenahalli (MDH) group people were there. I guess these are people who need some physical form person to be able to relate to Sathya Sai and find it difficult to relate to Sathya Sai without some human mediator. That's their way in t...

This post has moved to https://tnarayanasasthri.blogspot.com/2023/04/trying-to-get-more-information-about-my.html on 14 Apr. 2023.

Last updated on 1st Dec. 2018 Muddenahalli group with Madhusudan Naidu who now falsely claims to be Sathya Sai, is expected to inaugurate their Navi Mumbai hospital perhaps tomorrow 26th Nov. 2018. Mumbai and surrounding areas, including Navi Mumbai, was where I have spent most of the first four decades of my life. I was born in Mumbai, educated in Mumbai, worked for a living in Mumbai and saved money for early retirement while I was working in Mumbai. For some of these years I lived in Mumbai city and for some years in a city on its outskirts - Dombivli - from where I would commute by train to Mumbai for education and later work. I deeply love and am very grateful to Mumbai, its surrounding areas and Maharashtra state in general for having given me a reasonably happy and good life in the nearly four decades that I lived there. Now Muddenahalli group is establishing itself via its free hospital which I believe is a pediatric cardiac care hospital, in my former city and its surrou...

Last updated on 3rd Dec. 2018 Now I must first say that since Sathya Sai Mahasamadhi (end April 2011) and me becoming active on social media (from Sept. 2011) - first blog and then additionally Facebook - I have been forced by my inner urges to focus on Sathya (Truth) & Dharma (Ethical behaviour) in my words and actions, sometimes losing out on Shanti (Peace) and Prema (Love). Even in Sathya & Dharma, I do not claim to be perfect. Note that Dharma is a very wide-ranging term and I think it varies from community to community as the social norms vary from community to community. But I try very hard to follow Sathya & Dharma as I perceive it. In social media, mainly on Facebook, sometimes I have got into arguments. I have my human flaw of anger and do get provoked at times by comments that I view as grossly unfair to me. So I give back through my comments. But I limit myself to words like joker, weird, nonsense etc. when I have to respond to grossly unfair and harsh word...

Last updated on  7 Jun. 2024 7 Jun. 2024: Some sensitive content has been snipped. So far I had reserved the Guru Drohi label only for Narasimhamurthy. Somehow as Madhusudan is a former student of SSSIHL, and Swami, in end 2002/early 2003 had graciously accepted my prayer to serve Him in SSSIHL where as staff and teachers we viewed students as precious property of Swami whom we should serve, I could not bring myself to call Madhusudan Rao Naidu as a Guru Drohi. But that has changed now. In this latest event, it is clear that Madhusudan Rao Naidu has approved of Mr. Sumeet Tappoo saying on stage at Swami birthday function on 23rd Nov. 2018 in Muddenahalli that: * "Swami has assumed the body of brother Madhusudan. There is no difference." * "He has made the grand declaration a few minutes back that he will be in Muddenahalli in the body of brother Madhusudan for the next ten years .." * "When you see brother Madhu, it will be Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai B...

From around 3 hr 56 mins in: 93rd Birthday Celebrations of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba from Prasanthi Nilayam - 23 Nov 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2a5cDBNn-A , Hon'ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu gives a speech for around 20 mins. For more on his visit including some screenshot pics, please visit my post: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2018/11/honble-chief-minister-n-chandrababu.html . Given below is a transcript of most of CM N. Chandrababu Naidu's speech (slightly edited): By seeing all of you I am getting the memories of when I met Sai Baba. Today, I am really happy that same dedication is continuing in this institution - [applause] - same enthusiasm and also energy levels. Physically Sai Baba is not with us. But always He will be with us. Whenever you need any guidance, you pray to Him. He will guide you. I don't have any doubt about it. [Applause] Just now I had a detailed discussion with the Trust (Sri Sathya Sai Ce...

At around 3 hr 23 mins in 93rd Birthday Celebrations of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba from Prasanthi Nilayam - 23 Nov 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2a5cDBNn-A , you see Hon'ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu enter Sai Kulwant Hall. Chief Minister Naidu speaks at around 3 hrs 56 mins, for around 20 mins. He speaks from the heart, remembering his many interactions with Sathya Sai. He lavishly praises Bhagavan and the Sathya Sai organization. In particular, he congratulates Prasanthi Nilayam ashram institution for keeping up the good work of Bhagavan. He also praises Bhagavan for promoting all religions - Hinduism, Christianity, Islam etc. CM Naidu's speech was inspirational from Sathya Sai mission perspective. He exhorted listeners to serve in the mission so that there is benefit to global community and said that he as CM of Andhra Pradesh would provide full support to the Sathya Sai mission work. The transcript of most of his speech ha...

Sathya Sai quotes from 1962 Sivarathri discourse Some quotes from Sathya Sai Speaks, 4th March 1962 (as per http://www.sssbpt.info/english/sssvol02.html ) with the associated pdf file being: http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume02/sss02-31.pdf Looking at this vast sea of faces, I do not feel like speaking to you; I wish to derive bliss (ananda) by just looking at you from here; looking at your devotion and your faith. Your looking at Me, Me looking at you — what else is needed for bliss to well up? [Ravi: In spirituality, it has been my experience with Sathya Sai physical form that "the eyes have it"! I have seen the Indian Lok Sabha (Parliament) votes being assessed by the Speaker and then declaring, "the ayes have it" meaning the yes-votes have it. I then got "the eyes have it" phrase to express this aspect of my spiritual experience. In particular, for many months of 2010 and first three months of 2011 before Sathya Sai physical form was admit...

My public Google Drive folder here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3Pcd4RD_n8LcTlEQWFINVBXZ3c  has a zip file named: 20181121-MyWritings-Data.zip of size 135 MB having all my writings data. This file can be downloaded by anybody on the Internet. Note that the above Google Drive public folder has some folders and files besides this zip file. The full filename may not be displayed by Google Drive in its default mode. Hovering the mouse over the initial part of filename will show the full file name. Further note that as the zip file size is very big, Google gives a warning message that it cannot do a virus check on the zip file. However, I have anti-virus on my PC and, so far I have not seen any virus reports. So I think the zip file can be presumed to be virus free. To be doubly sure, after the zip file has been downloaded, users can run anti-virus software on it before using the file. Alternatively, the share link of the zip file can be used: https://drive.google.com/open...

I started regularly writing online public posts on my blogs from around Sept. 2011 onwards. Prior to that I had put up very few technical review and how-to posts on one blog but under a pseudonym (Gabbar Singh). Blogger and Wordpress were, and continue to be, my main blog platforms. As far as I know and can recall, neither Blogger nor Wordpress asked me to indemnify them for any legal problems they may face due to my posts. I mean, I don't recall reading that in any user agreement or having to check a box saying that I indemnify them. On Facebook too, I don't think I have been asked to indemnify Facebook for any legal problems with posts that I put up on Facebook. I realized that I am legally responsible for my blog and Facebook (social media) posts from both copyright and defamation perspectives. Over time, I read up on copyright and defamation laws in India and I think I now have a decent idea about these laws in India. I try hard to ensure that my posts, even when they ...

Above pic is Hindu temple near Malibu, California, USA. Pic courtesy:  http://malibuhindutemple.org/home.aspx . I came to know of this matter from a recent post shared by Lisa De Witt, https://www.facebook.com/divinebynature.tattwamasi/posts/941798246019569 (Original FB post is by Facebook user: Ashtar-Athena SherAn). https://heavy.com/news/2018/11/malibu-hindu-temple-fire-woolsey/ article provides more pics and also gives the background to the original FB post by Ashtar-Athena SherAn. ---- Here's a pic I got on the net which seems to show Woolsey fire smoke threateningly close to the Malibu temple: https://scontent.fhyd6-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46255393_10209769502273421_8072682953169174528_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_ht=scontent.fhyd6-1.fna&oh=ed1fbc46d85610169be3e1922f326fb1&oe=5C693FAC Pic courtesy seems to be: Joe Apicelli Facebook post that shared this pic: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209769502233420&set=a.1437709801889 ---- I fou...

President Trump Participates in the Diwali Ceremonial Lighting of the Diya, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh9zz67KYS4 , 10 min 20 secs, Published by The White House on Nov 13, 2018. [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 courtesy: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1062455263247155200 , 13th Nov. 2018 Above pic courtesy: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1062450942707228672 , 13th Nov. 2018 As an Indian Hindu who has many friends and few relatives in the USA, I am very thankful to US President Donald Trump for hosting this Diwali event in the White House. As a man of faith in the same One God who is worshipped through different religious traditions like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism in various parts of the world including USA and India, I found these words said by President Trump on this occasion to be very e...

Last updated on 1st Dec. 2018 Around a couple of weeks back, I was very happy to read Shri Nagesh Nallappa's Grandfather's writings: "An introduction to Ramanuja's philosophy And the doctrine of Prapathi or Self-Surrender". The author's (Shri Nagesh's grandfather's) name is Nallappa Jeyappaiyengar. On Shri Nagesh Nallappa's request over email, I have put up this document named, "NJ - An Introduction to Ramanuja's Philosophy & The Doctrine of Prapathi or Self-Surrender.pdf" on a public folder in my Google drive here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PLcI68FDA7WhMaNzrTq2f1fLQ70d5dFN . The document is 28 pages long. Shri Jeyappaiyengar was born in 1900 and passed away in May 1979. The above mentioned document date is not known. Kancheepuram (in Tamil Nadu) is mentioned as the city the author was residing in then. Shri Jeyappaiyengar writes in the Preface of the document (referred to as brochure): The contents of this bro...

Last updated on 13th Nov. 2018 Some background first. I come from the Iyer community and the sub-community of Kerala Iyers within it. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyer : Iyer (also spelt as Ayyar, Aiyar, Ayer or Aiyer) is a caste of Hindu Brahmin communities of Tamil origin. Most Iyers are followers of the Advaita philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara.[citation needed] The majority reside in Tamil Nadu, India. ... Kerala Main article: Kerala Iyers Iyers have been resident of the princely state of Travancore from ancient times. The Venad state (present Kanyakumari district) and the southern parts of Kerala was part of the Pandyan kingdom known as Then Pandi Nadu. There were also many Iyers in Venad which later on grew to be the Travancore state. The old capital of Travancore was Padmanabhapuram which is at present in Kanyakumari district. There has also been a continuous inflow from Tirunelveli and Ramnad districts of Tamil Nadu which are contiguous to the erstwhile p...