Miscellaneous Facebook posts & comments in February 2019
When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer).
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In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514, I wrote a comment on 24th Feb. 2019 which I put up in a slightly edited form as a separate post here: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/02/muddenahalli-group-spiritually-led-by.html.
Given below are some further exchanges on that Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514) :
Somebody commented (slightly edited): my humble request is that Mr Ravi Iyer and Mr --name-snipped-- remove misunderstanding between Mr Ganti and Mr Ratnakar so we can all be united in facing the crisis before us.
----
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - I have not met or spoken to Mr. Rathnakar ever. I lead a reclusive outside-ashram life in Puttaparthi.
In early 2017, I had faced unfortunate social media attacks on me, through comments posted on Mr. Ganti's Facebook posts, by some Melbourne, Australia based Muddenahalli Facebook Fake Id cowards and crooks, perhaps supported by their friends in Muddenahalli and Puttaparthi, which tried to falsely paint me as an enemy of Mr. Rathnakar. The Melbourne, Australia Muddenahalli cowards and crooks succeeded in creating some tension and trouble for me in my real life in Puttaparthi for a few weeks then, and in negatively impacting my relationship with some people.
After that experience, I have decided to not make any comments about Mr. Rathnakar at all. In this comment, I have made an exception to inform you and other readers who see this exchange about my stand on these matters.
So I am the wrong guy for your request. I would suggest that if you really want to help out, you should do it yourself. You can always visit Puttaparthi and even if you don't visit Puttaparthi, you can call up from Mumbai.
----
The person commented, "i dont know Mr Ratnakar or i would not mind speaking to him. in fact i had not even heard of him. its only since i followed these posts i got to know of him. i thought since you are in Puttaparthi for such a long time and been with the sathya sai university as a lecturer / teacher you might have met him or know someone who knows him. also you have been a tireless truth teller in this whole unfortunate situation since the beginning. however i understand that you are not in a position to broker peace. in that case any well wisher of Mr Ganti on this thread who knows both Mr Ganti and Mr Ratnakar, having familiarity of the sequence of events that led to the present time and has the well being of the sai mission at heart might please take the initiative to make peace between these two gentlemen. the idea is Unity among sai devotees. what Bhagavan used to recommend. Unity and Purity lead to Divinity."
----
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited): Thanks for the kind words --Name-snipped--.
----
The person responded: sai ram.
----
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In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2423927321157164, dated 24th Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Congratulations to the Indian government for getting this honour. India's contribution to global Islam in the 20th and early 21st century through peaceful and loving forms of Islam like Sufi Islam which are respectful of other religions like Hinduism and Christianity, is a very significant one, IMHO. While India may be a Hindu majority country, various sects of Islam in India are a vital and intrinsic part of modern India of the 20th and early 21st centuries, and so the voice of Indian Islam and the Indian government should be heard by global Islamic organizations like the OIC.
Allah Maalik! Ishwar Maalik! Sabka Maalik Ek!
[Shared article: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/in-a-1st-india-invited-to-oic-meet-as-guest-of-honour/articleshow/68132243.cms]
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2417680365115193
"Pope Francis has expelled Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, from the priesthood, after an expedited canonical process that found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over decades, the Vatican said on Saturday."
Ravi: I am very happy to know this. If Mr. McCarrick disagrees, he is free to publicly rebut the process in the Vatican which found him guilty.
I think it is these steps initiated by the courageous Pope Francis which will invigorate the Roman Catholic Church and help to remove the poison of sexual abuse that has afflicted this important and powerful worldwide Christian religious organization. A reinvigorated in faith in Christ and free from sexual abuse Roman Catholic church would be, in my considered opinion, a very good thing for the world.
[Shared article: Pope Defrocks Theodore McCarrick, Ex-Cardinal Accused of Sexual Abuse, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/mccarrick-defrocked-vatican.html]
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2417598228456740
Some days ago, I came across a mention of Madhusudan Naidu (spiritual fraud) visiting Kumbh Mela and even meeting Baba Ramdev, in a comment elsewhere on Facebook. I had asked for details in a comment there but did not get those details.
I found this video of around a minute, dated 26th Jan. 2019 of Madhusudan Naidu and some other people from MDH group with this gentleman, Swami Chidandand Saraswatiji. I think I have seen this Swami with Madhusudan Naidu earlier too. I found videos of Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji with Baba Ramdev but not a video of Baba Ramdev with Madhusudan Naidu and neither a video of Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, Baba Ramdev and Madhusudan Naidu. If somebody finds a public video of Madhusudan Naidu with Baba Ramdev, I request them to share it with me. I would then want to explore a way to contact Baba Ramdev who is a very well known spiritual figure in India, to inform him about Madhusudan Naidu being a spiritual fraud in his claims about Sathya Sai. I would also then put up a public post on the matter - an open letter to Baba Ramdev. But all that is warranted ***only if*** it is established that Baba Ramdev met Madhusudan Naidu through a public video (or a report by reputed media establishment).
Now in the text intro of the shared post below, there is no reference to Madhusudan Naidu as communicator, medium or embodiment of Sathya Sai (FALSE CLAIM made by Muddenahalli group), though the MDH group is referred to as group from SatyaSaiBaba campus.
I really have very little info. about this Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji. Therefore I don't plan to contact him regarding Madhusudan Naidu being a spiritual fraud.
[Shared FB video: https://www.facebook.com/PujyaSwamiji/videos/1103953519786866/ ]
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2415873531962543
I strongly approve of this move by the Cardinal, as far as living accused priests are concerned. Now some of the allegations may be false but that can be rebutted by the accused on social media and I hope that the New York Times will carry their rebuttals too. ... In the case of deceased priests, I wonder whether this is fair to them (and their relatives and friends) as the accused are not alive to rebut any false accusations made against them.
[Shared article: New Jersey Catholic Bishops List Names of Nearly 200 Priests Accused of Abuse, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/nyregion/list-of-priests-abuse.html]
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2415439045339325
Interesting info. for those into religion statistics in Western Europe. This is about Germany's Catholic, Protestant, other religion and unaffiliated numbers.
https://twitter.com/IAmStarrStuff/status/1095719094932918272
[The text of the above tweet: Once a majority, #Protestants now account for fewer than a third of Germans https://pewrsr.ch/2HD2UtC]
=============================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2411104262439470, 8th Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Wonderful to know this! May God bless all who were involved in such low-cost marriage initiatives.
BTW my late father associated for some time with the Radha Soami Satsang in Mumbai/Bombay (perhaps in the 60s and early 70s). But I do not have any recollection of attending a Radha Saomi satsang.
[Shared article: Andhra Pradesh: IAS officer to spend only Rs 18,000 on son’s wedding, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/andhra-pradesh-ias-officer-to-spend-only-rs-18000-on-sons-wedding/articleshow/67894320.cms, 8th Feb. 2019]
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In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407367859479777, 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote (slightly edited):
So nice to see all these people come forward and overcome the hatred of one misguided youngster in Louisville, Kentucky, USA! May God bless all the people from various religions and from various political parties that contributed this Service out of love to more than erase the hate. May God show the right path to the youngster who is alleged to have done the vandalism.
Thanks to --name-snipped-- for sharing this.
God is Love. Love is God. - Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
[Shared article: Hundreds turn out to help clean vandalized Hindu temple, https://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/hundreds-turn-out-to-help-clean-vandalized-hindu-temple/417-06b213a8-48f9-4c4c-b75c-60fe2e6b02b4, 2nd Feb. 2019]
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In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407122922837604, dated 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote (slightly edited):
Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of age. But being a gentleman is a matter of choice.
- Quote attributed to Vin Diesel, http://www.wisdomtoinspire.com/t/vin-diesel/NJJnSbXZg/being-a-male-is-a-matter-of-birth-being-a-man-is-a-matter-of-age-but-being-a-gentleman-is-a-matter-of-choice
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In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407106059505957, 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Thought I should share a small experience I had about the effect of mentioning the name of Jesus Christ to an Italian devotee (IIRC) of Sathya Sai who was giving us some trouble when we were doing Seva Dal duty in Prasanthi Nilayam.
This was sometime in the 2nd half of the 1990s. If I recall correctly, I was the mandir (Sai Kulwant Hall) group leader of the Seva Dal from Maharashtra. Note that I was then working in the software industry in Bombay/Mumbai, India as a consultant and had come on perhaps two weeks leave to offer Seva Dal service at Prasanthi Nilayam. It was the first (and only) time I had been given that group leader work - on other Seva Dal duties in Prasanthi Nilayam I was one of the Seva Dal in the mandir discipline group tasked with ensuring discipline among devotees in the mandir, especially when Swami was on his darshan round.
On this day we still had not opened the Kulwant Hall gates for token line devotees. So the devotees were seated outside and, if I recall correctly, up the Old museum road. A young Italian (if I recall correctly) devotee, who was part of a group and had the group scarf on, was hassling me and other Seva Dal on some matter. I lost my patience and muttered "Jesus Christ". What a change that created! This young man's demeanour completely changed. He became calm and very co-operative - almost obedient, I should say.
I would have been having a ton of worries and work then as Mandir Seva Dal leader and so I would not have been able to interact much with him, and would have moved on to other work. But I clearly remember how when he heard me say the name, "Jesus Christ", his demeanour completely changed. I think that was my first exposure to the level of devotion some Italians have. After all, Rome was where the Christian faith took root with the great apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul having preached there, and the centre of Roman Catholic faith being in Vatican in Rome.
[Shared this post, https://www.facebook.com/TuttoCraxi/photos/a.2049665111999313/2050686718563819/?type=3&theater, dated 1st Feb. 2019 which has a pic of then Prime Minister of Italy, Bettino Craxi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettino_Craxi, and his wife with Swami (Sathya Sai) on 5th November 1986. The pic seems to be of the area just outside the interview room in main mandir building in Prasanthi Nilayam.]
===================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407050716178158, 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Interesting! I think this is the first time I am coming across the name of "Shaktidham's Jagatguru Sai Maa". Her wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Maa, states, "In her late twenties, Sai Maa met and became a disciple of the spiritual master, Sathya Sai Baba. She traveled frequently to Puttaparthi, India, to study with Sai Baba and became an active supporter of his humanitarian work. While maintaining an active career and family life, Sai Maa focused on practicing the teachings and disciplines she received from Sai Baba."
Hmm. She now seems to be an established spiritual master with a monastic order!
I had a look at this video: https://youtu.be/BAHgcMUAhSA of hers. The message seems to be a good one.
If readers have more information about her and would like to share it, I would be glad to know of it.
[Shared article: Seven seas across, foreigners become 'brahmacharis' in Kumbh, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67813792.cms, 3rd Feb. 2019.]
In response to a comment on the post, I wrote (slightly edited):
Really! All famous sanyasis have been married! Was Adi Shankara (originally from Kerala) married? Do you have references that can prove that?
----
In response to a comment on the post, I wrote (slightly edited):
Oh! I think I had not noted well that aspect of your comment which was a later sentence. I mean I did read it but your earlier sentence was somewhat sweeping and so I focused on it.
Interesting view! I don't think I know enough now to comment on it, as I have not read up on these sanyasi aspects of Hinduism prior to Buddhism.
Of course, many of the Rishis mentioned in our Hindu scripture are married, sometimes with more than one wife. But then they are referred to as Rishis and not as sanyasis. Was there a sanyasi parampara in those times? Are there written or oral accounts of such parampara then that are available to us now? Interesting questions but I don't have an answer to them.
I am putting up this response to an inner level comment of yours, at an outer level to give more visibility to my comment (and so your comment too). Thanks.
===========================================================
================================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514, I wrote a comment on 24th Feb. 2019 which I put up in a slightly edited form as a separate post here: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/02/muddenahalli-group-spiritually-led-by.html.
Given below are some further exchanges on that Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/vr.ganti.1/posts/10214246437299514) :
Somebody commented (slightly edited): my humble request is that Mr Ravi Iyer and Mr --name-snipped-- remove misunderstanding between Mr Ganti and Mr Ratnakar so we can all be united in facing the crisis before us.
----
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited): --Name-snipped-- - I have not met or spoken to Mr. Rathnakar ever. I lead a reclusive outside-ashram life in Puttaparthi.
In early 2017, I had faced unfortunate social media attacks on me, through comments posted on Mr. Ganti's Facebook posts, by some Melbourne, Australia based Muddenahalli Facebook Fake Id cowards and crooks, perhaps supported by their friends in Muddenahalli and Puttaparthi, which tried to falsely paint me as an enemy of Mr. Rathnakar. The Melbourne, Australia Muddenahalli cowards and crooks succeeded in creating some tension and trouble for me in my real life in Puttaparthi for a few weeks then, and in negatively impacting my relationship with some people.
After that experience, I have decided to not make any comments about Mr. Rathnakar at all. In this comment, I have made an exception to inform you and other readers who see this exchange about my stand on these matters.
So I am the wrong guy for your request. I would suggest that if you really want to help out, you should do it yourself. You can always visit Puttaparthi and even if you don't visit Puttaparthi, you can call up from Mumbai.
----
The person commented, "i dont know Mr Ratnakar or i would not mind speaking to him. in fact i had not even heard of him. its only since i followed these posts i got to know of him. i thought since you are in Puttaparthi for such a long time and been with the sathya sai university as a lecturer / teacher you might have met him or know someone who knows him. also you have been a tireless truth teller in this whole unfortunate situation since the beginning. however i understand that you are not in a position to broker peace. in that case any well wisher of Mr Ganti on this thread who knows both Mr Ganti and Mr Ratnakar, having familiarity of the sequence of events that led to the present time and has the well being of the sai mission at heart might please take the initiative to make peace between these two gentlemen. the idea is Unity among sai devotees. what Bhagavan used to recommend. Unity and Purity lead to Divinity."
----
I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited): Thanks for the kind words --Name-snipped--.
----
The person responded: sai ram.
----
==============================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2423927321157164, dated 24th Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Congratulations to the Indian government for getting this honour. India's contribution to global Islam in the 20th and early 21st century through peaceful and loving forms of Islam like Sufi Islam which are respectful of other religions like Hinduism and Christianity, is a very significant one, IMHO. While India may be a Hindu majority country, various sects of Islam in India are a vital and intrinsic part of modern India of the 20th and early 21st centuries, and so the voice of Indian Islam and the Indian government should be heard by global Islamic organizations like the OIC.
Allah Maalik! Ishwar Maalik! Sabka Maalik Ek!
[Shared article: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/in-a-1st-india-invited-to-oic-meet-as-guest-of-honour/articleshow/68132243.cms]
=============================================================
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2417680365115193
"Pope Francis has expelled Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, from the priesthood, after an expedited canonical process that found him guilty of sexually abusing minors and adult seminarians over decades, the Vatican said on Saturday."
Ravi: I am very happy to know this. If Mr. McCarrick disagrees, he is free to publicly rebut the process in the Vatican which found him guilty.
I think it is these steps initiated by the courageous Pope Francis which will invigorate the Roman Catholic Church and help to remove the poison of sexual abuse that has afflicted this important and powerful worldwide Christian religious organization. A reinvigorated in faith in Christ and free from sexual abuse Roman Catholic church would be, in my considered opinion, a very good thing for the world.
[Shared article: Pope Defrocks Theodore McCarrick, Ex-Cardinal Accused of Sexual Abuse, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/mccarrick-defrocked-vatican.html]
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https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2417598228456740
Some days ago, I came across a mention of Madhusudan Naidu (spiritual fraud) visiting Kumbh Mela and even meeting Baba Ramdev, in a comment elsewhere on Facebook. I had asked for details in a comment there but did not get those details.
I found this video of around a minute, dated 26th Jan. 2019 of Madhusudan Naidu and some other people from MDH group with this gentleman, Swami Chidandand Saraswatiji. I think I have seen this Swami with Madhusudan Naidu earlier too. I found videos of Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji with Baba Ramdev but not a video of Baba Ramdev with Madhusudan Naidu and neither a video of Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, Baba Ramdev and Madhusudan Naidu. If somebody finds a public video of Madhusudan Naidu with Baba Ramdev, I request them to share it with me. I would then want to explore a way to contact Baba Ramdev who is a very well known spiritual figure in India, to inform him about Madhusudan Naidu being a spiritual fraud in his claims about Sathya Sai. I would also then put up a public post on the matter - an open letter to Baba Ramdev. But all that is warranted ***only if*** it is established that Baba Ramdev met Madhusudan Naidu through a public video (or a report by reputed media establishment).
Now in the text intro of the shared post below, there is no reference to Madhusudan Naidu as communicator, medium or embodiment of Sathya Sai (FALSE CLAIM made by Muddenahalli group), though the MDH group is referred to as group from SatyaSaiBaba campus.
I really have very little info. about this Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji. Therefore I don't plan to contact him regarding Madhusudan Naidu being a spiritual fraud.
[Shared FB video: https://www.facebook.com/PujyaSwamiji/videos/1103953519786866/ ]
=============================================================
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2415873531962543
I strongly approve of this move by the Cardinal, as far as living accused priests are concerned. Now some of the allegations may be false but that can be rebutted by the accused on social media and I hope that the New York Times will carry their rebuttals too. ... In the case of deceased priests, I wonder whether this is fair to them (and their relatives and friends) as the accused are not alive to rebut any false accusations made against them.
[Shared article: New Jersey Catholic Bishops List Names of Nearly 200 Priests Accused of Abuse, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/nyregion/list-of-priests-abuse.html]
=============================================================
https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2415439045339325
Interesting info. for those into religion statistics in Western Europe. This is about Germany's Catholic, Protestant, other religion and unaffiliated numbers.
https://twitter.com/IAmStarrStuff/status/1095719094932918272
[The text of the above tweet: Once a majority, #Protestants now account for fewer than a third of Germans https://pewrsr.ch/2HD2UtC]
=============================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2411104262439470, 8th Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Wonderful to know this! May God bless all who were involved in such low-cost marriage initiatives.
BTW my late father associated for some time with the Radha Soami Satsang in Mumbai/Bombay (perhaps in the 60s and early 70s). But I do not have any recollection of attending a Radha Saomi satsang.
[Shared article: Andhra Pradesh: IAS officer to spend only Rs 18,000 on son’s wedding, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/andhra-pradesh-ias-officer-to-spend-only-rs-18000-on-sons-wedding/articleshow/67894320.cms, 8th Feb. 2019]
========================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407367859479777, 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote (slightly edited):
So nice to see all these people come forward and overcome the hatred of one misguided youngster in Louisville, Kentucky, USA! May God bless all the people from various religions and from various political parties that contributed this Service out of love to more than erase the hate. May God show the right path to the youngster who is alleged to have done the vandalism.
Thanks to --name-snipped-- for sharing this.
God is Love. Love is God. - Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
[Shared article: Hundreds turn out to help clean vandalized Hindu temple, https://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/hundreds-turn-out-to-help-clean-vandalized-hindu-temple/417-06b213a8-48f9-4c4c-b75c-60fe2e6b02b4, 2nd Feb. 2019]
=========================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407122922837604, dated 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote (slightly edited):
Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of age. But being a gentleman is a matter of choice.
- Quote attributed to Vin Diesel, http://www.wisdomtoinspire.com/t/vin-diesel/NJJnSbXZg/being-a-male-is-a-matter-of-birth-being-a-man-is-a-matter-of-age-but-being-a-gentleman-is-a-matter-of-choice
=============================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407106059505957, 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Thought I should share a small experience I had about the effect of mentioning the name of Jesus Christ to an Italian devotee (IIRC) of Sathya Sai who was giving us some trouble when we were doing Seva Dal duty in Prasanthi Nilayam.
This was sometime in the 2nd half of the 1990s. If I recall correctly, I was the mandir (Sai Kulwant Hall) group leader of the Seva Dal from Maharashtra. Note that I was then working in the software industry in Bombay/Mumbai, India as a consultant and had come on perhaps two weeks leave to offer Seva Dal service at Prasanthi Nilayam. It was the first (and only) time I had been given that group leader work - on other Seva Dal duties in Prasanthi Nilayam I was one of the Seva Dal in the mandir discipline group tasked with ensuring discipline among devotees in the mandir, especially when Swami was on his darshan round.
On this day we still had not opened the Kulwant Hall gates for token line devotees. So the devotees were seated outside and, if I recall correctly, up the Old museum road. A young Italian (if I recall correctly) devotee, who was part of a group and had the group scarf on, was hassling me and other Seva Dal on some matter. I lost my patience and muttered "Jesus Christ". What a change that created! This young man's demeanour completely changed. He became calm and very co-operative - almost obedient, I should say.
I would have been having a ton of worries and work then as Mandir Seva Dal leader and so I would not have been able to interact much with him, and would have moved on to other work. But I clearly remember how when he heard me say the name, "Jesus Christ", his demeanour completely changed. I think that was my first exposure to the level of devotion some Italians have. After all, Rome was where the Christian faith took root with the great apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul having preached there, and the centre of Roman Catholic faith being in Vatican in Rome.
[Shared this post, https://www.facebook.com/TuttoCraxi/photos/a.2049665111999313/2050686718563819/?type=3&theater, dated 1st Feb. 2019 which has a pic of then Prime Minister of Italy, Bettino Craxi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettino_Craxi, and his wife with Swami (Sathya Sai) on 5th November 1986. The pic seems to be of the area just outside the interview room in main mandir building in Prasanthi Nilayam.]
===================================================
In FB post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2407050716178158, 3rd Feb. 2019, I wrote:
Interesting! I think this is the first time I am coming across the name of "Shaktidham's Jagatguru Sai Maa". Her wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Maa, states, "In her late twenties, Sai Maa met and became a disciple of the spiritual master, Sathya Sai Baba. She traveled frequently to Puttaparthi, India, to study with Sai Baba and became an active supporter of his humanitarian work. While maintaining an active career and family life, Sai Maa focused on practicing the teachings and disciplines she received from Sai Baba."
Hmm. She now seems to be an established spiritual master with a monastic order!
I had a look at this video: https://youtu.be/BAHgcMUAhSA of hers. The message seems to be a good one.
If readers have more information about her and would like to share it, I would be glad to know of it.
[Shared article: Seven seas across, foreigners become 'brahmacharis' in Kumbh, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67813792.cms, 3rd Feb. 2019.]
In response to a comment on the post, I wrote (slightly edited):
Really! All famous sanyasis have been married! Was Adi Shankara (originally from Kerala) married? Do you have references that can prove that?
----
In response to a comment on the post, I wrote (slightly edited):
Oh! I think I had not noted well that aspect of your comment which was a later sentence. I mean I did read it but your earlier sentence was somewhat sweeping and so I focused on it.
Interesting view! I don't think I know enough now to comment on it, as I have not read up on these sanyasi aspects of Hinduism prior to Buddhism.
Of course, many of the Rishis mentioned in our Hindu scripture are married, sometimes with more than one wife. But then they are referred to as Rishis and not as sanyasis. Was there a sanyasi parampara in those times? Are there written or oral accounts of such parampara then that are available to us now? Interesting questions but I don't have an answer to them.
I am putting up this response to an inner level comment of yours, at an outer level to give more visibility to my comment (and so your comment too). Thanks.
===========================================================
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