Released updated part autobio free ebook with some camera pics being replaced by better quality scanned pics, as "First edition, revised"

Last updated on 30th May 2019

I have updated the free ebook version of my book titled: Autobiography of an Indian Software Techie and Spiritual Aspirant – Part 1, with better quality scanned pics replacing some camera pics. I have also used scanned pics instead of some camera pics in the front cover page.

I have released it as: "First edition, revised" and it does not have an ISBN number. The date of release is 26th May 2019.

The new cover page pic is given below:

[To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

The updated ebook is now available for free download from the following:

1) My blog: https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/p/autobiography-of-indian-software-techie.html . PDF, Word, EPUB, AZW3 (Kindle Format 8) and MOBI formats of the book are available here for free download from Google Drive public share links.

2) archive.org: https://archive.org/details/AutobioOfIndianSoftwareTechiePart1 - mainly PDF

3) Open Library (uses above archive.org entry): https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26970795M/Autobiography_of_an_Indian_Software_Techie_and_Spiritual_Aspirant_%E2%80%93_Part_1 - mainly PDF

4)  Pothi.com: https://pothi.com/pothi/book/ebook-ravi-s-iyer-autobiography-indian-software-techie-and-spiritual-aspirant-%E2%80%93-part-1 - PDF and EPUB

5) Project Gutenberg (self.gutenberg.org) [Please note that downloads may be slow on this site]: http://self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0100301881-Autobiography-of-an-Indian-Software-Techie-and-Spiritual-Aspirant--Part-1-Covers-Mumbai--Dom-by-Iyer-Ravi-S-.aspx - PDF
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Given below are some comments from associated Facebook post,  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2499616863588209 :

I wrote (slightly edited): Thought I could share a nice joke/comparison about the effort/labour involved in coming out with (self-publishing, in my case) a book. An author said that it is like getting pregnant and having to labour on till the delivery is made :-). So I am relieved of ebook labour pains as that delivery is over. And I am hopefully at the fag end of the paperback delivery labour pains :-).
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In response to question on why I have used 2 passport stamped photoes on the cover page, I wrote (slightly edited):

Sairam --name-snipped--ji, These were the only photographs of those days that I have with me. After retirement from commercial work in Aug. 2002, I got rid of a lot of my belongings to fit into a new life of a spiritual sadhaka associated with a spiritual ashram from Oct. 2002 onwards. Being important documents, I preserved my passports (and educational and work related documents) and so I have only these pics of that period.

I could have chosen to use only the perhaps mid 1990s photo in the cover. But I felt I should use these three pics to show how the face changed over time.

The first two pics being passport pics with the passport authority red lettering visible and with a stamp on one of them, I think, adds to the story told by the cover pic alone. Note that I have used the words, 'foreign stints' in the sub-title. So these two passport pics provide documentation to back those words in the cover pic itself.

I try to use cover pics in my books to convey a lot of information. Therefore my titles and sub-titles are usually long.

With all that info. conveyed via the cover page itself to the potential/prospective reader, I feel that I have done my duty as a writer to adequately inform him/her. Now if that information leads to interest in the person and so he/she decides to browse through the book or look more closely at its description - great. But if that information/story of the cover page itself is something that does NOT interest the person leading to him/her ignoring the rest of the book - no problem. I am fine with that decision too. Perhaps that's because I am doing this with a largely Nishkaama attitude.
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In response to comment about less luggage being speedier progress and that a person will try to follow my practice, I wrote (slightly edited):

--Name-snipped-- sir - A longish response to provide you the full truthful picture on this matter.

For most of the initial 3 to 4 years of my Parthi life, I was living in a small rented room perhaps around 130 square feet (including tiny kitchen corner & tiny bathroom-toilet) which was on the top floor of a G+3 floor building (no lift) on Samadhi First Cross Road. Later I found that I was facing health problems which made it unwise for me to continue living in that small rented room. The heat in summer in the top floor flat was a big Tapasya to endure. Further, as I was getting into breathing problems (I have some history of some level of breathing problems and allergies related to that), climbing 3 floors multiple times in a day - I was doing free service full time in Sai university then - was something that my somewhat frail physical body could not handle well.

I then bought a small apartment flat (around 420 sq. feet carpet area; 500 sq. feet super-built-up area) on the 3rd floor of a G+6 building with lift. I made the initial payment in Aug. 2005 at which time the interior of the flat including walls were not done. So I had the great benefit of designing almost all of the interior part of the small flat to suit my needs as a single spiritual aspirant with some health issues. A small front room, a small kitchnette, a decent size bedroom-cum-living-room (biggest room in the flat), decent size bathroom-cum-toilet and a sit-out (balcony). I moved into that flat sometime in mid 2006, if I recall correctly, and I continue to live in that same flat now (I am typing this comment in that flat).

Once I moved into this flat, I slowly acquired creature comforts: some furniture, TV, microwave, cooking gas, computer etc. I also changed my free service offering in Sai university from full-time to part-time (with some preparatory computer work done at home on home computer) from Jan. 2008 onwards (5 years full-time free service in Sai university from Jan. 2003 to Jan. 2008).

This flat with its creature comforts and decent facilities, has been of great benefit to me in my spiritual exploration. It has been my main Sadhana sthal (place) from mid 2006 till around mid 2011. I think those 5 years have been absolutely vital in my spiritual exploration as for most of this period Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was in physical form and I would be having the great benefit of his Darshan and listening to his discourses live in Sai Kulwant Hall.

This flat with its creature comforts and decent facilities, has enabled me from September 2011 onwards to offer my free service of social media writing on spirituality, religion, improvement in teaching of software development in Indian academia, (sharing) my teaching material on software development, and miscellaenous topics. Of course, this includes my whistle-blowing role on social media exposing the history of hijack of SSSIHL by Muddenahalli group from Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014, and my contribution to reversing the hijack of parts of Prasanthi Nilayam ashram system (including SSSIHL) and to informing the Sathya Sai fraternity at large about false claims of Muddenahalli group.

But I lived the bare-bones type sadhaka-and-free-service-worker life in Puttaparthi from Oct. 2002 to mid 2006 - an over three and a half years period. That period taught me a lot about bare-bones type sadhaka life, and about survival. It contributed significantly to hardening me to handle physical-level challenges of Puttaparthi life (which would be similar to life in other spiritual centres in India) and I was able to lead a spartan life in that period. I have great respect for people who lead such bare-bones sadhaka lives anywhere in India and other places in the world, and I can relate to their lives as I have lived that life for over three and a half years (not a small period).

But I have to say that if I had continued to lead that bare-bones sadhaka spartan life, I would not have become a social media writer on spirituality & religion nor a whistle-blower on Muddenahalli group false-claims. If I was leading that spartan life then I would have shied away from these roles as that would need some level of facilities and also ability to face the cyber attacks and other opposition that whistle-blowers normally face.

It is the currently happy and quite comfortable flat that I have lived in from mid 2006 onwards (nearly 13 years now), with fair level of creature comforts and facilities that has enabled me to play the above mentioned roles over the past few years (after Mahasamadhi).

I view my flat as my small ashram where I try very hard to follow Swami's teaching and the Sanathana Dharma dictum of: Sathyam Vada Dharmam Chara. But I have my fair share of human flaws which I am engaged in a struggle to overcome. I continue to be just a spiritual aspirant as I was when I settled down in Puttaparthi from Oct. 2002 onwards but perhaps a somewhat wiser spiritual aspirant now :-).
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In response to a comment, I wrote (slightly edited):
It is our beloved Lord Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's Grace that I was able to make the spiritual efforts in the Punya Bhoomi (Divine Land) of Puttaparthi that He personally developed and steered towards holiness. Of course, I repeat that I still have many human flaws that I am working on to overcome - so I am just a spiritual aspirant. But I should also say here that I am a law-abiding citizen of Andhra Pradesh and of India.
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