Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

A few days ago on 28th Jan. 2020 evening, in outside ashram Puttaparthi, I saw an interesting message on what seemed to be a Christian ministry vehicle. The message was on the lines of: the LORD your God is with you wherever you go - Joshua. I loved that! After coming home, I looked it up on the Net. Here's the verse - Joshua 1:9, https://biblehub.com/joshua/1-9.htm , "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.", New International Version. Another version, New Living Translation: "This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Wonderful! What divine assurance! I should also say that I am convinced that this revelation and similar revelations in Hindu scripture, about God being with us wherever we go, is the truth. We should have faith in the truth of this revelation, ...

I get the impression that the video seems to be generally accurate. However, I don't know for sure. There could be some inaccuracies. In any case, it was great to see these pics of Bhagavan Sri Shirdi Sai Baba most of which are very familiar to me, as Mumbai and surrounding areas, where I lived for most of the first four decades of my life (1962-2002), is full of Shirdi Sai Baba devotees who would have some of these pics in their homes, and even in workplaces (including in Autos by Auto driver/owner devotees). These pics would also be there in places of worship, and there would be many sellers including roadside sellers, displaying these pics of Baba (for sale). It was very interesting to know Dr. Chitluri's views, based on her knowledge/research, about the background of these pics. I must also mention that I do not know whether the Shirdi Sai Sansthan (official orgn. of Shirdi Sai Baba mandir) agrees with these views of Dr. Chitluri. Original Photos of Shirdi Sai Baba | Dr....

This post follows up on my recent post: Nice rural walking route in Puttaparthi; Pedometer data update, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2020/01/nice-rural-walking-route-in-puttaparthi.html . I thought it would be good to take pics of this rural walking route. So yesterday, 23rd Jan. 2020, I took many, many pics while I was on my walk. Those pics are shared publicly here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AuMobMDn4wecAHcF6 . Some of these pics have long description. To see the full description click on info button in Google Photos display. The pics were taken from around 4.45 PM to around 6.30 PM. I selected 75 of those pics to be shared here, along with one pedometer screenshot for yesterday's walk. The pics with some of them having description tell the story. The pics are in the sequence in which they were taken with pic taken earliest (4:48 PM) being first. The last - 76th - pic is a Pedometer screenshot giving data for the walk yesterday. =======================================...

Readers may want to read my recent post on another blog of mine: What size of Times New Roman font - 12, 11 or 10 - should I use for main text for paperback book and ebook having this blog's (Indian CS & IT Academic Reform) main contents?, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2020/01/what-size-of-times-new-roman-font-12-11.html .

Last updated on 24th Jan. 2020 This post is further to my recent post (on another blog): Simple and useful 'Pedometer - Step Counter' Android app for measuring walking exercise, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2020/01/simple-and-useful-pedometer-step.html . Today I started the app as soon as I put my walking boots on, just outside my flat, and stopped it when I had returned and was just outside my flat. Though the walk path was the same as earlier, perhaps due to me starting the app's step counting earlier, the steps shown by the app today are: 8519 (as against 7727 in earlier post for walk on 20th Jan. 2020). The distance today is shown as 5.792 km (as against 5.254 km on 20th Jan. 2020). Cropped screenshot is given below. As I mentioned in the earlier post, the actual walking steps (as against smaller steps while taking a break or going down the apartment stairs/ coming up in apt. elevator) would be 5 to 10% lesser. So the actual distance walked may be aroun...

I think these words attributed to Jalaluddin Rumi,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi  - "As you start to walk on the way, the way appears", have been very true for my spiritual journey which started in earnest in the early 1990s. It is not instant and it is not without challenges but as one goes through the challenges, one realizes that the way forward spiritually has appeared. Seek and you shall find is another great and promising spiritual teaching/revelation in this context. I think it applies not only to the final goal of finding God but the various steps in between. What the spiritual aspirant needs is shraddha (faith) along with courage to face the inevitable challenges that serve to improve one from a spiritual perspective, and saburi (patience) of a spiritual order (patience over a looooooong period of time :-) ). Note that Shraddha and Saburi are famous teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi .

Last updated on 21st Jan. 2020 Shirdi town seems to be having a bandh (shutdown) (excluding temple and essential facilities) reportedly in opposition to Maha CM Thackeray's statement that Shirdi Sai Baba was born in Pathri in Parbhani district in Maharashtra, and his allocation of funds for development of that area (perhaps as a spiritual centre). Sai Baba Temple To Remain Open Amid Indefinite Shirdi Shutdown From Today, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9QQUZ1vo1c , 2 min 41 secs, published by NDTV. Sai Baba temple to remain open amid indefinite shutdown at Shirdi city from today, https://www.livemint.com/news/india/sai-baba-temple-to-remain-open-amid-indefinite-shutdown-at-shirdi-city-from-today-11579406161743.html . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Sai_Janmasthan_Temple,_Pathri says, "In 1970s, a field research established that Sai Baba was born in Pathri village. Sri Sai Smarak Samiti (Sai Memorial committee) was then formed in Pathri." My beloved and rev...

Readers may want to read my recent post on another blog of mine: High Noon: Utterly fascinating 1952 Hollywood movie about small town community's cowardly attitude towards law enforcement marshal under revenge attack by released convict,  https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2020/01/high-noon-utterly-fascinating-1952.html .

Last updated on 17th Jan. 2020 The screenshots below show Bing and DuckDuckGo top results for search on: statements of belief in god that is compatible with science [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.] My two note/post links shown in above screenshots, both of which have similar base contents but the second (blog post) has some additional inputs/thoughts, are: https://www.facebook.com/notes/ravi-s-iyer/crisp-statements-of-belief-in-god-that-is-compatible-with-science/1889831711233397/ and https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2017/04/feedback-on-my-adaptation-of-crisp.html But Google search for the same search string does not list my post(s) in the first forty results (first 4 result pages). It shows a post with similar contents on my iami1.wordpress.com blog - https://iami1.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/crisp-statements-of-belief-in-god-that-is-c...

Decided to put up this post just to share that people are searching for sai baba and advaita vedanta! I have heard Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba speaking on Advaita Vedanta live in Sai Kulwant Hall on so many occasions. He spoke on the essence of the matter and it is my deep belief that he spoke from direct experience and direct knowledge about Advaita. Swami would refer to Adi Shankara many times. After Mahasamadhi, somehow the focus is not so much on these teachings and discourses of Bhagavan on Advaita Vedanta. So I was happy to see today that in the past 24 hours somebody/some people landed up on this blog, on this post: Sathya Sai Baba's Advaita Teachings By John Hislop Ph.D. - Edited Transcript of Video, http://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2013/11/sathya-sai-babas-advaita-teachings-by.html , 13th Nov. 2013. There were 3 visits and all of them were via Bing search engine. See cropped screenshots below with two of them having a red arrow pointing to relevant info. at bottom of ...

Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog of mine: Sending paperback book from Puttaparthi to UK or USA by Post, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2020/01/sending-paperback-book-from-puttaparthi.html .

Last updated on 17th Jan. 2020 I was debating whether I should share this. I decided to share it as I think it may be of interest to some readers, especially those who are bloggers on Sathya Sai and spirituality & religion in general, if not now then perhaps in the future. I was quite freaked out to see that my blogger stats, a few days ago on 9th Jan., showed a visit to my blog coming from bing search engine (bing.com) on query: SATHYA SAI BABA ON TRUTH See pic below showing the source link at the bottom, pointed to by red arrows. [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 concerned blog post of mine was a November 2014 post: Sathya Sai Baba on Truth from 1958 discourse, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2014/11/sathya-sai-baba-on-truth-from-1958.html . The post shared the following quote from 1958 discourse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba...

Last updated on 10th Jan. 2020 Minor update on 30th Oct. 2020 Late yesterday night (early morning today, 10th Jan), I did some searches on well known search engines using anonymous Chrome browser for search terms about: answer to existential reality question: who am I? The results showed my 'Who am I? I am I ...' book among the top ten results! That was nice to know and I thought I should share this with readers. 'Who am I? I am I ...' book paperback version (link has short book description):  https://www.amazon.in/Who-Ultimate-Existential-conversation-iami1-wordpress-com/dp/164650349X/  , free PDF version (link has longer book description and table of contents):  https://archive.org/details/20180424EbookNotPrintColourCoverBWContentsA5WhoAmIIAmINGodNScience . Given below are screenshots of three search engines (Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo) for search term: Answer to existential reality question: who am I? [To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on ...

Last updated on 9th Jan. 2020 The related posts of mine are: 1) British filmmaker Jeff Grant corroborates Aug. 2019 Sanathana Sarathi article paragraph about his mid 1970s film capturing Sathya Sai Baba's materialization of a necklace, though film is lost now, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/12/british-filmmaker-jeff-grant.html , 31st Dec. 2019. 2) British filmmaker Jeff Grant's 2011 blog posts about profound impact of his mid 1970s experience of Sathya Sai Baba's spiritual aura and charisma, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2020/01/british-filmmaker-jeff-grants-2011-blog.html , 6th Jan. 2020. These two posts of mine share an account of a British filmmaker about what seems to have been clearly supernatural acts done by Sathya Sai Baba in the mid 1970s, and about the spiritual aura and charisma of Sathya Sai Baba. The filmmaker, Jeff Grant, clearly was a skeptic initially but he could not dismiss what he saw with his eyes - quite a few such manifestations, includ...

Last updated on 11th Jan. 2020 Further to my recent post: British filmmaker Jeff Grant corroborates Aug. 2019 Sanathana Sarathi article paragraph about his mid 1970s film capturing Sathya Sai Baba's materialization of a necklace, though film is lost now, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/12/british-filmmaker-jeff-grant.html , this post covers the posts about Sathya Sai Baba on Jeff Grant's blog. Mr. Jeff Grant is a former film director and now professional writer who lives in London, UK. Note that these posts/articles are written in what seems to me to be an unbiased matter-of-fact manner. I consider them to be very well written accounts that portray the awesome spiritual presence/persona of Sathya Sai Baba and his power to give joy and peace to people. They also touch upon the spiritual teachings of Sathya Sai Baba. All these 8 articles were written after Sathya Sai Mahasamadhi in April 2011, in the months from May to December 2011. Links to them are given below, alo...

Last updated on 7th Jan. 2020   Please note that I am NOT anti-Muslim and have great respect for peaceful and law-abiding Muslims of India. I am simply highlighting some bad practices among some Muslims in Pakistan where they persecute religious minorities. I also feel it appropriate to state my belief here:  Ishwar Maalik! Allah Maalik! Yesu Maalik! Sabka Maalik Ek! [Ishwar is the Lord! Allah is the Lord! Yesu (Jesus) is the Lord! The Lord of all is one!] The University of Birmingham report is titled, "Forced Conversions and Forced Marriages in Sindh, Pakistan" and seems to have been published in 2018 (its Copyright statement is dated 2018). The Executive Summary of the report is only 4 pages. Here's the 44 page full document link: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-artslaw/ptr/ciforb/Forced-Conversions-and-Forced-Marriages-in-Sindh.pdf . The main author is Reuben Ackerman, from CIFoRB, The University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. The other contrib...