Miscellaneous Facebook posts & comments in September 2020
When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer).
To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link.
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Overnight rains leading to Chitravathi river overflowing checkdam at Puttaparthi, across the whole checkdam. In the past few days too, we saw videos of it overflowing but it was with lesser volume and force.
[Shared FB video: https://www.facebook.com/raja.chowdary.180/posts/1720362011446686 ]
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On FB post: https://www.facebook.com/adiazviana/posts/10159115331174837 , I commented:
Oh Lord! My earnest prayers to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba for your and family's safety. ... I had not seen much news of these fires in past few days and so I thought that they had subsided! Very sad to know that they are still raging!
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This video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Q481MobOo, is being circulated with some probably having the impression that it is a real video of Shirdi Sai Baba due to the words (translated to English) "Video of Baba of 10th Oct. 1918. On 15th Oct. (he) took samadhi" put up as a caption on the video.
I think this is a video of some movie on Shirdi Sai Baba. If any reader of this post recognizes which movie it is from, I request them to please let me know. Thanks.
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On FB post: https://www.facebook.com/omshree.sairam.58/posts/344676063417134 , I wrote:
I guess this is from some movie on Shirdi Sai Baba.
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Chitravathi river overflowing the checkdam at Puttaparthi. Great to see this as this will mean good water table level for Puttaparthi town as well as for areas around Puttaparthi.
[Shared FB video: https://www.facebook.com/raja.chowdary.180/posts/1713878302095057 ]
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Good work by brother Sai Kumar! Puttaparthi police deserve such appreciation for their great work and sacrifice during this COVID pandemic. Jai Sai Ram!
[FB post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2947560055460552 ]
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Wonderful act of Chinna Jeeyar Swamy in attending Muslim marriage function in a mosque in Hyderabad (Telangana state) and blessing some of the Muslims at the event
Around 1 min, 44 secs, His Holiness Chinna Jeeyar Swamy says a few words in English: "Worship your own. Respect all"!
Wiki page of His Holiness Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinna_Jeeyar
Video is around 3 mins and in Telugu. https://www.facebook.com/TV9Telugu/posts/3391481554282209
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IBADAT KARO || Christian Hindi Song || Cover by Sreshta Karmoji || Anil Kanth, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKRqzaeRLAE, 5 min. 52 secs, premiered on 10th June 2020.
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Amazing Grace - Michael W. Smith (Christian song), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLZhQHuQQFE, 6 min. 13 secs.
Lovely Hindi Christian song (the reference is to God using Hindu/Urdu words and one might think it is a Muslim group singing but it is Christian). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2YMB4rJmgY, 5 min. 37 secs.
Mann Lago Yaar Fakiri Mein by Abida Parveen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB2TCCowHpA, around 16 mins.
Pooja Gaitonde singing Man Laago Yaar Fakiri Me, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtPenxHKIBM, 8 min. 24 secs.
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The lead singer of this rendition of the well known qawwali - Bhar do Jholi meri ya Mohammad - seems to be Hindu (Anu Kapoor). I think late 20th and early 21st century India has a lot of such traditions of respect for various religions, and I think such inter-faith respect must be zealously protected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2F7GTf9IDA, 8 min. 21 secs.
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Nice clip of a person's visit to a famous Muslim shrine in Mumbai - Haji Ali - which also has many Hindu and perhaps other religion visitors too. [I have visited it during my Mumbai days.] The video was published in Dec. 2017 but the visit date is mentioned as 7th June 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zFEBwk0O6o, slightly over 4 mins.
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I don't follow Kannada but I find this lady's (Sangeeta Katti) voice, singing ability, clear enunciation of Sanskrit words like Trikarana Shuddhi as well as devotional fevour in the audio of the song to be wonderful! The video part has a collage of pics and so does not show her singing the song.
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kannada devotional song - sangeetha katti, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h3gqnmM7GE, 7 min. 18 secs.
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Simple but very deep spiritual wisdom from Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba: (slightly edited tweet text) "If you cannot pray for the total welfare of the community around you in whom God lives, how is it possible for you to worship an invisible God? The first (thing) you must do is look after the welfare of the living community around you. #SriSathyaSai #GoodMorningWithSai"
https://twitter.com/Saiyours/status/1304305397457653760
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Multi-faith prayers (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian) during formal induction of Rafale fighter jets into Indian Air Force. Tweet video is close to 10 minutes.
[Linked tweet: https://twitter.com/rajnathsingh/status/1304033108174336000 ]
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On public post: https://www.facebook.com/nirmal.kapoor.31/posts/3260404970716528, I wrote the following comments (slightly edited):
Very sorry to know about what your grandmother had to go through. Really great that she gave up wealth and property in Lahore to keep her Hindu faith, and escaped to India.
Good that she transmitted that horrific and tragic experience to you. Hindus (I am a Hindu) should know such history to guard against such incidents happening in India, now and in future.
From whatever I have personally seen of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in the years that I provided free service in the Sai university (from Jan. 2003 till Bhagavan was taken to Super hospital in end March 2011) with designations of Honorary Staff, Visiting Faculty & Honorary Faculty in SSSIHL/SSSU Prasanthinilayam campus, Bhagavan would promote the glory of great Avatars like Rama & Krishna, great god (Mahadev) Lord Shiva, and of Hindu traditions and scripture in general.
While I don't want to comment directly on some comments you have shared of some person who is supposedly from SSSIHL, I do want to say that if any person is trying to use his/her SSSIHL (ex) student status to denigrate Hindu traditions, then he/she is doing a great disservice to SSSIHL and is doing something that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba would surely be strongly critical of.
I should also mention here that Bhagavan laid great emphasis on respect to all peaceful religions. So peaceful Islam is something that Bhagavan promoted with a masjid in Puttaparthi being constructed and I think even inaugurated by him.
So while Hindus should not forget the horrors of conversion done by the sword in past centuries by some Muslim groups/sects, as well as conversions by material enticement done by evangelical Christians, Hindus should also be very respectful of peaceful and law-abiding Muslims and Christians, and those of other religions too, in India
Let us remember Shirdi Sai Baba's teaching of Sabka Maalik Ek! Let us also remember that Shirdi Sai Baba was against his followers converting from one faith to another. He wanted his followers to be good persons within their own faith.
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1947 riots were Hindu-Muslim riots, weren't they? Or are you referring to some other riots which forced your grandmother to leave wealth and property in Lahore and escape to India and thereby not abandon her Hindu faith?
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Well, it was quite obvious that that violence and faith was in the Hindu-Muslim conflict context. And so my comment referred to that and also covered peaceful co-existence with peaceful followers of any religion so as to not mix that up with blind religious hatred towards followers of any particular religion.
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Well, your post starts off with violence and faith in a very strong way. You may say that that was not the focus of your post but the words you have used in those initial sentences about violence and faith, draw attention, and are a significant part of your post.
I think it is difficult to generalize about what state the Hindu fold was a century ago, with respect to criticism of Hindu iconic figures by some Hindus and those who were born Hindus but chose to move away from Hinduism. The early part of the 20th century saw the rise of communism and it got established in the Soviet Union and later China (in the mid 20th century China became a communist country but Maz Zedong and his followers were into communism decades prior to that).
That led to strong movements of communism in India too, with Indian communists (most, or at least significant numbers of them, being Hindus prior to becoming communist atheists/agnostics) and related movements like rationalist movements (e.g. in Tamil Nadu with most of their leaders & followers having Hindu names indicating they were Hindus prior to becoming atheist/agnostic rationalists), attacking Hindu icons and Hindu traditions in a horrible way. Perhaps you are not aware of that history of early to mid 20th century in India.
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Those who claim to be Hindus and attack Hindu icons and traditions, in my view, cannot be viewed as Hindus with faith. They perhaps are Hindus only in terms of following some Hindu traditions of their families for traditions' sake and for community support purposes, but they don't have faith in core tenets of Hindu religion.
Such people cannot be viewed as degenerate Hindus. In my considered view, they are not Hindus.
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Having some doubts about some actions of some Hindu Avatars is a different matter. For example, Lord Rama asking Sita Devi to pass the Agni Pariksha can be a matter of some doubt to young Hindus of today's times. They need to read words of great Hindu teachers including that of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in this regard to get their doubts cleared. People with such doubts cannot be termed degenerate Hindus, IMHO.
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Well, I am no longer a teacher. Even when I was a teacher (in software industry and in SSSIHL), I taught only about software stuff.
Yes, there are some who don't believe in Hindu tenets and still call themselves Hindus.
I don't want to get involved in particular comments made by some ex SSSIHL student. I am more involved with larger Hinduism and spirituality & religion world than SSSIHL world, which I quit in mid 2012.
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I should also add that I now am a writer on social media (and also have a few self-published books) on spirituality & religion, and on life in general. But from mid 2012, I have NO SSSIHL connection at all!
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