Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Recent post I put up on another blog of mine: Can Thinvent Micro 5 based Linux mini PC costing around Rs.10,000 be used for teaching Internet browsing, Libre Office etc. and for online classes in poor rural schools? https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2021/12/can-thinvent-micro-5-based-linux-mini.html  .  

Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog: Exploring Motherboard repair possibilities through company service center without computer technician support, in rural India; Below Rs.3000 (US$40) limited functionality Linux mini PC box with 1 year warranty, https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2021/11/exploring-motherboard-repair.html . 

Last updated on 1st Dec. 2021 I did some digging up on the course of Chitravathi river from its origin to the point at which it joins the Penna river, and through Penna river, the point at which it merges into the sea. I thought some readers may be interested to know it too and so am putting up this post. Please note that there may be mistakes in the information I have gathered. If readers come across such mistakes, I would be glad to be informed of these mistakes and be given the corrections. The wiki page of Chitravathi river, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitravathi_River , informs us that Chitravathi river originates in Chikkaballapur district of Karnataka and then flows into Anantapur district. https://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/andhrapradesh/rivers/ shows a map of rivers of Andhra Pradesh. Chitravathi is mispelt as Charavathi. We can see how Chitravathi river flows from Karnataka (Chikkaballapur district) into Anantapur district and from Anantapur district into Kadapa (spelt as ...

I am currently watching, in parts, Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's video: Enlightenment, Yogic Powers & Celibacy | Monks Ask Gurudev Anything, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY4Ch_MNWYo , published on 23rd Sept. 2021. I thoroughly enjoyed one answer of Guruji Sri Sri Ravi Shankar when he is asked about how one can get enlightened even as we live in consciousness, like a fish living in an ocean not being able to estimate the size of the ocean. The question is in Hindi and Guruji answers in Hindi (at 6 mins. 17 secs.): "Chah mari, chinta mari, prabhu miley. Prabhu miley to hum kahan. Vahi cha gaye, vahi rah gaye". I loved the powerful message conveyed by these simple Hindi words. Perhaps this may be a well known Hindi saying among spiritual traditions in Hindi speaking communities of India. But I don't think I had heard this particular expression earlier. The English translation of it (my translation which is slightly different from the translation provided in the t...

Note that most of this blog post's contents are taken from the contents of my public Facebook post with same title dated 23rd Sept. 2021:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/3220637204819501 . I think it is time to close our petition: Declaration by Sathya Sai devotees and alumni & staff of Sai educational institutions, condemning spiritual fraud Madhusudan Rao Naidu, https://www.change.org/p/sathya-sai-devotee-fraternity-worldwide-we-condemn-spiritual-fraud-madhusudan-rao-naidu which we put out in end 2018/early 2019 [Related Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2381164682100095 , dated 1st Jan. 2019.] [Related blog post:  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/01/changeorg-petition-declaration-by.html , dated 1st Jan. 2019.] I think the petition-declaration has had some impact. It achieved top-ten Internet search engine ranking on related search terms and even today it has a top-ten search ranking for some related terms. E.g. "is madhusud...

Last updated on 7th Jan. 2022 with my Facebook post comment dated 21st Sept. 2021 Over the past few days, I have watched parts of a video on history of Ancient Mesopotamia: The Entire History of the Akkadians // Ancient Mesopotamia Documentary,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mAWItV2q0  , 1 hr. 28 mins, published by History Time on 8th Sept. 2021. So far I have watched around an hour of the video. Not unexpectedly, the video claims that the Sumerians (of Ancient Mesopotamia) were the first people to create cities. From 08:34 in the video (taken from the transcript): "in the span of barely a millennium the sumerians had established mankind's first real urban centers with towering walls and religious sanctuaries known as ziggurats ...". There are one or two (or perhaps slightly more) minor references to Indus Valley Civilization in the video but not in the context of any ancient Indian civilizations prior to Sumerian civilization. I think this is how current day history ...

Last updated on 7th Jan. 2022 with contents of my FB post of 23rd Sept. 2021 After a long gap of nearly two years, today I have resumed my reading of Valmiki Ramayana. My last reading was sometime in late October 2019 and I had put up a post on the part I read: Fascinating encounter between Lord Parashurama and Lord Rama in Valmiki Ramayana - Part 2 of 2, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/10/fascinating-encounter-between.html , posted on 22nd Oct. 2019. Then came COVID pandemic! I am very happy that even though the COVID pandemic is still not over, I have re-started the Valmiki Ramayana reading. I intend to do it at a slow pace, as one activity among other activities. Today I read the last sarga (chapter?) of Bala Kanda: https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&language=dv&field_sarga_value=77 , http://valmikiramayan.pcriot.com/utf8/baala/sarga77/bala_77_frame.htm . It depicts very well how Rama after defeating Parashurama, which encounter has shaken Rama...

A little while back today, I got home delivery of Khichdi provided by a Sai devotee in Puttaparthi. He had provided me a sample of it a couple of days ago. Later I referred to his dish, jokingly, as Shirdi Sai Baba Khichdi, as I had read about Shirdi Sai Baba eating (and perhaps also making, at times) Khichdi. I googled for Shirdi Sai Baba Khichdi and found that many youtube video recipes of Sai Baba Khichdi are provided as the top results! [On PC desktop, 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.] Eventually I got to a Sathchirata reference link to Khichdi, whose extract is given below. From http://www.saibabaofshirdi.net/satcharita/sai28.html : Now let us turn to another sparrow (Baba's word meaning devotee). One lady in Burhanpore saw in her dream Sai Baba coming to her door and begging khichadi (rice cooked with dal and salt) for His meals. On awakening sh...

Last updated on  7 Jun. 2024   7 Jun. 2024: Some sensitive content has been snipped.   Note: The long blog post starts with an introduction and then is divided into summary and details sections. Readers could choose to go through only the intro. and summary sections and skip the later details sections. As this post is a long one, it was published as an in-progress post on 11th Sept. 2021 and got completed (no longer in-progress) on 17th Sept. 2021. Introduction I started regular blogging as a free service (Seva) activity ten years ago, in September 2011. I felt it appropriate to capture and share some blog stats, and a few remarks about this work. Further, I think this post may help some novice free service blogger/social media writer or some people who are considering to do this activity. So I decided to invest the time in gathering the data and then putting up this post. My inspiration to take up this regular blogging activity was the teaching of my beloved and rev...