Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Thought I should share the key aspects of my current sadhana (spiritual practice) which I have been following over past quite a few months. Perhaps it may be of interest to some spiritual aspirant(s) now or later on. Namasmarana and prayer to Sai Baba (both Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Bhagavan Sri Shirdi Sai Baba) is an important component which has increased over these past months. Namasmarana is mainly Om Sai Ram or Sai Ram but sometimes some other names of / references to God. In meditation with form aspect, I focus on merger into Swami's (Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba's) lotus feet. This component has also increased over these past months. In formless meditation, the main components are centering on my core being (changeless beingness-I/awareness-I observer/witness), and focusing on merger into formless God viewing the beingness-I as being a tiny part of formless God. So beingness-I is a sort-of pathway to formless God. Time spent on this has reduced over past months bu...

Last updated on 6 Sep. 2024 Readers may want to vist my updated post on another blog: Gita web app (Next.js, open source) v1.4.1: Improved User Interface including in Settings page; Notes for students & self-learners .  Some 'Quick Info' from it: Web App deployed at:  https://gita-rsi.vercel.app/ Github repo of web app:  https://github.com/ravisiyer/gita

यस्त्वात्मरतिरेव स्यादात्मतृप्तश्च मानवः। आत्मन्येव च सन्तुष्टस्तस्य कार्यं न विद्यते।।3.17।।   - Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3, Verse 17: https://gita-rsi.vercel.app/verse/136 But for that man who rejoices only in the Self, who is satisfied with the Self and is content in the Self alone, indeed there is nothing to do. - Translation in English by Swami Sivananda -------- But the man whose delight is only in the Self, who is satisfied with the Self, who rejoices in the Self, for him nothing remains to be accomplished. - Translation in English by Swami Adidevananda -------- Ravi: IMHO, the key words in this verse about Atma are: Atma rathihi - rejoice in the Self (alone/only) Atma thrupthaha - content in the Self Atma santhushtah - satisfied in the Self (alone/only) IMHO, such an attainment where a person rejoices in, and is content with, the Atma/Self alone/only (and does not desire anything else (for himself/herself)), is an awesome spiritual achievement. [The person may still pray for h...

Last updated on 4 Jul. 2024 A note from my meditation session today (1 Jul. 2024): In my past notes, I have referred to the core of my being as awareness-I. For example, see my post: Viewing Awareness-I as essence or part of God in my meditation and trying to dissolve or merge into God (experience oneness with God), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/06/viewing-awareness-i-as-essence-or-part.html , June 2023. In today's session, I felt that I could say that the core of my being is a beingness, an am-ness (like I-am-ness but I felt I should drop the I to better describe it and so am using the term am-ness). [In the contents below, I am using the words 'mainly beingness' as in a state of 'only beingness', thoughts of the body are not there.] While in that state of mainly beingness, when I choose to be aware of my body, I instinctively know that I am not the body. I don't think it is a belief. Yes, the teachings of scripture and of spiritual masters about Atma bei...

I have been using the web app: https://bloggerfeedtobook.netlify.app/ mentioned in my post given below, for a few months now. I find it useful for creating HTML backup of recent posts, and for searching through posts in a blog in a single HTML page of matching posts. The app is quite stable now. The post: Blogger Blog Feed to HTML Book; Useful for Recent Posts HTML backup and Searching Posts, https://raviswdev.blogspot.com/2024/04/barebones-blogger-blog-feed-to-html.html  .

I thought some readers may want to check out this simple 'barebones' in-progress web program, "Barebones Blogger Blog Feed to HTML Book" that I have published on https://bloggerfeedtobook.netlify.app/ . It should work with any Blogger blog. I have tested it with one of my Blogger blogs and some other Blogger blog.  In the context of our beloved Late Prof. Anil Kumar sir, I was curious to know whether I could get a blog book (webpage) of posts on AK sir put up on SSSIHL students blog. So I checked the program out with parameters of: Blog: https://sathyasaiwithstudents.blogspot.com/ Num posts: 150 Search: Anil Kumar I was gratified to see many posts about our beloved Prof. Anil Kumar sir, along with a few posts related to other 'Anil Kumar(s)'. Total posts returned were 135. Readers may be able to see these posts by visiting https://bloggerfeedtobook.netlify.app/ and providing above parameters.  I use the program on my PC desktop and I think it should be usabl...

From my Facebook post:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/pfbid035PgV7vsEwm4T5fFufE41rghJpNbipbSp2zxSPgCEAuLGJ86CxPx3AUe4obTimwyel  :  From: https://www.facebook.com/saimemories/posts/pfbid02FGAMFY5ztfKNtND5XMS4wr4ZFBJSDkY2JXSYRvsHUoHoEWMrA2VcsPBNKoJ3zM3vl *PROF. ANIL KUMAR NO MORE* April 3, 2024 Every Sai devoteee's beloved, Prof. Anil Kumar, who dedicated his entire life spreading the message of Sri Sathya Sai Baba breathed his last in Swami's Super speciality hospital peacefully surrounded by his children.  .... ================== My (Ravi S. Iyer) comments: Prof. Anil Kumar sir was a great source of inspiration and help to me. I am very grateful to him and offer my reverential pranams to him. This is a great loss to Sathya Sai devotee family. I think Anil Kumar sir will be remembered for generations to come as someone who was very close to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, as the English translator of Bhagavan's discourses, and as a well-known speaker and ...

Readers may want to see my recent blog post on another blog of mine: Updated Roadmap and Extensive and Well Organized Notes for Learning Full Stack (MERN) Web Development Beginner Level through Free Online Tutorials,  https://raviswdev.blogspot.com/2024/03/updated-roadmap-and-extensive-and-well.html . 

Last updated on 9 Sep. 2024 IMHO, a great spiritual challenge is understanding and handling the mystery and challenge of grave illness/injury coming to a person, and sometimes leading to his/her passing away. After the event, doctors may analyze an illness and say why it happened at physical-body level but it is very difficult for them to accurately predict when somebody is going to fall ill and how severe the illness will be. Hindu scripture talks of Rishis having knowledge about such matters from a spiritual perspective (e.g. karmic result) not only about their life but also about other people's lives, and many Rishis had the power to rise above body consciousness at will.  In our times though, such spiritual masters seem to be very rare.  Most of us devotees/spiritual aspirants (NOT masters), me certainly included, have no such (clear and precise) spiritual perspective knowledge about why grave illness/injury comes to a person (which could be us). We may loosely speculate a...

Readers may want to have a look at my recent post in another blog of mine: Upskilling to MERN web developer: Finished 2nd round of Roadmap to Learning Full Stack Web Development,  https://raviswdev.blogspot.com/2024/03/upskilling-to-mern-web-developer.html  .