Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Last updated on 31st Mar. 2019 I have been reading Love is My Form, Volume 1 by R. Padmanaban, in fits & bursts. This book has wonderful pics of the family of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. I felt that this black & white pic of Mother Easwaramma in it which shows her at a younger age than most of her pics publicly available on the Internet, is a wonderful one. I had seen this pic elsewhere but I think it is not available at good resolution on the Internet. [To open pic in higher 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.] Google Search showed that Radio Sai website does have the same pic but at lower resolution (and so showing less details): http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_06/01MAY08/images/07_swami_and_me/Easwaramma/Mother.jpg . So I took a few pics of this book photo of Mother Easwaramma using my mobile phone camera, and picked up a good pic to put up in t...

Last updated on 8th April 2019 I have written about Radhanath Swami earlier. For those readers who may not have read my earlier posts on him, here is some info. about Radhanath Swami based on his wikipedia page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radhanath_Swami . Radhanath Swami was born as Richard Slavin in December 1950 in Chicago, USA to a Jewish family with roots in Eastern Europe. He has been into Bhakti Yoga and acted as a spiritual teacher for over 40 years. He is viewed as a key figure in ISKCON's free midday meal scheme for over a million school children across India, and the Bhaktivedanta hospital in Mira Road, Mumbai. He is largely based in Mumbai, India, and travels extensively in Europe and USA in what seems to be a role of a spiritual mentor and a preacher of ISKCON and Hindu devotional path and the philosophy behind it. I never had the good fortune of seeing Radhanath Swami in person (as against seeing him in videos). But a software industry colleague of mi...

Minor update on 11th Aug. 2019 This post continues from the post: How 16 year old Lord Rama kills giant demoness Tataka (Tadaka) in his first major battle - Part 1 of 5 (Valmiki Ramayan), https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/03/how-16-year-old-lord-rama-kills-giant.html , 14th March 2019 [I had initially thought this would be a two-part article but now I see that it is going to be more than 2 parts and I am not sure how many parts it will be.] A small extract from the bottom of the above post: After they cross the confluence of rivers Sarayu and Ganga, they see a horrendous forest without any trodden paths. Rama mentions the swarms of crickets, wild boars, tigers, elephants and vultures which were making fierce screeching noises, in this forest. Rama then asks Viswamitra what this wretched forest is. --- end extract --- Viswamitra tells Rama that once this forest had two very good provinces, designed by gods, known as Malada and Karuusha, which were blessed by a special boo...

Superb rendition of the classic Hindi philosophical song from the 1972 film, Shor - "Ek pyaar ka nagma hain", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciNCQZ6eQjA , 4 min 19 secs. The lady singer is Sarrika Singh. The male singer is not named in the video description. The lines in this rendition of the song (smaller version as compared to the original Hindi film song) are: Ek pyaar ka nagma hain [English: (It/Life) is a song of love] Maujon ki ravaani hain [English: (It/Life) is the flow of waves] Zindagi aur kuch bhi nahin [English: Life is nothing but] Teri meri kahani hain [English: the story of you and me (the hero & heroine and their child implied).] Kuch paakar khona hain [English: Some thing has to be got and then lost.] Kuch khokar paana hain [English: Some thing has to be lost and then (some other thing perhaps) got.] Jeevan ka matlab to [English: The meaning of life is] Aana aur jaana hain [English: (the) coming and going.] Do pal ke jeevan se [The s...

Last updated on 24th March 2019 New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has emerged as a global hero(ine) for upholding and promoting religious pluralism, multi-racial society and peace in New Zealand. May God bless her and keep giving her strength and courage for the great work she and her team are doing in this regard. Here's an interesting Al Jazeera interview of her, dated 21st March 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX3s5HszG_g , 5 min. 40 secs. ----- Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed's tweet: "New Zealand today fell silent in honour of the mosque attacks' martyrs. Thank you PM @jacindaardern and  New Zealand for your sincere empathy and support that has won the respect of 1.5 billion Muslims after the terrorist attack that shook the Muslim community around the world.", https://twitter.com/HHShkMohd/status/1109124817888915461 [Above tweet has a pic of famous Dubai building showing pic of PM Jacinda Ardern showing sympathy & love to Muslims.] ----- ...

Aum Sri Sai Ram! I share in the grief that Shri C. Srinivas, his wife and other family and friends are going through now due to the very untimely and shocking passing away of Shri C. Srinivas' daughter, Dr. Sreemayee Srinivas, a few days ago. May Bhagavan shower His Grace on her! May Bhagavan give Shri C. Srinivas, his wife, and all of us the strength and courage to overcome our grief. I do admire the dedication to serve that Shri C. Srinivas' daughter, Dr. Sreemayi, https://www.facebook.com/sreemayee , a cardiac anaesthesiologist, showed. I saw her speak in a video of the Navi Mumbai hospital function and was very happy to see a grown-up son/daughter of a Sai university/educational institution alumnus play a significant role in the function. That she was taken away from all of us at this young age is a very great shock. I repeat that I share in this grief. May Bhagavan give all of us strength and courage to bear the loss. Jai Sai Ram! Regards Ravi S. Iyer, Puttapa...

Last updated on 19th March 2019 A few days ago, I wrote an email to the General Secretary of The Divine Life Society (DLS), Shivanandnagar, near Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India, offering to send a copy of my first self-published book on spirituality and God & Science to them as expression of my gratitude to their institution. Their website, http://www.dlshq.org/ , carries this message at the top: "SERVE, LOVE, GIVE, PURIFY, MEDITATE, REALISE  So Says Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj". Extracts of my mail to them are given below: I have benefited significantly by reading the books and magazines that have been published by The Divine Life Society. I take this opportunity to thank The Divine Life Society for that service that they rendered to me then. ... As an expression of my gratitude to The Divine Life Society, I would like to send a free printed (paperback) copy of my book to your library ... -- end extracts -- My book is this one: "Who am I? I ...