Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

In my humble opinion, the Sai fraternity came under tremendous assault from many sections of the media, national and international, at the time of and after Bhagawan's Mahasamadhi. The Sai fraternity had to largely keep quiet, try to ignore the negative reports and let its work do the talking. Perhaps it was an inevitable and inescapable phase in Bhagawan's ongoing mission. Of course, the media co-ordinator(s) of the Sai mission did a very good job in putting out the factual picture but perhaps some sections of the media chose to ignore it, at least initially. Now that the media knows that the Sai mission is continuing with vigour perhaps it may be a good time to examine an infamous incident in the past where the role of some sections of the media was exposed to be wrong by a scientific paper. That paper is titled, "Reactions to and an assessment of a videotape on Sathya Sai Baba", by Erlendur Haraldsson and Richard Wiseman, in the Journal for the Society of Psy...

A correspondent wrote in response to an Independence Day mail I had sent out: I wonder if any other country has this concept of revering the country as a mother the way India does. What an unique people we are, who see God in everything. Long live our culture and tradition. Vande Mataram. Every Independence day reminds me of Swami's patriotism and love for Bharath. Whats it with this land that draws God it. Forget the establishment of righteousness, I guess God just loves this place so much. He just cant get over it. He gets "Bharath-sick" from to time and finds some reason to take an earthly form and experience the joys of this land. Why this partiality to this holy land. I remember His poem, His voice rings in my head. ఖండ ఖండాంతర ఖ్యాతి నార్చించిన  మహనియులను గన్న మా  ​త్రు  భూమి పాస్చాత్య వీరుల పారద్రొలించియు  స్వాంతంత్రమును గన్న సమరభూమి సంగీత సాహిత్య శాస్త్రీయ విద్యలందు ధి శక్తి చూపిన దివ్య భూమి చిత్ర కళల చూడ చిత్రమై వున్నట్టి భరత భూమియందు జననమ...

Last updated on November 1st 2013 I came across, "Past Lives, Apparitions and Sai Baba with Erlendur Haraldsson", http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=8P_FnfUjoog , which is an audio only youtube video (almost frozen picture) where Prof. Haraldsson,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Erlendur_Haraldsson ,  https://notendur.hi.is/~ erlendur/english/ , is politely dismissive of UK Radio Talk Show hosts' (in mid 2012) jocular reference to Swami's miracles, and asserts that the miracles are genuine. The weight of Prof. Haraldsson's stature as an eminent and veteran parapsychologist changes the tone of the UK Radio Talk Show hosts in this regard! They become far more respectful in their references to Sai Baba later on in the interview with him! Note: The part transcripts below may have some minor inaccuracies/typos but I believe they have captured the sense of the matter properly. I am not able to spare the time to review the part transcripts for errors. The Erlendur Ha...

Last updated on 6th November 2013 Prof. Erlendur Haraldsson's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Erlendur_Haraldsson , https://notendur.hi.is/ erlendur/english/ ) significantly updated and revised book with a new title, "Modern Miracles: The Story of Sathya Sai Baba: A Modern Day Prophet", has been released. The publication date is July 16th 2013 and it is available on  amazon.com  here,  http://www.amazon.com/dp/ 190873325X . I don't think an Indian edition is available as of now - hopefully that situation will change in the near future. I think this book is sure to become an important book on Sri Sathya Sai Baba for interested academics, scientists and intellectuals worldwide due to the methodical investigation and documentation by its author, a Professor emeritus of Psychology in a European university. Further, the author is a European and is not a devotee of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.  [Later updates: The post, "Review of Modern Miracles: The Story of Sathya ...