Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

From Chapter 18 & 19 of Shirdi Sai Satcharita, http://www.saibaba.org/satcharitra/sai18_19.html : When he [Hemadpant] heard Baba's words, he thought in his mind as follows - "What! Mr. Sathe read for a week only and got a reward; and I am reading it for forty years with no result! His seven days' stay here becomes fruitful while my seven years' stay (1910 to 1917) goes for nothing. Like a Chatak bird I am ever waiting for the Merciful Cloud (Baba) to pour its nectar on me; and bless me with His instructions." No sooner did this thought cross his mind, Baba knew it then and there. It was the experience of the Bhaktas that Baba read and understood all their thoughts, and that He suppressed the evil thoughts and encouraged the good ones. Reading Hemadpant's mind Baba at once asked him to get up, go to Shama (Madhavrao Deshpande), get from him Rs. 15/- as Dakshina, sit and chitchat with him for a while and then return. Mercy dawned in Baba's mind, and ...

Shirdi Sai Baba would accept any small thing offered with love and devotion but reject offerings made with pride and haughtiness From Chapter 16 & 17 of Shirdi Sai Satcharita, http://www.saibaba.org/satcharitra/sai16_17.html : The last Chapter described how Mr. Cholkar's vow of small offering was completed and accepted. In that story, Sai Baba showed that He would accept with appreciation any small thing offered with love and devotion, but if the same thing was offered with pride and haughtiness, He would reject it. Being Himself full of Sat-Chit-Anand (Existence, Knowledge and Bliss) He did not care much for mere outward formalities but if an offering was made in meek and humble spirit, the same was welcome and He accepted it with pleasure and avidity. In fact there is no person more liberal and benevolent than a Sadguru, like Sai Baba. He cannot be compared to the Chintamani jewel (the Philosopher's stone which satisfies desires), the Kalpataru (the Celestial Tree w...

[Note: This post is copy-pasted from  http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2017/07/did-cnn-do-right-thing-in-tracking.html on 7th July 2017.] The CNN article, How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF,  http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/04/politics/kfile-reddit-user-trump-tweet/index.html , July 5th 2017, describes how CNN tracked the Reddit user who put up the Trump beating up CNN logo GIF, which was retweeted by USA president Trump. After he was tracked down by CNN and attempts were made to contact him to which he did not respond, the person going by Reddit ID "HanA**holeSolo." put up an apology post on subreddit /The_Donald and deleted all his other posts some of which seem to have been racist and bigoted. CNN reports that this apology post was later deleted by the moderators of the subreddit /The_Donald. Here's the text of his apology that is put up on the CNN article: "First of all, I would like to apologize to the members of the reddit co...

Last updated on 4th July 2017 I was sent a private message on Facebook as follows, "Mr Ravi s ayyar plz answer my two questions regarding sathyanarayan Raju a.k.a sathya Sai , that according to shirdi sai satcharit ,shirdi Sai used to cook mutton biryani n distribute it among devotees and also fond of smoking chillum but why sathyanarayan Raju was strictly against those practices". The person was OK with sharing this on Facebook (anonymously). Let me try to answer his questions. I think we need to put life & teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba in the context of their times. During Shirdi Sai Baba's times India was under foreign rule and medical knowledge in India about harmful health effects of smoking were not known well enough. Shirdi Sai Baba perhaps did what was common to fakirs in and around Shirdi in those times, which may have included eating meat at times and also smoking the chillum. In their lifetimes, Sathya Sai mission has been far...

Given below are quotes of Ramana Maharishi. From https://www.facebook.com/RamanaMaharshi/photos/a.10151536385544631.1073741831.9944414630/10155410288659631/ : "Do not cling to the form of the Guru for this will perish; do not cling to His feet for His attendants will stop you. The true Bhagavan resides in your heart as your true Self. This is who I truly am."  - Living By The Words of Bhagavan From https://www.facebook.com/RamanaMaharshi/photos/a.10151536385544631.1073741831.9944414630/10155411250069631/ : "The body is within the self. And yet one thinks one is inside the inert body, like some spectator who supposes that the screen on which the picture is thrown is within the picture."  - Five Verses on the Self: 3 From https://www.facebook.com/RamanaMaharshi/photos/a.10151536385544631.1073741831.9944414630/10155406365454631/ : "Existence or consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking, we call waking. Conscious...

Given below are my recent comments on sister Selvi Samuvael 's post, https://www.facebook.com/selvi.samuvael/posts/1744097855624399 . [Note I have given only my comments. Those who want to read the full exchange should visit the Facebook post I mentioned.] Ravi S. Iyer wrote: In my view, it is important in this immediate post-Mahasamadhi decade that writers like sister Selvi Samuvael keep Swami's words alive in social media and elsewhere through posts sharing authentic and publicly expressed views of (physical form) Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Some people like Muddenahalli group are trying to dilute Bhagavan's teachings to make it more palatable to a larger audience (though not in this particular matter of meat-eating, as far as I know). I strongly disapprove of such dilution. Those who want to propagate a diluted form of Bhagavan's teachings can do so in their OWN NAME and not by misusing the HOLY NAME of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. There is no doubt that B...

Here's a very interesting article in The Hindu today, The problematics of genetics and the Aryan issue, by Michel Danino, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-problematics-of-genetics-and-the-aryan-issue/article19165320.ece , 29th June 2017. Ravi: Great to see Michel Danino rebut Tony Joseph's article. My belief is that the Hindu avatar Rama lived in Indian sub-continent around 20,000 years ago. Tony Joseph's article uses strong words like genetic research converges "on an unambiguous answer: yes, they did" to the question whether Aryans (Indo-European language speakers) streamed into India around 2,000 BC - 1,500 BC! But then Tony Joseph in not a scientist, I believe. So his assertion need not be viewed as coming from knowledge-authority. While I did not understand the details of the genetics arguments put forward by Joseph and its rebuttal by Danino, it is clear that Danino has questioned the limited data set used to arrive at wide-ranging conclusions....