Ravi S. Iyer: Spiritual

Ravi: I think the video below explains very well using simple everyday language and in a nut-shell, the core part of more evolved Bhakti (Hindu path of devotion) and Vedanta (Hindu path of Jnana) views about God, from a spiritual aspirant eager to experience God perspective. It does not deal with matters like problem of suffering and evil in the world, divine intervention in human affairs and karma. Firstly, here is some info. about the spiritual master in this video. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaggi_Vasudev : Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (born 3 September 1957) is an Indian Yogi, Poet and Mystic. He founded the Isha Foundation, a non-profit organization which offers Yoga programs around the world and is involved in social outreach, education and environmental initiatives. He is also a New York Times and Washington Post bestselling author and has written for The Huffington Post, The New Indian Express and other publications. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan award by the Gove...

In the video in this article, http://www.ibtimes.co.in/honeypreet-may-surrender-today-speaks-first-time-since-ram-rahims-conviction-744112 , Honeypreet Insaan makes a very emotional and heart-rending plea to the public to not believe the horrific allegations made against her (by her former husband mainly) about her relation with now-convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (of Dera Sacha Sauda). She says that her relationship with him was a pure relationship (not sexual in any way) of a daughter with her father. The article is in English but the video is in Hindi. Initially the interview covers the topic of Honeypreet Insaan (who has a lookout notice against her issued by the police and plans to appear before the police shortly) being labelled as a traitor (desh-drohi). She says she is deeply distressed by that as she was taught to be ready to sacrifice her life for the nation. She rejects the reports that she acted against the nation. My stand is that unproven allegations that cast a sl...

Last updated on 4th October 2017 Note: Readers who do not like to read about distressing matters may please skip reading this post. Today I saw some videos, including live USA TV coverage videos, of the horrific and deadly shooting in Las Vegas, USA. Here's an article on it: More than 50 dead and 200 injured in shooting on Las Vegas Strip; police say lone suspect is dead, http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-las-vegas-mandalay-bay-20171001-story.html . The suspected killer who was killed by the police is a 64 year old man who lived in a retirement community in Las Vegas! The cell phone videos of the attack and eyewitness accounts have horrified me, and to be frank, really angered me. I shouted some expletives to release some steam. Reports are that the killer, from a vantage point on a 32nd floor hotel room, fired using a sophisticated automatic weapon, for ten to fifteen minutes (with reloading breaks in between, it seems) on a helpless music concert crowd of thousands on t...

Last updated on 3rd October 2017 Given below are the contents of my recent Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1987898911426676 . Bhagawan's words about Rama avatar and the people who played key roles in Rama Avatar, are, of course, wonderful, instructive and inspiring. However, I am sharing this post for the additional reason that it has a pic of one former senior faculty of the Sai university (Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning) whose contributions to the Sai university over nearly three decades, I believe, were not recognized properly, in the chaos, confusion and trauma of the immediate post-Mahasamadhi period. He parted ways with the Sai university sometime in 2012, if I recall correctly. The person behind Swami and to Swami's left in the pic is Prof. Krupanidhi, former Head of Biosciences dept. and former Dean of sciences of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. At least during my free service stint in the Sai university with...

This post follows up on my previous post, Revival of my old iPod Touch 2nd Gen device; Useful pocket scripture, including Hindu scripture, ebook reader, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2017/09/revival-of-my-old-ipod-touch-2nd-gen.html , dated 30th Sept. 2017. I have an iPod Nano 4th generation which has a lot of devotional music - Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Multi-faith mostly of popular type but a few Indian classical type (Carnatic and Hindustani) as well as pop songs in Hindi, English and some Telugu too. Very importantly, it also has some songs sung by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba himself - I heard some of those songs today (and yesterday). In Bhagavan's physical form absence, hearing him sing these songs is a very moving experience for me! This music set runs into 958 songs taking up around 4.3 GB, with my iPod Nano being an 8 GB device. I had invested a lot of time a few years before Bhagavan Mahasamadhi (April 2011) in tagging the songs and then creating smart playlist...

Last updated on 1st October 2017 After I got onto JioFi 3 router, a device providing 4G Internet via WiFi, I took out my old iPod Touch 2nd Gen device which I had virtually stopped using after Bhagawan Mahasamadhi in April 2011. From Dec. 2009 till Bhagawan Mahasamadhi, I was using the device primarily as a pocket scripture ebook reader which I would take with me (in my pocket) to Sai Kulwant Hall and read scripture on it while waiting for Bhagavan's darshan. I was quite a scripture reading freak then - Hindu scripture mainly but with some Christian scripture too, and occasional Islamic scripture. Bhagawan Mahasamadhi and ensuing chaos, confusion and trauma changed all that for me. Hopefully I will get back to my scripture reading freak mode in the near future. I have lined up reading Bhagavat Purana full version (unabridged) which has accounts of many Hindu avatars, and located an Internet based source providing Sanskrit text (which I don't really understand but can read a...

Ravi: Today is Vijayadashmi, Dassera day. Dassera is celebrated by Hindus as the triumph of good over evil though there are variations in the good deities and bad demons that are remembered during these festivities across different groups of Hindus (and different parts of India). In some cases, it is Rama (god) defeating Ravana (demon). In other cases it is Durga (goddess) defeating Mahishasura (demon), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayadashami . But the underlying story of divinity upholding good and defeating bad/evil is the same. The message of my beloved and revered Gurudev (spiritual master), Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, given below, is, IMHO, a very good capsule form message for good people, whether believers in divinity or not, on this Hindu festival day celebrating the victory of good over bad/evil through divine intercession in human affairs. Here is the video clip from Radio Sai, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv2QDJjhY_g , 4 min 38 secs. This discourse was given on ...