Posted inPersonal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Yes, I’ve changed my mind about spirituality. That’s a good thing.

Today a commenter on one of my blog posts said something astoundingly obvious -- that what I write about now is different from what I wrote about five or ten years ago. Well, duh... I'm constantly changing, as are we all. I learn, grow, evolve, change my mind, look upon things differently.  Since I've published a book that consists of Church of the Churchless posts from the early years of this blog, 2004 to 2006, I'm well aware of how my approach to spirituality has changed since then. If you read Break Free of Dogma, and naturally everybody should, you'll…
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Posted inTaoism/Tai Chi

I’m feeling the fear and sharing my Tai Chi video anyway

As the title of a book says, Feel the fear and do it anyway. So I'm taking that advice and sharing a video I made today of me doing a Tai Chi form. Watching the video was fear-inducing, or at least anxiety-inducing, because I do my best to avoid looking at myself in the lengthy mirror that's on one wall of the room where I've been taking Tai Chi classes. But since we've been learning the Compact form -- which lives up to its name by not requiring much space to do it in -- I figured it would be…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Indian Express story describes paradox of the RSSB guru

Today a commenter shared a link to a story by The Indian Express that profiles an Indian religious organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and the guru who leads RSSB, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. (See below.) The story doesn't break new ground, but it is interesting nonetheless. What struck me is the contradiction between a quote from volunteers who guard the gates of the RSSB headquarters as they tried to explain why bags, mobile phones, and cameras have to be deposited before entering the headquarters, “you leave the material world outside as you journey to your inner self,” and the fact that…
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Posted inBooks Science Spiritual practice/meditation

Mindfulness is calculus made spiritual

OK, I'm wading into some deep philosophical waters here, given the title of this blog post, because I only took one semester of calculus in graduate school, and then only because I was forced to by the powers-that-be in control of the Portland State University Systems Science Ph.D program. I found calculus to be difficult. By contrast, I've gotten back to reading an engaging book by Stephen Strogatz about calculus, Infinite Powers, which I blogged about back in August, noting that it had some spiritual aspects. This morning, reading a chapter on "The Vocabulary of Change" before I meditated, I…
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Posted inIndia

New Yorker story about Modi’s India is disturbing reading

Having been an active member of an India-based spiritual organization for 35 years, I have a fondness for that country. (Including its food!)  I've spent a lot of time with Indian people. I've visited India twice. Heck, I even volunteered to write a book about the karmic rationale for vegetarianism, Life is Fair, which is still being sold by the group I used to belong to, Radha Soami Satsang Beas. But I've paid much more attention to Indian spiritual philosophies than to Indian politics. Sure, I'm aware that Narenda Modi became the Prime Minister of India, and that he's a…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Why the RSSB guru has broken an initiate’s heart

Here's a comment on a recent blog post from Alexander Black that I found to be moving. People put a lot of faith in the morality of gurus and other spiritual leaders. When a leader acts badly, it causes pain among those who trusted them. (I corrected a few typos in the comment.) As an initiate of Gurinder Singh it breaks my heart how he has lost the moral high ground by getting so deeply involved with the Singh brothers’ illegal and criminal financial dealings. As Satsangis we seek to find the spiritual truth by practicing meditation every day. Isn’t…
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Posted inSpiritual practice/meditation

“Don’t know” is a great thing to keep in mind

All of us are prone to making mistakes with our minds. That comes with being human. Nobody sees reality as it is, because there's no way to tell what as it is means, since every conscious being views the world through their own set of perception filters. But there's ways to come closer to the truth about reality. Basically, we need to accept true things as being true. Like global warming, gravity, and the honking of geese. And we need to to accept false things as being false. Like Donald Trump's claim that he didn't want the Ukraine president to…
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Posted inComments Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Great comment about RSSB truth-telling

Here's a comment by "j" on a recent blog post about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's involvement in a financial fraud investigation that I heartily agree with.  Truth needs to be spoken. Journalists, in India and elsewhere, do a good job of revealing truth, by and large. Yes, sometimes they make mistakes, as do we all. But the stories in the Indian financial press about the RSSB guru's alleged role in financial fraud have been almost entirely accurate, and I've been pleased to share them on this blog. I'll continue to do so.  Sure, I know that some devotees of Radha Soami…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru is being shielded by Indian agencies, says Malvinder’s attorney

This accusation has been made before by attorneys for Malvinder Singh, and it was made again last Tuesday, November 26. Here's a LiveMint story about the latest turn of events in the ongoing saga of how a guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, appears to be deeply involved in financial fraud. I'll comment on this development following the story. NEW DELHI : Delhi High court on Tuesday heard arguments on Enforcement Directorate’s plea for custodial interrogation of former promoter of Fortis Healthcare Malvinder Singh and former Managing Director of Religare Enterprises Sunil Godhwani in a money-laundering case related to alleged misappropriation of…
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Posted inMeaning of life Personal/Stories

Lessons about thankfulness from our dog

Our oldest dog, ZuZu, died last month. I'm still grieving. So when I looked through my previous Thanksgiving Day blog posts (a holiday here in the United States), it seemed fitting to share a 2013 post, "Our 14 year old dog teaches me about thankfulness." That dog was Serena, shown above in her younger days on a bank of the Metolius River in central Oregon. Here's most of what I said in the blog post I wrote about her when Serena's health was fading. She doesn't look like she did in her younger days. But heck, who does? Surely not me. Being…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Shabnam Dhillon, wife of RSSB guru, has died

I just received this message from someone. Babaji refers to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. It's a sad day for the Dhillon family and the millions of RSSB devotees. I'm no longer one of them, but I share in the sadness of Shabnam Dhillon's death.  UPDATE: Below is a message from Radha Soami Satsang Beas about Shabnam Dhillon's death. And there's a hindustan times story about her passing. Second update: There's a Business Today story about Shabnam Dhillon's death. Shabnam Dhillon, wife of Radha Soami Satsang Beas head Gurinder Singh Dhillion, has passed away in London.…
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Posted inHappiness

Why you should be happy today, right now, no matter what

Here's a guest post from myself. It comes from one of my other blogs, HinesSight, where I called it My iron-clad argument to be happy right now, no matter what. Not surprisingly, what I wrote makes a lot of sense to me. After all, one of the greatest gifts we can offer to others is our own happiness. Why? Because it's much more pleasant to be around a happy person rather than someone who isn't happy. Also, life is much bigger than we are, as is the world we live in. We can hope for certain things from life, from…
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Posted inOpen Threads

Open Thread 26 (free speech for comments)

Here's a new Open Thread. I appreciate that off-topic comments have been going in a previous Open Thread. As noted before, it's good to have comments in a regular blog post related to its subject, and it's also good to have a place where almost anything goes in regard to sharing ideas, feelings, experiences, and such. That place is an Open Thread. Leave a comment on this post about anything you want to talk about. Remember that I'm moderating comments, so it could take a while for your comment to be published. Almost every comment submitted to an Open Thread…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru and his family ordered to submit financial information

Thanks to commenters on this blog who shared links to these stories, here's additional reporting in the Indian financial press about the financial fraud saga involving the Singh brothers and their cousin, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Neither story appears to be good news for Dhillon and his family. They've been ordered to submit income tax returns, bank statements, and balance sheets related to financial transactions that, according to the High Court of Delhi, concern money owed to Malvinder Singh and public companies once controlled by him. This seems to show that authorities view…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Court seeks update on criminal complaint against RSSB guru and others

Below are two stories in the Indian financial press relating to the criminal complaint filed in February 2019 by Malvinder Singh against his cousin, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. (A Bloomberg story said that an investigation had been opened.) Malvinder's lawyer requested that the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing provide a report on what actions have been taken on the complaint. A court has ordered that this happen by December 12. I've been wondering about the status of the complaint, since the High Court of Delhi has ordered Dhillon and his family to repay money…
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Posted inIndia Politics

Nationalism is bad. Religious nationalism is worse.

I live in the United States. Misguided religious people call it a Christian nation. They're wrong. Likewise, misguided religious people in India call it a Hindu nation. They're also wrong. I got to thinking about religious nationalism after reading the first part of Arjun Sethi's testimony regarding Jammu, Kashmir, and minority rights in India. Maybe Sethi is exaggerating how bad things are getting in India, but even if what he says is only partly true, that's still really disturbing. Here's an excerpt from what Sethi wrote. In 1947, India created a constitutional republic based on the principles of secularism and…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru’a wife deeply involved in real estate deal

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog post, "Here's an example of Dhillon family connections to shell companies." Someone just sent me a PDF file of an analyst's 2014 report on a company owned by Shabnam Dhillon, the wife of the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. Download SGGD-Projects-Development-PPMLD_335Cr-Rationale-9May2014 The company, SGGD Projects Development Pvt Ltd, is one of the 56 entities, many or most controlled by the Dhillon family, that the High Court of Delhi has ordered money to be recovered from. A screenshot of part of the report shows how deeply Shabnam Dhillon, and the Dhillon family in…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Here’s an example of Dhillon family connections to shell companies

Recently I received a message from someone who replicated part of the research that journalists with the Indian financial press have been doing in connection with the financial scandal involving the Singh brothers, their guru cousin (Gurinder Singh Dhillon), and close associates of the Dhillon family. I'm sharing what this person learned by delving into public business records for several reasons. One, it's interesting. Two, it shows what lies beneath the many stories published by the Indian financial press, which some defenders of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru wrongly call "fake news." Three, it points to the fact that…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

Story about Gurinder Singh Dhillon and RSSB casts light on legal problems

Check out an excellent lengthy story about a guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) organization that he leads, and the financial scandal the Dhillon family and his close associates are connected to.Download Gurinder Singh Dhillon — the music & film-loving Radha Soami head at heart of Fortis crisis The reporter who wrote ThePrint story, Nandita Singh, emailed me with questions, which I responded to in writing. Unfortunately, I didn't proofread my reply closely enough and left out a word, "no," in the quote included in the final paragraph of the story, where I meant to say…
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Posted inRadha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru and his family told to provide evidence of no liabilities to Singh brothers

In addition to stories I shared in two other blog posts about today's developments in the High Court of Delhi case involving the Singh brothers and their relative, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, below is another story from The Indian Express. The court is turning up the heat on the Dhillon family and others who, according to the Singh brothers, owe money to them that would enable Malvinder and Shivinder to pay a $500 million settlement to Daiichi Sankyo, a Japanese firm that got the settlement after it bought a pharmaceutical firm owned by the…
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