Queen’s Live Aid performance shows power of Freddy Mercury being himself

Last night my wife and I finished watching Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie. It ends with a re-creation of Queen's famous performance at the 1985 Live Aid event at Wembley Stadium in London. A New York Times story about the performance says, "Freddie Mercury’s set in July 1985 is often called one of the greatest live performances of all time." For sure. You can view it via the video below, which has gotten over 211 million views. Mercury performs for about 21 minutes. I found watching him to be both highly entertaining and deeply inspiring. Mercury was a gay man at…

More focus on RSSB guru in Singh brothers financial scandal

Following up on yesterday's post, "Bad karma: Singh brothers may go to jail if RSSB guru doesn't pay up," here's two additional mentions of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, in the Indian financial press. Someone sent me this image of a Hindustan Times story with the mention of the guru outlined in orange: "Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing one of the brothers, said 'some babaji' has siphoned off the money of the two brothers and they have been duped." Babaji clearly refers to Gurinder Singh Dhillon. Kind of strange that the attorney wasn't willing to say…

Bad karma: Singh brothers may go to jail if RSSB guru doesn’t pay up

I'd love to be able to listen in on what Malvinder and Shivinder Singh are saying right now about their uncle, Gurinder Singh Dhillon -- the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.  According to the India Supreme Court, it seems that the only way the Singh brothers are going to stay out of jail is if Dhillon repays a massive amount of money that was loaned to him by Malvinder and Shivinder, seemingly in a fraudulent manner involving the siphoning of funds from companies controlled by the Singh brothers and the guru's right hand man, Sunil Godhwani. So says a…

Here’s the problem with living: we’re going to die

This isn't exactly breaking news, but I'll say it anyway. Each of us is going to die.  Those seven words are undeniably scary. Life isn't always pleasant. Yet the gulf between having a difficult life and no life at all is more than immense. It's immeasurable. There's no way to compare being alive and being dead, or existence and non-existence. The worst day anyone can have is on a different dimension than not existing at all. Understand: I'm not saying that life is always worth living. Suicide and death with dignity testify to the fact that sometimes people prefer to…

I’m an atheist with more faith than any religious believer

A week ago I came up with the title to this blog post. The next day I wrote a comment in reply to someone who goes by "In Search Of" that ended up being a good start to explaining why I consider that atheist me has more faith than religious believers. Here it is. Following my comment you'll find excerpts from one of my first Church of the Churchless blog posts from way back in 2004, "Just have faith." I'm pleased that while I've become more of an atheist over the past fifteen years, my basic faith in reality hasn't…

Gurinder Singh Dhillon isn’t adhering to the message of “Honest Living”

Below is a recent comment written by Radh(er Not) Soami that struck me as well worth sharing as a blog post. The comment points to something important that I feel has been overlooked by defenders of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru who are fond of saying, "Innocent until proven guilty!" (If you're not familiar with what the guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon (GSD), has been accused of, it is a conspiracy to commit massive financial fraud and death threats. A criminal complaint filed against the guru is discussed in "Legal filing against Gurinder Singh Dhillon is fascinating reading.") The important…

India’s business reputation is at stake in Singh brothers/RSSB financial saga

It's a tale that deserves to be made into a Bollywood movie. But the plot line has some serious consequences for how India is viewed by investors and businesspeople worldwide. Here's how a potential investor in an India enterprise might view the tangled web of illegal financial dealings involving Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, a.k.a. the Singh brothers, and their uncle (or maybe cousin) -- Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). Hey, I like your business plan. But I've been reading about how an Indian guru installed his right hand man as CEO of a company…

Family of RSSB guru at risk of charges of criminal conspiracy

Here's a follow-up to yesterday's post, "RSSB insider Sunil Godhwani charged with criminal conspiracy." In that post I noted that a document I got of the complaint filed by attorneys representing Religare, the company from which funds were fraudulently siphoned, was difficult to read due to the formatting. But someone sent me the document in Word format, from which I was able to first produce paragraph breaks that made the document much easier to read, and then export the file in a PDF format. Here it is: Download Religare Complaint PDF It's more than 20 pages long, yet well worth…

RSSB insider Sunil Godhwani charged with criminal conspiracy

The wheels of justice in India keep inching closer to the guru who heads up Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. A story in The Economic Times reports, "Delhi Police books Singh brothers & others on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy." (Scroll down for another blog post I just wrote relating to the RSSB guru, "Sheetal Talwar talks about death threat made from RSSB satsang office.") One of the "others" charged with criminal conspiracy is Sunil Godhwani, who has been described as Gurinder Singh Dhillon's right-hand man.  Someone in the know about RSSB goings-on had this to say…

Sheetal Talwar talks about death threat made from RSSB satsang office

I've got a couple of stories from the India press regarding the RSSB/Singh Brothers saga to share today. Scroll up for the story regarding a criminal complaint (once it's written). The one I'm sharing in this post relates to another criminal complaint alleging a death threat made against filmmaker Sheetal Talwar after he tried to recover a $1.25 million loan he made to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB). See yesterday's post, "RSSB guru made death threats, says India filmmaker." Now, it was associates of the guru who made the death threats, not the guru…

I’m back to moderating comments

Unfortunately, a few commenters who've been abusing this blog's free speech preference have forced me to start moderating comments for a while. What this means is that I'll approve comments for publication as soon as I'm able to do this. May take a few hours, so be patient. Here's how I put it in a recent comment of my own: Daljit, great point. No, RSSB doesn't have any web sites or blogs where people can freely comment. But I'm pleased to allow this, because unlike RSSB, I believe in free speech and open discussion of ideas -- even, or especially,…

RSSB guru made death threats, says India filmmaker

Looks like a pattern. When Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) is asked to repay money he owes, he doesn't pay up, then makes death threats against the person who wants their money back.  This is alleged by Malvinder Singh in a criminal complaint filed against the RSSB guru. And now Sheetal Talwar, a filmmaker, is alleging that he also received death threats after trying to recover a $1.25 million loan given to the guru. A Business Today story tells the sorry tale. I've shared it below.  Astoundingly, Dhillon requested the money in 2015 to…

A RSSB believer shares a balanced view of the guru’s financial dealings

Ah, it's so refreshing to see the following comment from someone who appears to be an initiate of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, yet is bothered by mindless defenses of the RSSB guru (Gurinder Singh Dhillon), who is linked to investigations of massive financial fraud. The comment was posted by "In Search Of" today. I like the pen name. We're all in search of something. Hopefully that includes the truth, and willingness to listen to a variety of opinions. Plus, embracing new facts about reality as we learn them, then adjusting our view of the world accordingly. The only thing I'll…

Why the RSSB guru is alleged to be involved with criminal activity

I'm grateful to commenters on my blog posts for reinforcing my conviction that religiously-minded people often are incapable of recognizing reality. Not always. Often.  Case in point: some regular commenters, who I assume read my posts before they comment on them, keep on ignoring facts about the scandalous drama concerning financial dealings involving a Bollywood-like cast of characters. Here's an overview of the drama. -- The once-billionaire Singh brothers, Malvinder and Shivinder, whose business empire has been reduced to almost nothing following a string of poor decisions and fraudulent loans. -- The Singh brothers are relatives of the guru of…

RSSB guru’s shady financial dealings were known on this blog 5-9 years ago

Last year I shared 27,000 words worth of comments left on this blog by "Tara," someone who had an up close and personal view of both Gurinder Singh Dhillon (photo below) and the RSSB organization prior to them becoming disillusioned by what they saw, which led to this person leaving the RSSB fold. As noted in the post, "Devastating criticism of Gurinder Singh Dhillon by a RSSB insider," the comments were written between 2010 and 2014. That was five to nine years ago, before the RSSB guru's massive questionable loans and alleged criminality came to light in the Indian financial…

Singh brothers’ staying out of jail linked to $870 million owed by RSSB guru

Another story in the Indian financial press points to the siphoning of funds from companies affiliated with the Singh brothers into the pockets of Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family as being key to Malvinder and Shivinder's ability to comply with legal rulings. This shows that defenders of the guru, some of whom leave comments on my blog posts wrongly claiming that this is just a "family affair" that doesn't harm anyone else, need to recognize how serious the financial wrongdoing involving the RSSB guru is. Here's some excerpts from "Time may be running out for Singh brothers to pay…

Vipassana vs. Surat Shabd Yoga meditation. I pick a winner.

Arguably it doesn't make sense to consider that meditation styles can be classed as winners or losers. But, hey, that's no fun! So in this post I'm going to choose a winner after considering a question I got in an email message recently: Do you have any opinion as to whether vipassana is more or less equal to RSSB's simran? Well, of course I have an opinion. I'm a blogger. Opinionating is what I love to do. I've got opinions on just about everything. Heck, on one of my other two blogs I rated the grocery carts at the three…

RSSB guru now faced with repaying $909 million in allegedly fraudulent loans

The money Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, is expected to pay back so an arbitration award can be made in accord with an India Supreme Court ruling keeps getting larger. A few days ago I reported that the guru owed $870 million. Now the amount has risen to $906 million, according to a Times of India story, "Will recover dues from Radha Soami head, others Malvinder tells SC." The story provides further evidence that defenders of the guru are wrongly claiming that this is just a family affair. (Malvinder Singh is the guru's cousin; some…

Where there’s RSSB financial fraud smoke, there’s fire underneath

When someone leaves a thoughtful, lengthy, well-researched comment on this blog, I'm motivated to share it in a blog post so more people see it. In this case, I also found the commenter's assumed name to be wonderfully creative: Radh(er Not) Soami -- a play on words, since Radha Soami is both a greeting used by members of Radha Soami Satsang Beas and shorthand for the group's philosophy. Hence, "rather not" becomes Radh(er Not). Here's this person's comment. I added some explanatory links, a few photos, and corrected some typos. "Shivi" stands for Shivinder Singh. "Malav" stands for Malvinder Singh.…

Common sense talk about the RSSB guru and the Singh brothers

When I read the first sentence of a comment by "Hidden Agenda" on a recent blog post of mine, "Malvinder: RSSB guru's loans of over $870 million are due," I strongly suspected I was going to find what this person wrote was interesting. Let's piece the whole story together using common sense.  Below is the comment, with a few typos corrected. I consider that everything Hidden Agenda says does indeed make common sense. This person fits together bits of pieces of the Dhillon family/Singh brothers financial saga in a fashion that makes for a coherent tale. Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the…