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Showing posts from April, 2015

Sadhguru and Rishi Prabhakar: a curious connection!

When we have a Guru who strikes a chord with people, there will be always be Guru-haters too who keep spreading lies to damage and discredit the Guru. So it is not surprising that Sadhguru (of Isha Foundation) has his fair share of critics who call him a fraud and his spiritual movement a “cult”. I addressed some of these “cult concerns” in my earlier article . Most of this so-called “criticism” is not worth considering because it is devoid of facts and is full of hate-filled propaganda. But we must keep listening to the critics because they may sometimes dig out a fact that deserves some attention. This article focuses on one such fact. The allegation An allegation I heard long back about Sadhguru is that he got trained under one Rishi Prabhakar of Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY), learnt all the yoga techniques from him, left him and started his own organization (Isha Foundation). I discarded this allegation as “silly propaganda” and never really paid much attention to it. But

Rahman's "Ok Bangaram"

Some of my thoughts and feelings after listening to Rahman's latest offering "OK Bangaram" The most touching song in "OK bangaram" for me is " maula wa sallim " which apparently is a traditional Sufi song and so not a Rahman's tune. Rahman's young boy AR Ameen sings this song with such devotion and innocence that I can't help uttering - "God bless you beta, may you shine like your father!" I am big fan of Rahman's classical-based compositions and “Ok Bangaram” has 2 such songs - " edo adagana " and " manase tiyaga ". The tunes sound somewhat familiar but nevertheless good. Chitra does a splendid job in "manase tiyaga" though her voice shows some age. One crib I have in this song is that Sirivennela uses the word "trishna" in the pallavi which sounds too strong and disturbs the soft feel of the tune.  Singer "Shasha Tirupathi" (I am hearing her for the first time) does