by Aravind Balasubramanya on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 12:23am
The Press Meet that took place in Parthi today made me realize one thing - though the freedom of press is a wonderful thing, its wonder ceases once it is in irresponsible hands! The local Telugu Press can be best summarised in one statement - “A constipation of facts and a diarrhoea of sensational lies”.
I was on a holiday when I heard so many things about financial misappropriation by the Trust and the like. Today, I heard the whole press conference which went on for more than 2 hours. And before the depressing press begins pressing false stories, I thought I would write what I, as a sane person gathered from the press conference.
1) So much furore over the 35 lakhs seized from a vehicle. The Central Trust is a charitable Trust and believe it or not, since it is not a religious trust, it cannot spend its money on building temples or mosques or even a samadhi! That is the legal rule. So the Trust is in a strange situation where it cannot use any of its resources to build a samadhi for Swami. Devotees come forward to pay the money ( those who paid the money have already submitted themselves in court) as their loving offering to Swami. Ratnakar takes all the money that has come and hands it over to the contractors who are in the project. Simple. It is not Trust money, but money entrusted by the devotees for the samadhi building. Infact, due to this money being held up, the construction also had a temporary stoppage! The 35lakhs are now being released.
2) Reports came in papers that 10 crores were seized from buses in sacks - ABSOLUTELY FALSE! NO evidence or reports after that and the press does not even have the slightest dignity to take back their baseless allegation!
3) The Press keep criticizing Swami for ‘hoarding’ wealth and bad mouth Him and the Trust without the least decent restraint. In the estimate of the kilograms of silver found are included Swami’s silver thrones and the gold has many gifts that princely devotees placed at His feet and they were showpieces! Swami had not hoarded bars of gold and silver! Swami keeps saying that He wants only love and yet anonymously devotees send Him money and precious metals without a return address. What does one do then?
This was something that I heard from one senior devotee in Singapore too. They had a very tough time to convince people not to leave coins and notes in front of the altar. Inspite of saying and announcing, people still do this. What does one do with these gifts of love which have unknown origins?
What Swami did was to simply use them to serve.
In fact, as the Income Tax people will agree, many of the packets opened in Yajur Mandir were being opened after years and nobody knew their contents.
The devotees know all this and the Press come forward making crazy accusations and then justify by saying “The devotees are asking these questions!”
4) There was a section of the Press that knew that the Truth was being dished out to them and they became quiet. But I noticed 3-4 people worse than barking dogs. I have never seen such a vulgar show of vocal chord strength. Off the cuff they throw in names and quotes without the slightest thought about their veracity. I realized this whole group belonged to TV 9!
Ironically, even before the Press conference began, there was a dharna by all the villagers in front of the venue - the Indoor sports stadium. They were deeply hurt by the way TV9 was scandalizing Swami and they said that given a choice they would like to burn alive all the members of this channel - a very grim reminder of the anger and pain of the simple villagers. Talking of TV 9 reminds me of what my colleague wrote to me and I paste from his mail -
At New Delhi, we were taken to TV 9 head office to get trained in media management for hospitals. The visits were for the department of Hospital Administration, AIIMS and were organized for us to get trained to tackle media in case of emergencies in hospitals. The training was given by founder & director of TV 9- Mr Rataj Mehta. His channel, being one of all time criticism toppers, he had this to say about himself ( this is recorded over a hidden dictaphone that I was carrying): "when my company was failing, I asked my two close colleagues- should we compromise on ethics to survive in the industry; they said yes-sure. And since that day we kept all our books on ethics and values in an almirah, now that my company has got established, we are trying to bring back some of them".
And this is a channel that is trying to “bring the truth to light” as they call it! They should not be called scumbags for the scumbags will take it as a personal insult.
5) I would rather not talk about all this at all. But I was pained when I saw and heard of the pain of devotees. I personally believe that fighting with pigs in muck will only make us mucky. Swami says to clear the stink in a dirty room, light an agarbatti. And thats why I shall continue posting about darshans and experiences with Swami.
I told my Swami in the heart, “Swami, I know that you are doing everything with a purpose. Many are asking about the Will you left behind. I believe that whatever you left behind is your WILL! And if you have entrusted these people to run the Trust, they have my Trust.”
The Press seems to believe that everyone here is guilty unless proven innocent. I believe that all are innocent unless proven guilty.
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http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_09/01JUN11/11-press_meet_28_06_2011.htm
The Press Meet that took place in Parthi today made me realize one thing - though the freedom of press is a wonderful thing, its wonder ceases once it is in irresponsible hands! The local Telugu Press can be best summarised in one statement - “A constipation of facts and a diarrhoea of sensational lies”.
I was on a holiday when I heard so many things about financial misappropriation by the Trust and the like. Today, I heard the whole press conference which went on for more than 2 hours. And before the depressing press begins pressing false stories, I thought I would write what I, as a sane person gathered from the press conference.
1) So much furore over the 35 lakhs seized from a vehicle. The Central Trust is a charitable Trust and believe it or not, since it is not a religious trust, it cannot spend its money on building temples or mosques or even a samadhi! That is the legal rule. So the Trust is in a strange situation where it cannot use any of its resources to build a samadhi for Swami. Devotees come forward to pay the money ( those who paid the money have already submitted themselves in court) as their loving offering to Swami. Ratnakar takes all the money that has come and hands it over to the contractors who are in the project. Simple. It is not Trust money, but money entrusted by the devotees for the samadhi building. Infact, due to this money being held up, the construction also had a temporary stoppage! The 35lakhs are now being released.
2) Reports came in papers that 10 crores were seized from buses in sacks - ABSOLUTELY FALSE! NO evidence or reports after that and the press does not even have the slightest dignity to take back their baseless allegation!
3) The Press keep criticizing Swami for ‘hoarding’ wealth and bad mouth Him and the Trust without the least decent restraint. In the estimate of the kilograms of silver found are included Swami’s silver thrones and the gold has many gifts that princely devotees placed at His feet and they were showpieces! Swami had not hoarded bars of gold and silver! Swami keeps saying that He wants only love and yet anonymously devotees send Him money and precious metals without a return address. What does one do then?
This was something that I heard from one senior devotee in Singapore too. They had a very tough time to convince people not to leave coins and notes in front of the altar. Inspite of saying and announcing, people still do this. What does one do with these gifts of love which have unknown origins?
What Swami did was to simply use them to serve.
In fact, as the Income Tax people will agree, many of the packets opened in Yajur Mandir were being opened after years and nobody knew their contents.
The devotees know all this and the Press come forward making crazy accusations and then justify by saying “The devotees are asking these questions!”
4) There was a section of the Press that knew that the Truth was being dished out to them and they became quiet. But I noticed 3-4 people worse than barking dogs. I have never seen such a vulgar show of vocal chord strength. Off the cuff they throw in names and quotes without the slightest thought about their veracity. I realized this whole group belonged to TV 9!
Ironically, even before the Press conference began, there was a dharna by all the villagers in front of the venue - the Indoor sports stadium. They were deeply hurt by the way TV9 was scandalizing Swami and they said that given a choice they would like to burn alive all the members of this channel - a very grim reminder of the anger and pain of the simple villagers. Talking of TV 9 reminds me of what my colleague wrote to me and I paste from his mail -
At New Delhi, we were taken to TV 9 head office to get trained in media management for hospitals. The visits were for the department of Hospital Administration, AIIMS and were organized for us to get trained to tackle media in case of emergencies in hospitals. The training was given by founder & director of TV 9- Mr Rataj Mehta. His channel, being one of all time criticism toppers, he had this to say about himself ( this is recorded over a hidden dictaphone that I was carrying): "when my company was failing, I asked my two close colleagues- should we compromise on ethics to survive in the industry; they said yes-sure. And since that day we kept all our books on ethics and values in an almirah, now that my company has got established, we are trying to bring back some of them".
And this is a channel that is trying to “bring the truth to light” as they call it! They should not be called scumbags for the scumbags will take it as a personal insult.
5) I would rather not talk about all this at all. But I was pained when I saw and heard of the pain of devotees. I personally believe that fighting with pigs in muck will only make us mucky. Swami says to clear the stink in a dirty room, light an agarbatti. And thats why I shall continue posting about darshans and experiences with Swami.
I told my Swami in the heart, “Swami, I know that you are doing everything with a purpose. Many are asking about the Will you left behind. I believe that whatever you left behind is your WILL! And if you have entrusted these people to run the Trust, they have my Trust.”
The Press seems to believe that everyone here is guilty unless proven innocent. I believe that all are innocent unless proven guilty.
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_09/01JUN11/11-press_meet_28_06_2011.htm
Taken from THAPOVANAM page 217
ReplyDelete" MY CHILDREN ARE MY ENTIRE PROPERTY"
There are many who are unable to understand this simple truth.Such unfortunate persons who cannot imagine even a single mother's love can never gauge the love of a thousand mothers.The most sublime quality of Sri Sathya Sai is limitless patience.He says," Countless persons criticise Me. There are many who call Me by all sorts of names. All kind of vile things are written about Me in newspapers. Thousands of pamphlets are published against Me. I have only one answer to all of them --My smile!
" These are all but vicious reactions to what is indisputably good.Stones are hurled only at fruit bearing trees. Some people are envious & intolerant by nature. As more & more Sathya Sai Organisations blossom, as more & more Sathya Sai Universities grow, their jealousy too grows by leaps & bounds. They fabricate more false stories, accusations & gossip.