Church of the Churchless

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 controlled by his billionaire nephews, who also were devotees of the guru. Then the guru's guy, Sunil Godhwani, orchestrated hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal loans to shell companies managed by the guru's family and close associates. They never repaid the loans, and now the company the money was siphoned from, Religare, says Godhwani was part of a criminal conspiracy. This is freaking weird stuff. How do I know that some guru isn't going to take control of your company and rob me of my investment?

A Bloomberg story shared in the Washington Post, "India's Crony Capitalist Edifice is Creaking," helps explain why the Singh brothers/RSSB financial wrongdoing has broader implications. Here's how the story starts out. I've boldfaced the mention of the Singh brothers and their guru.

A smug, entitled business class driven by greed and hubris, but sorely lacking in resources to legitimize their control. I could be describing the India Inc. of today – or 1959. Nothing much has changed.

Jet Airways Ltd., India’s oldest surviving private-sector airline, is about to crash land. Founder Naresh Goyal neither brought in enough new equity of his own to rescue the debt-laden carrier, nor did he allow a timely sale to suitors who wanted the business, albeit without him. Jet may yet survive, but it’s touch-and-go. Or take the country’s second-largest hospital chain, put into the trauma room by its founders’ 4 billion rupee ($56 million) fraud. Fortis Healthcare Ltd. wants brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh arrested. Complicating matters, Malvinder has accused Shivinder of siphoning funds from the family holding company and diverting them to a spiritual guru. The whole thing is an unholy mess.

For at least six decades, scholars and policy makers have been aware of the strain placed by India’s feudal system of corporate governance on capital formation, job creation and growth. Yet the last major reform was in 1969, which ironically was also when India was nationalizing banks and lurching toward a more virulent socialism. Subsequently, globalization caught up with India, the economy opened up and attracted hundreds of billion dollars in foreign capital, but the foundations of corporate structure stayed weak. It’s only now, when the edifice is showing cracks, that it’s becoming clear a fresh coat of paint alone won’t suffice.

This helps explain why the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said this to the Singh brothers recently:

The court, then referring to the foreign tribunal award in the favour of Daiichi, told Singh brothers: "It is not just about Rs 4000 Crore or individual honour It is a question of honour for the country. It doesn't do good for the country. You were once the flag- bearers of this country. Pay your debts and come out of this."

So why are the Singh brothers having so much difficulty coming up with the Rs 4000 crore, which is about $577 million? A big reason is that around $870 million is owed them by guru Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family via illegal loans that haven't been paid back.

Here's a graphic from India's Business Today that I included in a post, "Financial dealings of RSSB guru relate to India Supreme Court hearing."

The good news for India is that investigations are being conducted into the financial fraud with the twin goals of (1) recovering the money that ended up in the pockets of the guru, his family, and associates, and (2) learning who was responsible for the fraud besides Shivinder Mohan Singh (SMS below), Malvinder Mohan Singh (MMS below), Sunil Godhwani (SG below), and N.K. Ghoshal (NKG below).

Here's an excerpt from a complaint filed recently with the Delhi Economic Offences Wing by Religare Finvest Limited (RFL), one of the public companies that lost money when the illegal loans were made to the Dhillon family and others. REL stands for Religare Enterprises Ltd. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

22. In this context it is relevant to mention that RFL is ultimately owned by REL which in turn is largely held by public shareholders. Any loss caused to RFL is a loss to public shareholders. 



It is evident from the replies of the aforesaid 7 entities that they did not intend to return the loan to RFL from inception of the transaction. The MoUs signed were documents created dishonestly to give the colour of genuine transactions to sham transactions the purpose of which was only to siphon away /misappropriate money(s) of the Complainant Company. 



It appears that SMS, MMS, SG, NKG and other unknown persons (being the directors and employees of the 7 entities at the relevant time) colluded to wrongfully gain at the expense of the Complainant Company. 



SMS and MMS breached the trust reposed in them by the Complainant Company, its shareholders, including REL and the public shareholders of REL. 


Since it appears that Dhillon family members at one time were directors of some of the seven entities mentioned above, the guru's wife and sons now could be the target of investigators, as I wrote about in "Family of RSSB guru at risk of charges of criminal conspiracy."

A major remaining question is whether the guru himself will be implicated in the conspiracy. Almost certainly his family and devotees will do their best to protect Gurinder Singh Dhillon, since it would be a huge blow to the reputation of Radha Soami Satsang Beas if the organization's spiritual leader turned out to be a crook. 

But if this happened, it would be good for India as a whole. Like I said, investors and businesspeople throughout the world need reassurance that India isn't a place where gurus, or anybody, can get away with stealing money from public companies.

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 reading if someone wants to get a close look at how the financial fraud was committed, and what its consequences were to Religare, a public company.

One of the people specifically named in the complaint is Sunil Godhwani, who reportedly was installed as CEO of Religare at the behest of Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

Godhwani then used his position to illegally funnel money into shell companies, some of which have been reported to be controlled at the time by members of the Dhillon family, including the guru's wife and sons. That money then was used by the Dhillon family, at least in part, to make real estate investments -- according to stories in the Indian financial press. 

What should worry the guru and his family are several references in the Religare complaint to additional people involved in the alleged criminal conspiracy. Following are some excerpts from the complaint. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

ll. The facts mentioned below disclose a well thought out and organized criminal conspiracy by which a financial scam of huge magnitude has been effected by the Accused Persons namely 

(a) the 'promoters' of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL), including Mr. Malvinder Mohan Singh (MMS), resident of 'Vistas' - 26, Maulsari Avenue, Westend, Green Farm, Rajokri, New Delhi — 110038; and Mr. Shivinder Mohan Singh (SMS), resident of 1, Southend Lane, New Delhi, 110001;

(b) directors and other officers of entities owned / controlled / associated with the promoters;  [p. 3]

-------------------------------

It appears that SMS, MMS, SG, NKG and other unknown persons (being the directors and employees of the 7 entities at the relevant time) colluded to wrongfully gain at the expense of the Complainant Company. [p.17]

-------------------------------

26. The aforesaid facts appear to disclose commission of the offences of cheating, breach of trust, criminal misappropriation, criminal conspiracy, money laundering and forgery by the persons mentioned in this complaint on account of which the Complainant Company has suffered unlawful losses and such persons and other unknown persons and associates of the accused persons have obtained unlawful gains.

In view of the same, I urge you to kindly register a First Information Report basis this complaint against the accused persons mentioned hereinabove for various criminal offences committed by them, investigate the same and bring to book the perpetrators of such a large scale financial fraud. It is in public interest to investigate the aforesaid facts such that interests of public shareholders are preserved.

Thus if this complaint by Religare is investigated by Indian authorities, and it sure seems like it will be, those "unknown persons and associates of the accused persons" appear to be subject to criminal charges. 

I find it hard to believe that Gurinder Singh Dhillon's wife and sons were ringleaders of this massive financial scam. I also find it hard to believe that Godhwani and the Singh brothers funneled money into the above-mentioned shell companies without the knowledge of the RSSB guru.

Dhillon is noted for frequently saying "It's my way or the highway" in his spiritual talks.

And he was viewed by his inner circle as a trusted advisor, given his supposed status as God in Human Form, according to the RSSB teachings. Yet because his name apparently wasn't listed as a director of any of the shell companies, defenders of the guru like to claim that he was an innocent bystander in the financial fraud that benefited him, his family, and his close associates.

Again, hard to believe. 

It could come down to this: if Dhillon's wife and sons end up being charged with criminal conspiracy, will they speak about the guru's level of involvement in the financial fraud? (Ditto for Sunil Godhwani.) And if this happens, will the guru himself take responsibility for the fraud, which might lead to lesser charges being made against his family members?

Another possibility: Likely people not associated with RSSB were either involved with the fraud, or had knowledge of what was going on. Seemingly they would be motivated to cooperate with investigations into who was responsible for the siphoning of money from Religare, and who ultimately benefitted from the illegal money transfer.

Reading the Religare complaint, it struck me as decidedly odd that the perpetrators of the financial fraud thought they could get away with it. After all, transfers of money usually can be tracked by skilled accountants/investigators, even if criminals attempt to hide those tracks.

It may be that because some of the accused were devotees of the RSSB guru, somehow they assumed that the guru's supposed spiritual protection would extend to their financial wrongdoing. Well, if they made that assumption, it isn't working out very well for them.

 

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 about Godhwani and a Singh brothers company, Religare, he ran as CEO. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

I hope you know that the Guru and his family are the largest shareholders of the company : Religare. The business model was conceived by Gurinder, and the Singh brothers are just a front-face of the company. In the second quarter of 2009, some members of the Religare top-brass understood that ' orders ' were coming not from the CEO but from a ' higher source ' and that the CEO was nothing but a pawn in the hands of a ' Guru ' who was taking all the decisions - but was actually incognito.

They soon discovered that a shareholder by the name of ' Gurpreet Dhillon ' who was tucked away in the London office was actually the son of the leader of a large spiritual sect. A little more inquiry lead to further details that uncovered Gurinder Singh Dhillon of RSSB as the founder and ' hidden ' head-honcho of Religare. (How the leader of a spiritual sect managed to set up and drive a billion dollar company is another issue, one that I'm not going to talk about at the moment.)

Now, lets talk about Charlie's Angels. The CEO of Religare Enterprises Ltd. is an initiate named Mr. Sunil Godhwani - the personal treasurer and right-hand man of the Guru. He is also the Guru's long-time friend. Closed-door meetings are often held at Mr. Sunil Godhwani's farmhouse in New Delhi and the Guru is constantly in touch with him on the phone when they're apart. (Even the chauffeurs know about this !)

A 2018 Economic Times story had this to say about Godhwani. "Dera" refers to the headquarters of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, which is led by Gurinder Singh Dhillon.

So it's a big deal that Godhwani has been charged with criminal conspiracy, given that the conspiracy illegally siphoned money from companies controlled by Godhwani and the Singh brothers into other companies controlled by the Dhillon family, and thus into the pockets of the RSSB guru and his relatives.

Here's excerpts from the new Economic Times story. REL stands for "Religare Enterprises Ltd.", the company Godhwani was the CEO of. 

The complaint, which forms the part of the FIR — accessed by ET— alleges that Singh brothers, in collusion with the co-accused, had “orchestrated the financial scam in or around 2016”.

It accuses the two brothers of hatching “a well thought out and organised criminal conspiracy by which a financial scam of huge magnitude has been effected (sic)”. The complainant has sought tracing and restitution of its properties. Singh brothers were promoters of REL till February 2018 and, as promoters, they “exercised deep and pervasive control over the management of RFL since it was a subsidiary company”.

The complaint (part of the FIR) further reads “REL is of the belief, also shared by RFL, that Singh brothers and Sunil Godhwani colluded and siphoned off funds from REL and its subsidiaries which include RFL and committed corporate fraud”.

...The complainant has said that despite red flags raised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Singh brothers did not take corrective action and continued with the “financial scam”.

It adds “from records it is apparent that RBI from time-to-time had expressed concerns regarding the CLB portfolio of RFL. But these concerns were not addressed by the promoters. RBI had specifically raised concerns about the promoters using their influence for disbursal of high-value unsecured loans to entities with no financial standing (but controlled or associated with the promoters) and breach of corporate governance norms.”

Now, though Gurinder Singh Dhillon isn't mentioned in the complaint, he and his family should be deeply worried about this new development. 

Let's note a few things in the "Singh Bros in the Soup" image above.

First, "Complainant has sought tracing and restitution of its properties." Thus the reconstituted board of Religare wants to know what happened to the money that was siphoned off by the Singh brothers, Sunil Godhwani, and unnamed other people. The board also wants to get the money back.

Second, "REL and RFL have filed a separate complaint with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for an investigation into the said fraud." So there's going to be more digging into how the criminal conspiracy operated.

Someone sent me a copy of the complaint, but the formatting makes it really hard to read. Here's the PDF file:
Download Religare complaint

I did manage to read enough of it to find a mention of some of the companies that got the fraudulently diverted money from Religare. There are many shell companies mentioned in the criminal complaint. Here's two screenshots.

The screenshot below gives an overall description of the fraud. MMS refers to Malvinder Mohan Singh, SMS to Shivinder Mohan Singh, and SG to Sunil Godhwani. The complaint says that the loans were never intended to be repaid by the shell companies.

This screenshot mentions some of the shell companies. Note that Prius Real Estate and Modland Wears are two of the companies. Also, that Modland admits getting the fraudulent money, which was then disbursed to the "intended recipients."

So let's turn now to a post I wrote in 2018, "Business Today reports about Gurinder Singh Dhillon's suspicious financial dealings." Here's excerpts I shared from the Business Today story. I've boldfaced some parts for emphasis.

Dhillon has headed the [RSSB] sect since inheriting it in 1990 from maternal uncle Charan Singh who was the spiritual guru between 1951 and 1990. Charan Singhs daughter Nimmi Singh is Malvinder & Shivinders mother and wife of Late Parvinder Singh. Thus, Dhillon is the brothers' maternal uncle.

In comes confidante Godhwani, who was recommended and backed by Dhillon to run non-banking finance company Religare Enterprises. The Singhs often referred to him as their third brother but he once said he owed his allegiance to nobody except Dhillon.

...Once the proceeds of the Ranbaxy sale were received, the Singh brothers paid nearly Rs2,000 crore in taxes and previous loan repayments. Of the remaining Rs7,500 crore, Rs1,750 crore were invested in Religare to fund its growth; about Rs2,230 crore was invested in Fortis' growth.

But most importantly, Rs2,700 crore were transferred to companies owned by the Dhillon family, Gurinder Dhillons wife Shabnam Dhillon and companies associated with RSSB's senior functionaries. While Religare and Fortis are examples of reckless expansion and its consequences, the money transferred to Dhillon and associates-which (with interest) is now estimated to be between Rs4000-5,000 crore-remains unpaid to the Singhs.

It isnt clear why this money was never returned. Dhillon and the Singh brothers did not respond to detailed questions on whether this money was owed to Dhillon and associates for any previous transactions or was only loaned to them.

...'Prius Platinum, Ground Floor, D3, District Centre, Saket, New Delhi-110017' could pass off as a nondescript address. Until you notice a striking similarity: Company after company registering it as their official address in the RoC records. At least 16 at last count. Many of them have even declared the same email ID in the RoC records: [email protected]; and are also being audited by the same firm.

Prius Real Estate, Prius Commercial Projects, Best Healthcare, Modland Wears, Fern Healthcare, Addon Realty, Hillgrow Infrastructure, Bestest Developers, Platinum Infrastructure. Even the Singh family's holding companies, RHC Holding and Oscar Investments, have declared it as their address.

Nearly Rs2,700 crore was routed to these Dhillon-RSSB functionaries companies between 2009 and 2012 through a layered and complex web of subsidiaries. Of that, Rs2,000 crore was invested in two firms--Prius Real Estate and Prius Commercial Projects.

RoC records say Prius Commercial is 84 per cent owned by Dhillons wife Shabnam and 16 per cent by RSSB Delhi head Yuvraj Narain Gorwaney. Prius Real Estate is 50:50 owned by Dhillons elder son Gurpreet and RSSBs Rajveer Singh.

Thus it sure seems like the Dhillon family is facing some additional legal challenges. They were owners of shell companies mentioned in the Religare criminal conspiracy complaint as having participated in the fraud, and the Dhillons also were recipients of the fraudulently obtained money.

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 himself.

This is what also is alleged to have happened after Malvinder Singh refused to sign an agreement that apparently would have absolved the guru of having to repay a much larger amount of money. Read all about this in the other criminal complaint filed against Dhillon, which I wrote about in "Legal filing against Gurinder Singh Dhillon is fascinating reading." 

Here in the United States we've learned a lot from investigations into wrongdoing by our hopefully one-term president, Donald Trump. 

Legal analysts commenting on the investigations frequently point out that organized crime bosses, such as a Mafia boss, often don't give direct orders to their underlings. Instead of saying, "Kill Joe Brown," they'll say something like "It would be best if Joe Brown couldn't cause problems for us anymore."

The bosses' underlings know what he wants them to do: kill Joe Brown. So they do this.

Trump's long-time attorney, Michael Cohen, has testified that Trump would do the same thing. Everyone would know what Trump wanted them to do, even without Trump explicitly saying it. 

It's possible this is what occurred in the two death threats made by people associated with the RSSB guru. Alternatively, the guru could have issued a direct order that the death threats be made. We won't know unless the criminal complaints are thoroughly investigated.

Here's excerpts from a Masala story, "Producer Sheetal Talwar Alleges Death Threats From Godman Followed by Shahid Kapoor and His Family." My comments are in red. 
Download Producer Sheetal Talwar Alleges Death Threats From Godman Followed by Shahid Kapoor and His Family -

What is the nature of the threats you are getting from RSSB chief Baba Gurinder Dhillon and why ?
It was a simple and powerful threat, that if I did NOT stop pursuing my debt and did not withdraw my case against the directors and the company Megabrave (where the money was lent), I would face dire consequences and so would my immediate family.

Of course in my mind, this threat could not have been from Babaji, but would have been from an over-enthusiastic member of his inner circle - which is why I documented it down on e-mail to his team and marked even his assistant. To my surprise, no one even attempted to get to the bottom of it, specifically as the call was from a landline in their satsang office, which would obviously have CCTV cameras.

Well, if the RSSB guru ("Babaji") didn't have anything to do with the death threat, it sure seems like Dhillon would apologize to Talwar and vow to get to the bottom of this, punishing the "over-enthusiastic member of his inner circle" who caused the threat to be made. Instead, nothing was done, which reeks of criminality. It would have to be someone very close to the guru, if not the guru himself, since how many people would know about the loan and Dhillon's refusal to repay the $1.25 million?

...Do you think this incident reflects on the growing criminalizing of religion in our country ?
I think this reflects not on not only the criminalizing of religion, but if you move to the genesis of it, it actually stems from the growing endemic mix of spirituality, politics, business and money. The power in being a guru or then being thought of as God in Human form by millions of followers is absolute - and like in any other field - such belief and power corrupts.

I heartily agree with Talwar. A Mafia boss commands tremendous loyalty from his underlings without them considering the boss to be God in Human Form. Just imagine what would happen if, as Talwar says, they did view the boss in this fashion. This is the case with the RSSB guru, which is why so many of his devotees are willing to do anything for him. Even unethical or criminal things. Yes, belief and power corrupts. 

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, those I disagree with.

I do have some commenting limits, though. "Trolls" aren't welcome here.

Meaning, people who aren't really interested in open discussion of ideas, but just want to spout their own narrow views, usually religious, with boring repetition. I'll be patient with them for a while, to see if they're really Troll-like, then their comments get deleted.

One commenter in particular has caused me to start moderating comments, ilanovitch. I've deleted all of the comments he's written.

Perhaps it's just an amazing coincidence that he writes in a style that's very similar to "Ashy," who also used other names, as described in a 2009 blog post, "Commenting quandary." And that ilanovitch also lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where Ashy lived.

It's too bad that religious fanatics don't have better things to do than come on this blog and leave so many off-topic, obnoxious, insulting comments I have to moderate comments temporarily. 

Anyway, rest assured that non-troll comments will be published by me if they're mostly on-topic and not overly preachy. Remember: commenting is a privilege, not a right. 

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 help pay for his cancer treatment. But now this supposed "spiritual" leader not only won't repay the money, his associates are threatening physical harm to Talwar and his family.

I'm baffled by how anybody can consider this guy to be God in Human form, as the RSSB teachings claim. Not only isn't he God, Gurinder Singh Dhillon isn't even as moral as a normal human being.

Most people would be grateful that someone loaned them money for cancer treatment. But Dhillon isn't. While serving as the RSSB guru he and his family have sucked in almost a billion dollars from other fraudulent loans, yet he won't pay back the $1.25 million loaned him by  Talwar. 

What a jerk.

This includes the people who do the guru's bidding without asking themselves, "Is this wrong? Should I really do what the guru wants?" They've surrendered their inherent human morality to a fake guru who cares much more about gaining worldly wealth than doing the right thing. 

Here's the Business Today story. I've boldfaced some especially disturbing parts.

In a curious twist in the ongoing saga of Singh brothers' missing billions, an NRI film producer Sheetal Vinod Talwar has approached the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai alleging he has been threatened with life after his lawyers pursued repayment of $1.25 million paid supposedly towards Radha Soami Satsang chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon's treatment abroad. "I was coaxed into parting with $1.25 million towards Gurinder Singh Dhillon's treatment and allied expenses in 2015. Dhillon spoke to me twice to help with funds," Talwar told BusinessToday.In in a written response. Money was given to Hong Kong-based company Mega Brave Limited run by RSSB's Lakhi Samtani & Manoj Sabnani.

This is the second criminal complaint against the Baba and RSSB associates. Earlier, on Feb 5, Malvinder Singh had approached the Economic Offences Wing in Delhi accusing Baba Dhillon of threatening through lawyer Ferida Chopra that Malvinder would be eliminated. Malvinder had sought payment of Rs 8,742 crore towards money loaned to firms owned by Dhillon, his family and RSSB associates.

Dhillon did not respond to a detailed email seeking response to Talwar's allegations. Sources close to Shivinder have called the allegations "false" and "rubbish".

Talwar though is a National Film Award winning International film producer and angel investor. His first feature film 'Dharm' was acknowledged with the National Film Award. It premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Talwar has produced films such as 'Rann' starring Amitabh Bachchan, 'Mausam' with Shahid Kapoor, 'Rakta Charitra' starring Surya. Among international films, he produced 'The Joneses' starring Demi Moore, the Martin Freeman starrer 'The Eichmann Show', 'Romans' starring Orlando Bloom.

During Sunil Godhwani's tenure at Religare, Talwar launched India's first SEBI-registered film fund - Vistaar Religare.

In his complaint before the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai on 20 November, 2018, Talwar has alleged that in 2015, Sunil Godhwani and RSSB's Sharan Bhojwani introduced him to directors of a Hong Kong based company Mega Brave Limited-Lakhi Samtani & Manoj Sabnani. He was told Samtani and Sabnani were intimately connected to RSSB. When they found him reluctant to lend, Talwar says Dhillon spoke to him to assure that the money repayment should not be a problem as the borrowers were "extremely wealthy in their own right and it was only because of some immediate restrictions and his health that they were unable to transfer the said amount of $1.25 million".

The complaint filed by Talwar's lawyers Probus Legal alleges Dhillon "took advantage of Mr Talwar's faith and respect towards him and lured him into parting with such a huge amount of money". The petition says despite the fact that "the said advance was a short term loan, our client (Talwar) did not receive any money".

In his complaint before EOW, Talwar annexed an email he wrote to RSSB's Sharan Bhojwani on March 20, 2017, detailing the threatening call: "I am shocked at the turn of events. About 30 mins ago I got a call from a Delhi no. threatening me with dire consequences if I pursued the legal option at Hong Kong. I and my family at Delhi were threatened with physical harm if I did anything that troubled Babaji."

"I was told that Sunny (Sunil Godhwani) and Babaji could not make the payments as it (Religare) had hit the LERMS limit. And that I would be reimbursed when the fiscal began. The requests came from Sunil Godhwani, Sharan Bhojwani and Shivinder. However, I have not been paid the full amount till date inspite of repeated reminders. I have received life threats on phone when my lawyers pursued the balance payments," Talwar told BusinessToday.In in a written response.

"My various emails/calls reminding them about repayment fell into deaf ears and were ignored. This forced me to approach the EOW and take appropriate legal action", Talwar adds in his response to BusinessToday.In.

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 note regarding this comment was the reference to the Singh brothers needing about a billion dollars to fulfill their legal obligations.

This is close to the roughly $800 million worth of loans made to the Dhillon family by the Singh brothers through their holding company. (See image at end of this post.) And Malvinder's criminal complaint alleges that at least some of those loans were made in a fraudulent fashion.

Here's the comment. Baba Ji refers to Gurinder Singh Dhillon.

Uh oh, looks like the crazy fanatical RSSBers are starting to latch on to the posts here. The reason for this is that these posts are the only information and discussions happening on a live basis. One can immediately see the ones posting with blind faith and regurgitating the same mindless stuff discussed at house parties and so on.

No one knows anything really. Even if there is a response from the Dhillon family, it will be viewed with bias. But the comments displayed on this post and the most recent one by Brian have responses that are nonsensical and don't add anything to the debate/conversation.

Comment by Sorav : "You have got no right to talk against about my god" Baba Ji would not stand for that comment. Nor the other crazy comments on the other posts. Relax folks. Have a normal conversation and discuss the possibilities, view the numerous angles and probe the reasons and morality of the situation.

Just spouting off nonsensical stuff like that above serves no purpose and only intensifies the belief by every other person not associated with RSSB that we are all mindless beings just trolling and not presenting any meaningful insight.

No one knows what Mr. Dhillon was thinking, doing, or what his involvement was in this. Clearly there is something, but what? When your name and family members are on the board of these companies transferring obscene amounts of money back and forth, the board members must be privy to it. There's is no doubt about it.

The daily day to day running of the Dera goes through the management team and so to say Baba Ji has his hands on everything day to day is not true. He handles the exceptions or when he personally sees them. I know for a fact he is more involved in the outside centers being built around the world, than he is in the day to day running of the Dera.

When the media was asking the Secretary at the Dera about Shivinder being the next in line, and his response to it saying that as a Secretary he would know if anything like that was going to happen. I call BS on that. The secretary is not going to be in the loop on that discussion, bet you $1 Billion dollars on that. He'll be in the dark until the last minute.

So everyone just freaking take a deep breath and think it through. Take the RSSB filter off the head and just look at the facts.

Is it 100% for sure that the Dhillons orchestrated this mess? Probably not 100%, but definitely well over 50% chance.

Which for me is quite unsettling and more so disappointing. But the faith in the teachings still holds hope that there is slim chance it's not what it seems. The mounting info and SEBI findings are definitely pointing in the direction of finding fault the Dhillon's actions..

Spence has done a great job in parsing through the data and flow of money.

One thing I have to point out is that the $1 billion dollar amount includes the Daiichi settlement. Which is not part of the Dhillon scenario. The implication is that Malav and Shivi don't have the assets to pay the $500M dollar settlement, UNLESS they can get the money owed back from loans from the Dhillon companies. That's the rub.

Great discussions though, and when we stick to the findings by SEBI and the court orders, we can only use that to find any conclusions.

As for me, I'm just disappointed that it's come to this. I don't discuss this with my elderly mother who's entire life has revolved around satsang and seva, and she would be devastated by the news. She would probably deny it anyways... as most RSSB flamers have proven on this blog.

Just simply disappointed.

UPDATE: here's another thoughtful comment from "In Search Of."

There's a saying in Punjabi. Guru is like a raging fire. One should keep their distance from the Guru. Stand too far away and you won't feel the warmth of the fire. Stand too close and you'll be burned.

For the sangat or followers of RSSB that have never been up close and observed the guru have no idea what his private life is.

He is an enigma to the 95% of followers. That 5% that are close, get a glimpse. Even sometimes that's not the real Gurinder Dhillon. There are a few among that inner circle who know what he does and they are so close and embedded that they can't back out or withdraw. Due to guilt, faith, I'm not sure.

But the real person Gurinder Dhillon is, I believe, a far cry from the persona projected before the masses.

Maybe he's realized the RSSB books have been "cleaned" to such an extent that the reality has been lost in the dogma now permeating the sangat. Not sure, but it looks like he's trying to make a sea change in the thinking process of the followers and realized that the old guard will not change but the younger followers aren't convinced or unwilling to go on blind faith.

Maybe he gave up on it after going thru the cancer treatment, who knows? Perception is sometimes more powerful than the truth. Works both ways sometimes.

Even if Baba Ji comes out of this without any dirt on him or his family, the perception is there. It's been tainted and I don't honestly know where i would go from there. The trust and faith has been tampered with. May be a good opportunity to take the good things from RSSB and mate them with some introspection and exploration. Will have to wait and see.

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 Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), who came to be both their spiritual guide and father figure.

-- The guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, orchestrated the installation of his right-hand man, Sunil Godhwani, as the leader of some Singh brother business entities. Family members of Dhillon, plus other RSSB insiders, controlled shell companies that got fraudulent loans from Singh brothers' entities.

-- Malvinder Singh has filed a criminal complaint against the guru, Godhwani, and Dhillon family members.

-- SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, has uncovered "fictitious and fraudulent" financial transactions that need to be repaid. Separately, the Supreme Court of India is requiring the Singh brothers to fulfill a legal settlement that can't happen unless the guru and his family repay almost a billion dollars in loans.

Documentation of all this can be found by reading posts in the "Radha Soami Satsang Beas" category of this blog. (See right sidebar.) Of course, that's if you care about facts. If you just want to mindlessly defend the RSSB guru, you're free to remain blissfully ignorant of those facts.

One religious delusion that I find especially amusing is the theory a commenter recently threw out that the RSSB guru is acting so badly because he wants to demolish the belief among RSSB devotees in a "perfect living guru." Um, wouldn't it be easier for the guru to simply state, "I'm not a perfect living guru"? Of course, that way he couldn't rake in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Spence Tepper is a frequent commenter who does pay close attention to facts, and has been doing a good job of sharing information about this massive financial scandal. Here's some recent comments of his where he responds in a recent post to someone who uses the assumed name of "Just The Facts." I've corrected  few typos.

Hi Just The Facts:

You asked
"Is anyone alleging criminal activity by the mafia boss and Guru? not repaying a loan in time is not a crime"

The loans given to Gurinder family members were given under fraudulent circumstances by the Singhs, but with the active participation of the shell companies, which at the time, had Dhillon family and RSSB leaders among their directors.

Not repaying a loan is not a crime, but defaulting on several hundred million loans might be, if it was done with intent.

We don't know that yet, only that several hundred million dollars loaned to the Dhillon family have gone unrepaid, and worse, checks from the shell companies that gave them the loans were written in a circular fashion back and forth to cover for these Dhillon family loans to make it appear they are making loan payments when they actually were not being paid at all.

So, the SEBI has audited and called this "Fraudulent and Fictitious Activity" and ruled that both the Singhs and the shell companies are guilty and must repay these loans immediately. They gave 90 days, and no loans were repaid.

In that duration, Malvinder has made several accusations against Gurinder and [the Dhillon] family regarding their complicity in the fraud. However, since Malvinder is a party to that fraud his accusations are of questionable value. No doubt he is desperate because he can't repay the money. But he can't repay the money because the Dhillon family, whom he helped, albeit fraudulently, hasn't repaid, either.

The Supreme Court of India has also stepped in to order both the Singh Brothers and the Shell companies to repay, and gone further by sending Garnishment orders to those who took the loans, and that would by definition, include Dhillon family members, though that detail is not mentioned in the press. Al we know is that these shell companies gave several hundred millions to Dhillon family and associates in "loans".

The loans themselves were fraudulently given over several years by the Singhs (though Gurinder's son was also an operating executive at Fortis at the time) without any collateral, in violation of both Fortis policy and SEBI law. These were accepted by the Dhillon family throughout the last nine years or so.

The Garnishment orders are to repay Fortis directly, and not the shell companies, nor Malvinder.

This is where we stand today.

----------------------

Hi Again, "Just the Facts"

Here are some links so that you may see the information for yourself, which I have attempted to sumarize:

The Securities and Exchange Board of India's audit and ruling of Fictious and Fraudulent Activity:
https://www.sebi.gov.in/enforcement/orders/oct-2018/order-in-the-matter-of-fortis-healthcare-limited_40755.html

The Supreme Court of India's order for repayment, and identification that the debts were far larger than the initial SEBI audit demonstrated:

https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/sc-take-note-singh-brothers-can-pay-off-usd-500-million-to-daiichi-provided-the-money-is-recovered/story/326995.html

And some additional review of the Supreme Court ruling related to payment of the Daiichi fraud settlement.

https://hinessight.blogs.com/files/sc-take-note-singh-brothers-can-pay-off-500-million-to-daiichi-provided-the-money-is-recovered.pdf

And more about the loans given to Gurinder family and Malvinder's claims about their intent:

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/fortis-fraud-may-exceed-rs-2-000-crore-says-sfio-1550522937932.html

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One more point, "Just The Facts"

While late payment on a loan isn't a crime, and defaulted loans isn't a crime IF you agree to a satisfactory repayment plan, it is a crime to accept such loans if they were fraudulently obtained.

The recipient of the monies obtained from fraud is in fact an accessory to a crime, and subject to criminal prosecution.

This is only one layer removed, but if it happens repeatedly, then it becomes more difficult to prove you "had no idea" the money was obtained in such a way.

When your wife and sons are actively participating in obtaining the monies through fraud it is even more difficult to claim that you knew nothing..

And if you are a perfect Master, even less credible.

So, yes, we are talking about criminal activity and the potential for the biggest recipient of that fraud to be considered an accessory to that fraud.

But all we have now are the garnishment orders and the ongoing criminal investigation by the SEBI crimes wing, and the documented fact that both the Singhs and the Dhillon family were the biggest beneficiaries of that fraud for over a decade.

This Live Mint image gives an overview of the massive amount of money that was siphoned into the pockets of the Dhillon family. 1000 crore rupees is about $145 million.

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 press.

Defenders of the guru go to great lengths to excuse his inexcusable behavior.

In hopes their eyes can be opened by reading what someone wrote about him considerably before the current scandals have come to light, below I've copied in some of the comments from "Tara" that related to Gurinder Singh Dhillon's involvement in companies with ties to the Singh brothers. Other comments in the 2018 post are equally disturbing in various ways.

I've boldfaced passages that struck me as being of particular interest. 

This comment is a reply to the sender of the email that Brian has posted above - July 20, 2010 at 8:00pm. Sender, please excuse me if at any point you find my tone offensive. SENDER says - In your post ' RSSB's ties to Religare mix money and spirituality... ' what proof do you have that the RSSB Guru ( Baba Ji ) literally runs the company ? That he makes all the important decisions and spends a considerable amount of time driving the business ? And if he is making millions for his family and kids, is that such a big crime ? In America we do that, we call it capitalism.

Reply - I hope you know that the Guru and his family are the largest shareholders of the company : Religare. The business model was conceived by Gurinder, and the Singh brothers are just a front-face of the company. In the second quarter of 2009, some members of the Religare top-brass understood that ' orders ' were coming not from the CEO but from a ' higher source ' and that the CEO was nothing but a pawn in the hands of a ' Guru ' who was taking all the decisions - but was actually incognito.

They soon discovered that a shareholder by the name of ' Gurpreet Dhillon ' who was tucked away in the London office was actually the son of the leader of a large spiritual sect. A little more inquiry lead to further details that uncovered Gurinder Singh Dhillon of RSSB as the founder and ' hidden ' head-honcho of Religare. ( How the leader of a spiritual sect managed to set up and drive a billion dollar company is another issue, one that I'm not going to talk about at the moment. )

Now, lets talk about Charlie's Angels. The CEO of Religare Enterprises Ltd. is an initiate named Mr. Sunil Godhwani - the personal treasurer and right-hand man of the Guru. He is also the Guru's long-time friend. Closed-door meetings are often held at Mr. Sunil Godhwani's farmhouse in New Delhi and the Guru is constantly in touch with him on the phone when they're apart. ( Even the chauffeurs know about this ! )

Mr. Godhwani's residence is the Guru's home for all ' unofficial ' visits into the capital. How do I know this ? A close family has a relative who works for Religare, and I'm good friends with people who are well connected with the ' inner circle ' members. This information has also been confirmed by a dozen well known people from the Indian financial sector.

You're talking about capitalism ? This is not capitalism, this is a big guerilla coup ! Usually, there's always something shady when someone is hiding something, and your ' Baba Ji ' clearly has a lot to hide. Otherwise, why hasn't he come out in the open ? Why is this something that needs to be rationalized ?

SENDER says - You've heard of Rev. Joel Osteen, I'm sure, http://www.joelosteen.com or maybe seen his weekly TV programs. He is a Christian minister, and spiritual leader from Houston, Texas. I'm sure he's very savvy when it comes to business and making money, and there's no doubt in my mind that he's a multimillionaire. I'm sure his kids are millionaires too, thanks to Joel. His books have been on the NY Times best selling author list - many times. He's rolling in money !

Reply - I doubt if Joel's bestsellers would be describing him as a GIHF and he probably not handing out ' rennet free cheese ' lists to his faithful.

SENDER says - My question to you is this - Does it spiritually matter that Joel Osteen is making big money for his family and kids and still running a big Church like Lakewood ? I'm sure he has lots of insider trading tips from his Texan buddies and Christian associates too. That's called networking, and we all do it.

Reply - Does it spiritually matter... ? Sorry, but I think your idea of morality can do with some kindergarden basics, seems like you missed ' ethics ' class in school.

SENDER says - Yet, when an eastern Master like Baba Ji does the same thing, we are quick to blast him and criticize him. We think that the eastern Guru should be in sandals, simple, poor, and his family should be poor too. Why the double standards ?

Reply - I do not want my spiritual Master to be poor, but I think I'd expect him to practice what he preaches. Gurinder Singh's business operations are a clear departure from the teachings of RS Sant Mat. I think your ' Baba Ji ' is the one who has double standards - he talks about detachment, but silently runs a billion dollar company.

SENDER says - Anyhow, I'm sure Baba Ji and his family are giving lots of money to help run the Dera, and all the centers he has around the world. Its not cheap to run these places. I know that I stayed at the Dera for a month once and didn't have to pay a dime for the room and board.

Reply - That is totally incorrect. Dera is a self-sustaining economy which is run by the money that comes from donations by the Sangat and all operations are carried out by volunteers. RSSB centers ( in India and around the world ) are built and maintained by volunteers, so it is rather cheap to ' run ' these places. It is all monetary or physical ' Seva ' by the Sangat in every way, but it is the RSSB trust that owns these properties. RSSB has cut back on all charitable activities, so it is not likely that the Guru's family are giving anything at all !

----------------------

Yes, financial oscillations between RSSB and Religare are a very likely scenario. Money going to and fro, borrowing and lending — it may all be happening. That would also help explain why the Singh Brothers gave Religare shareholding to no other relative, other than Gurinder. The RSSB purse-strings are solely in his hands and the RSSB-trust is mega cash-rich, and a tax-free pot of gold.

So, my take is that the Singh Brothers put in their capital and Gurinder was given a preferential allotment of equity based on his three-fold role : One, the promise of the " support of the RSSB-trust " as and when required. Two, Gurinder brought to the Religare table a band of RS loyalists ( like Sunil Godhwani, now Group CEO of Religare ) and RS board members who would keep everything under wraps and unquestionably sign any document.

( I'd like to add here that they're obviously not doing a very good job of keeping their secrets secure — I learnt from a top level employee, on a condition of anonymity, that there was some " backstage Guru " who was taking all the important decisions. This informer eventually quit Religare citing questionable business practices, poor governance and the risk of public exposure. )

----------------------

My additional thoughts are : Gurinder ordered the Ranbaxy sell-out, and as a faith policy, Shivinder and Malvinder do not over-rule anything HE decides. The final " go ahead boys " was given by Gurinder. I know this because the celebratory cheers resounded with a boisterous " Baba-ji does not make any mistakes ! " that came from none other than Sunil Godhwani, Baba-ji's right-hand man.

Before the news hit the press, everyone knew that a chunk of that booty would be pumped into Religare. Of course, Ranbaxy's health was generously inflated, but the sell-out was the best possible move from a financial standpoint — considering that the Singh Brothers made quite a mess of the succession when they inherited the company, which subsequently reflected in the company's performance over the years.

There was a joke in the corporates circles here that Parminder Singh was in a big shock in heaven when he learnt that Gurinder had advised his sons to sell Ranbaxy. His reaction was : " What ? Who the f*** is he ? " ( LOL ) This entire Religare affair that Gurinder's having with the Singh Brothers is in direct conflict with his role as a Guru, whether he's teaching 1.0 or 3.0. His insatiable appetite for wealth is sick, specially when there is no charitable initiative for the poorer sections of the Sangat that make up for ninety-five percent of his following.

IMO, Gurinder wants them to remain hungry and foolish otherwise they will not be interested in the salvation promise, which is why I think that Sant Mat 3.0 will never be introduced to the langar. You are absolutely right about the Mc-Donald's style of operations at Fortis. Also, the services they provide are the Micky-D's equivalent of fries and nuggets. It is all about the money, with little regard for ethical practice and human life.

But, it is interesting to note that post Ranbaxy, none of the Singh Brothers' businesses have been particularly profitable. It is too early to call, but Fortis is struggling. And, going forward, the competition will intensify. Religare is hemorrhaging under the acumen-devoid leadership of Sunil Godhwani and is showing no signs of recovering. Religare continually gets mini bail-outs from the huge cash reserves that the Singh Brothers are currently sitting on, but the well could dry-up in less than a decade if their current run continues.

It is also possible that Gurinder could make some bad ( not-so-GIHF ) decisions. Our comments here are forming a valuable archive for those who will seek to find out more, specially after the radical shift in the Sant Mat teachings.

----------------------

If you look at Page-94 of the Religare Prospectus you will find a board member and initiate named Mr. Deepak Ramchand Sabnani who has the foreign directorship of the ( RSSB ) Science of the Soul Study Centre International Limited which is an RSSB registered charity. What is a non-profit RSSB subsidiary doing on the corporate prospectus of Religare ? This is another link that proves that Religare board members who are initiates have also been given important roles within RSSB. I have learnt that business is preferentially given to the Guru's " inner circle " members who are also his close friends. http://www.sebi.gov.in/dp/reldraft.pdf http://www.scienceofthesoul.org 

----------------------

I met another one of Gurinder's old friends, a gentleman who now lives in Scotland. He told me that he was shocked when he learnt of his Guru-friends' recent wealth !

 

He also added that Moga ( as Gurinder is fondly called by his pre-guru-days friends' circle ) is living on the edge with his growing tide of greed and that land-grabbing has now become a common RSSB practice.

Believers, your " Master " is a fraud — that's as simple as it is. Much exploitation is possible in the name of " spirituality " and for the sake of the millions of followers who bow to his pretentious backside, I wish that this cult comes crashing down and Gurinder has no where to hide.

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 up, even as the blame game continues." I've boldfaced the part relating to Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his right-hand-man, Sunil Godhwani.
Download Time may be running out for Singh brothers to pay up even as the blame game continues

The Singh brothers may need close to a billion dollars to pay Daiichi Sankyo’s arbitration award and comply with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI’s) order to return funds diverted from Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises, if they want to avoid a possible imprisonment.

The Supreme Court on March 14 asked Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, referred to as Singh brothers, to consult their legal and financial legal advisers and revert to the Court by March 28 as to how they propose to secure the award, which has been passed against them.

...Not long ago, Singh brothers were on the Forbes richest Indian businessmen list, with a net worth of $1.4 billion in 2016. Now, they have lost most of that wealth. Their shareholding in Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises has now fallen to around a percent,

Given the meltdown of their wealth, it looks a tall order for Singh brothers to arrange those funds.

But a person who knew brothers told Moneycontrol said a significant portion of their wealth is locked in real estate assets. “A large portion of the money the brothers received through sale of Ranbaxy was routed into buying real estate,” said a person who didn’t want to be named.

But there is a problem, says the above person, as “the investments into real estate was made through an intricate web of companies and it’s opaque.”

...Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), his family members and companies controlled by them are said to be in control of some of these properties. Dhillon is a father like figure for the Singh brothers.

Malvinder Singh in his affidavit to the Supreme Court, alleged that Dhillon, his family members and companies controlled by him used funds from the Ranbaxy sale to buy real estate and loaned over Rs 6,000 crore [$870 million].

Singh brothers also blamed former Religare top executive Sunil Godhwani for the group’s troubles. In a joint statement, they earlier said that Godhwani was the architect of the financial structures, including the loans to the Dhillon family and companies, that led to their financial troubles.

I keep writing blog posts about this financial saga because it shows the danger of believing that a guru, or anyone for that matter, can be trusted completely as a "perfect being" -- which is what Gurinder Singh Dhillon is supposed to be, according to the teachings of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, or RSSB.

Malvinder Singh's criminal complaint against the RSSB guru and others associated with him describes a really disturbing pattern of behavior by Gurinder Singh Dhillon. 

Malvinder and Shivinder are relatives of the guru.

After their father's death they viewed Dhillon as a trusted father figure. They also are initiates of the guru, so that was a factor in their trust. The RSSB guru is considered to be God in human form. After initiation, the guru supposedly takes charge of his initiates' karmas, or destiny. 

The guru's commands are viewed as sacred by devotees, not to be questioned. I know this for a fact, because I was a member of RSSB for 35 years and did a lot of volunteer work ("seva"). No one ever wondered if what the guru wanted should be done. It just was done, without question.

So when Gurinder Singh Dhillon put his close associate, Sunil Godhwani, in charge of companies affiliated with the Singh brothers, it isn't at all surprising that Malvinder Singh and his brother trusted that Godhwani and the guru would make wise decisions.

However, this isn't what happened.

As noted in the above-mentioned story, Dhillon and Godhwani, among with others associated with RSSB, siphoned almost a billion dollars into shell companies that made risky real estate deals that now apparently have gone bad. Or at least, semi-bad.

It's an unholy mess. I'm confident the Singh brothers never thought that doing what the guru wanted would leave them in such financial and legal troubles. But this is what can happen when religious leaders are viewed as divine, even godly.

When skepticism departs, fraudulent behavior can walk right through a true-believing door.

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 stores in south Salem (Oregon) where I do the weekly shopping for my wife, dog, and myself.

First, let's get some terms defined. Vipassana is a Buddhist meditation practice that is basically what is now called "mindfulness." Sure, there's more to it than that, as discussed in a Tricycle article, "What Exactly is Vipassana Meditation?"

The distinction between Vipassana meditation and other styles of meditation is crucial and needs to be fully understood. Buddhism addresses two major types of meditation. They are different mental skills, modes of functioning or qualities of consciousness. In Pali, the original language of Theravada literature, they are called Vipassana and Samatha.

Vipassana can be translated as “Insight,” a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. Samatha can be translated as “concentration” or “tranquility.” It is a state in which the mind is brought to rest, focused only on one item and not allowed to wander. When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility which must be experienced to be understood.

Most systems of meditation emphasize the Samatha component. The meditator focuses his mind upon some items, such as prayer, a certain type of box, a chant, a candle flame, a religious image or whatever, and excludes all other thoughts and perceptions from his consciousness. The result is a state of rapture which lasts until the meditator ends the session of sitting. It is beautiful, delightful, meaningful and alluring, but only temporary. Vipassana meditation addresses the other component, insight.

Simran is one component of the Surat Shabd Yoga meditation practice taught by Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), along with other sects that fall into the general category of Sant Mat. Simran is the repetition of a mantra, so it falls into the Samatha or concentration category, as noted in the passage quoted above. 

The other components of Surat Shabd Yoga are dhyan, visualization of an image (usually the face of the guru who initiated the practitioner), and bhajan, listening to a supposed celestial or supernatural sound.

The simran part of Surat Shabd Yoga is what I was asked about, but what follows really is a comparison of Vipassana and Surat Shabd Yoga in general.

I practiced Surat Shabd Yoga diligently for about 35 years, meditating every day from 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours. For the past 15 years or so my morning meditation has been Vipassana/mindfulness oriented. 

The key difference between Vipassana and Surat Shabd Yoga is the goal.

As noted in the passage above, Vipassana, or mindfulness, aims at being clearly aware of whatever is present within one's consciousness.

It isn't other-worldly, unless sensations of another world are present. Typically awareness of the breath is used to calm the mind, though thoughts and emotions aren't rejected in mindfulness meditation, since they can be another object of awareness.

Surat Shabd Yoga, on the other hand, is very much other-worldly. The goal is to withdraw one's consciousness from the outside world, including sensations of one's own body, and bring awareness completely "inside."

Once there, at the eye center or Third Eye, supposedly one's soul consciousness rises to higher realms of spiritual reality, considered to be five in number. 

Now, I've used supposed and supposedly to describe Surat Shabd Yoga meditation, but not to describe Vipassana or mindfulness meditation. 

This points to the central reason I consider Vipassana to be superior: it deals with what is actually present in consciousness, not with what might be there. Surat Shabd Yoga, on the other hand aims at leaving this world behind in order to gain a supposedly better one.

Even the simran or mantra repetition aspect of Surat Shabd Yoga has an other-worldly connotation, since the Five Holy Names repeated by the practitioner supposedly are associated with characteristics of the aforementioned five higher realms of reality.

So the benefit of Surat Shabd Yoga meditation is much reduced if, as I consider highly likely, the supernatural regions it posits actually don't exist.

Meaning, if there's no supernatural side to reality that human consciousness can become aware of, then Surat Shabd Yoga basically is Samatha or concentration. There's a benefit to being able to concentrate on a mantra or image to the exclusion of other sensations, thoughts, emotions, and such, but otherwise the Surat Shabd Yoga practitioner isn't doing anything special.

Ah, that word, special. 

This points to another reason why I now much prefer Vipassana/mindfulness meditation. There's nothing special about it, nor is there any claim that it's something special. It's simply an attempt to recognize whatever is happening with as clear an awareness as possible.

As I frequently hear on my Daily Calm guided meditation via my iPhone's Calm app, "breathing in, know that you are breathing in; breathing out, know that you are breathing out." (Also, as I've noted in a blog post, when locking my car, know that I am locking the car.)

So mindfulness is a universal approach to living.

In a very real sense, there's nothing higher or lower, better or worse, desirable or undesirable. If we're happy, we know we're happy. If sad, we know we're sad. Judgement is absent from Vipassana meditation, as I understand it.

If the mind wanders, we know our mind is wandering. When the mind is concentrated, we know our mind is concentrating.

By contrast, my experience is that Surat Shabd Yoga practitioners -- at least those in the RSSB organization -- consider themselves to be on a very special path that leads to God-realization. The RSSB teachings claim that those initiated by the guru, who is viewed as God in human form, are "marked souls." 

Marked, that is, by God as deserving of being put on a path that is guaranteed to lead to God-realization within a maximum of four lifetimes (which entails a belief in reincarnation, obviously).

The Surat Shabd Yoga goal of leaving this world behind to find a better one within the depths of one's consciousness also encourages an unhealthy disdain for everyday life among many devotees. The RSSB guru sometimes is adored more than an initiate's own family, in line with Jesus' supposed saying:

"Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10:37)

Bottom line: I'm enjoying my meditation much more now that I've switched to a Vipassana/mindfulness approach. I feel more in touch both with myself and with other people. I no longer consider that I'm on a special spiritual journey leading to the highest divine realm that people who practice other forms of meditation are unable to reach.

It feels good to simply view myself as an ordinary human being living an ordinary life.

But if God or a supernatural divinity actually does exist, seemingly Vipassana meditation will help me be mindfully aware of it, should that divinity deign to make an appearance in my consciousness.

UPDATE: I neglected to mention another reason I prefer Vipassana/mindfulness meditation now. In accord with Buddhist teachings, Vipassana leads to a realization that there's no "self" inside our head, no enduring essence, nothing separate from ever-changing experience.

Surat Shabd Yoga, on the other hand, assumes we have, or are, a soul that is unchanging and eternal, even though there's no convincing evidence of this. So in addition to assuming that supernatural realms of reality exist, Surat Shabd Yoga also assumes that the soul exists. 

I want to know reality as it is, as clearly and fully as possible. Fantasies about what could be, but isn't, can be fun to engage in (that's why movies and novels are so pleasing), but they shouldn't be taken seriously.

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 say nephew, but I've been told cousin is the correct relationship.)

As you can read below in the screenshots I made of the story, the massive amount of loans and advances given to Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family is preventing payment of the arbitration award to Daiichi Sankyo.

Those loans and advances were made fraudulently with the connivance of the guru, his right-hand man Sunil Godhwani, and other RSSB members, according to the criminal complaint filed by Malvinder Singh. 

I keep writing about this Indian financial saga, which could provide the plot for a great Bollywood movie, because it shows up so clearly the hypocrisy of many religious leaders.

The guru who leads a sect that teaches the goal of life is to purify the soul and mind so they can rise to higher spiritual regions has devoted himself to amassing worldly riches in a highly dubious manner, using his position as the head of RSSB to make himself rich. 

It'll be interesting to see if Malvinder succeeds in getting the money back from the RSSB guru and others. Hopefully he will. Gurus can't hold themselves above the law, even though their devotees often try to excuse their actions with a variety of unconvincing excuses: "It's God's will...this is a test of our faith...gurus work in mysterious ways...blah, blah, blah."

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. And I'm assuming Gurinder Singh Dhillon (GSD) is the other member of the "top Three."

These type of fraud activities on grand scale go too much in India. Nirav Modi case is another one that some of you folks may have heard about.

Nirav Modi

Somehow the business and cultural environment is such that these activities do not trigger legal alerts, let alone moral and ethical qualms, in anyone... so these folks seem emboldedened to think it as the cost of doing business (or shall I say make even more yuuge amounts of money).

It's not like it does not happen in US either; it is just that the regulatory noose is little tighter in US.

I doubt anyone in the upper echelons of the Dhillon-Singh empire [did] not know what was going on or how the money was being siphoned or how the loans were being payed off just on paper; it was just a normal practice when it was being done in real time.

Until these activities added up and the market downturn squashed the speculative bets to such an extent, with Daiichi-Sankyo playing the violin band on "Nearer, My God, to Thee", that everyone saw the Titanic sinking and no one knew what to do to get out.

It's unfathomable that whoever was writing in those checks and carrying out those transactions didn't alert others about the dark clouds hovering over the near-horizon and that info didn't vaporize all the way to the top Three.

Personally, from the fact that Shivi's announcement on Sep 23rd 2015 to go to dera - to become a "Sadhu" - was closely matched with first murmurs of problems cropping underneath their empire (check the press reports around that time), I think his going to dera may have been as much tied with how to sort this mess out as much as his inner calling.

Perhaps this sorting the mess out is tied to the potential succession plans (whether as part of or apart from the so-called Family Settlement). I don't think Malav is an innocent party either, even if he has gotten full throttle against GSD today (likely not out of honesty but as part of ploy to extract something out of this mess).

He likely (allegedly) fully knew what was going on and the reasons for Shivi's renunciation and pilgrimage to dera. But after s*** quickly hit the fan from there on, he decided to go a different route to reduce his culpability.

If Sunil Godhwani could intertwine Dhillon/Singh finances (something that Singh brothers should have known having created plethora of entities and the reasons to do so), then imagine what could happen if Shivi ended up on RSSB trust or as the head. Perhaps they saw a way to get out of trouble, particularly if the mess took a deadly turn.

Of course, this is conjecture on my part but where there is a smoke, there must be a fire underneath. Something was fishy all along and all this sudden renunciation, leaving the company in capable hands of Malav and Sunny, is just too naive to believe in.

For all those here who are on the fence and so much on the defense, just beginning of this year, I too was defending all these actions (and few others relevant to my life) that somehow this is all divine plan and so on despite my objectivity that seriously questioned it since the Bloomberg story.

So I thought of this way: what if all this was happening to someone else's guru?... say if Kirpal existed today, who otherwise posed as a decent guru, or perhaps Rajinder from his lineage today. Would the same thoughts and defense arguments originate in you, or would you be quick to point out (and likely gloat) that "we told you so... that it is a fake lineage"?

Would you not say "even if this was all legal, why is their guru amassing god-awful amounts of money while preaching Guru Nanak's message: the accumulation of wealth is not possible without sins; nor does it accompany the accumulator after death (Paapan baaj hoi nahi...)."

Would you not say that he should be instructing and hammering all his kins and near ones (particularly the dera elites) to adopt a simple honest living and focus on meditation than putting all the kins and close circle friends to the top positions of the empire?

That doesn't sound like someone acting as mentor to this duo but rather appears to be actively involved in all aspects when the top echelons of dera were recruited to run this empire. Perhaps you should listen to this satsang starting at 6:25 : "... what principles don't we sacrifice to amass this wealth..." indeed! But oh sweat Lord, what an irony!  

[It's in hindi but some of you seem to know it].

Ram Rahim

If you look at some of the comments posted by Ram Rahim followers even today on various forums/apps, you will see the real denial in action despite such clear evidence of his wrong-doing and doing time. It seems for some folks facts and evidences just don't matter.

Or is it just like the classical loss psychology in investments? I still sometimes think that this is all just a Cosmic play and my RS stock will bounce back with full dividends. But I guess this is mind adjusting to the new reality, particularly when you were invested and thought yourself lucky to get a ticket back to Home.

Oh the five stages of grief!

I am the same way with my stocks, I just can't get rid of them when they lose, particulary when you like the company's product but not its management or its policy or its CEO. Tesla anyone? Looks like I need to diversify my spiritual stocks like Brian is doing these days. Any good spiritual mutual fund or ETF, people?

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 RSSB guru, could throw light on the saga if he'd ever hold a press conference and answer questions from Indian financial journalists. But he hasn't done this, and may never do this, so that vacuum understandly is being filled with theories such as you'll read below.

Singh brothers and Gurinder Singh Dhillon

Back in 2010 I wrote several blog posts about members of the Dhillon family receiving shares in Religare from the Singh brothers, which is the first part of Hidden Agenda's comment. See:

Religare's money connections with the Radha Soami guru
Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru makes $254 million

As the second post notes, it was a holding company controlled by the Dhillon family that held shares of Religare worth $254 million. It seems entirely reasonable that one of Gurinder Singh's sons was enriched by the same amount, as the comment says. 

The first post says that the guru's sons got Religare stock for 23 cents a share, which is less than the $1 a share price mentioned in the comment. Regardless, the Singh brothers essentially gifted the Dhillon family shares that soon after ballooned in value.

Read on for the common sense talk from "Hidden Agenda."

Let’s piece the whole story together using common sense.

First of all, this began back when Gurinder’s sons received shares in Religare or some company just before they were floated on the stock market.

The Singh brothers sold the shares to them for $1 each and they became worth $100 each after the flotation. This made one of the sons $250,000,000 – a quarter of a billion.

Nobody just gives anyone that kind of money for no reason. This was obviously a business transaction. There was obviously a second part to that deal, whereby Gurinder’s family does something in return that is of more value to the Singh brothers.

What could that be? What could Gurinder give them that would be of more value?

Connections? People who can be trusted? My guess is that this was planned long ago. With key people in place that were not related to the Singh brothers, they could do transactions that would appear to be genuine business transactions. Of course none of this could be in writing – so it would have to be based on trust.

Gurinder would be the perfect partner for the deal. He could appoint a person like Goswami who was not a family member, yet Goswami would never steal from his spiritual guru. And maybe others like him that we may still be unaware of.

Funds could be siphoned into offshore companies that have complete secrecy. Nominee directors and shareholders – so ownership remains anonymous.

But something went wrong. The real estate market took a serious nosedive. Just at the same time the Singh brothers desperately needed funds otherwise they would lose the shares they had pledged to the bank.

Their normal bank accounts were frozen because of the Daiichi Sankyo case. So they could not make the bank payments. They most likely appealed to Gurinder to help them but he was unable to do so because they real estate market had dropped so dramatically.

From there, it all went downhill. The Singh brothers lost their billions – their biggest mistake was to pledge their shares. Obviously they knew at the time that they had plenty of money to make the bank payments – but they did not see the possibility of their bank account being frozen. Nobody could foresee that.

After that – the relationship with Gurinder most likely went sour as they perhaps blamed him for not helping. I doubt very much that the money given to the Dhillon family was theirs to keep – most likely it was an “under the table” deal to give money back to the Singh Brothers.

The Singh brothers would not just give money away for nothing – there was obviously some kickback payments due to them.

When things went wrong – all trust is gone and it’s each for himself. That is where they are now.

If the Singh’s bank accounts had not been frozen – this story would never have come out – even now. It could only be a joint effort by the Singhs and the Dhillons. They both stood to profit.

But business deals can go wrong and this one did.

Malvinder is bitter because he has lost everything and all that remains now is revenge. Shivinder is friends with Gurinder – so he’ll be okay but I doubt he will be the next guru. It would be a PR miracle if RSSB managed to pull that off.

Malvinder: RSSB guru's loans of over $870 million are due

I just made this update to the blog post I wrote yesterday, "RSSB guru had better have a big bank balance."

NEXT DAY UPDATE: A Live Mint story about the Supreme Court hearing reports that Malvinder Singh says the RSSB guru has loans of over ₹6,000 crore, $870 million, that are due. So the graphic above appears to be correct. Excerpt:

Malvinder Singh, in his 30-page affidavit, claimed that Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, his family members and companies controlled by him used funds from the Ranbaxy sale to buy real estate, and loans and advances of over ₹6,000 crore made to them were due. Malvinder claimed that though he made all efforts to sell his assets, these were thwarted by Daiichi Sankyo.

Sure wish I could be present when Malvinder Singh talks with Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the RSSB guru, about the money. Maybe Malvinder will say something like this:

Hey, cousin Gurinder, I've got a small favor to ask. No big deal really. I just need you to pay back the money you owe me, so I can comply with a court ruling. A check for $870 million made out to Malvinder Mohan Singh would be great. Well, maybe a bit more just to be sure we cover all your debts. Let's make it a nice round number, $1 billion dollars, but in rupees, naturally, and we'll call it good. 

I realize you might be a bit irritated by me filing a criminal complaint against you, but let's not let that stand in the way of a a little friendly -- OK, sort of friendly -- request to pay what you owe. And you're supposed to be God in human form, right? Can't you just conjure up a billion dollars with your divine powers? Also, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd appreciate your stopping the death threats against me. I've got enough to worry about as it is.

Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the Scheming Saint of Radha Soami Satsang Beas

RSSB guru had better have a big bank balance

I'm sure defenders of the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas will have a different take on today's news from the Indian financial press, but the way it looks to me, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, his family, and associates are going to have to account for the hundreds of millions of dollars they've gotten from fraudulent loans. 

Well, more than account. Because it sure seems like there's going to be a lot of pressure on the Dhillons, et.al., to pay back the approximate US $800 million they've gotten from highly suspicious loans.

No, that isn't a typo. The amount reported by Live Mint was $782 million. With interest and/or penalties, $800 million is a wholly believable figure. 

So let's see why I believe the RSSB guru and others are going to have to come up with that money, much or most of which appears to have been spent on real estate deals, during the next few months.

First piece of evidence: A News18 story, "Since You Aren't a Sadhu Anymore, Start Thinking About Money, SC Tells Former Fortis Promoter." SC refers to the India Supreme Court.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday told former promoter of Fortis Shivinder Singh that since he is no more a sadhu, he should start thinking about the money.

Shivinder and his elder brother Malvinder Singh had been called upon by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in connection with a contempt plea moved by Daiichi Sankyo.

Daiichi has come to the court for securing Rs 4,000 crore of foreign arbitration award in the their favour and had got the stake sale of Fortis Hospital to IHH Healthcare Berhad, Malaysia stopped by way of an interim order of the apex court.

When the sparring brothers showed up on Thursday, senior lawyer Fali S Nariman, representing Daiichi, pointed out that while Malvinder claims is trying to pay off all debts, Shivinder says he has become a sadhu.

Interacting with Shivinder, CJI Gogoi said: "You are telling us that you have nothing to do with business anymore and that your brother is looking after it since you have renounced the world. If you have a debt to pay, your renouncing the world wouldn't matter to us." At this, Shivinder's lawyer PS Patwalia submitted: "Mr Shivinder has come back to the world in December 2017."

"Oh! That's good. Now that your lawyer says you've come back to the world, start thinking about money," retorted the CJI.

The court, then referring to the foreign tribunal award in the favour of Daiichi, told Singh brothers: "It is not just about Rs 4000 Crore or individual honour It is a question of honour for the country. It doesn't do good for the country. You were once the flag- bearers of this country. Pay your debts and come out of this."

It asked Malvinder and Shivinder to sit with their accountants and figure out a way to pay off their debts and honour their commitments. "We believe this was your first time in the court. Let your next appearance be your last. Come back with a plan," CJI told Singh brothers, adjourning the case to March 28.

How much is 4000 crore rupees? About $578 million. Do Malvinder and Shivinder Singh have anywhere near that much money? Almost certainly not.

There have been articles in the Indian financial press about the fall of their business empire. For example, a Forbes story, "How to Lose a $2 Billion Family Inheritance: The Tale of the Singh Brothers of India." Excerpt:

The Singh brothers were heirs to Ranbaxy Laboratories, which was then India’s foremost pharmaceutical company, founded by their grandfather Bhai Mohan Singh and stewarded by their father, Dr. Parvinder Singh, who died in 1999. The brothers, who each inherited one-third of the company, engineered its sale in 2008.

After that, they heavily invested the proceeds into the fast expansion of Fortis Healthcare and Religare Enterprises, two other public companies they owned.

They also loaned vast amounts of money to companies owned by a family headed by a spiritual leader whom they followed and who was a relative of theirs — Gurinder Singh Dhillon. Dhillon was a businessman as well, and he and members of his sect were central to investments made with loans from the brothers, including investments in a wide-ranging real-estate portfolio.

A Live Mint graphic that I've shared in other blog posts illustrates how massive the "vast amounts of money" loaned to the Dhillon family was.

The red circles total to 994 crore, or $136 million. The RHC Holding amount, a company controlled by the Singh brothers, is much larger: 5,482 crore, or $792 million. 

NEXT DAY UPDATE: A Live Mint story about the Supreme Court hearing reports that Malvinder Singh says the RSSB guru has loans of over ₹6,000 crore, $870 million, that are due. So the graphic above appears to be correct. Excerpt:

Malvinder Singh, in his 30-page affidavit, claimed that Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, his family members and companies controlled by him used funds from the Ranbaxy sale to buy real estate, and loans and advances of over ₹6,000 crore made to them were due. Malvinder claimed that though he made all efforts to sell his assets, these were thwarted by Daiichi Sankyo.

So where do the Singh brothers need to go to come up with the $578 million the Supreme Court of India says they need to pay Daiichi? It sure seems like the money they loaned to Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family is a likely source.

Second piece of evidence: a Business Today story, "SEBI directs RFL, REL to recall loans worth over Rs. 2,300 crore from Singh brothers, others."

SEBI Thursday ordered Religare Finvest and Religare Enterprises to recall loans worth over Rs 2,300 crore that were diverted to promoters Shivinder Mohan Singh, Malvinder Mohan Singh and 21 other entities after finding preliminary evidence of fund diversions.

Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) is a subsidiary of Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL). At the end of December 2018, the Singh brothers were among the promoters of REL.

"It was observed that funds amounting to Rs 2,315.09 crore had been diverted from the books of RFL for the utilisation of promoters and promoter group entities of REL," the regulator said in an order.

Noting that a detailed investigation of the fund diversion is necessary to find out the role of each entity in the alleged routing of funds, SEBI said remedial action needs to be taken to protect the interest of shareholders.

...The regulator has directed the two companies to "initiate steps to recall all the loans amounting to Rs 2,315.09 crore" along with due interest within three months.

...Apart from the Singh brothers, the loans have to be recalled from 21 other entities. Those include OSPL Infradeal, Bharat Road Network, Platinum Infrastructure, Ad Advertising and Artifice Properties.

The other entities are Best Health Management, Devera Developers, Vitoba Realtors, Fern Healthcare, Modland Wears, Rosestar Marketing, Star Artworks, Tripoli Investment & Trading Co, Volga Management and Consultancy, Zolton Properties, Religare Comtrade, RHC Holding, Ranchem, ANR Securities, Shivi Holdings and Malav Holdings.

The markets regulator had received complaints of alleged financial mismanagement and fund diversions at Religare Finvest for the benefit of promoter group entities of Religare Enterprises.

I've boldfaced the names of three companies SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] is requiring loans to be recalled from that are companies Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family got money from, as shown in the graphic above. 

If the Live Mint graphic is correct, the RSSB guru and his relatives could be required by SEBI to pay back 5,992 crore, or $792 million. That's a heck of a lot of money. I doubt Gurinder Singh Dhillon has it in his checking account. 

So it's going to be an interesting few months. The SEBI order speaks of 2,315 crore being recalled from loans made by the two companies, Religare Finvest and Religare Enterprises. It's unclear whether the loans made by 21 other entities are included in that amount.

I've assumed they aren't, but I could be wrong. Regardless, it appears that the Supreme Court ruling and the SEBI order mean that the RSSB guru, his family, and associates are going to have to account for the vast amounts of money they got from allegedly fraudulent loans.

We humans are stuck in The Matrix of our own brains

Most religions, mystical practices, and spiritual paths assume there's a truer reality than our everyday existence. Few people, though, think deeply about how it is possible to tell whether Reality X is more true than Reality Y -- assuming that both actually exist.

Historian Yuval Noah Harari does think about this sort of stuff, though. Today I read the Science Fiction chapter in his newest book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. 

Harari notes that movies like The Truman Show and The Matrix show people trapped in an illusory reality that they have to struggle to get out of.

However, both movies -- despite their brilliance -- in the end recoil from the full implications of their scenarios. They assume that the humans trapped within the matrix have an authentic self that remains untouched by all the technological manipulations, and that beyond the matrix awaits an authentic reality that the heroes can access if they only try hard enough.

The matrix is just an artificial barrier separating your inner authentic self from the outer authentic world. After many trials and tribulations both heroes -- Neo in The Matrix and Truman in The Truman Show -- manage to transcend and escape the web of manipulations, discover their authentic selves, and reach the authentic promised land.

This is pretty much the basic plot line of the aforementioned religions, mystical practices, and spiritual paths. Something is preventing us from reaching "the authentic promised land." Original sin. Karmas. Maya. Worldly desires. Attachments. Etc. Etc.

What, though, if all of the ways to get out of the constricted box of illusion are just another form of the matrix? What if attempts to get out of the box we think we're trapped in just lead to a different sort of box? Harari goes on to say:

The current technological and scientific revolution implies not that authentic individuals and authentic realities can be manipulated by algorithms and TV cameras but rather than authenticity is a myth. People are afraid of being trapped inside a box, but they don't realize that they're already trapped inside a box -- their brain -- which is locked within the bigger box of human society with its myriad fictions.

When you escape the matrix the only thing you discover is a bigger matrix. 

When the peasants and workers revolted against the tsar in 1917, they ended up with Stalin; when you begin to explore the manifold ways the world manipulates you, in the end you realize that your core identity is a complex illusion created by neural networks.

Then Harari talks about the common assumption that Life Will Be Really Great only if we can get outside of the box that we feel we're trapped in that limits our capacity to be happy, contented, satisfied, at peace. Since I've been to Fiji, and don't remember being much, if any, happier while i was there, I can relate to this passage.

People fear that if they're trapped inside a box, they will miss out on all the wonders of the world. As long as Neo is stuck inside the matrix and Truman is stuck inside the TV studio, they will never visit Fiji, Paris, or Machu Picchu. 

But in truth, everything you will ever experience in life is within your own body and your own mind. Breaking out of the matrix or traveling to Fiji won't make any difference.

It's not that somewhere in your mind there is an iron chest with a big red warning sign that reads OPEN ONLY IN FIJI! and when you finally travel to the South Pacific you get to open the chest, and out come all kinds of special emotions and feelings that you can have only in Fiji.

And if you never visit Fiji in your life, then you missed these special feelings forever. No. Whatever you can feel in Fiji, you can feel anywhere in the world, even inside the matrix.

This is very much in line with what I said in a 2018 blog post, "Keep the feeling of religion, and discard the theology." 

I don't believe in God. But I believe in the feelings that accompany belief. 

So now that I've realized the falsity of religion, I've discarded the theological aspects of my former belief system and kept the positive feelings.

Here's some examples.

I used to enjoy the feeling that God was looking out for me, managing my life in such a way that even bad experiences were aimed at bettering my long-term salvation chances. This made me feel hopeful about the future, since I considered there was a trajectory to my life that would end with me becoming familiar with divinity, and maybe actually merging with it.

Now, I'm simply hopeful. The feeling is the same. I've just eliminated the crazy theological reasons I had for believing that the future would turn out fine.

Serving God (or a guru, for I was a member of an organization that believed the guru was God in human form) was another enjoyable feeling. Back in my true believing days I engaged in a lot of seva, as it was called, which is an Indian term for service, or volunteering.

Well, I still like to feel like what I'm doing is benefitting others.

But I've discarded the notion that there's some sort of special benefit to being of service to a supposedly Godly person or organization. This allows me to enjoy the sensation of "selfless service" without having that feeling rest on an imagined theological foundation.

People cling to religion because they like the good feelings that come with believing. 

What I'm suggesting is that those feelings are separable from the theological framework, rituals, holy books, forms of worship, and other trappings of a religion. 

In the same fashion, happiness is a feeling. But obviously there are many ways for someone to be happy. There isn't a single cause of happiness, just as there isn't a single cause of the good feelings that people enjoy from embracing religious beliefs. 

You can give up religion and keep the feelings. 

Even if those feelings are happening within a box, or matrix. Here's Harari's thoughts about that.

Perhaps we are all living inside a giant computer simulation, Matrix-style. That would contradict all our national, religious, and ideological stories. But our mental experiences would still be real. If it turns out that human history is an elaborate simulation run on a supercomputer by rat scientists from the planet Zircon, that would be rather embarrassing for Karl Marx and the Islamic State.

But those rat scientists would still have to answer for the Armenian genocide and for Auschwitz. How did they get that one past Zircon University's ethics committee? Even if the gas chambers were just electric signals in silicon chips, the experiences of pain, fear, and despair were not one iota less excruciating for that.

Pain is pain, fear is fear, and love is love -- even in the matrix.

It doesn't matter if the fear you feel is inspired by a collection of atoms in the outside world or by electrical signals manipulated by a computer. The fear is still real. So if you want to explore the reality of your mind, you can do that inside the matrix as well as outside it. 

Harari is an ardent practitioner of meditation, Buddhist variety. I wrote about this in "How meditation helped Yuval Harari write 'Sapiens,' a terrific book." 

Financial dealings of RSSB guru relate to India Supreme Court hearing

Well, the financial irregularities surrounding the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, (a criminal complaint has been filed against him) appear to be reaching the Supreme Court of India.

The court has asked Malivinder and Shivinder Singh, cousins of the guru who are enmeshed in his massive monetary dealings, to appear on March 14 to answer questions about what happened to 4,000 crore rupees Fortis Healthcare got from Malaysia's IHH Healthcare. Rs 4000 crore is about $574 million.

India's Business Today has a story about the Supreme Court hearing, "SC take note! Singh brothers can pay off $500 million to Daiichi, provided the money is recovered."

Download SC take note! Singh brothers can pay off $500 million to Daiichi provided the money is recovered

Gurinder Singh Dhillon features prominently in the story. I've boldfaced mentions of him.

Singh brothers are due to appear before the Supreme Court of India this Thursday in a case filed by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo to explain sale of Fortis Healthcare to IHH and possible contempt proceedings. Daiichi is enforcing an arbitration order in Singapore that requires the brothers to compensate Daiichi with $500 million (approximately Rs 3,500 crore) for alleged non-disclosure of crucial information during the sale of Ranbaxy Laboratories to Daiichi.

Days before the hearing, fund transfer details accessed by BusinessToday.In provide the most exact picture of the flow of money from Singh brothers to entities owned and controlled by Gurinder Singh Dhillon - the head of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas - his family and RSSB associates. Enforcing a repayment of the outstanding money could easily get Singh brothers off the hook by paying off the liabilities towards Daiichi at least.

RoC filings and terms sheets indicate that between 2011 and 2014, Rs 1107.5 crore worth of proceeds from the Rs 9,576 crore sale of Ranbaxy to Daiichi Sankyo made their way through RHC group firms RHC Holding Private Limited, Oscar Investment Limited, RHC Finance Private Limited and Fortis Healthcare Holdings Private Limited into two group entities ANR Securities Private Limited and Ranchem Private Limited.

From there, the money was transferred to Prius Real Estate Private Limited controlled by Dhillon family associates and RSSB functionaries through optionally convertible debentures (OCD). Those proceeds were used to invest in other Prius group entities called Prius Commercial, Payne Realtors, SVIIT Software and Sharan Hospitality whose preference shares worth Rs 875.53 crore were subscribed to by Prius Real Estate. Both the OCDs and preference shares were to be redeemed between August-November, 2018 at a hefty premium.

...Besides, his suit against Baba Gurinder Dhillon, Shivinder and Sunil Godhwani and others before the Economic Offences Wing, Malvinder has claimed that loans worth Rs 1006.3 crore have been given directly to Gurinder Singh Dhillon and family members through their entities Modland Wears, Devera Developers, Fern Healthcare and Best Healthcare, besides Adept Lifespaces and Rosestar Marketing.

Rs 1007 crore is about $145 million. So Business Today is reporting that the guru and his family have gotten a heck of a lot of money through allegedly illegal means, according to the criminal complaint filed by Malvinder Singh. The Rs 1006 crore in loans cited in Malvinder Singh's lawsuit may be in addition to this. 

SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, has determined that Rs 403 crore of these loans were "fictitious and fraudulent." Now the Business Today story reveals that the RSSB guru is involved to a much greater degree in the Singh brothers financial misdeeds. 

Here's a graphic from the story:

Per usual, Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family are unwilling to talk to the Indian financial press. The story says, "Dhillons did not respond to a detailed e-mail Business today.In sent to them." But in September 2018 Dhillon said he would answer questions about his financial dealings, which he has never done.

So this supposedly "spiritual" guru broke his word.

Lastly, someone emailed me today, saying that I've been using an official photo of Gurinder Singh Dhillon that doesn't capture his true personality. Here's a likeness included as an attachment to the email. Reportedly it was taken at a distance by someone close to the guru, then cropped and enlarged. 

 

RSSB devotees need to face facts about the financial fraud

Well, there's been an interesting exchange of opinions following recent posts I've written about the financial fraud involving Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, his family members, and close associates.

In general, RSSB devotees have been guilty of ignoring facts -- which, of course, was one of the points I made in my most recent post on this subject, "Why Gurinder Singh Dhillon is a lot like Donald Trump." 

Spence Tepper, a hospital consultant, has delved deeply into the details of the financial fraud uncovered by SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India. He's been doing a good job of leaving comments on this blog that correct errors made by those who want to deny that the RSSB guru has any connection with the financial fraud.

Here's Tepper's most recent comment, where he responds to someone who doesn't accept the SEBI facts.

All I've done is refer to the information from SEBI. SEBI IS the law, and they have made their ruling. So if you continue to believe that this wasn't fraud, then, I'm sorry, you are not acknowledging the facts nor SEBI. If you acknowledge there has been fraud and fictitious cooking of books, then you are at least acknowledging the facts. You may interpret them as you will.

But claiming these are merely unpaid loans isn't true. And it ignores the SEBI's ruling. You are really working very hard to hide a crime, and why would you do that? I do see your effort to limit the scope, but I think if you understand that the scope includes all the companies involved, even those with RSSB members and Gurinder family members on the board...such as RHC, etc...then we are certainly in agreement.

The fact is someone set up this scheme. We do know that Malvinder and Shivender participated and kept it going. And we know that all the others at the least went along with it. Many other people gained richly from this scheme. Who is to blame? They all share some of the blame. It's very sad when people steal money. That's what happened here.

But it's also sad when people deny it. Who are you to deny justice when people's [health] care is now in jeopardy? Let's not place the blame on any one person. Legally, that hasn't happened yet. But legally, a crime was committed. Several corporate robberies. That should not be dismissed.

Because right now a healthcare system is struggling to survive due to the impact of these robberies. If you can dismiss robbery, what other harmful things can you dismiss? Where is your value system of right and wrong? And if that doesn't exist, how do you expect to be treated fairly? Or do you believe you should be treated special, for some reason? On what grounds?

When others are harmed, do you view them as untouchables? As none of your concern? I can't say how you were raised, but that wasn't how I was raised. The capacity to judge right from wrong is the duty of every adult. And to teach our children how to ascertain right from wrong is the first lesson in teaching them to advocate for the wronged, defend those without voice, the weak, the sick, the crippled.

You and I have a different value system. Very different.

As I noted in a comment of my own, some defenders of Gurinder Singh Dhillon and his family are pointing out that they and their close associates aren't listed as directors of the three shell companies that SEBI identified as illegally siphoning funds from Fortis: Best Healthcare, Fern Healthcare, Modland Wears. 

Here's Tepper's cogent response. (I've corrected a few typos.)

The SEBI order refers to the Singhs [Malvinder and Shivinder] as well as to the specific shell companies, and RHC where the Singhs and Gurinder share majority holdings. The SEBI made a legal determination that the Singhs and these companies had engaged in fictitious and fraudulent activity.

At the time, those shell companies were run by Dhillon family and RSSB associates leadership. The Singhs had no direct ties to those shell companies at that time, according to the SEBI audit. This precisely served the purpose of laundering money. The Singhs gave loans to these companies that at the time they had no legal ties to.

These were Gurinder family/RSSB leadership owned companies. And these companies have been ordered to pay the money they and the Singhs had fictitiously booked as repaid while under Gurinder family/RSSB leadership control. The judgement of guilt is legal and has already been made.

Since the time of this fraudulent activity, the leadership at these companies has changed hands.

There have been resignations and new directors assigned. This supports Malvinder 's testimony about Shivinder. In late 2018 there were resignations. For example, at Modland Wears, one of the shell companies started in 1991, directors resigned in 2018, and they are no longer listed on any information website.

We only know today that papers of resignation were filed in 2018, from the MCA India website. Malvinder claimed that Shivinder had encouraged Gurinder to sell the shell companies, indicating Gurinder owned them. Malvinder further claims Shivinder had offered to assume Gurinder's liabilities in exchange for something.

Malvinder claimed it was the Guruship that was the exchanged commodity.

This also directly implicated Gurinder as the previous owner of these shell companies. And thereby the source of his liability. It was this period under Gurinder's ownership that these shell companies engaged in what the SEBI has determined legally to be fictitious and fraudulent behavior.

Now we see that Shivinder, over the last 3-5 months, is a new director at least two of the three shell companies that had the legal judgment of being guilty of fictitious and fraudulent behavior. And there have been resignations of the prior leaders, confirmed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs of India.

Though those documents are not immediately available to view, they are listed as a "resignation of directors" PDF in 2018. We still see RSSB leaders as directors, but Gurinder family members are no longer listed, and Shivinder is now listed as a new director on each.

Last month The Hindu had a story, "Whistle-blower makes fresh charges in Fortis matter." Here's some excerpts relating to where the money went that the SEBI investigation determined was "fictitious and fraudulent."
Download Whistle-blower makes fresh charges in Fortis matter - The Hindu

The Fortis Hospitals matter, in which the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ordered the company to refund over ₹400 crore in December 2018, has taken a new turn, with the regulator receiving a complaint alleging that the real beneficiaries of the money were some of the top officials managing different businesses of the Religare Group. Initially, the money was believed to have moved from the listed entity to a subsidiary and thereafter to three borrower entities.

In a letter submitted to SEBI on January 17, a whistle-blower has named brothers Gurpreet Singh Dhillon and Gurkirat Singh Dhillon, along with Sunil Godhwani and Sanjay Godhwani, among others, as the main beneficiaries of the fund transfer.

Mr. Sanjay Godhwani is the brother of Mr. Sunil Godhwani, the former chairman of Religare Enterprises. Mr. Gurpreet Singh Dhillon is the CEO of Singapore-based Religare Health Trusts. Both, Mr. Gurpreet Singh Dhillon and Mr. Gurkirat Singh Dhillon are sons of Shabnam Dhillon and Gurinder Singh, the head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas.

This assumes significance as the SEBI probe that was initiated in February 2018 was based on reports that the promoters of Fortis Healthcare took out ₹500 crore from the company.

The SEBI probe further found that Fortis Hospitals had given loans to three borrower entities – Best Healthcare, Fern Healthcare and Modland Wears. The ultimate beneficiaries of the three entities, as per the SEBI probe, were RHC Holding and Religare Finvest, with the former being controlled by Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, the original promoters of Fortis Healthcare.

The whistle-blower, in the letter, alleged that an advance of ₹155 crore that Best Healthcare received was disbursed to the Dhillon brothers. Further, Modland Wears is also alleged to have transferred ₹133.36 crore to a few people, including the Dhillon brothers. Meanwhile, Fern Healthcare, which received ₹114 crore from Fortis, transferred the money to the Godhwani brothers and Dhillon brothers, among others.

So when we follow the money, the money trail leads right to Gurinder Singh Dhillon, his family, and his close associates. (Sunil Godhwani has been described as the guru's "right hand man.") A Live Mint graphic that I've shared before makes this clear.

Yet fervent fact-deprived defenders of Gurinder Singh Dhillon say he had no involvement in the SEBI financial fraud that, according to the whistle-blower, funneled money to Dhillon's sons and RSSB associates. 

In September 2018 I wrote a blog post, "RSSB guru agrees to answer questions about his financial dealings." But I'm quite certain he never has. Most stories in the Indian financial press regarding the guru's financial follies say something like Questions directed to Gurinder Singh Dhillon were never responded to.

If Dhillon has nothing to hide, why is he so silent? Usually people who feel they've been accused of wrongdoing unjustly are eager to set the record straight. Maybe the RSSB guru has gotten advice from his lawyer to say nothing. Which makes sense, if he's guilty.

Lastly, the criminal complaint filed against Gurinder Singh Dhillon by Malvinder Singh contains a detailed list of loans extended to Dhillon and his family that appear to be separate from the fraudulent loans described in the SEBI investigation.

It sure seems strange that the RSSB guru keeps popping up in reports of serious financial wrongdoing. The amount involved, 1006 crore rupees, is about $144 million. This is an excerpt from the complaint.

Why Gurinder Singh Dhillon is a lot like Donald Trump

Here in the United States we get "treated" almost every day to new revelations about wrongdoing committed by President Trump and his cronies. I put that word in quotes because it certainly isn't a treat to learn how badly the leader of our country has been behaving.

Somewhat similarly, the Indian financial press has been regularly reporting on the financial follies of the guru who heads up Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. Being familiar with the legal dramas surrounding both men -- Trump and Dhillon -- I see these commonalities.

(1) True believers refuse to recognize facts. Trump's approval rating among his Republican base remains very high, though not among Democrats and independents. Because Trump has done some things they like, such as appointing two conservative justices to the Supreme Court, his base ignores Trump's likely illegal and certainly unethical actions.

Dhillon's devotees are even more inclined to turn a blind eye to his wrongdoing, since he's considered to be God in human form with supernatural powers. Like, saving their souls.

(2) "He hasn't been convicted yet" is a familiar refrain. People all around Donald Trump have been accused, and convicted, of lying to investigators. Also, there's plenty of evidence that Trump's associates had close times with Russians seeking to undermine the 2016 election and help get Trump elected. But Trump himself hasn't been indicted. As a sitting president, he may be immune from indictment.

Likewise, Gurinder Singh Dhillon has had a criminal complaint filed against him by his cousin, Malvinder Singh. The complaint alleges that Dhillon made death threats against Malvinder and engaged in massive financial fraud, aided and abetted by Malvinder's brother, Shivinder, and close associates of the RSSB guru such as Sunil Godhwani. 

But since the criminal complaint hasn't been adjudicated yet, defenders of Dhillon on this blog are fond of saying, "Innocent until proven guilty!" Well, of course. However, as noted below, there's plenty of evidence that Gurinder Singh Dhillon, his family members, and his close associates have engaged in financial fraud. Whether Dhillon will suffer criminal penalties is a question that remains to be answered.

(3) Ethical standards keep being lowered. Donald Trump is notorious for scoffing at important, yet unwritten, standards for how a President of the United States should behave while in office. Because he lies constantly and does shameful things on an almost daily basis, Trump is doing his best to redefine what counts as "ethical" for someone who inhabits the White House.

Similarly, Dhillon is a decidedly untraditional RSSB guru. He's devoted himself to amassing wealth through unsavory means. He has altered the RSSB teachings to suit his own purposes. He's embraced a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family. As you can read below, there's little or no doubt Dhillon has actively participated in financial fraud. Yet his followers excuse this bad behavior.

Now I'm going to share some comments from a well-informed frequent commenter on this blog, Spence Tepper. Tepper has been a hospital consultant for 30 years, so has the background to understand the complex financial machinations that have gotten Gurinder Singh Dhillon in such legal and ethical trouble.

Recently Tepper wrote a series of comments in response to questions and assertions made by other Church of the Churchless visitors. I found them clear and insightful. I also have quoted Tepper in a blog post, "Excellent summary of Gurinder Singh Dhillon's wrongdoing," 

There's very little doubt that Dhillon, his family, and his close associates have engaged in financial fraud.

All you have to do is combine the stories in the Indian financial press, the SEBI ruling referenced below, and Malvinder Singh's criminal complaint. This graphic from a LiveMint story shows facts that appear to be indisputable, being based on solid investigations by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) along with other reporting. I've included the graphic so readers can cross-reference the names of companies mentioned below in Tepper's comments with the money shown above that flowed to the Dhillon family from Fortis via those companies.

I want to point out that the LiveMint story, "Fortis fraud may exceed ₹2,000 crore, says SFIO," talks about the amount of money involved here being markedly higher than the ₹403 crore cited in the SEBI ruling. SFIO stands for Serious Fraud Investigation Office. Excerpt:

The alleged funds diversion at Fortis Healthcare Ltd could add up to more than ₹2,000 crore [$285 million], according to the trail of funds uncovered by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), a government official said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), too, suspects that the total size of the Fortis fraud could be much higher than the ₹403 crore it originally estimated, a second person familiar with the development said, requesting anonymity.

Sebi has already passed an order against Fortis to recover ₹500 crore from the Singh brothers for funds diverted to the promoter and promoter-related entities in December.

“At the heart of the alleged fund diversion is Gurinder Singh Dhillon, head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and Sanjay Godhwani, a former associate of Malvinder and Shivinder Singh. Six promoter-related companies were used to effect the funds diversion," the first person cited above said on condition of anonymity.

Here's the first comment from Spence Tepper. With each of his comments, I've corrected a few typos and left out the name of the person he was responding to.

You ask "Have actual documents been cited and examined by signatories and accredited financial experts?" Yes. Fortis has an independent accountant, as per legal requirements for a publicly held company, Deloitte. They refused to sign off on Fortis' annual statement, citing impropriety in the siphoning of funds which they had discovered.

Fortis engaged law firm Luthra and Luthra who then subcontracted with another accountancy, Grant Thornton Co., who confirmed and followed the loans to their destination. They were signed at Fortis by Malvinder and Shivinder, and by the loanee company principles (Shabnam Singh, Gurinder's wife, and other members of the Dhillon family).

Then the SEBI got involved, and confirmed these went with signed consent promising repayment, as zero collateral loans, to the Dhillon family companies.

And now the crime wing of that bureau is in the midst of their own investigation as well. But in October of last year, the Securities and Exchange Board completed their preliminary review, concluded that this was fraud, and further, ordered the Singh Brothers and the Dhillon-led companies to pay up quickly, or risk severe penalty.

--------------------------

"SINGH BROTHERS, OTHERS ASKED TO REPAY RS 403CR TO FORTIS Wed, 10/17/2018 - 11:48 EDT - The Economic Times RDF10 NEW DELHI:

In a potential blow to former Fortis Healthcare promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has directed the brothers and eight entities related to them to repay the hospital group over Rs400 crore that were earlier transferred as inter-corporate deposits.

SEBI's order on Wednesday, which came following a preliminary investigation into alleged diversion of funds from Fortis by the Singhs, has found these transactions to be "fraudulent" in nature.The regulator has sought a detailed investigation into the modus operandi of the entire fraud by way of which funds were allegedly diverted from Fortis to its promoters and also said that other third parties such as banks and auditors would also come under the purview of such investigation.

SEBI, in its interim order, has issued directions to Fortis to "take all necessary steps" to recover Rs403 crore [about $58 million] along with due interest within three months from the Singhs and entities controlled by them, including RHC Holding Pvt Ltd, Religare Finvest Ltd, Shivi Holdings Pvt Ltd and Malav Holdings Pvt Ltd.

The regulator has also clarified that the Singhs and these entities will jointly and severally repay this amount to Fortis within the stipulated time. Pending completion of SEBI's investigation and till further order, the Singhs and these eight entities shall not dispose of or alienate any of their assets or divert any funds, except to repay Fortis and for meeting expenses of day-to-day business operations, without SEBI's prior permission.

The Singhs have also been directed not to associate themselves with the affairs of Fortis "in any manner whatsoever, till further directions," stated the order.

SEBI began investigating the transactions in February following a news report that stated that the brothers had withdrawn close to Rs 500 crore from Fortis without the board's prior approval. According to its order, the regulator found that Fortis, through a subsidiary, had made ICDs of over Rs470 crore to three companies.

SEBI's order noted that the ICD transactions entered into by Fortis with the three entities - Best Healthcare, Fern Healthcare and Modland Wears - between 30 June 2016 to 30 June 2017 were "prime facie fictitious and fraudulent in nature". https://www.bullfax.com/?q=node-singh-brothers-others-asked-repay-rs-403cr-fortis

------------------------

Fraud by Gurinder and the Singhs has ALREADY been established by the Bureau. They have been given a small window to pay up, or suffer further legal action.

Here's Tepper's second comment:

The article I cited above detailed the order given by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. This is their legal ruling. 'Fictitious and Fradulent' is their legal judgment after several months of review of the loans between the Singhs and Gurinder's companies.

And their order for both to repay Fortis now is a legal judgment, holding both culpable.

According to Wikipedia "The Securities and Exchange Board of India is the regulator for the securities market in India. It was established in 1988 and given statutory powers on 30 January 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992" And you may learn more about the legal powers of the SEBI here: https://www.sebi.gov.in/powers-and-functions.html

They have the legal power to search and seizure, to hold hearings, tender judgment, as well as to levy severe penalties, and they have done so already. Guilty.

Gurinder's companies and the Singhs in their loan transactions using Fortis money are found to be guilty of activity that was... "Fictitious and Fraudulent." They are both responsible and are both ordered to repay the loans now or suffer severe penalty. And in addition Fortis is ordered to aggressively pursue repayment from both the Singhs and Gurinder's companies.

Here's Tepper's third comment:

I have only cited the SEBI legal judgment and order. I think we can leave judgment to the government body responsible to make such legal judgments and penalties. They have already done their job. Legally, Gurinder is guilty and responsible. But as Gurinder has not come to the hearings, not offered his position, nor paid back the loans, the courts will likely be next. But as to guilt, that has already been established by the governing body responsible. Verdict? Guilty.

Here's Tepper's fourth comment:

Yes I think there is more to the story, certainly. But that can only explain why they engaged in fraud repeatedly, and who the actual actors were. With Dhillon family members involved at every step, the owners of the company are rightly responsible to repay the loans, Shabnam and Gurinder as owners share in that.

This wasn't just a one time accident, but a systematic series of decisions and actions. Baba Ji may not have known. But over years of time, any decent human being would have taken actions to stop the crimes and make every effort to make up for the harm done, to repay the loans.

It takes a true decent human being to step in and stop criminal activity among family members even when that includes taking responsibility for their crimes. But that hasn't happened here. We don't know the inner workings. We may never know.

But we do know that several fictitious shell companies where Gurinder's wife is the principle officer, and where Gurinder and his sons also are owners, engaged in fraud to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, they were given three months to repay and have remained silent and unresponsive.

When you take profit from an investment you own, you have responsibility for any damage to others that ensues. The responsibility has already been assessed by the agency responsible to do so. That's already done. Guilty of fictitious and fraudulent business deadlines.

And here's Tepper's fifth comment:

This is all we know so far : Several Gurinder owned companies are guilty according to the legal judgment of the SEBI of fictitious and fraudulent business dealings. The evidence for the judgment involves hundreds of millions of dollars over a series of systematic frauds engaged in by fictitious shell companies owned by Gurinder and his family. Nothing else can be concluded at this time.

A RSSB initiate talks about their disillusionment with Gurinder Singh Dhillon

Yesterday I got the following email message from someone who has become disillusioned with the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon. The RSSB guru is mired in financial wrongdoing that's been extensively reported on by the Indian financial press. 

UPDATE: Originally this post was titled "A Gurinder Singh Dhillon initiate talks about their disillusionment." Obviously since this person was initiated in 1974, it was by  Charan Singh, the RSSB guru at the time. My mind failed to register that when I wrote the post, probably because this person speaks about her disillusionment with Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the current RSSB guru. So I've changed the title. 

Gurinder Singh Dhillon

(Click on the Radha Soami Satsang Beas category in the right sidebar and scroll down to see the posts I've written on this subject, along with other issues relating to RSSB.)

Here's the initial message, which this person gave me permission to share. I've made a few edits to delete some personal details, and also fixed some typos. I'm also sharing two follow-up messages from this person. A blog post I wrote about Sheena, who is mentioned in the message, can be read here.

"Haynes" refers to a RSSB center in Great Britain. "Dera" refers to the RSSB headquarters in India. "Shabd" refers to the RSSB teaching about an omnipresent conscious divine power that manifests as sound and light.

I just wanted to personally thank you for exposing Gurinder Singh Dhillon as a fraud. I am an ex satsangi having been initiated in 1974 and was still, until recently, under the misconception that Gurinder was bona fide.

I only saw him twice a year though and had no dealings with Haynes or the Dera. Another, now ex satsangi, alerted me to the hypocrisy going on and the vast amounts of money involved in shady business deals, etc., which led me to investigate your site.

I appreciate your honesty and objectivity in finding out the truth.

I just wish more people would come forward. Sheena did a great service in writing her book, which I read to throw more light on the discrepancies but I get the impression there is a whole lot more that people are keeping quiet about, especially in regard to Gurinder’s personal lifestyle.

What really did it for me was the sheer hypocrisy of a so called ‘spiritual leader’ not practising what they preach.

The last satsang I attended with him, Gurinder distinctly said that no one can acquire vast amounts of wealth without behaving unethically. WITHOUT behaving unethically!

I had no idea of his personal business dealings at that time and in my innocence credited him with integrity and perspicacity.

I sympathise with the barrage of aggressive denials and negative comments you receive. It makes me question why people refuse to accept the facts and prefer lies and denials to support their own delusional belief systems at the cost of truth.

The truth should always be welcome, however disturbing it may be to our preconceived opinions. I congratulate you in your attempts to discover and disclose it. Bravo!

After I replied to this person, asking if they'd be willing to let me share their message in a blog post, I got this response. 

Greetings Brian!

Yes, please share if you feel it will help. It's when you fit all the pieces together that you realise the level of double standards going on.

A friend of mine who lives in the UK told me Gurinder's personal residence at Haynes Park was struck by lightning. How symbolic was that?

It caused a fire and the Fire Brigade were called. Gurinder was running in and out trying to salvage his collection of large Panasonic TV sets he had inside. The fireman told him he couldn't go into the building and to please stop. Gurinder took no notice and carried on, retorting, "Just tell them I don't speak English!" 

My friend personally knew the fireman involved so it wasn't just hearsay.

How can someone who is supposedly God conscious be so attached to material wealth that he is even prepared to lie? If you read Philosophy of the Masters, Great Master is quite clear on that point and clearly states, "Never tell a lie." 

What concerns me is that the young ones with very little knowledge about the original teachings are being duped and misled.

I'm personally struck by Gurinder's contradictions to all the previous teachings. Fortunately, some of the older satsangis will have read the books so they will be able to see the glaring deviations.

Great Master, Jagat Singh and Charan Singh said the complete opposite to many of the things Gurinder is now saying and I have personally noticed that much has been edited from the original editions of Sant Mat books. I could give you examples but don't want to send you too much. 

Compare Gurinder's statement that the Radiant Form is a projection of the mind to Charan's, who said the Radiant Form is projected from the Shabd. That's a huge fundamental difference. The Shabd is onmipresent. How else could a Master know the time of a disciple's death and be present?

The physical Master is also aware of that. If he is not, then one cannot say he is a Master.

If you read the original editions of Sant Mat books, examples were given that Great Master knew exactly when his Radiant Form had appeared to a disciple and what had taken place. He was even able to recount in exquisite detail exactly what the Radiant Form had said to the disciple.

In other cases, if the physical Master is not aware of it taking place there is no proof that it was actually the Master appearing. In such cases you could safely assume it was a projection of the mind.

There is a big difference though. A Master is qualified as a Master by being one with the Shabd. Two qualities of the Shabd include omniscience and omnipresence. What I am trying to get at is that those qualities are beyond mind and its projections. 

Another point is that the Great Master once said a Master must be a perfect man - if he is not then leave his company.

As you know, great emphasis is placed on chastity. Great Master defined chastity as being chaste in thought, word and deed. I don't see that Gurinder qualifies on that one either. There are so many discrepancies, Brian. It's not just one thing, it's a whole mountain of evidence.

I'm only concerned with the truth, Brian, the rest is of no consequence to me. That's why I say you are performing a great service by revealing it in a dispassionate, objective way. These are facts we are dealing with and people need to be warned of the hypocrisy going on.

To not say anything is to be complicit in the deception.

I have warned the satsangis I personally know regarding Gurinder, but they refuse to even look at the evidence or simply dismiss it. It's too threatening to their belief system.

They believe he is God incarnate and can do no wrong. Personally I find that delusional when presented with the facts. A little basic common sense would suffice but it seems thin on the ground.

History proves that the original teachings of Christianity were radically changed by the Emperor Constantine and Justinian for political reasons. Christians who stuck to the original teachings and were still practising vegetarians had molten lead poured down their throats.

Despite the facts, people prefer their traditions and refuse to acknowledge that the form of Christianity they are now practising is in fact a lie construed by Constantine and the Emperor Justinian. It's the same kind of denial, so it's nothing new but that doesn't make it any less insidious.

Many thanks again, please feel free to edit and use anything I have written which you think is relevant. 

Lastly, after another reply from me where I thanked this person for being a truth-teller, I got this response. "Satsangs" are meetings where the RSSB teachings are talked about.

Thank YOU for telling the truth, Brian. It has saved me so much time, effort and money not having to go to these satsangs in future, not to mention the misdirected loyalty and belief in someone who is most definitely not 'a perfect man!' After the shock wore off, I felt huge relief, and as you pointed out, I can now pursue an independent spiritual path. You were 'heaven sent.' Love and peace.

Yuval Noah Harari: All religions are fake news

Here in the United States it's our misfortune to be suffering through a president who blabs incessantly about "fake news." Which, in his addled mind, means any news that tells the truth about the lies, misdeeds, and unwise policies being foisted on Americans by Donald Trump and his cronies. 

But historian Yuval Noah Harari talks about a different sort of fake news in his third book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. As noted in a recent post of mine that included some quotes from Harari's new book, I liked his first books (Sapiens and Homo Deus).

This offering from Harari strikes me as even better than his first two. Harari is a marvelously clear thinker with a knack for making complex ideas seem appealingly simple. When I read him, I'm constantly saying to myself, I knew this, but I didn't know that I knew it until Harari pointed it out.

Here's an excerpt from the "Post-Truth" chapter in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

You'll see that while Harari considers all religions to be in the business of promulgating fictions, he recognizes that these can be useful fictions. Obviously that doesn't make them true. Just useful. 

In fact, humans have always lived in the age of post-truth. Homo sapiens is a post-truth species, whose power depends on creating and believing fictions. Ever since the Stone Age, self-reinforcing myths have served to unite human collectives.

Indeed, Homo sapiens conquered this planet thanks above all to the unique human ability to create and spread fictions. We are the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them

As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws and can thereby cooperate effectively.

So if you blame Facebook, Trump, or Putin for ushering in a a new and frightening era of post-truth, remind yourself that centuries ago millions of Christians locked themselves into a self-reinforcing mythological bubble, never daring to question the factual veracity of the Bible, while millions of Muslims put their unquestioning faith in the Quran.

For millennia, much of what passed for "news" and "facts" in human social networks were stories about miracles, angels, demons, and witches, with bold reporters giving live coverage straight from the deepest pits of the underworld. 

We have zero scientific evidence that Eve was tempted by the serpent, that the souls of all infidels burn in hell after they die, or that the creator of the universe doesn't like it when a Brahmin marries a Dalit -- yet billions of people have believed in these stories for thousands of years. 

Some fake news lasts forever.

I am aware that many people might be upset by my equating religion with fake news, but that's exactly the point. When a thousand people believe some made-up story for one month, that's fake news. When a billion people believe it for a thousand years, that's a religion, and we are admonished not to call it "fake news" in order not to hurt the feelings of the faithful (or incur their wrath).

Note, however, that I am not denying the effectiveness or potential benevolence of religion. Just the opposite. For better or worse, fiction is among the most effective tools in humanity's tool kit.

By bringing people together, religious creeds make large-scale human cooperation possible. They inspire people to build hospitals, schools, and bridges in addition to armies and prisons. Adam and Eve never existed, but Chartres Cathedral is still beautiful. 

Much of the Bible may be fictional, but it can still bring joy to billions and can still encourage humans to be compassionate, courageous, and creative -- just like other great works of fiction, such as Don Quixote, War and Peace, and the Harry Potter books. 

Again, some people might be offended by my comparison of the Bible to Harry Potter. If you are a scientifically-minded Christian, you might explain away all the errors, myths, and contradictions in the Bible by arguing that the holy book was never meant to be read as a factual account, but rather as a metaphorical story containing deep wisdom. 

But isn't that true of the Harry Potter stories too?

If you are a fundamentalist Christian, you are more likely to insist that every word of the Bible is literally true. Let's assume for a moment that you are right, and that the Bible is indeed the infallible word of the one true God. What, then, do you make of the Quran, the Talmud, the Book of Mormon, the Vedas, the Avesta, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead?

Aren't you tempted to say that these texts are elaborate fictions created by flesh-and-blood humans (or perhaps by devils)?

RSSB guru owes almost $800 million in fraudulent loans

Here at the Church of the Churchless we look forward to getting back to our usual faithless programming after the Indian financial press stops writing new stories about the alleged financial wrongdoing of the Radha Soami Satsang Beas guru, Gurinder Singh Dhillon.

But here's a fresh episode in the Dhillon drama that we've been reporting on, a LiveMint story: "Gurinder Singh Dhillon used funds from Ranbaxy sale to buy real estate."
Download 'Gurinder Singh Dhillon used funds from Ranbaxy stake sale to buy real estate'

Now, defenders of the guru probably will think, what's the big deal with Dhillon buying some real estate with borrowed money? Well, let's count the ways it's a big deal.

One. A massive amount of money is involved, a bit over $782 million, if Google translated ₹5,482 crore into dollars correctly. The LiveMint story says:

New Delhi: Businessman Malvinder Singh has alleged that part of the proceeds from the stake sale in Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd was used by Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the spiritual head of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, to buy real estate.

RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd, the holding company controlled by brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, made loans worth ₹5,482 crore to Dhillon’s family members, their associates or entities controlled by them, and a majority of these was used to purchase bungalows, farmhouses and buildings, according to the complaint filed by Malvinder Singh with the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police in February.

Two. The LiveMint story says that Sudil Godhwani, the guru's close associate, made the decisions to give the $782 million to the Dhillon family and other entities.

Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder Singh have been accused of financial mismanagement by law firm Luthra and Luthra, which had investigated Fortis Healthcare Ltd’s books.

Subsidiaries of RHC Holding had lent funds to Prius Real Estate Pvt. Ltd, previously owned by Dhillon’s wife, Shabnam Dhillon, and his close associate Yuvraj Narain Gorwaney, two people familiar with the developments said. The same entity was later owned by Dhillon’s confidants—Rajveer Singh and Gurpreet Sodhi. However, the entity has now moved to two trusts, Jamuntree and Grace Trust.

“When the money went from RHC to Prius Real Estate, it was owned and controlled by the Dhillon family and these decisions were directly taken by Sunil Godhwani as he was running RHC," one of the two people close to Malvinder Singh and his brother said on condition of anonymity.

Emails sent to Dhillon and Godhwani did not elicit a response till press time.

Three. The criminal complaint filed against Gurinder Singh Dhillon by Malvinder Singh describes how the RSSB guru abused the trust Malvinder had in him, given Dhillon's position as a spiritual leader whose devotees consider him to be God in human form (Malvinder is an initiate of Dhillon, as well as his cousin.)

Here's an excerpt from the complaint that says the guru arranged for Godhwani to be installed as head of a company that gave the fraudulent loans to Dhillon and his family.

Four. A headline in the print version of the LiveMint story gives a somewhat different impression of how Dhillon and his family used the money. "Realty bets" sounds more concerning than "buy real estate."

Seemingly the bets didn't pay off, since if their real estate deals had been successful, one would think they'd be able to repay the fraudulent loans that illegally sucked money out of publicly held companies -- whose shareholders, not surprisingly, now want the money returned. (This image came from the person who emailed me a link to the LiveMint story.)

David Lane: embrace unknowing, reject perfection

David Lane is a professor of philosophy and sociology whose Neural Surfer web site has an appealing tag line: "Where the Skeptical meets the Mystical." 

That's a great summary of how Lane views spirituality.

Like me, he's an initiate of Charan Singh, who was the guru of the India-headquartered Radha Soami Satsang Beas organization prior to Gurinder Singh Dhillon -- who has served as the RSSB guru since Charan Singh's death.

Lane has an academic interest in the history of RSSB and related Radha Soami sects that far exceeds mine. But we share an interest in the nature of reality, an admittedly vast topic. 

Below I've shared a comment that Lane left today on a recent blog post of mine. I wholly agree with his observation that the root problem facing RSSB and similar guru-based faiths is the notion of a "perfect" master. 

Nobody is perfect.

In fact, there isn't even a viable definition of what the qualities of a perfect human being would be. Yet devotees of Radha Soami Satsang Beas consider that their guru is God in human form, a perfect guru. So to them whatever the guru does must be perfect.

This obviously is circular reasoning that doesn't apply to other non-religious personages. "Perfect guru" is an abstract concept with no connection to reality. No one speaks of a perfect singer, a perfect dancer, a perfect physicist, a perfect lawyer (especially not that).

Someone isn't considered an artist worthy of admiration unless they're able to produce admirable works of art. Ditto with a teacher. They need to be skilled at educating people in order to be viewed as an exemplary teacher. 

But once a new guru becomes the leader of RSSB, they automatically are considered to a Perfect Master even if their conduct is decidedly imperfect, as is the case with Gurinder Singh Dhillon. 

One of the antidotes to a false belief in perfection is recognizing that unknowing is a fundamental feature of our human reality. At the end of his comment Lane says that a little movie he made summarizes best his personal philosophy, Here's that movie. (Lane set the You Tube URL to start at a certain point.)

I heartily agree that acknowledging unknowing is an exceedingly wise thing to do, in every area of life. None of us knows everything about anything. Even less does anyone know everything about everything. Omniscience is a godly myth. Gurus, like everyone else, are fallible human beings.

Lane is an admirer of science. Scientists have to be committed to unknowing, since it is crystal clear to them that human knowledge is limited compared to the unimaginable vastness and complexity of the cosmos.

The best we can do is strive to know reality as best we can, through the means available to us. No one has a corner on truth. We all are truth-producers and truth-consumers in our own ways. Every day I learn something new. And every day I realize that something I thought was true, really isn't. 

So let's reject perfection and embrace unknowing. The world would be much better off if everybody did this. Here's Lane's comment:

Hi James,

Thank you for your welcome. I like that phrase, "still in the Bardo" since it dovetails with that recent movie we made about comparing Faqir Chand's "hanging on the gallows" with the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

My perspective is pretty simple and echoes Nietzsche's famous line, "human, all too human." I have long felt that the fundamental problem confronting Radhasoami is the repeated usage of the moniker, "perfect" master.

This very honorific is to some measure the root problem.

If we can simply accept that our teachers, our gurus, our masters, are human beings and as fallible as anyone else (and sometimes much worse), then we retain our critical faculties and we don't succumb to premature cultic thinking.

Instead, we can admire those aspects that are indeed beneficial and be critical (even hyper critical) of those aspects that are damaging or wrong in our eyes.

This way, we hold our beloved teachers accountable as much as they hold ourselves accountable.

The reason I went to the Dera back in March of 2017 was because Professor Juergensmeyer and I were asked by Oxford University Press to do an annotated bibliography on Radhasoami and its various branches.  I felt at that time it would be helpful to visit the Dera library and see their holdings.

The Dera very kindly (and much to my surprise) allowed my wife and my kids to stay at the Dera for nearly a week and we were treated very well indeed. As you can well imagine, it was a wonderful trip for me since it brought back a flood of memories of the times I was there when Charan was still alive.

I particularly liked that Gurinder was attempting to demythologize much of Sant Mat, especially when he would say things like "Kal doesn't exist" and so on. His morning satsangs were focusing on doing meditation and standing on one's feet.

That I felt was a good development, even though I have long felt that the Perfect Master idea and all that goes with it belongs to the dustbin of history since it can lead to all sorts of evil consequences, not the least of which is justifying that which is unjustifiable.

As for the current controversy, I think it is important to let all of the information come forth. That way we can see how these human dramas play out.

As for my own philosophy, it again is pretty simple: I am a strict vegetarian, I love meditating, and I am ultimately unknowing..... yes, I love science precisely because it is willing to be wrong, augmented, and corrected over time....

In any case, here is a little movie I made that summarizes best my own personal philosophy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owYddq-a2bU&t=511s

Thanks,
Dave

Lastly, here's part of another David Lane comment that I'm sharing both because I liked what Lane says, and because he mentions me.

My attachment has always been with Charan, as those who know me well can attest. However, I learned many years ago (I am sure Faqir's influence when I was just 21 had its own impact) that it was always best to see these teachers as human beings first.

Otherwise, we end up condoning all sorts of strange things that we shouldn't. So in that light, we can learn the best things from them and discard or criticize those things which we don't accept or don't agree.

My life in exposing certain cults definitely shaped my outlook and because of that, I think it is perfectly fine to be hyper critical. Charan is famous for saying "critics are our best friend." If we take that literally, then perhaps Brian is Gurinder's best friend!

In any case, I find myself meditating more now than ever before. I really do like shabd yoga meditation, even if I don't necessarily buy the theological myth that has encrusted it over the years.

Excellent summary of Gurinder Singh Dhillon's financial wrongdoing

Here's the best summary I've seen yet of the financial fraud that the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, (allegedly) has committed while purporting to serve as the "spiritual" leader of a sect with millions of followers worldwide. (The image below came from a story in an Indian publication that I shared in a previous post.)

And the summary you can read below was written by a frequenter commenter on this blog, Spence Tepper. Tepper has been a hospital consultant for 30 years, so he knows how bad it is for the guru and his family to take massive amounts money from Indian healthcare companies with no intention of paying the money back. 

That's criminal -- as described in a complaint filed against Dhillon and others by his cousin, Malvinder Singh.

The RSSB teachings say that the guru is God in human form, and most devotees look upon him as just that. Well, I dare those true believers to read Tepper's comment and explain how what Dhillon did could be divine actions. If you disagree with the conclusions in the comment, present specific evidence that what he said is wrong.

Otherwise, accept that the RSSB guru is just a flawed human being, not God in human form. Heres the comment:

Hi PJ
Because so many shell companies were set up in his [Gurinder Singh Dhillon] wife's name, and they took so many loans without collateral for so many years, you have two pictures: In family-run Indian private corporations this is entirely allowable and reasonable. They can do with their own money as they like. Happens all the time. Because it's all in the family. Profits and losses.

But when moving to a publicly held company, the picture is entirely different.

These casual agreements between relatives now must be transparent and board-approved. No public corporation's officers, even in India, are allowed by law to make secret loans. They require documentation and beyond a set amount, or beyond accounting practice, they require board approval.

Handing out $400M in loans without any required collateral is fraud. Because you are using other people's money...investors money. So the SEBI has stated (Securities and Exchange Board of India). That is stealing money from investors by intention, on purpose. And as Brian has also pointed out, when you damage a healthcare system, you damage vulnerable patients' lives.

I've been a hospital consultant for more than 30 years. This is very wrong. And healthcare systems, in India, also run with much tighter oversight guidelines, just as they do in the U.S. Transparency is crucial to protecting patient lives.

So there is a huge overflowing basket of violations here. As India and other countries become cost-effective centers for surgery for patients abroad, they have worked very hard to confirm quality standards. This whole fiasco with the Dhillon family places a significant and visible black mark on that decades-long effort.

It is understandable that Baba Ji's swagger, common in family-owned companies in India, now in a public company, is fraud. But in a healthcare system, it's worse, and harms vulnerable patients.

His demolition of one of the RSSB public free hospitals and sale of the property to his own private holding company, and then to Fortis illustrates the rapacious nature of these decisions.

The opposite could have been done. Baba ji could have siphoned money to hospitals who had no decent collateral as a means of helping them stay in business and maintain or grow patient access. He could have re-invested his $1B U.S. profits in a couple of new charitable hospitals, as philanthropy. Instead he has burdened the progress of healthcare in India through fraud.

If you can hide financial metrics, you can hide quality metrics, as was seen at Ranbaxy.

In fact going public with the establishment of Fortis appears to have been part of the scheme all along to siphon a much larger pool of money into private interested hands from public investors without their knowledge.

Shivinder was placed as the COO of the healthcare system, but has never actually run a hospital department, nor managed a hospital. This was entirely set up as a fraud scheme. Had they wanted to set up Fortis as a legitimate business venture, they would have put non-family executives with extensive health system management experience as their leaders.

This doesn't reflect well on Shivinder's ethics. He knew well his lack of hospital management experience. Why take the role? Clearly to siphon funds and hide quality variances, as per his skill set at Ranbaxy.

Apparently the negative consequences to patients' lives was not an active consideration.

What they did was set up a scheme, from day one.

In a privately held Indian family corporation who cares if the loans were repaid or not with interest? The uncles would just be quietly cut off from making such decisions in the future.

But the problem is that there was never any intention to return these loans, and the agreed interest rates also were not approved.

Journalists are saying it all had to do with the soft market, but as Brian eloquently pointed out, the market hasn't been that weak. So over all these ten years, wouldn't some of those shell "investments" into real estate have returned substantial profit to Fortis?

Whatever profit they did engender, didn't go back to Fortis. Not because the market was weak, but because there was no agreed pathway for Fortis to ever make any money on those loans.

Fraud. Corporate robbery on a grand level.

Even if I disagreed completely with Brian on all matters of spirituality, I must herald what he is doing. His constant dogged pursuit of this issue of healthcare and other fraud by the Dhillon family is actually a service, not simply to the readers here, but to patients in India for decades to come.

Brian is using his voice, and accepting his duty as a human being to discern right from wrong as best he can, consequences aside, and intervene where he can.

If Baba Ji wanted to pull RSSB down into flames, he could not have come up with a better, more extensive plan. So let's do our part and acknowledge the flames so that His will, the erosion of RSSB, proceeds with all due speed.

Invisibility is a centerpiece of existence

I just started reading a beautifully written book by Akiko Busch about invisibility, "How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency." 

I'm sure I'll have more to say about the book as I get further into it, but here's a taste of Busch's writing from the Introduction.

It reminded me of what I said in the post I wrote yesterday about us human beings not being aware of the deep dark unconscious sea that lies beneath the light bright waves of conscious awareness -- and in truth is those waves, since everything arises from the brain's hugely complex goings-on, virtually all of which we're clueless about.

Busch says:

Because of course, of course, we all traffic in the unseen, all the time, every day. The extravagances of surveillance and social media may lead us to believe otherwise, but what we believe in and the ideas to which we commit ourselves are unseen, as are all our emotional ties and spiritual convictions.

Perhaps, too, our interest in invisibility stems from how we hide from ourselves -- how our desires, fears, hopes, and motives are concealed so deeply beneath our conscious lives and actions.

Just as we have come to understand that the light visible to us is only one small section of the electromagnetic spectrum, we know that immense segments of human knowledge and experience remain unseen. The world around us is an encyclopedia of the discreet.

As David Mitchell wrote in Cloud Atlas, "Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible." The ubiquity of the word invisible is growing.

My definitive answer to why I left Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Geez, I thought, when I read the comment. Another one! 

I have no idea why so many people are so interested in why, after 35 years, I deconverted from being a follower of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), which is headed by a guru devotees consider to be God in human form. But here's the comment by the somewhat weirdly named "Guru."

Naturally my second thought was, No way am I going to pick only one option or reply in one sentence. Instead, I'll use this blog post to convey what I hope is the definitive answer to why I left RSSB. Then I can simply copy in this post's URL if I get asked this question again. (Here's a previous 2008 try at this, "Why I'm not a Sant Mat true believer.")

Short answer: It's complicated. Like everything in life. The long answer follows. First, though, let's dismiss the four A,B,C,D options the commenter suggested.

Regarding A, as I said in "Here's the truth about when I began criticizing RSSB," the reason a RSSB representative gave for me being fired as a satsang (meeting) speaker in October 2005 was that my blogging here on the Church of the Churchless since November 2004 was making people uncomfortable. So my criticisms of RSSB preceded being fired, rather than coming after that happened.

Regarding B, I wasn't much bothered by my book about the Greek philosopher Plotinus, "Return to the One," not being published by RSSB. We, RSSB and I, simply couldn't agree about some content that RSSB wanted me to add to the book, which I didn't want to do in a book that would be sold to the general public. I suggested having two versions of the book, one with the added content to be sold by RSSB, and one without that would be sold commercially.

I've written about this in several posts: "My letter to a supposed Godly guru," "My inside look at RSSB books," and "How writing a book rewrote me." I ended up publishing the book on my own, and it's been a steady seller on Amazon, with good reader reviews.

Regarding C, I never gave up on meditation. I've meditated every day for 50 years. I enjoyed my meditation during the 35 years I was a member of RSSB, and I've enjoyed my meditation both before and after my RSSB years. I still meditate every morning, in a mostly Buddhist/mindfulness fashion.

Regarding D, I liked Gurinder Singh Dhillon after he became guru. You can read the 2003 letter I sent to him. We engaged in quite a bit of other correspondence back and forth. I also had a number of personal interviews with him. I did "security seva" (volunteer work) during his overseas visits to Vancouver, B.C., Palm Springs, and Honolulu. Once I stood outside the bedroom where he was sleeping at 3 am in the morning, unarmed, willing to die in the admittedly unlikely event armed attackers showed up.

I wouldn't have done that for someone I didn't care about. I wrote about this in "Some thoughts on divine dying," Excerpt:

I regularly get criticized in comments on this blog for not having given the RSSB teachings and meditation practice a serious try. My two word response, which usually isn't quite this pithily direct: that's bullshit.

For thirty-five years I devoted myself to doing what I was told to do, and promised to do, at the time of my initiation by the previous RSSB guru, Charan Singh, in 1971.

Without going into the details, I can confidently say that my devotion to this spiritual/mystical path was considerably more serious and deep than that of the vast majority of other disciples.

To the above-mentioned critics, I'll ask a question: how many of you have stood outside the guru's window in the middle of the night, prepared to die for him? And how many of you have meditated an average of several hours a day for thirty-five years, prepared to "die" in meditation for your guru?

I have.

And that enables me to speak confidently about what my RSSB experiences taught me, because I've walked this faith's walk, as well as talked the talk.

Now I'll talk about the real reason I left RSSB. This can be summed up in just a few words: it's impossible to say. But since I'm a wordy guy, I'll say more about why I can't say why I left RSSB.

I don't believe in free will. I also don't believe that I, or anyone else, has (or is) a "self." You can use the Google search box in the right sidebar to find the many blog posts I've written about free will and having a self. 

In brief, I'm convinced by neuroscience, psychology, and my own experience that our conscious awareness is just the icing on the cake of what the hugely complex human brain does. Most of our thoughts, desires, actions, and such flow from unconscious sources. There's plenty of scientific evidence that this is true.

But we humans love our stories. Even though we really don't know why we or someone else did something, we're addicted to making up stories about why this or that happened. When it comes to us, usually we conjure up a story that puts us in a good light as a hero or heroine. 

If we like someone, we do the same for them. If we dislike someone, we fashion a story that makes them look bad. Progressives like me do that for Donald Trump (it's easy to make him look bad), while when Obama was president, conservatives did the same. 

So whatever story I could tell about why I left RSSB wouldn't be true, nor would anyone else's story. Along with Buddhism and modern science, I consider that our world is a vastly complicated network of causes and effects that is virtually impossible to completely explain once we get beyond simple physical systems. And really, not even then.

It's often said that the human brain is the most complex entity we know about in the universe. The hundred billion or so neurons connect in astoundingly complex fashions. Yet when asked a question about why we did something, we confidently come up with a story.

The world isn't a story, though. It just is what it is. As I am what I am. And you are what you are. 

Sure, I could supply a bunch of reasons why I left RSSB. These could include: getting divorced and then marrying a woman who supported me in my RSSB pursuits, but also asked probing questions about the RSSB teachings; writing the book about Plotinus' philosophy, which made me realize that blind faith in things unseen no longer appealed to me; having closer contacts with the RSSB guru and his close associates, leading me to see that they were fallible human beings, just like me.

I'll end by observing that few people, maybe none, have left comments on this blog asking why I joined RSSB. Isn't that an equally important question? And an equally unanswerable question? 

Unanswerable it may be, but I told part of my story about it in "My strange RSSB initiation story." It really was strange. Given how bizarre the circumstances were that led to me being initiated by Charan Singh, the guru at the time in 1971, it seems fitting that I'm unable to give a simple answer to why I left RSSB.

I did. I'm pleased that I did. I'm more content now. That's what matters to me.

Can't resist sharing an (unposed) photo that a friend snapped of me back in 1970, I believe it was, when I was teaching yoga and meditation after taking classes from the crazed Greek guy who tried to meld Christianity and Eastern religions I talked about in the above-linked blog post about how I became a RSSB initiate.

Those were strange times. Not that things are less strange now. Life is just always strange. Which I consider to be a good thing.

Being worshipped leads Gurinder Singh Dhillon to behave badly

I no longer believe that any person deserves to be worshipped. Respected, yes. Everybody is deserving of respect. But worship, no. 

For a long time, though -- some 35 years -- I was a member of an Indian religious organization (Radha Soami Satsang Beas, or RSSB) headed by a guru who is considered to be God in human form.

Just imagine how Christians would act around Jesus if he appeared on Earth. Worshipful, right? Well, that's how RSSB devotees act around Gurinder Singh Dhillon, the current guru. 

Recently Dhillon was accused of criminal conduct by his cousin, Malvinder Singh. Defenders of the guru are fond of saying that the death threats and massive financial fraud are just allegations. That's true, but they're believable allegations, given what's been previously reported on this blog about Gurinder Singh Dhillon.

To put it charitably, Dhillon doesn't act like the traditional RSSB guru. Less charitably, Dhillon acts very much like many other powerful men: full of ego, greedy, controlling, using women in less than admirable ways. (The Me Too movement has done a lot to raise awareness of this.)

Below is a comment left by Sonya on a recent post.

She does a good job of explaining why Gurinder Singh Dhillon behaves the way he does, given that he's worshipped everywhere he goes. Of course, other men are worshipped who don't end up behaving badly: the Pope, Dalai Lama, many others. 

The RSSB guru, though, is treated like the god he is believed to be by his devotees, while the Pope and Dalai Lama are just considered to be holy men. Of course, this doesn't excuse Dhillon's behavior -- it just helps to explain it.

Here's the first comment from Sonya. I'll share another one also. I've fixed a few typos in each comment. GSD refers to Gurinder Singh Dhillon. "Sangat" means RSSB initiates.

One year there was a stunning performance by a group of ladies—some form of Indian dance. I don’t know what it was called, but it was breathtaking. Not like most of the acts which are just silly fun. Occasionally an act is impressive with someone whose talent is exceptional. But they say it’s not about the talent. It’s a chance for them to show their love for their guru.

Can you just step back for a minute and imagine another country, another commune of 4 million followers worldwide and thousands surrounding just one man desperately trying to get a glance from him, “darshan”. It sounds creepy... because it is.

But the worst part, and I believe this is why RSSB is where it is today in the news—the worst part is that this “guy” is worshipped all day long every day... and has been for years. He can’t go anywhere without someone desperately jumping at the chance to wipe his ass.

And then consider this; how is that man’s mind affected by constantly being treated like a god—24/7?? Is there any hope in hell that he’ll have a well adjusted ego??

I’ve said that GSD’s ego is impenetrable but beneath the steel shell is a very fragile man with a very fragile sense of himself. How could he possibly manage if he were to wake up one day to find no one left who believed in him or worshipped him, if no one was there to wait on him hand and foot?

Would he have a complete mental collapse if all of his disciples turned against him and none of them loved him anymore or believed anything he said?

GSD’s ego is built on the sangat. That’s why when one of his “initiates” makes him feel weak or intimidated, he attacks. “We’ve” created a Monster. All those who follow RSSB are just feeding the Monster. And the saddest part of all is that the Monster didn’t create himself—his followers did. Man made god in his own image. One day way back when...

If anyone else was put in that same position today and tempted with the worship, adoration, women, wealth, power that GSD has been tempted with, they would most likely become a Monster too. Just ask any completely non-biased Licensed Clinical Psychologist.

This is a follow-up comment from Sonya. It fits with some other posts I've shared:
"The RSSB guru likes to see naked women on the beach"
"Sheena's 'Memoirs of a Seeker' throws light on Gurinder Singh Dhillon"

And while I’m on a roll here, I’d just like to point out all of GSD’s impropriety with women. He did this weird dance with a Bollywood actress at the Christmas party a few years ago. Not even appropriate for your average Joe.

He flirts with women constantly without shame. He has many little favorites and emotional affairs. No wonder his wife avoids most of the meetings.

I don’t doubt for a moment that he was romantically attached to Sheena. He must think that since he’s a “god” or maybe he believes he is God, that it’s OK... because they’re all supposed to merge with him anyway... it’s sooooooooooooooo disturbing.

I think that was my biggest issue with him aside from the full frontal attack I received last time I spoke with him. He just “can’t help himself when it came to pretty girls” as he often admits.

He got really mad at one sevadar [volunteer] during an evening meeting when she asked him why he had so many pictures of young attractive girls on his phone from Haynes Park (she was the sevadar in charge of collecting the cell phones and making sure no one had taken pictures they weren’t supposed to).

So, there it is... like most other men. He is no different.

OK, I PROMISE, now I’m done with my rants about Gurinder... I just see Shivinder as a little Gurinder mini me. I’m done talking about GSD now. There’s nothing more to say anyway. Thanks for letting me air my grievances. If only Gurinder actually gave a shit.

Now, being a man, I agree that Gurinder Singh Dhillon is like most other men. We are flawed. Our desires sometimes get the better of us. We don't always live up to our ethical standards. 

But most other men aren't considered to be God in human form. They aren't viewed as an infallible spiritual guide, as the RSSB guru is. So when Sonya says of the guru, "He is no different," this has a considerable different meaning than if she'd made that observation about some other man.

Can't resist sharing what appears to be a New Yorker cartoon on this subject that I found in Google Images.